The clock in the car read 2:42 as the pair were pulling into Hartmann''s driveway once more. Lovemarine''s car remained parked on the street opposite the house. What was surprising, however, was that a blue sedan now took the spot of Luca''s car. The tan car there before was nowhere to be seen. "Strange," remarked Lovemarine. Something was amiss and the pair would soon discover what.


    The two made it to the door. Jones knocked, half expecting for there to be no answer from the other side. After his first attempt at contact, Jones employed his voice, demanding for Luca to open the door. Luca obliged with a response, yelling loud enough to be heard through the walls. "Not right now guys, I have a bottle to finish. Maybe in a few hours I can pop my head out and pay you all a talk. I trust the delay works for you."


    A turn of the door knob revealed it to be locked. Jones was in no mood to wait. Not even the time it took to pick a lock was all too appealing. His overall disdain for Luca'' actions was quickly spilling over into the territory of anger.


    "Hey Lovemarine, have you had a chance to look at the flowers in the yard? Spring is certainly the best time of year for any enthusiast of nature," asked Jones of the older detective. Jones did not desire a response, just a quick turn of the head.


    The offering of a distraction was an acknowledgement that Lovemarine did not have to go along with what Jones was about to do. So far Lovemarine had already looked the other way on one breaking and entering, but that was no guarantee that Jones was permitted to commit a second.


    Abandoning all finesse, Jones was to kick the door open. It was not such a hard thing to do with enough knowledge of how doors worked. Jones hit the wooden barrier just right. The placement of the kick was right in the sweet spot next to the knob. The door swung open with great force.


    Lovemarine''s brief look away was quickly interrupted by the unmistakable noise. He only shook his head a little and then offered a chuckle.


    Jones walked through the slightly disturbed frame joking with Lovemarine, "They taught me that in the military."


    "Really?" Lovemarine asked the question in earnest.


    "No," answered Jones with a devilish laugh.


    Luca Hartmann was still sat on the couch.  The room overall was no longer full of trash thrown a strew. The trash was now in bags. The place still reeked, but at least the appearance was not so offensive to the sense. Luca was, at the very least, telling the truth that he was drinking. Before Luca there were two glasses now. It was yet another expensive glass of whiskey. The kind so smooth that a whole bottle could be drank without any protest against the typical harshness of alcohol.


    "We need to have a talk." stated the private eye with much force. While Jones meant to corner Mr. Hartmann and force an explanation out of him, the manager surprised the two by taking the initiative.


    "I will talk and you will listen." said Luca with resolve. Jones could hardly believe his ears. He would just have to wait a few moments for an explanation.


    "I killed her. I did it. I shoved the poison into her body. I killed her. You can arrest me now." confessed Luca with composure.


    "No, you didn''t. Stop lying. What does it take for a man to face reality? You knew all along that she was killed and that this was no accident. You lied to me about the paper. It did not just say it was an accident. They mentioned the heroin overdose. I am sure that reporter must have gotten in trouble too Vincent de More. When was he here? Why did you call and tell him we were at the tax office?" responded Jones to what he believed was a fake admission of guilt.


    "It was me. I did it. I killed her. I shot at you too. Here is the pistol." Luca took it out from behind him by grabbing the barrel. He then threw it to the other side of the couch before Lovemarine could even think to react with this own weapon.


    Hartmann continued, "The car I used is out front. Take me away now."


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    "You lie." now added Lovemarine. The desperation to be taken away settled any doubt that Lovemarine had about Hartmann''s guilt.


    "Tell me how you did it." interjected Jones shortly after Lovemarine''s remark.


    "We drank. I ensured she drank too much. She was knocked out, then I took the heroin I bought the day before and injected it into her veins. She died quickly." claimed Luca Hartmann. A small rip in his composition was beginning to form with the image of her death in his mind. Lovemarine picked up on the detail.


    "An overdose is not a quick thing," retorted the detective. He then went into the details of how an overdose looks, even Jones was taken aback by the whole description. Death was no pretty thing and Luca was being reminded of the fact. "The man who murdered his girlfriend had harmed her greatly. The pain you feel now is nothing compared to her last moments. I am sure you watched the whole affair happen to ensure she died."


    "I just meant that the whole thing was over quick," Luca responded with defensive haste. He could not bear to process all of what Lovemarine had said. His constitution was getting weaker by the moment. He was beginning to slouch, both corporeally and in resolve.


    Sensing the opportunity to drag the truth out of the man, Jones added more pressure to the interrogation, "You lie. You are nothing but a rat. Even if it takes me beating the truth out of you. You are going to tell me that you did not kill Claudia and you will tell me who did."


    Jones made his way over to the seat. He grabbed Hartmann by the collar and pushed him up against the wall. Jones knew he could not go any further with a police man standing right behind him. It took a few moments of the detective''s stare to break the manager''s will fully.


    No further violence was necessary, "Fine, fine. I was lying." As Luca began to speak once more, Jones took a step back. Rather than looking Jones or Lovemarine in the eyes, Luca stared once more at the sky.


    "Vincent de More came here an hour ago. He told me that he had killed Claudia Wells, and asked me if I would fall on the proverbial sword for him. I agreed to do it as long as he told me why he murdered her. He seemed eager to justify himself. Claudia was trying to blackmail him with the picture in the frame. The frame was left when the previous owner had moved out, Lawrence Tuthill. Tuthill had an affair with Beatrice de More and they met in that very apartment. The picture frame you saw with the recent photograph of Claudia had another picture in it. That picture was of a young Beatrice. On the back of the head portrait was a love letter to her by Lawrence. If that was exposed in court now, the divorce terms would become unfavorable to Beatrice. He did not say more than that. I agreed to his scheme, but now I can give the information to you." Luca ended his words with a justificatory smile. Jones may have taken offense to the smirk if Luca were looking at him, but his eyes were only point towards heaven.


    He asked one more question, "Aren''t you proud of me?"


    Jones responded, "No, because if you had one more night with her, you would have killed her yourself as necessary not to shatter your world." The words came naturally to the private eye. He did not need even to think.


    The two men were finished with Luca Hartmann. They trot themselves out of the apartment and sat in Jones'' car, plotting on how they would bust Vincent for murder. Lovemarine mentioned that however they were to do it they would need  to avoid the plausible deniability that Luca was becoming poised to offer the court. "If we finish this tonight, there can be no holes."


    Jones was still confident in their ability to get the job done still. The information that Luca Hartmann had just offered would only prove to shore up a plan almost fool proof from the conception. Vincent de More had demonstrated himself to be rattled.


    It was time for Jones to fill Lovemarine in on the the details. Jones now felt himself to be the leader of the operation, what he said was to go. Hopefully, Lovemarine would too view the orders as a mutually beneficial course of action.


    "I have a plan on how to finish this with an airtight case. I am going to call Vincent de More posing once more as Brian Wells. I am going to imply that I will resume the blackmail Claudia had begun, now with the addition of murder and attempted murder of a police officer. I will schedule the first payoff for tonight at Claudia''s apartment. You will lay in wait in the bedroom as I get Vincent to confess to the crime."


    "Risky," replied Lovemarine.


    "He may try to kill me, but I do not think he will bring a gun. de More will see that getting rid of me will be a bit more difficult than disposing of a nineteen year old. Regardless, his story ends there and then with you in the other room."


    "You are willing to die for this?" asked the detective.


    "Naturally. My resolve cannot afford to be any weaker. Justice has called and I must answer." said Jones with a smile. They drove off to set their plan into action.


    To dissolve the worry Lovemarine had for his partner in facing a potentially armed de More alone, Jones explained a little more about himself. There was one more reason that people called Junkyard Jones, Junkyard Jones. This was the reason his friends called him this name. Rather than being just a marketing ploy that stuck, he had earned his reputation by fiddling with what other people would call junk. The assortment of parts that he would play with would go into the construction of contraptions, booby traps one might call them. Jones preferred to refer to them as tools of the trade. Jones, despite his respectable size, never liked to leave confrontations to luck.


    Always weary of having to face a foe, Jones always kept one such tool in his trunk. The trap he had on him was a portable wooden plank designed to hold tension that could be released with the pull of a string. When attached to a stable surface, a hellish pain would be released upon the shins of an attacker. Jones assured Lovemarine that he had no intention of leaving his life up to a brawl.


    Once some privacy was found in Jones'' motel room. The call was made to Vincent de More . Thankfully, he was still accessible via phone in his office at The Lake House. The conversation unfolded quickly. Jones told him that he has everything figured out. He had proof that Beatrice had an affair, that he had murdered Claudia, and he knew that he had shot at a police officer earlier that day.He let silence ask the question of de More on how he was to make things right. Quickly, the scion offered to pay 50,000 dollars for Brian Wells to never speak a word of this. Jones agreed to the terms as long as he could get paid tonight. de More claimed he would need time to collect the funds necessary to pay Brian off. Jones was not happy with the postponement and de More relented to his initial objection. The trap was laid. All that remained was to wait for 9:00.