Chapter 14

"You do realize what idiots you made out of yourselves?" they were all in the living the room; the Mercer brothers sitting on the couch looking at her meekly and she was standing like a prison guard.

"You're extremely lucky he's not gonna sue your asses off" she was so mad and ashamed of them.

"Stripping him in front of his house and SLAPPING HIM?! Don't you even think about going anywhere" she pointed at Angel, who immediately sat down apologetically.

"And I don't even want to think about breaking his back window. What did you think you were doing? He's a lawyer for Christ's sake! He can have you put into jail for the rest of our lives!"

"He said it's OK about the window and that he understands" Jack was trying to console her.

"Besides, how were we supposed to know that mum was dating someone?"Bobby asked "He said he still has some of her night things"

"Uh uh, too much information man" Jack stretched "But he also said that mom had been upset with Jerry's business situation. And that the police report covers it"

"What police report? But this Green cop said that they weren't going to talk to the lawyer because he wasn't on their list" she was surprised to hear they would bother to talk to him outside their jurisdiction.

"Exactly" Bobby was smirking as if he has just discovered something.

***

She heard Jack taking the shower and she was guessing Bobby was brushing his teeth when Angel opened the bathroom door.

"Hey, Bobby. I gotta ask you a question" she could hear him clearly as he door was wide open as well.

"What's up?" Bobby gurgled.

"You know me and Sofi did a lot of making up last night, I finally gave her that ring. But it seem like l got a little rust on the tools down here"

Liz squinted, How gross can you get?, she thought and got up to go downstairs.

"Ask the cockologist in the shower, man, he's the expert" she heard Bobby and she couldn't stop herself so she stood in the doorway and made sure that Jack heard her from behind the curtain.

"Yeah, an expert in how-not-to-use-it" whereupon she quickly turned around and left before any of them could say anything.

"Man, you need to do something about this" Angel said after a moment of silence.

"Yeah" they could hear Jack from behind the curtain "Like what?"

"I don't know, you're the expert" Bobby said mockingly and grinned at his brother.

"Oh Bobby, by the way, you remember what I told you about Jerry and his redevelopment project? I think that's something we should look into. l need y'all to go down and visit this city official named Douglas, he'll know who Jerry got mixed up with"

"Wait a minute" Bobby didn't want to let go "Why don't you tell me what you know, Angel?"

"Because this is gonna require a little finesse and we all know your prior reputation as a hothead"

"Finesse?!" Bobby was getting a little bit louder "I wrote the fucking book on finesse! I'm coming with you, Angel!"

But it was too late and Liz heard the front door closing.

"Angel!"

***

"So did you get anything?" Liz asked Bobby when he and Jack came back home the next afternoon.

"Yeah, we got a name" Bobby went straight to his bedroom and something was telling her he was about to get a gun.

"So how did you get it?" she asked Jack suspiciously "Did you have to beat somebody down?" she didn't like their means of communication even though she knew they were effective.

"We can be polite when we want, you know" Jack came closer to her and looked at her lustfully. She was only hoping she would not succumb when he started to play with a lock of her hair.

"Really, that's hard to believe"

Jack's face was lingering a few inches from hers and she could smell his aftershave that she always loved so much.

"You need to know that we are highly persuasive. And the guy is gonna smell gasoline for a long time now" he smiled at the thought.

"So what's the name?" she was almost whispering now that he was standing so close to her.

"Victor" Bobby appeared in the doorway with a gun in his hand "Victor Sweet"

***

"I followed Jerry, he got all the insurance money today" Angel told her when they were alone in the kitchen and she just started preparing dinner "And I got an interesting phone call today, somebody that works with Green and Fowler on this case"

"Fowler?" she tried to remember his face "Isn't that the asshole that came here and was all scary and badass intimidating?"

"Yeah. Apparently Green wanted to see all about that non-existent report of the lawyer so they watched the CCTV tapes form the police station. And it shows mom with Fowler talking by the desk, even though he never said anything about talking to her. He spent more than an hour with her…"

"… and nobody knew about it" Liz finished for him.

Wow, she thought. This case was getting ugly.

***

They were all sitting in the pub, Liz squished in between Jack and Angel.

It was actually funny when a couple of guys eyed her hungrily and wanted to buy her a drink but immediately backed out when saw the look on Jack's face.

He was sitting now on her left facing her and his two brothers and she was waiting when he would finally put his hand around her just as liked to.

"So what's going on, Angel?" Bobby just ordered his second beer and they all seemed to relax a little bit.

"Was the councilman helpful?" Angel asked and took a sip out of his bottle.

"Oh yeah, a real public servant. You remember a punk named Victor Sweet?"

"I remember a Malcolm Sweet"

Liz looked around and saw a couple of blondes staring at Jack and giggling in the corner so she demonstratively put her hand on top of his. The girls had a nasty look on their faces and Jack looked at her with one eyebrow raised (she never knew how he could do it) and gently squeezed her hand so that she could not withdraw it.

Not that she wanted to.

"Victor was his nephew" Bobby continued without looking at them "Used to deliver things for his uncle, like firebombs and beatings. You remember, Malcolm used to love to humiliate him all the time"

Angel nodded as he remembered it all too well.

"Apparently Victor got sick of ass-whuppings and sunk his uncle into the river. He owns the whole neighborhood now"

"Hey, Bobby" Angel was blankly staring at something in front on him "Word around town is that Jerry owed a lot of people some money. Recognize that dude over there?" he pointed at a guy sitting at one of the tables across the dance floor "That's Evander Pearson, Jerry used to hang out with him during the union days" Angel took another sip "He goes by Evan now. And he's working for a guy named Victor" he looked at them meaningfully "

"So why are we here, Angel?" Jack asked curiously when suddenly his face went blank and Liz looked at where he was looking.

And lost her breath.

It was Jerry standing by Evan's table. And giving a big fat envelope to him.

"Oh, shit" she heard Bobby saying when he got up to get a better look at the scene.

"I found out Jerry got a big insurance check for mom's death" Angel added.

"Forget Jerry, we're gonna find him later. Come on" Bobby said and they all followed him.