"She's definitely Genie !!" Thief exclaims happily before bursts into laughter. I squints my eyes to disapprove.
"She is not !" I deny in pout.
"She is ! She can magically disappeared. Even more.. she can make you into a fool !" Thief laughs louder.
This girl loves to give people nicknames that are puns from their names. She called me Score, a pun from Scorpion. She said it suits me because I've never failed to 'score' a point on killing people *rolled eyes*. She proclaimed herself as Thief because she is good at stealing anything digital. Then, she gave Andy a nickname that definitely will make him angry if he knows it, Fake.. from his surname Vaccaro. Obviously because Andy is an expert of faking people's appearance. But this Jeanny girl is definitely not a Genie! I snort.
"So, can you open the file ?" I decide to change the topic. Thief only answers after subsiding her laughter.
"It has been opened after few seconds I received it," she reports casually. She fits to her nickname, I guess.
"So.. what is it ?" I ask her again.
"It fills with numbers. Some kind of financial records. Does a 'Cougar Momma' sound familiar to you ?" Thief answers and asks me at once. Sure it does.
"It's the name of the pub I used to hangout," I answer her with a frown. Why does Jeanny need the pub's financial, and how did she get it ?
"There are thousands of transactions here, but ones marked with highlight are ones with an 'X' as its sender, and they all are more than hundred thousands dollars transactions," Thief continues her.
"X ? Can they be cash transactions from customer ?"
"Hmm.. Nope. Cash transactions from the pub are marked as 'ch'," Thief answers after she analyzed the files for some seconds. "But they are definitely cash because the financial database keeps every bank account numbers that have done transactions with the pub. I even notice your bank account and Andy's here," she adds.
"That's fishy," I utter, talking about the 'X' transactions of course.
"O wow.. Did you know who owns the pub ?" Thief asks me again. "Nope," I answer.
"A politician named Antonio Belladrick. Just search it, you will find something interested about him," Thief orders me.
I search the name on a search engine. There are some links to digital news about him. I click one of the link and read about it.
Turns out Mr. Belladrick is now facing a corruption and money laundry indictment on my district. I click another link to read other news related to his case.
I gasp to see a picture of a woman who is standing on the court room, pointing at Mr. Belladrick. She looks quite similar to Jeanny, but she has red hair and green eyes. Also this woman lips are not as swallow as Jeanny's. But her other features look similar. The news mentions her as the new D.A. Her name is Jennifer McCourtney.
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For the umpteenth times I glances at my watch. It's already half past four PM. I've been sitting on the stair here, waiting for about three hours. I didn't expect to wait that long. I sigh. I'm sure she will walk across me sooner or later. Her car is parked just few meters from where I sit.
It is only another half an hour I can hear a familiar voice from behind me, chatting with someone while walking down the stairs, "Only one more trial, Matt. We have to give our best tomorrow. I'm sure our proof will silent them all."
"You're so awesome, Jen. I can't believe you can get that proof.."
"Hi, Jen," I call Jennifer who just passed me. She turns her body around. Her eyes widen when she sees me. I slowly stand from my sit. "Or, should I call you Jeanny ?" I ask her in mocking tone.
"Jen, do you know this guy ?" this Matt guy's question waking Jennifer up from the daze.
"I don't .."
I jump over her. At the same time a bullet comes from a motorcycle rider straight to where Jennifer stood and hit the Matt guy. "Aaarrgghh !!" The guy screams in pain while I and Jennifer are still rolling down the two stairs to the sideway.
"Matt !!" Once we stop rolling, Jennifer quickly releases her self from my embrace then runs to Matt. I follow her.
"Arggh !! What happened ?" Matt asks weakly as his body already lays down on the stairs.
"Are you okay ? Where did you get hit ?" Jennifer ask dumbly in panic. If only it's not an urgent moment, I will definitely roll my eyes. Matt got hit on his chest. The blood flows profusely from there.
"Matt, hang in there ! Hang in there, okay ?!" Jennifer shouts in panic. She turns to me. "What should we do ? We have to call 911, right ?!"
I nod then put off my jacket and pushes it on the wound, press it hard with my hand.
"Am I gonna die ?" Matt asks in fear to me.
"You'll be alright, man. You'll be alright. Okay ? Just hang in there ! Try hard to keep conscious " I tell him. People are starting to gather around. "Call 911 !" I order to anyone. Some immediately take their phones and dialing.
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"He's gonna be okay," A doctor says to Jennifer. "The bullet is far from his heart. He is stable now," the doctor continues.
"Thank you, Doc," Jennifer replies to him weakly. Then she sits down again beside me with a relieved sigh. Her face has lost its color as if she's the one who's taking the bullet.
"You're good ?" I ask her. She nods lifelessly. I round my hand on to her shoulder and rub her upper arm to comfort her.
"It was for me, wasn't it ?" she asks dumbfoundedly. I nod as a yes. She is trembling.
I don't have a heart to tell her that the bullet was aimed for her head. So the chance she would survive if she was hit by it was small.
She cries in fear. All I can do is to comfort her with rub on her upper arm again.
"Thank you," she murmurs after her cry is subsided.
"Don't mention it. It just happened that I saw the guy pointing on you while rode his motorbike," I tell her the truth.
"Did you manage to catch his motor's number ?" She asks. I shake my head. She sighs.
"It must be Belladrick," she utters. "I was a D.A assistant. We had been working on Belladrick case for months. When we finally had enough proof to bring him to court, my boss died because of sudden heart attack. All proofs within his hand were all missing. So I had to search for new proofs. I knew Belladrick uses the pub for laundering his corruption money. So I disguise my self to be striptease dancer so I can steal their financial records," Jennifer tells everything to me.
I nod understandably. I already could figure out more than half of her story the moment I found out she is a D.A.
Two police officers walk toward us. They need to interrogate us for sure. We are the witness of this incident.
"After this, you better go home. You said that tomorrow will be the final trial, right ? You should not give up," I encourage her. She looks into my eyes. I can see clearly fear in them.
"Do you want to rest at my apartment tonight ?" I finally offer my kindness.
"Please.." She even begs me for it.