Hello Mz. Hyde (Andy Hurley)

Chapter 9- Misery Business

Becca's POV

"What are you doing here?" I shot up from the couch. "Last time I heard about you, Gabe had said that you were dead!"

Gerard nodded. "That's what I heard about you too. What are you doing here?"

Gabe answered before I could. "Gerard, she's here because of the same reasons you are. Aubrey is dead and someone's trying to frame Joe for it. And because of the connection we had to Patrick, Brendon isn't too happy and believes that Patrick sent Joe to kill her to get revenge for Victoria."

Gerard leaned back on the wall and pulled out a cigarette from his jacket pocket and lit it. He pressed the lit cigarette to his lips and took a deep breath. The smoke seeped out of his mouth as he spoke. "So what do you need me for?"

Joe pulled out a cream colored folder and spread the contents out on the table. "I have a friend who works with the Chicago PD. She's working on this case and managed to get me this. Whoever did kill her was definitely a professional, something you should know about."

He was right. Back in New York, Gerard was a hired gun for whoever was the highest bidder. It could have been Patrick, could have been Brendon, or even an outside party. It didn't matter, all that matters would be if he got paid or not. He called himself "The Black Parade" even though it was just him. The last time if had heard from him or about him, I was told that he had gone off the grid, possibly caught in a shooting and didn't make it out.

I immediately reached for the folder and scanned the contents. It was an autopsy report. Scanning the official report, I came across a signature on the bottom that sparked my interest. "How do you know Bones?" I wondered, pointing to her signature.

Joe was silent for a few minutes. He was hiding something and I could tell. All the tell tale signs of Joe hiding something of lying were all there. He was scratching the back of his neck, avoiding eye contact with any of us, and acting restless. "How do you know her?" He deflected the question back at me.

I shook my head. "I will tell if you tell." Joe was a good negotiator, but he could never win a confrontation with me, physical or verbal.

"Fine," He huffed. "Marie and I dating. There you go."

I raised my eyebrows. "For how long?"

He shrugged. "Three months. I came up here after you disappeared. I ran into her one day and it kinda just went from there. Now tell us how you know her?"

Gerard, Gabe, and Ryland all turned to me, all wanting an answer and I knew I couldn't lie to them. "Fine, but you all have to swear none of this leaves this room." I made them all promise.

"Sure." Gerard agreed. "As far as anyone else from back home knows, I'm six feet under." He added with a sassy tone.

"Okay, do you guys remember the guy from last night that I left with. Not the blonde one, but the other one." I asked. Everyone except Gee nodded. "Well, that's Andy. He's a detective for the Chicago police. And we've been dating for about five months." I confessed.

Gerard's cigarette fell out of his mouth, which was hanging open in shock. The color drained from Gabe and Ryland's faces, and Joe looked at me like I belonged in Arkham Asylum. "WHAT?!" They all exclaimed.

"Becca, do you know how dangerous that is?!" Gerard exclaimed. "If he ever found out about you, could you imagine how screwed every single person in this room would be?"

I shook my head. "No. We won't because he won't find out. No evidence, no traces, no witnesses. That's what Joe and I had to live by for nine god damn years." I snapped at them and grabbed one of the papers off the table. "There is nowhere near enough evidence to link Aubrey to any of us, so we should be okay." I tried to get them back to the subject at hand, but I could tell that they were all still freaked out about Andy.

"Guys, we need to figure this Aubrey thing out." I tried to divert their attention away from me. "Someone is trying to frame Joe, possibly to get to Patrick and piss off Brendon. If whoever did this wants to start a war, they hit a massive pressure point. We need to stop this before it can escalate any further." I wasn't going to lose them to a private part of my life that they were freaking out about. I tossed the autopsy to Gerard. "You know Joe's style, take a look and see if there are any flaws that could keep him in the clear or give us an idea on who our real killer is."

Gee snatched the file out of the air and scanned through it. "Looks a lot like Joe's handiwork, but the cause of death doesn't match up with him."

Joe shot up and grabbed the file from Gerard's hands. "I was reading that." Gee snapped, placing a hand on his hip.

"Whatever," Joe muttered in response, reading the file over and over. "He's right. It says here that Aubrey's throat and wrists were slashed, but it says that the official cause of death was from asphyxiation, not blood loss."

"That's a start." I added. "Do you have an alibi on where you were when this all happened?" I asked. We always had alibis for things like this, but they were usually each other, Patrick, or some old friends that Patrick had worked with.

Joe nodded. "Yea, I was with Marie that day. I remember that she got a call from someone, told me that there was a murder, then left." He explained.

"The same thing happened with me and Andy." I backed him up.

"So that's something else that could save your ass." Gerard spoke up. "From what I got, this killer is definitely a professional, but young and messy. The crime scene itself appeared to be a mess. And knowing Aubrey, there was definitely a struggle. The scene could be littered with DNA, fingerprints, enough evidence to find whoever this person is."

Joe breathed a sigh of relief. "Well that's some good news." He was right, if we could find the actual killer before things get rocky, we could stop it all together before it even happens.

"But the only question now is who is the real killer?" Ryland spoke up.

Gerard shook his head. "That's something I can't help you guys with. As far as hired guns go, I may be a legend, but I'm still dead and out of the business. There's tons of people out there who want to become the next Black Parade, and whoever this is may be no exception. All that we do know is that they know about Patrick and Brendon, or else they wouldn't have gone after Aubrey and used Joe's style."

"So what should we do?" I asked, completely out of ideas.

"We are going to need you two to keep up with this, keep getting as much info as you can." He replied. "You are important sources on this. If you want to stop the bloodshed before it starts, you're gonna have to solve this yourselves and take them put before they can hurt anyone else."

"So what you're saying is that we are going to have to be vigilantes?" Joe summed up.

"Pretty much." Gee agreed. "I have to run now, but know this. I was never here. As far as the four of you know, I am dead." He glared at all of us, making us swear to ourselves not to tell a soul. We all nodded in understanding. Gerard smirked in content. "Good. Ciao everyone." He waved goodbye then left.

We all sat in stunned silence for a few moments. Vigilantes? We were the opposite of vigilantes, how could we pull that off? More importantly, how were we going to be able to collect all this information, piece it all together, AND track down our killer without anyone finding out?