A/N: So this is my first mainly Eliot story...yippee! Anyway I don't own Leverage!
The Murder of Hugo Canalis
"Eliot you're coming with me to meet the client" Nate commanded
"Why is it about some abuse or somethin'?" Eliot asked chewing on his apple.
"Sorta" Was all Nate said. Eliot shrugged and followed Nate down to McRorys. No one was in the bar since it was closed and Eliot found it slightly strange they were meeting when it was closed. A lady came up and tapped on the door and Nate opened it for her.
"Thank you so much for meeting me Nate" The lady said slightly out of breath
"Before you talk to me do you think you could tell Eliot over here what happened?" Nate said putting a friendly hand on her shoulder
"Eliot Spencer at your service, and who might you be?" Eliot said with his signature smile
"Jamie Canalis I'm an old friend of Nates" Jamie said shaking Eliots hand.
"Really you both worked in insurance?" Eliot asked
"No he chased me, I was thief, well I still sorta am but anyway I can't go to the police or I'd be in jail for-ever!" Jamie replied with a sense of humor
"Well here you can sit down and start tellin' me your story" Eliot said kindly pulling out the chair for her.
"So one day I'm just talking a casual walk in the park and I get a call from my husband Hugo. It wasn't him though it was a lady she said to come to 16th avenue to pick up my husbands corpse. I tried to ask her who she was or why she had done it or even what was going on. So I cautiously went over there and she stood in an alley. The thing that shocked me the most though was she was a teenager." Jamie said the pain, loss, and fear swimming in her eyes
"A teenager what do you mean?" Eliot asked confused
"13 or 14 not very old"
"Continue" Eliot commanded softly
"She has dark hair and brown or black eyes it was too dark to tell. Anyway my husband he-he-he lay on the gr-ound" Jamie chocked back sobs
"It's ok Jamie" Eliot comforted putting his arm around her
"She slit his stomach open..." Jamie cried. "He had cuts up and down his legs...And broken bones." Jamie tried to stay strong but the smells the memories the sights was just seared into her mind. "She carved 'No more chances' onto his left arm and 'You deserve this' on the right." Jamie finally broke down crying and Eliot rapped his strong arms around her.
Nate felt empathy with Jamie because he knew what it was like to lose someone. But it was worse on so many more levels because she hadn't been able to do anything she didn't know anything. His death was worse and probably much more painful. It really bothered him that a girl, not a man or a women, would do it.
"Jamie I have a few people I can call and some people I'll look into but I promise we will bring this man down in whatever way possible" Eliot assured his hands on her shoulders
"Thank you" She sputtered before wiping her eyes and walking out.
"You have people you can look into?" Nate asked
"Yeah I got 3 or 4. A really suspicious one just came in about a month ago from Rhode Island." Eliot muttered. "Why a murder?"
"Well I ran into her just yesterday and she told me what happened. I knew she could never get away going to the cops so we have to help her." Nate almost insisted
"Detective Bonanno couldn't help?" Eliot asked
"No she's done to much damage in Massachusetts that any cop we go to would turn her, in friend or not plus he doesn't do murder cases"
"Well you go tell Hardison and stuff. I gotta go get some stuff from my house" Eliot called across the room as he pushed open the door.
~At Eliots house~
Eliot went into his basement pulled back his fake wall walked into the room ripped up the floorboards and dropped down into a smaller room. Inside the smaller room were four blank walls and a ladder to get back up. Eliot pushed open the fake wall and it led into a small tunnel. It looked almost like an air vent but bigger. He crawled through until he got to a fork in the road and he went to the right to get the files. Once he got to the end of the right tunnel he pushed open the door, which brought him into, a small dusty room filled with files and bits and pieces from other jobs he had done. He went over to his file cabinet for murder grabbed the files of predators and bits and pieces from his encounters with them.
~At Nates House~
"Hardison I want you to pull up everything on Hugo Canalis" Nate called over to Hardison as he walked in
"Ok...give a second" Hardison said slowly his fingers flying across the key board. Sophie in the meantime was standing at the island with a glass in her hand. She swirled the amber liquid in the glass staring into it hopelessly. Her niece Jenna had just sent her a postcard saying that she was coming to Boston and she wanted to visit. God knows how she knew where she lived, her sister must've found out. Contrary to popular belief she was close with her sister and it might surprise people that's she actually had a sister.
"What's that?" Sophie jumped at the sudden noise
"What's what?" Sophie asked innocently
"That," Parker ripped the postcard from Sophie. Sophie tried to grab it from Parker but she ran out of reach holding it out in the air. Parker started to read the card and Sophie tried harder to get it back. "Dear Sophie I'm visiting Boston *dodge* I was hoping we could catch *dodge* up I'm staying at the Palestra Hotel room 660. I can't wait to catch up with my favorite aunt. Love Jenna"
"Give me that!" Sophie snatched it out of Parker's grip.
"You have a sister?" Hardison asked from his place at the table
"Yes" Sophie confessed. "But let's just focus on the job I want-" Sophie was cut off by her phone ringing. Her eyes widened when she say the number but she reluctantly picked up.
"How did you get my number?"
"Long story but I'm here in Boston so I was wondering if you wanted to come get coffee or something with me and mom?"
"Right now?"
"Yes right now"
"One second" Sophie muttered into the phone. "Hey Jenna wants to know if I can go to coffee with her. Is it okay if we post pone the briefing?"
"You got an hour Soph. Any later that and we start without you" Nate called across he room
"Thanks Nate!" Sophie called back happily
"I ca-"
"Who's Nate? Is he your boyfriend?"
"Uh-wha...we'll discuss this later"
"Golders coffee shop on 16th Avenue see you there in 5"
"K bye" Sophie hung up the phone and grabbed her purse. She walked quickly out of the apartment and down to her car. 16th Avenue was only 2 streets over so she arrived there quickly. Her sister was there and so was her niece.
"Sophie I'm so glad you are here!" Her sister said giving her a hug
"It's been so long Summer!" Sophie said happily
"I know we must catch up!" Summer said sitting down
"And Jenna I see you are still wearing colored jeans, red this time?" Sophie asked
"Yeah red's my favorite color" Jenna replied
"So how's Theo?" Sophie asked
"Good he's been traveling a lot lately so I don't get to see him much. Right now he's in Japan and he'll be there until the end of the month."
"That reminds me! Who's that Nate guy is he your boyfriend?" Jenna asked
"I'm gonna be completely honest in saying that he is not my boyfriend. I wish he was but he's not." Sophie confessed
"Too chicken to ask him out?" Jenna asked smirking
"No! He just isn't exactly the best person at being in relationships." Sophie said with narrowed eyes
"I thought you told me you were sle-" Summer started but Sophie kicked her under the table.
"Yes Summer I still am but that doesn't mean we're in a relationship" Sophie scowled
"You just keep tellin' yourself that" Summer retorted sarcastically
"Anyway, how's school going?" Sophie turned to Jenna
"Good my crazy teacher isn't coming back till next year, I'm so excited!" Jenna cried out happily
"Crackers Crondawl?" Sophie asked
"Yeah she's gonna be in Brazil till the need of the year!" Jenna said happily
"So did you just turn 14?" asked Sophie
"Yeah just in May" Jenna replied proudly
"Congrats"
~After coffee back at Nates~
"Ok everybody let's start the briefing! Hardison run it" Nate commanded
"Now our victim is Hugo Canalis and was supposedly murdered by a 13 or 14 year old. He was murdered on 16th avenue in this alley and nobody knows." Hardison said sadly. Sophie felt her stomach jump when Hardison said 16th avenue. She shuddered at the thought and snapped back to attention. "Hugo was 44 years old just any normal citizen why he was murdered is our mystery. His wife Jamie is a thief and she can't go to the police or she'll get arrested so she came to us. She knew Nate because she had been chased be him way back when. Now Eliot has some files on 3 people that could possibly work and Nate has some personal experience with her so my turn is done."
"Jamie stole probably over 100 pieces of famous art from Massachusetts alone in just the past 10 years. When you think about that it means 10 pieces a year give or take a few. She's about as good as Sophie but her style is nothing like hers. She gets in and gets out as quick as possible. I only caught her a handful of times since she was always moving. The times I did catch her I ended up being punched, stabbed, shot, mmm and I think I was poisoned once. She was a crazy bitch but she's sorta retired now so she's not as crazy. Eliot it's your turn now"
"Ok my first suspect is Mark Henderson 15 years old." A picture of a boy with buzz cut black hair appeared on the screen. It was extremely blurry but you could sort of make out his features. "His nickname is Switch Blade this is because he carries blades in his sleeves. So basically he flips the blades down from inside his sleeve and his hands and practically knives. One or two stabs and you're done. He's from New Mexico and has killed many of the residents along with illegal immigrants and some people in Mexico" The picture faded away and a picture of a blonde girl showed up. She looked like a ghost in the picture but it was taken on a crappy traffic camera at night. "Fiona Charlotte 15 years old and blonde hair. Her nickname is Monoxide."
"Like carbon monoxide?" Parker asked
"Yeah this is because she kills people and disappears into thin air. You don't know what's hit you until after you're dead. She's from North Dakota and his killed a lot of the animals and residents. She also kills up in Canada along with illegal immigrants also."
"That's our person" Nate said matter-a-factly. Sophie and Parker both rolled their eyes. She took a drink from her beer as Eliot just stared at Nate like he was crazy.
"You think she killed him?" Eliot exclaimed
"Well it fits she kills before they even know what hits them" Nate retorted
"Let me finish man! You had your turn" Eliot growled. Nate rolled his eyes and slumped back down in his seat.
"Our next suspect is one I just got report of in May. Her name is Liza Slayzer" A picture appeared on the screen of a brunette. Her hair was slightly wavy and her eyes were black. The picture looked like one from a newspaper so it was much clearer then the rest. In that split second of the picture showing up Sophie dropped her beer. Her mouth hung open in surprise, her eyes wider then humanly possible.
"Sophie what is it!" Nate asked urgently
"You know who she is don't you" Eliot said calmly. Sophie just turned to face Eliot still in extreme shock.
A/N 2: By the way Liza is pronounced like Liza Minnelli...Anyway I'm not sure if I'll continue the story so let me know what you think :)
