The Graduate, Part 8

Part 8: Confirmation

Joyce had brought home the laptop as she had promised. It was a newer model
from Micron. Karrie was relieved to find that the computer had I/O ports of
Audio and Video outputs. At 1:15, Fed Ex arrived with her package. She signed
for it and then anxiously started to tear open the package. Inside the box
were three wireless cameras, a receiver unit, and an infrared motion
detector.

Karrie spent the next two hours reading the manuals and hooking up the
equipment to the laptop. She set up the cameras in three different areas of
the house. She placed one in her own dark bedroom, one on the coffee table
facing the television, and one in the bathroom. She carried the receiver unit
and the laptop to the backyard, sat, and loaded up the software. She
estimated she was easily 150 feet from any of the three cameras.

When the software loaded, she clicked the button labeled camera one. She was
rewarded with a small window revealing her bedroom. The video picture was
small, but clear enough.

"Damn..." she muttered happily. She quickly clicked the button for camera
two. The video switched to the bright bathroom. She could see everything in
perfect, small detail.

Next, she clicked the button for camera three. This time she was greeted with
both the video and audio sound emanating from the television. The end of Days
of Our Lives was on and she could see the sands through the hourglass, and
hear the sappy music that accompanied it.

"Fuckin A..." she said happily. She closed the program and shut down the
laptop and made her way back into the house to retrieve and hide her
surveillance items.

She checked her watch and saw it was 4:05. She was scheduled to be at work at
5:00. She got changed and left her house for work but made a quick detour by
Bill's apartment complex. His car was not in the parking lot. She hurried to
his door and reached into her pocket and extracted the key she had taken from
her mothers' key ring. It slid easily into the lock. She turned the knob
quickly and slipped into the apartment.

Karrie made quick work of her visit. She looked around to survey for spots
that would easily hide the small cameras and give ample view of the entire
room. A large entertainment center sat in the small living room. Karrie ran a
finger across the shelves to find that they were very dusty. A good sign that
he rarely cleaned or looked around them. She then hurried into the bedroom
and opened the closet. The top shelf was littered with shoes and other
clothing items. When she was satisfied, she hurried out.

She jogged to her car and quickly left the complex. At 4:40, it was still
fairly deserted and she was sure she had gone in and out un-noticed.
Adrenaline raced through her as she pulled out of the complex and headed to
work. She nervously lit a cigarette and held the smoke as long as she could,
letting the nicotine relax her nerves. She pulled into the small strip mall
promptly at 4:55 and began another night of tedious work and planned her next
move.


The next day, Karrie and Ashley had lunch and made further plans. Karrie
instructed Ashley to meet Bill at his place again tonight and start setting
up the meet. Karrie told Ashley that she had indeed contacted someone who
would act like a buyer for them, but his price was going to be $1000. They
agreed that if Bill was willing to front the $10,000, they'd have to wait a
week or so before the rest of the pieces could come together. Ashley agreed
and asked few questions. This bothered Karrie even more. This would be a
complicated thing to pull off, yet Ashley seemed to go along with everything.
Even the sleeping with Bill thing didn't bother her much at all. In fact, she
seemed to like it.

After their lunch, the two went their separate ways. Karrie once again drove
to Bills apartment. The parking lot was nearly deserted again. She slipped
into the apartment quickly and began placing the camera's in strategic
places. One she hid behind the television set on the entertainment center.
Bills TV was large and deep, and the shadows it cast hid the black device
well.

Karrie then made her way to the bedroom. It was messy this afternoon. Clothes
were scattered around the floor and the bed was unmade. Most importantly, the
closet doors were open. Karrie reached up to the top shelf and rearranged
some of the clothes that were scattered there. She felt something cold and
hard. She put her hands around the object and pulled it down.

Her eyes widened when she saw she was holding a handgun. The grip was black
rubber coated and the rest was a shiny steel. She knew little about guns but
could recognize it was a semi-automatic pistol. The side of the barrel
proudly stated the manufacturer was Smith & Wesson and it was a 9mm. The
small object felt unusually heavy for its size. She checked the safety and
found it was on. She turned and sat the gun on the knowing completely well
that she was going to be taking it with her when she left.

She moved some T-shirts on the top shelf and placed the camera snuggly under
them, pointing at an angle towards the center of the room. She surveyed the
rest of the apartment and found there was no where appropriate to put the
third camera. Karrie returned to the bedroom and put the gun into the bag she
was carrying. She thought quickly and things were now falling into place like
a jigsaw puzzle. She walked quickly to the front door and peered through the
peep hole. Things looked clear.

She trotted to her car and stashed the bag under her seat. Before firing up
the laptop to test the equipment on last time, she quickly lit another
cigarette. She needed the nicotine so badly that she just let it dangle. She
drew intermittently as the laptop booted up. She rolled down her window and
flicked the growing ash out of the window. After the laptop came to life, she
started the program to activate the cameras. They of course came to life when
she clicked the appropriate buttons. Leaving the laptop on, she slowly backed
up and drove further down the parking lot. At approximately 200 feet, the
signal became too weak and the cameras fed only white noise to the laptop.

She turned her car around once more and traveled the other direction. As she
got closer to the cameras they responded once again. Karrie took one final
drag on the shrinking cigarette and tossed it out the window. She exhaled
lazily as she shutdown the laptop. Things were ready and working, now she
just had too wait.


Ashley arrived at Bills apartment around 9:15 that night. Karrie had parked
two blocks in the opposite direction of Ashley's home and watched her pull
out of the driveway. She gave Ashley a five-minute head start so she wouldn't
be noticed. When Karrie pulled into the apartment complex, she saw Ashley's
car parked near Bills apartment. Karrie's heart was racing. Fear ran through
her body like a running stream. She found a parking spot on the opposite side
of Bills apartment where reception would be good and parked.

The laptop was already on, and she double clicked the icon to start the
remote cameras. She lit a cigarette and double pumped the first drag, holding
the calming smoke in and watched...


At first the camera behind the TV showed nothing but the couch. Bill and
Ashley's faint voices could be heard however. Karrie clicked camera two to
see if they were in the bedroom. The bedroom picture was black and no audio
was being pumped to the laptop. Nervously, Karrie clicked back to the TV
camera.

Ashley walked into the picture and plopped onto the couch, holding a freshly
lit cigarette and a drink. She sipped the drink and then set it on the small
coffee table in front of her. Bill's voice could still be heard in the
background. Ashley drew from her cigarette and then leaned forward and picked
up the remote control. Karrie marveled at the camera's clarity as she drew
deeply off her own cigarette.

Ashley pointed the remote towards the television and turned it on.
Immediately the camera's reception went poor. Static distorted the picture,
and the sound from the TV drowned out any other sound.

"Shit!" Karrie said allowed. She was helpless to change anything however, and
sat back in her seat, hoping for a miracle.

Through the distortion, Karrie made out Bill crossing in front of the camera
and then sat next to Ashley. He reached for the remote and turned the
television off. The reception returned to normal and Karries mood changed
immensely. She turned the small dial controlling the volume and listened
intently.

"Why do you always have to have the TV on, Christ its annoying!" Bill
scolded.

"Excuse me!" Ashley snapped back and then drew angrily from her cigarette.

Then Karrie heard what she was hoping she wouldn't.

"So you don't think she knows about us?" Bill inquired.

"Oh, she knows... just not everything..." Ashley replied smugly. "She doesn't
have a clue," she added, then sipped from her drink.

"How long does this have to go on?" Bill asked.

"Just a few more days honey..." Ashley purred. She reached across and stroked
his leg. "Are you getting tired of fucking Joyce?"

Bill shook his head. "Not just that, I'm getting tired of being part of this
little game between you and she. It seems to be getting pretty damn serious
just over you getting snubbed a few months ago..."

Ashley sat up and took a serious tone, pointing a finger towards Bill. "You
don't understand how bad she fucking hurt me Bill. And with me, paybacks are
a bitch... and a hundred times more severe!" she exclaimed.

Karrie sat back in her seat and tossed the smoldering cigarette out the
window. A small tear ran down her cheek as she exhaled. But as she wiped it
away, the sadness was wiped away as well, replaced by rage. She watched as
Ashley cuddled closer to Bill and the two embraced in a hot kiss. Ashley's
hands moved swiftly to Bills pants and began undoing his belt and buttons. As
she moved her head towards his crotch, Karrie closed down the program. She'd
seen and heard enough.

It was time to react.

End Part8

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