Author's Note: Once again, sorry for the delay. I'm still struggling with some writer's block though it's getting better. Thank you again for your wonderful reviews, alerts and favorites!

The Blue Line Job

Chapter Seven: Hit

Mother Nature had decided to dump gallons of water on the greater Fitchburg area the entire day. Eliot was thankful that they had arrived at their last home because it meant he was that much closer to getting a hot shower and dry clothes. Jo was starting to look a little worse for wear as well. She had spent the last twenty minutes of the drive trying not to fall asleep. They both got out of the car and scrambled up onto the covered porch of the country home. Jo tucked some wet curls behind her ear and pressed the doorbell.

"This is retired Chief Ken Bradford. He was the Chief before Reilly."

"And he's not inside the house."

Eliot took half a step in front of Jo but she ducked around him, heading towards the gray headed man that was sitting on an old fashioned porch swing.

"Chief Bradford," Jo greeted him with a one armed hug and the most genuine smile Eliot had seen the entire time he had known her.

"It's Ken now, please." He motioned for her to sit down. "Who's your bodyguard there, Jo?"

"This is Eliot Turner. He's my temporary partner while Kyle is on vacation."

Eliot extended his hand towards Ken and was rewarded with a strong handshake. "Nice to meet you, sir."

"So," Ken returned to his seat on the porch swing, "you didn't drive out all this way to show off your temp. What's really going on here?"

Jo had taken the space on the swing next to Ken and Eliot pulled one of the rocking chairs closer to swing before sitting down. Jo had handled the explanation of events the entire day, altering the delivery each time. The other two retired cops she had spoken with were more than ready to offer their help so Eliot expected this to go the same way. However, after Jo had finished her request, Ken Bradford put his scotch glass down on the porch floor.

"I'm sorry, Jo, but I can't do anything for you."

Eliot watched Jo's face fall and it disturbed him on various levels. "Why can't you help?"

"It's okay, Eliot," Jo responded but the timber in her voice said otherwise.

"You don't understand the position I'm in right now," Ken added.

"Then explain it to us."

"Eliot!"

Eliot stood up from the chair and headed towards the other end of porch before his temper got the better of him. He didn't mind if people didn't want to help, it happened a lot in their line of work. But Jo was certain of this man's help and his refusal had shocked her and Eliot felt the residual sting of Jo's hurt. There had to be a reason, one this guy didn't want known.

"Hardison?"

"Yeah man, I'm on it."

"Hurry up, Jo's wrapping up the visit."

There were a couple beats of silence before Hardison came back on the comm. "Alright, here we go and you're not going to like this so please, do not hit anything."

"You don't hurry it up, I'll hit you."

"Okay, okay. Ken Bradford was the Chief before Reilly but he took an early retirement and when I say took-"

"He was paid off to retire, yeah, I get it. Why?"

"His wife had cancer and uh, insurance didn't want to pay for the treatment."

Eliot expelled the breath he had been holding. "You want me to confront him?"

"Me?" Hardison answered. "Well, I'm just touched-"

"Not you," Eliot cut him off. "Nate?"

There was a rough sound in Eliot's ear, a sound he had come to realize was Nate clearing his throat. "Talk to Jo on the way back her house, see what you can't find out from her before we start rummaging through his life."

"Alright." Eliot slowly made his way back across the porch just as Jo was standing up to leave. She gave him an uneasy look which he ignored. "Sorry about before."

Ken waved his hand. "Not a problem. It's nice to see partners take an actually interest in each other."

Jo gave him another hug. "I'll keep you up to date with what's going on."

"Tell your mother I said 'hello.' And Jo, watch your back. You're digging up things that shouldn't be seeing the light of day."

Jo have a slight nod and started to walk down to the car, Eliot following her quietly. They were both soaking wet again and Eliot noticed Jo was shivering. He flipped the heater on and started out of the driveway. Before he could even ask her about Ken Bradford, she started talking.

"They must have gotten to him already." She dropped her head foreward and pinched the bridge of her nose. "What did Hardison have to say?"

"How did you-"

"I figured that's why you got up, acting like you were upset and needing time to cool off, to talk to Hardison."

Eliot white knuckled the steering wheel, debating whether to tell her the truth or indulge her misinterpretation.

"It wasn't an act," she stated simply. "You really were upset. Why?"

He decided to ignore the line of questioning. "I did talk to Hardison. How is Bradford's wife doing with her cancer treatment?"

"She died two years ago from a heart attack. The doctor's said the treatment she received was too much on her heart and it just gave out. What else did Hardison say?"

Eliot sighed and released the death grip on the steering wheel. "He said that Bradford was bribed into early retirement. Reilly probably offered him enough cash to pay for the cancer treatment for his wife's treatment so he took it."

Jo was quiet for a few minutes. "You know, I don't think I could find it in myself to blame him for taking that money. It did give him a few more years with her. I'm all about playing by the rules but sometimes..."

Eliot smiled. "Sometimes you have to find people who play outside of the sand box."

Jo laughed. "Exactly. We'll find someone else to help us." She stifled a yawn.

Nate's voice sounded in his ear. "She wants to leave Bradford alone then that's what we'll do."

Eliot concentrated on retracing the turns to get him back to route 12 and when he finally did, he turned to say something to Jo only to find her sound asleep. Finally, she looked relaxed and as peaceful as he had ever seen her. He hoped she stayed that way for the rest of the ride.

"How's your end of this going, Nate?" Eliot whispered.

"We're about to find out," came Nate's answer. "Reilly just walked into the bar."

JR's Pub, Fitchburg

Nate fiddled with the scotch glass in front of him. He was trying, making an effort to drink less. He hadn't done a job drunk in over six months and he considered that a significant improvement. Apparently the rest of the team must have seen it the same way. Even Sophie had stopped looking over his shoulder so much and that was enough reason to limit himself to one glass.

"How's your end of this going, Nate?" Eliot's voice crackled in his ear.

"We're about to find out," he answered, "Reilly just walked into the bar."

The police chief's eyes roved over the clientel and Nate had to shake his head. Compared to some of the other marks they had gone up against, this guy was a push over. At least he didn't show up in his uniform. He ordered a beer and carried it over to the booth where Nate was sitting. Reilly spent most of his life trying to prove himself so a little ego stroking wouldn't hurt.

"I'm sorry there," Nate said in his best Long Island accent, "but I'm expecting someone, chief."

Reilly gave him a toothy grin. "Yeah, I know. I'm Mark, the guy you spoke with on the phone this morning."

"Oh, my apologies then," Nate shook the Chief's hand. "Please, have a seat. We have some, uh, business to discuss."

"Yeah, about that," Reilly slid into the booth across from Nate. "I already have a horse I'm backing in the coming mayoral election. I could have told you that over the phone."

"I understand but I figured you would want to know what kind of people you're letting into your, uh, quaint little town here. It's a lovely town, might bring my wife back for a weekend. The Moretti's," Nate waved dismissively, "they're no good. You need a family who appareciates your special kind of cunning."

Reilly chuckled. "I'm not a stupid man, Mr. Gallo. I know I don't have the mind the mob is looking for but I do have something that they want. I can arrange things to work in my favor but I know when I'm trying to be played."

"Not trying to play ya, Mark. Just want to ask you one question though: how would you like to keep that ten million for yourself?"

Reilly's pint glass paused halfway to his mouth. "Go ahead."

"As you know, I represent the De Luca family. The De Luca's and the Moretti's don't exactly see eye to eye anymore. Something to do with a De Luca marrying a Moretti and then the idiot kid cheated on the girl and well, more than one person ended up in the Hudson, let's just say. The mother of the slighted girl wants nothing more than to show the Moretti's the door. When she heard about the Moretti's using Fitchburg as their back door into Boston, she called me to offer you a deal you shouldn't refuse."

"You have my attention."

Nate opened his mouth to continue with the deal when some movement to his left caught his attention. As he turned to see what it was, the pub door opened and he felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. Something was off...something was about to happen and it wasn't going to be pleasant.

Jo felt the comfort of sleep slowly start to unravel. It was an instinctual sense that she had developed from growing up in a police officer's home and followed by ten years on the force. Something was wrong. She forced herself back to consciousness and tried to clear her mind. It didn't take much effort as Eliot already had one hand pressed to his ear and was shouting.

"Nate? What's going on?"

Jo couldn't hear anything from Eliot's ear bud but judging from the tight look on his face, there was a lot of chatter he was trying to process. He tried calling Nate's name a couple more times but grimaced each time. She wished she had her police scanner with her or at least her laptop so she could check the emergency calls that were live. Eliot turned towards her.

"Do you know where JR's Pub is?"

"Yeah, I do."

"If someone was hurt there, where would they take them?"

"HealthAlliance in downtown. If it's serious, they'll life flight them to Boston. What happened?"

"Don't know yet."

Jo pulled out her cell phone and called her house. Her mother picked up on the second ring and Jo cut her off. "Mom, I need you to get on my computer right now." She waited for a couple seconds and listened to her mother type in passwords. "I need you to go the live call center website and type in my badge number and password."

"Okay."

"Look for any live emergency calls that are coming from JR's."

"Oh, there's a bunch of them."

Jo took a deep breath. "What do they say?"

"It's a bunch of ambulance calls...a 33 code went out."

"Shooting," Jo said. "Mom, watch the news and keep checking the live call center. If you find out anything, call me."

"What happened?" her mother asked.

"Nate was at JR's and something happened. I'll call when I know more."

"Alright. Same here," she answered.

Jo snapped her phone shut. "The only thing that's coming across the interent call center are shots fired and ambulance calls. We have no way to get further information unless we go to JR's. You have your badge?"

"Glove compartment. Hardison is following the live call feed too."

Jo fished out her badge from her purse and sliped the chain over her neck. She opened the glove compartment and handed Eliot's badge to him. The ride back to Fitchburg seemed excruiatingly long and was punctuated every few minutes with Eliot trying to reach someone from the team who knew something but chaos was still running rampant. Parker was at the scene, Sophie waiting at the hospital and Hardison watching the live calls. When Eliot finally pulled onto the street where JR's Pub was located, the police already had the block taped off. He parked the car along the curb and they quickly made their way under the yellow tape. Jo grabbed the first friendly face she found.

"Robert, what happened?"

The tall middle aged man turned around to face her. "A bunch of mob guys went into JR's and shot up the place."

"Anyone hurt?"

"Yay, about six people got caught in the crossfire."

"Anyone killed?"

Robert shifted on his feet and looked back at the front of the pub. The lucky patrons were gathered on the sidewalk, pale faced and crying. "Uh, one fatality so far."

Jo scanned the faces of the victims, searching for Nathan but she didn't see him. She held her breath. "Who was it?"

"Chief Reilly."

Jo felt the wind rush out of her lungs. As her mind was trying to process the idea of Reilly dead, Eliot pushed past her, shoving his keys into her good hand. She saw where he was going, Nathan was just brought out of the pub on a stretcher. The EMTs were moving fast, cutting bloody scraps of clothes from his torso. He looked bad and Jo swallowed hard. Eliot climbed into the back of the ambulance and soon they were on their way to the hospital.