Well, here's the LONG awaited chapter 3. Honestly, I had NO idea that it had been as long between updates as it had until Qoshea told me lol. I promise I will try to do better with the next part. Thanks to Patty for the beta work. I hope you all enjoy. Char :-)

BROTHERS: Part 3

"I hate surveillance."

Dick chuckled, "So do I bro, but it has to be done." He turned his attention from the dance floor in the lodge's nightclub to the teen who sat beside him at the small table in the darkened corner. He smiled at how Jason had so easily slipped into 'Tommy Malone'. Red bandana tied gang style around his head, black leather jacket with another red bandana tied around the left arm, frayed and holey jeans. Jay knew how to put the street kid look together. Of course, that wasn't so hard since he had actually been one. Dick silently thanked Bruce for keeping that life from him and now, for taking Jay out of it.

"It's still boring as hell. I wanna be beating someone up. Preferably the jerks who killed Amy, although it wouldn't hurt my feeling to substitute the idiot cops."

Dick looked over his sunglasses at Jay before he laughed. "Now come on, you remember how easy it was for us to lose them at the mall. It wouldn't be fair."

"No, but it'd be fun," Jay replied with a lopsided grin. Then Jason went all business as he sat straighter in his chair. "Isn't that dude over by the bar that Kevin guy, the one that was supposed to be Amy's boyfriend?"

Dick turned his attention to the bar and the sandy haired teen that was leaning against it watching the dancing crowd. "Yeah, that's him." Dick recognized the teen as Kevin Fahey from his photograph in Detective Lester's office. After they had lost the good detective at the mall, they had managed to break into his office at the local police station and read through the detective's file, or at least what little of his file was actually in his office. For all the detective's talk that Dick and Jay were his "prime suspects" he had also looked at Kevin Fahey. Kevin claimed he and Amy were dating, which was news to Dick and Jay because Amy hadn't mentioned having a boyfriend. She certainly wasn't acting like it.

"What're we sitting around here for then?" Jay asked, anxious to do something, anything.

"We don't want to go jumping to any conclusions Bro. We need to have a clear head to solve this case. You don't want to act like the cops have. Do you?"

"Come on Dick, you know as well as I do that if we didn't kill Amy chances are really good this guy did. You saw the photographs," Jason growled.

Dick had seen the photographs. His mind tried to treat the gory images as just a case, but sitting here in this place where Amy had been so vibrant and alive only twenty-four hours earlier, made his stomach churn.

Jason continued, "Whoever killed her knew her. Random murders aren't that brutal. The killer wanted to make her pay for ... something." Jason's voice trailed off with that last. Was that something him? Was Amy killed because she talked with him, danced with him? Was this his fault?

Dick watched Jason's face. He could read the guilt the boy was feeling. He knew it, because he shared it. They weren't going to wallow in that guilt though, they were going to use it constructively ... find her killers and make them pay. "Come on Bro, lets get the show on the road," Dick said as he stood up.

"What're you doing?"

"I think we want a drink ... at the bar."

Jay smiled as he hopped up. "I'm on it Bro."

They swaggered to bar and it was 'Robbie Malone' who leaned against the counter. "Gimme a beer."

The bartender stopped what he was doing and looked at the young man. He certainly looked like a 'tough' but he didn't look near twenty-one. "Is that a root beer?"

"What'dya think," Robbie replied with attitude.

"I think it is unless you want those very large bouncers to throw you and the short one out."

"I ain't short!" Tommy protested as he leaned back against the bar, his elbows resting on the counter. "Gimme a Zesti."

Robbie glared at the bartender and finally relented, "Make it two." He watched the bartender turn and start to fix their drinks. "Sucks that a guy can't get a beer around here."

Kevin turned and looked at him, "You talking to me?"

Robbie shrugged. "Nah, I'm just complaining out loud. Just wanted a beer ya'know."

"Me too," Kevin answered. "I really could use a beer right about now."

The bartender sat the two Zesti's down and walked off to the other end of the bar. Robbie took the drink and scowled before sipping it. "Just in general wanted a beer or sumthin' wrong?"

Kevin just shook his head. "Just ... life in general."

"Not as much action here as I thought," Tommy added. "Guess that girl getting wasted put everyone on edge."

"Wasted?" Kevin stuttered a bit as he asked the question.

"Wasted, off'd, dead. Stops a party I guess."

"What do you know about Amy's death?" Kevin asked.

Tommy quirked his eyebrows, "Nothing other than what we heard on the news. Guess that's why we tried this place. See what kinda action there is."

"Nothing interesting happens here," Kevin said as he sipped his drink and eyed the dance floor.

Robbie snorted, "We've noticed." His eyes narrowed as he noticed the ring on Kevin's finger as Kevin lifted his glass to his lips. A signet ring engraved with an Edwardian script "K" caught Dick's attention. His mind thought back to the photographs of Amy's bruised and battered body. A ring like that could've made some of the marks on her face. He took a big swallow of his Zesti.

"Kevin," a new voice called. "I've been looking for you man." A taller young man walked over, his arm going around Kevin's shoulder. "What's wrong with you Kev? This isn't like you to be in a bar."

"Where the hell else should I be Parker?" Kevin asked with a snarl.

"I know it hurts, it would hurt me. You just need to grieve. Let me help, that's what friends are for," Parker said sympathetically as he led Kevin toward the door.

Jason watched them as they headed toward the door. "We should follow them."

"Agreed," Dick said as he dropped money on the bar to pay for their drinks. He watched them grab their coats and head out the door before they headed after them. They watched the two boys head for the resort on the other side of the parking lot. Shoving their hands in their pockets, Dick and Jason started to follow them when a voice stopped them dead in their tracks.

"You look a lot different than you did earlier today at the station. Different than you did when you were loudly protesting your innocence. Is this what Amy saw last night?" Detective Lester asked.

"Get outta our way," Jason growled as he tried to keep an eye on Kevin.

"Why? Have to meet someone?" Jordon asked moving closer to Jason, blocking his view. "Another teenage girl?"

"What we're doing is none of your business. Thought you would've gotten enough of that when we lost you at the mall," Dick added taking Jason's arm and moving around the detectives. "Now if you don't mind, we'll be leaving. Stop following us."

"And if we do mind ... what are you going to do about it?" Lester inquired.

"I'll be glad to let you discuss it with our 'dad'," Dick replied as he and Jason moved out toward the resort with the detectives following them.

"Dammit," Jason growled under his breath. "How are we gonna detect anything with dumb and dumber tagging along?"

Dick shook his head as they entered the resort. He stopped looking at the laundry cart by the door. With a feral grin on his face, he grabbed the broom and deftly shoved it between the door handles. Giving a mock salute to the two local detectives he and Jason ran off to disappear around the corner. "It'll take them a while to get in another way and find us."

Jason stopped, "Why don't we check out Kevin's rooms?"

"You don't know his room number."

"So. I can find that out. Go to the internet cafe, hack into the hotel's systems, simple."

"You can't hack into a system."

"Yeah I can. Barb's been teaching me."

"Barbara Gordon?" Dick looked at Jason incredulously. "I thought she quit our little 'club'."

Jason shrugged his shoulders. "For the most part. But she's good on computers so Bruce asked her to tutor me. He got a little ... frustrated ... trying to teach me himself. He's a lot more patient teaching me how to throw someone through a wall."

"Tell me about it. Ok, let's go."


"I'm coming up dry and empty. How about you?" Jason asked as he shoved the dresser drawer shut. He pulled Kevin's suitcase from the room's small closet and tossed it on the bed.

"Nothing," Dick called from the bathroom. "Nothing that helps anyway."

Jason opened the suitcase and rifled through the few articles of clothing still in the bag. "Found an envelope."

Dick peeked out the bathroom door, "What's in it?" Jason opened it and pulled out two photographs. One of Amy and one of Kevin and Amy. Jason sat on the bed with the photo of Amy in his hand. Dick watched him and moved out sitting beside him. "Are you okay?"

"No." Jason looked up at the ceiling then turned to Dick. "Do you think he killed her because of ... me?"

"Jay, we don't know that Kevin killed her. But even if he did, you're not the reason she's dead bro."

"That doesn't make me feel better."

"You're not going to feel better. Finding her killer and bringing him to justice'll be satisfying, but it still won't make you feel better," Dick replied as he took the envelope out of his hand. "What else is in here?" He pulled a note out. Unfolding it, he read the few handwritten lines. "She broke up with him. Amy broke up with Kevin yesterday."

"So he gets mad and he kills her. Sonova--"

"It's a motive. Not necessarily the motive, but it is a start. Let's keep looking." Dick patted Jay on the shoulder and stood up moving to the TV cabinet. "Did you check in here?"

"Not yet," Jay replied moving beside him.

"WHAT THE HELL? WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY ROOM!" Dick and Jason turned to see Kevin Fahey and his friend Parker entering the room. "It's those two guys from the bar," Kevin said to Parker.

"I'm calling the cops," Parker said as he moved toward the phone.

"Youse don't wanna do that," Jason said in his best Malone accent as he grabbed Parker by the wrist.

"Yeah, I do," Parker replied as he pushed Jason. Jason glared, his hold on Parker's wrist never wavered. "What are you going to do to stop me?"

"Youse don't wanna know," Jason growled.

Dick swaggered over to Kevin. "This your room. Man, we didn't know that. Youse cool," 'Robbie Malone' smiled. "We wouldn't steal nuthin' from youse. Not that we've found anything worth taking." Dick shrugged. "Youse forget 'bout us bein' here, we'll leave. No harm, no foul. What'cha say?"

"I say you need to be in jail," Kevin stepped out into the hall and started to shout when Dick grabbed him and pulled him back into the room.

"That ain't nice," Dick said as his fingers attacked a pressure point of nerves near Kevin's shoulder causing the young man to wince in pain and go off balance. He pulled Kevin's right hand behind his back before he pushed Kevin toward Parker. Jason smiled shoving Parker with the flat of his hand. Kevin and Parker tangled with each other as the force of the collision sent them spiraling to the floor. Dick and Jason used the moment to take off out of the room. By the time that the room's occupants made their way to the door, the Malone's were nowhere in sight.


"What do we know?"

"Not a whole helluvalot."

"Come on Jay, we know more than it seems. From the police reports and photographs we know how Amy was killed. That's a start."

Jason rolled over on his stomach as he lay atop his bed. "Sure we do. We know she was killed by two sadistic bastards. Her jeans and panties pulled around her knees, we both know why. Beaten, battered, bloody and bruised."

Dick nodded as he paced their room. "She was hit before she went down. Was bleeding before they raped her."

Jason sat up. "That's right. The bloody smudge on her thigh -- like a handprint trying to pull her legs apart. So they were beating her first. But with more than just fists. That scar on her face could've been made by Kevin's ring."

"Agreed. But I think there's more than that we should focus on. I'd say whatever she was hit with causing the blunt trauma to her head is not the same thing she was stabbed with. This wasn't a planned murder. It happened in the heat of an argument. Remember that thin line we saw in the snow at the crime scene?"

"Yeah. The killers drug the weapon off with them. There was blood in that line." Jason stood up from his bed and moved to his closet pulling out his ski pole and flexing it in his hand. "I don't know, this is pretty flexible. I'm not sure that it's strong enough to cause the trauma to the head, but the spike at the end could've caused the stab wounds. But what could've caused the blunt trauma?"

Dick walked around the bed and sat at the table by the window. "I don't know. Anything, a broken tree branch, a flashlight. If it was a ski pole used to kill Amy, we need to find it. We find it, we find our killers."

"And we still have a little less than forty-eight hours to do it before Bruce takes over."

In his best imitation of Alfred's proper English tone, Dick placed a hand over his heart and said, "Oh heaven forbid dear boy." Then turning serious, he grabbed his jacket. "Come on, time for a little old fashioned leg work. Let's go back to the club."

"I hope that's better than Kevin's room. We got nothing outta breaking in there except caught."

"Not necessarily," Dick said with a sly grin as he held up Kevin's ring. He tossed it to Jason. "There's blood on it. Wanna lay money as to whose blood it is?

"Dick, you'd make a great thief," Jay said with a smile.

"It's in the blood."


"Sandy hair cut short, blue eyes, sixteen or seventeen, in here the night of the murder?" The burly bouncer repeated back to them. "Yeah I saw at least twenty in here that night and every night who fit that description. What's your interest?"

Dick shrugged his shoulders, "Just trying to figure out who had opportunity to kill the girl."

"Why?" the bouncer asked.

"Youse know, in case there's a reward," Jason added in his best Malone accent. "We're always interested in anything to make money. So, anyone in particular from that same group the dead girl was with?"

"There was that one kid. He was a real ass. Had his poles with him and was planning to go skiing that night. I told him it was dangerous and he told me to go "F" with myself. He'd come in with that Amy girl, the one who was murdered, and he left right after she did. I told the police about him."

Jason nodded, "That's a good lead."

"Well, if it was a lead, I'm sure the cops would've done something by now. It's probably those other two." He squints as he looks them over. "You two look a lot like those other two."

Dick shook his head, "Nah, we seen them at the cop shop when we wuz gettin' outta jail. They don't look like us. Thanks for the info man," Dick said as he passed the bouncer a twenty as they headed out the door.


The morning sun shone through the window causing dappling colors to dance across the floor. Jason munched on a crunchy slice of bacon from the breakfast tray they had ordered from room service. "Are we going to follow Kevin today?"

Dick looked up from the morning newspaper, "I think so. Although I'd really like to see if he drove a car here. If he did, I'd like a look inside. His ski poles have to be somewhere since they weren't in his room. I know in my gut that if we can find the poles the bouncer saw him with, we'll find our murder weapon."

"I can hack back into the hotel computer and see if I can find any car registration info for him." Jason gulped the rest of his orange juice and stood crossing the room and pulling out a sweater and a clean pair of jeans. He slipped into the jeans and looked around for his belt. He saw a black leather belt lying on the dresser and crossed the room. Picking it up, he looked over at Dick. "Hey, is this yours?"

Dick looked up, "No."

Jason scrunched his face up. "Well, it ain't mine. Who's --"

There was a pounding on their door. "This is Detective Jordan. I have a search warrant! Open up!"

TO BE CONTINUED . . .