The Hermetrius Conspiracy Page 25

  The next question is how we are going to catch the Senator in flagrante delicto – in the act. The first thing we need to do is get a GPS bug planted in his car so we can track his movements. Once we find out where he’s going to meet his woman, or women, then we can look into bugging the place.”

  #

  Later in the morning Harriet was checking the American Reporter News site. She clicked on the front-page headline . . . and screamed. Everybody came running. “Oh my God, they’ve killed him!”

  “Who Harriet?

  “The reporter, Jeb Collins!” She read the highlights of the story. “Former reporter for this newspaper, Jeb Collins, was found hanged in his garage this morning. He was fired from the American Reporter Daily staff after creating a fictitious story about alleged kickbacks from defense contractors to high ranking Government officials. He left a suicide note that said, in part, ‘I just couldn’t take the shame of being caught in the hoax. I knew I could never work in the news industry again, and that’s all I cared about. Forgive me.’”

  Jack was livid. “Winston will do anything to keep his conspiracy on track. Someday, I will make sure he pays for this, even if I have to kill him myself!”

  “What does this do to our plans, Jack?” Lynn asked.

  “We have to move ahead as planned and find a way to stop this madness!”

  #

  Two weeks later they had what they needed. Roberts had a mistress living in an expensive condo in Georgetown. Elaina Bennett was a 29-year-old statuesque blond who a year ago had been a high-priced call girl. Roberts apparently made her an offer she couldn’t refuse to be his exclusive mistress. He visited her three times while they were tracking him, and spent the night twice. All they needed now was access to the condo, which wasn’t going to be easy. They watched the building entrance, which had a full time doorman/security guard, and saw several people turned away, so fast-talking their way past him didn’t seem to be an option. Harriet got copies of the building plans from the county records department and found no other way to get into the second floor apartment. The only way up was the elevator from the lobby, and the doorman had that covered. They were all gathered in the kitchen of the Double Wide discussing their options.

  “We need some ideas here, guys.” Jack implored. “I have no intention of going down an air shaft from the roof to get into her condo like they do in the movies. Give me something here.”

  Tom tossed out a thought, “Can we get one of us hired on as building staff? A janitor, a maintenance man, or a maid maybe? We need to find out who does their hiring, and who has those jobs now. Then we can come up with a way to have one of them call in sick for a day or two, so one of us can jump in as a temporary replacement.”

  Jack looked excited. “You’re onto something there, Tom. Harriet, why don’t you and Rick find out who the staffing company is. When you have that, I’ll hack into their personnel records and see who they have assigned to the Georgetown condo. We’ll make one of them an offer to call in sick for a wad of cash and recommend one of us as a replacement.

  “I should have something by lunchtime, Jack.”

  #

  By mid afternoon Jack was inside the computer of Staff Assistance, Inc. going over the records of the Georgetown condo staff. He was hoping that he go in as a temporary maintenance man, but that work was handled by an on-call service that showed up only when there was a problem. Other than the doorman, the only permanent staff at the condo was the maid service. All the apartments were cleaned daily by one of four maids. Harriet and Lynn were the only ones who could step into those jobs, and Harriet was still recovering from her leg injury. He didn’t want to send Lynn because she wasn’t trained for this kind of spy work, but he didn’t really have a choice. He called her over to the computer.

  “Lynn, we may need you to be our undercover maid who goes in and plants the hidden cameras. How do you feel about that?”

  She said with a grin, “Where do I sign up, Jack.”

  “I’ll have to show you where to place the wireless cameras so they have a good field of view. I have a couple that look like ceiling-mounted smoke alarms. You just switch them on and stick them on the ceiling, then go about your cleaning chores. There are four maids who share the cleaning duties for sixteen apartments, so if we pay off the maid to the second floor, you will have four apartments to clean, including the one Roberts’ mistress lives in. She works for a local TV station during the day, so you will have the place all to yourself.”

  “How can you arrange for me to fill the maid vacancy that day?”

  “Staff Assistance keeps a list of temporary maids they can call to fill in for those missing work. I’ll go into that file and put your name at the top of the list.”

  “So how will we get one of the maids to take us up on the offer?”

  “Good question. Let me do a background check on the maid staff and see if there’s something we can use to encourage them.”

  A few minutes later he had just what he was looking for. “One of the maids, Juanita Perez, is in the country illegally. No green card and no student visa. Get the others in here and let’s figure out the best way to approach her.”

  When they were all in the room Jack filled them in on what he found. “So how do we approach her?”

  Tom spoke up first. “All we need to do is tell her we’re from ICE – Immigration and Customs Enforcement – and she will do anything we ask. Or else she will disappear and never go back to work there. I don’t want her to be out of work, so let’s tell her that the FRE is conducting an investigation of one of the tenants, and we need to put one of our women agents on the maid staff for a day. Since she’ll be afraid of being found out, we won’t have to pay her anything. Offering cash would make the deal seem fishy.”

  “That will work. Did I just hear you volunteer to approach her, Tom?”

  “Sure, I’ll do it. I’ll wait at the metro station across from the condo and talk to her as she gets off work. Let’s plan my approach for tomorrow evening, and Lynn can go in the next morning. That will give you time to get Lynn ready for her role.”

  “Will I need a maids uniform?”

  “Yes, but we took pictures of what the maids wear and I found a uniform shop just outside of Georgetown that has what we need. It’s nothing fancy, just a grey work dress.”

  #

  Jack and Lynn drove to Vienna, parked the station wagon, and boarded the Metro. Jack could tell she was anxious, so he reached out and held her hand. On the way to the Georgetown station Lynn mentally rehearsed every thing Jack had told her, but the closer she got, the more anxious she became. As they left the train Jack pulled her off to the side to reassure her. “You won’t have any trouble with this, Lynn. We rehearsed it until you could do it in your sleep. Just relax and be natural. I’ll spend the day working on my computer at internet café on the next block. When you get off work, call me from the Metro station and I’ll meet you there. If you need me for any reason, call me. I’ll get past the doorman and up to room 202 one way or another.”

  They waited until they saw two of the condo maids in their uniforms get off another train, and Lynn fell in behind them. As they left the station one of them looked at her. “Who are you? You don’t work at the apartments with us.”

  “I … I am a replacement for Juanita . . . Juanita Perez. She is sick today.” Lynn answered with uncertainty like she thought a new girl in the group would.

  “Is Juanita really sick, or did that husband of hers beat her up again?”

  “I . . . I don’t know. I got a call this morning that I was needed to replace a sick person today. They told me to report to the doorman.”

  “Well, if her husband beat her up bad, you may be here for a few days. What about you? You got a husband that beats you?”

  “No, my husband is dead. I have to take odd jobs to help pay my rent.”

  “Well, I hope he treated you right before he conked out on you.”

  “He was O.K. I guess
.”

  The three of them entered the building lobby together. The doorman waved the two regulars through, but stopped Lynn. Who are you. The temp they called about this morning?”

  “Y . . . Yes sir.”

  “You girls know her?”

  “We do now, Henry. Come on, we’re need to get to work.”

  “Here is your key card. Make sure I get that back when you leave.”

  On the way up in the elevator they explained the layout of each floor – where to find the linen cart and cleaning supplies, and let her out on the second floor.

  She went strait to the storage room, loaded up the cart, and headed for Apartment 202.

  She knocked first, just like Jack had rehearsed with her, then opened the door and said loudly “Maid service. Is anyone here?” She held her breath for what seemed like minutes before she let out a sigh of relief. Jack said to get the cameras up first thing, in case she was interrupted, so she pulled a dining room chair into the bedroom at the foot of the bed. Jack said that would give the best view of the action. She took one of the fake smoke detectors out of her purse, peeled off the protective strip from the sticky tape on the back, and stood on the chair. But when she reached up she realized that the high ceiling was out of her reach by a foot. That’s when she panicked the first time. ‘I can’t let Jack down on this, but how am I going to reach high enough? Maybe I can get some pillows from the bed and put them on the chair.’

  She noticed the bed hadn’t been slept in. Elaina must have met him somewhere else, or she had another sugar daddy on the side. Lynn carefully removed the pillows and put them on the chair, but they were too soft. It wasn’t enough. Now she started sweating. She tried stacking another dining room chair on the first one, but that was too unstable. The dresser was too heavy to move. She ran from room to room, looking for something to help her, but there was nothing. She started to head for the bathroom but thought ‘Yeah right. I’ll drag the toilet in here.’ and she turned away. Then she turned back and went into the bathroom. It was just as she expected; nothing helpful. As a last resort, she opened the cabinet under the sink, and there was the answer. A plunger. She grabbed it and got back up on the chair. She nestled the smoke alarm into the plunger cup and stretched toward the ceiling. ‘There! I did it.’

  She mentally patted herself on the back as she took the chair back into the living room and stuck another camera unit over the fireplace looking back at the large couch. ‘That should cover it, unless they decide to get frisky on the dining room table or the kitchen floor. Wouldn’t that make some great news footage!’ She returned the chair to its place at the table at the table and went back to the bedroom to replace the pillows. She was just folding the bedspread back in place when she heard the front door open. She froze for a second. ‘What should I do. Where can I hide? What did Jack tell me?’

  She had parked the linen cart beside the bathroom door as Jack told her to. She grabbed bathroom cleaning materials and got busy, pretending she hadn’t heard the door open.

  “Juanita, is that you?” A woman’s voice. It must be Elaina. Sweat was pouring from Lynn’s forehead and arm pits. The woman poked her head into the bathroom and exclaimed “You’re not Juanita! What are you doing here?”

  “The . . . the agency sent me. Juanita is sick.”

  “It better not be that damned husband of hers again! I told her I could arrange to make him disappear but she said she loves him, even though he’s mean to her. These women think it’s their lot in life to let their husbands and boyfriends do whatever they want.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Elaina went back toward the living room and Lynn started looking busy again. That’s when she panicked the second time. She left the plunger in the living room!

  “What the hell is this! There’s a toilet plunger on my coffee table. You, whatever your name is. Get in here this minute!”

  Lynn gathered her wits and went into the living room with her head bowed in mock shame. “Explain to me why you brought this filthy thing into my living room.”

  Lynn’s mind was running at super speed as she tried to think up an excuse.

  “Cat got your tongue. Tell me what you were doing.”

  “The . . . the kitchen sink was stopped up so I brought the plunger in to unstop it.”

  “You put that filthy thing in the sink. Where I rinse dishes and drink water from? We have maintenance men to call for that. I want you out of here right now! Get your cart and clear out. And take this filthy thing with you. Maybe you can use it on your own kitchen sink.”

  “Yes ma’am. I was almost finished anyway. I have other apartments to clean.”

  “Oh no you don’t. I want you out of the building in five minutes. I’ll call Henry and tell him to expect you. And I’ll call the agency and tell them to fire you and send someone else. Now get out!”

  Lynn rushed down the hall and put the cart and cleaning supplies back, then headed for the elevator. When she got to the lobby the doorman was standing there glaring at her. “Whatever you did up there really pissed Miss Bennett off! Give me your key card and leave immediately.” Lynn started crying at that point. To Henry they were tears of shame, but to Lynn they were tears of joy. She had completed her mission and gotten away. As she ran across the street to the Metro station, she thought ‘Thank you Lord for getting me out of there.’

  As soon as she was inside the Metro station she called Jack on her cell phone. Ten minutes later they were holding hands on the train back to Vienna. Lynn was bursting to tell Jack what happened but he told her to wait until they were alone in the car headed for Pittston County.

  As soon as Jack pulled out of he Vienna Metro parking lot the dam burst and she began talking high speed non-stop about her adventure in the apartment. Jack couldn’t follow all of it so he waited until her nervous energy had burned out and asked her to start at the beginning.

  After she finished Jack said, “You were amazing up there, Lynn! That plunger idea was brilliant. I could kick myself for not thinking about the high ceilings. And your quick response to her angry questions were perfect. To top it off, you got thrown out of the building in less than an hour. You couldn’t have done better if we had planned it that way.”

  Lynn looked up at his face, smiling, and asked “So when do I get my official ‘Secret Agent Woman’ badge?”

  “Raise your right hand and repeat after me. Pretend this road map is a Bible. ‘I, Lynn Martin, do solemnly swear that I will uphold all the bylaws of the Secret Agent Society to the best of my ability.” Lynn repeated it with a grin and asked “Just what are those bylaws by the way.”

  “I’ll tell you when we’re snuggled up in bed tonight,” Jack said mischievously.

  Chapter 56

  They got home after the others had finished their dinner, but Rick warmed up some leftovers for them. They all wanted to hear all about the ‘mission’ but Lynn kept them in suspense until they were finished eating. Jack put it off for another half hour while he got his computer hooked up to the TV so they all could see. He made the secure internet connection and there, on a split screen, were two video images – one of the living room and one of the bedroom – from Elaina Bennett’s apartment. “There you have it. The fruits of Lynn’s spy work. The cameras are triggered by movement or talking, or by a signal from me. They start transmitting the picture and sound over a 4G phone back to my laptop, which I hooked up to the TV display. Whenever a signal comes in, the laptop sounds an alarm and starts recording the video and audio signals for replay later.”

  “Will we have to keep someone awake to hear the alarm at night?”

  “No, I’ll sleep on the couch in here. The alarm is loud enough to wake me up.”

  “No way, Jack! You are not going to leave me alone in bed. I’m sleeping on the couch with you. And no, it won’t be too crowded. We’ll just snuggle up closer.”

  Harriet looked at her husband. “Isn’t young love a joy to watch, Rick?”

  “Hey, I still
have the memories of when we were young lovers, dear. I can replay those movies in my head anytime I want to.”

  “Well, you’d better not be watching those movies unless I’m right there with you. Many of those are ‘R’ rated.”

  “As I remember them, they were ‘X’ rated.’”

  Jack broke up the banter. “Enough about memory lane. Let Lynn tell you what it took to get those cameras in place.”

  “Aw shucks, folks, it weren’t nothin’. But here’s how it went down – see Jack, I’m learning the spy talk already.” Lynn went on to tell the story, with a lot of interruptions for questions. When she was finished, Harriet said “You have the most important gift that any spy would treasure. You can improvise in a second with a perfectly plausible script. There were times on some of my past missions when I wish I had you along.”

  “It’s past 11 p.m. and no one has shown up at the apartment yet, so why don’t we turn in and reassess the situation tomorrow. Lynn you would you get some sheets, pillows, and a blanket for our little couch-nest here?”

  After they were snuggled up on the couch, spoon fashion, Lynn turned her head toward Jack. “Now, about those Secret Spy Society bylaws . . .”

  #

  Jack was dragged out of a sound sleep by the computer alarm a couple of hours later. Lynn was already awake sitting in front of the TV screen. “It’s Elaina and Senator Roberts. They were laughing and joking out of sight of the camera until they came into the living room and sat on the couch.”

  They both watched as Elaina knelt and removed Robert’s shoes, and then straddled his lap and eased his tie off. “How about fixing me a drink first, sweetie?” She whispered something in his ear that made him smile, and got up to fix the drinks. “I’m going to freshen up first. I’ll be back in a minute.”

  She came back into the living room wearing an almost see-through negligee and carrying two drinks. “Scotch on the rocks, light on the rocks. Just the way you like it.”