Injustice

by K A Kron

  I had to be careful whom I reached out to, as not exactly everyone knew my whereabouts. Charlie knew the dangers of being out in the open for all to see. I was actually relieved to be able to count on him again, but a part of me still worried about exposing myself. Taking on the plights of others was certainly putting me out there, but I felt that it was worth the risk. The military, of course, had a one-size-fits-all job description for me. I had been assigned to Psychological Operations, and there was nothing general about the job, since every minute of every day was different for each member of my team. I guess, in a nutshell, my job was to find ways to make people cooperate. This involved the use of sound and light, randomly or constantly, in excess, as well as deprivation of things like sleep and food, and other stimulation. Everyone had his or her breaking point, and my job was to find out what that was so that my team could obtain necessary information. And I was good at it. It was a perfect life until the day it went horribly wrong.

  Charlie was the one who’d trained and watched over me like an overprotective parent. I wondered, not for the first time, if law school was the right thing for me. I could rationalize as much as I wanted to that I would make a good attorney and make a difference, but I had my suspicions that an additional degree wouldn’t change me all that much.

  Right now it was time to do my homework. I buckled down, and the hours flew by. I looked at the clock and realized that it was time to get ready for the next part of my day.

  Chapter 42

  We had all agreed to meet at Carina’s house for the study group. She lived a block off of Havana, a few miles from school. As expected, her house was as colorful as she continued to be. There were dogs of all shapes and sizes. A three-legged one seemed to get around well and was so sweet. I couldn’t help but think of the Contracts professor. He explained to us that all the questions we asked about “what if” this or “what if” that really didn’t matter or change the facts much. The bottom line was that if you had a three-legged dog, it limped. So when people would ask stupid “what if” questions, he would merely say that the dog limped and move on.

  I pulled my attention back to the tasks at hand. In addition to the regular reading and outlining, we had all received a motion to draft. The group of us sat and struggled with what to put into the motions. A motion for summary judgment, a motion to dismiss, and the list went on. We were trying to use the books, to outthink the professors. What did they want? In the end, we all spent about two hours figuring out what amounted to about a page each.

  Everyone seemed to be in pretty good spirits as we broke up. Ali had been pretty vocal throughout the night, and as we said our good-byes in the parking lot, she stood close to me. “I’m going to follow you home, okay?”

  Hmmm. What could I say? Of course she could follow me home. Oh crap! To my home? I smiled as I got into the car and dialed Charlie’s number, taking my time and not starting the engine just yet. Pick up. Pick up. Finally he did, and I didn’t even get the first words out. “This doesn’t involve live animals, does it?”

  I didn’t have time for humor right now, so I ignored the question. “Look, I need for you to get to my place right now and remove the monitors and stuff so that nobody can tell what’s going on. Ali is coming home with me.”

  There was silence on the other end. “Charlie?”

  A tired, disinterested voice came back on the line. “Why can’t you just go to her place?”

  I had thought of that, but how would I explain it to her without seeming like I was up to something, which I was? “I don’t think I could do that at this point.”

  He was going to make me work for it. “I suggest you get gas and stop by the store on the way back. Maybe get a movie, too.”

  I was already planning on making a few stops but didn’t know how long I needed to be clear of this. What was I thinking anyway, putting all that stuff in place? “And make sure you have the volume turned off, for the extra things you planted that we will definitely talk about later.”

  Charlie was always interested in what was in it for him, and now he knew I really owed him. “I’m in the car. I’ll call you when you’re clear.”

  I tried to say thank you, but he had already cut off the line.

  I started the engine and pulled out of the parking lot, Ali was probably already wondering why I had been sitting there so long. My first stop was to fill up my tank. As I pumped the fuel, Ali came over to chat. “Do you need anything inside?”

  I shook my head. “I’m pretty hungry though, so how about if we stop and get some food?”

  She looked disappointed. “Can we get takeout? I really would like to spend a little time alone with you.”

  I tried not to spill the gas as I removed the nozzle. “Sure. What would you like? Or I could cook?”

  She chose the grocery store, heading to the deli and picking out items that were already cooked. I offered to carry the bag, and for the rest of the drive, I was distracted by the smell. It took a great deal of effort not to sample everything before I got to the apartment.

  My phone rang, startling me. I had, momentarily, forgotten about Charlie. He reported that everything was clear. I thanked him profusely and smiled again at the food soon to fill my stomach.

  It was all I could do to get the food inside before grabbing a piece of chicken and digging in. Ali laughed at me and took a bite out of the piece in my hand. We sat on the couch in silence, the bags strewn all over the coffee table. After a few minutes, I grabbed a few beers to help wash the food down. With our bellies full, we sat back, content. Ali headed into the bedroom and came back in my sweats. I guessed that she wasn’t planning on going home. Apparently she wanted to enjoy my company for the entire night. She lit some candles and turned out the lights. I was surprised how alert I felt, aware of her every movement, not sure exactly what she was up to. She pushed me back onto the couch and started kissing me lightly. As I tried to put my arms around her, she trapped them and shook her head. I could look but not touch. She pulled up my shirt, just a little ways, and at the same time covered my eyes. The next thing I felt was not what I’d anticipated. It was hot and stimulating at the same time. Hot wax. Weird, but fascinating.

  Chapter 43

  As I pulled into the parking lot at the school, I thought about the first encounter I’d had with Ali; it reminded me that I really had to make time to catch up with Tommy. Good old Tommy Boy. As I shut the door, I almost expected to see him pop out from between the cars again, especially in light of the fact that he had shown up in my home movies, as well as in person, way too often for my liking. I hadn’t even had time to check on the surveillance footage that was mounting by the minute. I really needed more hours in my days.

  A tap on my shoulder caused me to spin around, ready for a fight. Floyd was grinning, dressed in a suit and tie; the surfer look slightly faded.

  “You scared the shit out of me.”

  He wasn’t phased. “You clean up well.” I looked down at myself, almost forgetting that I, too, sported a suit, a requirement for the pseudo lawyer exercise we were about to partake in.

  The class had been broken up into smaller groups for this part of the semester and would be meeting in rooms that were set up to look like courtrooms. Floyd was my partner for the duration. I thought I could help him, since he was so run down all the time.

  “Are you ready?” I asked, not knowing just how stressed out he was.

  “I don’t know if I can do this. I’m not sure I’ve got it right. What if I screw it up?”

  I liked Floyd, but there were definitely times when I wondered why he’d chosen this particular career path. He did not act like a forty-eight year-old man but rather like an insecure teenager most days. I had long since given up reassuring him. “Well, I’m pretty sure that if you do screw it up, they’ll kick you out of school.”

  He froze and just stared. “You really think so?”

  I shook my head. “It’s only about five percent of your grade. You just have to try, okay?
”

  Floyd trailed behind me, talking nonstop the whole time. When we got inside the small room, I put my things down next to Ali’s, as had become my habit. Floyd, now pretty much stuck to me, chose the seat on my other side. Ali realized what was happening and tried not to smile at Floyd’s panicked state.

  The professor came in and took his seat. Everyone was checking and rechecking his or her notes, hoping not to be called upon, hoping the class would run out of time. It wouldn’t matter, as we’d just pick up the next week.

  The first order of business for the professor was not, shall we say, motivating. He held up some sample forms that we couldn’t clearly see. “Now that you all have, as we will see in a few minutes, completed your motions, I wanted to let you know that when you become practicing attorneys, your firm will have a form for the things that you just created. Most of these are pretty much stock, so you will just change names and dates.”

  Seriously? Why would they have us go to so much trouble when we could just fill out a form? Actually, the paralegals probably filled the forms out for us. Oh well.

  First up were Ali and Carina. They were a strange combination, but it worked well for them. Carina was dressed in the required suit, but it was bright red. I could still see some traces of the paint color of the day on her hands. They did a great job presenting their motion and easily survived the follow-up questioning from the class. Next up was Floyd and I, and his hands were sweating. I whispered, “Relax, or you’ll get the papers all soggy.” He smiled for a second as we walked to the podium. Floyd was supposed to start, but he couldn’t quite get there, so I began. When it was again his turn to speak, he started to stutter, losing his place. I subtly pointed out where he was, and he managed to struggle through. There were some questions, but not so many for him. People could sense that it wasn’t in his best interest, and even the professor threw Floyd some soft questions.

  Kristie and Dan were the last ones to go. They did a nice job, pretty textbook approach, kind of cold, but it was tight and detailed. Their questions were tough, but they were both up for it, easily defending their positions.

  By the end of the night I was exhausted, ready to sleep for more than four hours for once.

  Chapter 44

  I woke rested, for the first time in a long time, ready for my run, clear for a short time of all the obligations and deadlines that were tugging at my brain. I ran for about forty-five minutes, skipping my stop at Starbucks, as I was enjoying the silence and nonhuman interaction at the moment. I instead showered and started cooking a large breakfast, hooking up my laptop to check on the video feeds.

  I fast forwarded the footage of Tommy’s apartment, since there was no way I could watch it all. I intended to come back to the other feeds later, but I soon changed my mind. Tommy packed himself a bag containing cameras, binoculars, and other such assorted goodies that caught my attention.

  I flipped through the video from the front of my house, from the same time stamp, and sucked in my breath. That bastard! He was watching my place, saw Charlie removing stuff, and stayed outside for a long time after Ali and I returned. I couldn’t believe that neither of us saw him. It was freaky to see that the guy was out there, spying on us. Somehow it was a different matter that I was spying on him. I now needed to know if he knew what I was up to. I did not expect to have the tables turned on me, especially so quickly. I knew never to underestimate anyone, and Tommy did have a thing for Ali, which is what prompted him to scope us out, make both of us his prey now.

  I watched the video of Tommy returning home, to get a sense of what he was up to. He definitely had something on his camera that interested him but I couldn’t see what it was remotely. Another trip to Tommy’s apartment was in order. I hadn’t really been planning on leaving the house again that day, so I stopped and got my chai tea at Starbucks and sat at an outside table, relaxing for a few minutes.

  Back inside the now-familiar apartment, I didn’t waste time trying to figure out what he was looking at on his camera; instead I just downloaded everything onto a drive. Information in my pocket, I looked around for a few minutes, and something caught my eye outside the window. A flash of brown. What was going on here? Tommy was coming in the front doorway, heading into the hallway. Good thing he lived on the first floor. I headed out through the bedroom window, right into the bushes. Definitely not the way I thought I’d be spending my day. If Tommy really did know I was there, I couldn’t risk him checking out the exterior of the building, so I kept as close as I could until I was clear of his windows, headed toward the back of the building, and ran the two blocks to my car, heading home to lick my wounds and find out what he knew about me.

  Chapter 45

  I fumed all the way back to the apartment while watching my rearview mirror and side mirrors. As soon as I got to my building, I crawled under the car, checking every inch of it but finding nothing.

  Inside, I realized I was covered in dirt and was bleeding from the bushes and the gravel. Instead of taking the time to clean up a little, I sipped my lukewarm tea and dialed the phone.

  “Yeah, what do you need,” was the response from the other end.

  “I need you, of course.” I answered. “And I need some of your nifty gadgets, to see whether this jackass has tagged me somehow. He keeps showing up where he shouldn’t be.”

  Charlie grumbled a little, but not too much. “I’ll be over. Sit tight.”

  About thirty minutes later, he came in, quietly, and swept my apartment, after which we could safely speak again. “Nothing here.”

  We sat and debated how Tommy was keeping tabs on Ali and me, kind of stream of consciousness, idea tossing.

  Charlie finally hit on it. “Maybe he has something in his apartment that alerts him when someone comes in.”

  I hadn’t thought of that, and it was totally plausible, but it obviously didn’t have a camera attached, if it was so. “Charlie, have I told you what a genius you are?”

  His face remained impassive. “Not lately. I think it is way overdue.” He went back to thinking again, as did I. “Maybe he was just watching you, and that’s how he found out, or maybe some of his nutso buddies are helping him.”

  I thought about the possibilities, knowing that the more unstable someone was, the more difficult it was to figure him out, because his actions were so erratic. “Maybe he just got lucky and had no clue that I was even there, but that doesn’t change the fact that he was at my apartment and is following us around. Time for little Tommy to have some more problems.”

  Charlie smiled. “I don’t care for the guy, so count me in.”

  “No time like the present.” I said over my shoulder as I checked my stash, finding what I was looking for.

  Charlie looked pleased, not only with the revenge idea but with the idea that he didn’t have to do anything that required heavy gloves and a tetanus shot. “I’m checking his location. It looks like the truck is moving, but the camera is still in the house.”

  I nodded, looking up from my work, preparing a nice little surprise for Tommy. “Off we go.” I paused. “You do want to go, right?”

  Charlie seemed eager, and the invitation wasn’t necessary. He was tracking Tommy on his phone, not making the stupid mistake I had made in assuming that he was where we thought he’d be. “I’ll drive.”

  I headed in the front door of the apartment, now probably getting to be a little too familiar to the neighbors, but I hoped the visits would soon end. Seeing nobody, I slipped inside and looked on the counter. I saw the coffeepot still had grounds in it, which meant he probably regularly brewed himself a cup in the morning. I opened the fridge and sighed a bit of relief when I saw a container of liquid flavored creamer. It was the only one, so this made my life easier. I took out a small packet of now-crushed drug combination, dropped it into the creamer, and shook it up. Even a trace should do it.

  Charlie had circled around and was waiting about a block away. “Now I’m going to need some help from one of your buddies.
Think any of them will want to play with us?”

  He didn’t hesitate in his response. “Definitely. What do you have in mind?”

  Chapter 46

  At one of the few pay phones left in the city, I called a tip in about Tommy abusing prescription pills, knowing that UPS would not let him know the reason for the random drug test. I told them that I saw one of their drivers popping pills while he was on the route, and then I recited the license plate number of the truck he was occupying that day. While the drug test would take place immediately, the results wouldn’t be in for a little while.

  Meanwhile, one of Charlie’s friends was ready, and he and Charlie had been keeping Tommy in sight all morning. We didn’t want to wait too long, in case Tommy decided to stop driving because he couldn’t see the road anymore. Apparently Tommy was holding his own against the drugs, which was pretty impressive. He’d have to do a whole lot more than that, however, to actually consider this a good day when all was said and done. We, collectively, were about to throw a wrench in Tommy’s day. The plan was simple: One of Charlie’s guys would video it on his phone, which, of course, would be viral before the cops even showed up.

  Another two guys were going to cause UPS to have a higher insurance premium. They, at different times, cut Tommy off. The first one left just enough room for him to swerve; but the second, while he was already off balance, caused Tommy to drive into a pole to avoid hitting his car. It was all smooth and well orchestrated. The video guy would call in the accident, not mentioning the video, and would swear that Tommy just randomly drove out of his lane and into the pole. There would be no other cars involved except for the ones who said he was at fault.