CHAPTER 12
That afternoon, Finn and Quinn pulled up at a parking garage and watched as five Hispanic men worked on one of the cars.
"I'm not sure if any of them are Paco." Quinn remarked. Finn shrugged.
"We can just go ask. They seem like the friendly sort."
Quinn sighed and turned to him.
"Finn, let's use this as a learning opportunity. Okay, I covered for you with Kurt with the weed but my generosity goes only so far. Let's be the smart ones."
"You know what, Q? I couldn't agree more." He said. He looked at Quinn for a moment before turning and walking towards the garage. "PACO!" He shouted. Quinn groaned and ran after him.
"Not smart, Finn! Not smart!"
Finn approached the men.
"Whassup? You know me?" One of the men, presumably Paco, said. Finn shook his head.
"I mean, I know of you. You're Paco, right? Sagittarius, like playing shock the monkey and chopping off people's heads. Finn and Quinn. Nice to meet you."
Paco raised an eyebrow.
"There's just two of you?" He asked, confused.
"No, we got backup coming." Quinn snapped.
"Yup, just the two of us. Me and my partner. Drove here together and everything." Finn continued, ignoring Quinn. She glared at him. The men started to circle the two detectives and Finn raised his hands. "Guys, let's just…"
Finn didn't finish his sentence. He grabbed a nearby wrench and threw it at one of the men. Finn fought off the four men as Paco bolted.
"I got him!" Quinn shouted, taking off after him. After Finn finished beating up the four guys, he hurried after Paco and Quinn, who were now in the junkyard and were in a maze of cars. Quinn tiptoed through the maze and as she turned a corner, she felt her gun get knocked out of her hands by a boot. Unarmed, Quinn then heard the unmistakable sound of a cattle prod firing up. She retreated slightly.
"Hey, easy dude. Don't do something you'll regret." She murmured. Suddenly, like Spiderman, Finn leapt off of a pile of cars and tackled Paco to the ground. In the process, Paco stabbed Finn with the lit cattle prod but Finn just laughed maniacally. Quinn quickly regained her bearings, grabbed a spare part from one of the cars and battered Paco in the head with it, knocking him out. Finn groaned in pain as he slowly stood up. He grinned at her.
"Told you I had your back, Quinn."
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Finn walked into the interrogation room that afternoon to find Puck already standing in the corner of the room, staring at a restrained Paco.
"You know what the best thing about being cattle prodded is?" Finn asked Paco. "I mean aside from gaining a new appreciation for the struggles of cattle everywhere? It leaves a distinctive burn. Unique, like a fingerprint."
Finn rolled up his shirt to show an inflamed cattle prod scar on his stomach.
"Now, that's a perfect match to the burns on my two decapitated corpses."
"You just hit the jackpot!" Puck exclaimed to Paco. "A double life sentence in San Quentin."
Paco glared at Puck.
"Estás muerto hoy." Paco growled at him, meaning 'you're dead today.' Finn chuckled.
"Paco, come on, now. Is that any way to talk to an industry colleague?" Finn asked. "Look, there's no shame in being in a starter gang. I was in one in middle school. It was awesome… we had little bells on our bikes and everything."
"Better ink I bet." Puck remarked, pointing to the tattoo on Paco's neck. "RIP Chuy? Didn't know you were a Star Wars nerd. Don't look like the Force is with you now, bro."
Paco then went off on a rant in rapidfire Spanish that he assumed Finn wouldn't understand. Once he was done, Finn leaned in and looked at him.
"Muchas gracias mi amigo."
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"Look, the cartels used to make billions off of marijuana." Quinn explained to Kurt. Since the pot shops opened, they've been losing a fortune. They got to wet their beaks somehow. My guess is, some of that money was theirs."
Kurt nodded.
"So they send in a sociopath with a penchant of machetes and cattle prods. So much for legalisation lowering the crime rate. Is Paco talking?"
Just then, Finn strutted into the room.
"All right! Paco's talking!" He exclaimed. Kurt looked at Quinn and raised an eyebrow.
"Did you guys plan that?"
"Finn? Plan?" Quinn laughed. "That's funny."
Finn rolled his eyes.
"All right. In the middle of his charmingly psychopathic rant about how he was going to order a hit on Puck and yours truly, he mentioned there's still 17 million dollars on the street. Looks like that truck is still out there. Saddle up, dude, we've got work to do." Finn told Quinn. Kurt raised a hand.
"Woah! First, Finn, go see the City Attorney. He left you six messages."
Quinn furrowed her eyebrows in confusion.
"Why does he want to talk to Finn?" She asked. Kurt shrugged.
"Wild guess, the astronomical rise in lawsuits filed against our fair city since Finn joined the force."
Quinn looked at him.
"Hey, look. If you're gonna get reamed out, the least I can do is come with you. I mean, you took a cattle prod for me today."
"Enjoy your Girls night. I got this." Finn said. "If I can handle Paco, I can handle Hiram Berry."
"That's Mr. City Attorney to you!" Kurt stated. Finn rolled his eyes.
"You got it!"
Once Finn was gone, Kurt turned back to Finn.
"He took a cattle prod for you?" He asked, amazed. Quinn nodded and Kurt whistled. "I wouldn't have done that for you."
"No, you wouldn't have."
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"You know, you didn't have to call my boss." Finn remarked. Hiram shrugged.
"It got you here." He replied.
"You can't keep avoiding me." He said. "And not because I'm your boss's boss. Because we're family, Finn."
That's right. The City Attorney and Finn had a much deeper relationship than anyone realised: Hiram Berry's late daughter was actually Rachel Berry, Finn's ex-wife. Hiram was his father-in-law! Hiram poured two glasses of scotch and handed one to Finn.
"I know." Finn replied. "Thank you." He said, taking the drink and clinking their glasses together.
"Leroy misses you." Hiram stated. "He wants you to come for Sunday dinner."
Finn sighed.
"I appreciate that. Um… This Sunday's just not a great day for me unfortunately though. You know."
"From what I see, it doesn't look like any of your days are good ones. Leroy's making Rachel's favourite."
"Fettuccine Alfredo." Finn remarked, taking a sip of his drink. Hiram nodded. He finished his drink and stood up. "Thank you. Look, I got to run. I… uh… got paperwork and stuff to catch up on."
"Finn. She wouldn't want you to be alone." Hiram said, gently. Finn looked up and faced him.
"Wasn't my first choice either, Hiram. Thank Leroy for the invite, would you?
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"Hey, hey, hey!" Quinn exclaimed, walking up to Santana. Back in their youth, they both were cheerleaders and therefore party girls but now, they were having their first girls night in over 4 month. Santana smiled at her friend.
"Hey, Q!"
The two of them drove to a restaurant. It wasn't a booming loud club, but it wasn't a dead restaurant either: a perfect one for the two of them. After grabbing their drinks from the bar, Quinn and Santana sat in a booth to avoid being hit on and they just caught up. Santana spent 15 minutes telling Quinn about a girl she had recently started talking to. Santana was openly gay and had been since high school and her proudness about who she was was one of the things Quinn loved about her. Soon, the conversation flipped around.
"So, Quinn, any guys in your life?" Santana asked. Quinn shook her head.
"Um… nah, not really." Quinn replied. Santana raised an eyebrow.
"Really? Not even that cute partner of yours? Finn?"
Quinn laughed.
"There's not enough money in the world." She replied. Santana raised an eyebrow.
"Why not? He's funny. He's smart. And word on the grapevine is that he took a bullet for you."
Quinn looked down.
"Actually, it's two bullets and a cattle prod but that's not the point. He lost his wife and his child less than a year ago. I can't even imagine what he's going through right now. If I lost Alex tomorrow, I would probably kill myself and to add the death of a spouse as well… I don't know how he gets up every morning. The most I can do is just be there for him."
Santana nodded.
"Yeah, I get it. But just don't let playing mom to everyone prevent you from finding your own loved one."
Suddenly, Quinn's phone buzzed. When she looked at it, her eyes widened.
"Oh, that's Sue." She said. "She just texted me 9-9-9. She wouldn't use that code unless there was something seriously wrong."
Santana nodded.
"Go. Go head, Quinn. We have other nights."
Quinn stood up.
"Cool. So we'll do this tomorrow? I'll tell the waiter we're leaving?"
"Oh no! YOU'RE leaving. I have a bottle of wine… and a babysitter."
"I respect that." Quinn laughed, before hugging her and hurrying out the restaurant. Quinn sped over to Sue's house and knocked on the door.
"Who is it?" Sue shouted.
"Quinn!" She shouted back. The door clicked open shortly after and Sue invited her in.
"Thanks for coming." Sue said. Quinn nodded.
"You sent up the bat signal so I'm here. What's up?"
"We need to talk." Sue said. Quinn raised an eyebrow.
"Sue… talk? I just skipped out on Girls night with Santana. Maybe we can get together tomorrow, have a beer, talk."
"Tomorrow's too late. Come here." Sue murmured, leading Quinn through the house and into the garage. There, in the garage, was the armoured truck that went missing, with presumably the 17 million side. Quinn sighed and turned back to Sue.
"Let's talk…"
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Finn walked into the precinct breakroom and inserted a few coins into the machine. A bag of cheese puffs fell out of the machine and Finn picked them up.
"Nice dinner." Someone behind him remarked. Finn turned to see Dr. Pillsbury sitting at the break room table, eating a gigantic sandwich. Finn shrugged.
"Yeah. Yours looks better." Finn commented.
"Mm. Doesn't it?" She remarked. A weird expression was on Finn's face and Dr. Pillsbury raised an eyebrow. "What?" She asked.
"Just it's a mighty big sandwich for such a tiny lady."
"I have the metabolism of a hummingbird. Want half?"
"No thanks." Finn replied.
"Okay. Keep that offer between us. People will think I'm going soft and I have a reputation to protect."
Finn's eyes widened when a plan clicked into place. He snatched the other half of the sandwich from Dr. Pillsbury.
"On second thought…" He stated.
"Hey!" Dr. Pillsbury exclaimed.
"Thanks." Finn winked before jogging away. However, rather than eating the sandwich, Finn walked into the holding cell. He went straight to Paco's cell, which was a joint cell with a couple of people.
"Paco, my brother! What's up, ese?" Finn exclaimed. "Look, I'm sorry about the wait. The traffic to the west side was a bitch. But I got the sandwich I promised you."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Paco snapped.
"A Godmother's with the works. Extra pepperoncinis. Did I screw it up? Was it no pepperoncinis?"
One of the other inmates stood up and stood over Paco.
"This cop bringing you room service?" He snapped to Paco, presuming that Paco was being a snitch."
"Man, I don't know this guy. I don't know nothing about a sandwich. Come on, man!" Paco spat, slightly desperately.
"Paco! Now, I am a man of my word. We had a deal. You cooperate with the investigation, I bring your beloved Godmother, I…"
Paco lunged at Finn but two uniformed officers immediately stood in the way.
"Get these guys out of here." Finn told them, gesturing to the other inmates. Once they were gone, Finn turned to Paco.
"Sit down." He growled.
"Hey. You put a snitch jacket on me! You're gonna get me shanked!" Paco cried.
"Well I guess you better start talking, or I'm gonna personally deliver you a basket of muffins every day at chow."
Paco looked around and sighed.
"What do you want to know?" He snapped.
"Where's the money?" Finn murmured.
"I have to clue."
Finn smirked.
"All right. It's gonna be bran muffins, to keep your regular!"
Paco shook his head.
"Look… I zapped those pot store fools for an hour. They swore they didn't have the money."
"You believed them?"
"Well, they copped to stealing the dough, but they said someone else stole it off them."
"Names?"
"They didn't know. Said no one else was in on the heist. No one even knew the money was stolen except the… the driver they jacked."