Hometown Justice: Homecoming

Chapter Nine

“No,” Tommy said.

“Mr. Leons, the evidence supports the mechanic’s testimony,” Shadoe explained.

“No,” Tommy said slightly louder.

“Mr. Leons, listen to me. As an officer of the law, I cannot and will not illegally arrest anyone who hasn’t committed a crime. The only thing preventing me from arresting you is the conflict of interest clause in my contract. Your lawyer specifically put that fucking clause in there to prevent a situation like this,” Shadoe said.

“NO!!!” Tommy shouted, before clearing his entire desk, and the walls behind him. “You!” he said, pointing at Shadoe, “YOU’RE FIRED! That big ass salary I was paying you, it now revoked and you’re out of a job. You’re not a cop anymore in this state! Because of me, you can’t even do Private Investigations. Get your sorry ass out of my complex!” 

Two of Tommy’s henchmen removed Shadoe’s weapons and two more grabbed him to drag him outside. Tommy turned to the shadows of his office, where the light from a cigarette could be seen. He smiled a bit and returned to his chair. 

“It looks like the first strike team have arrived at Bingham’s Hardware. Let’s see how hard The Marine fights for the store, shall we, Brutus?” Tommy asked, pointing towards the flat screen in the far corner.

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Chase stood atop the hardware store as the F-350 came to a stop in the center of town. He was dressed in all black, with his white martial arts gi beneath it. He carried a pair of night vision binoculars he had taken from Frank’s back office and peered threw them. He saw three men exit the truck, carrying a large device. They walked to the exact center point in town and activate the device. A loud humming noise was before Chase’s cell phone vibrated. He removed it from his pocket and saw he had received one text message. Opening the message, he gasped.

“IF YOU OPEN THE MESSAGE, LEONS WILL KNOW. YOU ARE TO RAID THE MAIN STREET OF POLKVILLE TONIGHT, OR YOU WON’T WAKE UP IN THE MORNING”

Chase turned and opened the hatch in the top of the roof. He called down to his friends.

“DO NOT OPEN THE TEXT MESSAGE YOU JUST RECEIVED!” he called down before climbing down the ladder and joining them. “Leons has the message encoded. He knows who opens it and who doesn’t.  We don’t need deaths tonight, so we’ve gotta stop the entire operation in it’s tracks,”

“How, Chase? Without your uncle, we don’t stand a chance,” Todd said from the back of the store.

“One thing that Tai has taught us, true strength isn’t always physical strength, it’s about who is fighting the hardest to protect what they love,” Chase said, “and I don’t know about you guys, but the Leons Boys are the reason I grew up without a Dad. They aren’t going to be the reason I lose my home,”

With that, Chase tore off the black garments covering his gi. It was a traditional white gi with the Japanese word for tiger emblazoned on his back. Chase’s attire also held a small pouch tied to his orange belt. Todd was concerned about the pouch, but Chase opened it, and removed five small black orbs. 

“These are smoke pellets. Uncle Alex gave them to me one night while he was recovering. We can conceal ourselves in a cloud of smoke. Where is Tyler? He’s our technical expert,” Chase said.

A small dark haired kid with fair skin stepped forward. He was the only person in the building not wearing martial arts gear beside Mr. Ruler and Frank. He ran his fingers through his hair and sighed deeply.

“I been on the roof looking over that device. I’m going to need at least twenty-five minutes to stop the signal and change the message. Can you give me that long?” Tyler asked.