Leverage:

The Blue Line Job

Chapter Four: More Missing Pieces

The next morning, Nathan got up to find his team up and working already. Well, everyone minus Eliot who had to report to his second day on the job but not before planting a camera in front of Reilly's home. Parker was perched on the arm of the couch by Hardison, munching on cereal and reading over his shoulder. Sophie was sipping coffee and lost in thought but he knew she was running different characters through her mind for the next part of the con. He poured himself a cup of coffee and sat down across from her.

"Any ideas?"

She made a slight grimace. "We need more information on Reilly. Convincing him his money isn't safe wherever he's stashing it might not work in such a small town as this. He probably knows the bank manager and the board. For all we know, they could be on his payroll."

"That's possible. We could always show up needing a loan and when we make the first payment use marked bills that Hardison can follow. We can gain access to the account that way."

"But what if he's running multiple accounts?" Sophie countered.

"Then that's a problem."

"Yeah," Hardison spoke up, "I may have found a couple other problems too. I can't find anything on Jo's brother. According to police records, bank records, even his job evaluations, this man was clean."

"Completely?" Nathan asked.

"A couple speeding tickets and 'show more enthusiasm at work' from his work evaluation, that's all the negative stuff I can find. Not one thing in here says he had a gambling or drinking problem."

Nathan frowned. "No public drunkenness charges or DUI's?"

Hardison shook his head. "Not a one."

"Is Eliot with Jo right now?"

Sophie looked at her watch. "He left about ten minutes ago to pick her up, so not yet. What are you thinking?"

"I think I may let Jo do her job today and pay a visit to her mother."

Sophie nodded. "Her mother is likely to know more about the situation than Jo does. We've seen the hours she keeps. I can't imagine she would have been aware of what her brother was up to all the time. Besides, we shouldn't give her hope unless we have the facts to back it up. She seems almost at the breaking point as it is."

Nathan had to admit, he felt the same way about Jo when he had met her. She was on the last reserves of hope and running on fumes of energy. Her mother was in a similar state of mind but had a handful more hope than Jo. Nathan had a long talk with Eliot before sending the hitter into the police station. He reminded Eliot to blend into the background as best as possible, to stay out of Jo's way until he knew how to best offer his help to her. He knew the talk wasn't necessary, not when he was pairing a good cop with Eliot, but it drove the point home nonetheless.

"Well," Nathan stood up from the table, "Sophie, do you feel like taking a ride out to see Jo's mother with me?"

Hardison raised a hand. "Before you do that, you might want to hear this too."

Nathan turned back to the TV and watched as a photo of a young man appeared on the screen. He looked vaguely familiar but Nathan couldn't place him at the moment.

"This is Brian Gregory," Hardison started. "This is the eighteen year old football star that was supposedly killed in the car accident with Jo's brother."

Nathan almost did a double take. "Wait, supposedly?"

"Just on a hunch, I double checked the Gregory's bank account to see what the settlement money went towards." Hardison called up a cancelled check scan on the screen. "Now you tell me, why would a dead football star need a college degree at UCLA?"

"He wouldn't!" Parker exclaimed triumphantly. "Cause he's dead, right?"

"Almost got it, Parker." Nathan grinned at the thief and turned towards Sophie. "Let's still visit Jo's mother and when we get back we'll give the Gregory's a call and see what we can't find out from them."

Sophie raised her eyebrows. "We're going to call them?"

"No, not us exactly but Margie from UCLA's tuition office will."

"Ah," Sophie smiled and picked up her purse.

As Nathan was leaving he heard Parker from the couch, "Do you know this Margie Nate's talking about?"

"What do you mean do I know? Don't you know...," Hardison made a disgusted noise. "Don't you have to get ready for the bank?"

Jo was not ready for another day of work. She had been up half the night arguing with Amber over her new boyfriend and some less than clean texts she had found on her niece's phone. Jo had looked up Jeremy Voight as soon as Amber asked if she could go to the movies with him. The kid was a year older than Amber with a rap sheet of two misdemeanors. She tried to discourage the dating but didn't want to put her foot down too hard in case Amber decided to run off with the boy. Amber was a lot like Jo when she was seventeen and that made Jo shudder at times like these. Then she found the texts on Amber's phone that had been laying out on the kitchen table dinging last night at eleven o'clock.

A bedroom door slammed and Amber stalked out into the kitchen stormy faced. "I was suppose to go shopping with my friends today for graduation dresses."

Jo took a deep breath and a sip of coffee before responding. "You should of thought about that before you sent those texts to Jeremy."

Amber rolled her eyes. "It's not like I'm sending naked pictures of myself to him."

"God help you if I ever find out you've done that."

"Are the pictures or the words sexting?" Jo's mother chimed in.

"Pictures," Amber answered. "Which, I didn't do."

Jo put her coffee cup down with a bang. "Actually, words and pictures are considered sexting. Thank you for asking, Mom. By the way, how old is Jeremy?"

"No way," Amber shook her head. "You can't file charges against him."

"If this ever happens again," Jo picked up Amber's cell phone, "you better believe I'll press charges."

Amber emitted a sound that was a cross between a growl and a scream. "I hate it that you're a cop!"

Jo buried her nose in her coffee cup. She didn't want Amber and her mother to know, she felt exactly the same way. She wasn't sure if it was her job or just her life that she was tired of at the moment. It didn't change the fact that she was tired. A knock at the door interrupted the family quarrel and Jo went to answer the door. Eliot stood there, hands in his pockets and looking a little sheepish.

"I didn't mean to interrupt but your neighbors were starting to stare at me."

Jo poked her head out of the door and saw the elderly woman that lived to the right of her staring Eliot down with a scowl. Jo waved at her as Eliot slipped past into the house. By the time she went back inside, her mother was already handing him a cup of coffee.

"Mrs. Fennigen thinks she's the neighborhood crime watch."

"He's in a cop uniform, Grandma," Amber chimed in.

Jo's mother pointed towards Eliot's head. "It's the ponytail." Then she extended her hand. "I'm Susan Wyatt."

"Eliot Turner."

Jo was thankful he kept his regular name. Trying to keep a bunch of different names straight would be next to impossible for her now.

"So, Aunt Jo?"

Jo put her hands on her hips and faced off with her niece. "So what?"

"Can I go to the mall with my friends today to look for graduation dresses?"

"No, you can not."

"What am I suppose to do? Grandma?"

"I'm talking to Mr. Turner, dear."

"Amber," Jo picked up her keys and clipped them to her belt. "I'll take you myself to pick out dresses next weekend."

"That sounds like fun," Amber grumbled as she left the kitchen.

"The nicer teenager is still asleep."

"Mom!"

"Well," Susan shrugged, "it's true."

Jo rubbed her forehead tiredly. "I gotta go to work, Mom. Can you handle them?"

"I handled you and Rob, didn't I?"

Eliot placed the mug back down on the counter. "Thank you, Susan."

"You know, since summer is almost upon us-"

"Mom." Jo gave her mother a warning look but it was going completely unheeded.

"We always grill out on Sundays. Why don't you stop over after your shift? Tell Mr. Dodge and your friends to come too."

Eliot gave Jo a confused look. "Dodge?"

"She means Mr. Ford."

He actually laughed. "I'll tell them about the invite. That's very kind of you."

"We'll see you tomorrow then." Susan turned to Jo. "Be safe, honey."

Eliot stepped out of the house and Jo gave her mother a withering glance that was once again completely deflected.

"I like his hair."

Jo picked up her hat and jammed it under arm. "Down, Delilah."

Parker kept rubbing her fingers together to ease the itchiness she felt there. It was tough working in a bank as a teller, around all that money and not being able to just stick some away. But no, she had to focus. She wasn't there to steal money this time. She was there to get the inside look at the bank accounts for Reilly and Gregory as well as getting into the lock box where the voided checks were kept. She had already cracked the safe this morning and found the checks weren't there. She did, however, find the number of the lock box that held them though.

Her chance came around eleven in the morning, when most of the tellers took their lunch break to beat the lunch hour rush from the businesses around the bank. One other teller was left to watch over the "new girl" but she became involved in a gossipy story from the woman at the drive through window. Parker plugged in the flash drive Hardison had given her and quickly downloaded those two accounts. When the download was complete, she slipped the flash drive back into her pocket.

"I got the Reilly and Gregory accounts."

"Excellent. Just in case we find something fishy in them, at least we have them for evidence," Hardison answered back. "Now, you just need to get down to the vault."

Parker looked at the man who just came in through the front door and smiled. "My way just walked through the door." She watched as Nate spoke to someone about using a lockbox while he was in town on business. When the teller was ready to take him down to the vault, Parker quickly exited from behind her counter.

"Shirley," she called out. "I was wondering if you could show me how you handle the lock boxes downstairs."

The older woman gave her a slightly surprised look.

"It's just," Parker tried to look excited but normal at the same time, "I just want to learn everything I can."

Shirley looked back at Nate. "Do you mind if she accompanies us, sir?"

"What, me? No," he answered in an accent that reminded Parker of Eliot. "If this little lady is interested in learning banking, then by george she should come with us."

As the trio went down the stairs, Parker lifted the master key from Shirley's pocket and handed it to Nate. He placed it the key molding box she had given him and then quickly took it out and Parker replaced it back into Shirley's pocket. It was a trick she had a done a couple of times but it had always worked. She stood there while Shirley explained the lock boxes and the key system to her and Nate. As Shirley turned to leave Parker slid Nate a note that had the lock box number where all the voided checks were kept. He gave her a quick nod and she returned back upstairs to the counter to finish out her day as a teller.

A few minutes later, Nate appeared from below, gave Shirley a friendly wave and then turned towards Parker and patted his shirt pocket.

"So?" Parker asked lowly so no one else would hear her talking to herself. "Who are the checks made out to?"

She heard Nate exhale heavily. "A new name to this whole mess. Hardison, I need you to find me everything you can on a Sean O'Malley."