Chapter 12

Showdown

Maia was being examined by Chase when House entered her hospital room the following day. Chase said nothing for the first few minutes and then looked up at Maia.

"Looks good, no sign of infection. You can probably go home in a few days, maybe tomorrow. We need to make sure you don't start bleeding again."

"Will I have permanent damage?"

"The bullet went straight through. It nicked your artery which is why you were bleeding so much and took a small chunk of your intestines. But otherwise, it missed your major organs." He changed the bandage. "I bet you'll be glad to go home; you've been spending a lot of time in here."

She smiled wearily, "Up until January of this year, I'd never spent a night in a hospital. I can't seem to get out of this one."

Chase patted her arm, "Well, I'll check back this afternoon." He turned to House, "You're in early. Patient?"

"Nope, they had a special on chocolate chip pancakes in the cafeteria."

Chase shook his head and left.

He went over and looked down, noticing she had cleaned up. He wondered how she could look so pretty in a hospital bed, "You're not dead yet?"

"Disappointed?"

"Damn right, I'll never collect on that insurance policy." He bent down and kissed her forehead, then lifted up, "No, I'm not disappointed, the sex is too good. I am disappointed that you don't have a tray of food for me to eat."

"I ate already."

House turned around and walked out, coming back a few minutes later with a muffin and coffee. Maia was asleep.

Turning on the television, House watched some morning game shows while Maia tossed and turned, wincing occasionally from the pain. He began to worry when he saw her temperature start to rise. He called Chase, who prescribed an antibiotic and ordered an MRI.

Maia had to be wakened to receive the new IV of antibiotics and get an MRI. When she returned, House was still in the same position as when she left, watching television. She smiled over at him and reached out. He grabbed her hand and squeezed it.

"You don't have to stay," she said.

"As long as I'm here I stay out of Cuddy's view."

She chuckled and then looked up at the television. The news was on one of the stations. House stopped on the channel to see if there had been anything knew about the shooting. Nothing was mentioned so House turned the channel.

"Turn back, quick!"

House flipped it back. The news showed three men in suits, one with a briefcase leaving the Federal Courthouse. A photo of another man was displayed in the upper corner of the screen.

"Wow, I know the guy in the picture."

House held a finger to his lips, "Shhhh, let's find out what's happening."

Maia turned to the television.

"…body found in his car in February with a bullet to the back of the head. The district attorney and assistant attorney general both indicated today that they do not have enough evidence to indict Bellinghere or Torino, but are looking for a key piece of evidence. Authorities would not reveal the nature of the evidence, but do indicate that they have an excellent lead. Turning to sports, the Phillies…"

House turned to Maia, "Did you get any of that?"

"Who was dead? Why?" Maia asked.

House leaned forward, "Maia, you said you didn't know anyone in the mafia. A bullet to the back of the head is their earmark. If you know that guy in the photo, he's mafia."

Maia had a chill go down her spine, "Phil introduced me to him. His name was Joey Maglione."

"Phil? As in dead Phil?"

Maia nodded.

"Don't you think that's just too much of a coincidence? This mafia guy you met is dead, the guy who introduced you to him is dead and someone out there is trying to kill you. We need to find out what's going on. I'm going to go down to my office and grab the newspaper. I'll be back."

He returned, newspaper folded back to the story.

Joseph Maglione, 36, a soldier in the Bellinghere Family was found dead in February with a bullet to the back of the head one mile north of Trenton. It is estimated that Maglione had been dead thirty-six hours. Maglione was part of a full-scale investigation into the Bellinghere family. It is believed that Maglione was killed by Bellinghere's foot soliders for reasons unknown at present.

Maia looked up at House, "I guess I better call Detective Smithers."

"Tell me what happened when you met Maglione?"

"Phil wanted me to help Maglione fill out some forms in his divorce…financial forms listing all his accounts. He had statements from his accounts around the world, New Jersey, New York, Cayman Islands. I wanted to list all the accounts, but he didn't want the New York ones or Cayman island accounts included. He got angry and left."

"Do you have the forms?"

"No." She thought for a second. "But, he did leave one of the statements with me by accident, one of the ones from the Cayman Islands."

House shook his head and laughed, "You have an account document for the Cayman Islands from a mobster?"

"I didn't know he was a mobster! I just thought he was a guy going through a divorce with an account in the Caymans that he didn't want to tell his wife about. I told Phil to take it back to him, but he never did. He told me the guy had moved."

"Did he say that he moved in with the fishes? Maia, you better let Bear know that someone may be making a special visit to your abode to ransack it. You don't want him messing with the mob if they decide to look for that document."

"You think they'd hurt him?"

"One word…Phil. No, four words, Phil and his girlfriend."

Maia was distressed to know that Bear and the rest of her friends at the restaurant might be hurt. "Greg, hand me the phone so I can call Bear."

House called Bear for Maia and handed her the receiver. She warned him to be careful. Bear went upstairs to check, but didn't notice anything different.

He laughed into the cell phone, "Still messy as ever."

"Bear, be very careful. These guys are serious."

"You take care too. I'll come by and see you this afternoon."

"Okay, see you later Bear, bye."

She turned to see House pulling his keys out of his trousers, "I've got something to do. I'll be back later." House turned and took off with a purpose. If he couldn't take a bullet for her, he could at least walk into the lion's den and find out who was doing this.

Donatos bar in Trenton was a large bar with tables in the front, a bar in the middle and an area for several pool tables towards the back. It had wide-slat, dark wood floors layered with peanut shells that were swept up each night. A large juke box sat in the front and there were venetian blinds covering eight large windows. The bar was old, the wood well worn, the bar stool covers split.

House walked in, stood and stared at the bar where three men sat, smoking and drinking . They looked up and when he didn't appear to be there to drink, they turned and put their hands inside their coats in a defensive posture.

The older, chubbier one with silver hair laced with black nodded at him, "Whach you want?"

"I've come to talk to your boss. Where is he?"

They all laughed at him. After calming down the silver one looked at House, "You think you can walk in here and just ask for the boss?

"Yeah," House answered, showing no signs of fear. "Tell your boss, Greg House is here."

House felt a large hand grab his upper arm from behind and throw him forward. He stumbled forward and fell to the ground, turning up just in time to see a gun in his face. "Who the hell do you think you are?" The fortyish good looking man with Italian features looked up at the silver-haired man, "Who'se this cazzo?"

The silver-haired man shrugged his shoulders, "He came in demanding to see the boss."

The man stood back up. House stood up slowly, straightening his clothes as he did. They stood glaring and sizing each other up.

"What do you want with the boss?"

House fixed his gaze on the man with the gun, "I need some information."

The guy was obviously frustrated, "What kind of information?"

"About my girlfriend."

The guy laughed, "What? Is the boss bangin' your girl?"

House didn't acknowledge him, "I need to see him."

"Get out of here." He waved his gun towards the door.

"You think I'm going to leave? Tell your boss that Greg House is here and I would suggest when you do, you tell him that I'm sitting at that bar with a complimentary double Talisker, waiting for him."

The gun was shoved in House's face again and there was more laughter, except from the silver haired guy. "Greg House? That sounds familiar. What do you do for a living?"

"I'm a doctor at Princeton-Plainsboro."

The silver-haired man nodded and laughed, "Have a seat doctor, the drink's on the house." The others stared at the man as he waved House over to a bar stool. "This is the doctor who saved Joey. Get Bill on the line, tell him the doc needs to talk to him."

The others relaxed and one of them picked up the phone and dialed. Within an hour an entourage showed up and Bill Arnelo walked in wearing sunglasses and an Armani 200 weight suit. He smiled as he approached the bar.

"Dr. House! It's good to see you. I was a little shocked to hear you need some information about your girlfriend? Frankly, I didn't think a woman would date you." He chuckled and slapped House on the back.

House raised a single eyebrow. "My girlfriend is Maia Connelly."

Bill jerked his head back in surprise, "Really?" He shook his head and smiled. "Man you jump in the middle of it, don't you? Doc, you may be in the market for a new girlfriend soon."

"I'm not laughing. Who wants her and why?

Bill looked around, thought about it for a minute, "Come back to my office."

House followed the well dressed Italian to the back and entered the office full of leather furniture and a large ornate Italian desk. House sat down on the sofa. Rather than sit behind his desk, Bill joined House and sat in the leather chair next to him.

"You're girlfriend's got two families interested in her well being. You heard about a guy named Joey Maglione? Joey was part of the Bellinghere family. Apparently he squirreled some money away for himself in the Cayman Islands that Bellinghere gave to him for safe keeping. That money is the only evidence of an illegal arms deal Bellinghere put together. It turns out that your girlfriend came into possession of some documentation on this big deal. Joey didn't want his boss to know that she had the docs and where he put the money. So he and his cousin tried to take your girlfriend out quietly back in January. Bellinghere found out that Joey had screwed him over and now Joey's no longer with us. Bellinghere didn't know about the documentation until Joey's cousin said something when he was drunk. Bellinghere wants your girlfriend out of the picture so she can't testify against him. The Torino family found out about the money from Joey's cousin, who eventually went to them for protection from the Bellingheres. Apparently, the Torinos want your girlfriend so they can get their hands on the account information to blackmail Bellinghere. They want some of his action in east Trenton. They sent someone down to invite your girlfriend to a meeting so they could get the papers, but he ended up with his brain blown out."

House took a drink from his Talisker, "Testify? Well, assuming she does have something, why would she have to testify."

Bill shrugged his shoulders, "The lawyers say that with Joey dead, they'd need her to say she got the document from him."

House thought about it, it made sense.

"Doc…you don't have feelings for her do you?"

He narrowed his eyes, "She's my girlfriend, not my neighbor or my employee or my boss. Of course I have feelings for her."

Bill sat back and studied House. He'd always found House to be a strange fuck. Someone he trusted, but wasn't sure he'd like if they hung out. "Doc, she's not a good bet."

House leaned forward and put his elbows on his knees. "How do I make it a safe bet?"

Bill snickered, "You're joking?"

"Do I look like I'm joking? She's my friggin' girlfriend for Christ sake!"

"Well, I wouldn't worry about the Torinos…you scared them off with your heroics the other day. They know the FBI will be on to her now. The best thing for her to do is to…" Bill leaned forward to whisper, "…give the documents to the FBI, let them protect her. They're the only ones with the manpower and guns."

House nodded. "Thanks." He got up and grabbed his cane, getting up to leave.

Bill got up with him, "You know Joey's doin' well in the program. He's not supposed to, but he calls me. Wait 'til he hears you're gettin some regular tail. He didn't think you liked women."

House tilted his head and knitted his eyebrows, "You thought I was gay?"

He shook his head,"Nah, not gay…just not interested in pussy."

"Jesus."

"I'm glad you get yourself some from time to time. She must be some piece of ass if she got your attention."

"Yeah, she's some piece of ass. And she's my piece of ass."

"Cool. Well, it was good seeing you again. Hey, you want a new suit? I've got some Armanis… come with me."

House followed Bill into the basement of the bar and was delighted by the sight of numerous cases of liquor including two of Talisker. In the corner was a rack of suits. House stepped over and Bill pulled one out, an olive tweed.

"Nope, too short. You've got long arms…" Bill pulled out another one, a 44L tailored navy blue pinstripe suit. The label was definitely Armani. "Yeah, this is it. It goes with your eyes."

House looked at it, it was a beautiful suit. "How about a case of Talisker to go with it?"

Bill nodded to one of his guys to grab a case, "Put it in his trunk."

House was a happy camper, an Armani suit and a case of Talisker. Too cool.