After Mark and Cordell graduated from University, Mark became a politician and Cordell to be a police officer. Anthony still had four more years of law school to realize his dream as prosecutor.
In Cordell's first year as a police officer he did some impressive work which qualified him to take his examination to become a detective.
It was during his very first year as a detective when he met Jake.
The case involved a horrendous crime of human sex trafficking. During his investigation, he had to deep dive into some security footage that had been buried yet kept. Jake was one of those people where you had to know a guy, who knew a guy, that knew this guy, to find this guy. And Cordell did.
The case was closed a week after Cordell hired Jake and had he not, the case would have never been solved. Cordell kept Jake close after that. There were countless of cases that would not have been solved without the help of Jake, and Cordell's career took off for it. The department promoted Cordell to sergeant and shortly after to Lieutenant where he now oversees the special victims unit.
When Anthony finally finished law school his progression from a low level lawyer to prosecutor came quickly because he was picking up Cordell's cases which were open and shut due to Jake investigative skills. It quickly became known that if Anthony Lawson was the prosecutor on your case, you might as well kiss your life goodbye. As for any case that wasn't Cordell's, Anthony would just hire Jake to look into it, to see how guilty the perpetrator actually was and use that to seal the deal for a guilty verdict and submit evidence in to the law enforcement involved with the case. Anthony's conviction record was at 96% one of the highest in the nation. There has been a recent push for Anthony to be prosecutor on a federal level, a U.S. Attorney but since there's only 94 positions in the nation, he has to bide his time and continue to convict.
As for Mark, he started to run for smaller Parkdale city offices. Despite his vises, Mark is quite charismatic and during his stint as an intern in the Mayor of Parkdale City's office, he won the affections of many. He also had an excellent work ethic and his efficiency made for the creation and realization of many of Parkdale city projects.
Many had wanted him to run for office as soon as possible and that's when Mark realized he messed up with his public antics in college. He knew the moment he ran for any office, many of those drunken incidents would come back to haunt him. This realization caused Mark to stall for a year which confused many especially Monica, who was coming around to his attention and affection. She was attracted to his apparent success and the approval he had from many of those in power in the city. Mark knew the moment those scandals came out he would lose her. Monica wasn't one to give chances or suffer fools, and he was already on his second chance with her.
Monica had completely snubbed Mark when she realized how old he really was. Which really hurt Mark since she was his first love. He just couldn't understand how she could treat him like some random fling, a boy toy and just cast him aside, so he decided to find a way where she couldn't ignore him, whether they got back together or not.
You see the main reason why Mark decided to get into political science was because of Monica. He was smitten by her and wanted any opportunity he could get to be around her and with her building a career in politics, he knew that would make their paths cross. Though this plan was long, it was working, better than just working they we're both sharing intentions of getting married.
Luckily, once Mark informed Cordell of his dilemma, Cordell used Jake to help cover up Mark's drinking problem and the stunts he used to pull while drunk. Jake made light work in helping to clean up Mark's haphazard mistakes and also found dirt on his political opponents as well, which was a bonus Mark didn't anticipate. Jake was able to find enough dirt on others that Mark became a more favorable candidate in every election and a trusted political figure once he secured position.
Needless to say, Anthony, Cordell, and Mark owed much of their success to Jake and his photographic memory. With the four of them connected, the game of cops and robbers, and law and order was child's play.