Terry
As the days went by, I came up with all kinds of ways to get
revenge on Aaliyah. The problem was, I
didn't know how much damage and pain any of the plans would cause. What I really want to do was decimate her to
the point she feels like her life is ground zero. It finally hit me one day that the best way
to do that was to learn about her life.
I needed to know every move she made, see who she was close to. I needed to understand her daily routine and
know it like the back of my hand. The
best way to catch her would be to get her when her guard was down. Doing this was going to take some time which
was something I have very little of. I
am working overtime at the hotel by working double shifts to cover for
coworkers who are out on vacation or who are out sick. I need the money and since I haven't had a
decent night's sleep since Geoffrey was killed, I figured that I might as well
do something productive. My mind races
constantly and shots of vodka at night is the only thing that makes it somewhat
sit still.
One late night, I was watching a movie when the thought
occurred to me that one way for me to learn more about Aaliyah and her
vulnerabilities was to search her house.
I still had the password to Geoffrey's email and wondered if the email
with Aaliyah's address was still there from when they first met. I grabbed my cell phone off of the night
table stand and tried to log into the email account, but it said that it no
longer existed. I shouldn't have been
surprised. It was associated with the fake
profile that we had online. It probably
was shut down during the investigation of Geoffrey's death. Of course that was not going to stop me. I began to search the internet trying to see what I
could find out about Aaliyah. It turned out
that she was some big time party planner in Atlanta and there was an article
that popped up in my search where she was interviewed for some upcoming event at
the Biltmore which was in two days. It
was then the light bulb in my mind turned on.
The party was the same night that I actually was off from work. This was fate.
I spent the rest of the night scouring the internet trying
to find her home address. It took a
little digging, but I finally found it. I
located her Facebook page and saw a picture of her standing in front of a
house. I searched the address and looked
at the street view and sure enough, it was the same house as in the photo
confirming that I had the correct address.
I went back to her Facebook page
and looked at her photos and posts. She
didn't seem to post much about her personal life. It was mainly event information and photos
from events.
Thankfully, there was no doubt that she was not going to be home
on Saturday and it was the perfect time to search her house and learn more
about the woman who caused my husband's death.
The best part was, no pressure on time because I had a window of at
least four hours to get what I needed. I looked at the clock and it was almost six in the
morning. As I lay in the bed, I tried to
fall asleep but anxiety took over. I
picked up my cell phone and tried to get an idea on things I would need to make
sure that I left no trace of myself in Aaliyah's house when I was done. Since this was the first time that I would ever do anything like this, I was clueless on where to start. I then sat up on the bed and looked around my
tiny box of a room and my eyes landed on a legal pad. I got up and grabbed the pad and a pen and
decided to make a list. I knew for one
that I needed a pair of gloves so that I wouldn't leave any fingerprints. I decided that I didn't want to leave foot
prints either so I needed some disposable shoe covers. A hat to cover my hair and I needed a pair of
shades large enough to cover my face.
I then looked on-line to purchase a locksmith tool set. Geoffrey had taught me how to pick locks when
we first started scamming. We had a
locksmith tool kit but I left it the garage of the house we were renting. I found the same tool kit online and placed
the order. I hated the fact that I had to pay to have it
shipped overnight, but my window of preparation time was small. I considered using the bump key method to
break into the house, but if not done right on the first try, it can be quite noisy. I then thought about the security system. I remember Geoffrey had made mention
that Aaliyah was using the manufacturer set code on her alarm. With all that has happened, I am pretty sure
that she has changed it by now. One of
the tricks Geoffrey taught me on how to figure out an alarm code was to use a
black light so I added that to the list of things that I needed.
I decided that it was useless to try and get some sleep
before it was time to leave for work. So
I got up out of the bed and pulled on a sweat suit and a baseball cap to cover
my unkempt hair and headed out to Home Depot where I could get the majority of
the items on my list. While I was shopping
I saw a few more items that I thought I would need and picked them up just in
case. I checked my cart to make sure that I had everything
on my list and headed to the checkout lane.
As I was standing in line, I glanced at the entrance of the store
and thought I saw Aaliyah's friend enter.
I quickly pulled down my baseball cap and threw my hoodie over my head
as I looked in the opposite direction. I
slowly turned my head to see if he was still at the entrance, but he was
gone. Although I was not sure if it was
him, I damn sure didn't want to stick around to find out. Thankfully, there wasn't a long wait and I was able to quickly purchase my items and practically run out of the store.
Once I was back at home, I decided to read upon as much
about Aaliyah as I could. From what I
could tell, her work was her life. No
information about friends or family or past relationships. I finally realized that my best bet was
seeing what I could find in her house. I
paced back and forth for a few minutes trying to think the plan all the way
through. I decided that it would be best
for me to sit outside of Aaliyah's house and wait for her to leave for the
event. I figured that she would be a
leaving a few hours before the actual start time since she was in charge
and all. I felt more comfortable with the idea of seeing her leave and
knowing that she was gone for sure. But
then what?
From what I could remember about the things Geoffrey had
taught me, picking the lock was the easiest part. As for disabling the alarm, I had sixty
seconds before it would go off. The
black light would show me the buttons with the fingerprints but I still had to
figure out the code within that small window of time. Most codes were four digits, but some of the
houses that I used to clean had 5 digit codes.
That meant that instead of twenty-four possible combinations, I could be
looking at 144 code combinations. I then
realized that this could be a major problem.
I went online and researched how to disable an alarm and learned that if
I can get to the alarm control box and disable the power and the phone line
from it, I could avoid any issues. It
all depends on whether or not the communications box is inside or outside of
the house. This meant that I needed to
case the house ahead of time.
I still had several hours before I had to go to work so I
went back outside, put Aaliyah's address in my phone GPS and saw that it was a forty-five
minute drive. She lived south so I would
be driving against the traffic this time of day. I knew that I was taking a big risk not
knowing whether or not she was home, but I needed to make sure that my plan was
well thought out. The forty-five minutes
seemed like an eternity but I finally had reached the entrance of Aaliyah's subdivision.
Her house was towards the back of the
complex in a cul-de-sac which had its pros and cons. Pros meaning very little street traffic,
cons, the neighbors may notice me. I drove into the cul-de-sac and there wasn't
any activity, but I decided that it would be best to park my car down the street
and walk back toward the house.
While walking, I noticed that there were a lot of trees and I saw a dirt path and decided to see where led. As luck would have it, the path lead to the back of
the three houses. Aaliyah's house was
the first one on the left which meant that if I needed to ease out without
anyone seeing me, it would be easier to do so from the back of the house. I walked up to the side of the house where
the garage was located and looked inside of the window. The blinds were closed but I could still see through
the tiny holes where the draw strings were looped through. There wasn't any sign of a car. I didn't realize that I was holding my breath
until I let out a sigh of relief. I
still needed to act quickly because it was light outside and I didn't know if
any of the neighbors were home. I
surveyed the perimeter of the house and came across a control box. I used my car keys to unscrew the nails and
made a mental note that I needed a Phillips screwdriver for next time because it took longer than necessary to get the nails out. I pried the cover open and just like that, I
had found the communications box.
Unfortunately, that meant that I could only disconnect the alarm from notifying
the monitoring service. The other box
that disabled the actual alarm was inside of the house. The box could only either be in the garage or
inside of a closet in the house. Most
houses that I have cleaned had their alarm box in the closet downstairs and
based off of the build of Aaliyah's house which is similar to that of a former
client of mine, I was ninety-nine percent sure that is where I would find it.
I proceeded to survey the rest of the outside of the
house. There was a patio on the first
level and a deck out back on the second level but no furniture. I noted that the back door to the patio was
the best lock to pick as the line of vision to the house next door was limited. I saw that the shades to the patio door were
open so I looked inside of the house and from what I could tell, it was well
decorated. I had to admit, Aaliyah had
good taste. I had somewhat of an idea of the house floor plan so navigating it would not be difficult.
I decided that I had seen enough and walked back to the car
then drove back home. I finally began to
feel somewhat tired and was able to sleep for a few hours. When I woke up, it was almost time
for me to get ready for work. I called
my mama and checked in on my son. They
both seemed to be doing well. Of course
my son asked when he could come back home and I had to choke back on my tears
when I told him soon knowing that was most likely not the truth. Now was just not a good time for my son to be
around. Between work and this whole
Aaliyah thing, I knew that I would not be able to give him the attention that
any child his age needs. As soon as I
got off of the phone, I jumped in the shower and got dressed for work. Working the third shift was the worst due to
the hours but the best because there weren't that many rooms to clean. I was also working first shift the following
day that way I didn't have to work at all on Saturday which I had originally
planned to rest, but it now was the day I would be implementing phase one of my plan. As I locked my room door, I remembered that
my lock picking kit would be arriving the next day. I needed to practice a few times as it had
been a while since I had done it. I
couldn't wait for the next day to come so I could get home and finish preparing
for Saturday.
The next day, after a very long time at work, I finally made
it home. I was exhausted as I walked to
the front entrance of the building. I
saw a box and as expected, it was for me.
After I took my shower and put on some clean clothes, I opened up the
box and removed the lock picking kit. I
grabbed my keys and the kit and locked my room door and went to work. While I was working at the lock, I heard the
front door open but I didn't bother to turn around. As the person was approaching me, I heard,
"Hey girl! Locked outta your
room?" It was Portia, some stripper
girl from across the hall. I kept a very
low profile and have been fortunate that no one in the building recognized me
from the news. As soon as she said
hello, I unlocked the door. I got up and
said, "Not anymore!" I collected
the kit, hurried inside and slammed the door shut.
It took me a little longer than I had planned, but I got the door
unlocked. Now that I knew that I could
still pick the lock, I just needed to get everything else together. I looked in my closet to put together an all
black outfit. I laid out a pair of black
jeans, a black t-shirt and my black tennis shoes. I pulled out the biggest pair of shades that
I had and dug out my black baseball cap.
Everything else that I needed was already in the trunk of the car so I
pretty much just needed for the next day to come. I pulled out my bottle of vodka and poured
two shots as I felt anxiety building up in my chest again. I finished both shots and laid down on the
bed. As I drifted off to sleep, a smile
crept up on my face as I mumbled, "Aaliyah,
I am coming for you. I am going to take
everything of importance away from you like you did to me. Your time is up." For the first time in a long time, I fell
into a deep slumber and my mind was as still as a hot summer night in
Georgia. If I had known that revenge was
finally going to give me some peace, I would have brought that bitch down a
long time ago. In less than 24 hours, Aaliyah's
world was going to start a slow descent into hell.
©All original content copyright Kim M. Washington, 2015
