The Messinger Sisters

“Wait just a second, how do you guys know Greene? Well enough to use his first name at that?” Angel asked.

“Bella dated him for a while just after high school,” Andi answered.

“Are we even doing anything today?” Jay re-asked Bella’s question.

“Yes. We’re going to the shooters’ place. See if we can find out who hired them,” Bobby answered, holding up two wallets. “Just wait here a minute while I go get dressed,” He left the room and was back in five minutes.

“Wonderful. Do we know yet where that is or are you gonna wait until we’re all in my car?” Bella raised an eyebrow.

Bobby pulled out one of the licenses. “West Marine’s. That’s down by the river, right?” Bobby looked to Bella.

“Yeah. Come on, let’s go take a look,” Bella responded.

AS they started to walk out the doorway of the living room, Sofi put her arm across the doorway, leaning against the frame. “Baby,” Angel stated.

“Now sweetie, wasn’t there a discussion about a dinner together? Because I seem to remember spending two hours in the kitchen.”

“We got some important shit to deal with, baby.”

“She’s so la vida loca,” Bobby adopted a fake accent.

“Man, don’t do that shit right now.”

“Shut up, Bobby!” Sofi moved out of the doorway. “Don’t you start with that crap.”

“Can ya’ll not go there?” The three of them started talking at the same time and Jay had trouble telling who said what.

“Can we go?” Bobby looked to Angel.

“Angel, you said this time was gonna be different,” Sofi faced him, put her hands on his shoulders, and adopted a whiney voice.

“Ah, mami, you’re breaking mi corazon, chica,” Bobby adopted the fake accent again and Sofi walked away. “She’s getting real comfortable here, huh? What are you doin?” He moved to stand in front of Angel. “I thought you was a macho man? A tough guy? You know, it’s a real shame when little Jackie’s the only one down to ride. Let’s go guys,” He started leading them out all out the door. “Say goodbye to your big sister, Jackie. Let’s go.”

Angel said something as Jay walked out the door but she didn’t catch it. Nor did she catch what Jack said back to him. “Well, that was exciting,” Andi rolled her eyes.

It didn’t take long before they were breaking in to the Shooter’s apartment. “Check everything, you two. There’s gotta be some shit around here that ties these guys to somebody else,” Bobby instructed as he, Bella, and Andi walked into the other room of the apartment.

“There’s nothing here,” Jay stated, having pulled up all the cushions while Jack looked through all the drawers.

“Here,” Jack held up a camera.

“You two dickin’ around in here? You find anything?” Bobby and the others walked back in.

“Camera,” Jack held it up.

“Come on,” On the way back to the house, Bobby kept trying to call Angel on Andi’s cell phone but he never answered.

Once they reached the house, Bobby set a duffle bag on the table and started pulling out guns, telling Jay and Jack what they were as he did. “They say dead men tell no tales, but they sure leave important shit lying around,” Bella said, picking up one of the guns.

“Hey, what the hell are ya’ll doin’ now?” Jules and Jerry walked in.

“Just getting’ a head start on next years taxes, Jerry,” Bobby answered.

“Look how ya’ll doin’ Mama’s house! Come on. Look at this table, man. Come on,” Jerry looked around the house.

“Ya know what? You’re right,” Bobby turned to the kitchen where Sofi was putting the dinner she’d made for her and Angel into containers. “Hey Sofi, why don’t you do me a favor a clean up some of this shit? Make yourself useful,” She threw a box at his head. “You missed.”

“Hey Bobby,” Angel walked in the back door. While they were talking, Jay picked up the camera and started flipping through the pictures on it.

“They were tracking our parents. Look,” Jay held out the camera so the others could see the pictures.

“Hang on, this one is of them both. I didn’t know they knew each other,” Bella took the camera from Bobby.

“You didn’t? I thought for sure dad would’ve told you at least,” Jules looked to her older sister.

“Hang on,” Jay walked over to the coat rack and pulled out an envelop from the inside pocket. “Dad wrote to me and I got the letter just before I left to come here. I haven’t opened it yet. But he talked to me a few days before he sent it to tell me that he was sending me a picture of him and his girlfriend and one of her and her sons,” Jay explained, walking back to the group and opening the envelope.

“Well?” Jack asked.

“Give me a second and I’ll tell you,” She pulled out the two pictures. On top was one of her dad and an older woman with curly white hair. She looked at the second one and her eyes widened. ”Aw, you guys look so cute,” She teased, holding up the picture for the boys to see. It was the same curly haired woman in the other picture, but now she was surrounded by Bobby, Jerry, Angel, and Jack.

“Our parents were dating?” Jerry asked, not really requiring an answer.

“Seems that way. Lemme see the other one, Jay-bird,” Jules held out her hand for the picture.

Jay pulled out the note that came with the pictures. “Hey guys? There’s more of the pictures of the two of them at Dad’s house. In case ya’ll want one,” She added, looking up from the note.

“Where were you anyway, Angel?” Bobby asked, looking at the picture of their parents.

“Following up on new leads,” Angel answered but refused to elaborate.

“Il qualcos'altro sta accendendo qui. Sono stati rintracciati per un motivo, Something else is going on here. They were tracked for a reason” Bella spoke in Italian.

“Approvazione, ma che cosa? Okay, but what?” Jules asked.

“Bella, Che cosa state pensando? What are you thinking?” Jay asked.

“Attendiamo fino a che non dica loro che cosa ha scoperto, Let's wait until he tells them what he found out.” Andi reasoned.

“Hanno orinato qualcuno fuori. Non ho idea che ed io non sappia, ma hanno dovuto avere. Perchè altrimenti qualcuno assumerebbe gli shooters professionisti per uccidere le due genti anziane preoccupantesi nel mondo? They pissed someone off. I have no idea who, and I don’t know how, but they had to have. Why else would someone hire professional shooters to kill the two most caring old people in the world?” Bella said.

“A meno che sia uno di noi erano dopo. O tutti noi, Unless it was one of us they were after. Or all of us” Jay suggested.

Bella looked at her sister for a moment and turned to the guys. “Have any of you pissed someone off lately? Someone who would be willing to hire shooters to kill your mom because of something you did?” She asked, calmly. The boys all shook their heads. “Then they had to have pissed someone off. Like I told my sisters, I don’t know who and I don’t know how, but they did. I can’t think of any other reason for this,” She sighed.

The group stayed together late into the night. Jules and Jerry left earlier than the others because of their families but the others were all there until around midnight. Jay left with her sisters this time.

The next morning, Jay, Bella, and Andi got to the Mercer home just as Bobby and Jack were stepping out of it.

“Hey. I was gonna call you in a minute. We got to go see a man named Douglas. We’ll explain on the way,” Bobby said.

On the way to see the councilman, Bobby explained that Jerry had apparently gotten mixed up with the wrong kind of people and that Douglas had shut his business shut down. They wanted to know who their brother had gotten mixed up with and Douglas would know that.

“This is what Angel was talking about yesterday?” Bella asked.

“Part of it. There’s more and he’s following up on that today. He just won’t tell us what it is,” Bobby answered.

“Jay, listen to me. You should stay here. Given your aversion to fire, it would be best,” Jack spoke quietly to her when they parked. “Don’t worry though. It’s just to get him to talk, no one will get hurt,” He promised. Jay nodded and the other four left the car, Bella grabbing the gas can out of her trunk.

Less than 15 minutes later, the four of them were back. “Victor Sweet? I know I know that name from somewhere,” Bobby stated, getting into the car.

“Malcolm Sweet’s nephew? He took over the neighborhood after he sunk Malcolm into the river. What does he have to do with this?” Jay asked.

“He’s who Jerry got mixed up with,” Jack told her.

“You’re kidding me?”

“Wait, I remember him now. Scrawny little kid, Malcolm used to humiliate him all the time, right?” Bobby looked in the rearview mirror at Jay.

“That’s him,” She nodded.

“Let’s go meet up with Angel now, guys. We’ll tell him what we’ve found out and find out what he knows,” Bobby said.

Ten minutes later, they pulled up in front of the bowling alley where Angel was going to meet them.

“What do you think he found?” Jack asked as they were walking in.

“I don’t know, but it’s big,” Bobby answered.

“How can you tell?” Bella asked.

“By the sound of his voice. I know my brother.”

They walked in and waited for Angel to get there. “What’s going on Angel?” Andi asked when he sat with them.

“Was the councilman helpful?” He asked.

“Oh yeah. Real public servant.” Bobby answered. “You remember a punk named Victor Sweet?”

“I remember a Malcolm Sweet.”

“Victor’s his nephew,” Jay filled in.

“He used to deliver things for his uncle. Like firebombs and beatin’s. You remember. Malcolm loved to humiliate him,” Andi elaborated.

“Yeah, I remember that dude.”

“Apparently, Victor got sick of all the ass-whuppings and sunk his uncle into the river. He owns the whole neighborhood now,” Bobby finished.

“No shit?” Angel paused. “Word around town is that Jerry owed a lot of people some money.”

“What are you talking about?” Bobby asked.

“Recognize that dude over there with the fat head?” Angel looked to one of the bowlers.

Bobby looked and said, “Yeah, that’s Evander Pearson. He used to be alright, that guy. Jerry and him used to hang out during the union days.”

“He goes by Evan now. And he’s working for a guy named Victor,” Angel stated.

“You guys are comin up with this pretty quick,” Jack said.

“Yeah, we shoulda been cops,” Bobby chuckled and picked up his beer. “What are we doin here Angel?” He asked, walking to Jay’s other side, between her and Bella.

“Holy shit,” Jay nudged Jack and everyone turned to see Jerry walk up to Evan. They talked for a moment and Jerry handed him an envelope.

“I found out that Jerry got a big insurance check from Mom’s death.”

“Forget Jerry. We’ll find him later. Let’s go.”

“You guys handle this. We’ll hang back here and give ya’ll a ride home,” Bella said. Bobby nodded, and the three of them made their way to Evan.

The three girls couldn’t hear what was going on, but within minutes, the boys were back with the envelope. Silently, the group made their way to Bella’s car. Bobby was fuming, they could all tell.

“Girls, I got a car today from a friend of mine. Meet us at our house tomorrow morning, alright? Jerry will be there too,” Angel said.

“No problem. See you guys in the morning then,” Bella nodded.

Bobby walked on ahead of the group. “Don’t let him do anything stupid,” Andi stated.

“We won’t,” Angel replied.

Jack pulled Jay into a hug. “See you tomorrow,” He released her.