Small Mercies

Mary Pat goes once again to the Fields of Athenry, where the cars all have nearly full gas tanks. Ripping up the sleeve of her son’s old uniform, she puts the strips into the tanks of each car and lights them on fire, causing a massive explosion. When the men run out to put out the fire, they realize that Butler’s headquarters is burning as well. Bobby finds out about the fire just after receiving a coded message from Mary Pat hinting that Jules’s body is in the burning building. Within several hours, the detectives discover the body, and as they bring it out, the usually unflappable Brian Shea looks terrified. Looking at the body, the victim of a stabbing, Bobby echoes Mary Pat’s earlier observation that Jules was soft where her mother was all hardness.

Mary Pat calls Bobby, and they agree to a clandestine meeting at the city morgue. As much as Mary Pat tries to prepare herself, the sight of Jules’s body is devastating. As it turns out, the burned building is not legally tied to Marty Butler, so the detectives cannot prove his involvement in the murder. However, they can freeze the considerable assets of the legal owner.