Chapter Nine: Homme Fatale

Skipper and Private grimly returned to the office. The drive had been silent and uncomfortable; at first, Private was full of words, wanting his own questions to be answered, but he eventually understood that Skipper was not in a talking mood. Not after discovering that Julien of all people was behind an assassination. The first person he'd liked in eleven years, and of course, they had to be a criminal. It was just his luck. Love was an awful thing.

Though he wouldn't say it in front of Kowalski, he really had began to develop feelings for Julien. Of course it was in part due to Julien's effortlessly sexy appearance, but it also pertained to the simple way he carried himself, the way he spoke, the way he treated Skipper like he was worth something all over again. A way to ease the pain of what had happened so long ago, someone to help him forget about all his past wrongdoings, someone to make him feel like it was less his fault that Hans was dead. Someone who thought he was good enough, a person he could hold and even kiss and not feel like he might lose them in an instant.

Skipper was still seething over the fact that it must've all been an act. Julien had probably been using him for his own personal gain, to twist him so that it was convenient for his case. And Skipper had fallen for it, hook line and sinker. He wanted to slap himself across the face - he knew that Nigel would've, had his superior been there.

When they pulled into their usual parking space, they found none other than Rico waiting outside, smoking a cigarette. He had been staring dazedly at the sidewalk, with perhaps even less comprehension than usual. Their brother perked up upon seeing them, but it didn't look like he had good news, either. He crushed his cigarette under his boot and quickly helped Private out of the car, even though Private didn't need any help, before wildly gesturing to them that they needed to come up right away.

In lieu of words, he released a series of animated grunts, something that told them they needed Kowalski to explain whatever was going on. Private and Skipper glanced to each other in anticipation as they climbed the stairs. It generally wasn't a good thing when Rico was so flabberghasted or overwhelmed that he couldn't form even the simplest of words (his speech issues already made it hard enough). More bad news? Skipper wasn't entirely sure he wanted to hear, not after the staggering finding that Julien had basically used them.

Kowalski was sitting at the dining room table, stirring cream into a cup of coffee when his three remaining brothers entered. He stood immediately, wide eyed, before he seemed to calm himself, and cleared his throat. Skipper and Rico took a seat at the table while Private quietly gave himself the task of preparing coffee for all of them (or, in his case, tea). They nodded to each other in greeting, but it was evident that there were important things to address.

Looking away, Kowalski began to speak. "Uh, Skipper… Well, I found something while you were out, and-"

"Hacking into the police files again?" Skipper admonished him with a grim tone.

Kowalski openly cringed, before he sighed and nodded. "I know I said I wouldn't, but… I just needed to find out something."

Skipper returned the sigh. "...That's all right, Private and I didn't exactly follow the law either, and we found something pretty… Bad. You first, though. What did you find?"

Kowalski sent him a wary expression, before glancing to Rico and then back. "Well… You're not going to like it, but I found out that the gun Parker used to kill Clemson… Was registered under Julien's name."

Private returned with coffee and Skipper took a long sip of his, which he enjoyed entirely black, in contrast to his teammates who liked theirs with lots of sugary additives. Kowalski waited patiently for his response, but when it came, it wasn't at all what he expected.

"...Julien's gun, huh?" Skipper muttered, licking his lips. "Makes sense, since he's the one who hired Parker to kill Clemson."

"What!" Kowalski shouted, in unison with one of Rico's more alarmed squawks.

Mirthlessly, Skipper set down his cup of joe and slid several printed sheets of papers across the table. "We went to Parker's house and checked it out… He was dumb enough to leave his email open, and there's a whole conversation about Julien hiring him to take out Clemson Gidro."

Kowalski's eyes seemed to widen the more he read of the printed emails, Rico poking over his shoulder to do the same. They both looked up in abject horror when they reached the end, and Rico settled back into his seat with a defeated slump. Skipper hadn't embellished any of it, it was all right there, plain as day. Julien had blatantly hired Parker to kill Clemson, with the same email he'd used to hire the Penguin Eyes to investigate Clemson's murder.

"What on earth is going on here?" Kowalski mumbled, astonished as he stared into space for a moment.

"I'll tell you what's going on," Skipper snapped. "You set me up with someone who employs contract killers!"

"Okay, okay!" Kowalski retorted, clearly annoyed. "I get it, but how was I supposed to know that the one person I'd set you up with was also the guilty criminal behind our case? Gods sake, Skipper, I was only trying to help. You haven't wanted to be with anyone since-"

"He's already involved in organized crime. Shouldn't that be enough to tell you he might not make the best lover?" Skipper glared harshly, knowing that Kowalski was about to bring up Hans again.

"Well," Kowalski huffed. "I'm not the one who fell for him."

"I didn't fall for him, Kowalski." Skipper countered. "I-"

"Guys, guys!" Private chimed in, his tone pleading. "Come now, do we have to argue at a time like this? We really must be focusing on the case!"

Skipper sighed, deciding for just then to let it slide. Kowalski nodded in a nonverbal truce. Rico didn't seem to have noticed any of the turmoil, instead focusing on drinking his coffee while rereading the emails between Parker and Julien. Pleased, Private took a sip of his tea before deciding to speak up again.

"There we go. Now, I suppose we can't just go to Julien and tell him we found him out." He commented. "He'd probably try to have us killed, too."

"You're right." Kowalski replied. "I think all he wanted was for us to find out that Parker was an assassin for hire, or at least for us to get something incriminating about him - you know, aside from having shot a man. He didn't want us to know that he was the employer."

"It doesn't really add up, though. Why would Julien hire us to investigate the case, if he's really the one behind it all?" Private wondered aloud, stirring his tea.

"He probably thought that Parker would talk and wanted him to be sent to prison," Kowalski surmised critically. "Didn't want to give him the chance to come clean… Not sure why he would, if Julien paid him like he should've. Maybe that's part of it too; Julien didn't want to pay Parker. Guess that means he probably wouldn't have wanted to pay us either…"

"Well that's just fancy." Private pouted. "No wonder he was offering so much! He wasn't going to pay us a penny!"

"Whutta jag," Rico barked out crossly, before cursing a few more choice words under his breath.

Kowalski nodded, aggravated. "Yes, and there's the chance that after having Parker arrested, he would have found some way to push us out of the picture too, so that he wouldn't have to pay any of us... I'm guessing Parker caught onto what Julien was doing, which is why he disappeared like he did."

Skipper groaned, feeling a migraine coming on. Julien was an awful person all this time! It made sense, but it also didn't, and he suffered in momentary confusion. His gut grumbled at him, telling him that they were wrong in accusing Julien of being behind this (or, by that point, factually stating that he was). He simply didn't want to believe that Julien was capable of something like that, and in addition, his gut (which was never wrong) told him it wasn't so. It was strange, on top of it all, that everything had worked so evenly, had been all there for them to just find. As though someone had left all of this there, intentionally, for them to discover.

Had Parker been truly stupid enough to leave his emails open like that, ready for them to find so that they could incriminate Julien? Why was his door wide open, when it was supposed to be sealed off by police? In addition, why did the police act so strangely about the case from the beginning? Was Julien in cahoots with them as well, or were they really just that pleased about Clemson being off the charts? And why would Julien want to kill Clemson anyway?

Rico poked him, willing him to speak up, and Skipper exhaled in displeasure.

"...All the evidence points to Julien, but somehow I don't feel like… It's really him." Skipper admit, staring into his cup. "Why would Julien want to kill Clemson anyway?"

"Probably because Clemson was abusive. There was this very nice lady we met who told us all about it." Private explained, sadly. "He hit Julien, even! I can't imagine being very happy in that sort of relationship."

"Also, Clemson did leave Julien in his will. Now that Clemson's gone, it means Julien inherits all of Park Zoo. I'm sure there's a lot of money in that business - not just the shows and food, but also the prostitution and drug smuggling." Kowalski added for good measure.

Skipper's gut disagreed, and his lips pulled into an even thinner frown. "I don't know…"

Kowalski and Rico exchanged an almost amused glance. Private giggled under his breath. Annoyed, Skipper shot them all a heavy scowl.

"What?" He growled.

"It's just that…" Private's voice faded into more chortles.

"Private thinks it's funny that you don't want to believe Julien is responsible, since you like him so much." Kowalski completed the sentiment for him, both exasperated and mildly delighted.

"That's not why." Skipper denied. "My gut-"

"Skipper, we've been over the logical fallacies present in believing one's gut." Kowalski grinned.

"Yes, and we've also been over the fact that science isn't always right." Skipper snarled. "Remember Manfredi and Johnson, with the Batrachotoxin incident?"

Kowalski shrunk back. "Well… That doesn't change the fact that you still have feelings for Julien. Are you going to be able to handle the fact that he's, you know, guilty?"

Skipper rested his cup to his forehead, before nodding. "...If it'll make you shut up about my love life, fine. We'll have to report him."

Kowalski absolutely smirked, before he sighed and took a long gulp from his coffee. "...Well, at least the police won't mind knowing that they can probably take out Park Zoo altogether. Julien holds ownership as of right now, so if he's arrested, the whole place goes down. That means less crime in that area…"

"They aren't going to believe us though," Private added unhappily. "Blowhole hates us, remember?"

"Looks like we're going to have to make an anonymous call again." Kowalski groaned unhappily. "You know how less credible that is?"

"I think we have plenty of evidence to convince them." Skipper muttered into his cup.

Just then, there was a loud thud, startling the four brothers. It was the sound of someone breaking into their office/house, and then, the pounding of footsteps up the stairs. Following the noises, their door was busted open, revealing none other than Maurice Hira.