The Man at the Door (3/4)
Title: The Man at the Door (3/4)
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Creep factor, insinuation
Disclaimer: I don’t own Community, yo
Summary: A seemingly harmless bit of mischief turns into real danger when Annie is targeted by a local creep.
Part 1
Part 2
Annie pulled her knees up to her chest as she sat in a ball on Troy’s chair, the TV providing a minor distraction from her friend silently fuming next to her in Abed’s chair. Jeff hadn’t said much to her after she decided to stick around, aside from the occasional reassurance that what she was doing was absolutely moronic. True to his nature, though, he hadn’t made any moves to leave, and she didn’t question him. Despite the discomfort, she’d rather have him here and angry with her than be alone waiting for something that might never happen.
Just as Annie was becoming confident that the awkward silence would be a permanent fixture for the evening, her stomach growled ferociously, cutting into the silence like a knife.
“Crap,” she mumbled to herself. Jeff’s brow furrowed. “I was supposed to buy groceries today. I don’t have anything to make for dinner.”
“Then you should get groceries,” he said sharply. Annie rolled her eyes. His irritated act was getting a little old.
“I’m not going to drag you out to get groceries with me.”
“Then go by yourself.”
“What?” she exclaimed. “I’m not leaving you alone here.” He turned to her with a raised eyebrow.
“Oh, so it’s okay for you, a 22 year old women to sit alone in an apartment waiting for some creep to come back and do God knows what, but for me, a 35 year old man, it’s too dangerous? Sounds like you’ve really though this through.” Annie sighed deeply.
“Look, I know you’re not happy about this, but this is what I have to do, Jeff. This has nothing to do with him. It has to do with me. If I let myself be scared tonight, then what’s stopping me from being scared tomorrow night, or the next?”
“Troy and Abed. Roommates. Back-up,” Jeff listed.
“It’s not about who I’m with, it’s about how I feel. Can you please just try to understand that?”
“I don’t understand it,” he said, frustration evident in his voice. Annie sighed.
“I can see that. Just pretend for me, okay?” He glared at her for a long moment.
“I’m not leaving you alone here.”
“Come on, Jeff. What are the odds of that guy coming back in the 20 minutes it takes you to pick up dinner?”
“The odds of getting struck by lightning are nearly infinitesimal, but that still happens.” Annie groaned out loud and dropped her head back against the chair before returning her gaze to him.
“Okay, fine. We’ll both go and get pizza, and when we get back, you’ll see that there was nothing to worry about. Deal?”
*^*^*
The trip to the pizza place had done wonders for Jeff’s mood, and Annie was beginning to wonder if it was just cabin fever that was getting to him, as opposed to the more logical reason, the fear of Annie being raped and murdered in her apartment.
Whatever the case, both of them were feeling noticeably lighter as they drove back to the Trobed/Annie apartment carting two large pizzas that would absolutely not get finished by them that night. Annie figured Troy and Abed wouldn’t mind coming to home to a fridge full of cold pizza, nor would she be opposed to munching on it for a few days until she could drag herself out to buy groceries.
Their mood, however, did not remain intact as they pulled into the parking lot of the apartment and became aware of several police cars pulled up to the front, lights flashing. They spotted Officer Cackowski leaning against one of the cars and abandoned the pizza in the car in favour of checking in with him.
“Miss Edison, Mr. Winger,” he greeted as they approached him.
“What’s going on?” Annie questioned, a sick feeling rising in her stomach.
“We had another break in on your floor,” Officer Cackowski explained. He shifted from foot to foot for a moment, clearly disturbed by something.
“What is it?” Jeff asked. “What aren’t you telling us?” Officer Cackowski looked down at his shoes awkwardly before meeting Annie’s gaze.
“He left a note.”
“He always leaves a note,” she said.
“Yeah, but this note mentioned you.” She gasped.
“What did it say?” Jeff asked, tension clear in his voice.
“He says he’s going to continue the break-ins and threats until he gets you alone,” the officer said with a bit of a growl in his voice. Annie’s face paled at the new information.
“What?!” Jeff demanded. “What happened to never following up with his victims? Now suddenly he’s some crazy stalker?”
“Look, we don’t know much about this guy aside from the escalation in his activities. If this is the next step, who knows where it’s going to lead next”
“I’ll tell you where it’s going to lead next. It’s going to lead to Annie in a fucking body bag unless you start doing your goddamn job!” Jeff exclaimed.
“Calm down, Mr. Winger.”
“Calm down? Are you serious? I’m a lawyer, Officer, I know how sickos like this guy work. Don’t try to tell me I’m overreacting here.”
“I don’t think you’re overreacting,” he interjected. “But being a lawyer, you should know that investigations like this take time unless we’re able to catch the guy red handed.” He peeked over at a silent, pale Annie as he said this, which only served to infuriate Jeff more.
“Oh, I see. So your solution here is to use Annie as bait?” The venom in Jeff’s tone could not have been missed.
“Of course not,” Officer Cackowski inserted, his tone as calm as could be, much to Jeff’s irritation. “We would never put a civilian at risk like that.” Jeff seemed to calm slightly at this, although his hackles were very clearly still up.
“So what is the plan, then? Explain it to me,” he said, attempting (and mostly failing) to be calmer.
“Put a decoy in the apartment tonight, see if we can lure him in. Given the timing and accuracy of his attacks, it seems apparent that he’s watching the place. We should take advantage of that.” Jeff seemed to mull this over for a long moment before responding.
“Do you have a convincing decoy?”
“Convincing enough, sure. But if this guy is watching, we need to be careful not to tip him off. It’s going to have to be a bit of a bait and switch operation. Let him see Annie enter the apartment alone, close the drapes and then switch her out for the decoy.” Jeff nodded along as Officer Cackowski relayed the plan.
“Sounds solid enough,” he allowed. He turned to Annie for the first time since receiving the news, finding her looking both angry and scared. “What do you think?” he questioned.
“I think it sucks,” she said, her voice sharper than either man expected.
“What do you mean?” Officer Cackowski asked.
“I mean I’m done letting this guy push me around,” she said firmly. “I’m not letting some decoy me wait around in my apartment for this guy to come in after her.”
“Annie...” Jeff attempted.
“No, Jeff. I’m not discussing this with you anymore. I know how you feel about it, and I don’t want to hear it. This guy is trying to scare me away and I’m not going to let him succeed. If we’re going to try and catch him tonight, then I’m going to be a part of it.”
“No,” Officer Cackowski said firmly. “It’s way too dangerous for a civilian to get involved in a sting operation like this.”
“Sting operation?” Annie questioned with a tone of disbelief. “You’re the Greendale PD. The most dangerous operation you’ve ever undertaken was trying to get Spaghetti to stop peeing on the sidewalk.”
“Hey, that guy had a knife,” Officer Cackowski defended.
“It was a Swiss Army Knife. He used it for opening cans and clipping his toenails,” Annie argued.
“This is all beside the point,” Jeff cut them off, irritated. “Annie, I know you want to be a part of this for some kind of female power-slash-pride thing, but this is ridiculous. It’s dangerous.”
“You think I don’t know it’s dangerous?” Annie turned on him. “I know it’s dangerous, Jeff. I know that he wants to hurt me, but I don’t care. I’m done letting him dictate my life. I’m going to wait for him. I’m going to be the trap, and that way when he’s being handcuffed and carted away, he’ll know who he can thank for it.”
“And he’ll know exactly who you are and where you live for when he gets out,” Jeff argued.
“He already knows those things!” Annie exclaimed. “How does this put me in any more danger than I’m already in?”
“Because it puts you on the front lines of a battle you have no business being a part of,” Jeff attempted.
“No business being a part of? Jeff, this is my battle. It started when he knocked on my door last night, and it’s going to end tonight, one way or another.”
“Even if it means you end up hurt, or worse?” he asked.
“Even then,” she said with finality. She turned to Officer Cackowski. “What’s the plan? What were you going to do to back up the decoy?” The man looked between her and a fuming Jeff for a moment before responding.
“The apartment down the hall that was broken into is empty tonight; they’re going to let us hunker down inside. We’ll set up a webcam link between the apartments so we know what’s going on, and when the man arrives and enters, we’ll move in.”
“You have to wait until he’s inside?” Jeff asked.
“Technically standing in the hallway doesn’t amount to much more than being a nuisance. We can ask him to leave, but unless we catch him breaking and entering, we don’t have enough to hold him,” Officer Cackowski explained.
“And so Annie’s just supposed to sit in her apartment and wait for this man to force his way in and attack her,” Jeff deadpanned.
“We’ll be there long before he can do anything,” Officer Cackowski assured them both.
“Sure, unless he walks in and shoots her in the head. What then?” Jeff directed the question more to Annie than to Officer Cackowski.
“Then at least you’ll have a cool story for my eulogy,” Annie said with a hint of a smile for Jeff’s benefit. He glared at her, clearly unimpressed.
“You’re committed to doing this. No matter how idiotic it is?” he sought clarification. Annie nodded determinedly.
“This ends tonight, Jeff. One way or another.” He frowned and closed the distance, pulling her into him tightly. He lowered his lips to her ear and whispered just loud enough for her to hear.
“If this guy lays one hand on you, he’s not going to make it to prison.” Annie closed her eyes tightly and rested her head against his chest.
“I believe you.”
*^*^*
AN - I know, I’m the worst. This took ages and ages to update and it’s still not done. I hope you’re still enjoying it though!
I have to give credit for this course of events to the awesome claymay83, who suggested basically everything that happened in this chapter. Without that advice this probably would still be in limbo. Direct your thank you cards to him!