CHAPTER 38
"I've been a border agent for 15 years. I had a front row seat to the death, carnage, lives ruined by drug lords like Karofsky. If he went to trial, he would've walked. I knew what I had to do."
Kurt stopped the recording of Gordon's confession and Quinn thought about what she had just watched.
"He did it!" She exclaimed. "Rewind that back, that's a confession."
"I don't need to rewind it. I've watched it a dozen times." He replied. "I'll present this to the IA panel and hopefully, you'll have your job back by tomorrow."
Quinn smiled and nodded.
"Okay. Got my finger back, got my job back. Now I got to get my family back so I can forget this nightmare ever happened."
"What about your partner?" Kurt asked. "Before you left, you said you wanted a new one. Do you?"
"The answer to that will always be yes." Quinn laughed. "But it's not up to me. He says he's walking away."
"You believe him?"
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Finn strutted into the interrogation room later that afternoon, where Gordon Barnes was still sitting.
"Look, any questions you got, I already answered. People have been grilling me all day." Gordon snapped, tiredly. Finn rolled his eyes and walked over to the room's security camera and pulled out the wire to disconnect it.
"Just one." Finn stated. "What was it like to kill David Karofsky?"
Gordon's eyes furrowed in confusion.
"You mean, you want to know how it went down?" He asked. "I told them already."
"No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no." Finn murmured. "How did it feel? Look, I'm asking because I wanted to be the guy. You know, look into his eyes, hear his last breath. And I had this idea in my mind of how it would feel. And thanks to you, I'm never gonna know for sure, so if you could indulge me."
"Oh, well, I don't know. It happened pretty quick."
Finn sighed.
"All right, well, you got to give me more than that. I mean… was it like some inner peace, like a weight lifted? I don't know. Coldness? Come on, lunatic to lunatic."
"I felt like David needed to die and so he did." Gordon replied. Finn rapped his knuckles on the table, frustrated.
"You know, I would've hoped David's killer would've been a little more verbal, but all right. Good luck in prison." Finn sighed and he walked out of the room.
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"You're looking at a deeply apologetic woman." Quinn said to her family that night as they sat at the dinner table. "Now, I scoured the city to find everybody's favorite meal, every teriyaki burger, soup dumpling, sashimi. It's just a small token of the appreciation I have for this beautiful family that I love."
"Hmm, so you think getting some sushi is gonna make up for your behaviour?" Santana remarked.
"No, no. This is just the beginning of what will be a-a… a month long grovel." Quinn stammered. "Deal?"
"Quinn. Next time you come back after being away, we like this version of you." Santana laughed. "Deal?"
"Absolutely." Quinn replied.
"Oh, wait, I have a demand!" Luke chimed in. Quinn glared at him.
"Hey, don't you press your…" Quinn's voice trailed off when she saw Santana's facial expression. "What is it, son?"
"I would like for you to come with me to see Claremont College this weekend." Luke replied. Quinn smiled at him.
"Book it." She replied. "And Haley… I respect the fact that it is your body and if you want to bejewel your, um… navel region, um… I, uh… I will support that."
"Thank you, mom. Does that mean I can get a tattoo?"
"Too far, Haley. Too far!" Santana laughed, giggling at Quinn's livid face.
"Look, I just want things to go back to the way things were before I left." Quinn remarked. As soon as she had uttered those words, there was a loud pounding on the door and Santana chuckled.
"Looks like you got your wish." She remarked as she stood up to answer the door.
"Finn!" Santana exclaimed as she opened the door. "Come here!"
Finn gave her a hug.
"How are you, Santana."
"Welcome back." She murmured.
"I hope I'm not intruding." He said.
"Not at all! Quinn was just redoing her apology after the first one crash and burned."
"Sounds about right." Finn chuckled. "So, uh, how's the job going?"
Santana raised an eyebrow in shock and her jaw dropped.
"Wait, um, he just asked me about my life. Very thoughtful." Santana remarked, glaring jokingly at Quinn.
"Ooh, nice belly button ring." Finn remarked, pointing to the ring on Haley's stomach.
"Thanks." Haley replied. "I want to get a tattoo."
"I've got a great guy down on Sunset. Let me know when you're ready."
"Ah, out, out, out, out, out!" Quinn exclaimed. She roughly shoved him out the door and followed him out to the front porch. "Hey, now is not a good time. If you got something to say to me, wait till tomorrow, okay? Or, hey, why don't you pick up the phone like a normal person?"
"Sure thing. I'll see you tomorrow." Finn said, walking away. Quinn sighed and ran after him.
"Hey, wait, wait, wait. Since you're here, what?"
"Well, I had a conversation with one Gordon Barnes and, uh… I don't think he did it."
Quinn raised an eyebrow.
"And what is it that makes you think he didn't do it, Finn? Did he recant?"
Finn shook his head.
"No. I looked at his face." Finn stated. Quinn sighed and rolled her eyes.
"His face?"
"That's not the face of a man who wanted to kill Dave Karofsky." Finn snapped. He then pointed at his own face. "This. This is the face of a man who wants to kill Dave Karofsky."
"And what am I supposed to do with that, Finn? Huh? If he didn't do it, I'm still suspended."
"Well, if I was your partner, I'd tell you to go find the real killer. If I was your friend… I'd tell you to go back inside and be with your family."
"Well, are you?" She asked.
"Your partner?" Finn asked.
"No. My friend." She replied. Finn sighed and looked her in the eye.
"I probably wouldn't be here if I wasn't."
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"This is what we in the robbery/homicide business call an airtight case." Kurt announced to the IA agents. "Signed confession. Mexico's largest cartel is now leaderless. Now, yes, Hudson and Fabray should be reinstated, but I'm thinking bigger. I'm thinking of commendation."
The IA Agents sighed and passed Kurt a file. He opened it to see the face of a Latino man. Kurt looked at it and then back at them, questioningly.
"Raul Mendez." One of the agents said. "David's second in command and attack dog. Within hours of David's death, he'd assumed control. So, the Karofsky Cartel is business as usual."
"Hmm." Kurt said, taken aback. "Why don't we start with their reinstatement and go from there?"
Suddenly, there was a knock on the door and Tina walked in. Just like last time, she handed Kurt a post-it note however this time, Kurt was less than pleased. The note read… 'Barnes didn't do it!' He groaned and left the room with Tina and they walked into his office, where Quinn was standing.
"What do you mean he didn't do it?" Kurt snapped. Quinn sighed.
"Finn said he looked Barnes in the eyes and he didn't do it."
"The eyes? I was so close to getting you two reinstated. Now you want me to go back in there and tell them we don't even have a suspect?"
"Technically speaking, Quinn and Finn are the suspects." Tina smirked. Quinn glared at her.
"I don't want to say it again: we did not kill David Karofsky."
"Honestly, at this point, it'd be easier if you had." Kurt sighed.
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That afternoon, Quinn and Finn had travelled to Barnes' prison to question him but they were getting nowhere.
"We've been over it a hundred times!" Barnes snapped as Finn asked him the same questions yet again.
"I know. I know. I know. Just-just tell her what you told me." Finn asked. Barnes sighed.
"I picked the trunk lock. I shot David. I walked away."
"I got chills." Quinn laughed. "It's as if I was there."
"One shot." Finn murmured. "Total pro. I'd have hosed his ass down, Sonny Corleone style. Because I'm a nervous guy. I wouldn't have been able to control myself."
"Yeah, well, one shot was plenty." Barnes snapped. Finn raised an eyebrow.
"Huh. You know, funny… we found two bullet holes in David's skull." Finn remarked. Fear flitted in Barnes eyes for a brief moment.
"I have a theory." Quinn announced, jokingly. "May I pitch?"
"Oh, please." Finn responded. "Go right ahead."
"Well, what if another killer showed up after you left, and they shot David in the exact same spot with the exact same caliber bullet and then he leaves."
"I… mayb-maybe I shot twice." Barnes stammered. "I don't, I don't remember. It happened so fast."
"See, I don't buy that. Right?" Finn remarked. "If I killed David Karofsky, I'd have played it over and over and over in my head like my favourite country ballad."
"I KILLED DAVID KAROFSKY!" He shouted, slightly desperately now.
"Not a bad name for your country song." Quinn joked. Finn laughed.
"Oh yeah, how's this, how's this? I shot Dave Karofsky, Shot him in the head. I don't know how many times, but I know that he's dead!"
"Yeah, that's great, that's great!" Quinn giggled.
"I gotta write this down!" Finn exclaimed. "But first, let's put through the paperwork and get him released. That'll be…"
"Wait." Barnes murmured. He took a deep, shaky breath. "If I admit I'm innocent, will you promise not to let me out?"
Finn raised an eyebrow.
"Now this is a story I'd like to hear." He remarked, sitting down.
"I know Tito's number two, Raul Mendez." Barnes murmured. "Sometimes I'd take some cash from him at the border, let a truck through. It was harmless stuff. When my sister called me to tell me that David's body was in the trunk of a car this side of the border, I figured I could get on Raul's good side. But Raul didn't want him back. Raul killed Tito. And then he went after my sister and he told me that if I didn't confess, he was gonna kill her, too."
"So, what, you go to jail and he pinky swears that he's not gonna kill your sister? You're a very trusting man." Quinn stated.
"I have an insurance policy. Proof. Proof that he did it. I recorded the phone call with Raul…"
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"So that's your plan? You're just gonna blow up Raul?" Quinn asked incredulously. Finn was in the weapons storage room, loading up on machine guns, grenades and anything he could get his hands on.
"Yup." Finn replied. "Since you tossed my last grenade back in Mexico, I gotta stock up. Hey, Monty, you got any RPGs? Finn shouted to the front desk officer in the armoury.
"For you or Fabray?" Monty asked.
"You honestly think I'd trust this man with a rocket launcher?" Finn laughed.
"Third aisle, third shelf, confiscated from a meth dealer in Hawthorne." Monty chuckled.
"My man!" Finn exclaimed.
"So, you're going down to Mexico and you're gonna start a war?"
"No, I'm gonna finish one." Finn growled. He picked up the rocket launcher and sighed. "This is not an RPG. It's an M-72." He grumbled. Quinn rolled her eyes.
"Okay, let's say you go down there and you're successful in this little suicide mission. You take Raul out. Someone else is just gonna step up and take his place."
"Then I'll take him out." Finn remarked.
"You can't because you just went on a suicide mission, or do you not understand the meaning of those words?"
"That's a really good point. Okay. Then you'll have to kill him, deal? Pinky swear?"
Quinn sighed and rolled her eyes.
"Look, Finn, the only way to do this is to take out the entire cartel." Quinn stated.
"Oh, what a great idea. Why didn't I think of that?" Finn snapped, getting slightly annoyed now.
"I'm serious. We take out the whole operation, but we do it the right way."
"And how do you plan on doing that, Quinn?"
"Well, we're gonna need a lot more grenades…"
