CHAPTER 2

Matt and Hoyt pulled into the driveway of Austin and Maria Murphy in a suburb of San Diego a little after six o'clock that morning. There were three police cars sitting there and the two men were stopped as they headed up to the front door. After Hoyt showed his badge and Matt his private investigator's license they were allowed to go in. Austin Murphy stood up from the couch in the living room as he saw Michael walk in and he met him halfway across the room, pulling him into a hug. "Michael, I really appreciate you coming down to help."

"No problem, that's what friends are for, right?"

"Speaking of friends…" Murphy motioned to Matt.

"Oh, sorry. Austin Murphy, this is my friend, Matt Houston. He's a private investigator."

"Is he the one that helped you get Kathy back?" Austin shook Matt's hand.

"He is. I wouldn't have her right now if it hadn't been for him." Hoyt proudly looked at his friend.

"Mr. Murphy, it would help if we knew a little bit about your daughter. Did she have a boyfriend?" Matt sat down in the chair that Murphy offered him.

"She did – until about three weeks ago. They broke up. I'm not quite sure why, Jessica didn't want to talk about it. She was really upset. They had dated for a couple of years. I thought they would get married, but that's not how it played out."

"Have you talked to him since Jessica disappeared?" Matt had pulled a notebook out of his back pocket.

"No, I tried calling him about five minutes ago but didn't get an answer." Murphy's hands were shaking as he picked up a cup of coffee. "Would you two like some?"

"Not right now, thanks." Matt looked around the room and spied a picture of a beautiful blonde girl on the mantel of the fireplace. "Is that her?" He pointed to the picture.

"Yes, that was taken about three months ago." Murphy walked over to the fireplace and brought the picture back, handing it to Matt.

"She's a beauty. What was the boyfriend's name?" He handed the picture back to the distraught father.

"Richie Collins. He was going to school at UCSD with Jessica – a chemistry major – but he dropped out after the last semester. I think that was part of the reason they broke up, but Jessica never actually said that."

"Mr. Murphy, please don't take this the wrong way – did she take drugs?" It was a question that Matt hated to ask, but there had been several cases where drugs were the cause for a client's loved one disappearing.

"No, she's a straight arrow, Mr. Houston. She's never been in any kind of trouble at all."

"Okay, what do you know about her roommate?"

"Kirsten Bloomdale – they were best friends in high school and headed off to college together. She's a political science major. They've lived in that apartment since their sophomore year. Both of them said there was too much noise in the dorms and they couldn't study." Murphy was up and pacing around the living room.

Matt had noticed a man on the other side of the room that had been on the phone since they walked in. He was now off of the phone and glaring at Hoyt and Houston. "Mr. Murphy, who are these men?" He pointed at Matt and Michael.

"Michael Hoyt is a friend of mine – a detective with the LAPD and this is his friend Matt Houston – a private investigator."

Matt stood up and held out his hand to the man, who looked him up and down and kept his hands on his hips, refusing to shake. "I don't think we need any more help here, gentlemen." The last word was said with a sneer.

"Mr. Houston has a good bit of experience in dealing with kidnapping cases, Detective -?" Hoyt had stood up. He didn't care for the man at all and suspected that he was the one that Austin had been complaining about.

"We don't need an out of town cop, either." He gave Hoyt a disgusted look.

"Det. Shoemake, I asked these men to come down and help." Murphy stood up and angrily confronted the detective. "I would think you would have a little more professional courtesy."

"Screw professional courtesy – I've got a job to do and I don't need anybody getting in my way." He stalked out of the house.

"I'm going to guess he's the one you were complaining to Hoyt about?" Matt watched the man go.

"Yes, he is." Murphy was shaking from head to toe. "I'm sorry he was so rude to you – but he seems to be like that to everyone."

"No need to apologize, Mr. Murphy – I've run into that attitude quite a few times in my career." He shot a sideways glance at Hoyt, who grinned.

"Yeah, I was one of the ones that he got it from – until I figured out we work better together than against each other." He patted Matt on the back.

"Mr. Murphy, could you give us the address of the apartment and we'll see if we can get in and take a look around?"

"Sure." He wrote it down on a piece of paper and handed it across to Matt. "And quit calling me mister – everybody calls me Austin."

"Well good, because everybody calls me Houston." Matt grinned and held out his hand and they shook. "We'll get started on this."

"Thanks guys, I really appreciate the help." Murphy walked them to the door and they got into Matt's truck and left.

"Do you know your way around down here?" Matt looked over at Michael.

"Not real well. You?"

"Nope. Reach back there and grab that laptop and we'll pull up a map." He pointed to the back seat of the truck.

Hoyt pulled out the laptop and turned it on, then hit GoggleMaps and typed in the address for Jessica Murphy's apartment and began giving Matt directions. They arrived there a little while later. "I sure hope Shoemake isn't here." Hoyt had a worried expression on his face.

Matt grinned. "Now you know how I used to feel all the time, huh cop?"

"Oh, shut up." Hoyt grinned back. They got out of the truck and went inside the building and hit the button for the elevator. Riding up to the seventh floor, the police detective looked over at his friend. "So what are you thinking so far? The ex-boyfriend?"

"It's usually a good place to start - especially since she didn't want to tell her dad why they broke up." Matt stepped off of the elevator and they turned to the right, finding apartment 704 on the right hand side of the hallway. There was a police officer guarding the door. "Okay, cop, pull out your badge and see if it can get us in."

"Hi, I'm Lt. Michael Hoyt, LAPD. We've been asked to look into the kidnapping of Jessica Murphy by her father."

"LAPD? You're kind of out of your jurisdiction a little bit." The sergeant grinned at the lieutenant. "What about him – if he's a cop I'll eat my hat."

Matt pulled out his investigator's license and showed it to the man. "Houston? Are you Roy Houston's nephew? The one that played football?"

"I sure hope so, especially since I'm his only nephew." Matt grinned at the cop.

"I'll be dipped – Chris Martinson." They shook hands. "How's the old coot doing? I haven't seen him in a couple of months."

"He's good. As a matter of fact I'm planning on calling him down here to help us on this. Just didn't want to call too early. I think he had a date last night."

"Yeah, he's a smooth one with the ladies, for sure. Okay, you two can go in, but you know the rules: looky no touchy, right?"

"Yep. Thanks." Matt led the way into the apartment and pulled a pair of black batting gloves out of his back pocket as Hoyt put on a pair of latex gloves. "Looky no touchy, huh?" He smiled at Hoyt.

"Look who's talking." They both went through the apartment looking but didn't see anything that would indicate why the girl had been taken. "I wonder where the roommate is."

"I don't know – maybe she's in class?" He found a box of photographs in the top of Jessica's closet and pulled them down, going through them. "Bet this is the ex-boyfriend here." He showed Hoyt.

"Bet you're right." They both looked through the medicine cabinet in the bathroom. Other than birth control pills for both girls, there wasn't much in it aside from bandages and acetaminophen tablets. Matt moved back into the bedroom and then went to check out Jessica's nightstand. There was a box of condoms and a letter. He opened it up carefully and began reading. "I think I just found the reason for the break-up." Hoyt walked over and Matt held the piece of paper where the detective could see it.

"Oh boy, I bet Austin doesn't have any idea about this at all." Michael watched as Matt pulled out his cell phone and took a picture of the note, then folded it back over and put it back exactly where it had come from. It was then that they both heard the voice that neither wanted to hear – Det. Shoemake was giving Sgt. Martinson hell for letting them into the apartment.

"I believe we're done here – how about you?" Matt headed for the bedroom door followed closely by Michael, both of them pulling off their gloves and quickly putting them in their pockets.

"Just what in the hell do you two think you're doing in here? I can have you arrested for this." Shoemake evidently hadn't gotten enough out of yelling at the sergeant.

Matt calmly smiled at the man. "We were just leaving." He started past the irate detective and was grabbed by the shoulder and spun around, but Shoemake was the one that got the biggest surprise when Matt ducked and lunged forward causing the man to fall flat on his face. He came up pointing his pistol at Matt.

Sgt. Martinson stepped between the two men. "Easy there."

"You okay? Guess I slipped on something." Matt looked down on the floor around his feet.

"Slipped my ass! You deliberately pulled me down!" Shoemake was heading for Houston again.

"I never laid a hand on you – but you sure put one on me. And I've also got a couple of witnesses to the fact." He lowered his voice and got within two inches of the detective. "I suggest you back off, before you get something you don't want any part of, got it?" His voice had taken on that low, gravelly quality that Hoyt had come to learn meant that he was getting extremely mad.

"Don't you threaten me, Houston; I'll have your license pulled." Shoemake was beet red.

"Believe it or not, that's not the first time I've heard that. And I'm pretty sure it won't be the last. Better men than you have tried and failed – miserably." He turned and walked on out of the apartment and down the hall to the elevator while Shoemake went into the apartment.

Martinson let out a low whistle and Matt looked back at him. "You're definitely Roy's nephew. Hee hee!" He was having a good laugh. Matt just nodded and he and Hoyt got on the elevator.

On the way down to the lobby, Matt pulled out his phone and called Roy. Answering on the first ring, Roy sounded chipper. "What's going on, Mattlock?"

"Hey, Hoyt and I are working on a kidnapping down in San Diego. It's the daughter of a friend of his. Do you think you would be able to come down and help us out a little bit? We've already met one of your pals down here – Chris Martinson?"

"Oh yeah, Chris is a great guy. Boy, I sure hope you don't run into Det. Shoemake."

"We already did. He and I just had an interesting little conversation where he threatened to have my license pulled." Matt looked over at Hoyt who rolled his eyes.

"Yeah he's a first class jerk. I also have a feeling he's on the take, so watch your back, Matt. I'll head on down that way. Where do you want to meet up?"

"That's a good question. Neither one of us is real familiar with the city. What do you think?"

"How about at the Horsehead Saloon?" Roy had spent a good deal of time in the city and was very familiar with the local attractions.

"Uh okay, where is it?" Matt had put the phone on speaker as they walked to the truck. Roy gave him directions and they agreed to meet there at 11:00. After hanging up with his uncle, Matt looked at his watch. It was a little after 8:00. "I don't know about you but I could use some breakfast. Plus it would give us a chance to study the letter."

"Sounds good." Hoyt got into the truck and they decided on a Waffle Hut that was about four blocks from the apartment building. After ordering, Matt pulled up the picture of the letter on his phone and blew it up so they could read it.

Jessica,

I know that you're upset with my suggestion but it wouldn't be permanent. The offer they made me is a good one and I would be able to quit in a couple of years and do whatever I wanted. Since I've lost my student loan, there's no way I can afford school. Please don't be mad at me – I'm doing this so we can have a future together.

Love,

Richie

The two detectives exchanged a look. "It sure would be helpful if we knew who made him the offer and what it was for." Matt looked back at the picture. "He was a chemistry major – I wonder if it had something to do with drugs?"

"That sounds pretty likely to me. We're awful close to Mexico, too." Hoyt and Matt both remembered the Mexican drug lord that had been behind the bribery charges that Matt had helped his friend fight.

"I think our next step should be trying to track down this guy Richie. Be back in a minute." Matt went back out to the truck and brought in the laptop. He turned it on and started looking for an address on the ex-boyfriend. "Alright, I've got one on him here – let's hope he's still living there." He wrote it down and the directions to get to it just as his breakfast arrived. Hoyt was amazed.

"Are you really going to eat all that?" He looked up at Houston.

"Yep, I'm about ready to eat the table as this point." Matt dug into the breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, biscuits, hash browns, and pancakes. It didn't take long for it to disappear. Hoyt was still working on his stack of pancakes and two strips of bacon when he looked up to see that Matt's meal was history.

"And to think Mama Novelli is always complaining that you don't eat." Hoyt was completely taken aback.

"Yeah, well that was before I married CJ." He wiggled his eyebrows and smiled. "I tend to have a better appetite now. Speaking of which…" He pulled out his phone and dialed her cell. "Hey Babe, how's it going? Oh well, you know – the usual. I've been threatened by a cop already." Hoyt could hear her laugh on the other end of the line. "Yep, we discussed that earlier." He looked at Hoyt and stuck his tongue out. "He's getting a dose of it, too. Look, Uncle Roy is going to be coming down here to help us out. He's got connections and knows his way around. Uh huh." There was a pause and then Matt's face lit up. "Hey, Sweet Pea, whatcha doin'?" CJ had apparently held the phone up to her daughter's ear. Matt put the phone on speaker and they could hear Catey Rose laughing. "You be good and keep your mama out of trouble for me, okay, Stinker? Love you." There was another round of laughter from the baby and then CJ came back on the line.

"I miss you." She was already at the office and was about to finish up some paperwork.

"Miss you too, Babe. Guess I better get off of here and get some work done. I'll call you later. Love you."

"Love you, too Cowboy. Be careful. 'Bye."

Matt disconnected the call and sat there staring at his phone for a minute and then sighed. "Don't worry; you'll be back with them before you know it." Hoyt grinned. When Matt had finally admitted his love for CJ, it had completely taken him over. He was one hundred percent in love with the lady and had trouble thinking about anything else – except for his daughter.

"I know." He obviously missed both of his ladies. "Now let's get a move on, cop – we've got work to do. Get that breakfast gone."