CHAPTER 32
El Paso, Texas, 18 months ago…
"Ooh, that was a big one." Rachel murmured. The two of them were lying on their bed in the morning, feeling their unborn baby kick against Rachel's belly.
"I think you got a little linebacker in there." Finn remarked. She giggled.
"No way!" She exclaimed. "He's a sensitive soul. I'm thinking… poet."
"I hate to break it to you, honey, but you're carrying eight pounds of pure American bull rider right here."
"No, singer."
So, we have the first… bull riding linebacker poet who has a voice of gold?" Finn joked.
"Why not? He can be everything."
Suddenly, Rachel's phone rang. The two of them groaned. Rachel reached for her phone but Finn held her back.
"No. Don't answer it." He mumbled. She laughed. "I have to." She replied, as she saw that it was her daddy, Hiram, calling her.
"Hey, Daddy." She said. She was greeted by her dad's nervous jabbering. She was very close to her due date so he was naturally nervous for them. "Wait, wait, slow down. No, we can't come visit you." She turned to Finn and muted the call. "He is freaking out!" She whispered. "I think he's more nervous than you are." She then turned the phone back on and spoke to her father. "Daddy, don't worry. We're fine." Finn then took the phone from her and placed it to his ear.
"Hey Hiram. Hiram, Hiram, hey, everything's gonna be fine. We're about to have a nice breakfast. Your daughter is about to make me her special blueberry pancakes. Wait, actually, by the look I just received, I'll be making her famous blueberry pancakes. But, either way, we're all good. Yes, we love you. We're gonna go. But hey, have a great day. Your daughter loves you, I love you. Bye. Bye. See ya." Finn hung up the phone. Rachel beamed at him and kissed him.
"Thank you." She murmured against his lips.
"Come on, I can handle your dad." He replied.
"No, thank you for my blueberry pancakes." She laughed.
Present day…
Finn chugged down yet another bottle of whiskey as he lay in his trailer. His sobriety had gone straight out the window the night Quinn had told him the news. He read through the case file over and over again. He thought back to his conversation with David Karofsky from all those months ago. He kept looking for anything, literally anything that could help guide him towards Jessie St. James, the hitman who might have killed Rachel.
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"There are certain things that a man must learn before he's sent out into the world. One of them being… how to survive on his own." Quinn declared. Luke was graduating high school in a week and Quinn was desperate to spend time with him before he graduated. So, she decided to attempt to teach Luke how to put up a tent in the living room. "To show him that no matter what the world throws at him, he… will endure."
Suddenly, almost exactly when she stopped talking, the tent exploded into pieces. Haley and Santana, who were watching the exchange, started laughing hysterically.
"That was incredible!" Haley laughed. "Mom, you're Snapchat gold!"
She then walked away. Luke put a hand on her shoulder.
"Look, I get what you're doing here, Quinn."
"It's mom, or ma'am." She snapped. "And what am I doing?"
"You're worried I'm about to graduate and you want to bond. I get that. But what about a board or ball game?"
"Mm-mm. Too many other people around. You and I need to be alone in the woods, so I can teach you everything you need to know."
"What will we eat?" Luke asked. Quinn laughed.
"What will we eat? We're gonna eat what we catch. I'm bringing the fishing poles with us."
"But what if we don't catch anything?"
"Luke, your mother is taking you to the woods to impart wisdom." Santana said. "Your job is not to question, it is to listen."
Luke rolled his eyes and walked away. Once he was gone, Quinn turned to Santana.
"Thanks, San." She said. "I mean, there's so much that Sam didn't teach him that I need to teach him about what it means to be a Fabray. And I just feel like I haven't had enough time."
"Q, you have been an incredible parent. And he sees a Fabray man every day. You're two parents in one. But, I support you completely. Which is why I rented you this cabin." She said, handing Quinn a brochure for a cabin in Arrowhead. "With a stocked fridge."
"Strong move." Quinn laughed.
"Just some wisdom I have accumulated over the years."
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Finn's eyes widened as he finally found some useful information. Jessie St. James was actually in U.S custody and had been arrested in an operation by a Task Force a couple of weeks ago! In fact, he was in California! Finn had an opportunity to talk to him! He got out of his bed, ignoring the wicked hangover he was feeling, and he sped to the LAPD station as fast as he could, calling his captain along the way.
Finn eventually found Jessie, Kurt and two uniformed officers getting into the elevator.
"Hey, whoa, whoa, whoa. Where are you guys taking him?!" Finn yelled as he ran over.
"The marshal's are taking him into federal custody." Kurt explained. "We caught a whale, Finn. Doesn't mean we get to keep him."
"I need to question him, Captain." Finn snapped.
"About what?" Kurt asked.
"Other cases." Finn replied, bluntly. Kurt sighed.
"Look, Finn, he's gonna be in a federal supermax for the next few lifetimes; you're gonna get your chance to ask him anything you want."
With that, the lift started to close and the last thing Finn saw was Jessie winking at him before the lift closed. Finn could tell that Jessie knew exactly who he was and who his wife was. Finn growled. For all he knew, the transport van could be hijacked. He couldn't wait until Jessie made it to the prison but it wasn't like he had much of a choice, right?"
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An hour later, the transport van was driving down an abandoned road on the California border when suddenly, a hooded figure laid out a row of spikes on the road, causing the van to have its tires popped.
"What the hell?!" The driver shouted. The figure then started spraying the side of the van with machine gun fire. He ended up missing all of the guards but he scared them into submission. After they were safely no longer threats, the man threw a smoke grenade into the truck and then used the distraction to set an explosive to the back of the truck and blew up the doors. He dragged Jessie out the car and into his car and the two of them drove away together, all of this done in less than a minute. Jessie chuckled as he settled inside.
"Gracias, amigo." Jessie said, assuming that the man was part of the Mexican cartel. However, as the man pulled off his ski mask and revealed his face, Jessie was greeted by the last person he expected to see.
"Oh, de nada." Finn replied, smiling at him. "So, I believe you and I have to talk…"
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Later that day, Quinn, Tina and Kurt were going over the dash cam footage that they had recovered from the scene. They were instantly put on high alert and were called back to the station when the LAPD's high profile prisoner was broken out but Finn was nowhere to be seen. They watched as the guy pulled off the jailbreak with extreme ease and disappeared into an unmarked vehicle.
"So there was just one guy?" Quinn asked, surprised, as they went through the footage.
"Yep." Tina replied.
"And they're both alive?" Quinn asked, pointing to the two guards.
"Very lucky. Minor scratches." Kurt replied.
"No, it's not luck." Quinn snapped. "He didn't want to kill them. Otherwise, he'd have thrown a grenade in there."
"You think the cartel outsourced it?" Kurt asked.
"I'd say military." Quinn replied. "Whoever this guy is, he's a total pro."
"Oh, come on, Q!" Finn exclaimed, walking into the precinct. "It's like amateur hour! It's like you're watching an instructional video on how not to extract a prisoner. Look at him. He's spraying the windshield. That's safety glass! One shot through the side window, shattered."
"And let the gas escape in the process? No. That is precision. Dead center. Not a scratch on the marshals." Quinn replied. Nobody knew about their near-miss at dating from the other night and they weren't about to mention it at work.
Finn shrugged.
"All right, how 'bout that right there? Blowing up the side of the van?"
"Exactly where it's fortified with ballistic shields." Quinn remarked. Finn raised an eyebrow.
"So, we have a military trained assassin with a heart of gold, who's also freelancing as an LAPD mechanic?" Finn commented.
"I mean, when he puts it like that, it does sound implausible." Kurt stated.
"That's not what I said. This man is spinning my words!" Quinn exclaimed.
"I'm just glad, Kurt, you're here to see what I deal with on a daily basis." Finn responded.
"Guys, we got a hit on the getaway car." Tina interrupted them. "It was found in Elysian Park."
"See? Sloppy." Finn remarked.
"Shut up. Let's go." Quinn snapped. Finn shook his head.
"Uh, actually, Tina, you go with Quinn. I've got an NCO Armory contact. I'm gonna go give him a call, check in with him. I think the grenade launcher might be military issue."
"That's what I said, military!" Quinn exclaimed.
"Q, no one's saying that you're wrong. It's just your tone. All right, I'll see you guys." He said, jogging out of the precinct. Quinn sighed. She assumed that Finn didn't want to work with her, not because she thought he was involved, but because of the awkwardness from a few days before.
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A couple of minutes later, Quinn and Tina were in the park, admiring the car. However, it was pretty much useless given that whoever broke the prisoner out also blew up the car.
"He blew it up to cover his tracks and then ditched it for a new ride." Tina explained.
"And deliberately picked a spot where there'd be no security cameras. This guy knows our playbook."
Marley then walked over to them.
"Talk to me, Marley. What have we got?" Quinn asked, hopefully.
"Well, we've got what we in the forensic sciences call 'diddly-squat.' But I am thorough, and so I found this: size 11 men's boot print." She replied.
"Great. So, it could be anyone." Quinn stated, rolling her eyes.
"Well, no, it-it couldn't be someone with a size 9, an 8, 7. Need I go on?" Marley joked. "Look, the guy burned everything."
Quinn then noticed a license plate on the front of the car. It had clearly been peeled off before the car was burnt and then put back on.
"No, not everything." She said, pointing to it. "Notice that the area behind the plate is charred. Means he took it off, burned it, put it back on."
"Why would he do that, unless he wanted us to find the car?" Tina asked.
"We also have some tire tracks at the end of the road, heading east." Marley added. Quinn started walking away.
"Where are you going, Quinn?" Tina called.
"West!" She replied.
