7
C.J. ended up sleeping in later than normal. She sat up and looked across the bed before realizing she was alone in the room she had always occupied before she and Matt married. She sunk back down and put her hands over her face as everything came back to her. Then she sat up and started throwing away tissues she had cried into last night.
She heard a quiet rapping at her door so she said, "You can come in Matt." He put the tray in the door before revealing himself with a white flag, one of his handkerchiefs, sticking out. It caused her to laugh for a second as she leaned against the headboard, back under the covers. He took that to mean that she was maybe not as angry any more.
He ventured in with a tray full of fruit, croissants, orange juice and coffee. "So, you wouldn't shoot down a surrendering man would you, Mz. Houston? You will accept my humble peace offering?" He sat it down on the night stand beside her and then sat on the bed.
She reached up and put her arms around his neck and told him, "I will accept your peace offering. I missed you last night."
He leaned over to give her a soft kiss on the lips and told her, "I missed you too. I know we probably need to talk about everything, but I just couldn't go another minute with you mad at me. I love you so much, C.J." They embraced each other for a few minutes just taking each other in before the difficult conversation.
She nodded and told him, "I love you Matt, but I need to know you trust me. Please tell me you don't seriously think I would put myself in harms way when I'm pregnant with our child. Please tell me you know how much having a child means to me and that I would die fighting to protect..." she started to cry again.
Matt's heart ached as he watched her, almost overcome with emotion begging him to assure her that he knew her, really knew her and that his faith in her ability and judgment was unchanged. So he held her close for a minute before pulling back and putting his hands on her face as he looked her in the eye and told her, "I do trust you. I know you C.J. and I know there is no one I want to carry my child more than you. You've already shown me how much this means to you by working with a doctor before we even start trying to get you pregnant."
Tears started to form in Matt's eyes as he started running his hands through her hair as he told her, "Its just scary for me, C.J. I lost my mother and I never even got hear her voice, that I recall...and that hurts me, even today. I'm sorry, but I can't seem to think past that." He took his hand and wrapped it around her as he pulled her to him the way he always does when he needs her comfort and she provided that for him.
She patted his back and told him, "I know Matt...Look..." she said as she pulled back to look him in the face with her hands on his chest, "I know I will need to slow down and I plan to. You aren't going to need to put me under house arrest, but I do plan to work with you and Uncle Roy on cases, probably spending most of my time in the penthouse. That was what I had planned to do already. I love you Matt. I understand your concern. I just need to know that you understand mine."
He kissed her again and told her, "I understand, I do and I'll try harder to not be so overprotective." He took a deep breath and told her, "Now, how about we enjoy some breakfast first and then..."
Her mouth captured his as she completely silenced him. "Why don't we relive the Caymans first and then enjoy some breakfast. We need to officially make up." He saw the light return to her eyes and it proved irresistible to him and he wanted nothing more than to make up with her.
So when she pulled back the blankets and he saw she laid in the bed in only a shirt and panties, he laid down, wrapping his arms around her as he started kissing her pulling her body, molding it into his. His hands moved all around and through her hair before brushing her cheek and then moving down to unbutton the shirt she wore to bed.
She had worked at getting his shirt off quickly enough and ran her hands over his chest. They kissed again once his shirt was off and once he got the buttons unbuttoned, he gently slipped the shirt off her shoulders. Then his attention went to her breasts where his hands moved over them. She began, as best she could as Matt's attention was causing her to lose focus, to unbutton his pants and he helped her slip them off. Once she had them off she straddled him and eased him inside her. He closed his eyes and grasped the sheet as she moved around on him. His hands ended up back on her breasts as she moved slowly and then faster and did things he had never had a woman do on top of him before. The pace slowing and quickening and her own breath ragged as she leaned back. His hands running all over her before he could contain himself no longer. To his credit, he held on for quite a while. She leaned back over him as they both hit that moment in unison. That was what usually happened as the very knowledge that he had caused her to reach that climax sent him into his own. His hands ran through her hair and he pulled her back down, laying on top of him as they untangled themselves. She got back under the blanket as he kissed her forehead and told her, "Wow, C.J. that was..."
She smiled and finished his sentence with "memorable?"
He chuckled, positioned himself better and kissed her. Then he said, "I was thinking more along the lines of amazing, but memorable will work too." They both chuckled as they had now officially kissed and made up.
The rest of the weekend they came to an understanding on some key issues.
No, there would be no nutritionist staying at the house telling anyone what to eat or not eat.
Yes, C.J. would be spending most of her time at the penthouse working on background and much less if not absolutely no time out on stakeouts or in the field.
No, there was no need for her to stop working out, just maybe adjusting her workout along the perimeters her doctor recommends.
Yes, Matt would make midnight runs to the grocery store for ice cream and/or any other cravings she might have along with frequent, as the pregnancy progresses, foot rubs.
No, C.J. would not fight Matt if he suggested she make a run to the doctor to get checked out as long as it wasn't for something ridiculous. Understood.
They laid out on a blanket on their boat the next day somewhere in the bay. She had her bikini on an hour ago and now only had a beach towel over her. Matt laid beside her, holding her in his arms with a towel over his lower half. He stroked her arm and told her, "This has been quite a weekend hasn't it?"
She sighed happily and said, "Yes it has...we need more weekends like this one."
He couldn't agree more, but now it was time to head in. Tomorrow, Monday morning they would need to get back to work on the case. Every suspect would be back at work and easily accessible. They had gone over the case file last night after eating fish under the stars, C.J. caught them, Matt only caught a small one he threw back. He did however, confess that her bikini distracted him way too much to concentrate on fishing this morning. After that, well...one thing led to another and now they lay quite satisfied and completely relaxed.
Matt had decided the next course of action would be to find out what Hoyt learned from Nick Peterson and then interview Amanda Calemon, the woman they saw leaving Peterson's apartment. C.J. agreed that should be the next logical step and with that decided they headed in.
Bright and early Monday morning C.J. went running along the trails in Boardwalk Park. She typically did this if she woke up before Matt and had time to do so. There were a handful of times she would go out before dawn as the sun was just beginning to rise as she made her way to the park. She stretched and began this part of her exercise routine.
She loved running. It was her opportunity to be alone and clear her mind. She thought about the weekend first, the fight she had with Matt and then making up with him. Her mind definitely preferred the making up phase of the weekend. Then she thought about the case and how difficult it must be for the two DJs simply trying to plan a wedding when someone out there only wanted to make their lives miserable. However, that poor woman she found in the hot tub, well...she would never have the opportunity to have a wedding. She stopped for a second to take a breath as she hit the halfway point on the trail when she saw something move just up ahead.
C.J. suddenly felt as though something were wrong. She began moving cautiously up the trail, not running or jogging so much as walking forward but trying to remain aware of everything around her. All she saw was a shadow of a figure moving into the bushes. Then she started running again, but looking behind her at spots. The sun was coming up already and it wasn't really dark so much anymore, but as she got to a popular romantic spot, she found about a dozen police officers with flashlights combing the area around where a couple sat on a bench.
As C.J. approached she noticed that the couple seemed to be embracing but almost frozen. Officer Marks, the lady officer who had agreed to protect her when Christian Dean was looking for her a couple of years ago met her on the trail.
C.J. asked, "What's going on?"
Marks answered, "Well..." she pointed her flashlight at the couple, "we got a tip that someone had died in the park here and found those two sitting on that bench. Neither one seemed willing to respond to our questions so we tried to get their attention by shaking his shoulder. Sun wasn't up yet really so we couldn't see much, but did see their eyes open. They weren't blinking though so we checked for a pulse and you can guess the rest."
C.J. shook her head, "They both died? How?"
Marks answered, "Don't know. Strange though. Looks like someone posed them that way to me."
C.J. said as she looked at them a little closer, "Looks like they were dressed up to go out somewhere nice or like they were on a date or something."
Marks replied, "Yea it does. Preliminary ID from documents on the bodies says they are Laci Summers and Blaze Jackson, a couple of DJs who do a morning show, or did a morning show."
C.J. caught her breath and Marks noticed. C.J. told her, "They're our clients. They're supposed to get married. I..." she was at a loss for words.
Marks asked, "So you met them both?" C.J. nodded her head still in disbelief. Marks called over to Det Warren and told him what C.J. had shared and they nodded to each other as Marks asked her, "Do you think you could take a look just to verify that's who they are?"
C.J. took a deep breath and said, "Yes, I can do that." Marks led her over to the bodies and C.J. breathed a sigh of relief and said, "That's not them. I met both of them just this past Friday and I can say with all certainty, they are not Laci Summers and Blaze Jackson." She looked at Warren and asked, "Why did you think it was Laci and Blaze?"
Warren answered, "We found this in his pocket and this in her purse." He pulled out what looked like IDs to the radio station with Laci and Blaze's names on them, but no photo. Then he added, "We also found a radio give away certificate to a Night on the Water cruise."
C.J. asked, "So someone planted the IDs, but they do look dressed to go on a luxury cruise around the bay. I wonder...maybe they won the contest."
Warren nodded his head and then asked, "So you were out running this morning? When did you get out to the park?"
C.J. answered, "About 20 minutes ago. I run the trail..." she stopped for a second and remembered the shadow "I think I saw someone about 10 yards back. I could be wrong, but I thought I saw a figure, nothing more than a shadow really, moving in the bushes." She pointed back down the trail.
Warren nodded and drew his gun, motioning to about 5 other officers to scour the trail back in the direction C.J. pointed. He told them, "Our tip may be watching to see how this is all getting handled, stay on your toes and watch for evidence." With that the 6 took off leaving Marks with C.J.
Marks offered, "You want to walk together back to your beach house?"
C.J. looked at the couple and then back at Marks and answered, "No, I'll be fine. The beach house isn't that far and it is daylight now. Thanks for offering though."
She patted Marks shoulder as she left and Marks said, "Anytime." She watched C.J. get safely down to the sidewalk leading to the beach house and then turned her attention once again to searching for evidence.
C.J. got quickly enough back to the beach house where she found Matt, fully dressed, drinking coffee and reading the newspaper. He looked up from it when he heard her open the door and make her way up the stairs to the patio where he waited. "So, did you have a good run?" He smiled at her and took her hand as she put it on his shoulder.
She leaned over and kissed him for a second and then sat down, "Yes and no. The run was fine, but at the end of the trail...you know that section of trees and bushes, I happened upon the police."
Matt furrowed his brow, "The police what were they doing down there? Was Hoyt one of them?"
She answered, "No Hoyt wasn't there, but Warren was. They received a tip this morning that there were two bodies in the park and that's where they found them."
He put down his paper and looked at her closely, "They found two bodies?"
She told him, "Yep, a couple actually. It appears they had been out on one of those luxury cruises around the bay and somehow ended up on a park bench dead." She looked down for a second and then up at Matt as she bit her lip and told him, "Its connected to our case, I know it."
He looked confused, "How?"
She answered, "Well, they won that trip through that contest Laci and Blaze were telling us about and..." she took a deep breath, "the killer either got a hold of their station badges or made fake ones identifying the themselves as Laci and Blaze and left them on the two bodies. Initially the police were identifying them as Laci and Blaze until I told one of the officers, Marks, that I had met with the two and could identify them. When I saw them, I knew it wasn't them. But someone wanted us to think it was."
Matt nodded in understanding and took her hand, squeezing it and asked, "You ok? How bad off were they?"
She answered, "I'm just a little shaken up I guess. There wasn't any blood or anything like that, it was all just so eerie. The killer posed the bodies to make it appear they were just embracing." Then C.J. sneezed.
Matt told her, "Bless you." She smiled and then he put his hand on her forehead and asked, "Are you feeling ok? You look a little pale maybe."
She smiled at him and told him, "I'm fine. I just got finished running around the park. Its just a sneeze, nothing to be overly concerned about. I'm fine. However, I do need to go upstairs and shower and change." Matt's brows went up and he got a little smirk on his face, about to say something when C.J. stopped him by saying, "And I'll be taking it alone. We need to get to the office on time today."
She did kiss him before she left and he went back to reading the paper. He noticed the obituary for Sandra Mays and an article in the front section about her death at the spa. All he read was that the manager claimed it was not faulty wiring in the hot tub, that it wasn't his fault. He apparently was trying to do damage control. What struck Matt was one quote from Harvey, We have been working hard to build our reputation as a leader in day spas and will be giving away more packages through the Holiday for a Day promotions of The Laci and Blaze Morning Show. He thought to himself, 'I better call Hoyt when we get in.'