CHAPTER 2

Thursday, 12:23PM

CJ descended the steps of the jet, Catey Rose holding her right hand while she cradled seven month old Michael Wade Houston in her left arm. Upon seeing Marty Hoffmann standing beside the SUV parked in front of the hangar at the William P. Hobby Airport the little girl smiled and turned loose of her mother's hand at the bottom of the steps and ran directly into the waiting arms of the foreman of the Houston's Texas ranch. Sweeping her up in a big hug, the man looked to her mother who, although clearly not happy, appeared calm as usual. "How ya doin', Little Lady?" He held the bundle of energy out away from him just enough to get a good look at her.

"I'm great!" The smile on the two year old's face was so much like her dad's it was amazing to the cowboy.

"Good. Let's get you buckled in so I can help your mama, okay?" He helped her into the carseat, receiving a kiss on the cheek as he did, then reached back out and took Mike from his mother. "You're getting big, boy." The baby smiled and gurgled at him. Sheila was now loading Vinny into his carseat, and the twin let out with a happy squeal. After going to the jet for the remainder of the luggage that the two women had brought along and loading it into the back hatch, Marty slid behind the wheel.

"Where is he?" CJ's voice gave away her emotions.

"Working." Marty shook his head. "He's taking it a lot better than the rest of us." As he waited at the light just outside of the airport he looked over at her. "It just...it ain't right, CJ. After all he's done in his life I can't believe that something like this is..." His voice cracked and he couldn't finish.

"I can't either." She had already made up her mind to try to talk to him and see if he would change his mind about trying to fight the disease. "And I can't believe that he would just...give up this way." Her phone rang. "Hi, Cowboy."

"Where are you?" Matt was so glad to hear her voice on the other end of the line.

"We're leaving the airport. Where are you?"

"Out looking for Lisa." He told her what had happened and about his visit to Judge Maynard's office.

"I don't care what Lyons says: she wouldn't start using again." She could tell by the sound of his voice how tired he was.

"I'm on my way to meet him now. We might have a location on Young. Y'all be careful, ya hear?"

"We will, baby. You take care of yourself out there, okay?"

"I will. Love you."

"Love you, too. 'Bye." Hanging up she blew out a breath and then began telling the others what had happened.

Meanwhile, Matt stopped a few blocks away from the location that Mark Lyons had given him, pulling out his vest and exchanging the shoulder holster for the tactical model that he usually wore when working. "Much better." Getting back into the truck he went eastward a half mile before turning north on St. Elmo. He spotted the SUV that Lyons was driving and parked behind it. Much like he had a couple of years earlier, he got out and approached the passenger side of the vehicle and slid inside. "Laid eyes on him?"

"Nope. But my CI says he might be over there." The detective motioned across the railroad tracks just to their west. "Three houses up on the right." Handing the man a pair of binoculars he leaned back.

Matt scanned the area. "Lovely neighborhood." The paint peeling from the sides of the clapboard houses was a depressing sight even on such a bright and beautiful day. "How do you want to work it?"

"Seeing as how it dead-ends there at the tracks I don't really think they'll be expecting us to roll up from over here. Not exactly easy on the equipment, but hopefully it'll be effective."

"Fine by me. Is it just the two of us?"

"Yup."

"You want the front or back?"

"Front."

"Let's do it." He slid out of the vehicle and went back to his own, following as Lyons quietly eased across the tracks. As soon as he saw that Matt was across as well, both men punched the accelerators and within seconds Lyons was stopping in front of the house as Houston barrelled through to the back yard and sprang out of the vehicle. A lookout had evidently spied them and as Lyons reached the front step of the house two men came running out. At the same time Matt intercepted a man running from the back of the house firing at the detective as he cleared the cracked foundation and landed in the bare yard, the shot richocheting off of the fender of the SUV. Houston fired back, taking him down with a shot to the lower leg, injuring him just enough to stop his progress. Standing on the man's right wrist and taking the pistol away from him, the cowboy pointed his Glock right at his head. "Where's Young?"

"Son of a bitch!" The squeal that came from him as Houston rolled him roughly over and cuffed him only served to infuriate the detective even more.

"Where is he?" He tightened up the cuffs as far as they would go and flipped the man back over.

"Go to hell!"

Putting the muzzle of the gun to the temple of the younger man, Houston growled, "You'll get there first – I guarantee it." He watched as the prisoner's Adam's apple bobbed a couple of times. Pressing the weapon harder against his skin he spoke again. "Last chance: where is he?"

"I don't know." Tears began falling.

"Oh, you're just breakin' my heart. I'm gonna count to three...one, two,..." He put the muzzle of the gun right between the man's eyes.

"I swear I don't know, man, please! Please!" The man began quaking, the snot beginning to flow down his face and the strong smell of urine filled the air.

"You gotta be kiddin' me." Houston rolled the man on his side. "Bend your knees. C'mon...you aren't hurt that bad. It's just a scratch." He helped him to his feet and took him around to the front of the house where Lyons had both of the other men in cuffs and hooked up to one of the concrete pillars on the front of the house.

"I already checked inside. Nada. Except for some weed and meth. They say they haven't seen Young ." He looked at Matt's prisoner. "What the hell?"

"Don't ask." Matt shoved the man against the SUV. "What about this woman? Have you seen her?" He removed a picture of Lisa from his pocket. All three shook their heads. "If you have you better speak up right now..." His voice was such a low growl it took Lyons by surprise.

"I swear on a stack of Bibles, man." Matt's collar was still sniffling as his two buddies looked worriedly at the man who had captured their friend, then both vehemently shook their heads no as they were shown the picture again.

Houston put the picture back as his phone began ringing and he stepped away from the group while Lyons began frisking them. "Yeah, Chuck?"

"I've gotten into her phone records. There isn't much there. Most of the calls are either to her home phone or Brian's cell phone. I tried checking the GPS on it and it's turned off right now. But..." He leaned back in the desk chair. "...keep your cool here, bud: your boy Brian ain't at school. The GPS on his phone shows that he's walking around the neighborhood. Ten bucks says he's lookin' for Lisa."

"I took him to school this morning." Matt felt his temper beginning to kick in again.

"Bud, calm down; if it was you in his shoes you would be doing the same thing. Want me to go pick him up?"

"Hang on." Turning to Lyons he motioned to the prisoners. "Have you got these guys?"

"Yeah, go do what you gotta do. I've got a unit on the way to take 'em in. He sure as hell isn't goin' in my truck." He looked at Matt's collar who was still shaking.

"Give me his location, Chuck." Walking around to the back yard, Matt heaved a sigh as his friend rattled off the street he was on. "Thanks. I got things straightened out with the custody deal."

"Good. What're you going to do when you pick him up – other than read him the riot act?" Chuck gave a smirk. A few years earlier the thought of Houston dealing with kids at all much less teenagers would have seemed completely foreign.

"I don't know." He paused as he got into the SUV. "I can't get onto him too much; like you said, I would be doing the same thing. We'll talk about it later. Besides, maybe he can help."

"Good. Okay, well..." The detective paused. "Hang on, the Boss Lady is here. I'm putting it on speaker."

"Houston, I've got a couple of possibles here. Chuck and I are going to check them out."

"I appreciate it. Let me know."

"We will."

Chuck disconnected the call and they went out to the parking lot, the sheriff climbing into the sergeant's vehicle. Neither spoke for a minute. "What's wrong with him, Chuck?" Martinez shot him a look.

"Don't know." He paused for a minute. "I've known him for over thirty years...and I'm worried about him."

"He and CJ aren't having problems are they?"

"No...and I don't think that's something that we'll ever have to worry about. Those two..." He shook his head and grinned thinking back to their childhood. "I guess we shouldn't have picked on 'em like we did; they probably would have been married a long time ago and had twenty kids running around by now. Everybody knew they were in love from the time they met." The expression changed. "But there's something bothering him. Maybe he's just got too many irons in the fire."

Thursday, 1:15PM

"Get in." Matt had rolled up behind Brian and the look on the boy's face would have made him laugh if he wasn't so worried. Without a word the teen climbed into the SUV. "We've got an APB out on her; Chuck and the sheriff are checking out a couple of leads now, and Lyons and I just hit a house that we thought Young might have gone to; no sign of either one of 'em."

The boy just nodded, turning to look out the passenger window. Reaching over, the man squeezed his shoulder. "We'll find her, Bri." His reply was a nod. Looking at his watch, he turned right at the next corner and started back toward the apartment complex. "Let's get some of your stuff. You're going to be staying at the ranch."

"I need to be here in case she comes back."

"No. You'll be at the ranch. We'll leave her a note just in case. As of this morning I've got custody of you again." The words seemed to hit the boy.

"You know, you don't have to assume that she's using again." Anger filled his voice. "Something else could have happened."

"I didn't say she was."

"But you thought it."

"I've defended her all morning, Brian. Lyons automatically thought that she was and I said the same thing to him."

"I'm sorry."

Matt stayed quiet as he drove along, pulling into the lot of the complex and then following the boy up to the apartment. "Looks good in here."

"We've done a lot of work on it. She's gotten really good at plants and stuff." He motioned to the windowsill that was full of flowers. Matt went into the kitchen and just as he had a couple of years earlier, he looked around for anything that might give him an idea of Lisa's whereabouts. The bills were all current, everything was neat, and he noticed that she had opened a savings account that she had labeled "College". Even though he had told her that he would be taking care of Brian's educational costs, she had insisted on putting away some money for it. He once again found Brian's birth certificate and put it in his pocket. Drifting back to the woman's bedroom he looked around, checking every possible hiding place that she might have hidden drugs or needles, and didn't find anything. It was all neat as a pin. Lisa Landers wasn't using: he would stake his life on it. He started back out of the room then turned for another look, a sickening feeling in the pit of his stomach. Something bad had happened to the woman; he just hoped that she was still alive, but with every hour that passed the likelihood that she was safe dwindled.

The pair met up in the living room and after locking the door, went back downstairs where Matt found the on-site manager and asked for her help. "If she shows up, please call me." He handed over one of his cards.

"I can't believe that this is happening again. She's been so happy. We've been trading plants back and forth, having coffee together on the weekends..." Margie Stewart was near tears. "I really don't think that she would use drugs again, Mr. Houston."

"Neither do we. Just let us know if you see or hear anything, okay?"

"I will. Brian, you take care of yourself, okay hon?" Reaching up she gave the boy a hug. "At least I know you're in good hands."

The drive out to the ranch was quiet except for the chatter on the police radio. "How's CJ?" The boy looked over at Houston, noticing that not only did he look worried but tired.

"She's good. Kids are keeping her busy. And she's been helping out with a case or two."

He nodded. "So you said this morning that you can't be everywhere at once...is that what's wrong?"

Matt sighed. "I've got..." He paused, not able to tell the boy about everything that he and CJ were working on because of the sensitive nature of it. "I've got a lot of work that I'm having to do with Derwin Dunlap – it's a project for the government. Plus I'm helping the FBI with a few things. I've still got a class that I need to complete for the Fire Marshal's office that has already been put on hold twice..." He stopped there. "I'm sorry I said that this morning. I had no right."

"Yes you did. I don't how you do all that stuff. Just getting my homework done and taking care of things around the house after school are bad enough – even when I don't have football practice."

"Once we get the business with Derwin finalized it should calm down." He turned onto the road where the ranch was located. "Madre Rosa is sure gonna be glad to see you."

"I've missed her, too. And the others." The reply was a nod, but a sad expression crossed the cowboy's face and left Brian wondering once again if he was telling the whole story.

Matt parked the SUV behind the house and slid out, going back to help the boy remove the items that they had brought with them. It didn't occur to him that the the teen hadn't seen the new bunkhouse.

"Wow! That is...it looks like something that you would see in one of the old westerns. Cool."

"Just wait til you see the inside." Matt nodded. "Ben and Marcy did a great job on it. They're working on the old house at the PH now. Lord knows it needs a lot done to it." They entered the kitchen and the smell of Madre Rosa's cooking filled the air. Ordinarily, Matt would have been looking into the pots and pans to see what she was making; today he didn't have the time or the appetite.

The petite woman came into the kitchen from the front of the house, giving Brian a big hug. "Just look at you! So handsome! And why haven't you come to see me?" Although she was smiling now, it was plain to see that something was bothering her as well, her eyes seemed puffy and slightly red to the boy. "Take your clothes upstairs – your room is all ready for you."

"Thanks." He went on toward the front of the house to the stairs where Catey Rose caught up to him and demanded a hug and piggy back ride upstairs so that she could help him.

"Hijo..." Rosa approached Matt as he poured coffee into a travel mug. "You didn't eat breakfast this morning."

"Didn't feel like it." He took a sip of the coffee and leaned against the kitchen counter for a minute, trying to decide what his next move would be.

"You need to eat." She began pulling food out of the refrigerator.

"Don't..." He shook his head.

"Yes, I am. You may be all grown up now, but I'm still going to take care of you while you're here." The stubborn little lady continued what she was doing as he watched and thought about what she had just said. From the time he was five until he left for the Army, she was the closest thing to a mother that he had ever had.

"Madre Rosa, I really don't want anything."

"But you're going to eat anyway – because I say so." She turned and gave him the same stern look that he had received on many occasions as a kid. Even when he had grown taller and stronger than her, all it would take was that look and he did as he was told. "Sit." He remained where he was. "Now, hijo."

With a sigh, he went to the kitchen table and pulled out a chair. "Where's CJ?"

"She and Sheila are with Ollie at the PH." Even with her back turned, Matt could picture her face and knew that she was trying to hold back the tears. Watching as she began making him a sandwich he saw her shoulders begin to shake and knew that she was crying once again. Crossing back over to the counter he gently turned her around to face him and pulled her into a big hug. It was then that the dam broke and she started crying in earnest. "It just isn't right..."

"We don't get to decide that. Remember?" He kissed the top of her head. "The Man Upstairs is the one that decides." He involuntarily gave a chuckle and she looked up at him. "You know, the first few times you told me that when I was a kid I thought you meant Daddy." Both gave a little laugh.

"Do you think CJ can change his mind?" Wiping away the tears she turned loose of him and went back to what she had been doing.

"I'd say if anybody can it's her...or Sheila. I tried talking to him last night after I got in, but..." He shrugged and his voice got softer. "I guess it really isn't anybody's business but his."

"Sit." The housekeeper had regained her composure and went back to making him a sandwich.

Houston had a seat and Brian came in with Catey still riding on his back. The little girl immediately wanted to go to her dad and he took her onto his lap as Brian sat down at the table. "Are your brothers takin' a nap?"

"Uh huh. They been busy today." She watched as Madre Rosa put a sandwich down in front of him and returned to the kitchen to make one for Brian.

Matt's phone rang. "Yes ma'am?" He listened as Francine Martinez told him what she and Chuck had found out.

"Houston, it looks like Young has taken her. We tracked down one of his cellmates. He said all Zach Young talked about when they were locked up together was getting revenge on Lisa – and you."

"Did he have any idea where he might go?"

"He gave us a couple of ideas. I thought you might like to meet up with us. We're going to put together a few more people to help with the search."

"Where?"

"Meet us at the office."

"I'll be there quick as I can." He hung up and set Catey down. "You stay here, kiddo. I've gotta go change clothes."

"You haven't eaten yet." Madre Rosa had returned with Brian's sandwich.

"Don't have time." He took off through the house, his footsteps going up the stairs echoing in the quiet.

Brian had picked up the sandwich in front of him but now put it back down on the plate and stood up. "You – sit." Rosa gave the boy a stern look.

"I'm going with him."

"No you aren't."

"Yes ma'am, I am." He waited for Matt who was back in just a couple of minutes, having changed into a pair of black tactical pants and one of his uniform shirts. Coming into the kitchen he began fastening the holster.

"I'll call you as soon as I know something."

"I'm going with you."

"Nope. You're staying put." He saw the crushed look on the boy's face as he looked up. "Look, if you think of something that might help call me. But you don't need to be out there. This guy is dangerous as hell."

"I'm not a baby – I can help track him down just like anybody else."

"Nobody said you were a baby. But you aren't a cop, either. Stay here. Help Madre Rosa with the boys. With CJ and Sheila at the PH she could use a hand." Kissing the top of his daughter's head he knelt down next to her. "I need you to be extra good right now, Lady Bug. Can you do that for me?"

"Yes sir."

"Love you." He got a hug from her and then went out the kitchen door and down to the SUV, leaving Brian to watch after him, a glare of undisguised anger following him as he backed up and then took off down the driveway.

"Sit, eat." Rosa came and sat down next to him, taking the two year old onto her lap and shushing her. "Don't be angry with him, Brian."

"I don't see why he won't let me help!" The sixteen year old slouched in the chair.

"He already told you – it's too dangerous." She watched as he shook his head. "Brian..." Pausing, she chose her words carefully. "Matt's got a lot of things going on right now."

"Which is exactly why he oughta let me help. I feel like an idiot just sitting here."

"You aren't just sitting here – you're going to help me with Catey and the boys."

"I'm not a babysitter! And why is Sheila at the PH?" Angrily, he looked over at the woman and saw a hurt look in her eyes.

After a pause she answered him. "Because she and CJ are trying to talk to Ollie." The blank look that he gave her let her know that Matt hadn't told him. "Brian...Ollie may not be with us much longer."

"Why in the world would they fire him? He does a great job." During his stay at the ranch Brian had spent a lot of time with the old cowboy and learned a lot from him about horses.

"They aren't firing him." Doing her best to stay calm she took his hand. "Ollie has cancer. The doctors say he doesn't have very long."

"No." He shook his head, hoping that he had heard her wrong. "But..." He paused. "There are things they can do, right? Medicine and all..."

"They say there isn't anything they can do." She watched as he digested the news. "CJ and Sheila are trying to convince him to talk to another doctor. Matt tried last night. He says that the doctor has already consulted with someone else and..." Stopping, she did her best to remain calm.

Catey had been quietly looking back and forth between the pair. Although she was too young to understand what they were talking about she knew that Madre Rosa was near tears. "Don't cry." She gave the elderly housekeeper a big hug. "Daddy be back later."

"That's right. Your daddy will be back later." Rosa patted the toddler on the back and returned the hug.

Brian sat staring at the sandwich in front of him, now better understanding why Houston had acted the way he had earlier and the knot in his stomach tightened as he thought about what he had just learned. "Why didn't Houston tell me?"

"I guess he thought you had enough on you already."