St. Joseph's School for Boys
Fandom – 21 Jump Street
Pairings – none, gen.
Warnings - ?
Rating – pg-13
Disclaimer – I do not own the characters of 21 JS. I am not making any money off this fiction. I'm merely playing in someone else's sandbox.
Summary – The McQuaid brothers are back; this time they're stuck in a home for run away boys do to the abusive situation at home. Meanwhile, they investigate the mystery of several boys at the home going missing. The rest of the gang helps out.
A/N – Out of all the episodes (except two where JD's character is in the spot light) I love the ones with the McQuaid brothers. I always wanted more fic with this cover. It's just so much fun to write Tom and Doug being total dicks. So, here is classic 21 Jump Street fic. And not for the last time am I glad I was born in the 80's even though I remember more of the 90's instead. ;)
ANOTHER NOTE - Sorry about reposting ch 1. I thought for sure it was chapter three. I guess I picked the wrong chapter in the options. Here is the correct chapter.
Chapter 3 – King of the Hill
000
The week passed by slowly. Tommy and Doug had made no headway in the case whatsoever. Increasingly though, Mr. Marsh had singled Tommy out for private counseling sessions. It's now Saturday and the two brother's are sequestered in an unused class room with Fuller who's cover is their Uncle from their Mother's side of the family.
"Nothing?" Fuller asked.
"Nope," Tommy shrugged, "No one's talked about it, like at all,"
"Granted the kids don't get close to anyone," Doug replied.
"They would be tight lipped," Fuller agreed.
"I want to get into Marsh's office," Tommy offered, "I'm there enough as it is that no one would question it,"
"And what do you plan on finding?" Fuller asked.
"I don't know, but right now I don't think we have a choice. What are Ioke and Judy finding out?" Tommy popped his gum. Thankfully Fuller had brought him several packs.
"Nothing, as far as we can figure from the bodies and crime scenes, the boys are unconnected except for having gone to this school. So whoever is killing them either knew someone that looked like each of the murdered boys, or has it out for this school and they're the easiest targets," Fuller replied.
"Marsh seems to be the obvious suspect," Doug put out, "but what about Sullivan? Or even Lake?"
"Why don't you investigate them while Tommy concentrates on Marsh," Fuller said. "And if none of them have connections and we can rule them out, we'll concentrate the teachers and then the students,"
They heard a door close and footsteps come down the all; Fuller grabbed Tommy by his shirt collar, he winked once and Tommy winked back twice. Doug took on his stance of protective elder brother and then Fuller began yelling.
"I can't believe the two of you and the trouble you've gotten yourselves into! Norma isn't too happy to find out that she might not get custody of you thanks to that low life bastard who calls himself your father! And you can't even help the Social Worker or the Director of this place so that you can come home!?"
The door opened and Mr. Marsh entered the classroom in a hurry after hearing the confrontation between Uncle and nephews.
"I'm…Sorry…" Tommy stuttered, playing it straight.
Mr. Marsh stood close and put his hand on Fuller's shoulder; "Sir, they're just children, you can't ask them to make adult decisions when they're this age. Now just calm down…I'm sure that this can be fixed and you'll have your nephews safe at home soon…" he said soothingly. Fuller go the heebie-jeebies from the man and now understood why Tommy was suspicious of the man in the first place.
"Don't tell me that you've handled them better, Marsh," Fuller replied keeping to the cover.
"Of course not, but I think I've made some headway with the boys. A little trust and affection can go a long way, isn't that right boys?" Mr. Marsh glanced at Doug but it lingered on Tommy.
"Er…" Doug blinked at the men.
"Right," Tommy agreed because what else was he supposed to do?
And was it him, but were they just a bit…on the quiet side of things? Usually they were making mayhem all over the school, but now…they were just a bit intimidated by Marsh and that made no sense what so ever. They were supposed to be the McQuaid brothers – they obviously sucked at this. And needed to fix it immediately.
"Well, since you think your God's gift to the world, you can keep them," Fuller huffed. He stalked off without even a "good-by" to the boys and the door banged shut behind him. Tommy felt bereft. Doug was a little disappointed and it must have showed because Mr. Marsh put an arm around Tommy's shoulders and offered one to Doug though he kept his distance.
"It's all right, I'll recommend some family counseling," Mr. Marsh said as if that'd fix everything. Tommy suddenly caught himself, their family didn't need counseling, and their family didn't exist!
"Well…" Doug sighed.
"Fuck!" Tommy glared at his shoes.
That summed it up beautifully for everyone.
0000
They took refuge in the forest when no one was looking. They hopped the low brick wall and ducked down and behind as they made their way through the thick underbrush. After a few moments they came to a huge willow tree overlooking a small pond. Tommy sat down on the emerald grass. Doug lent against the tree.
"That went a bit too well," Tom muttered, thankful that they didn't have to keep up the act any more.
"Yeah, Fuller isn't gonna like having to come back here on a regular basis for some sort of bullshit," Doug replied.
"I think it's got us in good with Marsh though,"
"You maybe, he still hates me," Doug snorted.
Tom admitted to himself that this was true. Marsh talked harshly to Doug, unless he knew that kind words would work on the younger sibling. If Tom hadn't been trained to pick up on little queues that Marsh gave out on a regular basis, he'd probably have taken the man at his word. As it was, there was far too much touching between them – though it hadn't gone south of the border yet and Tom hoped it wouldn't – and Marsh seemed pre-occupied in getting him and Tom alone in his office. Whenever he talked to Doug he left the door open, but when he talked to Tom…it was closed. And locked.
Red flags flew all over the place.
"Do you think he's just a pedophile?" Doug asked.
"I don't know, he hasn't said anything about sex in any of our conversations. It's all about what I can do with my life if I just give up drug dealing and fighting and that if I put my mind to it I could go to college and get a good job. You know, all the normal stuff people tell kids," Tom shrugged.
"And that's it? Those things last for hours," Doug complained.
"I know," Tom rolled his eyes, "I just sit there and nod whenever and say "I understand but you don't understand how hard it is to get out of a business like that…" you know, a bunch of bull shit," Tom explained with an exasperated sigh.
"Do you think we're barking up the wrong tree?" Doug asked.
"Possibly, but who else could it be?" Tom replied with a question of his own.
0000
Moonlight filtered into the large room unheeded by blinds or curtains and sleeping children. Tommy lays awake in his bed while Doug snored softly in his own. He should be getting some sleep. Every once in a while though he'd develop insomnia and it was a bitch to try and get rid of. Especially since the techniques he used at home couldn't be used here thanks to the nonexistent privacy and the fact that Tommy McQuaid didn't have insomnia.
But, Tom Hanson did and it sucked.
The clock read one in the morning. The office would be deserted at this time. They hadn't been able to sneak about and make their map of the school yet. Something always seemed to come up and distract them. Well, maybe he could take a cursory look right now. He'd be back in bed before anyone noticed, even Doug.
Tommy slowly extracted himself from the sheets and blankets. He made up the pillows and covering to look like someone was sleeping in the bed. If no one inspected it thoroughly, it'd pass and no one would be the wiser. Tommy then tip toed past all the sleeping kids. Thank fully no one made sudden movements to alert him that they were awake and he prayed they were all asleep and not pretending because that'd suck.
He decided to make his way to the large locker room with the showers to way lay any suspicions incase someone was awake and watching him. He ducked into the shadows of the hallway and quietly, in socked feet, slides down the hallway, avoiding the soft light of the night lights that are located every ten feet in the hallway. The stairs is the darkest part and he hugs the wall. He listens intently for anyone moving about or talking.
Nothing but the heated air that crawls through the old vents and does nothing to get rid of the chill that lingers all night and well into morning. Tommy finally comes to the bottom of the stairs. He makes quick work of the lock on the door to the Admissions offices with an old credit card he always keeps on his person while under his McQuaid cover. The lock rolls back and Tommy slides into more darkness and shuts the door behind him. It locks back in place and he jiggles it just to make sure. The space is empty except for the receptions desk. Tommy makes for March's office. He has come prepared, since he'd been plotting all afternoon and evening for this, and he pulls out a compact flash light to illuminate his way; and, again, the credit card gets him inside. The door locks behind him and Tommy studies the desk.
He can't move everything without putting it right back in the same spot, in the same way, because people who inhabit a space long enough know when something is out of place. Tommy wants to avoid any and all suspicion and so he takes a long, studies look at the contents. And really, who'd leave evidence lying around in the open. Only stupid criminals did that. Even if he found something illegal in the drawers it would be admissible in court but maybe Fuller could get a search warrant based on it; whatever "it" just so happened to be.
He tested the drawers, all were locked, and he didn't have his lock picks on him. He huffed and frowned. He grabbed a pen and some note paper from what Marsh had left on the desk and went through the roller deck. He wrote down each name and all the information on the cards. There were at least fifty names. Maybe one of these people could help. Tommy made sure to take a few extra pieces of the notepaper so that no one could discover what had happened.
It was one of those tricks he saw a lot in mystery tv shows; all you had to do was take a tip of a pencil and scribble it on some paper that'd been written on and you'd find out an important clue. He had tried this technique out as a child once to find out what a teacher's note to his mother was about and with that information he could come up with a pretty good excuse. Which did get him out of trouble but he was ten and wanted to go fishing with his Dad – and really it wasn't a big deal, and besides, Tommy had only been standing up for Russell who'd been badly bullied during their mid-grade school days. He never did tell her the truth about it and Tommy knew he never would. Though, he'd feel badly about it until the day he died.
Tommy secreted the notes into computer paper and then into an envelope. He put the Jump Street address on it and put "attention Capt. Fuller) on the bottom so that Blowfish knew that it had to be seen immediately. He didn't put a return address on it. He decided that while Marsh did have stamps on his desk, he'd see that one was missing. The rest of the office supplies were used all the time and he'd probably not remember how much he'd used. Tommy exited the office then after he made sure to fix anything he had messed up by messing around with the contents of the desk.
He did steal by the receptionist's desk and stole a stamp from her. And then he put the letter into the outgoing mail; which was basically a big ass box that was locked and only opened when the mailman came by to pick it up. All the contents would be put into his bad and then he'd leave. No one ever checked it. Tommy was certain that in a day or two Fuller would have some sort of lead other than Marsh. Because he might be up to something, Tommy wasn't sure what, but killing little boys sure wasn't the illegal activity Marsh liked to do.
Still, whatever Marsh was doing is still a mystery he and Doug had to solve.