CHAPTER 6

Hoyt pulled up in the parking lot of the apartment complex and he and Matt headed for the second floor. As they waited for someone to answer the doorbell, Hoyt took a big breath and exhaled. The door to apartment 2-C was opened by none other than Larry Carlisle. "Larry, we've really gotta stop meeting like this – CJ's gonna get jealous." Matt and Hoyt walked on inside where Sarah Marshall was sitting on the couch looking extremely afraid.

Hoyt walked over to her. "Miss Marshall? I'm Lt. Michael Hoyt and this is Matt Houston. We have reason to believe that you're the target of a murderer by the name of Darrel Vincent – do you know him?"

The girl nodded. "I just took out a restraining order against him yesterday. The man who was supposed to serve it told me this morning that he hadn't been able to find him to serve him. Please, sit down."

Matt sat in the armchair that was next to the couch. "Miss Marshall, I don't know if you keep up with the news but one of your neighbors, Sherri Betts, was killed the night before last at her boyfriend's apartment. We think that it was Vincent who did it."

Sarah Marshall wrapped her arms around herself. "I heard that. I didn't really know her well, just met a couple of times in the elevator." She sighed. "Do you know why he's doing these things?"

"No ma'am, we don't. We were wondering if we could get you to help us try to catch him." Hoyt was seated next to her on the couch.

"What can I do?"

"Do you have anyway of contacting him?" Matt had leaned back and now had his left ankle propped on his right knee.

"As a matter of fact he left a message on my phone." She reached over and hit the play button on the phone base.

"Hi Sarah, this is Darrel. I don't know if you remember me or not, but we met at the market a couple of weeks ago. I was just wondering if you would like to go out sometime. Uh, I'll call you back later." The message ended.

"Who is supposed to be serving the restraining order?" Matt looked over at Hoyt.

"A process server named Charles White." She picked up a business card that was lying by the phone and handed it across to the private investigator.

"Okay, we know this guy won't be going to his apartment – we had a run-in with him there last night. Do you have any idea where he works?"

Sarah got up and went to her bedroom returning with a piece of paper that had all of the information that was contained in the restraining order and handed it to Hoyt. "Matt, he works at the recycling center on Jefferson – that's just down from his apartment."

"Okay, the way I see it, we've got a couple of ways to approach this. We could go to the recycling center to try to find him – but as close as that is to his apartment I'm not real sure that he would be there. Secondly, we could have Miss Marshal here call him back and tell him that she wants to go out. That seems more likely to me." Matt was tapping his fingers on his boot.

"I really don't think that he'll be at work either. I'll send Sgt. Barons over there to see if he's there by chance. The guy is a nutjob, so anything is possible. I think we need to stay here." Hoyt looked at the young woman. "Do you think you can do this, or would you rather not try?"

"Oh I'll do it all right. He's not going to have me living in fear the rest of my life." She looked between the two men.

Matt smiled at her. "Alright, let's get creative and come up with a script for you."

Half an hour later, she placed the call, which as it turned out, was to Darrel Vincent's cell phone. Hoyt had already arranged for a GPS track on the phone but it was turned off. As they sat waiting, Matt called CJ. "Hey can I get you to do some checking for us?"

"Sure. Whatcha need?" CJ had just put Catey down for a nap and was on her way back up to her office.

"See if you can find out anything else about this guy – any court records aside from the restraining orders – maybe something to do with his mental health. We didn't get that far this morning before all the action started."

"I can do it. I'll call you back when I've got something. Love you."

"Love you, too Babe. 'Bye." He hung up and walked over to the window, carefully peeking around the curtain to look at the parking lot below. The patrol car had already been put back into service and Hoyt's car wasn't quite as noticeable since it was parked between two big SUV's.

An hour passed with no word from Vincent, but CJ called Matt back. "Hey pal, I found out a couple of things about your stalker. He was put in the custody of DCS when he was ten. It seems that his mother died and his dad was, shall we say, a little less than stable himself. After Darrel had been in DCS custody for about a year, his dad was killed when he broke into a woman's home and tried to rape her."

"Sounds like the apple didn't fall too far from the tree." Matt passed the information on to Hoyt. "Did you get anything else?"

"As it happens I did indeed. He has been put in the hospital several times for psych evaluations, but with the state's budget problems, he was released after being in treatment for less than a month. I haven't been able to get the actual records because of privacy laws."

"I'm still trying to figure out the crosses on the victims. Did you see anything that would explain it in his records?" Matt was pacing around the living room. He hated just sitting around waiting for the man to strike.

"Possibly. He became an altar boy just a few months before his mother passed away. When he was put into DCS custody, he didn't get to serve anymore due to the distance of the orphanage from the church that he had attended with his mom. But, what is even stranger, his father was supposedly a Satan worshipper."

"No wonder the guy is so messed up. So the crosses could stand either for religion or against it – just like the guy in Houston." He blew out a breath. "Okay, thanks Babe. I'll call you later. Love you."

"Love you, too hon. And Matt – be extra careful, okay?"

"Yes ma'am, I've got my vest right here with me. 'Bye." He hung up and filled Hoyt in on the rest of the information that his wife had found. Then Sarah Marshall's phone rang. She put it on speaker like Hoyt had told her and answered.

"Hello?"

"Hi Sarah, it's Darrel. I'm glad you called me back. Where would you like to go out?" Matt and Hoyt exchanged looks.

"Oh, just wherever you'd like, Darrel. I'm sure you'll pick some place really nice." Sarah looked at Hoyt who nodded his approval.

"There's a great restaurant that I'd like to try – do you like Italian food?"

"Sure. When do you want to go?" Matt thought that Sarah should get into acting – she was really believable.

"How about lunch?"

"Sure. Will you be picking me up or do you want to meet there?"

"I'll pick you up. I've got the address."

"Okay, well I'll be here. I'm looking forward to seeing you, Darrel. Goodbye." She hung up and looked at Hoyt who nodded again.

"You're pretty good at this. What's your major?" Matt had sat back down in the armchair.

"I'm a Communications major." She grinned at Matt.

"Okay, we're going to let him come up, ring the doorbell, and you'll let him in – and then we'll take him." Hoyt looked over at Matt who had started putting on his vest again.

"Just in case." He slapped the Velcro into place and checked the magazine in his pistol. Matt was going to hide in the closet while Hoyt would be stationed at the end of the entertainment center where he would be hidden.

Twenty minutes later the doorbell rang. Sarah went to the door. "Hi Darrel, it's nice to see you again." She plastered a smile on her face. "Won't you come in? I'll just be a minute." She opened the door for him. "Just have a seat. I'll be right back. I need to get my cell phone." Sarah walked on back to the bedroom where she had been instructed to hide. Darrel sat down in the chair that was facing toward the window and away from the entertainment center where Hoyt was hiding. As if on cue, both he and Matt slipped out of their hiding places at the same time and approached the man.

"Hi, Darrel." Matt had his Glock leveled at the man who jumped to his feet and started toward the door, only to discover that his path was blocked by Hoyt. He reached inside his jacket. "Nope, don't even. Put your hands in the air."

Darrel froze, his hand still inside his jacket. "Put your hands in the air, Darrel, it's all over." Hoyt moved toward the man and saw his eyes dart between himself and Matt who was also advancing on the stalker.

"Come on, man, take your hand out of…" Matt didn't get to finish: Darrel pulled a butcher knife out of his jacket and was ready to come after the private investigator. "DROP IT! NOW!" Matt didn't want to shoot the man, but would if he needed to do it.

"Drop it, Darrel. We'll find somebody to help you, okay?" Hoyt was trying to keep his voice as calm as possible.

"Yeah, just like they helped me before, just like they did when my mom died. They took me away from everything and everybody I loved. No way. Now back off!" He lunged at Matt, cutting his arm. The private investigator never even flinched but took the opportunity of Darrel being so close to hit him with an uppercut. The stalker was thrown off balance and went backwards landing on the floor. He jumped back to his feet, lunging at Matt once again. As the knife sliced through his vest, Matt pulled the trigger on the Glock, the force of the shot throwing Darrel back into the window frame where he slowly sank down to the living room floor. Hoyt ran toward the stalker, but by the time he reached him, he was already dead. Matt had hit dead center of his chest. Hoyt then turned his attention to Matt who had sunk down to his knees, holding his ribs on his left side.

"This is Lt. Hoyt. I need an ambulance at the Tarawood Apartments number 2-C. We've got a man that's been stabbed. We also need the coroner and the CSI's to this location." He hung up and knelt down next to Matt. "Easy Houston, just lay down here." He tried to ease the private investigator down onto the floor, but he shook his head no.

"I need to stay up – hard to breathe." Matt was wheezing slightly as Hoyt applied pressure to the wound. "These vests are great for bullets but they don't do squat against a knife." He grinned at Hoyt.

"Shut up, PI. I've already gotta call CJ and let her know that you've been stabbed, I don't need you dying on me."

"Nah, I won't do that – your life would be way too boring." He had broken out in a sweat.

Sarah Marshall had crept back out of the bedroom and saw what had happened. She ran back into the bathroom and grabbed a couple of towels to try to staunch the bleeding from Matt's wound. By the time the ambulance arrived, Houston was out cold. Hoyt followed the ambulance to the hospital and called CJ on the way, letting her know what had happened.

CJ arrived at the hospital less than five minutes after Matt was brought in. Hoyt was waiting for her, looking worried. "Any word yet?" CJ was doing her best to stay calm. Matt had been stabbed several times before, twice extremely close to his heart.

"Not yet. He got stabbed in the ribs," Hoyt pressed his left side, "and his left arm got cut. The arm's not too serious, but I'm not sure about his ribs." He didn't want to tell her that he knew without a doubt that Matt's lung had been penetrated.

One of the doctor's came out as CJ was nervously busy filling out the forms that one of the nurses had brought to her. He sat down with the two of them and explained that the knife had gone cleanly between Matt's fifth and sixth ribs puncturing his left lung but stopping just short of his heart. "He's on his way to surgery right now. It shouldn't take any longer than forty five minutes to an hour and then we'll move him into a recovery room and then up to the SICU. He's lost a good bit of blood, but I think he'll be just fine with a little time." He smiled at CJ, and then got a serious look on his face. "I'm new here, but all of the nurses seem to know him really well. In fact one of them was explaining quite a few of his scars to me. She told me that he's a private investigator. Is that right?"

"Yes, he is." CJ had managed to keep her cool, much to Hoyt's surprise.

"I never realized that was such a dangerous occupation. Well, anyway, he's about to head down to surgery, but the nurses thought you might like to come back and see him for a minute. They seem to have the impression that you might just bust down the door any minute." He smiled at her again and led the way back to the exam room. Hoyt followed along.

Matt was lying on a gurney with an IV in his left arm that was bandaged between his wrist and just below his elbow, and had an oxygen mask on his face. His breathing was shallow and somewhat shaky and he was pale, but other than that he seemed okay. CJ leaned down and kissed him on his cheek. The conversations that they had shared while in Texas, about closing the detective agency were echoing through her mind. But she knew that he was doing what he loved and what he felt was the best way for him to help people. Hoyt reached down and squeezed his hand. "Okay, we're ready to take him down to surgery." One of the nurses took hold of the gurney. CJ kissed him one more time and they rolled him out of the door. She and Michael went back out into the hallway and down to the surgical waiting room.

As they sat down, she reached over and took Hoyt by the hand. He looked like he was near tears. "Hey, what's the matter?"

He shook his head. "I need to quit calling him in, CJ. He's going to get killed one of these days and it's going to be my fault."

"Hoyt, he's doing what he loves – and what he happens to be very good at doing. Look," she squeezed the lieutenant's hand, "when we were in Texas, he spent a lot of time thinking about this very thing. And you know what he told me?" Hoyt shook his head no. "He told me, and I quote: "I know it's a dangerous line of work, but it's something that I'm good at and that I enjoy – usually. Getting to help people is something that I like doing. I may not be able to change the whole world, but I can sure make things better for the folks that I come in contact with.""

"He actually said all that?" Hoyt was a little surprised.

"Yep, word for word. And because I know that, and I know that he was trying to be careful by wearing his vest, I haven't flown all to pieces like I did when the bomb went off under his truck." She patted Michael's hand. "And something else; you told me yourself that he could have pulled the trigger before he did – he was trying to help the guy out. That doesn't make it your fault, now does it?" The policeman just shrugged.

"Where's Catey?"

"Chris is taking care of her. She's fine." CJ was actually smiling.

Hoyt sighed and looked over at her and then put his arm around her shoulders. "You know something? You are one tough lady – and Matt's lucky to have you for his wife."

"Of course he is." She smiled again. "And he's lucky to have you for a friend."

"Well I've got to tell you, after what he pulled yesterday I'm very close to dissolving our friendship."

CJ looked at him and squinted her eyes. "What did he do this time?" As Hoyt explained, she started laughing uncontrollably.

"Uh huh, he's ruined you. You used to be so sweet – but now, you're almost as bad as him." Hoyt gave her a look of disapproval.

"You know, that's what Vince was telling me last month." She just laughed harder.