23(S2E10)-Spinning in the Spider Webs

23

(Season 2 Episode 10)

Spinning in the Spider Webs

Elmo Kincaid hung up the phone and for the first time in two months, he smiled.

Things were finally going his way again.

The phone rang.  Elmo looked at the Caller I.D. and smiled.  It was her, the black hearted bitch who had tried to play him.

The key word was tried.  He answered the phone without saying a word.  He wanted to give her plenty of rope.

“Hello my perfect, little pet drug dealer.”  Maggie said on the other end.  “Now that we have an understanding and I have relocated to avoid more of your pathetic attempts to kill me, it’s time for me to tell you how to pay me.”

“No.” Elmo’s voice was low and cold.

There was a small pause on the other end out of obvious confusion.  “Did you just say ‘no’?”

“Yes, I said no.”  Elmo replied.

“I don’t understand.”  Maggie said out of frustration on the other end.

“No.  It’s a one syllable word that means FUCK YOU, BITCH!” Elmo said as he stood so fast his chair toppled behind him.

“Look old man, I think you have failed to grasp the situation-” Maggie was cut off by Elmo.

“NO.  You don’t grasp it.  I know you’re full of shit, you don’t have the fucking flash drive!” Elmo yelled into the phone.

“I have it, you know I have it!”  She yelled back frustrated but Elmo wasn’t listening.

“You thought you could play me?!” Elmo continued his rant.  “You honestly thought you could bluff the most powerful man in Ohio and walk away?!  I like to keep things quiet but I’m going to make an exception for you.  After I get my flash drive back tonight I’m going to find you, then I’m going to fillet you like a fresh cut fish and hang you from the Terminal Tower!”

Elmo slammed the phone down so hard the plastic piece of communication equipment shattered.

****

Before that…

Creegan watched the sun come up in the distance, illuminating the sky in a series of oranges and reds.

They were parked on the top of a parking garage downtown.  They had come here to get some privacy while they had done their best to deal with Rockwell’s leg injury.  They had bandaged it and sterilized it as best they could.

That was around four in the morning.

It was now seven.  Creegan was the only one still awake.  Rockwell had stretched out in the back while even Patty had nodded off in the passenger seat.  Creegan couldn’t sleep.

He couldn’t stop thinking.

At first he had brain stormed about a way out of this ordeal.  He feared Patty had kept him around to be the thinker.  Creegan was never the brains, always the muscle.  That should have been obvious from the first ordeal.

That should have been obvious from his constant choices to help Maggie.

Creegan touched the scar on his chest where Maggie had shot him.

He had been happy at the Bent Elbow, working for Paul and finally putting his life together.  He could have probably gotten his job back even after the ordeal with the hunters.  But now?  He wondered if Paul had rented out his apartment.  Paul probably thought he was dead.

Creegan had thrown it all away for Maggie.

Just like the train.

Just like high school.

Every time he had ended up alone and worse than before he had met her.

Creegan pulled out the phone and stared at it.

Maggie was smarter than Creegan.  Most people were and that’s why he always ended up in the gutter.

“You got a plan?”  The thick Irish voice startled Creegan who turned sharply to face her.

“I have an idea,” Creegan said looking back to the phone.  “But it’s not a very good one and it will probably get us all killed.”

“It’s the three us, wounded and exhausted and a trunk full of weapons, against the most powerful drug dealer in Ohio.” Patty said as she bent forward and scratched her eyes.  “We’re probably all going to die anyway.”

Creegan shrugged and nodded.  “I guess you got me there.”

“So, out with it.”  Patty barked.

“Elmo still doesn’t have the flash drive,” Jim began to explain.  “All of the other crazy aside, he needs to have that in order to be safe from the Rodriguez brothers.  If we had it we could draw him out.”

Patty raised an eyebrow.  “You have the flash drive?”

Creegan shook his head.  “No, but I know who’s got it and it’s not Elmo.”

“Your girl from before?  Maggie.” Patty answered her own question.  “But how do you know she hasn’t given it back to him?”

“It’s valuable.”  Creegan gave a forlorn smile.  “She shot me over five grand, you think she would hand over a flash drive that gives her control over a drug lord and his kingpin?”

Patty stared at Jim for a short time then asked.  “I don’t get it, you’re a good guy.”

Creegan looked confused, “Thanks?”

Patty shook her head, “What the hell are you doing in all this?  What the hell were you doing with a woman like that?”

Jim took a deep breath and pondered that.  “Nothing was ever good enough for my dad.  My mom was a lunatic.  Maggie made me feel special.  When you’re with Maggie, she makes you feel special”

“That was so fucking gay!” Rockwell had been awake and listening in the back and could no longer take it.  “Seriously, do you need a fucking hanky?  I can’t believe this giant fairy beat us twice!”

Creegan took a deep breath and became frustrated.  “Fuck you, Rockwell.”

Rockwell sat up between the two front seats.  “And as far as the plan goes, you are never going to convince The Muppet you have the thumb drive without proof, and we have none.  He’s got no reason to listen to us.”

Creegan reluctantly nodded.  “As much as I hate to say it, Rockwell is right.  I have been up all night trying to figure out how to get Elmo to buy it.”

“The fuck you have!” Rockwell cut in.  “You have been thinking about Maggie, you fucking sissy!”

Creegan’s face became stone.  “You are on my last fucking nerve!”

“Cut them some slack.”  Stone was sitting next to Rockwell.

Stone was not sitting next to Rockwell.

Rockwell turned.  “Fuck you, Casper!  They need me, not the other way around.”

Patty and Creegan became confused and watched Rockwell in the rear view mirror.

“Come on,” Stone said.  “Even you aren’t stupid enough to think you can do this yourself.”

“Stupid is teaming up with a chick that has daddy issues and a fucking pussy bitch.” Rockwell replied.

Patty and Creegan would have gotten mad at these comments if they weren’t so caught up in the fact that Rockwell was having an argument with himself.

 “Don’t be a bitch.”  Stone said finally.

Rockwell crossed his arms and sat back like a spoiled child.

Patty and Creegan continued to stare.

Rockwell caught them staring and got mad.  “What?!”

Patty and Creegan shook their heads, deciding it best not to put in their two cents.

Patty turned to Creegan.  “Let me make the call.”

Creegan looked at her and raised an eyebrow.

Patty shrugged.  “I have never lied to him before.  Even after all this, he still trusts me.  I’ll tell him I want back in and that I tracked down the flash drive and got it off of you.”

Creegan nodded and handed the phone to her.

****

After…

Maggie hung up the phone with a look of quiet rage.

“Something wrong?” Clay asked from the darkness behind her.

“Somebody’s fucking with the plan,” Maggie said angrily.

“I see.”  Clay said neutrally.

Maggie took a second to consider all the people that knew she had the flash drive.  She thought they were all dead.

“I left a loose end somewhere.”  Maggie said unhappily.

“We should tie it up,” Clay stated promptly.

“Couldn’t agree more,” Maggie said as she looked through her contacts for Roberto’s number and dialed it.  “We’re going to finish this tonight.  Ahead of schedule.”

****

After that…

Roberto hung up the phone and turned toward Antonio who sat on the couch drinking.  “Call everyone we have in the area.”

Antonio raised an eyebrow.  “We’re doing this tonight?  I thought we were waiting?”

Roberto smiled.  “Elmo is going to a meeting today to get the flash drive back, and we’re going to be there.”

Antonio nodded.  “Alright, I’ll put a man on Elmo and we will follow him to the meet.”

“Tonight we end this, brother.” Roberto smiled.  “Tonight we make our father proud.”

Antonio smiled weakly.  “Yes brother, tonight you will follow in his footsteps.”

They toasted to success.