Happy Fathers Day!. Hope you all enjoy this unexpected posting today!
A special thanks goes to my own personal Beta JAR. Thanks for believing in me! ;)
OoOoO
Chapter 5
Stacks of law journals and heavy, leather bound books were piled on top of his desk. Albert was lost behind them, only the glow from his desk lamp indicated to anyone passing by that he was still there. It was late. The research required to find a way to help Tony had Albert spending longer hours at RangeMan. Most of the time you could find him furiously scribbling notes and flipping through the pages of one or more of his books that were spread out in front of him. With his reading glasses perched toward the end of his nose, he scanned the pages quickly, making more notes as needed.
Suddenly Albert nearly jumped out of his chair. He was on to something; his ideas were rolling around inside his brain, waiting to form the full picture. Albert's research caused him to have a few more questions and lingering doubts about the night of the arrest. And since Hector had been the one to speak with their witness, Albert needed to clarify a few points with him. So he set off in search of him. He couldn't find him in the comm room or the break room, and finally Lester suggested that he look for Hector in the gym. After Albert gave him a blank stare, Les rolled his eyes and gave Albert directions down to the gym. Albert was slightly embarrassed so he nodded and thanked him and headed down as quickly as he could.
Coming out of the stairwell, Albert expected to be assaulted by the odors typically associated with a gym, but he was surprised to be standing in a room that looked like a gym, but smelled like everything was new. Ella worked her magic all through the building, the gym was no exception. Albert looked around the room that was filled with floor mats, racks of barbells and huge weights. All kinds of equipment, complicated things that he had never seen before, had been set up around the perimeter of the room, leaving space for a sparring ring in the center of the huge room. Albert spotted Hector on the far side of the gym on a treadmill.
As he made his way over, Hector looked up at him and nodded, "Hola, Alberto," he greeted him. Albert approached and started to ask his questions. They quickly got into to a deep discussion, but after a few minutes Albert felt kind of odd standing on a different level from Hector, so he stepped up onto the treadmill right next to his and they continued talking. Hector nonchalantly reached over and punched a few buttons and Albert's treadmill started moving. Startled, Albert grabbed the handrails to keep himself from losing balance and stared up at Hector. Hector just smiled and shrugged his shoulders and continued on with their discussion as if there had been no interruption at all. What could he do? Albert started walking.
He asked more questions and before he knew it, they had been talking and walking for a good half an hour, if not more. Hector turned off his treadmill, and stepped down. Albert gave him a panicked look. Smiling, Hector reached over and turned the treadmill off and made sure that Albert was able to step off safely. Albert followed Hector out on wobbly legs, but he had enough answers to keep working, and he had so many ideas suddenly going through his head, he wanted to get back up to his desk and make notes so he wouldn't forget any of them. He was definitely on to something.
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Nicki was close to tears, staring down at the huge rip in her brother's hoodie. It was torn from the elbow all the way down to the wrist. Underneath the hole, she could see the gash in her arm, it was bleeding all over the sleeve and it was starting to hurt. The pain was excruciating. But it was the sweatshirt that she was most concerned about. She knew Jake was going to kill her, and right now he already had a million reasons to be mad as hell at her. The hoodie, she realized, would be one of the least of his complaints. And this was his favorite sweatshirt we were talking about. She was wearing it because it was the only black, unmarked shirt that she could find and she had needed something to help her hide in the shadows tonight. The fact that she was following Tony around again would probably be one of the more serious reasons that Jake would have to be angry at her. She felt that he was always too protective of her, but she knew that this could be 'the straw that breaks the camel's back' for him.
Nicki sighed, knowing that Jake was going to hate it, that she had followed Tony again, despite his constant warnings. She vowed she wasn't going to let him catch her this time, and she was getting really good at her stealth mode, but the damage to the sweatshirt would bring up the questions of how it happened, and she knew he would guess what she had been doing. Jake knew that Nicki liked his best friend; he'd known it for a long time. But Tony had been getting into all kinds of trouble since he got sucked into that stupid street gang with his cousin, and he didn't want his little sister anywhere near him right now. Nicki just couldn't agree with him, she knew Tony liked her too, and she thought that maybe she could help him. She was just not sure what she could do. So she got it into her head if she followed him, she could figure out what he needed.
It was bad enough that Jake was out that night, it was cold and almost raining, a really good night to stay inside. But he had promised Tony that he would help him. Something big was going down and Tony didn't trust anyone. He had begged Jake to come, so he agreed to go, but the whole thing got screwed up. Someone changed the plans, and by the time he got there, the gang was already on the move. All Jake could do was to follow them and hope for the best. Tony never even knew that he was there. But fortunately, neither did any of the other guys.
So Jake followed them, and watched as they broke into the office building. He saw everyone go in, and moments later as if they had changed their minds, everyone came back out. That is, everyone but Tony. As soon as he thought it was clear, Jake started to get out of his hiding place and started searching for his friend. But before he could get far, all these big men dressed in black clothing showed up. And almost right behind them, the local police. Within minutes Tony was being dragged out of the office and into the patrol car in handcuffs, and all Jake could do was watch. There was no way he could help his friend now. "Great, just great," he muttered under his breath. It had all gone about as wrong as it possibly could. But Jake stayed in hiding until after he watched the police drive away. Things really didn't look good for Tony.
After the police left the men in black seemed to linger longer than what Jake would have expected. There was something unusual about the way the men in black were acting. Jake maneuvered so that he could get close enough to hear what they were saying. They were mad. And he was relieved to discover that they were not mad at Tony, but they seemed to be angry with the cops. Jake was close enough that he could see some of their faces. And he could see the tattoo below the eye of the short guy standing nearest to him. It was a single teardrop. Jake immediately knew that under normal circumstances, he would be scared of that guy. Tony had told him about the significance of those kinds of marks and what they meant, and that would have worried him.
But when Jake heard one of the men say that something did not feel right about this whole thing, he felt an overwhelming relief. And when the man with the teardrop went on to say he thought that Tony might need some help, Jake felt something like hope. He took in a slow, deep breath. The men in black all got into the big black trucks they came in and drove away. Jake watched the trucks as they disappeared around the corner and then made his way home. He felt sick; he thought that he had let Tony down. He'd spent the rest of the weekend trying to figure out how he could help him now. And he couldn't get the words he had heard out of his mind. He needed to find those men. He knew they could hold the key to helping Tony.
Sneaking back into her room, Nicki was still trying to absorb all that had happened tonight. Her arm was still throbbing, but the bleeding had stopped. And as she washed the dried blood away, she was relieved to see it didn't look as bad as she thought it would. At least she didn't think that stitches would be required. There was the sweatshirt problem that she would have to face soon, but right now she was only thinking about Tony. She knew that he was in trouble, she desperately wanted to help him. She knew that she had to help him.
Both Nicki and Jake had been in hiding tonight. They heard and saw the same things, but from different vantage points. In fact, she had been secretly following Tony for weeks now, and she had probably heard more than anyone outside the gang should have. To be safe, she had taken photos on her phone and kept notes of all that she had found out, thinking that it might be important to Tony at some time. But right now, none of this mattered as her thoughts for Tony's safety were her biggest concern.
Nicki had a kind of sixth sense when it came to Tony. She knew when he was near, she could even guess when it was him calling her brother's cell phone. So it was no wonder that she had picked up on all of the hidden clues to tell her that she needed to follow him tonight. Like several times before, Nicki felt like she was being very careful in her attempts to follow along and watch the actions of the gang as they went about their illegal activities. She had kept her distance, but still remained close enough to observe many things, most of which would have put her in danger if she had been caught. So it was upsetting to her that she had been so careless tonight.
Nicki had become so immersed in the conversations she was hearing that she didn't see the nail protruding through the wall as she tried to move closer and closer. The sharp pain that she felt as the nail tore through the sweatshirt and gouged her arm was enough to bring her back to reality and it took all of her strength not to scream out and reveal herself to the gang members. This little mishap presented a problem or two to her, but she was there for a reason, so she applied direct pressure to the wound on her arm and continued on. She wasn't about to miss out on anything important because she had been stupid enough to injure her arm.
With a few carefully placed butterfly bandages holding the gash closed, Nicki wrapped the wound with gauze and hid it under a long sleeve t-shirt. She sat on her bed, knees pulled up to her chest, her arms were wrapped around her legs in her best thinking position. Tony was in trouble. She wanted to help him, but she realized that she could not do it alone. She was going to have to tell Jake what she had seen. And it was this thought that had her sitting there on her bed staring blankly at the wall.
Jake would not want to hear what she had to tell him. He would not want her involved. But Tony needed help, and she couldn't simply wait for the sweatshirt to give Jake the clue that she had been out tonight. She was going to have to talk to Jake and she needed to do it soon. So she waited, and waited for Jake to return. It seemed like an eternity, but he still hadn't arrived and it was getting to be difficult to keep awake. Jake was out so late, and by the time he came home, she had dozed off.
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The next morning was a breakthrough day for Albert. He sensed he was getting closer to putting all of the pieces of the puzzle together. In doing so, Albert had some more questions for Hector. After looking in all the usual places for him, Albert remembered the gym, and headed down to see if Hector was down there. He was. This time he was lifting weights. Albert moved closer and was mesmerized by the play of tension in Hector's muscles as he raised and then lowered the weights in each of his hands.
"Alberto!" Hector acknowledged him as he walked in.
"Hola Hector," Albert said with a smile, pleased with himself that he was using Spanish. "I've got a few more questions," he said. Hector nodded and they got started with the question and answer session. Albert had to stand there, as there were no benches or chairs anywhere close. And after a few minutes, Hector put down his weights and picked up a pair that he handed to Albert. Selecting a new set for himself as well, he started to pump the weights, and he nodded at Albert to follow the motions. Albert felt lost at first but soon began to get the hang of it.
For the next 20 minutes, they talked and lifted weights. Hector leading him in a series of exercises with the 5 pound weights he'd given him. All the while they discussed Tony's case. Again Albert experienced a rush of ideas bombarding his mind, and as soon as they were done, he put down the weights and headed back to his desk to write them down before he forgot them. Albert was a little bit tired after the makeshift workout. But his mind seemed to be working overtime. Strange, he felt the same way after his experience on the treadmill. He looked carefully at all the notes that he had taken. No doubt in his mind that he was on to something big. Albert smiled to himself knowing he was getting closer to a solution.