Chapter 11

Paul, Lilly and Lane get in to the city late in the evening. Paul persuades them this would be the best time to go see his friend. They walk in to the strip club. Paul walks over to the bar. A few minutes later Frank Gannon walks out of the office. He sees who it is and motions them to follow him. Lane is wearing his trademarked mask. Frank wonders who he is.

He sits down behind his desk and says, "Hi Paul, what brings you here?"

"My friend here needs some equipment."

"Who is he?"

"Most people know me as the Preacher," Lane says. Paul gives him a dirty look.

"You're the Preacher. I thought you would be bigger," He laughs. "Where is your partner?"

"I made him stay home."

"You can't make Anvil do anything he doesn't want to do."

"He has kids now."

"Oh really, well what do you need?"

Lane tells him what he wants.

Frank asks, "Are you fixing to start World War three?"

"In our business you know better than to ask questions."

"That is true. But something strange is going on. Some of the equipment you asked for was requested by someone else less than a week ago."

Paul interrupts, "Frank don't play games with me. Who was it?"

"An old friend of mine and Nicks. He said he was investigating Nick's death."

"I won't ask you again Frank."

"Greg Brownwood."

"When did he get back in to town?"

"A few months ago."

"What alias is going by?"

"Paul you know he would never tell me."

Lilly asks, "Who is Greg Brownwood?"

"He was a friend of Nicks and mine. He was a part of Nick's team until Jimmy turned to the other side. Nick blamed Greg for his brother's betrayal."

Lilly and Paul's mouth dropped open.

Paul asks, "What did you just say?"

"Greg betrayed Nick."

"No about his brother."

"Jimmy was Nick's brother."

"Yeah that statement. You knew," he says as he turns toward Lane.

"Yes I knew."

Lilly bursts in to tears, "Why didn't you tell us?"

"It is a family matter."

"Why would he kill his own brother?" Paul asks.

"Frank can answer part of that question. I am sure then I will fill in the blanks."

"Frank?"

Frank reaches in his desk and pulls out a bottle of whiskey. He offers them a drink. They refuse. He opens the bottle and takes a large swig.

"Where do you want me to start?"

"From the beginning and don't leave out anything."

"It started many years ago. Jimmy was the first one to come here. He invited his big brother to come out here. They both worked for the police department. At the time, we did not know he was on the take."

Lilly interrupts, "You mean he was a crooked cop."

"Exactly what I mean. He was taking bribes from William Chow. No one knew at the time and if they did, they didn't care. Nick was a really good cop. He use to patrol this area. The people around here respected him. Jimmy lived with Greg down near the Barrios. Nick would occasionally go down and check on them. It was a rough neighborhood. Greg came out of there. He met Jimmy here one night. Greg had too much to drink and got his ass handed to him. Jimmy was the cop that responded. They became friends. Greg was a runner for Chow. Nick thought he had Greg straightened out. I believed it too. The FBI was called in to investigate the department. Funny thing was they were more crooked than the cops were. Instead of going after the bad cops, they went after Nick. They crucified him about busting a kid for rape and murder."

"Who was the agent?"

"Larry Vincent."

"I thought so. You can continue."

"I had supplied Nick some equipment I had made. He asked me to get more involved in making stuff for him. I helped Nick the best I could. After they got rid of him from the department, Jimmy got worse. He started dealing drugs. He sniffed most of his profits up his nose. He got so bad the department couldn't keep him on. Nick went and got him and Greg and moved them in with him. He cleaned them both up and created his own team. Nick had some help from his brother he told me. I take it, it was you?"

"He should have said brothers and sisters. My older brothers and my two sisters helped too. Jimmy is the next to the youngest."

"Ok, so the family got Jimmy and Greg cleaned up. Nick took it on himself to train them both in the ways of the game."

"Yeah, against my objections, I told him they should have been trained to be preachers instead of killers. Nick always thought he was right. He said the discipline would keep them righteous. Damn fool, he didn't accept the fact that Jimmy's soul was corrupted."

Paul asks, "How come none of this is in the Organizations records?"

"It is pretty simple Paul, Jimmy and Greg were never members of the Organization. When Nick needed backup, he would call me. But most of the time, he used Jimmy and Greg."

Lilly asks, "Then how come Jimmy went to the other side?"

Frank answers, "It is pretty easy to figure out. Jimmy's old boss and I am talking about William Chow, found out about Jimmy's new skills. Nick thinks Greg is the one who told Chow about it. He thinks he betrayed Jimmy's soul. He blamed Greg for Jimmy going back to work for Chow. After Jimmy and Nick had there deadly battle, Greg came in here one night and got totally trashed. He started blaming himself for Jimmy's betrayal. Jimmy was a bad egg. There was no way Nick or anybody else could prevent Jimmy from doing what he wanted too. Greg became an alcoholic. It took me two years to clean him up. I probably could have done it faster. Except, every time Nick saw him he would call him a worthless cur or something and Greg would hit the bottle. I finally had to tell Nick to stay away from him."