ʜᴀɴsᴇʟ (burnthemall) wrote in makebelievelog, @ 2013-09-23 00:16:00 |
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Entry tags: | gretel, hansel |
WHO: Hansel & Gretel
WHAT: Assignment from Booker takes a rather more interesting turn, leading to joy rides and interrogations of a style purely to suit the twins.
WHERE: Business district in New Creandi
WHEN: Sunday; September 22nd.
RATING/WARNINGS: PG13/Mature; language, abduction (of a target), violence, mental torture {highlight for specific trigger warning;} (Russian Roulette; empty gun), questionable legal issues, more language, Gretel's disregard for male anatomy and Hansel's terrible driving ability.
STATUS: Closed; Complete
~*~
Hansel was starting to get used to the jobs that Booker ended up taking. It was nothing like home, nothing involving humans could ever really reach that place of abject horror that child stealing witches did. But that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing; Hansel would be fine in a world without witches, the problem was knowing that this wasn’t his world.
It didn’t mean that sometimes the assignments from Booker weren’t mind numbingly dull, especially since Hansel had been told that sugar in general was a trigger to his condition and that meant a careful monitor on everything he ate. So he was stuck right then, waiting outside yet another office building, watching as the population of the street wandered along.
The twins had been following their current target, a New Creandi local by the name of Cooper (Hansel wasn’t sure if that was his first or last name because details like that just weren’t his thing) who had some kind of dealings with office real estate. Anyone who dealt in bland, boring office spaces was not worth the time to trail, in Hansel’s opinion, and yet there he was yet again trailing the most boring and possibly least subtle idiot in the world, hoping that Gretel would’ve got the go from Booker to intercept and ask questions. They were decidedly short on time, all things considered.
Cooper had been implicated in the disappearance of a young woman from a well to do family. The trouble was that the girl had a bit of a history in disappearances, and a distinct lack of evidence towards foul play meant the police had their hands tied. So the family went to Booker, and given the twins speciality in missing children, they were put up for the task of finding out, either way, if Miss Rose had vanished of her own free will, or if Cooper here had something to do with it.
Glancing down the street, Hansel caught sight of Gretel, wandering back from her check in with Booker to see if their parameters had changed any. Given how dull thing were getting and the possibility of running out of time, Hansel hoped that was the case.
“Well? Does our illustrious leader have any good news?” They’d been told; one week, if there was no news, they’d get word either way. Kidnap cases tended to have a very small window, but this was supposedly a delicate situation, which meant they needed to wait the extra time. Hansel was really hoping they’d get the go for an intercept.
The look on her face was probably enough of an answer; the close-lipped grin that most people had a difficult time interpreting, the one he knew as a common show when things came together the way she wanted them. Gretel paused to let a woman pass with a dark-haired toddler in tow, then sided her brother shoulder to shoulder, still watching the pair with a gentle fondness that had nothing to do with the ‘good news’ she was about to deliver.
“Looks like we have something to do today,” she said simply, sending him a side-long look and pushing her hands in her pockets. “Not sure what Cooper did to piss Booker off in the last twelve hours, but we ‘got the green light’.” Which apparently meant ‘go get’im’. She received a weird look when she asked for clarification.
The slang that they were coming up against was only serving to further Hansel’s mild disdain for the place. As much as it was nice to get a break from the constant hunt and near death possibilities, without the plague of guilt over what could be happening, Hansel was getting tired of asking for clarification on simple everyday things.
In this instance, Gretel’s tone, body language and ease told him exactly what the term meant, which brought a small smirk to Hansel’s face. He didn’t really care what Cooper had done to piss Booker off, the point was that they were given the go ahead to intercept.
“He’s got a car waiting around the side,” and those things were fascinating and fucking terrifying at the same time, “we can head him off around there.” Because Hansel was sure abducting a man on the streets was not the sort of publicity that Booker would appreciate, even if Hansel was more than a little keen to do more than just stalk the idiot.
“I bet he does,” she commented. “Is it time for the spoiled little prince to go eat lunch with his yes-men already?”
Even though they hadn’t been allowed to make a more definitive move on Cooper, they had been tailing him for several days- and nights- in a row. They knew what coffee shop he liked to frequent, where he ‘worked out’ (another phrase that just didn’t click right), and a million other little routines between the time he woke and went to bed. Least that was one thing that hadn’t changed; three hundred years ago and today, people were still very much creatures of habit.
“I think he can be a little late today.”
Hansel let a sharkish grin spread over his lips, the sort of grin he usually got when they were at the peak of a witch hunt, just before the major pay off. This was about as close to that as they’d get here, not the same, but similar enough in style that it slotted easily with the mindset of the job.
“I think he’ll be a lot late.” They’d already had the chance to discuss the possibilities; ways in depending on when they got the go, best methods of infiltration depending on their location. In this specific scenario, the car was their easiest point of breach. Considering Cooper’s driver was just that, a somewhat young, inexperienced driver who seemed to do nothing but go where he was told, the kid had no skill or ability to stave off Hansel and Gretel’s approach to things.
When Cooper finally exited the building after his meeting, Hansel pushed off the wall he was propping up against, shoulders hunched as he crossed the road, crossing in front of Gretel to change sides so that he approached the driver while she tailed Cooper into the alley where the car was waiting.
The driver was leaning against the driver’s side door enjoying a cigarette, as expected. Gretel shot her brother one quick gauging look before keeping herself back far enough that Cooper didn’t get spooked. The pedestrian traffic was at her back when the young businessman paused by the car to check something on his phone. Good. He was still staring at it when he opened the back door. Didn’t have time to see the dark haired woman following him until she gave him a good helpful shove into the plush backseat and followed him in. Over his surprised protests, she caught sight of some commotion outside- when Hansel got close and personal with the driver.
The point was not to be overly physical with the collateral damage, which meant Hansel was kind enough to use one swift punch to knock the driver out, dragging him to prop at a doorway before taking the seat where the driver would’ve been. “Afternoon,” he tossed another smirk back at Cooper, twirling the keys in his hand before finding the slot they were meant to go in and turning.
Hmm, so that was the easy part. “This is going to be interesting.” Since he wasn’t about to head out into the open road, considering he wasn’t even sure again, which pedal made the thing stop? Hansel winced slightly at the noise of moving the stick without the furthest pedal being pushed down. “Hold on.”
The result of getting the stick to the R position, taking his foot off the middle pedal and tapping the furthest right meant that the car practically shot backwards, which was at least where he was aiming, before the middle pedal once again halted things with a jerk. “So that’s how that bit works. Cool.”
Unfortunately the sudden start and stop wasn’t making things easy for Gretel or the man she was trying to ‘question’. The shock had kept him from shooting out the other door long enough for Gretel to jam the lock down, but being jarred off the seat head-first into the divider threw her balance to shit.
“The fuck is this-!” Cooper barked, shoving the woman back with anything he could connect with, awkwardly rolling back when Hansel hit the brake. Gretel felt the crack of a heel in her kidney, having been way more exposed than normal. The air it didn’t knock out of her growled in the back of her throat when she clocked him back with a hook across the jaw.
“Don’t hit me again,” she snarled, twisting both hands in his perfectly pressed shirt before he could recover, pinning him to the seat with her weight. “We just wanna talk.”
Talking didn’t seem like what Cooper wanted to do, even with Gretel growling at him, and really, Hansel doubted many men would have loose lips with his sister snarling at them. Getting the car back a little further, jerking just a little, Hansel gave another cringe as the car practically squealed at him when he shifted from R into 1st. “Driving sucks.” He half muttered to himself, getting them out of line of sight without hitting anything was an accomplishment.
“You’re gonna be hearing about this, my lawyer will have a field day with you two.” Apparently, Cooper didn’t get that they were doing the talking and he was answering Gretel’s questions.
“Is that right?” Gretel huffed deadpan though the fading throb in her side, really missing certain leather pieces of clothing, but she’d have to make due. Mainly by jerking her quaffed company a few inches up the seat, and swinging a knee over his lap to plant it firmly between his legs. She and Hansel called this Three-Point-Contact. Didn’t work well for witches, but handsy scoundrels rarely wriggled out of it. “Did you see him hit me first, bro?” She used ‘bro’ instead of their names, because they didn’t have the reputation here- just legal problems.
“Definitely saw that, sis. Unprovoked attack too,” Hansel just crunched yet another gear, switching them up into second to swing around into what looked like a large concrete block, but further inspection informed him that it was a car park. With levels. Interesting. “Going up.”
Likely, the top of the place would be utterly vacant, which would mean that Gretel could press for her information without interruption. “You really should let her ask you a question and start singing like a songbird, she gets mighty vicious.” On cue, Gretel used her weight as leverage behind her knee, pinching Cooper’s berries nice and hard against his tailbone. He made a sound somewhere between a yelp and a howl, and grappled with her shoulders trying to pry her off.
“What’d you do with Rose, Cooper.”
“Nngaahh! Fucking bitch!” Locked in pain, Cooper couldn’t get a firm connection, awkwardly slamming his fists around Gretel’s arms the way they were, blocking any good grip on vital parts like her hair or throat, but he managed to get one shoe up on the back of Hansel’s seat and unwedge his balls from their predicament. The second he did, he knocked Gretel’s elbows from behind. She reeled back, he snapped a hand into his jacket.
Gretel felt her heart stop in that split second of cold realization. He had a gun. She acted on pure instinct, shoving Cooper’s arm away fast, the instant a deafening shot nearly split her eardrums and exploded the passenger side window in a spiderweb of broken glass.
The gunshot was startling enough that Hansel slammed a foot on the break, jerking the car and knocking both Gretel and Cooper over slightly, he’d be more contrite about that matter if it didn’t loosen Cooper’s grip on the gun and knock in close enough for Hansel to twist around and smack his fist into Cooper’s face and do a quick check of Gretel through all the glass that shattered around them.
Blood flowed out of Cooper’s nose as he reeled back, groaning and clutching his face as he sprawled in the seat, “Y’okay there, sister dear?” Likely the shock of it all would just press all the wrong buttons with Gretel, to the point of Cooper probably wishing he’d just rolled over and told them what he knew.
Gretel was still reeling. “--that was fucking loud-!” And now so was her voice, trying to compensate for the church bell still ringing between her ears, and she was pretty sure that acrid smell was singed hair. The thing had gone off barely five inches from the side of her face. Thank fuck for the adrenaline; she kept her head and snatched the gun from the seat before Cooper could recover. It wasn’t what she was used to from Hansel’s inventive arsenal, but they’d had a few crash courses with Booker and the mechanics were practically the same.
By the time Cooper had maintained enough to act, he was staring down the length of the barrel. That calmed him down a bit.
“Now,” Gretel huffed, her eyes burning. “You got any more toys you wanna share?”
Cooper’s angry sneer was made all the more ugly by the streaks of blood coming out of his crooked nose.
“How’bout you search me, y’goddamn cunt,” he spat. Gretel didn’t hesitate to smack him, right across the already bruising nose with the butt of his own gun. Blood and saliva sprayed his expensive suit shoulder before he could get his hands up again, muffling his garbled yell. In the meantime, breathing like she’d just run ten miles, Gretel took the moment to shoot a look around them, then at her brother, her brows pinched down.
“Go, dammit! We can’t do this here.”
“Well okay then,” despite evidence to the contrary, Hansel didn’t really need to be told twice. Avoiding a gear grind this time, Hansel got them back into motion rather seamlessly, twisting the car up the concrete maze to the top of the building and out onto the mostly empty roof parking. “You could always just strangle him with his tie? Or theres plenty of glass around, get creative.”
Booker had only told them that death of targets was not permitted and if they were charged then it was their problem. Which was pretty much why the names were avoided, they didn’t need that kind of hassle here on top of anything else. “Otherwise, will this do for you?”
There was one other car on the roof, some disgusting shade of goldish yellow, old model with partially deflated tires. It was a safe bet to say no one was coming for it all that soon. Which meant they were unlikely to be interrupted. Hansel found the park and the lever that locked the brakes, twisting again to face the back. “Pretty sure we can string him up here.”
While keeping effort in her balance as the car made it’s way to the roof, Gretel kept the gun trained on it’s bleeding former owner while going through all the obvious places he could hide another one, or anything else she didn’t feel like being surprised with today. Satisfied with the lack of results, by the time they parked, she had a much clearer game-plan in mind.
“You know, this could end up being a really bad day for you, Cooper,” Gretel informed him matter-of-factly while checking out the mechanics of the pistol up close, looking for the magazine release and access to the ammo. She could trust Hansel to keep an eye on him in the meantime. “So how about you save yourself a lot more trouble and just tell us what we want to know.”
Cooper didn’t seem to be entirely cowed over yet, something that was both good and bad; good because it was about time the twins got to work off a little steam, bad because he was in for a world of hurt. When Gretel finished inspecting the gun in her hands, Hansel had enough of the wheezy breathing and the glaring that he pushed himself out of the seat and car, pulling the door with the blown out glass open and reaching in to haul Cooper out of the car.
“C’mon sis, you’ll have more room to make him squeal out here.” Hansel could tell, from that look on his sisters face, that she had something in mind. He was more than comfortable with rolling with Gretel’s plans, she was the thinker of the two of them, and if she a little scheme, it’d be interesting enough to see it play out.
Stepping out of the car and into the too-bright day, Gretel squinted, fending off the glare from the grey metal and black plastic. She didn’t like the artificial feel and weight of these modern guns, but they did have one nifty feature; efficient loading. She stood with the sun at her back, throwing a long shadow over Cooper where Hansel had tossed him on the gravel roof.
“Nothing to say?” she poked at his silence, then looked at the small gathering of brass objects in her open palm, then back to him. “You spent one trying to take my head off. This thing’s got room for six. How many you think I have in my hand?”
She didn’t wait for him to answer, just tossed the handful of bullets over her shoulder where they clinked and plunked against the Lincoln Towncar. Then shoved the little revolving chamber back in place, and aimed it on a stiff arm two inches from Cooper’s crotch. The trigger clicked before he had time to suck in a breath.
Hansel had to smirk at the way Cooper cringed up, his hands lowering to his crotch instantly while his eyes screwed shut. “I don’t know, I don’t know anything!” He was swiftly losing any kind of ability to even fake the bluster of a man staring at a loaded gun.
The idea actually amused Hansel, his belief in Gretel not screwing this up meant he had little fear of her blowing away Cooper’s extremities before he gave them anything useful, her professionalism usually greatly outweighed his own.
“I don’t, I swear, I don’t, I didn’t touch her, please, I don’t have anything to do it it!” The problem of course was that they both knew he was lying.
“I don’t think he believes how serious you are.” Hansel shrugged, not even looking to pity the slop cowering against the ground. He was the idiot lying to Gretel.
“I think he has an idea,” Gretel quipped back. “He went from threatening and calling me a cunt to saying please pretty fast. Hold his hands back, would you?”
While her brother wrestled with Cooper’s arms and got them in a hard lock behind his back, she made a point to show him where her thumb was positioned’ on the hammer of the revolver, pushing down, causing the chamber to shift to the next round. This time when she pointed the barrel between his hips, she let it sink in for half a second before squeezing the trigger. Another click echoed emptily.
Smacking Cooper upside the head when he struggled enough to stand on Hansel’s toe, it was simple to get him upright and held in place after the initial flailing. It wasn’t like Cooper had a lot of strength; he was a suit, plain and simple. For all that he had his ‘work outs’ and whatever else he tried for muscle build up, he was sorely lacking in any concentrated strength. Hansel had no trouble keeping him from lashing out towards Gretel.
“I can’t, you don’t understand, you’ll ruin it, he’ll--” Cooper trailed off with a whine, eyes clenching shut again and twisting. Hansel just pulled on the hooked arms he had, straining at Cooper’s shoulders as well.
“I swear to fuck, if he pisses on me you’re in for it.” Even Ben had mostly stopped vomiting at every hunt. Gretel shot him a deadpan, mildly unimpressed look.
“Like you haven’t had worse. Like I haven’t had worse.” It was never fun, being sprayed by bodily fluids, including the entire contents of a man between balls and neck, cursed to explode after eating every insect, rodent, and worm he could dig out of the ground. She had no problem bringing that up again if need be, but for the time being, someone was about to squeal.
“Ruin what. Who’s he?” she urged Cooper, once again showing him when she pulled the hammer back. Then pulled the trigger for another hollow click.
Hansel just happened to get smarter about how to avoid said bodily fluids, while others just seemed oblivious, even after it happened time and time again.
“No, no, don’t, can’t you stop her?” Cooper gave another half hearted struggle, trying to twist away from Gretel’s aim. Hansel just raised an eyebrow in question, because he obviously wasn’t about to stop her, and surely that had to plain to see.
“You know, if you just answer her, she might stop pointing that at you.”
“I can’t, they’ll find out,” Cooper twisted again, standing on Hansel’s toe with his heel and making the hunter glare at his sister for that, “They’ll kill me.”
“Stand on me again and I’ll let her kill you.”
Gretel sighed hard, losing more and more patience each time she had to embellish getting the damn gun ready. Her side still ached and she was fifty-percent sure she’d be pissing blood for a day, and the little scraps of information Cooper was sputtering made him the biggest lead they had on finding Booker’s clients’ daughter. It was more than annoying.
“Everybody has to do it the hard way,” she groused, aiming at Cooper’s crotch again. She pinned him in place with a look, her head tilted and eyebrows arched high. “If you tell us, we’ll let you go, which gives you a head-start, doesn’t it. But if you keep this up, your chances of getting off this roof are getting real small, asshole. Now where the fuck is Rose.”
“I don’t know where she is, I swear, I was just meant to get her out in the open, they did the rest.” There was something majorly demeaning about a grown man almost crying, although Hansel really couldn’t feel sorry for this asshole at all. Least of all when he started to sag and Hansel was left supporting what felt like several hundred pounds of dead weight.
“Might wanna elaborate on the who there, before she really loses her patience.” At the very least, they were getting somewhere, although Hansel wasn’t exactly expecting much from the now blubbering mess.
“It wasn’t my idea, I didn’t plan it,” the repetition was grating on Hansel’s nerves right then, enough that he twisted his arm a little exert some pressure on Cooper’s elbow, “My father, my father, he planned it, he did.” The words rushed out of him in a near whimper, “he hired the thugs, wanted her old man Henderson distracted, wanted to push their attention somewhere else. I swear, that’s it, I didn’t do anything.”
Gretel’s lips pressed together tightly, nostrils bull-flaring with a slow, contemplative, annoyed sigh. Her gaze flicked over Cooper’s shoulder to meet her brother’s. If he was telling the truth, and in a situation like this they usually did, it looked like they had the little fish. Fuck.
Her attention swung back to Cooper, shifting on her boots to get just a little closer, nudging the gun barrel in where he could feel it. When she spoke, it was through her teeth. “You led her out in the open’ for people who work for your father, who apparently would kill you? How the fuck does that equate to ‘didn’t do anything’?”
Click.
“Last chance to get everything out, Coop.”
It really wasn’t surprising that the threat of pain got Cooper’s tongue wagging, while most of the time, the twins had to break out some actual violence. Then again, humans were typically easier to get information out of than non-humans. They tended to break easier.
“I was just the contact, I swear, I just talked to her, got her to meet me, we had drinks and I let her leave, honest. I don’t know where they took her.” The thready quality in Cooper’s voice, that almost impossible to fake tendril of fear that make the pitch spike, meant that Hansel was somewhat inclined to believe him. As useless as that made him.
“Gonna need to give her something, her patience is pretty much gone now.”
“Okay, okay, um, Fat Joey, he’s-- that’s who they go to, the CEO’s, they use Fat Joey.” This really couldn’t get much more annoying if they tried. Gretel actually rolled her eyes, her gun arm dropped to her side heavily out of frustration before it snapped right back in place.
“And where do they go to find this Fat Joey?” she snarled through her teeth.
“He owns Volare’s! Volare’s, Jesus Christ--!” Cooper practically disintegrated, snorting through his bloody nose and shaking like a goddamn leaf in November. Quite a fall from the arrogant pissant that pulled a gun on her half an hour ago. Gretel let the name stew for a moment, frowning. It didn’t ring any bells, but then again, it was a big fucking city.
Finally she shifted back a step, peeling herself out of Cooper’s personal space. Her hands moved to tuck the revolver in the back of her pants before fishing for her phone.
“Knock him out, please.” Doubtful she was going to get anything more out of the guy without doing some serious damage- and so far, under Booker’s restrictions, that wasn’t an option. But they couldn’t have him wandering off so soon, could they.
“Since you ask so nicely.” Hansel just shook his head before promptly bouncing Cooper’s head off the side of the car and knocking him on his ass, out cold on the ground. “Least he didn’t piss everywhere.” Which really, despite the blood that Hansel would need to wipe off his shirt and fist later, he was more than glad for.
“So, Volare’s?” Hansel didn’t recognise the name either, but it wasn’t overly surprising. They were working on a time limit to get this done, and at least they had some kind of lead. “This is going to be another night of ‘stake out’, isn’t it? Or are you going to go in there waving guns around crotches too?”
Gretel didn’t even look up from her phone screen, not to step over Cooper, not to answer her brother. Her thumbs were at work searching for as much information on whatever Volare’s was, along with anybody named ‘Joey’. She did, however, scoff at the shameless sarcastic critique.
“Fun as it was being that close to the dirtbag-” More sarcasm. “It worked. Weren’t even any bullets in the damn thing.”
Hansel just shook his head, glancing between the unconscious snivelling idiot and back to Gretel. “You’re fucking terrifying sometimes, you know that.” Because any other time and Hansel would’ve refuted the target area, but this scumbag probably deserved it.
“I think he broke my toe too.” Between the stomped on toe and the bloody sleeve, Hansel was really hoping that he’d at least get to have some fun later. “Fucking idiot.” With that pretty much done, and another lead burned down but at least with somewhere to go from, Hansel was starting to get titchy.
“We can go to Volare’s or whatever later. We should dump this idiot somewhere, stress the stipulations on him keeping his trap shut and then I need to get back.” Hansel just raised his wrist as indication, despite bringing some of his medicine with him, he prefered not to use it on the go, in case a repeat happened.
Gretel paused, only long enough to roll her lips- a sign of gears turning beneath- and then nodded.
She looked back down at the crumpled real estate prince, then at the car. “If what he said holds any weight, the last place he’ll go is to the Law. Wait- no. The last place he’ll go is to his father or this ‘Fat Joey’, then the Law. We could just leave him here. Not like he’ll be out long enough for a pack of wolves to get him.” Which was a legitimate hazard that they were used to.
“That kid you clocked in the alley see you coming?” Though she highly doubted it, there still was that chance.
Hansel just shook his head, because as with most things, they were good at the approach. For all that their hunting tended to get loud and messy, they knew that they couldn’t be that loud before the chase.
“Nah, he’s gonna have a headache and no clue when he wakes up.” Which was bad for him, good for them.
“We’ll check on him on the way down, then. As much as I know you love playing good Samaritan, poor kid just had the bad luck of working for assholes.” Gretel started for the garage stairwell door, digging a handkerchief out of her back pocket to clean the blood off her hand. When she was done, it was handed over to her brother. “You really need practice driving.”
Hansel gave his knuckles a wipe before shoving the handkerchief down the back of Gretel’s shirt in a show of sibling childishness, opting to leave his shirt the way it was, rolling his eyes at her. “For my first try in that metal monstrosity I’d say I coped rather well. You’re the one not checking people over properly for weapons.”
And that was something that while mildly teasing, Hansel was still serious about. Since the possibility of Cooper getting more than a lucky hit in was rather obvious. “Wonder how big this things trunk is though.” Hansel definitely didn’t want to leave Cooper just lying there in case he did come too a little sooner than expected.
After awkwardly straining to get the thing out of her shirt, Gretel stopped and eyed Hansel, then the car. Once again, Booker’s warnings shot through her head. Of anything, adjusting their usual methods to this much more restrictive, legal routine was probably the biggest adjustment to handle.
“We can send an anonymous tip later- make sure the fucker eventually makes it out before dying of thirst. And as for checking for weapons,” she pointed at him. To make a point. “I was trying. Not easy when you’re being rolled around in the back seat.”
Giving a shrug, Hansel went about popping the trunk of the car and bundling Cooper in. It wasn’t exactly difficult, just awkward giving the state of Cooper being passed out. Turned out the trunk was big enough to fit a grown man, interesting. “That makes you wonder who thought up the storage.” He was mostly talking to himself, closing over the top before turning back to Gretel.
“How about we do that first next time?” Since a lot of their earlier hunt had been a case of trial and error, Hansel wasn’t unaccustomed to altering plans next time around based on potential snags the first time. “I’d really rather you weren’t shot in the face, sweetheart.” Joking aside, Hansel was fairly serious about that.
“C’mon, we should check in with Booker after we’ve gotten changed too. Something more sturdy for the next trip out I’m thinking, since it might get a little more fun.” If only as a precaution to who or what they found when looking for Fat Joey.