The Road Home

[abrightboy]

Raylan's loose ends had been tied in Kentucky and Malcolm's were as tantalizingly close as they'd ever been. He and Raylan made the trip to New York with the intent of discovering the fate of the girl in the box, so they could head down to Miami without... baggage.

They would have to start with the revelation Jessica and Ainsley had made to Malcolm right before Raylan was shot, sending Malcolm back to Kentucky: that Eve had infiltrated the Whitly family to learn more about the Surgeon's victims.

Malcolm let them into the New York loft - a space he considered theirs now, more than his, since they decided they might weather the hurricane season there after moving to Miami - smiling as Sunshine tweeted greetings. Once the door was shut behind Raylan, he opened the door of her cage. Ainsley would have fed her diligently, but nobody would have let her out to fly. Sunshine took off across the loft and Malcolm grinned, watching her go.

He looked at Raylan. "We can still bring her with us when we leave, right?"

Comments

[tinstar]

There it was. Basically a Golden Ticket in a pretty little chiffon wrapping. It was a threat, a confession. All on tape. But not the one they were looking for and not a reason to burst in. Jessica hadn't asked him to leave, he was posing no threat, physically. Raylan hated that he had to follow these rules but they were tight for a reason.

They needed to get to Eve and Raylan was smart enough to be following out the slowly tugging threads on Endicott, playing with his arrogance, his expectation of winning no matter what. God, Raylan couldn't wait to see the look on his face when they finally burst in.

This had to be in service of Eve and putting her murderer away. The dominos that fell after it would all be in their favor.

[abrightboy]

"The person who killed Eve wasn't innocent, though," Malcolm points out.

"Poor, innocent Eve," Endicott coos. "She just wanted to help people. She shouldn't have gotten so mixed up with the underbelly of the city and the Whitly curse."

Malcolm's voice takes on a harder edge as he replies "The person who attacked my father wasn't innocent."

Endicott smiles and throws back his drink. "Honestly, I'm surprised nobody killed him a long time ago. He has a lot of enemies."

[tinstar]

Raylan wishes he had an earpiece in Malcolm's ear. They were so close and Raylan was looking forward to getting this fucking slimeball on every charge they could. He gave Malcolm an extra fortyfive seconds and then-

To hell with it. They had enough that any good lawyer worth their salt would be able to put Endicott away for a good number of years. He gestures at Gil and counts them down. Three, two, go go go.

Raylan steps out gun raising to narrow in on Endicott as he announces them loudly with: "US Marshals, nobody move!" Gil followed behind him, gun also raised and leveled at Endicott while he glances up and down Jessica and Malcolm to make sure they were okay.

[abrightboy]

Endicott smiles, taking a sip from his glass.

"Gentlemen. I don't know what you think you're here to accomplish, but let me assure you that all you're doing is creating legal problems for your various... agencies," he tells them, unconcerned.

"You hired the assassin that killed Eve and attacked Martin Whitly in his cell," Malcolm says firmly.

"Prove it," Endicott smirks.

[tinstar]

"You've already admitted to conspiracy to impede and interfere with police investigations, evidence tampering, and whatever else we can dig up from under every rock we gotta overturn to find your shell companies, your papertrail, your phone records.."

He steps in a little further, Gil following and heading towards Jessica as he watches Endicott. Malcolm could mostly handle himself, Jessica needed the cover.

Raylan continues. "Plenty to take you in and hold you for 72 hours while we get a Judge to sign off on gettin' that information."

[abrightboy]

“You have people for that. We’ll find them and flip them and put you away for good,” Malcolm tells him venomously.

Endicott just laughs outright and takes a casual sip of his wine.

[tinstar]

"Alright, up on your feet," Raylan tells Endicott, moving towards him, pistol kept raised as he reaches into his back pocket and pulls out a pair of cuffs, expertly kicking one open with his fingers.

"No lawyer in the world is able to stop the fact you're bein' arrested on suspicion of conspiring to the murder of Eve Blanchard."

[abrightboy]

“Maybe not,” Endicott muses as he stands, letting Raylan cuff him. “Just consider what happened to the last person Malcolm Whitly was intimate with. She got nosy about my business too. She didn’t have anyone left in her life, but don’t you have a kid, Deputy Givens?”

Malcolm grabs the gun out of Gil’s hand and points it furiously at Endicott’s face.

“STOP!” he shouts through gritted teeth. “JUST STOP!”

[tinstar]

His pistol isn't put away until he's got one cuff around Endicott's wrist and only so that he can get the man into the cuffs to begin with, and all for the better with the threat that falls out of Endicott's mouth. Okay so maybe Endicott's cuffs went on a little tight, but before Raylan could spit anything out from behind his teeth, Malcolm had a gun pulled.

"Watch out, Nick," said with the sharp edge of an offensive familiarity, "He knows how to shoot and I ain't afraid to get a little bloody."

Gil didn't take things as calmly as Raylan did, bursting out with a "HEY, Hey-" and raising a hand as he steps up towards Malcolm, resting a hand on his raised arm but not putting any pressure on it. "Malcolm. Think about what you're doing right now. You shoot him here, you're letting him win. Let us handle this. Please." He was asking for Malcolm's own sake, no one else's. Don't make him cart both father and son out of here in cuffs.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm does know how to shoot. Only because Raylan made sure of it.

He holds the gun mostly steady at Endicott’s smirking face another moment before letting Gil take it away from him. He falls back behind the police lieutenant so Raylan can remove the killer from his mother’s formal dining room. He lingers there as Gil falls in with Raylan, glances at his mother and her concerned expression, then follows them out.