Lee Williams, Harassment Agent - Episode 7
by Lee Williams
(This story is a complete work of fiction.)
"So," Josef said, "What's the plan?"
"You're gonna tip them in."
We were driving north on 95, towards D.C. I had met up with Josef in Fredericksburg, VA. He wasn't a criminal, so he had no code to follow. I handed him a folder with all the evidence when I met up with him. He would submit an anonymous tip to Crime Stoppers via crimestoppersusa.org about HHH. I trusted him to do such.
"And what is it," he asked. "An extortion ring?"
"Pretty much," I said. "That turned on me. So I'm going to turn on them."
He was driving us north. Amber and Jackie were in the backseat. Khir would meet us in D.C., in his rental, with spoofed GPS. Those things, rentals, they always have a GPS tracker in them. We didn't want to turn it off, so I accessed the car's computer via a small port near the gas pedal. Then I spoofed it to be idling, or parked, in D.C. for a while, and then on a small circular route, and then parked again every five hours or so. It would be a different part of D.C. than where Ray's house is.
"You can drop us off at Motel 6 on Georgia Ave," I said. "We have a guy meeting us there."
"And when do you want me to submit the tip," he asked. "Tonight?"
"No," I said. "I'll give you a call when. Just hold onto it for me."
"Anything for you man," Josef said. "You know I was glad to hear from you. I assumed you were dead."
"Many people do," I said.
He pulled into the Motel 6 parking lot and we got out. It was a dingy place, kind of run down. And it was on Georgia Ave. in D.C. I didn't think I'd wind up here again, but here I am, in Northwest D.C. We're honestly not too far from the shooting at Tony's, with Pierre. Ray lived in a nice neighborhood across the forest. Or at least, he was registered as living there.
I heard rap music blasting from cars that drove past. I drank a cup of coffee in the lobby of the motel, waiting around. We will run this thing tomorrow. I got Amber, Khir, and Jackie in my room to run them through the plan.
"Amber," I said. "I need you to let a Mylar balloon up onto his power lines. They'll be in front of his house. Do this and get in the car with Khir, and monitor for a 911 response on this laptop." I pulled a laptop out of my bag and opened it. "You'll watch the D.C. 911 RSS feed." I showed her how to access that. Some police departments broadcast their 911 calls to an RSS feed. D.C. did.
"Khir," I said. "Wait around the corner in the car for us. Make sure the GPS spoofer is running. Jackie, you and I will go into his house to take electronics."
He went for a fist bump. I fist bumped him.
"F*ck it, so it looks like we're good to go. I'm gonna hit the hay."
I went to sleep after they went to their rooms.
***
I was downtown with Andres.
"I was wrong," he said. "About The Kid."
"Yeah," I said. "I know."
"You don't know. You think you know but you don't."
"You know," I said. "You've been a troll since you got out."
"No," Andres said. "That's just in your dreams. Anyway, I was wrong about The Kid. But I'm still right."
Suddenly I was in a car. My mother was in the front, driving.
"Did you have a fun time?" she asked.
"Not really," I said.
"Why not?"
"I keep having dreams," I said. "These weird dreams. Where my friends are in them."
"Aww," she said. "I'm sorry."
"It's okay," I said. "I, you know, I think this might be a dream."
"Yeah," she said. "It is. Because I'm here."
"Yeah..."
"We're almost there."
"Where?" I asked.
"Back. Andres is there. And your friend John."
"Why don't you show me dead people. Instead of my living friends."
Suddenly it was me in the front seat. "I dunno," I said from the front. "It just doesn't seem to fit thematically.'
***
I snapped awake. It was time.
We all got in the car, after swapping the license plate with a fake paper tag, and drove through the forest, through trees, hills, and camps, to the other side of town which was much, much nicer.
"This is a bump key," I showed Jackie from the front seat. "I reckon it will set off the alarm, so we'll have to move quickly."
"I have this strange feeling," Khir said. "Like something isn't right."
"All you have to do is wait for us."
We arrived at Ray's listed residence.
I let Amber out to let the Mylar balloon onto the power lines. She did and got back in. After ten minutes of no sirens, we assumed it was safe to go inside. Me and Jackie crept around back and I inserted the bump key into the back porch door. The inside of the house was entirely dark and there was no car in the driveway, or out front. Jackie had a ski mask on. I had a simple COVID mask. After three minutes of bumping, the door clicked open and we rushed inside. I heard the alarm running. I ran straight up the stairs while Jackie covered the downstairs area. In the main bedroom there was a laptop, which I put in my bag, several cell phones in the drawers, again in my bag, until I had cleared out the whole room. There was no desktop.
I went back downstairs where I found Jackie empty handed. We left out the front door and got into the car, me in the front, Jackie and Amber in the back. Khir driving.
"We're good to go," I said. "If you want to pu-"
Shots cracked through the window from the direction of the house, what sounded like a hunting rifle, narrowly missing my own head, blowing Khir's head clean off. Then after a second, a second bullet went through the door, and exited out the opposing door. With a groan, I quickly opened the door and shoved Khir's body onto the pavement. A third shot cracked through the car door, and after a second I felt something wet on my arm. I kicked the car into drive and sped off, shots ringing at the car, through the rear windshield, into the engine block, into the radio, narrowly missing the trajectory to crack out the front windshield.
Well, Andres was right. It wasn't Jackie who would die, but Khir. And someone was waiting in the basement with a hunting rifle for us to come.
I pulled the car onto the road leading into the forest, and then parked it.
"Get out," I said. "I'm going to wipe it down, then we are going to hike through the woods back to the motel."
Amber was silent. She sniffled a little.
"Okay, uh, I'm truly sorry for your loss Amber," I said. "He was a good guy, I guess, but we gotta get moving before we're found with this car riddled with bullet holes." Amber sniffled more.
"I'm serious, U.S. Park Police in D.C. are not to be f*cked with."
She started crying.
"Amber! Amber! Come on!"
She continued crying.
"Jesus Christ," I said, turning to Jackie. "We gotta go man. She can follow us if she wants."
She didn't. She was later arrested in relation to a Northwest burglary when the U.S. Park Police found the car. She attempted suicide by cop, which didn't work, and was taken into custody. She did not cooperate with the police.
Me and Jackie made our way down a steep hill, very slowly. "I saw a bus down there," I said. "Most of them lead to the metro. Let's catch it back."
At the very bottom of the steep hill was a row of very nice houses, facing the woods. We jumped on the bus, and the rocking of the bus almost sent me to sleep. But I stayed awake until we got to Woodley Park Metro Station, where we jumped on and rode the horrible D.C. Metro to Georgia Ave-Petworth Station, and then took the 70 bus all the way up Georgia Ave. to the Motel 6.
Back in the hotel room, Jackie stared silently into space as I got to work on Ray's laptop. It was encrypted, but the password was "valentina" so that kind of took care of itself. No caps, no special characters. Just "valentina".
No need for high-tech heists when you can just guess the password.
I found some info about a new office in Minneapolis, MN... An employees list going back further than me and Valentina... Bank records... Phone records... Property records...
I called Josef.
"I'm going to come out to Fredericksburg and meet you with more stuff to tip in. Just me and Jackie."
"What happened to the other two?"
"They didn't make it."
That was when I felt a bit lightheaded, wondered why, and realized I'd been shot in the arm. When we got to our motel, I pulled a water bottle out of the fridge and poked a hole in the top, so I could spray it onto the entry and exit wound. I did as such, and then I walked over to the stove, and turned the heat on. Then I walked over to the cabinet, pulled a knife out, and laid it down on the burner. I walked to the bathroom, grabbed a towel, walked back into the kitchen, poured myself a shot of Hennessy and after knocking it back, placed the towel in my mouth and bit down. And then I picked the red hot knife up, and pressed it against the entry and exit wound.
The neighbors woke up to muffled screaming.
***
Valentina typed at her computer when she got a call to her desk phone. She answered.
"B&E at Ray's house on Oregon Ave."
She called Ray.
"They're breaking into your house."
"I know, I have Tommy in the basement," he said. "With a gun."
"Is that wise?"
"Don't ask me, don't, don't ask me stuff like 'is that wise.' It makes me question myself."
"Ah, I see on the camera footage that Tommy hit one. That isn't Lee though. You can see which one is Lee. You can see his curly hair..."
"Who, who, who the f*ck is that?" Ray asked.
"Do you think this is Random?"
"No, that was definitely, that was definitely Lee right there. And he got away."
"Well, tell Tommy to go look for him."
***
I stood in the parking lot at the shopping center waiting for Josef to arrive. Just me and Jackie. My arm bandaged, and me drinking nonstop to dull the stinging and aching. Josef pulled in. Jackie and I got in the car.
"That was crazy, that, that was insane, did you guys," Jackie said. "I mean did you, did you, did you-"
"Yes, Jackie, yeah, Khir is dead, and, and god knows what happened to Amber. And we'll be as dead as them if we hang around here. We have to go to Minnesota."
"Damn," he said. He was silent after.
"Josef," I said heavily. "Here is a USB drive with more stuff for Crime Stoppers. I'll call you when the time is right."
"Can I give you guys a ride?" he asked.
"Yes please. Bus terminal."
He drove us to the bus terminal. I had two tickets for St. Cloud booked. One for me, one for Jackie. We got to the cold bus terminal and waited.
Soundtrack
Heaven or Las Vegas - Cocteau Twins
Me vs Me - Jaeychino, SlimeGetEm