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 16 of
They murdered a congressman! Now they've kidnapped Jeff's wife!
Monday 10:12 AM: More Bad News
Jeff learns about
the ambush murder of one of the congressman he met with tonight! Then he
discovers they kidnapped his wife!
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- Chris Lamela
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Author contact: Chris Lamela,
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K Street, Chapter 16
Monday
10:12 AM: More Bad News
“Murdered?” Jeff felt the flash of panic, “I thought you said that…I
thought…damn it, I don’t know what you said!”
Ted pulled the two pieces of luggage into the hallway, Nancy
Jeff picked up his computer bag scanning the room, stepping to the
bathroom scanning the counter, patting his right pocket feeling the gun. “Yeah,
got it all.”
“Good, I’ll tell you everything in the car,” she walked through the door
into the hallway followed by Jeff.
A few minutes later they were in Nancy ’s
blue Mustang driving back down Connecticut Dupont Circle Massachusetts Avenue
“So what’s the deal?” Jeff looked at Nancy
“Phil Donovan, the congressman you met tonight was gunned down outside
his house in College Park
“He was the only one killed?”
“Yeah, his bodyguard was driving, they pulled up, someone stepped up to
the back window, fired through the glass.”
“Did they catch the guy, do they know who he is?”
“He jumped into a car and split. His bodyguard said there wasn’t anyone
else in the car with the shooter. Just one man. Didn’t get a look at him.”
Jeff flopped his head back, bouncing it off the head rest. “Jesus, that
means none of us is safe.”
“This has gotten really serious!
The stakes are just way too high for this deal. It just doesn’t make sense.”
Suddenly Jeff felt a streak of terror, “Oh Christ, that means that
anybody connected with this is in danger right?”
“Pretty much.”
Jeff paused glancing left and right into the darkness suddenly seeing
menacing shapes all around them, realizing there may be even more danger with
his wife’s sudden appearance. “Nancy
He could see her sardonic smile even in this darkness, she looked to
him.
“What, did you have another naked woman in your room tonight?”
“As a matter of fact, I did.”
“It’s not what you think,” Jeff said defensively trying make out her
expression in the darkness.
“Well then enlighten me!”
“Yes there was another woman in the room tonight. In fact it was another
naked woman.”
She punched him hard in the shoulder, “You shit! What is it with you? Where
did you pick up this one, the little piano player whore from the other night? I
am so mad at you!”
“I said it’s not what you think.”
“Then who was she?”
“My wife.”
“Your wife? What the hell is your wife doing naked in your hotel room in
Washington DC
“She wanted to surprise me, she thought that she maybe wanted to
reconcile. But then she saw…” his voice trailed off.
Even in the dim light Jeff could see Nancy
He looked vacantly through the front window into the darkness. “It’s
worse than you think. She was coming onto me. She showed up determined to make
this the week that we would remember, the turning point to our getting back
together.”
“She saw the letter. Oh, god, she saw the letter.” Nancy
He shrugged, “How was I to know. I took it out so we could read it
together when you came tonight. I was expecting you. But she came.” A tear
trickled down his cheek, he wiped it with the back of his hand. “And she saw
the letter.”
“Oh, Jeff.”
“And that woman you found me with,” he smiled, chuckled a bit, “boy that
sure reminded us of Atlanta
“And of course I burst in on you just like in Atlanta
“Yeah.”
“You really like this one don’t you?”
He nodded, “Yes. I do.” Turning to her, “How could you tell?”
“Jeffery, in case you didn’t notice, I’m a woman.”
He laughed to himself, note to
self, Nancy
She started the engine, pulling back out into the lanes headed down Massachusetts Avenue
“Yeah.”
“And a hell of a weekend. Well, let’s get our mind off all this, okay?”
He nodded. “Nothing like work to do that, right? So first let me congratulate
on your meeting with the congressmen this evening. You accomplished all four
goals.” Jeff looked to the ceiling trying to remember the four goals. “We still
don’t know if the deal is totally legit, suspect it’s not, but we do know that
these guys are probably overstepping their authority, that they are being paid
directly for the export license approvals. We know that the weapons―” she glanced
at Jeff seeing his disapproving frown, “I mean the surveillance gear are not
going where the export license says.”
“So what does this all mean to my deal?”
“Don’t worry, we have a contact at the Pentagon that says your gear will
be purchased no matter what, we have been instructed to pursue this case based
on the tapes from tonight. The president’s office gave us the go-ahead based on
that tape. It’s not clear that anyone is going to prison, but it sure looks
like we could have a couple ex-congressmen soon.”
“Ex-congressmen?”
“Yeah, forced to resign. The administration wouldn’t want to go through
prosecution, it almost never happens in these cases. They just get kicked out
onto the street, told to go away.”
“What about Phil tonight? Is he going to die in a car accident like in Atlanta
“That decision is above my pay-grade, out of my hands so I don’t have to
worry about it.”
They soon turned onto Vermont
Avenue
“The Plaza?”
“It’s a nice place, but not like the New York Plaza
Turning off the engine she turned to Jeff seeing his concern.
“So what about Donna―are you guys going to try to find her to make sure
she’s safe?”
“We’ll need to think about what to do about her. Chances are nobody
knows anything about her being here so there shouldn’t be any issue.”
“I really don’t want to take any chances.”
“Okay, it’s already pulled up in priority to see if we can find her, put
her under guard. How much should she know?”
“I’d rather she not know anything.” His hands sunk into his lap, his
head slumped onto his chest, Nancy
“Okay, I promise we’ll find her tonight. We’ll let you know how she’s
doing, will that help?”
“Yeah, thanks.”
Jeff unsnapped his belt, opened the door climbing out, a doorman came up
to the car, Nancy
Jeff sat down on the bed, Nancy
“So now what? Are you staying?” Jeff realized he was too tired, was
split on whether he wanted a yes or a
no answer.
“You look whipped,” she smiled gently, “if we’re going to find your
wayward wife I’ll need to get started on that. Also, I need to prepare for the
meeting in the morning. You’ll need to be bright-eyed, so no, I think I’m going
to leave you alone tonight.”
Jeff stood up taking off his coat, Nancy
“You know, I should be mad at you for your naked woman tonight.”
He smiled, “Then you should be really mad at me, I had two naked women
if you count my wife.”
She looked at him, smiled, “What is it about you there mister Jeff that
makes you such a chick magnet?”
He shrugged smiling to himself knowing that she didn’t even know the
whole story about what a chick magnet he had been tonight with the ugly woman
in the bar.
She reached out pulling him to her, giving him a peck on the lips, surrounded
him in her arms pressing him firmly to her. “I can definitely say that she
looked like a nice woman, though.”
He pulled her back, with a squinched brow, “You approve of her?”
She laughed, “Approve is a pretty strong word. How about your
preferences are definitely coming up in the world.” She smiled warmly, “Let’s
just say that I wouldn’t mind being second after her.”
The image of having sex with Kathy
followed by sex with Nancy made an instant bulge in Jeff’s pants; it took a
second before realizing maybe that’s not what she meant.
She pushed him away gently, “Now get into comfortable night clothes.”
She glanced at the clock, it was after nine thirty. “It’s still early so you
should get lots of sleep. We have a busy morning. I need you to be all there.
If we hear anything about your wife I will call you, otherwise know that she is
probably safe. Don’t let that worry you tonight, okay?”
He nodded, she gave him one more kiss, “So for us, our date will just
have to wait until tomorrow night, okay?” He nodded again.
“Okay, then, good night.” She
gave him one more quick kiss.
He nodded again, in a few seconds she was gone. Slowly he took his
clothes off, hung his coat with the heavy bulge in the right pocket, dug out
his night shirt, pulled out his shaving kit going into the bathroom to pee and
brush his teeth. A minute later he came out, dug out his cell phone, rooting
around his computer case for the charger plugging it in, making sure the ringer
was off. A second later he was in bed in the darkness instantly asleep.
Jeff awoke to the sound of the
desk phone ringing. Reaching for the phone answering groggily, “Hello.”
“It’s Nancy
He glanced at the clock reading seven forty-eight, “Sure, what’s up?”
“A lot has happened. I need you downstairs in a half hour, I will be at
the front door in my car, hurry up,” the line went quiet.
“Damn,” Jeff looked around the room trying to remember exactly how he
got here. Swinging his legs off the bed he stood up, stretched, walked to the
bathroom. A minute later he came back out reaching down to the coffee pot next
to the TV, took the carafe, walked back to the bathroom filling it with water,
finished the makings for coffee. He sat on the bed trying to recall all that
happened last night.
He shook his head.
He remembered it all.
Especially all the women craziness, how was it that he was busted again
by Nancy
The coffee pot quit perking, he reached across pouring himself a cup,
stepped to the bathroom to pour a little cold water into the cup so he could
swill it, came back out, refilled the cup taking it into the bathroom with him.
Fifteen minutes later he was standing in front of the mirror next to the
bed combing his hair. He turned to put on his sport coat, instinctively
reaching down to pat the pistol in the right outside pocket, reached to unplug
his cell phone. The message light was blinking but he looked at the clock
seeing he needed to be downstairs. He slid the phone into an inside pocket of
his sport coat reaching for his sunglasses with the blue leash, hanging them
around his neck.
He stopped to look at himself once more in the mirror frowning, “Okay,
let’s see what adventures today brings!” turning to leave the room.
Five minutes later he was in the car with Nancy Cookes Park
They were both silent. They drove a few minutes when Nancy
“What does that mean?”
“Nothing, just we couldn’t find any record of her checking into any
hotels.”
“You’d know that because of her credit card right?” She nodded. “Maybe
she used cash. She’s not so gung-ho about credit cards like I am.”
“Maybe, but we’ll keep an eye out.”
With a thankful grin he turned to her, “Thanks, yes, I would feel a
whole lot better once we know for sure that she’s safe.”
Ten minutes later they pulled up in front of the ops house, walking through
the door. There were about ten people in the ops room looking super engaged in
various activities.
Jeff nodded walking toward the conference room, the drape pulled back.
The room had the same people as yesterday afternoon, everyone was busy studying
stapled pages that looked like the same document in everyone’s hands. Jeff
walked toward the table. Arnie stood up stepping forward to shake his hand, turning
to the group announcing, “Ladies and gentlemen, our hero of the day!” there
were glances up from the reading in front of each face, quick acknowledgements
around the table with nodding heads, eyes jumping back to the papers in front
of each face.
“Okay everyone, we had a big breakthrough on this case last night,” she
motioned toward Yvonne, “Yvonne can we get copies of the transcripts here?”
Yvonne handed her two copies; Nancy
She turned to Jeff, “This is the transcript of your little meeting with
the congressmen last night,” she turned away to become engrossed in the words
on the page.
Jeff figured he knew what was there, but he might as well read it
anyway, soon finding himself captivated by the words on the page. It was mostly
as he remembered except reading the words now he could feel guilt rising from the pages like a foul
smell. “Jesus, this is what I remember, but it’s weird seeing it like this.”
“It really takes the emotion out of it, huh?” Arnie commented without
taking his eyes off the page.
“Yeah, that’s it. When I was in the room there was a lot of emotion
going on for me.” He read the passage about their saying that yes that they
were pushing the limits of their authority.
Jeff continued reading slowly, often stopping to go over a passage
again, even a third time. He glanced up seeing everyone had put the papers down
so he quickly finished.
He looked around the table, then
at Nancy
“We’re still not sure,” she shook her head slowly.
“What’s not to be sure about? Doesn’t this make them look really guilty?”
Arnie made a motion as though he was about to speak, stopped himself to
think for a second before responding. “There are two questions here, really.
You need to look at this like we look at this.”
“And what way is that?”
“The first question is: are these guys truly confessing to something?”
“That seems obvious. What is the second question?”
“The second question is whether there is actually a crime that they are
confessing to.”
Jeff sat back. That seemed so simple. When he put this transcript into
that framework, though, suddenly he wasn’t so sure that the words were so black-and-white
like they first seemed.
“The biggest smoking gun we have is that half-million offer to you. The
transcripts seem to say that you left that open.”
“I meant to close it down.”
“Maybe, but I was listening to the wire,” he turned to Yvonne, “Yvonne
do you have the recording?”
She pulled out a portable recorder that Jeff instantly recognized as a
Nakamichi recorder, the most expensive portable recorder on the market.
“Can you wind it to the ending, say,” pointing to the last page, “right
here?”
Jeff looked down at the page realizing that there were time markers in
the right column of each page, a second later the room was filled with Roger’s
voice from the recording, “But you are going to let the deal happen no matter
what, right?” Jeff heard his voice coming from the recorder, “All I know is
what I knew before I came in here, and I am going to ignore everything I’ve
heard since,” followed by the voice of the dead congressman Phil, “So you don’t
want the money?” Then came Jeff’s final reply, “I’ll think about it.”
“See?” Arnie grinned, “And we didn’t even coach you!”
A voice came across the table, “Your response was perfect. But why was
your first inclination to refuse it? I mean besides the fact that you’re part
of an FBI sting?”
“Well that was part of it. Plus I don’t ever want to be in a situation
where I feel like I need to be constantly looking over my shoulder. I’m not
sure if this is legal. It would feel like blood money.”
“Wow,” Arnie smiled, “A man with principles!” There was a small hum of
approval around the table.
“So Jeff,” Nancy
“The only thing I’m up to right now is to go home. We haven’t talked at
all about the murdered congressman.” He sat with his head down, looked back to
Arnie, “And best we can tell my wife is missing.”
“I’m pretty sure she’s safe. As for the dead congressman, that has all
been pulled from us. It’s being handled by a whole separate team. They’re going
over forensics right now, hopefully we’ll get some answers, but we’ve been told
hands off.” He glanced around the table, “Besides, I think everyone would agree
that we really have our hands full as it is.” Jeff looked around to assenting
nods.
“So what’s my agreement to accept this payment going to do?”
“It keeps the dialog going, keeps these guys on the line so we can learn
more about what the hell’s going on.”
“So what about my wife?” The silence in the room was his answer.
Suddenly Jeff remembered that he had a message on his cell phone. He reached
into his coat pocket pulling it out.
He stood up walking to the far corner of the room pushing the voicemail
button. Everyone in the room turned to him. Pushing the button to hear the
message, all eyes watched as Jeff turned ashen, collapsing into a chair.
Arnie stood up walking cautiously around the table toward Jeff, “Here
hand me the phone.” Arnie pulled the phone from Jeff’s hand pressing a couple
buttons holding the phone to his ear, his expression turning frightened, “Oh
Jesus Christ, help us,” going as silent as Jeff.
“Arnie, what is it? Arnie!” Nancy
“What is it, what’s wrong?” came from across the table.
“They kidnapped Jeff’s wife.”
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K STREET!
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