Gerry Gallagher

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Verge Brown (b. Gerry Gallagher, April 27, 1949) is a homeless, recovering alcoholic who found himself in Sadie, Louisiana, in 2005 and has never been able to leave. For the past few years, he has been kept in seclusion in a concrete shack on property owned by Hal Gremillion.

• Verge is motivated _____.
• Verge wants _____.
• Verge is challenged by _____.
• Cash will discover _____.

Verge wakes up on the morning of June 1 to find himself in the park in Sadie, having no idea how he got out there. Unbeknownst to him, he contracted COVID-19 while wandering the town, drunk on Mad Dog. Two days later, he develops a cough and a fever. By June 6, he is having difficulty breathing. In a rare moment of clarity, while reading Greer's latest blog post, he posts a comment that says, "_____," which triggers Greer to hire Cash to find him.

Biography

Early life

Gerry was born in Chicago in 1949 to William and Gretha (Roth) Gallagher. Although he had younger sisters, he was always the favorite of his mother. He had a farily uneventful working class life during the boon days of the United States, becoming fully invested in the belief of the American Dream.

Professional life

Gerry enrolled in college in 1967 more out of a fear of being drafted than out of a desire to get an education. In 1971, he received his Bachelor's degree from Northern Illinois University in Electrical Engineering. In 1973, he was hired as a phone line technician by Bell Telephone. In the early 1980s, as the monopoly was being split up, he became a senior technician for the newly formed Ameritech, where he remained until the early 1990s.

In 1992, he was hired by a local dot-com. Although he was in over his head with the work expectations, he was suddenly making much more money. However, instead of stablizing his finances, he bought himself a 1993 Dodge Viper RT/10. He also spent significant money on a high-end home entertainment system. The company did well enough throughout the 90s to impress investors, but by the end of the decade, it had failed to earn a profit. Gerry was laid off on October 31, 2000, as the company attempted to reorganize.

Within two months, Gerry had gone through what little savings he had. His car was repossessed in December. On January 8, 2001, he packed what he could into an old army backpack of Greer's and walked away from everything.

Relationships

Gerry met Elise Montrose, a clerk at Woolworth's, one night in 1973, shortly after getting hired by Bell Telephone while out drinking with his new colleagues. Their relationship advanced quickly, fueled by alcohol. They married in 1974. Gerry began beating Elise on their wedding night. In 1976, their daughter Greer was born. In 1980, they bought a small house in East Dundee, but within a year, on Thanksgiving 1981, Elise left, never to retrun. Neither Gerry nor Greer ever heard from her again. While there were rumors that Gerry had killed her, no evidence was ever found. Without Elise's income, Gerry struggled to make ends meet. Gerry's drinking increased, and within a few months, he began beating Greer.

Gerry dated a few other women as Greer was growing up, but none of those relationships ever progressed very far. Gerry was only able to hide his drinking and his aggression for short periods of time.

Characteristics

Physical Appearance

Gerry was always tall and lanky, but by his thirties, he was already developing the puffiness of an alcoholic.

Personality

Since childhood, Gerry has always had a short fuse, becoming easily angered over minor things and being unable to control that anger. He has never had any close friends, for he always eventually lashes out one time to many. To people who didn't know him well, he could seem like a fairly friendly person, but once a person got close, they saw the violence within him.

Health

Despite his alcoholism, Gerry was fairly healthy throughout most of his adult life. After becoming transient, his health suffered, often as a result of malnutrition. In his sixties, Gerry suffered a number of significant medical crises. After a fight with Charly Little during Mardi Gras 2009, Gerry had to have his right eye removed. Two years later, he developed a severe leg ulcer. Left untreated, the leg become worse, and in 2012, he had to have his left leg amputated. In October 2015, he suffered a heart attack and had a coronary angioplasty.

COVID

Although he had been confined to the shack in the woods since 2015, Gerry had a habit of wandering back to town. Throughout the pandemic, he snuck out a number of times but was always caught quickly by Hal and Fred. That May, he snuck out and disappeared for two days before Hal was able to track him down. During that escape, he contracted the coronavirus. On June 3, he developed a high fever and cough. By June 6, he was having difficulty breathing. Within a week, he was suffering from sepsis, his blood pressure dropping and his typically addled mind becoming even more confused. By June 14, his cough cleared up, and Hal and Fred believed him to be on the mend, although the sepsis was continuing to damage his kidneys and heart. While his fever broke on June 18, his confusion increased. He died of heart failure on June 21 after being taken to the hospital by Hélène.

Plot Synopsis

Get It All Back

Since his heart attack in 2015, Gerry has been living in a shack in a pine forest owned by Hal. He has an old laptop with a pay-as-you-go mifi adaptor that Fred secretly provided him and pays for. He has followed Greer's online career for a number of years without ever making contact, but after contracting COVID, he makes an anonymous comment on one of her blog posts, saying something that she recognizes as coming from him.

When Greer begins posting about Cash's investigation, Gerry becomes enraged but begins following him and the people who follow Cash.

After Hal captures Cash at the shack, Gerry, his fever having broken, is able to get himself out of bed to confront Cash. He delivers an almost incomprehensible tirade about how Cash ruined his life by stealing his daughter. As a result of the distraction of Gerry's tirade, Hal and Fred are caught off guard by the shooting sounds outside.