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 26 of K Street
Tuesday, 11:08 AM: Die in Prison
Jeff demands to be heard on
his suspicion that the murderer wants to kill everyone! Then Earl mentions the elephant in the room ... Shawn!
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Author contact: Chris Lamela,
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K Street, Chapter 26
Tuesday,
11:08 AM: Die in Prison
The room was utterly silent, a sponge of dead air sucking up even the
stray sounds that dared to come through the black drape.
“Okay, Jeff, thank you for your warm words of encouragement!” Arnie
slapped his hands together, “okay then, let’s move on.”
Jeff turned to Arnie, “Look,” he glanced around the room, “guys, none of
this is pleasant, but we have a chance to trap this guy. I’m telling you, something’s
going to happen this afternoon, if we don’t take advantage of it more people
are going to get hurt!”
“Jeff, we heard you but―”
“ARNIE, DON’T DISMISS ME!” Jeff’s chest heaved so hard it surprised even
him, the room jerked back amazed at the outbreak from this soft-spoken man.
Jeff turned to her defiantly, “No! I won’t!”
She stared at him, glanced to Arnie who was shrugging with I don’t know what to do here in his eyes
hands raised.
“I should know better,” she looked to Arnie, “you should know better,” back
to Jeff, “that your intuition is good. All I know is that we are like little
fleas hanging on the tail of the dog right now. And I hate it!” She looked
around the room, “Isn’t that right? We are not
in control here.” There were deep
nods, everyone knowing she was absolutely right. “Maybe Jeff has ideas that can
get this godammed investigation back on track. You heard the General yesterday,
finding this guy is our only job.” She glanced around the room, back at Jeff,
“I mean, it’s only one guy, how hard can that be?”
She sat down leaning back motioning with her hands to Jeff that the
floor was his.
Jeff scanned the room one more time to make sure he had permission, saw
only eager faces.
“Okay. First we need to look at our advantages.” He motioned to Yvonne,
“Notes?” Yvonne nearly jerked forward fumbling for her numbered-page notebook
and a pen, in a second attaining her all-ears
pose.
“What do we know that he doesn’t know? First, if we did it right he
thinks I’m dead.” Yvonne’s pen scratched on the page. “Second, he doesn’t know
that we have our―what do we want to call our deal with the Iranians?”
Arnie smiled, “Our Sherlock plan.”
“O-k-a-y, our Sherlock plan,” glancing a quick smile to Arnie who flashed
back the smallest encouragement in his smile.
“Third,” Jeff looked around the room, “come on guys, help me here!”
“They don’t know about our focus to find him,” came a voice. Yvonne’s
pen scribbled.
“No, I’m sure that he knows that, but does he know that we have pieced
this all together?” Jeff grinned, “Well as much as we have pieced together,”
waving toward the congressman next to him, “but he may not know that we have
all these players in the same room. If this person is an insider with ODS―”
Earl cocked his head thoughtfully, “Wait, he also doesn’t know that we
know he met with the Iranians yesterday morning so that they could tell Jeff
about the things that happened in his hotel room!”
“That means that our man was busy yesterday morning.” Jeff said slowly,
“that means that he was arranging things with Kathy ,
including an early phone call to her, then either a phone call to the Iranians,
or a meeting even,” Jeff stroked his chin, the words flowed out.
Jeff looked around the room, at Yvonne who had barely a few lines in her
notebook, “Yeah, alright it’s a bit thin in the things we know department. Now, what don’t we know?”
“We know nothing about Harold Meyers.” Faces turned to Earl, “I mean we
had Tom in here. He is adamant that he needs the deal. What other players are
there?”
Nancy nodded, “You’re right, Harold Meyers, they said that he is the
principle congress liaison for ODS, he’s the guy who goes around greasing the
skids to make sure that the deals get accepted by other committee members, they
call him the back-stop.”
Turning to Arnie, Nancy scarcely looked at him when he shot up, “Don’t
worry, I’m on it,” turned pushing through the curtain.
As the curtain wafted back down Jeff was suddenly transported back to
the big bar at Magic
Town Gulliver
Land
The room was quiet, bodies leaned back in various poses of reflection.
A minute later Arnie pushed back through, “Harold’s not far away, should
only be ten, fifteen minutes.”
She jumped up nearly charging through the curtain, everyone stood,
slowly filing out the door.
Arnie and Jeff stayed seated.
Earl was the last to approach the curtain, turning around to Arnie. “Arnie,
can I talk to you in private?”
“Is it about the case?” Earl nodded. “Sit down, will it be okay if Jeff
hears?”
Earl gave an uncertain glance at Jeff.
“Sit down, Earl.” Earl walked around the table to sit down again in his
same chair.
“So what is it?”
“There is one obvious name that is starting to feel like the elephant in
the room.”
Jeff leaned forward, “You mean like a name that everyone knows but is
afraid to say?”
Earl nodded, now Arnie took a sharp interest in this skinny little man
with the small-face and wispy comb-over.
“Well? Who?”
Earl looked over Arnie’s shoulder anxiously at the black drape hanging
across the door.
Arnie glanced over his shoulder, back to Earl. “Well? Who?”
“Shawn Roberts.”
Arnie leaned back quickly, glancing over his shoulder at the curtain
behind him, leaned forward again in a soft voice, “Shawn?”
Earl glanced furtively between Jeff and Arnie, “I mean yes, him! We’ve
questioned everyone but him. You’re going to get this Harold guy in here in a
few minutes but he’s just going to convince us that he wants the deal. I mean
this is his living. He is too high visibility to get away with a comfortable
life in the Bahamas
Arnie shook his head, “Yeah, I hear you, Earl, but Nancy
Jeff leaned toward Arnie, “He’s right Arnie! Why are we dancing around
this cat? It’s like Perkins back in Atlanta
Arnie turned to Jeff, “Jeff, you know…I mean you know that…all I know is
that I don’t want to be the guy who pops this up to her.”
Jeff leaned back, fingers to his lips.
“Okay Earl, thanks for this.” Arnie nodded, “Is there anything you can
do to flesh this out? Any chance that you can get any evidence? It’s going to
take hard evidence to finesse Nancy
“Finesse?” Jeff leaned forward again, skeptical at the word, “What’s
there to finesse? All we want to do is throw him into the mix.”
Arnie turned to Jeff, “Come on Jeff, you’ve heard her. Do you know what
she’s doing for lunch today?” Jeff shook his head. “She’s going to meet him for
their seven-month anniversary!”
“Seven month? That’s an odd number.”
“Yeah, get my drift? And he’s
insisting on it!”
“Hmmm, you’re right. It’s going to be real hard to just throw him into
the pot.” He gave a wry smile to Arnie, “Tell you what, I wouldn’t want to be
the one who pops that up to her either!” Arnie did not laugh.
Jeff leaned back thinking what an amazing cover it would be if Shawn was
really the guy. But he couldn’t do it alone. Could he? He shook his head
feeling like Nancy
She had to, right?
“But it’s okay,” Arnie signaled the two to lean in toward him, he
whispered, “this will be just between us.” He turned to Earl, “But Earl, this
is your little project. I don’t want you to try an inclusive approach, though,
go for exclusion, it will be easier.”
“Inclusion, exclusion?” Jeff asked.
“Yes,” turning back to Earl, Arnie continued, “like we know the guy had to
be really busy yesterday morning. You need to find a way to know that Shawn couldn’t have been that guy, some way of
finding out that he was, say, at breakfast with Nancy. Exclude him. It will be easier.” Arnie leaned back looking to the
ceiling, back to Earl. “I don’t know how to do that.”
Earl shrugged.
Arnie sat back again just as he heard voices on the other side of the
curtain sounding ready to come back in. “Earl, I don’t know how you’re going to
do it, but I trust you. Sharpen up those sharp ears of yours, also think of any
way you can get corroboration, okay?”
Earl nodded thoughtfully, glanced at the curtain, he stood up with hands
pulling it back, “Can I be excused for a few minutes?”
Arnie nodded, “Yeah, I can use a break, too, how about you Jeff?” Jeff
nodded, they stood turning to brush shoulders with Nancy
“Where you guys going?”
“Bio break,” Arnie smiled, he and Jeff continued through the door.
They walked to the bathroom. Arnie waved Jeff to go first. A minute later
he came back out, Arnie stepped in. Jeff watched the buzz of activity in the
ops room, noticing Earl sitting wearing headphones at a table, scratching on paper
in front of him.
A second later Arnie emerged, “You know, Jeff, I could use a little air,
want to step out back with me?” he walked past Jeff toward a door leading out
to a tiny backyard, Jeff followed.
The overcast had turned to a light rain. They both stood under the eaves
in silence.
“You know, our cast of characters is pretty small. I only count three,
how about you?”
“Three?”
“Yeah.” Arnie rubbed his hands together in the fifty-five degree cold.
“We have the congressman still, but I don’t think it’s him. He’s a frightened
little mouse, I doubt he could act the fear he is showing, plus like Earl said,
he’d have trouble hiding out anywhere, too well known.” He rubbed his hands
burying them in his pockets. “There’s this guy coming over, what’s his name?”
“Harold something.”
“Yeah, Harold. But…but we’ll see. There’s Shawn. But there’s also the
Iranians.” He turned to Jeff, “I know what you told us, it sounds like the
killer is not one of their men, but I really don’t trust those bastards.” He
smiled, “What’s that line from that movie…what’s it called…oh, yeah Princess Bride where the guy is hanging
on the cliff and he says that he can’t trust the other guy because he’s known
too many Spaniards?” Jeff laughed remembering one of his favorite lines from
one of his favorite movies.
“Well, I’ve known too many Iranians!” They both laughed turning to the
door, soon both sitting at the conference table.
There was a new face at the table, Nancy
All eyes turned to Nancy
“So Harold, I am pretty sure you’ve heard about what’s going on?”
He shrugged with a blank expression saying that he hadn’t heard
anything.
“You don’t know about the congressmen?”
His face clearly showed I don’t
know what you’re talking about.
“You don’t know that two
congressmen on the ODS advisory board were murdered?”
His expression dropped, “Murdered, what do you mean murdered?”
“You mean you haven’t been told by anyone that there’s someone going
around killing people,” glancing at Jeff, “and trying to kill other people?”
“What do you mean murdered, is this some kind of joke?”
“Harold,” Nancy
He gasped, “No, nothing. I spend all my time on the Hill. Why would I
have heard anything? I mean, I’m up there all the time, I know everything
that’s going on but I haven’t heard anything like this! Is this some kind of
joke? Why would someone murder congressmen?”
“To stop the UAV deal.”
“Why would anyone want to stop that deal? It’s not weapons, it’s just a
few planes that go up to look around. Why would someone want to stop the deal?”
“When’s the last time you spoke to Tom McAllister?”
“Or to anyone associated with ODS,” Arnie interjected.
Harold looked to the ceiling, back to Nancy
“When will you be in contact with him again?”
“This afternoon at four in the ODS office for the signing.” He looked
around the room, back to Nancy, “Nancy
“Do you want to stop this deal?”
Harold became frightened, “God no! I need this! I have been working with
Tom and Shawn on this for almost two years. I really need this deal. I desperately
need this deal!”
Arnie looked back and forth between Nancy and Harold, starting to have
doubts about bringing him here, worried they might have tipped their hand.
“Look, Harold,” Arnie’s tone was flat, “I am with the DOD, these guys
here are all DOD, you know that it’s legit for us to look into deals like this.
Our directive is to make this deal happen, it comes from the president’s
office, do you understand?”
Harold looked intently at Arnie, he continued, “Nancy Nancy
Harold gave an acknowledging nod.
Arnie stood up, “So we need to keep this little meeting a secret between
us, this is classed five, got it?”
“I know, top secret.”
“Nobody, and I mean nobody is
to know about this meeting, is that clear? Like Nancy
Harold stood nodding.
“If I find out that anyone and
I mean anyone hears about your being
here we will not only kill the deal but I will personally make sure you die in
prison.”
Harold glanced at the curtain anxiously.
“Furthermore, we don’t want you at the signing meeting. Your attendance
is not required.”
Harold nodded glancing again at the door.
Arnie waved him toward the door, “Yeah, okay, you can go.” Harold
sprinted through the curtain.
“Die in prison?”
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