Moments later he stood up, saw the same car that had passed by with sparks coming out of the tailpipe, and realized it was just backfire. He breathed a sigh of relief. After he got home he called Angie, who was Rick's second chair, but got her voicemail. He rolled his eyes in frustration and left a message her to call him back on his cell phone.

"Who is Rick?" Mary asked.

"Rick Bautista is a prosecutor for the DA's office and has a second chair like I do. He is prosecuting a case where the witness who is here in Chicago and doesn't want to testify."

"Oh."

"I had an interesting incident when leaving the witness' house, Mom."

"You did?" Mary answered with in interest while Jack sat down and grabbed her lamp.

"Yeah, I ducked when I heard gunshots but when I saw the same car passing me, the same shots continued," Jack told her smilingly.

"What was it Jack?"

"Backfire," he laughed as he began to fix her lamp when his cell phone rang.

While Jack picked up the call, Mary went to get the door since the doorbell; three men asked for Jack. As she led them in, they listened in on his conversation.

"Angie, how strong is your case without Tony if you don't use him?" Jack asked.

"My case is strong without him but I've already submitted my witness list to the defense and they have submitted one to me for their witnesses. What if I took him off?"

"You could but you will have to talk to Rick first. Let him know that I warned Tony about not testifying and it could lead to a successful appeal. He seemed to back off and say okay, I just had a feeling he was hiding something and I'm not sure what. After I get off the phone I'll call a friend of mine I still talk to from high school, and see if he can help me since he is a detective for the Chicago Police department. So I'll talk to you later and if I find out anything I'll call you, bye."

After Jack hung up, he turned to see three men standing with Mary.

"Jack—"

"Wait!! Don't tell me, which one of you is a lawyer?" Jack asked while he took a guess.

"Jack, don't be rude by interrupting," Mary admonished her son as the men giggled; Jack smiled as she went to the living room to watch TV.

"I'm Tony's lawyer," the medium built African American man with a light mustache said.

"I'm Detective Lynch, and this is Detective Brees."

"I apologize for interrupting you and I had a feeling your client was hiding something but I wish he had told me that he had a lawyer. How did you find me?" Jack said then asked.

"You see, Tony is under investigation by the local D.A. and his lawyer called us since he wasn't happy about your visit but we realized that it wasn't the Chicago D.A. who paid him a visit. After we asked Tony what was on the subpoena, we called the New York D.A.'s office to speak with the assignment desk, who informed us who paid the visit and that he was staying with his mother," Detective Brees explained.

Jack rubbed his brow, walked over to a drawer that held a pad and a pen then wrote down Rick and Angie's phone numbers, so the lawyer could call them.

"Here. As you know counselor, the D.A. and lawyer for the defendant can compel your client to testify."

"I know. Thanks," the lawyer said.

Jack walked them to the door and the men left.

"Jack, what was the visit about?" Mary asked while Jack sat on the chair next to the couch.

"Apparently, the witness I spoke to who was refusing to testify in the New York case has been in trouble here and didn't tell me he had a lawyer."

"That's not good," she said.

"Nope. I'm gonna finish fixing your lamp."

"Okay Jack," she replied as he got up to go into the kitchen.

Twenty minutes later he got the lamp fixed then went to watch TV with his mom then awhile later Mary got up to do the dishes when he heard a clunk in the basement. He went to the basement as the clunking got louder and noticed the water heater was acting funny. He realized that the water heater was broken since the water was leaking from the heater to the ground which prompted him to shut it off.

"Mom, do you have the number for the water heater company? You need a new one."

"Yeah, I know," she sighed then went to the kitchen to get a card out of the small file sorter that held numbers for things that would need to be fixed.

"Yeah," she responded.

While they waited for the company to come, he walked around the house, a bit surprised that some work needed to be done that hadn't been done in years. He was more surprised how bad the back yard needed to be cleaned up, wondering why his brother didn't come to do the yard. Jack didn't feel afraid of being home since his father was dead but can still vividly remember his big hands.

An hour later the technician came out and replaced the heater then Jack paid for it even though Mary told him not to.

"Mom, it's okay," he told her.

"It's my house," Mary told her son sternly. He just smiled at her.

A while later Jack went outside to do yard work since it was messy with leaves and weeds while Mary talked to her friend on the phone. She told her friend as she watched Jack through the window, she was happy he was home but was sad that he had to do the work that she couldn't. After he got the yard cleaned up, he went to Home Depot to buy new gutters, putting it in the garage for another day since it started to get dark.

Jack sat at the table, putting the watchband together that needed to be replaced and it took him a while to get it in.

"There, gosh that was hard," he said as he blew a breath.

"Did you finally fix it?" Mary asked her son when she shouted.

"I didn't fix it Mom, it just needed new band and it's okay now."

"Thank you," she said.

"You're welcome."

A few minutes later Jack started to read the manual about the blinds he was going to put up the next day but thought he could do it. The doorbell rang, Mary went to get the door; moments later after he heard his mom say hi and out of curiosity, he turned around in his chair to see who was at the door.