Greetings dear readers. Sorry for the delay in the update, I've been BUSY.
Again, this is shorter than I planned. But I decided to Makokam this chapter in order to get it up sooner. I hope everyone likes it. It's not a major chapter in terms of drama or action. It's more another piece of the puzzle in Dave and Mindy's detective work.
I'm afraid I've caught the Mecha-74 (Read his fics, they're great!) and being unable to restrain myself from Crossover references. LOL (Hint: It's in the conversation Marcus has early on.)
FYI, I saw Dark Shadows and I loved it. I highly recommend it! I'm even thinking of doing a Dark Shadows fic.
Ok, everyone knows the drill by now. I'm not above begging for reviews. Please don't force me to demean myself that way. LOL
And awayyyyyy we go.
Marcus sat at his desk at One Police Plaza and looked from the case file on his desk in the Major Case Unit's office, to his computer terminal and back again. He pinched the bridge of his nose as he suppressed a sigh. Earlier in the shift, the squad he headed had been given notice of yet another truck hijacking. Since summer's end, there had been a dramatic uptick in this particular crime. So far, the only pattern was that the perpetrators were all wearing orange somewhere on them.
Marcus re-read the file and muttered an obscenity. Apparently the perpetrators had begun to become far bolder in their appearance. Now, they were definitely wearing orange and had "TMC" stenciled on their jackets. Someone was apparently trying to make their mark and leave an impression. Marcus could remember a time when criminals tried to actually be anonymous. But now, it seemed that they all wanted to be as well known as the costumed heroes that now patrolled the city's streets.
His reverie was interrupted by someone approaching his desk. A middle-aged, red haired man who had a lieutenant's shield hooked to his belt and an identification badge for the crime lab dangling from his sport jacket.
"Algernon" Marcus said with a smile as he greeted his old friend from his academy days.
"Marcus" Algernon Caine responded with a smile of his own. "Getting set for Christmas?"
"I'm getting so many of these cases with orange guys; I'm not sure when I'll be able to go shopping. What about you?"
"Still have to get the kids' presents. You know how it is with them."
"Oh yeah"
"Hey, is that Mindy?" Algernon asked as he looked at the picture on Marcus' desk. "She's really growing up now. Does she have a boyfriend yet?"
Marcus sighed. "I think it's kind of complicated with her." He finally said, as he thought of the situation between Dave and Mindy.
"You're preaching to the choir buddy. I've gone through the teenage dating years with two and now a third is starting up. Shit, I wish Damon was around to see how she's turned out."
"So do I, Al. So do I."
Algernon looked around to make sure nobody was in earshot. "I can't believe that fucker Gigante is on the list to make Captain. Shit, I can tell you that if somebody had ever popped him, my guys in the lab would make sure that case wasn't solved. It's because of assholes like him that are the reason every other kook in the city is running around in a mask and costume. They think we can't get the job done because we're all crooked." The red-haired officer looked around again and pulled a manila envelope from beneath his sports jacket. "Speaking of people in costume, buddy, I've your latest unofficial request done up."
Marcus took the envelope and slipped it into his desk drawer. "Thanks"
"Anytime pal…But, can you settle something for me?"
"What?"
"Who am I doing these checks for?"
"What do you mean?"
"Come on man…You bring me prints, blood samples…all that stuff for me to unofficially run checks on…You've gotta be the contact man for some of these superheroes. Look, half the guys in the lab are doing this type of stuff. I've had to keep lab supplies separate for official stuff where we have actual case numbers and for ones where it's all done 'under the table'. Marcus, word was that you got the name of that Heffernan guy from some anonymous source, and then Kick-Ass and Hit-Girl just happen to have a sting set up to catch him a week or so later. We go back a long ways…So, come on…Is it THEM that you're doing this for?"
Marcus was unable to keep his expression neutral…and to a former narcotics cop like Algernon Caine, that was all he needed.
"Holy shit…It is them!" He whispered excitedly. Within the New York Police Department, Kick-Ass and Hit-Girl were easily regarded as the best of the cities costumed crimefighters.
"Al, you can't…"
"Marcus…I know the score. Like I said, half the work we do now gets handed off to people who dress for Halloween all year. I actually get a kick out of it."
Marcus sighed and rolled his eyes. Was he the only sane man left? "Well, I do appreciate the help. You've got to come on over for dinner sometime and we'll catch up."
"I'd like that. I've got to finish the Christmas shopping first. The only gift I've got picked out is for my cousin Horatio down in Miami."
"What'd you get him?"
"Same as every year: a new pair of sunglasses. He really likes his sunglasses. Well, I've got to get back to the lab. Give me a call when you want to get together." Algernon said with a smile as he walked back to the elevators.
Marcus looked at the envelope in his desk as he pondered Algernon Caine's words. Half the lab was doing off the record work for people in costume? He wondered just when the police department had seemingly decided to hand over the asylum keys to the lunatics. Of course, he was in no position to judge. After all, he was looked as the contact man for the two top superheroes in the city. Marcus sighed again and returned to the hijacking case.
That evening, in The Lair, Mindy trotted down the steps to find Dave seemingly immersed with something on the computer.
"Hey Mindy" Dave said without looking up.
"Hey yourself" Mindy replied as she pulled up a chair next to him. "What's so interesting? Lindsay Lohan had another picture taken showing her snatch?"
"Nah…I already looked." Dave said absentmindedly, not noticing the look of disgust Mindy shot him. "I'm just looking over some crime statistics."
"Is there anything new?"
"Just more on that blood bank stuff." Dave said as Mindy did a facepalm.
"Dude…We have enough to worry about here. Why the hell are you looking into possible blood bank burglaries out west?"
"It's been happening since 1983."
"So fucking what?" Mindy said with a roll of her eyes. Actually, Dave's near-obsessive desire to solve any mystery he found was something she found terribly attractive in him. Mindy admitted to herself that it was because of Dave that they now investigated crimes rather than simply used muggers and dealers for punching bags, as they did in their first year working together. However, they had more than enough crime in New York City to keep them busy without looking into Dave's ongoing puzzlement over apparent late night thefts from blood banks all over the mountain west since the early 1980's. She showed Dave the manila envelope she'd brought over. "Guess what I have?" She said in a sing-song voice?
"Mike the Mooch's information?"
"Damn straight" Mindy said with a smirk.
"Let's see it." Dave said anxiously as he closed the screen and turned on a desk light as Mindy tore open the envelope and removed the sheets inside.
"Ok, we have Michael Asseyeto, aka Mike the Mooch. Thirty years old. He has a rap sheet going back to when he was a teenager and almost all of it has to do with drugs. Let's see…He's done three years in Attica…four years in Sing-Sing….He's been to Riker's so many times he practically has his own cell reserved." Dave said as he read the file.
"Look at this." Mindy said as she read it over herself. "He was picked up in the spring for pushing meth but the case got dropped on a technicality."
"Lucky for him." Dave said sarcastically
"I don't think so. Now we get a crack at him." Mindy said with a sneer.
"Ok…Do we have anything on him?" Dave said as he searched through their computerized crime files. "Nope"
"Well, we're going to change that now, aren't we?"
"The first step is finding out where this guy's living."
"I thought as much." Mindy said as she removed her phone –a work phone- from her pocket and dialed a number. It picked up after one and a half rings.
"I'm here." Angela's voice sounded over the speaker.
"We have a name for Mike the Mooch. What we need now is an address."
"Let me have it."
"His first name is Michael. His last name is spelled A-S-S-E-Y-E-T-O. He's got a rap sheet going back almost fifteen years."
"All of them are in New York State?"
"Yeah, he's done stretches in Attica and Sing-Sing."
"Gotcha" Angela replied from her home work desk as she opened the backdoor program that allowed her access to the New York State Division of Parole. She soon enough found the file for their quarry. She copied the pertinent details over to an encrypted e-mail and sent it to the lair's computer.
"I just sent you his current address according to the parole board."
"Thanks"
"Will you need me or Crosshairs in tracking him down?"
"No. We'll take care of that part. But afterwards, we'll let you know."
"Ok. Good luck."
"Thanks" Mindy said she ended the call. "Where's this big ball of douche living?"
"Let's see…" Dave said as he read off an address in Brooklyn. He did a Google Earth search and found the area. "Here it is…18th Avenue and 86th Street in Bensonhurst."
"Bensonhurst?"
"Bensonhurst" Dave repeated. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"Damn straight. Let's go see when Mike the Mooch gets off his corner and waddles back home."
"I like the way you think." Dave said as he shot Mindy a smile. He stood up from his chair and walked over to a supply cabinet.
"Of course you do." Mindy replied with a smirk. "What should we take tonight?"
"Night-vision goggles," Dave said as he removed two pairs from the shelf. "binoculars, bugs and a parabolic microphone." He said as he took down the needed gear.
"Sweet" Mindy replied with a smirk. "Let's go get us a fat bad guy."
An hour later, Dave and Mindy, now in costume, were perched on a rooftop of a hardware store directly across from Mike the Mooch's dingy apartment. A parabolic microphone scanner was aimed at the main window.
"I sure as hell wish we could've gone in there to plant some bugs." Dave muttered crossly in the cold early evening air.
"I know." Mindy replied. Their plan to sneak into Asseyeto's apartment had been curtailed by the fact that there were far too many people moving about in the hallways at that early hour, making it too risky to attempt breaking in without attracting attention. "If we don't get anything from this, we can do that later tonight when everyone else in the building is in bed."
"That sounds good. I've got all my lock picks either on me on in the car." Dave replied. He kept his lock picks hidden in the side of his boots, or in the forearm section of his gloves. In addition, he had a snap gun in the Mistmobile and a few skeleton keys in his utility belt.
"Yeah, we'll…" Mindy's voice trailed off as she looked down onto 86th Street. "There he is."
Dave looked down. "Yeah. Shit! He looks like he's sweating just from walking up the street from where he parked his car."
"God, I hope we get something here. I don't want to go into that guy's apartment if we don't have to." Mindy groaned.
Dave suppressed a smirk at Mindy's desire to not enter Mike the Mooch's dwelling space. He was rather hoping that same thing himself.
Down on the street, Mike the Mooch had entered his building and –after a really long time climbing the stairs- entered into his apartment and turned the lights on. Dave and Mindy raised their binoculars and did a fast surveillance. The apartment was every bit as dingy as they'd expected it to be. There appeared to be a huge amount of what appeared to be skin magazines lying around the place. The titles were too far away for Dave and Mindy to pick up easily, but there appeared to be a wide assortment. On the walls were a similar collection of pictures of girls who appeared to all be in their teens. Mindy grimaced in revulsion. She could only imagine what he was thinking when he encountered her and Angela the other day.
As well, all around the apartment were empty pizza boxes. It appeared that Mike "the Mooch" Asseyeto believed that he could get all his basic food groups from pizza.
An idea went through Dave's head as he noticed a detail.
"Mindy"
"Yeah?"
"See all those pizza boxes?"
"How the hell could I possibly miss them?"
"Do they all look to be from the same place to you?"
Mindy focused her binoculars and nodded her head. "Now that you mention it, they do."
"I thought so. They're all from Vic and Vinny's Pizzeria." Dave pulled out his smartphone and began to do a search.
"What're you looking for?"
"The place he gets his pizza from…There it is: their website. And it looks like they're only about three blocks away."
"They must love him. He probably keeps them in the black."
"It sure looks like it. Now…How can we use that?"
"I wonder how careful he is…Hey, wait a second."
"What?"
"His phone is ringing. Get the parabolic microphone up." Mindy said urgently as Dave complied.
In his apartment, Mike Asseyeto picked up his cellphone and wheezed a greeting.
"Yeah…Oh hi, Frankie…Yeah, we've been moving some stuff…Jacob got busted? I didn't know that…Nah, the guy don't know shit about shit…How much in the new batch? I'll have to recruit some new guys to move…No, I'm ain't sayin' it's a problem, I'm just sayin'…Now? Ok, I'll be there in an hour." Mike the Mooch wheezed as he ended his call. He took a deep –rattling- breath and dialed his phone. After a few seconds the call picked up. "Yo…I wanna place my usual order."
"He's ordering a pizza." Dave commented.
"What's their delivery time?"
"The website says forty-five minutes or it's free." Dave said as a smile crossed his face as his mental wheels turned.
"If he's counting on his food coming in forty-five minutes and being there in an hour, he'll probably bring his dinner along with him."
"What do you have in mind?" Mindy asked as she recognized the look Dave got from his latest brainstorm.
"First…We have to change clothes." Dave said. He was grateful that Mindy had come up with the idea of keeping spare sets of civilian clothes in the Mistmobile for emergencies. "Then, we drop in for a take-out order from Vic and Vinny's."
"Take out?"
"Of coleslaw"
"Huh?"
"We have those SkyTRX trackers in the car. I somehow doubt that Mike the Mooch is a fan of coleslaw. I don't think he'd open the bucket or look too carefully in it."
A huge smile broke over Mindy's face. "Aw dude…That's fucking brilliant. But how do we get the coleslaw we buy into his order?"
"That's what I'm on now." Dave said as he dialed a number and waited for it to be picked up. "Colonel Stars…It's Kick-Ass. Hit-Girl and I need some assistance in Bensonhurst right about now…"
Forty-two minutes later, a car bearing the "Vic and Vinny's" logo on the side pulled up in front of Mike the Mooch's address. The driver, an eighteen year old Brooklyn College student got out, taking with him a pizza box and a bag with wings in. He cursed audibly. He made about a delivery here every night he worked…and the fat meatball never once gave him a tip. As he walked over to the outer door, a figure moved from the shadows. It was a large, powerfully built man wearing a balaclava mask. The driver gasped as he saw the .357 magnum revolver in the man's large hand.
"Ok pal…Don't make this hard on yourself." He said in a gravelly voice. "Put the food on the ground slowly and then give me your money."
The driver, who was now thinking there HAD to be easier ways to earn money for school, shakily put down the food and with fumbling hands reached for the money pouch he carried. As the food touched the ground, the robber seemed to nod approvingly as the kid stood up again.
"Alright the money kid…And maybe I'll only shoot you once…." The gravelly voice started to say.
"Hey fucktard…Why don't you eat in tonight?" A voice from behind the robber spoke. He turned around, and saw –as if in answer to the terrified driver's prayers- Kick-Ass and Hit-Girl standing there looking very threatening.
The would-be hold-up man turned back and started to run…Only to crash into the driver and knock him to the ground. The robber stumbled a little bit and took off like a bolt down the street and down an alley. Hit-Girl bolted after him and followed him down the alley. Kick-Ass, meanwhile, stopped and pressed his hand on the driver's shoulder.
"Stay down!" The green-clad hero said in a low voice. "There might be shooting." The driver gave another cry and covered his head with his hands. He never saw or heard Kick-Ass slip the container of coleslaw –with the miniature tracking device sealed in a plastic baggy- into his delivery bag. "Ok. You can get up. Are you alright, citizen?"
"Yeah…I'm fine. You two saved my ass."
"That's what we do." Kick-Ass said solemnly. "If you're alright, I'm going after Hit-Girl and that miscreant."
"Yeah…It's fine. You can go." The driver said with a nod of his head. Kick-Ass took off at a run after Hit-Girl, down the alley. The shaking deliveryman, buzzed into the building. At Mike Asseyeto's door, the obese drug dealer grumpily paid the bill –again noting that the kid delivering was fifteen seconds away from the deadline. Mike the Mooch grabbed his food, again without tipping, and waddled down the stairs and out the door to his car.
A half-block away, Dave had come to a stop in the alley to find Mindy chatting quietly with the balaclava wearing 'miscreant'.
"How'd it go?" The man asked.
"Perfectly" Dave replied. "Thanks John."
The man looked around the alley to make sure nobody was watching, and then pulled off his balaclava to reveal the grey-haired visage of John Genovese, aka Colonel Stars, reformed Mafioso turned costumed crimefighter and first chairman of Justice Forever.
"I'm happy to help."
"It's a good thing you're close by." Mindy said, referring to the fact that Genovese lived in the nearby neighbourhood of Dyker Heights.
"And I can still scare people without trying?"
"That too."
"Well, I'll leave you to it. I've got to get home. My grandkids will wonder why it's taking me so long to pick up ice cream for them." Genovese laughed as he removed his dark jacket, which proved to be reversible. He turned it inside out, revealing a bright blue exterior –a precaution in case anyone had seen him before. "See you two at the Christmas party." He said amiably, walking off.
Dave and Mindy waved a farewell to their friend and colleague and trotted out to where they'd parked the Mistmobile. Mindy dialed her workphone as they got in and Dave started the vehicle.
"Yeah?" Came Angela's reply when she picked up.
"The tracker's in place. Are you getting a signal?"
"I sure am. Ok, he looks to be heading along 86th Street."
"Right. We're following far enough behind so he won't see us."
"Cool. He just turned onto Stillwell Avenue."
"Stillwell Avenue?"
"Yeah. It looks like he's heading for Coney Island." Angela replied from their headquarters.
"Coney Island?" Dave mused.
"Fuck, that's perfect." Mindy said. "It's winter. Traffic's way down now. It's the perfect time for this big expansion."
"I think that traffic is about to get a lot busier for them." Dave said with a smirk.
"Damn straight." Mindy said as they bumped fists as they drove towards Coney Island and the target of that night's war on crime
