Monday, September 17, 2012

K Street, Chapter 24

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’s letter. Jeff continues to attract women without trying, some of them with deadly intentions. Jeff and Nancy soon find themselves in the center of intrigue with Israelis and Iranians feeling threatened by the impending deal, determined to kill the deal at any cost―even at the cost of Jeff’s life! The surprising twists will make the reader gasp, the love scenes will make the reader sigh.





 

Chapter 24 of K Street Kathy gets naked with Jeff!

Tuesday, 2:13 AM: Panty Raid
Jeff tries to sleep, but it is hopeless. Suddenly he decides he has to see Kathy again. Soon he is naked with Kathy!

 
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Thanks for taking time, and enjoy!
- Chris Lamela

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Author contact: Chris Lamela, chris@chrislamela.com, 707-566-8790 PST

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               K Street, Chapter 24

Tuesday, 2:13 AM: Panty Raid
 
     The words resonated in Jeff’s head.
     We still have a murderer!
     There were four quick knocks. Arnie stepped to the door opening it, Ted walked in holding two large manila envelopes. He handed them to Arnie, turning back to Jeff, “Hey my friend, stay alive until morning, okay?” Jeff smiled at him with a weak wave, Ted turned back through the door.
     Arnie took the envelopes setting the one with the cell phone on the bed, tore open the other dumping two bundles of hundred-dollar bills onto the bed.
     “Hold on,” Arnie said with a smile putting his fingers to his temples, eyes closed, “I’m psychic! Yes, I can see it…there are twenty five thousand dollars in these bundles! And there are no special finger prints on them! And the money is not mine!” He opened his eyes glancing at Jeff with a frown, “And that last revelation really ticks me off!” They both laughed out loud.
     Arnie gave an exasperated sigh glancing at the clock, back to Jeff, “Look, you’ve had a hell of a day my friend, you need to get some sleep.” Arnie stood up walking to the door opening it, “Steve, can you step in here?”
     Jeff looked up, Steve’s familiar face emerged from the hall. “Hey, Jeff, still alive?”
     Jeff smiled shaking his head, “Yeah, let’s see. Since this morning I have been kidnapped and nearly murdered,” he laughed in pathetic chagrin, “but hey,” he looked at the clock, “I still have seven more minutes to this day, so there’s still a chance of something getting me!” he laughed, Steve smiled.
     Arnie laughed, “Well there mister Jeff, there is certainly nothing wrong with your attitude!” He turned to Steve, “Sorry to do this to you tonight, but code red.” Steve looked hopefully at the desk chair, Jeff stood up to grab it, handing it to Steve who set it down in front of him. Arnie waved toward Jeff, “This guy will need breakfast, but I want it in his room. Make sure he gets fed.”
     “Hank will be back here in the morning, I’m being replaced at two,” Steve replied
     “That’s fine, but this man is not to leave his room until he is being transported to the ops center, we’ll be meeting at nine. I want him under cover. Somebody thinks he’s dead and I want it to stay like that for now. Make sure to pass this along to whoever relieves you and make sure that gets to Hank.”
     Arnie turned to Jeff, “Goodnight there, get some sleep. We’ve got a lot to cover in the morning. A lot has happened.” Jeff nodded slowly, a second later he was in the room alone.
     He looked at the clock seeing two minutes to midnight, “Oh, god I’m dead,” laughing to himself quite grateful that wasn’t true. He reached across to the window pulling the drapes, turned, stripped off his pajama bottom smiling that he had been in his PJ’s through all this. He plugged his phone into the charger, reached for the lamp to click it off flopping into bed.
     Out in an instant.
     Jeff awoke with a start sitting bolt upright. Putting his hands to his face he rubbed his eyes, turning to the clock saying two-thirteen. Flopping back down he tried to close his eyes, dark orange circles filling his vision behind his eyelids.
     “Jesus, I can’t sleep!” he complained out loud getting out of bed heading to the bathroom. A minute later he came back out, circled the room in the soft red glow from the clock’s digits. Two-fifteen.
     “I can’t stand this,” reaching for his Docker pants he stepped to the door impulsively ripping it open, light bursting into the room.
     A man sitting on Jeff’s desk chair in the hallway nearly jumped into the air gun drawn on Jeff. He paused looking at Jeff with his tousled hair, “Christ! What are you trying to do, get shot?”
     Hands raised shaking his head Jeff replied, “Sorry man, it’s just I need to do something.”
     The man looked at his watch, “What the hell do you want to do at two-fifteen in the morning?”
     “I need to go…to see someone.”
     “Who the hell do you need to go to see in the middle of the night?” lowering his gun, sliding it into the holster under his coat.
     “Someone I met earlier.” The man stood blankly. Jeff laughed thinking quickly, “I need to do a panty raid.”
     The man laughed, “Panty raid? But you’re code red, you can’t go alone, I’d have to go with you.”
     Jeff nodded his head enthusiastically, “That’s fine, but you have to stay outside the door.”
     “I don’t know, I’d have to call Arnie.”
     “Look, just follow me and we’ll figure that out.”
     The man nodded, Jeff stepped out of the room closing the door behind him. In another minute they were getting off the elevator on the fourth floor. Walking down the hallway Ted came into view sitting on a chair outside a door. He looked over at the two coming down the hallway standing up with a baffled grin. “What are you doing here?”
     “I want to see her.”
     “Yeah,” Ted shaking his head, “sorry, but I don’t think so.”
     “Come on, Ted. The way I look at it is that I can do pretty much whatever I want.”
     “No way. Not after what happened Saturday at the museum, and especially after what happened tonight. If I let anything happen to you again Arnie will roast me alive.”
     Jeff looked down to the floor, back up to Ted, “Look, I know this doesn’t make any sense…it doesn’t make sense to me either…it’s just that…it’s just…I don’t know, I just need to see her.”
     “I’ll need Arnie’s okay, this is above me.” Jeff nodded. Ted pulled out his phone turning away speaking softly into the phone. “Yes, sir we did. I personally did…no sir, not a chance…I don’t know, I guess it’s just all the stress…yes sir, I know it’s crazy…yes sir…one hour…yes sir…don’t tell Nancy…yes sir…okay, I’ll make sure he’s back by three-thirty.”
     Ted tucked his phone away turning to Jeff shaking his head, “Man, I don’t get it. For a man who has pussies running out his goddam ears why you want to go see that woman again is beyond me. But Arnie says okay, only for an hour though. I will knock in an hour.”
     “Thanks, just promise me you won’t come bursting in on us.”
     “No promises,” shaking his head. “Are you sure you want to do this?”
     “Yes,” Jeff replied with a determined expression.
     “Well,” Ted motioning to the door laughing, “knock yourself out. Or should I say―”
     Jeff held up his hand, “Okay man, I get it.” Ted laughed again.
     Turning to the man who followed him up Jeff smiled at his blank expression watching this interchange. Nodding to the man Jeff turned to the door.
     Standing with his hand poised to knock, he noticed light coming from under the door. Taking a deep breath he knocked twice.
     “Who is it?” a tense female voice came from behind the door.
     “It’s me…uh…it’s me…Jeff.”
     The door instantly flew open, Kathy standing in the opening dressed as she had been before, hair disheveled, her face red, eyes puffy from crying.
     She stood paralyzed, her dark brown eyes barely poking through the puffy flesh above her cheeks.
     “Can I…can I come in?”
     Without a word she stood aside. Jeff glanced over his shoulder at the two men staring in disbelief, nodding to them he closed the door.
     She stood back in wonder, “Why are you here?”
     He glanced around the room, clothes from her luggage strewn across the corner stuffed chair, stacked in a heap on the table, on the floor, the room dimly lit with the single lamp on an end table in the corner.
     “Can we sit down?”
     She stood motionless. He stepped to her putting his arms around her as she instantly collapsed onto him heaving in tears, “Oh, Jeff, oh, Jeff.”
     “Come on, sit down…please,” she allowed herself to be pulled to sitting on the bed, he kneeled before her, reaching up wiping tears from her cheeks. “Oh, Kathy.” He shook his head, pausing. “Kathy, Kathy, Kathy, what happened tonight?”
     “I don’t know…I was so humiliated…so angry…I’ve been up all night crying…so confused…so angry,” she gave the weakest smile, “but how can I be angry at you?” tears tumbling down her cheeks, he reaching up wiping at them gently.
     “And how can I be angry at you?” He reached up kissing her lightly on the lips. “I mean…I mean…oh, god,” turning away from her he felt tears bubbling from his eyes, pushing between her legs sitting with his back against the bed, her legs straddling him.
     “Something really special happened the other night, you and me in the bar.” He laughed softly, “You and me on the phone and my dinky.”
     She laughed sweeping her hands through his hair gently with a soft chuckle, “You said that not me.”
     “Yeah, I did, didn’t I?”
     “And I saw it and it wasn’t so dinky just so you know,” she laughed again.
     He turned back to her on his knees, both with playful smiles. “So how about we try to start over, what would you say?”
     She looked mystified, “You mean even after what happened tonight?”
     Especially after what happened tonight.”
     “Jeff, I just want to explain―”
     He put his fingers to her mouth, “Not tonight,” shaking his head with a soft smile, “right now we get to just be us. Just you and me. You’re good with that, right?”
     “Oh Jeff,” suddenly mouths met, tongues leaping in joy together swirling in the taste of each other’s breath. He stood, mouths still locked pushing her gently back onto the bed as they lay next to each other stretched out with hands grasping amid quickened breath, gasps, pants Oh Jeff Oh Kathy hands roaming reaching pulling yanking tugging clothing slipping from sweltering bodies in a minute two naked bodies laying side-by-side hands reaching for pussy for hardness mouth to breasts tongues dancing their tango he laying on his back reaching up she straddled him in an instant deep deep deep inside of her with her rocking back and forth sweeping her hips back and forth as his hardness flipped in and out in and out in and out Oh my god Kathy I have never had this ever her sweeping hips his hardness flipping in and out in and out with the lunging motion Yes my clit rubs against your…oh god Jeff my sweet lover sweeping back and forth back and forth back and forth in and out in and out her pulling up looking deep into his hazel eyes in the dim end-table light with a stop as he plunged deeply into her again…room filling with the sweet aroma of sex and sweat and sex…
     Arching her back, “Oh Jeff oh Jeff oh Jeff oh my sweet Jeff I’m going…oh Jeff…I’m cumming, please keep on, keep doing that!”
     He reached up to her taking her right nipple into his mouth, his harness surging, a quick nibble her squeak his mouth to her left breast nibble and squeak his hardness bulging inside of her.
     “Oh honey, Kathy, cum with me cum with me cum with me cum with me!”
     “Yes! Now, oh Jeff, now!”
     Feeling her sweet inner muscles constricting on his hardness moaning, her moaning. “Now Jeff, oh sweet god now Jeff!”
     “Yesssssssss!”
     “Yesssssssss, Jeff I love you Jeff I love you!”
     “I love you Kathy! Oh, god” with one last great enormous surge his entire body deflated slowly as she collapsed onto him, her warm breasts upon his chest, her sweet breath surrounding his face.
     They kissed deep and passionate, her body collapsing to his right. He rolled onto his side, long gasps turning to long heavy pants slowly slowly slowly returning calm breaths.
     He rolled to her, left hand between her breasts, snuggling face into her neck.
     “We said the L word,” she turned to him, her chin on his head. “Wow, we said it. I said it. You said it.”
     “Yeah…yeah…we did, didn’t we?”
     “Did you mean it?”
     “Did you?” he snuffed her neck.
     “No, you go first,” she laughed poking his arm upon her breast with her finger.
     He paused in long thought. “Yeah. I did. I did mean it.” He pulled up laying on his stomach hands under chin looking to her with a soft frown. “And you meant it too, didn’t you?” Pausing he took a deep breath, “But how can that be? I don’t know you. You don’t know me.”
     Circling her finger on his arm she sighed, “I can’t explain it mister Jeff, but one minute it feels like I’ve only known you for three days, and then the next it feels like I’ve known you my whole life.” Jeff smiled at Nancy’s exact words at the bar in Atlanta.
     “I know what you mean. And we said the words. You said the words.”
     She turned to him, “Yes. Yes I did. I mean I can’t explain it.”
     “Yeah, I can’t either.”
     Four quick knocks on the door.
     She sat up frightened, “Oh god, they’re gonna come in!”
     “No,” Jeff laughed, “they would have already done that it they were going to.” He raised a finger toward her turning to the door, “Yeah, Ted, what do you need?”
     “Five minutes,” came through the door.
     Jeff turned to see the clock saying three twenty-four, looking back to the door “Okay.”
     He turned sitting up on his knees toward her, she still sitting up, “I guess we’ve got to call it a night,” leaning to kiss her, “or they will come in.” He picked up her hands waggling them, “And we don’t need that again, do we?”
     She nodded her head, sadness creeping into her eyes.
     “Look,” he said leaning down to look up into her eyes, “we got a chance, right? We got a chance to see that there is something special here after all, right?”
     She nodded looking up to him.
     “I mean, I don’t know what we’re going to do with this. I mean with my living in Seattle and you in the Bay Area. I really don’t.” He frowned, “I really don’t know what this means.”
     “Kind of a long-shot, huh?”
     “Yeah, but we said the words.”
     She smiled, “Yeah we did. And we meant them, right?”
     “Yeah, we did.”
     “So what do we do now?”
     He shook his head, “I don’t know,” shaking his head, “I just don’t know.”
     “Time!” came through the door. “Come on Jeff, I’ve got to get you back!”
     Jeff turned to the door starting to stand, “Okay, give me a minute, I have to get dressed.”
     Kathy laughed, “You said you have to get dressed! That means you’re―”
     “Yeah, well, Ted understands,” laughing reaching down for his underwear.
     She pointed to his underwear as he slid them onto his body, “And black underwear, so sexy!” jumping from the bed reaching down for his socks and pants. He leaned over picking up his shirt, buttoning, smiling at three missing buttons from when he pulled his shirt off earlier.
     Handing him his clothes she smiled, “Well, goodbye beautiful body,” he pulled up his pants, sitting down putting on his socks, reaching for his shoes.
     Turning to her nakedness standing next to him, “And goodbye beautiful body to you.”
     “You really think my body is beautiful?”
     Finally he stood, half-step back admiring the naked body before him with a playful laugh, “You’re kidding me right? God you are beautiful.”
     Smiling coyly she stepped to him, embracing with tongues together, his hands swirling around her naked body.
     “Jeff, come on out or I’m gonna come in!”
     Jeff reached his face down sucking on each bare breast before him, standing smiling.
     “Look, you’ve gotta go, go on, I don’t want another man busting in on me naked again,” turning to grab a robe swirling her arms swaddling her body.
     “Don’t worry, Ted’s seen you naked already.” She blushed pushing his shoulders back with a laugh.
     “Still, you’re the only man I ever want to see me like this.”
     He stepped to her, hands on her shoulders looking deeply into her eyes. “Look, I don’t know what they’re going to do. I mean about letting you see me, letting me see you.”
     She laughed, “Maybe you’ll see me in prison.”
     Shaking his head, “I doubt it, like I said, these guys go easy on the passerby, they are hell on the bad guys though. That’s all they’re really interested in.”
     “I hope so.”
     “You’ll see.”
     Hard knock on the door, “JEFF!”
     Turning back to the door, “Okay, coming!” Looking back to her, “I told them I needed to come here to do a panty raid.”
     Her face brightened, “Well you sure did a good job of that!” they both laughed. She turned reaching down standing with her panties dangling from fingers, “So do you need the trophy?”
     He reached for them laughing shaking his head, “Hey listen, I have notes that get me in plenty of trouble as it is, the last thing I need is to have your panties showing up at the wrong time!” Swirling the panties in front of his nose with a flourish he reluctantly handed them back to her.
     She took them with a shy smile, both laughing together, kissing once more, pulling back looking into eyes. Tears welling in her eyes, “This is so hard to see you go. I am so afraid that I’ll never see you again.”
     He smiled turning away, opened the door, looked back once more, “Hey, if it’s meant to be…” she waved her fingers to him, tears rolling down her cheeks.
     Pushing through the door the man stepped up to Jeff, turning together walking left back down the hallway.
     “Hey, stay alive okay?” Ted laughed after him.
     Jeff shook his head walking away, looking over his shoulder once more to see Kathy standing outside her door smiling, hand held up.
    Coy smile, hand held up in goodbye.

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K STREET!




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K Street, Chapter 23

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’s letter. Jeff continues to attract women without trying, some of them with deadly intentions. Jeff and Nancy soon find themselves in the center of intrigue with Israelis and Iranians feeling threatened by the impending deal, determined to kill the deal at any cost―even at the cost of Jeff’s life! The surprising twists will make the reader gasp, the love scenes will make the reader sigh.






Chapter 23 of K StreetKathy was paid fifty thousand to murder Jeff!

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!
 
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Thanks for taking time, and enjoy!
- Chris Lamela

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Author contact: Chris Lamela, chris@chrislamela.com, 707-566-8790 PST

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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?”
     Kathy burst into tears, sat on the bed, her face in her hands crying, “He paid me to put two little pills into your bottle.”
     “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 at Kathy.
     “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 room four-twelve. Stat. Can you get that tonight?” Arnie pressed the phone to his ear so the voice couldn’t be heard. “Good, can you lead that?” Pause listening. “Okay, thanks. Get back to me, I’m at the hotel in room six-nineteen.”
     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 Lane, here’s the deal. You see, I’m FBI. We don’t play the game the same was the police do. You have gotten yourself tied up in a case that involves national security. Do you know what this all means?” She shook her head woefully afraid where this was leading. “You see, I am working under a special directive from the president of the United States, mister Clinton. You’ve heard of him, I’m sure. We have been directed to do whatever it takes to track down a little freak that has a penchant for running around murdering people. Some very important people I might add. This has made some other very important people very angry.”
     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.
     Kathy gave Jeff an acknowledging glance with the tiniest smile, “Yes, so this guy tells me to go to the front desk, that there is an envelope waiting for me. So I threw on some clothes, went down and sure enough, there was an envelope.”
     “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 said that they would give Pick a pass as well.
     “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. You are to take her down to the lobby and stand back while she delivers this envelope to the front desk,” sliding the phone into the envelope handing it to Kathy. “Then take her up to room four-twelve. She is remanded to closed custody. You will receive further instructions by morning.” The man walked forward holding his hand out but she ignored it taking on a pouty air. She fluffed her hair, Jeff could see her trying to gain some form of modicum in front of them performing a show of dignity that she was somehow still in control of the situation.
     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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