12
Matt came back into the penthouse after a fruitless investigation downstairs. Chris told him when the elevator dinged that C.J. had called and was back at the beach house. He thanked her and then headed over to the bar where Roy was already pouring him a drink.
He got her on the phone, "C.J., everything ok? What did Carol say?"
C.J. had made some hot tea and was sitting out on the patio when the phone rang and answered, "She said I have strep throat...she gave me some prescriptions and told me I should go home and go to bed."
Matt took a deep breath, "Strep throat, huh...Do you need me to come home?"
She shook her head, "No, I'll be fine here. I've already taken the first dose and am drinking the last of the peppermint tea right now."
Matt told her, "I'll pick some more up on the way home...anything else you need?"
She brushed away a tear as she saw three boys skateboard by and cleared her throat when she said, "No, just yourself...I miss you..."
Matt told her, "Will do...look, if you need me to come home right now..."
She took a deep breath and said, "No, I don't need you to come rushing back...I just...well, I really think I need to be working with you and Roy on this case..." She was about to tell him about the death of the boy who had the tickets from Laci and Blaze.
Matt interrupted her though, "You don't need to do anything but feel better. I mean it C.J., you need to take care of yourself today and we can worry about this case later. Besides, how do you know I won't have it all wrapped up by 5 o'clock anyway."
She just sighed and then relented, "I don't...Matt...there was another death linked to Laci and Blaze."
Matt's brows shot up as he took another drink from the glass Roy had poured, "What do you mean? Did you hear about it on the news or the radio?"
C.J. took another drink of her tea and then explained, "No I didn't hear it on the radio, I saw it..." she started to get choked up but swallowed hard.
Matt was already standing almost pacing, "What do you mean you saw it? What happened?" He asked with a great deal of urgency.
She told him, "The victim was a young man who was hit by a car. He was hit in an intersection ahead of mine. He was only 15..." she took a deep breath and then started to cough again.
That was enough for Matt to hear. He told her, "Honey, why don't you go lay down, I'll be there in a minute..."
She interrupted him and said, "You don't have to Matt, its not necessary..."
He interrupted her, "Yes it is...My wife witnessed something that I can tell even over the phone rattled her and on top of all that is sick. I'm coming home. Uncle Roy and I can work from there, so we will both be there in a minute. I love you C.J. Just take it easy until I get there, alright?"
They said goodbye and Roy looked at his nephew from behind the bar, "So we're working out of the beach house today?"
Matt took the last drink and told him, "Yeah, we can bring that smaller version of Baby with us and work from there. Let's go."
Matt and Roy got in their separate cars and headed over. Matt had explained what C.J. told him about the 4th victim of the serial killer tied to the case. Roy offered to pick up the tea at the store so Matt wouldn't have to stop and could get to her faster.
He got into the beach house and found C.J. sleeping on the couch, curled up with a blanket and sweating. It reminded him for a split second to seeing her a year ago in her office, sick with pneumonia. He gently leaned over and brushed her hair off her face and felt her head. It felt warm maybe, but not hot. He then gently picked her up and carried her to the bedroom. She started to wake up, but didn't fight him at all. In fact, she put her arms around his neck and let him carry her leaning into his shoulder. He began softly patting her arm and drawing her closer to him as he carried her. She was still holding her tissue as she had cried before drifting off to sleep.
He gently laid her on the bed and started putting the blankets over her. She sat up and went right into his embrace, "Oh Matt...he was so young..." was all she got out before crying softly into his chest.
He stroked her hair and told her softly, "I know, I know...here, honey just lay down and take it easy. Take yourself a little nap. Uncle Roy and I will be downstairs if you need anything." He kissed her forehead, "I love you, just rest now."
She laid back and started to drift off, but not before saying, "I love you Matt, so, so much."
Matt had just gotten downstairs when the phone rang. He picked it up, "Houston".
Chris answered, "I just got a call from the clients Laci and Blaze. Apparently someone called and canceled their preacher for their wedding. They sounded upset and said something about the wedding being only a month away, what were they going to do?"
Matt replied, "Ok, look I'll call them from here and we'll see what Uncle Roy and I can find out."
At about that time, Roy did pull up and carried in his large paper bag with things for C.J. to make her feel better. Matt asked him, "What's this?"
Roy answered, "My niece needed a few things and I bought them for her," as he handed the bag to a puzzled Matt. He looked in the bag and began unpacking it on the counter.
"Uncle Roy...did you get every flavor of herbal tea they make?" Matt asked as he held up one, "Jasmine?"
Roy nodded, "Yea jasmine...First time I ever had jasmine tea was in a covert operation in Thailand. Its good stuff and will help her sleep." Matt put the box down, still a little confused but appreciative of how Roy was only wanting C.J. to feel better too.
So they went upstairs to the patio, "Well..." Matt started, "we have a new development."
"Oh?" Roy asked. Matt explained the phone call from Chris and the two shook their heads. None of this made sense to either one. So they basically kept pacing and fired up Baby Jr. to see what else they could find on their suspects.
About two hours later after talking to Det Warren, getting information from him on the alibis the suspects gave Matt ran his hands through his hair, "I don't get it Uncle Roy...I mean my gut is telling me Amanda Calemon is behind this, but how? She doesn't have the strength to commit these murders and pose the bodies the way they were and according to all Warren...they all have alibis for where they were when the kid was run down this morning...wait a minute...didn't he say that, that Crazy John guy, now he said he was interviewing with Amanda Calemon in his apartment...that was his alibi?"
Roy nodded and caught on to what Matt was thinking, "You think they're in this together?"
Matt thought for a second, "That makes sense, maybe. I mean I know she's a part of this and that Crazy John isn't exactly mentally stable..."
Roy then added, "But he's had an alibi for the last three weeks. If he gets caught out of that apartment, he's gonna lose it."
Matt relented and said, "Yeah...then there's Romanes, now he said there have been break ins and that there is no recorded release of that baseball ticket, but he has an airtight alibi….could it be that there is someone else we aren't thinking of?"
At that point, C.J. made her way to the patio. She had slept, but woke up suddenly with a nightmare. Her dream led her back to her car and the accident this morning. As she leaned over the boy he opened his eyes and told her, "This was all your fault and you know it." She had jolted out of bed and stifled her own scream.
She got up and went downstairs looking for Matt and found both men on the patio. She opened the door and asked them, "So, did you solve the case yet?"
Both men looked at her and she actually looked worse now. Her eyes were red and she was coughing more. Matt took her hand and she sat down beside him. He said, "No, not yet. You don't look like you feel any better." He ran his hand over her hair and brushed it off her forehead, checking again to see if she had a fever
She smiled and said, "Thank you, that's nice...but no, I don't really. I was thinking about going downstairs and making a cup of tea. Did you buy some more?"
Roy told her to wait there and he would take care of it. Matt told her, "Come here and sit in my lap." She did and he kept rubbing her back with one hand and holding hers with his other. He told her about the new development and she nodded, digesting everything.
Roy came back out a few minutes later and handed her a cup of jasmine tea. "Here, this should help."
She took the cup and a sip, "Oh this tastes good...what kind is it?"
Roy answered, "Jasmine green tea...it should help you feel better and help you rest."
She thanked him and started to take another sip. Then she stopped and looked at Matt, "Matt...are Laci and Blaze using a wedding planner?"
Matt blinked a couple of times and answered, "No, I don't think so...why?"
She looked at the two and said, "Well, then how does the person who is canceling everything know who to call to cancel?"
Roy and Matt looked at each other and Roy said, "Maybe we better work on that end of it. Why don't we call Laci and ask her how she's going about doing the actual planning?"
Matt nodded, "She did tell me they were trying to keep everything out of the press as best as possible."
Roy went inside and made the call. C.J. kept sitting there thinking everything through. Matt shared everything he and Roy had talked about and the possibility of Calemon and Witman being in it together. At that point he told her about the delivery of the spider.
Her initial reaction was, "Is Chris ok?" She asked as she sat up straighter and was genuinely worried about her.
Matt assured her, "She's fine, it never touched her." He kept rubbing her back, "I think that means someone is worried we are getting too close." He took a deep breath and told her, "I'm thinking about having Greg and couple of guys come over and hang around until we can get this cleared up. They'd be hanging around both of us and only here at the beach house." He told her as he started running his hand through her hair.
C.J. had started to prepare herself again to explain to Matt she could take care of herself, but then realized he didn't exactly say he was worried about her safety only, but both of them. She could handle his taking extra precautions for the both of them. So she agreed.
Roy came back out with a smile on his face. Matt asked him, "I take it you got some useful information from Laci?"
Roy answered, "Why yes, yes I did, but from Blaze. Seems Laci's been planning her wedding based on a book she got from Blaze. He told her his old frat buddy's wife had put it together when they got married, but he was lying. Amanda Calemon had put it together when she told him, she wanted to marry him."
Matt then said, "So now we know who has all the information, access to sabotage the wedding." He looked back at Roy and said, "You better call Hoyt." The two nodded at each other and Matt led his wife back inside. "Come on," he said. She had finished her tea and was beginning to feel sleepy again. When they got to the bedroom she willingly climbed back in bed and went to sleep.
Hoyt told them that was enough for a search warrant, but it would take time as Harmago was in court. He did tell them that he the boys downtown were able to run the fingerprints on the envelope with the spider. "It wasn't in the system, there was no match."
Roy handed the phone to Matt as he came back in the room after leaving C.J. He told him, "Hoyt says there wasn't a match on the prints from the envelope."
Matt took the phone and said, "So that means Roy Turner's prints weren't on it."
Hoyt answered, "Nope, and I told them to match against him first. We'll keep it in the system...at some point if this person gets arrested it will alert us. In the meantime...Judge Harmago wanted Nick Peterson arraigned and arranged for a special session to do so. You'll never guess who bailed him out after bail was set..."
Matt's eyebrows raised and he asked, "Who?" He looked back at Uncle Roy.
Hoyt answered, "Amanda Calemon, his boss. Strange since you told me you think she set him up."
Matt nodded his head, "Maybe she feels guilty or is just trying to cover the fact that she's interested in how the case is progressing by positioning herself in the middle of it and probably getting him to confide in her. She's tied to this in so many ways..."
Hoyt speculated, "Well, we also hear she has a thing for her young male employees. I wonder if she doesn't have a non professional relationship with him that would have let her gain access to his apartment and his fascination for Laci Summers."
Matt looked at Roy, "Yeah, that would make sense. She spends enough time over at his apartment and finds he has a thing for her former lover's fiancee. She has access and motive to set him up." Matt just shook his head, "Just how does this serial killer factor into this though?"
Hoyt let his irritation come out when he shared something neither Matt nor Roy knew yet, "Well he definitely wants the media spotlight...Haven't you been watching the news over the last two hours! This killer sent every radio station and television station in town an update! I had to call 2 extra shifts of dispatchers to come in and handle the flood of calls that have been coming in!"
Matt shook his head, "What did the message say?" He didn't like the fact that the killer wanted the attention. That meant he would just keep killing until he got caught, probably at a faster pace than before.
Hoyt grabbed the bottle of antacids again and said, "Look, I'm sorry, its just...if it isn't the mayor its the 5 million other people in L.A. all panicking that this guy is gonna strike them...and I can't exactly tell them they're wrong...on top of all that..." Hoyt's voice got quiet, "the mother of the last victim, the high schooler, has been in here all day. We've sedated her, but she's still overcome and won't leave and go home to take care of herself. I'm sorry, its just been a really bad day."
Matt said, "Sounds like it...Did the guy say anything that would give him away?"
Hoyt answered, "No, just said he wanted the world to know he was there. Oh and that he had Laci Summers and Blaze Jackson to thank for that."
Matt looked at Uncle Roy as he got off the phone. After relaying the message to him Roy said, "Sounds like he doesn't want to stay hidden for long."
Matt said, "I know, and that's what has me worried."