Justice Or Vengeance? (4)

Sitting outside the school, Bazel looked through all the contact information he had acquired while waiting for Neto to come and send someone to pick up all the information that was collected from Schmitz.

"What can I even do with all that I know now? I am just a prosecutor, I do not go after criminals that are still out and about on the street but instead deal with them after they are put behind bars. I have already overstepped my bounds by quite a bit, but even so I still feel like I must do something."

Sighing Bazel did what he always whenever he was stuck in his thinking, pull out his favorite pocket watch.

"While it may not tell time, or do anything for that matter, it is still the only momento I have of whoever my parents were" thought Bazel as he pulled it out and opened it, before he flinched in surprise for a moment.

"Woah! The picture actually changed, I have never seen that before. Usually it just a picture of a sun, but now it seems to have switched over to a different sun picture. This one appears to be slowly covered by darkness, with a fourth of it covered. I wonder what that could mean?"

Bazel looked at it for a few moments more, before deciding that whatever change it was undergoing it was one that would take a large amount of time.

"I guess that makes sense, it only just now changed and I have had it for years and years. I can only wait and find out until it finally reveals its secrets. I bet its going to be extremely anticlimactic though, hah."

Distracted for a moment he was by his pocket watch, so much so that he was able to break free from his previous line of thinking and begin anew.

Before he could fully make up his mind, however, a police car rolled up in the carpool lane in front of Bazel. The passenger window rolled down, revealing a man of tanned skin and long dark hair. So long was his hair that it was even tied back with a small hairband, making him look quite retro for the current day and age.

"Ey, Ven aquí amigo!" cried the officer behind the wheel at Bazel.

"Hello Neto, as loud as always I see" said Bazel in response, as he collected his things and walked towards the car.

"Get in, quick quick. Before one of those mafioso pop out under my car and shoot ya hahaa."

Getting in the car, Bazel laughed while saying :

"Please, why would a member of the Irish Mafia be under your car?"

"Oh amigo, you would be surprised. According to one of my boys that appears to be one of their favorite hiding spot as they await for ambushes. I guess all these years in hiding have taught them some new tricks?" said Neto, his voice full of mockery and disdain.

Not completely believing him, Bazel just shook his head and started to hand him the documents he had prepared.

Neto looked them over, while also playing the recording that Bazel had taken during the first half of his meeting with Schmitz.

"Hmm, what is a highschool girl doing getting members of the mob to do her dirty work? Have they actually gone loco in the past few years? Or perhaps their arrogance has grown....either way this information gives us enough reason to act, even if it does not directly tie them to the mafia themselves we can still bag them for harassment, blackmail, threats of violence, and kidnapping. " remarked Neto.

"Loco what?" asked Bazel, not understanding the Spanish used.

"Seriously amigo? We have been through thick and thin and you have not started to learn my language, oh mi corazón!"

"Enough of the theatrics" said Bazel, "I have actually been wanting to learn lately but I usually spend all my time working....something that I am now starting to regret deeply."

"You actually wanted to learn? Wow. Well corazón is heart and loco is crazy, remember them. You never know when an espanol will hold you at gunpoint and ask you to tell them what those two words are in Spanish" said Neto with a smirk.

He then stored away the documents and recording in a holder that was to his side.

"Say, why did the recording cut off all of a sudden?"

"Oh, that was because the conversation turned personal. Specifically about Lily, here is what I learned from that" said Bazel offhandedly, giving the document to Neto.

Neto accepted it and read it, his smirk and silly air slowly dissipating with each passing second. Even his grip hardened, slowly crumpling the paper into pieces as he shook in anger.

He then took a deep breath to calm himself somewhat, before handing the now mostly useless paper back to Bazel and gazing straight at him. The look in his eye was no longer silly and goofy, but that more of a cold and deadly killer.

"All of this happened to Lily? That sweet ángel?" asked Neto slowly.

Bazal just nodded, glad that his reaction was not as over the top as he had thought it was.

"It did, all of it due to my negligence. Remember when you arrested all those kids that jumped her that one time? Apparently what we did was nowhere near enough to stop the bullying, and it just went from overt to covert. Eventually culminating into what happened the other night, where she was outright kidnapped" said Bazel, his tone of self deprecation.

"No, it was not entirely your fault Bazel. While you might have some of the blame, you were not the one who bullied her in the first place. You were also not teacher who was cowed into silence by petty threats, or the principle that shoved everything under the rug to save face, or the foolish students who were easily misled or completely complicit.... Amigo, we will get these people that are responsible. That, you have my word. This Mcgrath and her thugs will all face the long arm of the law" said Neto sincerely, as he patted Bazel on the shoulder.

"You might be right, but that does not make my anger recede. I still feel it, the fire within that wants me to take revenge."

"Well amigo, you did me more than just one solid back in the day. I can have you ride along when we go grab this high schooler and her mafia friends, so that you can witness first hand justice being sown. After that, it's all up to you and your office whether or not the charges stick."

"Thanks Neto, although all I did back then was follow my principles. While a prosecutor's job is to put the other side in jail, that does not mean we have to even imprison obviously innocent men."

"Hah, without you revealing the truth my brothers would have been in jail for life or maybe even put on death row. Now look at them, two years later and they are all outstanding citizens with more than a few of them on the police force alongside me. Making the world a better place with our own hands, cleansing the environment of everything that made me and mi familia take the wrong path in the first place."

Bazel looked away from the intense gaze of Neto, unable to withstand the pure sincerity emanating from him.

"Everyone who knows of your story is shocked, gang leader turned Police Captain...hah, maybe one day they will make a movie about you" jested Bazel, trying to move the focus away from himself.

Neto's eyes widened in shock, "you are right! They might make one of me one day...I better wrack up some more achievements, else they will not have enough to write about."

Chuckling at the absurdity of his friend, the serious mood having dissipated completely, Bazel asked,

"When will you be heading out to arrest McGrath?"

"Tomorrow, we will pay her home a 'visit' as she leaves for school. I will have someone come to pick you up first thing in the morning so you won't miss it, the car will be unmarked of course"

Bazel nodded, pulling out his phone quickly to set an alarm for the time.

"All right, thanks for everything Neto. I need to catch the bus to head home now, I do not want to leave Lily for more than I have to right now" said Bazel as he made to open the door and leave.

"Hold it, why take the bus when we have a car right here? I will give you a lift, buckle up amigo."

Having learned long ago that it was pointless to try to reject a favor from Neto, Bazel just thanked him and sat back down not forgetting to buckle up.

Looking out the window, absentmindedly staring at the changing scenery, Bazel thought to himself.

"Just one more day. Then justice will be had...justice..."