Jeff finds himself in Washington DC on business trying to close a big deal for his company where he meets up with Nancy again, the FBI agent he had fallen in love with in Atlanta nearly two years ago. Jeff is separated from his wife because of Nancy
Chapter 23 of
Monday, 11:48 PM: We Still Have a Murderer
Arnie shows up,
questions Kathy about who paid her to murder Jeff! She says that she never met
him, but that she was paid her fifty thousand dollars to kill him!
If you enjoy this, please take time to LIKE this on Facebook!- Chris Lamela
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Author contact: Chris Lamela,
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K Street, Chapter 23
Monday,
11:48 PM:
We Still Have a Murderer
Jeff’s jaw dropped, “What do
you mean, you can’t kill me! Is this
some kind of joke?” The terror in her eyes answered his question, he looked
down at the bottle laying on the carpet surrounded by liquid soaked into the
carpet, “This is not a joke? What was in that?”
“Paid you? Who?”
“I don’t know, I never met him.”
“What do you mean paid you? How much?”
“Fifty thousand dollars.”
“Paid you fifty thousand dollars to kill me?”
She sobbed with her hands cupped over her face nodding her head.
Oh Jesus, what to do?
What to do?
“So do you have a gun to shoot me if that didn’t work?”
She looked up at him sharply with tears streaming down her face, “Shoot
you? What do you think I am, a murderer?”
Jeff stood aghast at these words,
she didn’t think she was a murderer?
“I’m not! I stopped you didn’t I?” she burst into heaving sobs.
Oh Jesus, what to do?
“Wait!” he exclaimed, she jerked her head up to look at him, he raced
over to his coat, dug around until he produced his phone, “Arnie gave me his
number!” he pushed buttons. In a few seconds, “Arnie! It’s me, Jeff! Something’s
happened, you have to get up to my room.” The scratchy faint sound of a voice
was heard from the phone. “No, it can’t wait until morning, they tried to kill
me, you have to come now!” Jeff’s panting was so loud he could barely hear
Arnie’s response. He clicked a button on the phone sliding it back into his coat
pocket setting the coat down.
She stood up, “I should go.”
He stepped in front of her with his hands raised, “No, I don’t think
that will work.”
“You mean you’re going to stop me?”
“Got that right,” he stepped to the door opening it signaling to Ted who
was sitting on the chair in the hallway, “Ted I need you!”
Ted jumped up stepping through the door, Jeff stood aside. Ted looked
down at the bottle on the floor, up to Kathy
who was sitting on the bed, turned to Jeff expectantly.
“She is not to leave this room. Arnie’s coming.”
“What happened?” Ted’s furled brow looked down at the bottle, back to Kathy . “Oh, my god, don’t tell me. Please don’t tell
me.”
“We need to wait for Arnie. You need to treat her…treat her…I don’t
know, like she’s under arrest.”
“Arrest? Me? Under arrest?” Kathy ’s eyes bulged in fright, she looked back and
forth between Jeff and Ted.
“Yes,” Jeff turned away from Kathy.
“Do you want me to arrest her?”
“No, that’ll be Arnie’s call. But she can’t leave.”
Ted turned to Kathy pointing
to her purse, “I need to see the purse.” She reached down, pulled it up handing
it to him. Ted stepped to the bed pouring the contents out onto the bed. He
sorted through it flipping open her wallet, going through it carefully, examining
the other contents he had poured out, “There’s not much here.”
Ted stepped up to Kathy motioning her to stand, “Sorry, but I need your
hands up.” She stood raising her hands tentatively, her eyes pleading to Jeff.
Ted patted her down, turned her around, patted her down again. “I need you to
empty your pockets,” he commanded her. She reached into the only two pockets
she had, with her left hand laid a tiny manila envelope on the dresser.
Ted picked it up, opening it sliding its contents onto the dresser: two
tiny round white tablets.
“What’s in those?” Ted scowled atKathy .
“What’s in those?” Ted scowled at
“The same that I put in the beer.”
“Why two more?”
“In case he didn’t drink the beer. I was supposed to try again if he
didn’t.”
Jeff watched this drama stupefied.
Four rapid knocks on the door made Jeff nearly jump. He turned to the
door opening it, Arnie exploded into the room, “What the hell’s going on, Jeff,
are you okay?”
Arnie looked at Kathy sitting
on the bed, down to the bottle, scanning the dresser with the tiny manila
envelope, the two white pills, in an instant he read everything. “Jesus Christ,
they got to her,” turning sharply to Jeff, “and you’re okay?” Jeff nodded.
He put his hand to his forehead, vigorously rubbing his face, looked
back at Kathy, to Jeff, turning to Ted, “You let her in?” Ted lowered his head
with a shamed expression, “Even in code red protection?” He looked back to Kathy
shaking his head, “Ted, Ted, Ted, I don’t think protection is your calling.” He
sat on the bed facing Kathy . “Are
you staying in the hotel here?” She nodded. “What room?”
“Fourth floor, room four-twelve.”
Arnie reached into his coat pocket pulling out his cell phone, punched
some buttons. “Yeah, Arnie here. Listen, we need a warrant for the Crown Plaza
He pushed a button sliding the phone back into his inside coat pocket, reached
around pulling his coat off, laying it on the bed. Kathy ’s
eyes bugged out at the shoulder holster strapped around Arnie, the pistol
laying against his ribs. She cast an imploring look to Jeff who looked away.
Arnie sat in the big corner chair facing her, she sat on the corner of
the bed.
“So,” Arnie said with an almost warm expression, “let’s take this from
the top.”
“Am I under arrest?”
“No, you are not under arrest.”
“Do I need an attorney?”
“That’s your choice. But if you say you are going to get an attorney
then I will arrest you.” He shook his head rubbing his eyes, “But, I’m sorry, I
didn’t catch your name.”
“Kathy . Kathy Lane
“Okay, Kathy LaneUnited States
He glanced at Jeff, “So the fact of the matter is yes, you can request
an attorney. But another fact of the matter is that I can deny it. Do you
understand this?” She nodded faintly. “So it would be best if we just start
from the beginning, tell us what you know. There are all sorts of possibilities
for what will become of you with one of those possibilities being that you
could just walk away from all this.” He glared at her intently, leaning back
gaining a more casual air, “Wouldn’t just walking away from this be a good thing?
I mean, after all, what you did tonight is a very serious crime that could make you see life in prison.” She
looked up at him terrified.
“So what do you say, can we start from the top?” Arnie looked down at
the bottle still on the carpet, up to Jeff, back to her.
She nodded, the room turned rapt silent.
“My phone rang this morning. Woke me up, there was a man’s voice.”
“What time was that?”
“My clock said six thirty-eight,” she paused, “no, I’m not sure, but
something like that.”
“What did he say?”
“He said that he knew that I had been in his room,” motioning to Jeff
with her head, “that they needed my help on an important case that was
extremely important to national security. He said that Jeff was on the wrong
side of the law, that he was involved in some very dangerous business that was known
at the highest levels, that there was only one way to stop him.”
“What did you say?”
“At first I thought it was some kind of joke. His voice kind of sounded
like Jeff’s,” she nodded toward Jeff again, “so I thought he was just being
funny. I tried to tell him to stop trying to play a joke on me, that I was
still really pissed about what happened last night.”
Arnie looked over to the dresser seeing the tiny manila envelope, the
two white tablets. “Is that what I think it is?”
She looked at the dresser, her face washed pale, she whispered, “Yes.”
Arnie reached for a small black satchel bag he had brought in with him,
pulling out a red and white plastic bag. He pulled out his pen, stretched the
bag over his leg writing on the bag, motioned to Ted holding up the bag with
the word EVIDENCE. “Ted, there’s some guys up doing a search in room
four-twelve. Can you run this up to them, have them get these into the lab stat,
I want to know what’s in them.”
Ted took the bag, swept the items from the top of the dresser into the
bag, pulled back a paper strip, sealing the bag. He held it up to see Arnie’s
writing, “Do you want me back down here?”
“Yes, and hurry. Oh, and bring whatever you find that might be
interesting.” Ted left the room in a quick gait.
Arnie turned back to Kathy, “Okay, where were we.”
“She thought it was me on the phone being funny or something,” Jeff said
softly.
“How big,” Arnie leaned forward, “how much did it weigh?”
“I don’t know. It’s still up in my room.”
“What was in it?”
“Four things, well five things really. There was a note, two bundles of
hundred dollar bills, and a cell phone.” She looked at Jeff apologetically, “And
the packet with the pills.”
“What did the note have on it?”
“Instructions saying to press the TALK button.”
“That’s it?” She nodded. “How
much money was there?”
“I think twenty-five thousand dollars.”
Jeff gave a small whistle remembering that she said they were going to
pay her fifty thousand dollars to kill him but how five million dollars seemed
to be the going rate, boy, she’s cheap! popped
into his mind.
“So then what did you do?”
“I went back up into my room, used the cell phone like he told me. I
heard his voice again. He asked me if I got the money, I said yes, then he
asked if I was patriotic.” She looked back and forth between them, “I am, so of
course so I said yes again.”
“What, what else did he say.”
“He said that I was to meet Jeff
again tonight, that he knew I was in his room the night before so it should be
easy to meet him again tonight. Then he told me to put two of the pills into
Jeff’s drink, that it didn’t matter what kind of drink, but in a dark bottle
would be best to make sure. He said that Jeff likes Sam Adams. The other two
pills were to be used to try again if for some reason he didn’t drink whatever
I put them in the first time.”
The two men were captivated by her narration.
“He called again a little while ago saying that he knew I had met Jeff
at the bar tonight. He said it had to be done tonight, that it was extremely
urgent that it be done now. He said that when it was done I was to call him
again on the cell phone, to only say the words, “It’s done,” then put the cell
phone back into the envelope, wait one hour, take it back to the front desk, that
another envelope would be waiting for me with the rest of the money.”
“The rest of the money?” Arnie asked.
“Yes, he said the whole thing was going to be worth fifty thousand
dollars, that I was never to tell anyone, he was emphatic that I was never to
tell anyone about this.”
“Were there any other words exchanged between you? Did you ask about
your safety? Were you supposed to stay or leave DC afterward? Anything like
that?”
She shook her head.
“How did you end up at this hotel? Why did you move from the Hilton?”
“I got a call from the front desk saying that there was a problem with
my reservation for tonight, that as a courtesy they were going to put me up
here at the Plaza for free.”
Jeff smiled to himself, boy, this
guy is good!
“How did you know to wait in the bar for Jeff?”
“I didn’t. I was going to go to his room. I tried to call earlier but he
didn’t pick up so I waited in the bar. He just happened to come in with that
man.”
Arnie scratched behind his ear, pondering. With an inquisitive tone, “So
they managed to put you into the same hotel as Jeff.” Arnie turned away to
himself shaking his head, “That means he knows Jeff was here. How the hell did
he know that?” Turning back to Kathy, “But why did you accept this? I mean,
didn’t you know that he was asking you to murder Jeff?”
“Yes, I guess I did, but this all happened in the morning after I was so
humiliated by him and that woman last night. I wanted to get back at him. To
punish him!”
“By murdering me? Isn’t that a
little stiff in the punishment department?”
She nodded glancing at him, tears welled in her eyes again.
Jeff leaned toward her, “So why didn’t you go through with it? All you
had to do was let me drink the beer. What stopped you?”
She burst into tears again, her hands to her face. Jeff couldn’t believe
the drama playing in front of his eyes. His heart swelled with grief for this
woman, what she had been put up to. Finally he stepped to her, kneeling down in
front of her, she melted into his arms. He tried to pull back in his surprise
but she had poured herself so thoroughly over him he couldn’t pull back. She
heaved sobbing for what felt like ten minutes, finally sniffed pulling herself
back.
She looked deep into Jeff’s eyes, glanced at Arnie. “I don’t know, there
was some kind of intrigue I guess, plus I was so pissed off about last night!
So pissed at you!” she pushed Jeff’s shoulders back so hard he lost his balance
kneeling, flopping onto his butt, she burst into tears again.
Arnie stood up. They heard the four rapid knocks, he opened the door to
let Ted back in, “Are they done up there?”
“Yeah, trashed the place as usual, there’s a maid up there cleaning it
all up, should be done about now.” Ted stepped to the bed laying the items he
brought with him on the bed. He looked down at Jeff sitting splayed on the floor
in front of Kathy laughing softly, Jeff
stood up pulling down on his PJ bottoms, straightening his night shirt.
Arnie turned to Kathy , “Okay,
here’s what we are going to do. Do you have the phone?”
She nodded motioning to the bed
with the contents of her purse spilled out.
“Then you are to do exactly as you were instructed, pick up the phone but
hold on for a second.” He turned to Ted, “There’s going to be a pick-up and
drop-off at the front desk in the next hour. It should be pretty quiet down
there, so it should be easy to spot. I want the entire lobby and front desk
staked out discretely, I want whoever shows up to be tailed. We need to know
where he or she is going. That’s our only chance for a lead in this.”
Ted gave a big smile at this assignment, “Do I have code?”
“Yes, code red.” Ted turned around toward the door, “And Ted,” he turned
back again, “don’t blow this, your letting this little slut in tonight is two
strikes.” Arnie glanced over to Kathy shamed face at the words little slut. “You keep managing to get
our boy here almost killed.” Ted nodded earnestly, “Sorry to put so fine a
point on it, but you are definitely not a good watch duty, maybe you can be
better at ops. Got that?”
Ted nodded enthusiastically, “Thanks Arnie, I really appreciate this.”
“Okay, but wait. There was the envelope that the stuff all came in, you
need to go up to her room―”
“I brought it with me, it’s here I think,” Ted stepped back to the bed
leaning over picking up an envelope handing it to Arnie.
“When this call is done the phone needs to go back into this envelope
then you need to leave it at the front desk. Do that when we’re done here, wait
for the other package to be delivered, then do as I said to tail whoever,” Ted
nodded.
Arnie looked to the ceiling, back to Kathy, up to Ted, “No, come to
think of it, I think our girl needs to take the envelope down. So go down and
set up the stake out in the lobby, I will have someone else take her down and
deliver her to her room.” Ted nodded turning to the door, in a second gone.
Arnie turned back at Kathy ,
“So you have a call to make.” He stepped over to Kathy ,
“I need to listen in.” Kathy nodded
with a look of anticipation, Arnie signaled to her. She punched buttons on the
phone.
She pushed the TALK button leaning over with the phone away from her ear
so Arnie could listen. The phone rang two times, a voice came on the line, “Is
it done?”
“It’s done,” Kathy said in a
warbly voice.
“Wait one hour, then follow the instructions you have already received.
Good job,” the line went quiet.
Arnie took the phone from her, reached into his pocket pulling out his
phone. He motioned to give him a minute, he turned away to talk.
“So what’s going to happen to me?”
Jeff shrugged, “I don’t know.”
“Are they going to throw me in prison?”
“I’m not sure, technically you didn’t commit a crime best I can tell.”
She sighed, her shoulders sank, she looked at him thankful for his
words.
Jeff thought about his little blackmailing slut in Atlanta ,
how they let her go, how Nancy
“For what it’s worth,” he looked at her with a consoling smile, “my
experience with these guys is that they can be really generous as long as you’re
not the bad guy they’re going after.”
She smiled a thanks at him again.
“Although,” he frowned, “you were only one gulp away from murder, you
know.”
Tears welled in her eyes again, “But I couldn’t do it, I couldn’t murder
you, I saved you right?”
As a natural reaction he reached
over to her, she slid into the grasp of his arms. She pushed her face into his left
shoulder pulling him to her, she burst into tears again. He held her, his right
hand stroking her soft dark hair, feeling her tears soaking though his shirt
onto his shoulder. He could hear himself saying there, there but he wasn’t sure the words were actually leaving his
lips.
He sat there, this woman’s tears pouring onto his shoulder, surprised at
his feelings for her. He was baffled by the tenderness he felt for her. Somehow
he had looked into this woman’s heart, somehow she let him have the tiniest
peek into her. He knew there was a soft heart in there. He could feel it. Even
with all his crazy feelings for everything going on he could feel it, tears
welled in his eyes. He looked to this soft beautiful woman sobbing on his
shoulder.
He felt torn, but did not know why, could not tell where this was coming
from.
Was he crazy to feel any conflicting feelings for this woman? The woman
who could have murdered him? He just had to admit it: Yes, I’m crazy.
Finally Arnie turned back to them, Kathy pulled away from Jeff. “Okay,
we have a plan.” He looked at Kathy ,
“You are not under arrest.” She smiled weakly wiping her face with her hands,
“But you will be under house arrest until Wednesday. At least. That will give
us enough time to figure out if you should face charges.”
“Charges?”
“What you did was very serious though
with the mitigating circumstances are that you didn’t go through with the crime
and that you have cooperated fully with me. Somebody else will have to decide
if you committed assault.”
“Assault?” She looked to Jeff, back to Arnie, “but Jeff said that I may
not have committed a crime because I stopped him from drinking the poison.”
“What if he drank out of the bottle while you weren’t looking? The way I
see it is that you didn’t murder this man from pure luck.” She looked back and forth between them frightened.
“This could have easily played out without such a happy ending. I know it. You
know it.”
“But what about my work tomorrow?”
“You have a lot more to worry about right now than your work.”
Jeff remembered how they managed to get him excused from the meeting
planned the next day without his even knowing about it when he got so involved
with Arnie and Nancy in Atlanta
He remembered the excuse he used, turned to Kathy ,
“It’s simple, the flu!”
“The flu?” she asked confused.
“Yes, you call people first thing in the morning, sound really sick
like, say that you caught the flu. Trust me, nobody will want to be anywhere
near you, they will tell you to stay away as long, you need. Don’t do a cold,
they won’t care, but the flu, nobody will want you anywhere around.” She was nodding cautiously reflecting on his
words. “If you are released on Wednesday then people recover from the flu in a
couple days all the time. When that happens we just assume that it was food
poisoning or something, right?”
Four rapid knocks rattled the door. Arnie glanced at the door, “That
will be her escort. Jeff can you get that?”
Jeff stepped to the door. Arnie looked Kathy
straight on, “First, you need to understand that your house arrest is the
alternative to jail. Ever been in jail?”
Her terrified expression answered his question.
“So the terms are not to be violated. Is that clear?” She nodded
enthusiastically. “Okay, you will have an armed agent at your door twenty-four
hours. You are not to leave your room. All your meals will be room service. You
are not to receive or make any phone calls other than to your work for the one
call which will be supervised. You are to have no visitors,” he glanced to Jeff
who was watching this, Arnie frowned, “and I mean nobody!” Jeff looked down at the floor feeling scolded.
Arnie turned to the man who had just entered, “Agent Stone, this is Kathy
Lane
With an arrogant toss of her head, Kathy
stepped up to the man, “I’m ready to go,” with a flipping glance at Jeff she
stepped toward the door following Agent Stone.
“Oh Christ,” Arnie sighed
flopping to sit on the bed. Jeff stepped over sitting in the big corner chair.
Arnie turned to Jeff, “So how is it you keep finding women that either
want to black mail you or murder you? What is it with you? Do you carry around
some kind of sign saying please torture
me?”
Jeff’s mouth opened to make a reply when suddenly it occurred to him
that he didn’t have a clue so he sat there with his mouth hanging open. Arnie
looked at Jeff’s aghast face, burst out laughing. Jeff felt swept away by the
sound, laughing even louder. It took two minutes before they could finally
catch their breath.
“Okay, okay,” Arnie said reaching for his cell phone. “Let’s see how our
stakeout is going,” he pushed some buttons on his phone, holding the phone to
his ear. “Yeah, Arnie here, how’s it going?” He listened, his expression turned
to a scowl, “When?” More listening. “God these guys are smart, huh? Okay, bring
it up here, let’s take a look.”
Arnie pushed a button on the phone, Jeff looked at him, “What happened?”
“The envelope’s been there since nine o’clock this morning.”
“What about the cell phone in the return envelope, isn’t somebody going
to come pick it up?”
“Nope, the front desk was instructed to throw the envelope away.”
“So what does this all mean? There’s a phone number plugged into the
phone, right, can’t you guys put a trace on it or something?”
“We already looked. It’s a disposable number, came with the phone.”
“And there’s no way to find who purchased it?”
“It’s possible, but these guys are too smart. We’ll check, but it’ll be
a waste of time. Probably done with cash.”
“So what does all this mean?” Jeff looked to Arnie desperately confused.
“It means that we still have a murderer.”
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K STREET!
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