Serena looked at Matt bemused. She'd been working on getting his phone call connected to his business office in Los Angeles.
Zeke shook his head.
"Houston…they're probably getting ready to party down like us."
Matt frowned, watching Serena work her magic on her equipment.
"It's still afternoon here," he said, "Chris, C.J. I'm sure will be putting some hours in and my uncle…if he's not in the field he'll be there."
Zeke tilted his face.
"Your girl might be out on a hot date…with a boyfriend."
Matt knew that could be the case…after all it'd been nearly six months and he'd not talked to her or anyone else. He'd dropped all communication save the postcards he sent occasionally when he thought about it.
But he'd made up his mind and he still wanted to talk to her. Maybe he'd get lucky in more ways than one. Maybe she'd be receptive for what he had to tell her.
Serena piped up.
"Houston…I got through…pick up the phone."
Matt did that and heard a ring tone and he waited for someone to pick up.
Six rings and finally…a woman's voice.
"Houston Investigations, this is Marsha speaking…"
He furrowed his brow trying to remember who she was, put a face to her. Maybe from the secretarial pool?
"It's me Houston…say is Chris there? She usually answers the phone."
Marsha paused.
"Chris…didn't they tell you? She's working at Houston Enterprises. She wanted to transfer to live with her boyfriend."
Dan…the ex-Houston PD officer who'd retired and set up a security firm.
"I know…is there anyone else there?"
She paused a long moment.
"Most the office would want to talk with you Mr. Houston…if they knew you'd called but…no one here…except for Mr. Prescow."
Matt grimaced. Scott, not exactly the man he wanted to talk to after six months but he'd just wanted to touch base with those he left, telling them he was on his way back home.
The familiar voice on the other end…
"Houston is that really you?"
An edge in his accountant's voice, despite the enthusiasm in his voice. Matt wondered if he'd interrupted anything.
"It's me. Listen I'm calling to talk to C.J. or my uncle. Either of them in the office?"
Scott paused.
"No…neither is here. Roy's out in the field and C.J….she's traveling. Not sure when she'll be back."
Matt digested that. She must be off on a business junket for Murray which she still did occasionally even while working with Matt on investigations.
"She doing work for the company."
Another pause.
"Something like that. I can take a message if you'd like."
Matt sighed.
"I'm not always near a phone. Just tell them when they return that I'm going to be returning to L.A. in a week or two."
That got Scott's attention.
"Really…after all this traveling and keeping to yourself, you're ready to come back to your life?"
"Yeah…I'm ready…seen enough of the world. Got to get back to my caseload."
Scotty sighed.
"Roy's gotten a lot of clients," he said, "but he's keeping up."
Matt wasn't worried about that though he felt some guilt for leaving his business unattended for so long.
"I'll call again before I return. In another week."
Another pause.
"Okay thanks for the head's up. Everything will be just as you left it when you arrive."
Matt hung up and looked at Serena who arched a brow at him.
"Everything okay?"
Matt knit his brows.
"It seems like it. No one's in the office so I left a message with the accounting officer."
She shrugged.
"Now that you got that out of the way why don't you run along and have some fun?"
Matt left with Zeke and Brady to do just that. It was the end of a rather eventful and tumultuous year. He wanted to give it a proper sendoff and prepare for a brand new fresh start.
C.J. crept down the dark hallway each step planted more deliberately than the last. Her muscles shook from the tension of not succumbing to the temptation to take off on a sprint. She didn't know the layout very well, just bit and pieces from her rare travels outside of her room. The rest of it might as well have been shrouded in a deep fog.
She looked around her at each juncture where one corridor led to the next or branched off into two separate paths, a fork in the road. The guards she expected to encounter with each turn weren't waiting and she began to breathe easier. Her mind focusing on how to get out of her prison.
A window of opportunity had opened and she had seized it. She must use it quickly before…
Noises erupted from somewhere outside her line of vision. Guards in a nearby corridor or even a room.
"So when do you think he'll be returning?"
A male voice to another.
"I think it's a buying trip. New shipment is being sent to Brazil to Rio. Then he's got to go to the island, do some business there."
"He's expanding operations down there?"
"Looks like it. He might have to shut down this place if the feds get too close."
"Oh they won't…he made sure of that…soon they won't be able to trust each other…"
C.J. pressed herself against the wall, listening to her heart pound. Her breathing, hoping the guards couldn't hear it too.
She didn't see the shadow creep behind her until it was too late. An icy hand gripped her shoulder.
"Where do you think you're going…don't you know you'll never escape from me?"
C.J. awoke with a jolt suddenly her eyes looking around her. She soon realized she was in the living room in front of the crackling fire. A blanket wrapped around her as she lay in the couch. She must have nodded off. Noises from the kitchen, laughter told her that the others were preparing for the party and that several guests must have arrived. She got up to join them, shaking off the dream like the rest of them.
As she entered the kitchen, they looked at her and smiled, greeting her. The strange glances they'd given her in the beginning had faded and they were genuinely friendly. She'd become Kelly, a woman fleeing an abusive relationship and so the questions had stopped.
Bonnie handed her a glass of the cider she made which was done. She sipped it, not bad.
"I guess I didn't mess up the recipe."
Bonnie waved a hand.
"It's delicious…there's some of Jed's crepes too…"
C.J arched an eyebrow. Bonnie smiled.
"He's quite the cook," she said, "aside from being a poet."
C.J. could read the fondness that Bonnie had for him though she knew that Jed likely had his own secrets, some of which wrapped up in pain. He never talked much about his past before he took the foreman job at the ranch.
The door to the kitchen opened and another couple arrived, dressed in overcoats with snow sprinkled on them.
C.J.'s body tensed up until she recognized them as a couple on a ranch bordering the foothills beneath the Rockies. A bit of gusty wind followed them into the kitchen.
They carried the food and drink out to the living room where extra chairs had been set up. C.J. sat in a chair listening to the conversation but her mind wandered back over a thousand miles and a year to when she and Matt had celebrated New Year's Eve at a party he threw on his yacht moored off of Catalina Island.
Will had just returned and was living in L.A. and rebuilding his relationship with his own dad. Matt still mourned the loss of his own and C.J. said farewell to a tumultuous year that had seen her betray the man she loved, get shot twice and wind up locked in a detention center with amnesia. She'd just flown back to L.A. after talking with state prosecutors in Arizona in connection with the prostitution ring.
The questions about the silent partner. The faceless man who pulled the strings connected to both Sheriff Butz and Semour Piser. She'd been interrogated more than once on this mysterious player but she'd never seen him. Her involvement in the ring had been mercifully short so she had no answers to give them.
If only it'd been different now. Her whole life could be different, short one nightmare that might never end.
Matt and the others arrived at the party that included a barbecue, plenty of alcohol and a musical band. Zeke and Brady went to talk to several other men crowding around what looked like a roulette wheel. Gambling was a popular pastime on the island. Streamers, banners and even a replica of the ball at Times Square gave the square a festive appearance.
Mostly mercenaries and hired guns hung out on the island but even they liked to party and holidays provided convenient excuses to do that.
A young man wearing a hat with Father Time on it handed out barbecued pork and what looked like boiled potatoes and some unfamiliar greens.
"There's plenty of food…"
It smelled delicious enough.
"Thanks…"
He thought about the celebration his friends and family must be having at home without him. Well he'd be returning soon enough.
The party attracted quite a crowd around the poker table outside of one of the bars. He saw several men sitting down at that table, while another one left them after a brief conversation.
They all wore dark suits. It'd be easy to mistake them for serious businessmen just out of a meeting except he saw they were packing.
Mercenaries looking to blow off some steam?
He watched them carefully until one of them turned his head and saw him.
Something familiar about him…as if but Matt knew they'd never met. The man exuded power as he ordered a drink at the wet bar and then walked over to Matt.