A Good Guy & A Bad Boy

Ch. 17

It's Saturday, the day of the homecoming dance that is scheduled for later that night. Jake got out of bed and got ready for the day. He went to the kitchen to see Clair and Gerald eating breakfast with Nick.

"Morning, Jake," Nick said. "I fixed you a plate."

Jake sat beside Nick and saw the plate he prepared for him; bacon, eggs, pancakes, and a muffin was on Jake's plate.

"Thanks, Nick," Jake gave Nick a kiss on the cheek.

As Jake and Nick finished their breakfast, a knock from the door echoed the room. Jake answered the door, seeing Troy on the other side of it.

"Hey, Jakey," he said. "Ready for Operation: Takedown Becky?"

"Yeah," Jake answered.

"You're serious about this?" Nick asked. "You two could get in a lotta trouble."

"And?" Troy replied. "We're doing this for justice. When did you suddenly start caring about getting in trouble?"

"I'm not worried about you getting in trouble; I'm worried about Jake getting in trouble. I don't want him to do something I would do."

"Mind filling us in on what's going on?" Gerald asked, Clair locking her arm with his.

"Jakey and I are going to break into Becky's house and find any evidence that can put her behind bars," Troy explained. "I think she might be laundering money, and the only way to prove that is to do a deep search."

"Look, we can't tell you what to do, but think of the consequences," Clair replied. "If you do manage to find something, you won't know what Becky could do. There may not be any evidence there. Hell, you might find something you're not supposed to be looking for."

"We understand what you're trying to say, and... we'll be careful," Jake said.

"I know you'll be careful... I'm coming too," Nick responded. "Did you honestly believe that I'm gonna let Jake do something dangerous without me?"

Jake and Troy chuckled at Nick, who grinned. Clair and Gerald looked at each other in worry.

"Please be safe," Clair said.

"I would say 'don't do anything stupid', but you already are, so..." Gerald added.

"We will, promise," Jake replied. "Let's go, boys!"

The boys walked out the front door, Nick closing the door behind them. Gerald looked in shock.

"You okay?" Clair asked.

Gerald looked at Clair, "That was the first time in a long while that Nick used the front-"

Suddenly, Gerald was interrupted by Nick, who walked back in the apartment.

"I left my phone in my room," he said. "I'll just grab it and head out the fire escape."

Nick walked past Clair and Gerald and headed to his room, Clair laughinh at Gerald.

"...door," Gerald continued, his body slumped.

Soon, the three boys were down the street, hiding in a bush. They looked and saw Becky locking the front door and hiding the key under the porch mattress. Becky walked to her car and drove off, the boys waiting until she was outta plain sight. They approached the door and used the hidden key to unlock it, opening the door. They pit the key back and locked the door behind them when they walked in.

"We're in," Nick said. "Now what?"

"You never seen investigations before?" Troy asked. "Now we look for the evidence we need to prove she's not innocent."

"When I was staying with her, there were rooms in the house that I wasn't allowed to go in," Jake explained. "Those places were her bedroom, the garage, and the attic. I'll check her room."

"I'll check the attic," Nick said.

"I'll look around in the garage and be lookout," Troy added.

"Let's roll," Jake replied.

Jake and Nick headed upstairs, while Troy looked around the garage. As he was searching, Troy found a small chest in the corner of the garage, under a shelf. When he opened it, he saw stacks of cash, all of them being twenty dollar bills.

"I hope Becky doesn't mind if a brick or two was gone," he said, slipping a couple stacks in his pocket before snapping a picture of it.

In the attic, Nick was blowing away dust from everything, finding an old flip phone that looked recently used. He went through the messages and read them.

Text message: Becky don't u forget bout dat drop they really need a fix also if u do forget I'll make sure 5-0 kno bout ur lil stash from Adidas

"This is shady at its finest," Nick slipped the phone in his pocket.

In Becky's bedroom, Jake found an old laptop under the bed and went through her files. He saw a chart of all the money Becky recieved.

"Becky stole a lotta money from a lotta companies," Jake said. "She even had the audacity to keep track of everything she done."

Jake pulled out his phone and took of picture of the chart.

Minutes later, the three regrouped in Jake's old bedroom.

"So what did we find?" Troy asked.

"You was right about Becky being involved with money laundering," Jake explained. "She had a whole chart on her laptop, and on it had all the companies she stole money from."

"Not only that," Nick replied. "Becky was also involved with drug dealing. I went through an old flip phone and found a text from some thug talking about a drop. I bet that drop was some of that good-good."

"In the garage, I found her little stash of cash and I took a couple bricks," Troy added. "Figured Jake might need some... compensation."

"Great job, team," Jake said. "Now that we got everything we came here for, we can-"

Suddenly, they heard the front door being opened and a familiar voice.

"I forgot my wallet in my room," Becky said with a phone up to her ear.

"Hide!" Jake whispered.

Troy and Nick opened the closet and pulled out an empty suitcase and some clothes and entered the closet, closing the closet door. Jake tried to hide but...

"Hello, Jake," Becky said. "Welcome home."