The Saucy Job

AU as of The Inside Job

"Rebecca was happy before all this. She had plans- medical school to become a pediatrician, but she threw it all away to join this SWCI, hang out with people who wear enough leather that you'd swear they're a biker gang. I tried to convince her not to, but I'd never been able to convince her to do anything she didn't want to do. It just made no sense; she had such a bright future." Their latest client took a shaky drink. "For a year she just kept sounding more and more beat down, but she wouldn't tell me why she sounded so bad. Then she called and told me she was going to go to college. I thought everything was going to be all right, but a week after that call she was dead. They claimed it was a car accident, but I've been a medical examiner for twenty years. Those were knife wounds, and the scars on her body weren't there a year ago. She was only eighteen."

"Did you go to the police?"

"They didn't do anything. The Cleveland Police stopped listening the second I said SWCI, the state police and FBI dropped it after a day each."

"What do you want out of this? We can't bring your daughter back…"

"I just want you to make sure they can't do that to another girl."

***

The team went upstairs to Nate's apartment. Eliot was first in the door, and when he stopped suddenly they were too close behind him to avoid running into him.

"Eliot, what?" Nate asked.

"Company," Eliot grunted. The team fanned out to see a man with an eyepatch sitting in a chair facing the door, whittling something with a large knife. He looked up at them and made the knife and wood disappear into thin air as well as any of them could. Nate glanced at Eliot, silently signaling for him to take the man down before he tried anything, but Eliot was staring at the man without even a glance at Nate.

"The security alarm wasn't tripped," Hardison said. "Why wasn't the alarm tripped?"

"'Cause he didn't want to trip it," Eliot growled at Hardison. "What are you doing here?" he asked the intruder.

"I heard that you were taking a job from Becka's mom. Don't," the man said. When he stood up, they could see that he leaned heavily on a cane, his left leg bandaged and in a brace. "Eliot will tell you why. Parker? Marcie's waiting for you to call her. Good to see you, man," he said to Eliot, giving him a one-armed back-slapping hug and not seeming to care that he didn't reciprocate. Then he slipped out the door before any of the rest of them could react.

"Eliot?" Nate prompted, the team turning to him for answers.

"You know why the cops didn't do anything? He's a white hat, as white as they get."

"That doesn't excuse him for that girl's treatment and death."

"Look, I've met the guy twice. The first time, we were after the same item and fought. He won, and he was holding back. If he'd wanted to kill me, he could have. The second time, he threatened to bludgeon me to death with a shovel if I hurt one of his girls. I believed him. If there are people getting hurt and killed in his organization, it's necessary. I won't take a job against him."

"He knows Marcie," Parker blurted out. They all turned to look at her. "I don't want Marcie to assassinate you." They stared, trying to make sense of it.

"Why would Marcie assassinate us?" Hardison asked her. "And why not you?"

"Marcie likes me. If you con an assassin's friend, you shouldn't expect to live."

"How do you know an assassin?"

"She taught me how to be a better thief even if she only steals when she's really bored and she usually puts it back. I asked her why and she said she didn't want to lose her day job." Parker's face was confused, but she shook it off. "I have to go call Marcie."

"Nate, we can't run a con on somebody who knows who we are, with only three of us," Sophie said.

"Make that two of you," Hardison said. "If that guy beat Eliot I don't want to go up against him and get killed."

Nate sighed. "I guess I'll go tell the client we can't take her case, and explain what I can," he said.

"A shovel, really?" Hardison asked Eliot.

"For easy disposal of the body," Eliot said, and took some measure of pleasure in Hardison's shudder.