DISCLAIMER: I do not own these characters, except for Matthew and Moxie. The rest of them belong to James Duff and the Major Crimes franchise.

Chapter 8

The team was on their way to the last known address of Billy. Provenza was driving and Andy was in the passenger seat of the Ford Explorer when he received Sharon's text message. "Sharon got our search warrant, sent a picture of it for us," Andy muttered as Provenza continued to drive. "Did you know she was coming into the office this afternoon?" Provenza asked him as they stopped at a stop light.

"No, I was just as surprised as you!" Andy told him and glanced out his window. "Was I ever that bad when I was on medical leave?" he asked him and Provenza chuckled. "No, you were worse!" he sneered and then started to drive when the light had changed. Andy glared at him and shook his head. "What are you going to do about the overtime situation?" he asked.

"Better to ask for forgiveness than permission," Provenza muttered to Andy as they pulled up outside the townhouse complex and stepped out of the vehicle. Andy met up with Julio and Amy while Provenza was talking to Buzz before they went up the stairs of the townhouse. "I want you to stay close to me, got it?" Provenza pointed at Buzz. "Got it sir!" Buzz acknowledged and then followed the rest of the team.

Andy was the first one to the door. He turned around to make sure everyone was ready before he knocked on the door. They waited a few seconds and Andy was going to knock again but stopped as he heard someone starting to open the door. "Hello?" the woman answered the door when she opened it. "Hello ma'am, I'm Lieutenant Flynn of the LAPD, is William home?" he asked her as she glanced behind him at the others standing there.

"No, he's not," she stated to him, looking at him in his eyes. "Are you related to him?" Andy asked her. "Yes, he's my husband," she answered him. "Do you know where he is?" Andy asked her as he looked behind her at the room to see what he could see. "No. Look, what is this about? Has he done something wrong?" she inquired. "No ma'am, we just need to talk to him about something that occurred a couple of nights ago," Andy informed her.

"We also have a search warrant to search your house," Andy told her as he showed her the warrant on his phone. "Please step aside," he instructed her and then Julio and Amy walked into the house, followed by Mike. "Is anyone else home with you?" Provenza asked her. "No, the kids are at basketball practice," she told him as she stood there, clenching her arms to her chest.

Buzz followed Provenza as he moved into the house. "I only want you to film if we find any evidence," Provenza told him as he followed Mike. Mike was standing next to a desk in the living room, looking through papers that were scattered on top. That's when they all heard a noise coming from upstairs. Andy turned around to look at the woman. "I thought you said no one else was home with you," he asked her but she didn't answer him.

Andy glanced at Provenza and they started to go up the stairs while Amy and Mike went up the back stairs, and Julio went out the back door. "Buzz, stay here!" Provenza shouted to him and he nodded. "LAPD! Stop!" Andy yelled as he made his way to the top stair and saw a guy trying to climb out the window. "Hey! Stop I said!" he yelled again and grabbed the guy by his waist and pulled him back inside.

Amy helped Andy secure the guy as Andy held him against the wall. "Hi Billy, we were looking for you," Andy smiled at the guy and the guy mumbled something in Italian. "What did you just say?" he looked at him, inching closer to his face. Billy smiled at Andy and spat at his shoes, which caused Andy to shove him up against the wall.

"Flynn!" Provenza yelled and Andy eased off of Billy. Amy and Mike then took Billy down the stairs, passed the wife and out the door where two patrol officers were waiting. "Hold him for us," Amy told the patrol officers as she placed him in the back of the squad car.

Provenza handed Andy a Kleenex to wipe his shoe off from where Billy spat. "What did he say to you?" he asked him as Andy bent over. Andy stood up and looked at his friend. "He called me a pig, in Italian," he smiled. "What is it with you and these guys?" Provenza asked him. "I don't know," Andy shrugged his shoulders and started to look around upstairs.

Provenza then called down the stairs for Buzz to come up there and meet them. "Yes Lieutenant?" Buzz ran up the stairs. "Start filming up here, I want to know what Billy was doing, hiding up here from us," he informed Buzz and then headed back down the stairs.

He moved to the wife who was now sitting in the living room. "Mrs. Genovese, I'd like to know why you lied to the LAPD about where your husband was," Provenza calmly stated to her. "I didn't know he was upstairs," she answered. Provenza huffed at her response. "What did he do exactly?" she asked as she held herself on the couch.

"Well, we just wanted to bring him in for questioning, but when he attempted to go out the upstairs window, we arrested him for evading the police," Provenza explained to her and she nodded and took a deep breath. Provenza then left her to attend to see what Mike had discovered by the desk.

"What did you find?" he asked Mike as he joined him. Mike held up some hockey information. "Bag it and call SID to come out here," Provenza rubbed his head as he took a look around.

Meanwhile, Emily, Sharon, and Matthew had stopped at the Target near the house. Emily was browsing through the clothing section, while Matthew went straight to where the games were located with Sharon closely following him. Matthew looked on the shelves to find the connect four game and saw that it was on the top shelf.

Sharon rounded the corner of the aisle and saw Matthew standing there looking at the game. "I can get it down for you," she smiled and reached up to grab the box. She handed the game to Matthew. "Anything else you need while we are here?" she asked him as they walked back to join Emily. "Um, no," he answered after he thought through everything.

Sharon placed her arm around him as they walked over to where Emily was looking at some clothes. "See anything you like?" Sharon asked as they came up behind her. "Oh, I was just looking at some of these yoga pants," Emily shrugged her shoulders and Sharon could tell her daughter was still reminiscing about her dancing dilemma.

"Have you heard back from the Los Angeles Ballet yet?" she asked her daughter as they walked towards the check out. "Yes, I have an audition this Friday," she smiled and Sharon was so happy. "What?! When were you going to tell me?" Sharon hugged Emily. "I was going to tell you but then you fell down and the doctor's visit," Emily rattled off.

Matthew watched them as he stood next to Emily. "When did you fall down, mommy?" Matthew asked. "Matthew, sweetheart, don't worry about that, okay?" Sharon reassured him as she ran her hand through his hair. Matthew huffed and they made their way to the checkout lane and Matthew placed the game on the belt.

Sharon paid for the game when the cashier rang it up. Matthew grabbed the bag from the cashier and all three of them walked back out to the car. As they got inside, Matthew again asked Sharon about her falling down. "Matthew, I know you're worried, but don't be. I'm fine, and the doctor changed the medication I was taking, which was causing me to be dizzy," she softly told him as he put on his seat belt.

"Now, more importantly, where should we grab something to eat?" Sharon asked as she sat in the passenger seat. "Is Rusty joining us?" Emily asked as she started the car. "He told me earlier that he had a late court meeting with Andrea today, and that he was probably going to grab dinner at the courthouse," Sharon told her as they drove out of the parking lot.

Back at Billy's townhouse, the team was searching the different rooms for more evidence as Buzz was filming. Andy was looking through some paperwork in the bedroom upstairs, supposedly where Billy was hiding when they first came to the townhouse. "Either this guy is a complete idiot or something else is going on," Andy gruffed as he held up the papers to show Buzz.

The papers looked to be betting slips and listed all of the hockey games that the Ontario Reign had played in the past and future games. "The question is was this guy working alone?" Andy mumbled as he didn't expect Buzz to give him a response. He bagged all of the papers that he discovered on the dresser.

"Lieutenant?" Buzz called out as he was inside the closet in the room. Andy walked over to him and saw what Buzz was pointing at in the corner behind the clothing. "I think I found the murder weapon, sir," he spoke to Andy as he walked over to where Buzz was pointing. "Damn," Andy sighed and reached for the bloodied baseball bat with his gloved hand. Andy made sure Buzz got the discovery on video before they left the room, both of them making their way back downstairs.

"Found betting slips and other paperwork upstairs in the bedroom," Andy informed Provenza and Mike as he held up the bag in one hand and the baseball bat in the other. "And we also may have found the murder weapon," he mumbled to Provenza. Provenza closed his eyes and sighed.

"Good," Provenza told Andy and then turned to the wife who was still sitting on the couch. "Ma'am, was your husband working with anyone else? Did you ever see anyone else with him?" Provenza asked her.

"No, he didn't talk about his work or what he was doing," she told him and paused for a minute. "Does he need a lawyer?" she asked and Provenza hesitated. "Actually ma'am, your husband has to be the one to ask for a lawyer," Mike chimed in as he saw SID officers starting to arrive. He wanted to alert them to what they needed.

"Come on Flynn, let's meet Billy back at the office and try to sort through some of this mess with him," Provenza started towards the front door. "Here's my card, ma'am. More than likely your husband is going to be sitting in jail," Provenza informed the wife and walked out the door. Andy followed behind him and placed the evidence he was carrying in the car they drove over.

"If this guy beat our hockey player to death, I want to know why!" Provenza got in the driver's seat. "Yeah," Andy muttered as he pulled out his phone and texted Sharon to tell her that he was going to be late. The rest of the team followed and left the house, leaving SID there.

Sharon and Matthew were inside Mario's Italian restaurant when she received Andy's text message. She sighed as she read his message. 'Got Billy as he was trying to evade us, also found possible murder weapon' was what he had sent her. 'Okay, be careful, just getting food from Mario's, I love you' she responded back to him. "Flynn?" one of the workers called as the order was ready.

Sharon turned around and walked to the counter. "Yep, thank you!" she told the worker as she took the pizza box and the bag of food and Matthew held the door open for her. Emily was waiting in the car and saw the two of them walk out. She got out of the car and helped her mother with the food. "I got it Em," Sharon smiled and Emily opened the car door for her.

Once everyone was inside the car, Emily started to drive them home. "Andy's going to be later than he thought," Sharon told her. "Oh, but I wanted to play my new game with Daddy when he got home," Matthew chimed in before Emily could say anything. "Well, after we eat, I can play the new game with you and then you can show him later," Sharon told him as he looked out the window.

The team arrived back at the PAB and Billy was waiting for them in one of the interview rooms. "I'll set up everything for interview room 2," Buzz stated as he walked into the Electronics room. "I'll take our possible weapon to the lab," Mike stated and grabbed the baseball bat from Andy. "We're going to need to sort through these betting slips as well," Andy suggested. "Sykes and I can do that sir," Julio took the bag from Andy.

Andy walked over to where Provenza was standing by the Murder Board. "So how do you want to play this?" he asked him. Provenza stared at the board for a minute. "This all seemed too easy, finding Billy there and also the murder weapon?" Provenza stated. Andy shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe he's a dumb criminal?" Andy answered him.

Provenza turned to where Julio and Amy were sitting. "Once you guys are done with those, let one of us know in the interview room. Come on Flynn," Provenza looked at Julio, Amy, and then at Andy as he walked towards the interview room where Billy was sitting.

Andy opened the door and greeted the two patrol officers who were watching Billy. "Thanks guys," he told them as they left the room. Andy turned and smiled at Billy who was staring at him. Andy had a seat and Provenza sat down next to him. "Well, Billy, looks like you are in a lot of trouble here," Provenza stated as he pretended to read his file.

Billy didn't say a word, just stared at Andy. Andy stared back at Billy. He didn't like him one bit. "What's the matter? You're not talking now?" Provenza asked Billy but he still didn't answer. "Okay, that's fine with us. We will just go over some facts of this case out loud between the two of us," Provenza stated and turned to look at Andy.

"Yeah, like how about the fact that we found this guy's finger prints on the pool clock in the backyard of that house in the Palisades," Andy said as he pointed his thumb towards Billy. "Right, and how we found the murder weapon in his house," Provenza added as he glanced at Billy. "What! Hey Man! What are you talking about?" Billy shouted and started to stand up from his chair.

Andy stood up and pointed at him. "Sit down!" he yelled at him and Billy did. "Now you're going to tell us why we found your fingerprints at the crime scene, and why we found the murder weapon in your house," Andy sat back down. Billy looked at him and then at Provenza. "I'm not saying anything until I get a lawyer," Billy stated.

Provenza tapped his fingers on the table. "Okay Billy, we'll get you a lawyer, sit tight while we call one," Andy told him and stood up again, waiting on Provenza to walk out of the room. Andy glanced back at Billy before he followed Provenza out of the room. The two patrol officers went back inside the room to watch him.

"Now this gives us time to follow up on a few things," Provenza stated as he walked back to his desk. "Anything on the betting slips?" Andy asked Julio and Amy. "We compared the slips to the hockey schedule of our dead hockey player. It looks like they were betting on all of the games that the team played, but here's what's interesting, Michael got injured early in the season, the team was 10 and 2 with him out on injury. As soon as he came back to playing on the team, the team is 3 and 10," Julio explained to them.

"So, that would coincide with our theory that Michael was being payed to throw the games," Provenza added. "Yes, but, a couple of weeks ago, when Michael was playing, the team went 5-0," Amy stated and passed the information card over to Andy. "So maybe Michael changes his mind about throwing the games, and Billy and someone else go to the away game in Bakersfield to confront him?" Andy scratched his head.

"Maybe?" Provenza looked through what Julio was showing him about the slips and the schedule. "This is a lot of money changing hands," Provenza stated and then sat down at his desk. "The only problem sir, is that we don't know who is a part of this gambling ring," Julio added. "That's not the only problem, Sanchez," Provenza looked at the Murder Board as he turned around in his chair to face it.

Back at the Flynn house, Sharon, Matthew, and Emily were all eating dinner. "So, Matthew, I was wondering if you wanted to talk about what Doctor Joe said to you today," Sharon said sweetly to him as he took a bite of his pizza slice. "Uh, I don't really want to now, Mom," Matthew quietly responded. Sharon smiled at him and glanced at Emily who was eating her salad.

"I'd like to practice my dance moves later on tonight if that's okay with you, Mom," Emily said as she continued to eat her salad. "Oh, I have no problem with that," Sharon was happy that her daughter was getting back into dancing again and hopefully her interview and tryout for the Los Angeles Ballet company will go well and she could move back to LA. Well, Sharon could hope that would happen, as she thought about it.

Sharon placed the left over vegetarian lasagna in the container as everyone cleared the table from dinner. "Wrap the left over pizza in foil please," Sharon informed Matthew as he was carrying the pizza box to the counter.

Sharon stood up from the table and brought the left over container to the fridge. She would warm it up later for Andy, depending on how late he was going to be. All of the dishes were in the sink and Emily rinsed them, placing them in the dishwasher. "I'm going to feed Moxie now," Matthew called out as he went to the mud room and Moxie followed him there.

Sharon noticed that Matthew still hadn't come out of the mud room and could hear Moxie pushing his dish around the floor. Emily went into the family room so she decided that she would go see what Matthew was doing. She peeked around the corner and saw Matthew sitting on the floor with Moxie laying down next to him. Matthew was petting the dog and the scene before her just brought tears to her eyes.

"Hi," Sharon knelt down across from Matthew. "Hi," he mumbled as he continued to pet Moxie. "You know, if you're ready to play Connect Four now, I just happen to be free at the moment," Sharon said to him as she wanted to get him to open up. "In a little bit," he replied and she nodded. "If you're worried about breaking your confidence with Doctor Joe, you don't have to be, Matthew, because you can always tell me or Daddy whatever it is that you need to tell us," she told him again.

"I know, I just," he took a deep breath and then continued. "I feel like I broke your trust, Mommy, when I lied to you and Daddy about my test, and then covered that up with not telling you about forging Daddy's signature," he told her as he looked down at Moxie. "Oh, sweetie, you didn't break our trust. I'm sorry that you felt that way," Sharon reached for him and Matthew scooted over to where she was kneeling.

Sharon held him and closed her eyes. Matthew eased into her hug and wrapped his arms around her neck. It would take some time but at least it was some progress, Sharon thought.

TBC