The Graduate, Part 7

Part 7: Doubts

Two nights later, Karrie boredly restocked the shelves with returned movies.
Her mind tried to focus at the task at hand, but it kept drifting off to what
else was happening that night. According to "the plan", Ashley was most
likely at Bills apartment screwing the daylights out of him, further seducing
him and making him more vulnerable. The goal of the night was to try and find
out more of Bills weaknesses. Once these were discovered, they would be
exploited and used to blackmail Bill. 

Karries main worry was that Bill was a strong person, and a lawyer to boot.
He would most likely resist any attempts to extort money from him, and could
potentially turn the tables on them. Ashley was confident things would work
out. Karrie kept her skepticism to herself and secretly was working out an
alternate plan in case Ashley's judgement was skewed.

At midnight, she helped the manager close the store and she drove home still
worried and lost deep in thought. When she got home, she found her mothers'
purse on the kitchen table as usual. She reached in and extracted her car
keys. She studied them for a second and then removed one and stuck it in her
pocket. She fell asleep that night resigned to the fact that she'd have to
wait till the next morning to learn how things went, and what the future
held.


Karrie woke at 7:30 the next morning to the sound of the garage door closing.
She made her way downstairs to find a smoldering crushed out butt in the
ashtray on the kitchen table. A cloud of smoke still hung in the air. Karrie
picked up her pack that lay on the table and tapped one out. She lit it as
she had hundreds of times before, and then drew deeply as she made her way to
the coffee maker. She exhaled as she poured the hot black liquid into her
mug. She replaced the cigarette into her lips and drew as she walked back to
the table. Smoke flowed out her nose as she sat and placed the half-smoked
cigarette into the ashtray. She sipped her coffee as she browsed the front
page of the paper.

A knock on the door startled her. She looked towards the front door and saw
Ashley's car on the driveway. She took one final drag from her second
cigarette of the day and crushed it out as she stood. She opened the door to
find Ashley leaning against the door jam, her eyes half closed and blood
shot, makeup smeared and worn off.

Karrie stood with her arms folded, looking disappointed. "We'll look what the
cat dragged in," she said sternly.

Ashley lifted her head to make eye contact with Karrie. She then lifted her
middle finger. "Two words Karrie, 'Shut Up, and get me some coffee...' " she
managed, and then pushed past her. She walked a crooked path to the kitchen
table and sat. 

Karrie shut the door shaking her head. Ashley was helping herself to Karries
coffee and cigarettes. Karrie walked past her and got another mug from the
cupboard. She returned to the table and reached for another cigarette
herself. Ashley was staring blankly at the table, drawing continuously on her
cigarette. Karrie lit her cigarette and then exhaled towards her hung over
friend.

"So," she started. "Spill it, honey... how'd it go?"

Ashley was in mid draw and managed to triple pump the cigarette down to the
filter. She held up a finger as she crushed out the cigarette. She exhaled a
huge cloud of smoke into the room, sipped her coffee, and finally spoke.

"What a fucking night...." she began.

The two sat for the next hour, smoking, drinking two pots of coffee, and
discussing the nights activities, and most importantly, how the plan was
unfolding. Ashley said that the second she arrived at Bills they started
drinking heavily. The first time they had sex, Bill brought up the subject of
cocaine, which Ashley eagerly agreed to participate in. Bill's use was heavy,
Ashley noted. He had lots of it and seemed to need more and more as the night
progressed. They had sex five times during the night, and Bill insisted
Ashley smoke the whole time.

When she was done talking, Ashley had basically come to and awakened from her
hangover.

Karrie crushed out a cigarette and sat back. "So you think the coke is it?
His Achilles Heel?" she asked.

Ashley nodded. "Yeah, he even admitted to dealing some in college. He said
he'd love to find a hook up and get into that again. Not deal to 'punk
stoners' or anything, but to more upscale clients, friends of his, lawyers,
you know..."

Karrie thought for a minute and then spoke. "Well that's it then, here's how
it'll play out." She reached for the pack of cigarettes to find it empty. She
got up and opened a cabinet and took out a carton. She slid a fresh pack out
and returned the carton to its home.

As she sat and unwrapped the pack, she continued. "In the next week, you need
to convince Bill that we know a source who is looking for a buyer. Tell him
the source needs $10,000 to get a good shipment in. I'll take care of finding
someone who can play our source." She paused to light her cigarette, and then
passed the pack to Ashley who eagerly followed suit.

"We're going to need a little bit or real coke, probably like a couple
hundred bucks worth. We'll cut it up and add it to a bunch of baking soda to
make it look like a lot. When this deal goes down, we'll make sure the cops
are notified and he gets busted. If he tries to implicate us, we just simply
deny it. There's no evidence linking us to him except his relationship with
my mother." Karrie added. "What do you think?" she asked Ashley and drew
deeply again. 

"Sounds like a good plan. Who are you going to get?" she asked.

"Let me worry about that..." Karrie said cautiously. "There's some guys at
work who might be willing to do it to get laid a few times..." she said
laughing.

"What about the coke? Where are you going to get that much?" Ashley prodded.

"I have my sources darlin, don't sweat that..." she said through an exhale.
"For now, get your ass home and get cleaned up... you're a mess." she said
jokingly. The two stood and hugged and then shared a brief kiss. 

Ashley's care pulled out of the driveway and headed in the general direction
of her home. Karries look turned serious. She picked up the cordless phone
and walked up the stairs to the bedroom where the computer was. She dialed
the phone as she turned on the computer.

"Mom? Hi." Karrie spoke. "No, I've been up for a while. Yeah, I had to help
close last night. Hey, can you still check out laptops at work? You can?
Could you see if you could get me one for a few days? I've been asked to do
some research at work and they said I could do it there if I'm bored, and I
just figured it's easier to do on a computer than writing and then re-doing
it again. You will? Cool. OK, see you tomorrow sometime. Yeah, I have to
close again. Ok, bye... love you too."

Karrie hung up the receiver and double clicked on her Internet Explorer Icon.
The computer dialed, hissed and whined as it may its connection. Once
connected, Karrie typed in the URL for MSNBC. There had been a very annoying
Pop Up Advertising recently which she hated. But now she felt she had a use
for their product. As she waited for the page to load, she lit another
cigarette. As she drew, what she hopped would happen did. 

An Ad for the X10 wireless camera popped up in a smaller separate window. She
smiled and exhaled, and quickly clicked the link to the company's site and
began studying intently. 

Half an hour later, she was entering her mothers' credit card information on
the company's secure ordering site. She had decided to purchase the X10 three
camera deal. "A Steal at $169!" the site advertised. "A steal indeed..."
Karrie agreed as she finalized the purchase. With Next Day Fed Ex shipping,
her total was nearly $300. 

Satisfied, she made her way to the bathroom at 10:15 to shower, trailing a
cloud of smoke behind her.

End Part 7

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