Devious Lick

Epilogue

The monument erected to Mayor Mickey was massive, with a plaque reading "In Memorial of Mayor Mickey S, who gave his life in service to this fair city of Los Santos. Our Eternal Mayor." A larger than life statue of Mickey rose high over all the other monuments in the cemetery, shining bronze in the sunlight. 

Mickey would have loved it. He likely would have made a joke about his massive er... never mind.

Quite a crowd had gathered on Memorial Day, which some referred to as Mickey Day, to pay their respects to those who had given their lives in the line of duty. It had been thirteen years since Mickey had died in a horrible jet accident as he tried to bring a known criminal to justice. Several other officers had also lost their lives that day, including the other pilot. There were smaller monuments to those fallen officers situated around the monument to Mayor Mickey. 

Commissioner Kyle Pred gave a heartfelt speech to the gathered crowd, recounting the lives of the Mayor and the officers whom he had known with fond memory. He recalled Mickey as one of his best friends, and the best Mayor the city had ever known. Some of the stories Pred recounted made the gathered people laugh, some made them groan in irritation, but that's who Mickey was in the end. He was polarizing, for better or worse. No one could argue, however, that memories with Mickey were always entertaining. 

Many of the gathered were known gang members from various gangs throughout the city or representatives of the PD, but that wasn't who the girl weaving her way through the crowd was focused on. No, the easiest marks were the tourists. And her current focus was a couple, a man and a very pregnant woman, obviously wealthy by their designer threads, who stood close to the monument. She had been scoping them out for a while now, they had the look of tourists to them. The girl wasn't surprised to see them here, the immense statue of Mickey drew people to Los Santos. It was a common tourist attraction now. 

She bounced on her toes behind them, waiting for her moment. It came as the couple leaned in to read the memorial plaque. Leaping forward, the girl snatched the purse off of the woman's shoulder and ran.

"Oi!" She heard behind her, and footsteps were close on her trail as she ran. She glanced behind her once, and the man was hot on her trail. Okay, time for some fancy tricks, she thought. Running out of the cemetery and across the street, she turned down an alleyway and  knocked a trash can down behind her. Turning another corner as she came out of the alley, she hustled down the sidewalk and climbed the chain link fence into the Mandem block. She wouldn't be safe here if the Mandem boys found her, but she wasn't going to stay long. She snuck along the wall, watching behind her for the man who had been following her. He was nowhere to be seen. 

Her confidence rising,  and not seeing any of the residents of the block around, she heaved a sigh of relief. She headed for the gate, figuring she could squeeze through the bars or climb over it to get out. As she approached the gate, however, it beeped and began opening. Her eyes widening, she watched the pregnant woman walk through the gate, her eyes fixed on the thief. The girl shivered at the menacing feeling she was getting from the woman, whom she had assumed was defenseless at first. 

As she backed away from the woman, she heard someone drop to the ground behind her, boots hitting the ground heavily. The man who had been chasing her had apparently climbed up to the roof of the block and then down behind her. She was surrounded. 

She weighed her options; even thought the woman was scary, she was pregnant and would act to protect her baby, so it would be easier to get past her.

Sensing the girl's intentions, the woman reached under her maternity top and pulled out a pair of pistols, aiming it at the thief.

"What the heck?" The girl exclaimed. 

"Yeahhhh, didn't expect that, did ya?" The man behind her laughed a throaty laugh.