◊◊◊
The two women left in a hurry. I had to keep my mom from throwing their equipment after them. The joy of getting one up on me showed on their faces as they packed. They finally finished loading their gear into their car and left.
I turned to Mom, who had tears of rage and frustration on her face.
“That was ridiculous!” she exploded.
“Mom, don’t worry, I had them figured out before the interview even started,” I told her, and then turned to Dad. “Do you remember when that women’s activist came onto the property and tried to grab my running buddy Rachel? It was back when the whole uproar with Pam had just gotten started, and Rachel came over to go running with me.”
He nodded, and I continued.
“She appeared on Hollywood Central and showed an edited clip of me ‘assaulting’ her with the Bo staff, but not showing her jerking Rachel around. When Duke growled at the videographer when they first showed up tonight, something clicked, and I recognized her. She was the same activist who’d tried to yank Rachel away and then tried to smear me in the press.”
Just then, Fritz came around the corner of the house, accompanied by another man. I recognized Detective Kitchens.
“I asked Detective Kitchens if he’d moonlight a bit with me to see what we could see. We witnessed everything. I also have an added bonus.”
Fritz and Detective Kitchens walked to an electrical box by the curb near where the women’s car had been. He pointed, and Detective Kitchens bent down to retrieve something. The detective put it into an evidence bag. It was a small video ‘spy-cam.’ They did the same at the box across the street. Fritz pointed, and Detective Kitchens bent down and picked up three tiny devices from the pavement. They were near the trunk, the driver’s door, and the passenger door of the car where it had been parked. Each of the items was put into its own bag.
They came back with the devices in Detective Kitchens’ possession.
“I put these where they’d pick up sound but weren’t likely to be stepped on or run over. Still, we got lucky,” Fritz explained.
We went into the house, followed by my questioning parents. Once in the kitchen, I pulled my shirt up to reveal my bodycam and picked up the pen I’d placed on the table.
“David, let me take those so I can establish the chain of custody,” Detective Kitchens said.
I explained what all I had to him.
“This is a bodycam I was wearing during a video interview conducted over the past hour by the two women you just saw leaving. We also have a photocopy of their driver’s licenses. This pen is actually a microphone. It was used to preserve an audio record of the interview in its entirety. If you’ll go with Fritz, he’ll retrieve the videos, front and back, from these two clock cameras,” I said, pointing to the two large clocks on opposite walls. “We had them installed for security.”
Detective Kitchens gave me a thin smile.
“I appreciate your helping me catch a rapist, but after this, we’re even. I’m going to open a file on a potential fraud case with this information. While I have to keep them for now, I’ll note the recordings are your property, to be returned to you when appropriate. I’ll also do as Fritz asked earlier and oversee his making copies before the originals are bagged for evidence. After that, I’ll just wait for further developments.”
He and Fritz left with their loot, and I stepped over to hug Mom and Dad. Mom was still shaking.
“Mom, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you what was going on earlier, but I had to have you acting naturally. If I’d told you beforehand what I thought they were up to, those women might not have lived two minutes after coming into the house. Once I knew what was going on, I called Fritz, and he told me what to do. If I hadn’t, they would’ve just found some other way to ambush me.”
“David, don’t ever do anything like that ever again.”
I felt horrible.
I retreated to my apartment to get some much-needed Duke-loving. Then I remembered I had one more thing to do and placed a call to Frank.
“Frank,” I said without preamble, “get with Fritz to get all the footage we took, and the driver’s license copies I made. Then have your people get started on what preliminary magic they can. After that, call Ms. Dixon and Mr. Morris and let them know what’s going on. Ms. Dixon may want to chew me out for not canceling the interview in the first place, and for not calling her right away, and she may be right. But right now, I’m tired, and I’m not in shape to deal with her.
“One of the two women at the interview, the videographer, was the woman who gave Hollywood Central that edited clip. You remember, the one where she came onto our property last year and tried to yank my friend Rachel away from me. From what I saw, I would bet they plan to selectively edit the footage they took today to make me look as bad as possible. I won’t be at all surprised if they edit the video so my ‘yesses’ turn into ‘nos.’”
Frank agreed and had some news for me as well.
“I did some more extensive background checks on the reporter who claimed to be from Elle as soon as Fritz called me. It turns out she’s a freelance video-journalist who’d had Elle publish exactly one of her works in the past decade. She makes her living doing documentaries for the more militant feminist magazines and organizations.”
“We’re going to be changing our process here,” Frank continued. “Unless an interviewer is personally known to me, we’re not going to allow any sit-down interviews until a full background check has been done.”
I agreed. After I hung up with Frank, I took another shower, and I scrubbed hard. I felt unclean.
I stayed up thinking a bit longer than usual before sleep overtook me. There are people in the world who have evil intent. There are people in the world who relish dragging other people down. These were lessons I had to remember. They were lessons I also didn’t want to remember.
◊◊◊ Monday May 2
Mom was subdued when I entered the kitchen. I just walked up to her and held her. I didn’t say anything; nothing seemed right. She finally pulled back, still in my arms, and looked up at me.
“David, you can’t know how proud of you I am. You account for far more of my gray hairs than you should, and there are times you act like the goofy kid I still want you to be. But you’re growing up.
“Your dad and I talked a lot last night, and I understand why you handled those women the way you did. I hope it turns out okay. I even understand why you didn’t tell me in advance. Just please try not to put me in that position again, okay?”
All I could do was nod. My voice seemed to have gone somewhere else. I pulled Mom gently back into a hug.
“What I hate most is that you have to do something like that. When did it become okay for them to try to set you up like that?” Mom asked.
I shook my head. I only wished I knew.
In the back of my mind, I wondered why I even allowed the interview to go forward when I knew the one gal wasn’t on the up-and-up. In the future, I wouldn’t do that again.
◊◊◊
Last evening’s events left me moody most of the morning. It bothered me that people could be so deliberately uncaring of other people’s lives and that they had no problem at all sacrificing others to their agendas.
Dad told me Ms. Dixon had called him last night, and they’d talked about what happened. She was going to get my brain trust of her, Frank, Fritz, and Mr. Morris together and review the footage we had, and someone would talk to me tonight. Ms. Dixon told him she’d have advised me to cancel the interview then and there. But she also understood it had come up fast, and she appreciated my thinking on the fly. Ms. Dixon complimented me on the way I’d set it up so we’d have an accurate record of what had transpired.