CHAPTER 3

Matt pulled up in front of the apartment building on South Figueroa. It was a fairly nice location and there were quite a few of what appeared to be college co-eds lounging around by the pool. As he double-checked his notebook for the apartment number, Matt caught sight of Hoyt watching him. "What?"

The lieutenant smiled and shook his head. "Just checking – there was a time when you would have walked into the pool trying to look at the girls."

"Well see, there's the difference: they're just girls. I'm married to a full-grown lady." He wiggled his eyebrows. "You know, it occurs to me that we may not get an answer at the apartment." Motioning to the girls he added, "If she does have a roommate she might be in class. We should probably check with the manager before we decide she doesn't have one."

"That's true." Hoyt hit the button for the elevator and the doors immediately opened. "So you said you dealt with the symbol in Houston – was it used in a religious or satanic way?"

Matt punched the button for the fifth floor. "That's a good question. The guy who did the killings was the illegitimate son of an overly religious woman. I'm not sure if he knew himself which way he intended them. The guy was nuttier than a squirrel fart." Matt looked over at Hoyt who burst into laughter.

"Where in the hell did that come from?" He could barely talk for laughing so hard.

"You never heard that before? Really Michael, you need to get out more." Matt managed to keep a straight face as he said it. When the doors opened, Hoyt was still bent over double laughing. "Come on Mikey, it'll be okay as soon as the meds kick in." When the lieutenant looked up there were six young women looking at him as if he had the plague. "Sorry ladies, this doesn't happen very often anymore since they changed his meds." Matt ushered Hoyt off of the elevator and was holding him by the arm. The veteran cop started hitting at the private investigator, causing him to erupt into laughter. "It's just a joke, man, calm down!"

"How could you do that to me?" Hoyt hissed at the man and was seriously considering kicking his best friend in the backside.

"Oh, it was easy. Want me to do it again?" Matt was chuckling as he walked down the hall. Hoyt smacked him on the back of the head. "Okay, cop: it's time to act all professional." Matt was having a rough time trying to regain his composure.

"Professional, huh – I'll make you think professional." He shot the private investigator a look of disgust. "I'm gonna tell CJ what you did."

"She'll just laugh and say it was better you than her." Matt grinned at his friend as he rang the doorbell to apartment 5-G. After waiting a minute, he rang again, this time getting a response. A beautiful redhead opened the door. It was quite obvious that she had been crying.

Hoyt showed his badge. "I'm Lt. Hoyt, LAPD and this is Matt Houston a consultant to the department. Are you Sherri Betts' roommate?"

"Yes, please come in." She stood back so that the two men could enter the apartment. "Have a seat." She sniffled into a tissue.

"I take it you've already heard the news?" Hoyt sat on the couch as did Matt.

"Yes, I heard about it on TV as I was getting ready for class." She sat in an armchair across from the two men.

"I realize this is a difficult time for you, Miss…?" Matt started in.

"Connie Fitzgerald. Sherri and I have been best friends since we were twelve. We went through school together and she stayed with my family when her parents were killed in a car wreck."

"Miss Fitzgerald, do you have any idea who might have wanted to harm Sherri?" Notebook in hand, Matt watched the girl's reaction.

"No, she was so sweet. Even though things had been tough on her, she was always happy. I don't know how she did it." She pulled another tissue from a box on the coffee table and blew her nose.

"Did she have a boyfriend?" Hoyt was looking around the apartment – the furnishings were extremely nice and there was a sixty inch plasma TV sitting to his left along the wall. Someone was definitely doing well.

"Yes, she was dating Logan Holcomb. They met a couple of years ago right after he graduated from college. He had just started out in the business and she was the first model that he photographed." She smiled as the tears started again. "He always said that shooting her wasn't even like work because the camera loved her almost as much as he did."

The two detectives exchanged a look. Matt thought for a minute. "Did she have an ex-boyfriend by chance?"

"No, she never dated until Logan came along. She was always real shy, especially around guys. The last time I talked to her was yesterday morning and she told me that Logan had asked her to marry him."

"Was there anyone that she had had trouble with at all?" Hoyt didn't think that they would be getting any information out of the girl that would lead to her killer, helpful though she might be.

"No…well yes there was, but it's been a couple of months ago." She sat up a little straighter. "Sherri told me about this guy who was kind of following her around. He kept asking her out, but she and Logan were dating and she told him no. It went on for about a week. She was real polite with him until he just wouldn't leave her alone and then she threatened to get a restraining order against him."

"Do you know what his name was?" Hoyt and Matt had exchanged a look.

"David, no…Darren maybe. It started with a D, I remember that."

"Miss Fitzgerald, did Sherri have a diary or a blog – something like that where she might have mentioned the guy's name?" Matt was hoping to get a look at the girl's room.

"She had a blog. It was on Goggle. She called it "Random Thoughts"."

"Okay, that's a good place to start. Would you mind if we took a look around here?" Hoyt, like Matt, wanted to look at the girl's room and see if there was anything there pointing to her killer.

"Sure, go ahead. If it will help you find whoever did this." Connie led the way down a short hall and opened the door to Sherri's room – an explosion of color. There on the walls was a partially completed mural.

"Wow." Matt walked in and was looking at it. "Did she do this herself?"

"Yeah, she was really artistic. She was planning on going to college this fall and taking graphic design classes – said that when she was too old to model she would have another career." Connie teared up again. "I'm sorry, do you need me here?"

"We might have some more questions for you but we can ask on our way out if that's okay with you." Hoyt was like Matt – completely impressed by the girl's obvious talent. The mural consisted of flowers, vines, birds – all tropical, like scenes from a jungle.

"This is really good." Matt had made it to the second wall where Sherri had been working with a pencil to sketch out the mural. "But, I'm not sure it's exactly what we're looking for – how about you?"

"Nope, but it is something." Both men wandered over to the desk that was against one wall, right under a window. Matt slipped on his gloves and opened the laptop that was there. Hoyt was watching. "Hmmm…password protected. Guess we'll have to get… how did you do that?" Matt had punched several keys and gained access to the computer.

He smiled at the cop. "Oh, just a little trick I've learned over the years." Sitting down in the chair, he started looking through the files on the machine. There were copies of quite a few contracts for her modeling services, lots of pictures from various photo shoots, as well as pictures of her and Logan Holcomb. Matt reached into his pocket and removed a flash drive and downloaded the contents of the documents and photos onto it. After looking through the rest of the machine he went on the internet to Sherri's blog that Connie had told them about and started reading. There were over a thousand pages. "I think this will have to be gone over later – it's going to take a while." He wrote down the name of the blog in his notebook and closed up the computer. He started going through the organizer on her desk. There were a few bills there: cell phone, charge card, car loan…nothing out of the ordinary. "Do you have any idea where her car is?" He turned and looked at Hoyt who was looking through the closet.

"No I don't. What does she drive?"

"According to the loan papers here she's got a Honda CR-Z – blue." Matt wrote down the VIN number and put the papers back - then as an afterthought, jotted down the cell phone number. He hadn't found anything so far about the man that Connie had told them about but was guessing that maybe it was on the blog. He finished up with the desk as Hoyt finished up with the chest of drawers. "I'm all done – you?"

Hoyt nodded. "Yeah, nothing that says anything about a stalker or whatever you want to call the guy." They both started back to the living room where the roommate was waiting for them.

"Did you find anything?" She had been crying again and now had red-rimmed eyes.

"We're not sure. Is there a number where we can contact you if we have any more questions, Miss Fitzgerald?" Hoyt wrote down the number in his notebook as did Matt and they left and headed to the address that they had for Taylor's sister - the Alpha Kappa Tau sorority house on Hilgard Avenue in the Westwood section of the city. Matt pulled into the curb under the shade of a large tree and Hoyt pulled in right behind him. As he got out of the truck, Matt was smiling and chuckling.

"Now what, PI? You better not try to pull anything here or I'm gonna…what?" Hoyt stopped as he noticed Matt carefully and covertly pointing up into the tree. The lieutenant looked up to find a collection of lingerie hanging from the tree. "What the hell?" He followed Matt on up to the front door. "What is the significance of that, Mr. Rice University?"

"Well, I'd say there are a couple of possible factors in play there." He was still smiling.

"And?" Hoyt couldn't wait to hear what those factors might be.

"Right off the top of my head I'd say it's got to do with the new class of pledges. Secondly, I would say that somebody stole someone else's boyfriend. But those are just guesses."

"And how do you…never mind. I don't think I want to know." Hoyt straightened his tie and cleared his throat as Matt rang the bell. It was answered by a girl who was wearing what could best be described as a Cleopatra-like outfit.

"Hi!" The girl appraised Matt and smiled. "Is there something I can help you with?" The batting eyelashes accentuated by the heavy use of mascara were slightly unnerving to Hoyt.

"Hi there." Matt looked over at Hoyt and cleared his throat. "Uh, we would like to speak with Sicily Holcomb, please."

"Are you sure? I wouldn't mind talking to you." She flipped her hair back and batted her eyes some more.

"Uh no, we need to talk to her about her brother." Matt seemed totally unaffected by the young woman's obvious flirtation.

"Oh alright." She flung the door open. "Have a seat in there." She pointed to the living room and the two detectives walked in. "I'll go get her."

"Thanks." Matt gave her a smile.

"Mm mm mm. You still have an effect on the ladies." Hoyt shook his head and smiled.

"She's a kid, Hoyt. Please." Matt shook his head and sat down on the couch while Hoyt looked around. The sounds of music, girls laughing, and the hum of a hair dryer could be heard.

"How do these girls get any school work done?" Hoyt didn't think he would be able to hear himself think much less do college-level work in such an environment.

"That's what earbuds are for, Michael – or the library." He smiled as he thought back to his college days.

"So when do your classes start?" Hoyt finally sat down next to the private investigator.

"Next month. The tenth to be exact."

"Are you nervous?"

"Naw, not really. It's only four classes and three of them are online. I think I can handle it." As he finished speaking a young woman walked into the room.

"Did you want to see me?" She looked slightly puzzled as to why they would be there.

"Are you Sicily Holcomb?" Hoyt stood up followed by Matt.

"Yes. Is there a problem?" She had seen Hoyt's badge.

"Uh Miss Holcomb, has anyone contacted you about your brother?" He thought surely that the notification had already been made.

"My brother?" She was alarmed. "What's the matter?" Matt and Hoyt exchanged a look.

"Here you better have a seat." Matt stepped aside so the girl could sit down. "Have your parents called you today?"

"I don't know…" She pulled out her phone. "Yeah, like twenty times. But I've been busy all morning, so I…oh God, something happened to Taylor?"

"Miss Holcomb, I hate to be the one to tell you this, but your brother was murdered last night. There's no nice way to say it." Hoyt sat down next to her on the couch.

"Murdered?!" All the noises in the house stopped as if on cue and the other girls in the house began to drift into the living room.

"I realize this is a shock to you and I'm very sorry for your loss." Hoyt looked over at Matt as the young woman began to cry.

"What happened? Who would do this to him?" She completely lost it. Several of her sorority sisters came to her side, trying to calm her.

"I'm afraid we don't know that just yet. We thought you might be able to tell us a little bit about him. If he had any enemies or if he had problems with anyone lately."

"No, Taylor was just super sweet. Oh my God, Sherri's is going to go crazy." Evidently the look on Hoyt's face gave away the fact that Sherri was dead, too. "No, not her too?" She let out what could only be described as a mix between a scream and a groan.

Matt noticed that she went completely white. "Could one of you ladies get her a glass of water, please?" He got off of the couch and knelt down next to her. "Hon, I think you ought to lay down for a minute, okay? That's it, just ease on back." Hoyt grabbed a couple of pillows and placed them under her knees. One of the girls handed Matt a glass of water and he helped Sicily take a sip. "Would you like the lieutenant here to call your folks for you?" She nodded and handed Hoyt her phone. As he walked over toward the fireplace to make the call, the girl burst into tears again. "Easy now. I know, but you've got to calm down some, okay?" Matt patted her hand. She nodded again. Then Matt saw the anger come into her eyes.

"I want you to find out who did this." Sicily's voice shook with the rage that was coursing through her veins.

"That's what we're trying to do. We came to see if you could help us." Matt helped her take another sip as Hoyt walked back over to the couch and handed the phone back to the girl.

"Your father was already on his way down here. He should be here any minute now."

"Thank you – both. I'm sorry; I just can't believe anybody would hurt Taylor. Or Sherri." She took another sip of water. "I'm alright now." She started to sit up and Matt helped her. "I don't know what I could tell you. He didn't have any enemies that I know of – everybody loved him and Sherri, too." She shuddered. Just then her dad was brought into the room by one of the sisters and he rushed to his daughter. "Oh Daddy, I can't believe he's gone! It's just not fair!" Sicily started crying again.

Mr. Holcomb looked at Matt and Hoyt. "Who are you?"

"I'm Lt. Hoyt, LAPD and this is Matt Houston, a consultant to the department. I realize this is a tough time for your family but we really need your help to find out who did this." Hoyt hated being around the family of a murder victim.

"Whatever we can do, Lieutenant. Anything." He sat down on the couch next to his daughter.

Matt looked around the crowded room. "Ladies, thanks so much for your help. Could you give us a little privacy, please?" The room slowly began to empty. "Mr. Holcomb, do you know if your son was having any problems with anyone?"

"No, not that I know of but Taylor is an easy going person, Mr. Houston." Mr. Holcomb looked down at the floor. "He always gets along with everyone."