Mr. Mordere If You Please

Jails can be busy places.  I know its surprising to me when I open the door and instead of just seeing Captain Therod cooling her heels and waiting for me to enlighten her whole day, I see a bunch of assholes being moved from/to cells a bunch of people yelling at each other, and a bunch of Guard personell screaming over the yelling so they can be heard.  Its so off putting when I'm incovenciened by them actually having jobs to do. I actually had to wait in line! I was shocked! And then when I got to the head of the line instead of speaking directly with the captain I had to deal with some put upon underling in dark black glasses. Imagine my idignity!

"What do you want?" Basic customer service is a dying art form in government.

"I'm here to provide testimony that could release Valerind Mordere."

"Do we look like a court to you? Now you could post bail money for him, but he still has to have his day in court."

"How much is the bail?" I was incredulous, it was a legit shooting and here they were saying he'd have to be in court? Insult on insult, and I'd have to pay to get him out? Utterly ridiculous (thankfully I still had the kids money, in a way it made me chuckle he'd pay for the man who shot him to get out of jail).  The clerk told me the amount and I paid it.  I was lead back to a large cell area that held a group of people.  Mordere was all alone by a large margin in the community cell, I figured because even grungy criminals can tell the difference between one of their own dumb number and someone who kills people without second thought.

"He has to be in court in a couple days, if he missed the court date your money is forfeit and a bounty will be assigned against him and possibly you if you offered assistance."

"I'll make my day in court thank you very much." Mordere didn't chastise the clerk, just told him matter of factly he'd be where they told him to be. We left the overcrowded jail and Mordere turned to me as soon as were on the way back to my store.

"Thank you for you assistance Mr. Lorentino."

"I don't think you'll get your weapons back until your day in court Mordere, you want to hang out at my store until then?" He had a lot of enemies and without weapons he'd kind of be, well still a murderous murderer, but slightly slowed down.

"Are you afraid I'll get killed?"

"Yeah I don't think I get my money back if you die before the trial."

"Enlightened self interest Mr. Lorentino, I'll take you up on your offer as they also confiscated my funds and I have no room in town. Also its Mr. Mordere if you please, Mordere sounds dreary the way you say it"

And so it came to pass a murderer stayed at my shop so I could try and prevent him from being murdered and get money back from the man he killed.  See how these things work?