We Belong Together

Chapter 21

Daryl had tried to track Merle down for a week now. No one had seen or heard from his brother for the past 2 weeks. Even though it wasn't unusual for Merle to disappear like that for long periods of time, it was unlike Merle to go anywhere and have no one know where he went or who he was with. Daryl was starting to wonder if his brother met his demise as well. His brother was known to deal drugs and dabble with drug kingpins from time to time so it was a possibility. Perhaps he wasn't able to come up with the money for one of his benders and one of his dealers got fed up with him. Daryl hoped that that wasn't the case but he never was sure where Merle was concerned. It seemed the only one that could kill Merle was Merle. He was the toughest son-of-a-bitch that Daryl had ever known but he also knew there were guys out there that were even tougher. "Still can't find your brother?" Beth asked as she sat in the rocker-glider with the baby to nurse. "Yeah, thought someone would know where he was at least. It's like he disappeared off the face of the earth. No one has seen or heard from him in weeks," Daryl said as he watched Beth pull her shirt down so the baby could latch on. "What about Martinez, down at the shop? You said that Merle was spending a lot of time with him before all of this mess happened." "Martinez claims he didn't see Merle and hasn't talked to him either. Something about that guy I don't trust. Something's going on with him but I just don't know what." Daryl knew Merle had hung out with a lot of shady characters over the years but that Martinez guy was like a sheep in wolves' clothing. He had heard stories about Martinez being into drugs and even getting into a few fights with people Daryl knew to be pushers. The thing that set him apart was the fact that he was like a chameleon. He could blend in with the drug people but also with the rest of society. He could be charming when he wanted to be but a total asshole when the occasion called for it. Daryl had worked with Martinez for only a few months. At the shop he seemed to be on his best behavior, but out on his off time, Daryl had observed a different side of the guy. Daryl was beginning to have a hunch that Martinez knew more about Merle than he let on. He had to figure out what was going on and soon. 

Later that day, Daryl was helping Beth give Jayden a bath when his phone went off. It was Tyrese. "Hey, I need to take this. Do you got him?" he asked Beth. "Yeah, go ahead," she said as she finished with the baby. "Hey, Ty, what do you got for me?" Daryl asked his friend. "I got something you should see. I think it will help with Merle and also your case. Can you come by the shop today?" Tyrese asked. "Yeah, I'll be down there around 5. I got to finish helping Beth but I'll be down there." "Ok, see you then," Tyrese said as Daryl ended the call. "Baby, we got to go down to Tyrese's shop. He says he has some information for me." Beth looked over at Daryl. "Anything you need. I hope we can figure this out soon so that life goes back to normal and you don't have this looming over us anymore." She finished giving the baby a bath, dressed him and headed off with Daryl to the shop. 

"Check this out," Tyrese said as he began running the video surveillance footage of Daryl and Martinez in the shop. As Beth, Tyrese and Daryl watched the tv screen, the baby started to fuss. "Shhhh, it's ok. I got your food right here sweetheart," Beth said as she opened up her blouse to nurse little Jayden. "Watch, here, this part coming up," Tyrese instructed. They all watched as they saw Daryl turn his back to Martinez and the camera and as he did so, Martinez reaching over to grab Daryl's rag out of his tool box and stuffing it in his pocket. "Shit! So that's where they got my rag from," Daryl said. "Yeah, and look at the time stamp..it's the day before you got arrested. " Beth and Daryl looked at each other. So Martinez had something to do with it but what? "Here's another interesting thing," Tyrese said. He fast forwarded to later on in the day when Martinez was alone in the shop. The image showed him going to the front of the shop and talking to Zach. You couldn't hear what they were saying but it looked like the men were in a heated argument over something. Then they watched as Zach handed over a wad of money to Martinez and left. "What the hell?" Daryl said. "That's what I said," Tyrese responded back. "One other thing you got to see, hold on while I get it to where you can see." Tyrese once again fast forwarded the video footage until it stopped on another scene with Martinez being in the shop by himself and the image of Merle walking up towards Martinez in the front of the shop. The two men were having a conversation and Martinez reached into his pocket to give Merle a plastic bag with some powder looking substance in it. "Son of a bitch deals drugs," Daryl said to Tyrese as Beth looked on. "Yeah and look at the date on that one. It's two days after all of this happened so it happened within the past two weeks. Martinez swore he didn't see Merle at all the past two weeks," Tyrese said. Daryl couldn't believe what he was seeing. First the taking of his rag, Zach and then Merle. "I'm willing to bet Martinez has something to do with Zach's murder and Merle being gone." "Hey", Daryl turned to Tyrese, "when did you install these cameras? I didn't even know you had these." Tyrese looked at his friend. "Been missing some tools here recently. Didn't know who was taking them so I had the security cameras installed. Couldn't tell anybody, even you, didn't want it to get out that people were being watched. I needed to find out who was doing it," Tyrese said as he glanced back from his friend and Beth who had finished feeding the baby. "So was it Martinez that was stealing the tools too?" Daryl asked. "No, it wasn't," Tyrese replied. "I found out it was T-Dog. I had to fire him the other day." "Oh, that sucks. He was a really good mechanic too," Daryl said as he got up from his chair. "What do we do now?" Beth chimed in. "I was going to take this down to the police after I showed this to you. Maybe the police can start investigating Martinez instead of Daryl and Daryl can be cleared for killing Zach." Daryl nodded. "Yeah, and they can figure out what happened to Merle. He ain't answering his phone and no one knows where he went or nothing. That ain't like Merle." Beth looked at Tyrese and then back to Daryl. "Was Zach doing drugs?" she asked. "I don't know, but why would he be giving Martinez money when we know Martinez was pushing drugs?" "I never knew Zach to do drugs. Wow!" she said in a surprised tone. "Yeah, I bet there's a lot about ol' Zach you didn't know about either. " Beth was puzzled. "What do you mean?" she asked Daryl. "Like he was also slipping it to Martinez's sister who was underage." Beth's mouth fell open. She was stunned. "What? When?," she asked. "Merle told me before we moved out. Said he saw them screwing back behind Joe's one night. Didn't think much of it until now. Makes a lot more sense." Daryl finally put the pieces together. Not only was Zach doing drugs but he was fucking Martinez's little sister and Martinez was not happy about it. He wanted to get rid of Zach but didn't want to take the fall for it so he set Daryl up, knowing that he and Zach had a rivalry going over Beth. "Wow! Goes to show you that you never really know people like you think you know them," Tyrese said. "Yeah, but I got this guy figured out pretty much. Once the police see this they should get off my back," Daryl said as he gathered up the diaper bag so he and Beth could go home. Daryl took the baby from Beth as she turned to Daryl's boss. "Thanks, Ty. I am truly grateful. Thanks for all your help. How can we ever repay you?," Beth said to him as she came over and gave him a hug. Tyrese let out a little chuckle as he patted the girl on her back. "Just get my number one mechanic back to work and that will make everything even." Beth smiled. "Will do!"