Red Currant #7, Mango #28, FotD (jabbery) + fresh peaches + pocky chain
Story: Blaze Mafia Family
Title: Peter’s Revenge
Prompts: Red Currant #7: eye of the storm, Mango #28: 15 minutes of fame, FotD: jobbery (the conduct of official or proper business for the sake of improper or private gain) + fresh peaches (The Moon in Scorpio squares Neptune this evening, which could cloud your judgment and make it hard for you to clearly see reality.) + pocky chain
Rating: PG13 for language and violence
Characters: Peter de Luca, Blaze Family, Detective Harry Lancaster
Summary: Woo! It’s the de Luca arc again! This takes place right soon after Make Things Difficult (check my index for a list of the full arc). In case I haven’t made it clear before, this universe takes place long before computers came around, so there’s no checking your bank accounts online and such.
The plan was simple.
Peter de Luca knew that the people that had been riding his ass at work were on the Blaze payroll. If he could find just one paper trail showing how dirty the city’s justice system was, he could blow up all the news rags with the story of the year. The city would hail him as a hero and he’d get back on top at work. When public opinion turned on them, then the Blaze Family would have to acknowledge that he had outsmarted them.
That would be the best part.
- - - - - - - - - -
Except that the plan wasn’t as cut and dried as he’d thought it would be.
He couldn’t find the paper trails. He searched Jenny’s desk, followed her out of work, even peeked around her condo when she’d forgotten to lock the door once.
As far as he could prove, Jenny Callan was a spinster with such a big stick up her ass that she would never bend her morals to take dirty money.
- - - - - - - - - -
Trying to get the dirt on Kyle Watts had proven to be just as impossible as with Jenny, only for different reasons. Watts acted like someone with a secret, which made it near impossible for Peter to get the dirt on said secret.
Watts covered all his bases all the time. He never left his office unless his dragon secretary was standing guard, he never forgot to lock his house, and he always seemed to have one eye watching his back. It was all suspicious behavior but Peter wasn’t going to become a hero with just suspicious behavior.
- - - - - - - - - -
All of his hopes were now pinned on Amos Pelz. He was the hardest to get to and it was risky sneaking around after a judge, but if he could blow a respected judge out of the water then he wouldn’t need the others.
He got into the office under the guise of coming to discuss his contempt charge. Pelz was unimpressed with Peter’s half-assed apology, but Peter drew out long enough that their meeting was interrupted as meetings with judges always were.
Peter stopped his frenzied search when he came across the folder full of bank statements.
Finally.
- - - - - - - - - -
“Christ, Peter. What the hell are you getting into?”
“Was there something there?”
“Every transaction in this account comes from shell accounts.”
“Mob shells?”
“Hell yeah they are, so back off while you still can!”
“Is that a ‘hell yeah’ with evidence to back it up?”
“No way. You’d have to trace these shells back to known mob accounts and there’s no way I have the jurisdiction to do that.”
“I need evidence, Jake!”
“...Alright. The cops could get a court order to search this deeper. But, Peter, the second you go public, your ass is grass.”
“I’ll risk it.”
- - - - - - - - - -
Peter began to wonder what the hell Detective Lancaster’s problem was when he was led back to a tiny interrogation room that was doubling as a catch-all for office crap. “What’s going on here?”
“You think the courthouse is the only place the Blazes have infiltrated?” Lancaster snapped.
“I’ve never found account numbers before,” Lancaster continued in a hushed tone. “Do you know what we could do with this?”
Peter grinned as he realized his luck in getting a detective that wanted to get rid of the Blazes just as bad as he did. “Pay them back.”
- - - - - - - - - -
“Yeah?” Luka said, his attention more on his crossword than who was on the telephone.
That didn’t last long though. Luka’s feet fell off his desk and he sat up. “The hell you say?”
Luka wrote down the account numbers the caller told him. “I don’t care about a fucking court order, if you like living then you’ll stall them until tomorrow!”
Luka slammed the phone down on that phone call then quickly dialed a different number. The Boss wouldn’t be nearly as pissed if he contained this disaster in the making before he told her about it.
- - - - - - - - - -
“Fuck!”
Lancaster contained his anger while Peter couldn’t. “Someone in the system will tell the family about our court order. They’ll wipe out any traces before we can even get access tomorrow.”
“Is there any way we can trace the money they move?”
Lancaster shrugged. “I doubt it.”
Peter forced himself to push his rage away. He could give into it later. Now he had to think. “We still have enough to prove Pelz was dirty.”
“But not with Blaze dirt.”
“If we spin it right, that won’t matter.” Peter said with a slow grin, “It’s time to go public.”
- - - - - - - - - -
“There’s no reason for the cops to have any clue about our accounts. We haven’t been doing anything differently.”
Firebird tapped her nails on her desk, thinking. “You think one of our associates is to blame.”
“Someone on that end either turned coat or got sloppy. Based on the accounts the cops were looking at, I narrowed it down to six possible people.” Luka slid the list over to Firebird.
Her eyebrow raised. “Amos Pelz? You tapped him for the squeeze on de Luca.”
Luka had recognized that connection too.
Firebird tapped Pelz’s name. “Look into him first.”
- - - - - - - - - -
A crowd of concerned neighbors were already huddling on the sidewalk so Jamie Gonzalez was able to blend in with the gawkers.
The Honorable Amos Pelz was led out of his house in his pajamas and bathrobe, yelling indignantly at the two officers leading him by his arms handcuffed behind his back.
Pelz didn’t catch sight of Jamie until he was being pushed into the cop car. The judge looked through the car window and Jamie put his index finger to his lips, giving him a command that even a child could understand.
Not a word.
- - - - - - - - - -
“Men like Amos Pelz that would degrade themselves by taking bribes will not be tolerated in New Palermo any longer. It’s my duty, no, it’s my honor as your district attorney to root out all of the disgraceful people related to each other by this dirty money. I personally promise that I will destroy the head of this family of criminals.”
Peter smiled victoriously when the din of reporters grew to a fever pitch, obviously picking up on his thinly veiled implication to the Blazes.
His triumph was at hand.
- - - - - - - - - -
D.A. TAKES ON ‘FAMILY OF CRIMINALS’
Firebird set the newspaper down. De Luca had indeed taken on her Family, and, she had to admit, done a good job of it this time around. But he was cocky, thinking he’d taken her king when all he’d really managed to do was force her to sacrifice a pawn.
“Luka,” she said. “I want you and Romeo to personally go through all of our accounts and make sure that the cops can never get that close to us again.”
“Yes, Boss.”
“Jamie,” Firebird addressed the man next to Luka, “Get your briefcase.”
- - - - - - - - - -
The shot took everyone by surprise. Amos Pelz most of all, because he was the one that now had a bullet in his forehead.
It caused instant panic. Screaming reporters scattered, cops drew their weapons in preparation of another attack, and the officers responsible for transferring Amos to prison dragged his body back into the station.
It would be an hour before the chaos calmed down enough that anyone thought to check the rooftops for traces of a sniper. Of course they wouldn’t find anyone. Jamie and his sniper rifle packed snugly away in a nondescript briefcase were long gone.
- - - - - - - - - -
“Why the long face, detective?”
Lancaster glared at Peter. “Pelz didn’t give a testimony fingering the Blazes before they shot him. We’ve got nothing on them.”
“Are you kidding? Everyone knows the Blazes pulled the trigger.”
“Who cares what everyone knows! There’s no evidence so there’s no case.”
“But the whole city hates them,” Peter stressed.
Lancaster turned on Peter. “Are you really stupid enough to think the Blazes are going to stop because they aren’t popular?”
“I’m smart enough to win,” Peter gritted out.
“You haven’t won anything. This isn’t over by a long shot.”
- - - - - - - - - -
Firebird sipped a drink while she watched the evening news. Every news station in the city was indulging Peter’s camera whore tendencies. Peter was a hero, and he’d made it clear without actually saying it that she was his arch-nemesis. That amused Firebird greatly. As if a man that thought this was his victory when it was obviously just the eye of the storm could ever foil her plans.
Firebird lifted her glass to the screen full of Peter’s smug face. She would give him a moment to bask in his ignorance. He wouldn’t have that luxury for much longer.
Title: Peter’s Revenge
Prompts: Red Currant #7: eye of the storm, Mango #28: 15 minutes of fame, FotD: jobbery (the conduct of official or proper business for the sake of improper or private gain) + fresh peaches (The Moon in Scorpio squares Neptune this evening, which could cloud your judgment and make it hard for you to clearly see reality.) + pocky chain
Rating: PG13 for language and violence
Characters: Peter de Luca, Blaze Family, Detective Harry Lancaster
Summary: Woo! It’s the de Luca arc again! This takes place right soon after Make Things Difficult (check my index for a list of the full arc). In case I haven’t made it clear before, this universe takes place long before computers came around, so there’s no checking your bank accounts online and such.
The plan was simple.
Peter de Luca knew that the people that had been riding his ass at work were on the Blaze payroll. If he could find just one paper trail showing how dirty the city’s justice system was, he could blow up all the news rags with the story of the year. The city would hail him as a hero and he’d get back on top at work. When public opinion turned on them, then the Blaze Family would have to acknowledge that he had outsmarted them.
That would be the best part.
- - - - - - - - - -
Except that the plan wasn’t as cut and dried as he’d thought it would be.
He couldn’t find the paper trails. He searched Jenny’s desk, followed her out of work, even peeked around her condo when she’d forgotten to lock the door once.
As far as he could prove, Jenny Callan was a spinster with such a big stick up her ass that she would never bend her morals to take dirty money.
- - - - - - - - - -
Trying to get the dirt on Kyle Watts had proven to be just as impossible as with Jenny, only for different reasons. Watts acted like someone with a secret, which made it near impossible for Peter to get the dirt on said secret.
Watts covered all his bases all the time. He never left his office unless his dragon secretary was standing guard, he never forgot to lock his house, and he always seemed to have one eye watching his back. It was all suspicious behavior but Peter wasn’t going to become a hero with just suspicious behavior.
- - - - - - - - - -
All of his hopes were now pinned on Amos Pelz. He was the hardest to get to and it was risky sneaking around after a judge, but if he could blow a respected judge out of the water then he wouldn’t need the others.
He got into the office under the guise of coming to discuss his contempt charge. Pelz was unimpressed with Peter’s half-assed apology, but Peter drew out long enough that their meeting was interrupted as meetings with judges always were.
Peter stopped his frenzied search when he came across the folder full of bank statements.
Finally.
- - - - - - - - - -
“Christ, Peter. What the hell are you getting into?”
“Was there something there?”
“Every transaction in this account comes from shell accounts.”
“Mob shells?”
“Hell yeah they are, so back off while you still can!”
“Is that a ‘hell yeah’ with evidence to back it up?”
“No way. You’d have to trace these shells back to known mob accounts and there’s no way I have the jurisdiction to do that.”
“I need evidence, Jake!”
“...Alright. The cops could get a court order to search this deeper. But, Peter, the second you go public, your ass is grass.”
“I’ll risk it.”
- - - - - - - - - -
Peter began to wonder what the hell Detective Lancaster’s problem was when he was led back to a tiny interrogation room that was doubling as a catch-all for office crap. “What’s going on here?”
“You think the courthouse is the only place the Blazes have infiltrated?” Lancaster snapped.
“I’ve never found account numbers before,” Lancaster continued in a hushed tone. “Do you know what we could do with this?”
Peter grinned as he realized his luck in getting a detective that wanted to get rid of the Blazes just as bad as he did. “Pay them back.”
- - - - - - - - - -
“Yeah?” Luka said, his attention more on his crossword than who was on the telephone.
That didn’t last long though. Luka’s feet fell off his desk and he sat up. “The hell you say?”
Luka wrote down the account numbers the caller told him. “I don’t care about a fucking court order, if you like living then you’ll stall them until tomorrow!”
Luka slammed the phone down on that phone call then quickly dialed a different number. The Boss wouldn’t be nearly as pissed if he contained this disaster in the making before he told her about it.
- - - - - - - - - -
“Fuck!”
Lancaster contained his anger while Peter couldn’t. “Someone in the system will tell the family about our court order. They’ll wipe out any traces before we can even get access tomorrow.”
“Is there any way we can trace the money they move?”
Lancaster shrugged. “I doubt it.”
Peter forced himself to push his rage away. He could give into it later. Now he had to think. “We still have enough to prove Pelz was dirty.”
“But not with Blaze dirt.”
“If we spin it right, that won’t matter.” Peter said with a slow grin, “It’s time to go public.”
- - - - - - - - - -
“There’s no reason for the cops to have any clue about our accounts. We haven’t been doing anything differently.”
Firebird tapped her nails on her desk, thinking. “You think one of our associates is to blame.”
“Someone on that end either turned coat or got sloppy. Based on the accounts the cops were looking at, I narrowed it down to six possible people.” Luka slid the list over to Firebird.
Her eyebrow raised. “Amos Pelz? You tapped him for the squeeze on de Luca.”
Luka had recognized that connection too.
Firebird tapped Pelz’s name. “Look into him first.”
- - - - - - - - - -
A crowd of concerned neighbors were already huddling on the sidewalk so Jamie Gonzalez was able to blend in with the gawkers.
The Honorable Amos Pelz was led out of his house in his pajamas and bathrobe, yelling indignantly at the two officers leading him by his arms handcuffed behind his back.
Pelz didn’t catch sight of Jamie until he was being pushed into the cop car. The judge looked through the car window and Jamie put his index finger to his lips, giving him a command that even a child could understand.
Not a word.
- - - - - - - - - -
“Men like Amos Pelz that would degrade themselves by taking bribes will not be tolerated in New Palermo any longer. It’s my duty, no, it’s my honor as your district attorney to root out all of the disgraceful people related to each other by this dirty money. I personally promise that I will destroy the head of this family of criminals.”
Peter smiled victoriously when the din of reporters grew to a fever pitch, obviously picking up on his thinly veiled implication to the Blazes.
His triumph was at hand.
- - - - - - - - - -
D.A. TAKES ON ‘FAMILY OF CRIMINALS’
Firebird set the newspaper down. De Luca had indeed taken on her Family, and, she had to admit, done a good job of it this time around. But he was cocky, thinking he’d taken her king when all he’d really managed to do was force her to sacrifice a pawn.
“Luka,” she said. “I want you and Romeo to personally go through all of our accounts and make sure that the cops can never get that close to us again.”
“Yes, Boss.”
“Jamie,” Firebird addressed the man next to Luka, “Get your briefcase.”
- - - - - - - - - -
The shot took everyone by surprise. Amos Pelz most of all, because he was the one that now had a bullet in his forehead.
It caused instant panic. Screaming reporters scattered, cops drew their weapons in preparation of another attack, and the officers responsible for transferring Amos to prison dragged his body back into the station.
It would be an hour before the chaos calmed down enough that anyone thought to check the rooftops for traces of a sniper. Of course they wouldn’t find anyone. Jamie and his sniper rifle packed snugly away in a nondescript briefcase were long gone.
- - - - - - - - - -
“Why the long face, detective?”
Lancaster glared at Peter. “Pelz didn’t give a testimony fingering the Blazes before they shot him. We’ve got nothing on them.”
“Are you kidding? Everyone knows the Blazes pulled the trigger.”
“Who cares what everyone knows! There’s no evidence so there’s no case.”
“But the whole city hates them,” Peter stressed.
Lancaster turned on Peter. “Are you really stupid enough to think the Blazes are going to stop because they aren’t popular?”
“I’m smart enough to win,” Peter gritted out.
“You haven’t won anything. This isn’t over by a long shot.”
- - - - - - - - - -
Firebird sipped a drink while she watched the evening news. Every news station in the city was indulging Peter’s camera whore tendencies. Peter was a hero, and he’d made it clear without actually saying it that she was his arch-nemesis. That amused Firebird greatly. As if a man that thought this was his victory when it was obviously just the eye of the storm could ever foil her plans.
Firebird lifted her glass to the screen full of Peter’s smug face. She would give him a moment to bask in his ignorance. He wouldn’t have that luxury for much longer.