Sam's surprise.
.
Chapter eleven,
.
"Oh no." When Sam realized what Michael wanted to do, he felt his blood run cold. "No, definitely not. No way."
Fiona had also worked it out. "You can't expect her to go in there!" Fiona joined in, her face flushed with anger.
"Just listen, please. Both of you." Michael held up his hands. "We can make sure she's safe, we'll be able to hear everything they say and if it sounds like she's getting into trouble we can go straight in and get her out."
Sam paced back and forth, staring at Michael with a mixture of anger and disbelieve. "So the choice you're giving me is kill the man in cold blood or send my daughter into the Lords clubhouse? Which I'd like to remind you I've been listening to the bugs Fi planted in there."
Michael took a deep breath, he had known both Sam and Fiona would be against sending Marti inside the clubhouse. But he thought she had lived with Darryl for four years, and probably knew most of the other club members. Regardless of what Fiona and Sam might think, there was nobody more qualified to convince them Darryl was up to no good.
"If we go with the orginal plan, we're going to have to move fast. By tonight Darryl's friends are going to be out looking for him. We don't have the time to plant evidence. What we do have, is somebody they will listen to. They might not like what she tells them, but she'll have all the proof we can get together. All she has to say is that she left him because she was scared when she found out he was a snitch. As long as she holds her nerve, Darryl will be forced to go on the run."
"She's not one of your assets, Michael! What if they don't believe her? Or decide to take some of their revenge out on her because they can't get hold of him?" Fiona demanded, delivering a hard punch to Michael's arm. "Have you thought about that?"
Then she turned her attention to Sam. "Sam it's too dangerous." Pulling her hand gun out of her bag, she stepped towards the cage. "I'll shoot him now, it'll be over and done with."
Sam caught hold of her arm, he didn't look happy about either of the choices. "Fi, stop. I'll go talk to Marti, see what she wants to do." He decided.
Michael nodded his agreement, wanting to get things moving. "Ok then. Sam, you go and talk to Marti. We'll wait here and keep an eye on our guest." He handed over the charger's keys. "I'll get on to Barry and ask him to sort us out a phony bank account using government codes so we're ready to go if she agrees. We'll also need a couple of DEA agents cards with fake phone numbers. Can you get hold of some?"
"I'll get on it." Sam snapped, as with a frown creasing his brow and a troubled expression on his face he dropped into Michael's car. He left the cement plant, taking his time. Marti barely trusted him as it was, and he was about to ask her to walk into the lion's den.
...
Michael watched Sam drive off, still rubbing his arm from Fiona's punch. "I can't believe you want Marti to walk into that place on her own." Fiona continued to let Michael know exactly how she felt.
"Fi, I explained she's the only one who can.." He caught hold of her fist in the palm of his hand expecting the second blow. "While Sam is talking to Marti, we're going to make sure we have all the necessary intel."
She stopped struggling, cautiously he let go of her hand and took a step backwards, before continuing. "How do you feel about helping me with a little interrogation?"
A smile lit up her face, and before he could stop her she was back in his personal space and reaching up to plant a light kiss on his lips. "You say the sweetest things sometimes." She pulled him towards the cage. "Where do we start?"
...
Pulling up onto Madeline's driveway Sam got out of the charger and followed the sounds of childish squeals coming from the back yard. Marti was sat on the grass, holding a small plastic container in one hand while the other held a thin plastic wand with a circular hole through which she was blowing bubbles for Brady to chase and pop.
Nearby Madeline was sat on a deckchair, with what looked like a cocktail in one hand and a cigarette in the other. Beside her sat one of her neighbours, Sam thought the grey haired woman in a floral print dress was called Dolores. He winced slightly at the loud cackles coming from the two older women's mouths as one of them said something obviously incredibly funny.
"Hey Sam." Madeline beamed, her eyes a little unfocussed. "You should try this drink Marti made for us."
"Hey Maddy, I might well do that." He replied barely glancing at Michael's mother, his attention fixed on his daughter who was still sitting on the ground. "Marti can I have a word. Maddy you don't mind watching Brady for a bit do you?"
"Not a problem Sam, just bring another of these out when you come." She waved her half empty glass at him.
Marti got to her feet, and handed the cannister of bubble mix to Madeline. "I'm just going inside sweetie, you play with auntie Maddy." She told Brady as he started to follow her.
In the kitchen, she got out a couple of tall glasses. "You want one of these?" She asked, she could sense something was wrong.
"What's in it?" Sam couldn't help but ask.
"Mostly red wine, with a bit of brandy, vodka and orange juice. It's something I made up from what there was in the drinks cabinet." She was pouring herself a glass of juice as she spoke.
"No it's fine." He huffed not wanting this conversation. "Er, the thing is. Well it's like.."
"For christ sake Sam spit it out." She raised her voice a little. She had picked up on his nervousness straight away, wondering what he had to say that was so bad he was getting into such a state over it.
"Ok." He took a deep breath. "Darryl came after Mike. No, it's ok. Mike's fine." He quickly reassured her. "We have Darryl safely locked up outside town." He watched as she added a large measure of vodka to her juice, her hand shaking a little bit.
"You've locked him up?" She gasped, these people continued to surprise her.
"Yeah, just while we decide what to do with him. Mike has a couple ideas, I wanted to find out what you wanted to do."
"O-kay." She muttered, a little unsettled that they had Darryl locked up somewhere.
"Mike has a plan to set Darryl up to look like a DEA confidential informer. We would forge official looking papers, and make it look like Darryl had placed listening devices throughout the the club. In short he would have to run and keep running. You would be safe."
She shook her head already seeing a problem with this scheme. "They would hold me equally responsible, especially if they couldn't get to him. And they would use Brady to try and make him come back."
This was the hard part, he took a deep breath. "Not if you're the one to hand the club the proof that Darryl has snitched on them."
"You want me to go into the clubhouse and lie to them?"
"We'd be outside listening to every word, at the first sign of a problem we'd come in and get you." He hated pushing this plan on her, it was meant to be his job to keep her safe.
"I thought, when you said you'd help me. You would, you know, scare him off?"
"With the club backing him. He'll be hard to scare off, especially now." Sam gently explained.
She knocked back the rest of the drink and stared at him as if he had gone mad. "You said this wasn't the only plan?"
"We can kill him." He spoke bluntly, watching the colour drain from her face. "He would be gone. But the club would probably investigate. I don't know how safe you'd be, but if they're about to be dragged into a turf war they would probably forget about you pretty quickly once that started."
Marti poured herself another vodka and orange juice, taking another long drink. She had often thought about smothering Darryl in his sleep, but that was always after a heated alchohol fuelled argument. What Sam was talking about was totally different. He was after all Brady's father. It would be cold blooded murder. "No." She shook her head. "Definitely not."
She turned away, her hands gripping the sink she lent forward staring out the window at Brady playing. She licked her lips, and then wiped a hand over her eyes. "What if I runaway?" She said. It had been her orginal plan.
"Is that what you want?" He asked, he had said he would back whatever she chose to do. But he really didn't want her to go the run. "Where would you go?"
She shook her head, last time he had found her within a week and then spent the rest of his time making her life a misery until she gave in. This time would be different, this time he thought she had cheated on him. She was fairly certain he would chase her down and kill her.
"Can I change the first plan a bit?" She asked.
"How exactly?" Sam relaxed slightly, she wasn't going to runaway.
He listened to her suggestion, he was a little skeptical. But she knew Darryl's friends better than he did. "I don't see why not." He agreed. "Let me call Mike and tell him you'll do it with a couple of changes."
She stood staring out of the window, taking gulps of her vodka and orange. She rarely drank alcohol having seen what it had done to her mother. But she really thought the ocassion called for it. She looked round as Sam came back over.
"Give us a couple of hours to sort things out then you can set up your meeting." He told her with a gentle smile.
She nodded, worry etched across her face. "Are you staying a while?"
"No I've got to go and forge some government documents."
"Ok." She spoke in a soft quiet tone, ducking her head slightly. He felt a little thrill when he realized she was disappointed that he was leaving.
"You're being very brave." He told her. He wanted to give her a fatherly hug, but refrained, not sure how she'd take it.
She watched him walk back out though the garden giving Brady a hug and ruffling his hair before saying goodbye to Madeline and her friend. Afterwards, taking a deep breath and then letting it out slowly she made up Madeline and Dolores drinks. Returning outside, Marti sat down on the grass and pulled Brady on to her lap for a long cuddle.
As tipsy as she was Madeline picked up instantly on the change of mood and knew something had happened. It took her a matter of ten minutes to get rid of Dolores and then she turned her attention to Marti.
"Sam give you some bad news honey?" She started her gentle interrogation.