6
Chapter 543 Christmas Comes Early
"
This church there was a full table with Clay, Jax, Tig, Piney, Chibs, Opie, Happy, Sack and Kozik who was visiting from Tacoma. Jax decided to test out bringing the MC into the search for Louise and Violet's killer.
"I have a couple of things to discuss," Jax began. "The first one isn't so pleasant. We've been busy with hunting Esai, but that's over. Remember Louise? Someone took her from Charming and killed her."
A silence fell over the table. Everyone knew Louise and liked her.
"We offered a reward and looked for her," Clay reminded Jax.
"Yeah and there aren't any leads. I talked to her mother today and the cops haven't done shit. Hale can't touch the case because it's outside his jurisdiction and the county sheriffs have their hands full dealing with all the drug and homeless crimes. We owe it to Louise and to Violet. Remember her? She hung around the clubhouse for a month or so, went missing and was found dead exactly like Louise."
"Aye," Chibs said nodding. "I remember Violet. Hooked up with her a time or two. Nice girl."
"You think there's a connection?" Opie asked.
"We knew Louise and Violet came to the clubhouse and now both girls are dead. Could be a consequence or it could be someone targeted them because there's a connection to us."
"What do you want to do VP?" Clay asked with thinly veiled sarcasm.
"I want us to look into it. First thing, we need to rule out there's any connection to anyone in the MC," Jax said. Tig choked on his beer. Jax paused while everyone laughed at him. "If it's someone on the inside, it could be disastrous for our image. We need to find that person and send them to Chigger woods." Jax promised Scarlett that he wouldn't kill the murderer, but if that person had a connection to the MC that person had to die to protect the MC. Scarlett was reasonable. She would understand.
"My favorite place to dump a body if we can't use Skeeter," Happy said fondly. "Damned drought has made digging tough though."
"Fucking climate change," Juice added.
"Before global warning got popular, they said there was going to be another ice age," Piney grumbled. "Even if climate change exists, there's not much we can do about it. That's the truth, but all the tech companies just want to get rich on climate change fear mongering and selling people crap."
"Fucking greedy companies," Juice said.
"Back to Louise and Violet," Jax intervened. "Next church, Juice I want a list of everyone that hangs around, is a friend of the MC or comes into the clubhouse occasionally. We need to look at these people first."
"I vetted a lot of those people. I can take point," Tig volunteered.
"We need to take a completely new look at them," Jax said. "Start from scratch. Your biggest concern is that no one is connected to law enforcement. We're looking for someone who could be a serial killer."
Tig frowned sticking out his lower lip. Jax ignored him. Tig sometimes pouted like a girl. He needed to grow a pair.
Everyone agreed the club needed to take a hard look inside to rule out anyone connected to them as the killer of Louise and Violet.
"On a new subject, starting this weekend, I'll be staying with Scarlett for a month maybe more while my house gets renovated. Turns out her old man's a contractor and he's going to help me get my house fixed up."
"It's about time," Opie said.
"Yeah, it's definitely overdue. I'm getting rid of most of the furniture except the kitchen table and chairs and my bedroom furniture. I'm also getting rid of my mattress and the headboard and getting a new one."
"Too many miles on that thing," Chibs said and everyone chuckled including Jax.
"Yeah, something like that. Anyway I thought the clubhouse or the apartment could use my refrigerator. I'm getting rid of the appliances too and getting ones that all match."
"Getting a little fancy, aren't you boy?" Piney said.
"He has to be fancy to keep up with his old lady," Bobby said.
"If I'd only seen her first," Chibs said.
"She'd have dumped your ass the second she saw Jax," Opie said.
"Chibs has got a little crush on her since she threatened to ram a broken bottle up his ass," Juice said.
"Yeah," Chibs said chuckling. "That's one fine old lady you got there."
"Is that the way to your heart Chibby? A girl threatens to ram a bottle up your ass?" Tig asked.
"That's enough of this bottle ramming stuff," Bobby said.
"What about finger jamming?" Chibs asked. "Juicy where were your fingers after Jax got shot in the ass?"
"Where were they?" Kozik asked.
"In Jax's ass," the guys said in unison except Jax and Juice who looked down at the table avoiding eye contact. Everyone except Jax and Juice laughed recalling that night.
"No wonder SAMCRO is known as the fun charter," Kozik said. "Not sure I want any bottle ramming or finger jamming in my ass fun, but you got to have your fun when you can find it."
"Back to my point, I'm getting rid of everything. If anyone wants anything, come by tomorrow and pick it up after 9. Anything left will get picked up by Goodwill."
"My daughter Dawn could use the bed," Tig said. "She doesn't need to know about all the miles."
"Pick it up tomorrow and it's yours," Jax said.
"Does that include me?" Sack asked.
"Anything not picked up by noon, you can have," Jax said. "On Monday, a crew's coming to demo the floors and carpet. I'm adding on to the back of the house with a bathroom and making that back bedroom into a master suite."
"Have you mentioned this to Gemma?" Clay asked.
"Who?" Jax asked raising an eyebrow. "It's not her business."
"I'd like that couch and the recliner," Bobby said. "I got stuck with that Victorian looking crap from my last divorce. Anyone want it?"
"Hell no," Chibs said and everyone laughed.
"Sack you want it?" Bobby asked.
"Sure. I can always sell it," Sack said.
"Have you seen it?" Opie asked.
"People will buy anything," Sack said seriously. "It's all in how you word the ad."
"I'll be a little late Monday since I want to watch a little of the demo and not leave all the supervision to Scarlett's old man. I've been gone a lot, but that's over for now. While I was helping Scars, I met a guy who had some military grade body armor and some weapons accessories. He was going out of business, so I bought some of his inventory," Jax said. Decker was actually the one who got Jax everything at his cost.
Jax got up from the table and lifted two boxes and put them on the table.
"Christmas comes early," Chibs said digging into one of the boxes and taking out the body armor. "Aye, this is good stuff."
Bobby opened the other box and pulled out more body armor and some silencers including a couple for automatic weapons.
"Nice stuff," Happy said running his hands along one of the silencers.
All the guys were happy about Jax's surprise presents to the MC except Clay. Clay didn't like anything that Jax did that might make him more popular than him. Jax knew that Clay lived in fear he would decide he didn't want to wait for Clay's hands to go and would challenge him for the gavel.
"I think I got the right sizes and enough stuff for everyone," Jax said. "I just wanted to say thanks for everyone covering for me."
The guys cheered him while Clay pretended to be happy. Clay needed to throttle back the jealousy or the guys were going to notice, Jax thought.
"Hey, Jax, remember you promised me your bed," Tig said.
"Don't worry. I won't give it to anyone else, but you better get it tomorrow by noon."
Tig smiled. He wasn't pouting anymore.