CHAPTER 3

Wednesday morning found Matt and CJ on their way into the office together. "So..." She glanced over at him as they were stopped at a light. "What did Doc Metcalfe say about your hand?" His frequent shaking and rubbing of the hand hadn't gone unnoticed, nor had the fact that he had still been wearing his holster on his left side the day before.

"It's a hand." The crooked grin appeared as he took off from the light.

"But..." She waited for more information. He didn't provide any. "What else did he say?"

"It's healed up."

"And that's why I got a call from the therapist who wanted to move your appointment up two hours." He still didn't reply. "You're having trouble with it."

"Nah..." He looked out and checked the mirror. "He's just being over cautious."

"Hon..."

"It's fine, CJ. Just...it's been in a cast for a while. I've just gotta work the kinks out of it. No big deal."

"Uh huh."

"Uh huh." He took a quick look over at her and then returned his eyes to the road in front of him.

"If I find out different..." It was then that his cell phone rang and she blew out a breath as he hit the speaker button.

"What's up, Michael?"

"We've found Dale Bishop – the manager of the storage facility. At least it's his vehicle." The cop turned to look down at what was left of the car.

"From the tone of your voice I'm going to guess that he's not in the best of shape."

"Neither is his car; both of them are in a ravine not far from where Mt. Wilson Road turns into Heninger Flats Road. He's dead."

"I'll be there ASAP." Changing lanes, he went northeast. "I did some more digging last night. Seems that there are only two employees there now besides Bishop. Both came up clean on background checks; I'm going to try to interview them today."

"Alright. See you in a few minutes." Michael hung up and waited impatiently for the CSI techs and ME's assistants to show up.

A short time later Matt pulled up and along with CJ, walked over to stand next to the lieutenant. The cop gestured down at the shattered remains of what had once been a 2011 Volvo station wagon. "I would say good morning, but it doesn't appear to be one."

"Better for some than for others. Have you gone down to take a look at it?"

"Nope – the fire department had to go on another call and I don't have the gear..." He stopped as Matt turned back toward his truck. "Deja vu all over again." He watched as the PI moved his truck past the crime scene tape. It wasn't the first time he had gone rapelling at a crime scene very much like the one they now encountered. "I hope there aren't any snakes this time." Looking over at CJ he caught a smile as they both thought back to a similar scene from over a year earlier.

After rigging a harness with some rope from the truck that he attached to the winch on the front, the PI began a slow descent down into the ravine as CJ helped from up above. Halfway down he stopped suddenly.

"Snake?" The cop called down worriedly.

"No..." Matt, like most rapellers, used his left hand to guide the rope and the right hand to brake – something that wasn't working out well at all with the problems he was presently encountering. After a slight adjustment, he reversed the operation and went on down.

"What's with the hand?" Hoyt looked over at CJ, unsure if she was angry or worried; the look on her face conveyed both emotions.

"According to him – absolutely nothing. Guess that's why they scheduled him for therapy on it starting tomorrow."

"He shouldn't be down there."

"Try telling him that."

"Good point." Both turned their attention back to the man who had made it down to the vehicle. "What do you see?"

"One hell of a mess." Houston knelt down and looked through what was left of the windshield of the car. "He was wearing his seatbelt...didn't do him any good, though." Shifting around to get a better look at the man behind the wheel he spoke again. "It's definitely Bishop." Leaning in a little closer he got a good look at the man's head. "Not a hundred percent sure, but I believe he had some help getting here." Pulling out his camera he began taking pictures of the scene, working his way completely around the wreckage. "Looks like some paint transfer back here on the bumper." Another couple of shots were taken as he made it to the passenger side. "Yep, he had help." He looked up at his wife, signalling for her to turn on the winch as he began his ascent. Once back at the edge of the ravine, he unclipped the carabiner from the rope and went toward the passenger side of the truck. After downloading the photos onto the laptop he moved the vehicle so that CSI tech Bob Wisnewski could go down and process the scene with the aid of another fire unit that had just arrived to help with the recovery of the vehicle. "Bob, y'all might just want to cover and transport it as is..."

"Alright." The tech waited as the rescue unit took its place to help him process the scene.

Once on the other side of the tape, Houston was joined by Michael and CJ, and the trio began looking at the images on the computer monitor. "Wow..." The lawyer shook her head.

"Looks to me like he was shot in the head. There's a hole..." Matt zoomed in on a photo of the manager's head. "...In his right temple. The left side of his head is a big mess." He considered what they were looking at for a few seconds and started to speak, but Michael beat him to it.

"I'm going to have the other two employees brought in...they might be in danger as well."

"You read my mind." While Hoyt made the phone call, Matt opened the tool box on the truck and began replacing the rope and carabiner, CJ following him.

"I want to know exactly what Metcalfe said about that hand...and don't give me another smart ass answer." Her no-nonsense attitude and tone caused him to look up, then back down quickly. She could tell he was weighing his words carefully.

Shrugging, he closed up the tool box and turned his full attention on her. "He said there might be a little nerve damage. Don't know yet."

"And you told me he was being over cautious?!" Her voice was raised slightly, something that didn't go unnoticed by Hoyt. He knew the pair rarely argued; they usually thought and acted as one. And the tone that the lawyer had caused him to turn and head the other way. CJ was rarely angered, but when she was it wan't something he wanted to be around.

"No sense borrowing touble, Babe. We don't know yet. It's just...it's just got a few kinks in it now and then."

"What if it should "kink" at just the wrong moment – say when you're in the middle of something dangerous – like going down the side of a ravine – or shooting a pistol?"

"I got down there and back didn't I?"

"You had to stop." She watched as he turned and looked back up at the edge of the roadway where the guardrail had been broken.

"He must've been moving at a pretty good clip to go through that..." Matt started up toward the railing.

"Don't change the subject, Houston." A couple of the officers present exchanged looks with each other and Hoyt, watching as she went right up the hill behind him.

Reaching the top he began taking pictures of the guard rail, noting that the only paint transfer on the wooden posts appeared to be from Bishop's car. The splintered remains of four of the short pieces of wood that held the steel rail in place were testament to the force of the impact. "There aren't any skid marks." Turning he went westward a couple of steps until he was snatched by the arm, his progress halted by CJ.

"I want an answer."

He spun around to face her. "What do you want me to say, CJ?" His voice was raised slightly and Hoyt couldn't help but look up at the pair. The Houstons were two of the most stubborn, strong-willed people that he knew and knowing how much they loved each other it was unsettling to him to witness the disagreement.

"The truth would be good."

Looking down for a minute, Matt tried to calm down. Lowering his voice to just above a whisper he replied to her. "I already told you as much as I know, Babe. We'll just have to see what happens." Looking back up and directly into her eyes, he could see the anger simmering there, but beneath that was worry. "I'm okay. You know I can handle it." Turning away from her again, he searched along the roadway looking for anything that might clue them in on the other vehicle that had been involved in the incident. His eyes landed on something glinting in the morning sunshine. "Hoyt!" Quickening his pace he crossed the dirt road and carefully looked around. "It's a damn wonder it's still here." He looked up as the cop approached. "We've got a shell casing. Wonder if there have been any more that got run over or blown off the road?"

"Damn it..." Michael called down to let Wisnewski know what had been found, then barked at a couple of nearby officers to move the barricade back another four hundred feet and to be sure to look for shell casings.

"It's a 9mm." Houston began looking along the edge of the road carefully heading westward as Hoyt followed suit on the opposite side of the road.

CJ stayed where she was, watching her husband do what he was so good at – investigating a crime – but wondered if maybe it was time for him to hang it up. She had never made a demand of him to change his life; knowing him like she did and knowing why he did what he did and how stubborn he was to boot, she had never asked for him to change. Now the thought entered her mind. They had discussed it a couple of times before but it had always been him that had brought up the subject.

After checking further down the road, the two friends walked slowly back toward the spot where Bishop's car had left the road. "Bishop lives near here, but this isn't on his way to or from work; and since the storage facility is shut down right now..." Hoyt began speaking what he had been thinking all morning.

"And then there's the fact that we don't know when this happened." Matt looked toward the splintered guard rail posts. "Could've been before or after the explosion. The ME will have to give us a timeline to work from. Have you talked to Bateaux or any of the others?"

"I left Alex a message and Gunterson was getting ready to go to court. I thought I would let you call Rich." Both men stopped as Matt pulled out his phone, the cop noticing that the PI's hand was slightly shaky.

Waiting for the call to go through, Matt caught the cop looking at his hand. "Please don't start."

"We're just worried about you."

Nodding, he spoke into the phone. "Rich, we've had a development..." As he continued to scan the ground, the PI filled in the Fire Investigator.

"Maybe he knew too much, huh?" Rich had just made it in to his office after an early morning call to a suspicious blaze and hadn't even had time to get into his chair.

"Could be. Just thought I would give you a head's up."

"I appreciate it. Yoshi is supposed to be getting to work on reconstructing the ashtray today. Saw him in the parking lot a minute ago."

"Good. Well, that's all I have right now. Talk to you later." Hanging up, he put the phone back into his shirt pocket. They were still a short distance away from CJ who was studying the posts and looking down into the ravine as a wrecker pulled up to the scene.

"You two going to be okay?" Hoyt kept his voice low.

"Yeah..." They walked over to where she stood and Matt wrapped his arm around her waist giving her a little hug that was returned in kind – a relief for the cop who watched the pair.

"You have to wonder what he was doing up here." CJ watched as cables were connected to the wreckage. "From the way the posts look you were right, hon – he was moving on. This road doesn't exactly lend itself to high speeds. It looks like he was trying to get away from them."

"Yep. But there's nothing in his history that shows that he had anything to do with any of our players aside from the fact that he managed the storage place for De Fiore. He also managed it for the former owner. Maybe we should talk to her and see what she has to say about him and selling the business."

"I beat you to that one – I asked Larry to bring her in to the station, too." Hoyt grinned at the pair.

"Lookathere, Gramps has still got a trick or two up his sleeve."

"Shut up, PI." Turning toward his car, the lieutenant looked back over his shoulder. "See you at the station." As he put the key in the ignition he looked up to find the couple going toward the truck holding hands and blew out a grateful sigh.