Author's Note: Let me know what you think. I'm kinda cranking these out fast now. :D.
Chapter 7: Switched
Peter pulled the car next to a curb a few doors down from Vidic's electronics shop. Their car was rather flashy, so he had to park far enough away that anyone exiting the shop wouldn't really pay any attention to them. Peter was extremely nervous and really wished that Mike was here with them, but he also knew that he could do this. He took a deep breath and turned off the car, but left the key in the ignition so he would be able to start it again quickly if he needed to.
"I'm gonna go inside and see who's working," Davy said as he got out of the car.
"Good idea," Peter said. "Be careful." Davy just smiled and started walking over to the shop. Peter watched as he disappeared inside it. He held his breath for a few moments until Davy walked back out casually. Once he got halfway to the car he picked up the pace before jumping back in.
"There's a guy in there in a white lab coat talking to a customer," Davy said.
"That's Mr. Vidic," Peter answered. "So now we just wait." As they waited they saw several people come in and out of the store. Late in the afternoon, they finally saw Mr. Vidic exit the shop. Peter turned on the engine and they watched Mr. Vidic cross to the same parking lot they had found the key in. They watched as he pulled out onto the street and started to head west. They followed at least 4 car lengths behind for a full 15 minutes before Mr. Vidic pulled into a neighborhood. He pulled into a garage not too far in, so Peter chose to drive past the house and park further up the street so they wouldn't be seen.
Carefully they made their way up the street to the house that Mr. Vidic had pulled into. They crept behind some bushes under a window to hide. They carefully peered into the window, but had to duck back down very quickly as Mr. Vidic was in the room. Peter was worried that they had been seen for a minute, but quickly realized they hadn't. The window was open a crack so they could hear what was happening in the house. He was pacing the room and talking on the phone with someone.
"Yes, sir," he was saying. "I understand. I didn't see anyone following me, but I'll stay home just in case." Peter heard him hang up the phone and heard his footsteps fade away as he left the room. Davy slowly peered through the window again.
"He's gone," Davy said.
"Yeah, but he knows we're following him," Peter agreed. "So what do we do now? We can't search his house. He's not going to leave it."
"Well, we need to get some information somehow!" Davy exclaimed.
"Ssh!" Peter reminded him hoping Davy hadn't just been heard. "How are we going to do that, Davy? We can't very well snoop around while he's still there!"
"I have an idea," Davy whispered. "Maybe if I distract him, you can get in there and snoop around! I'll bet you can lift this window the rest of the way up and climb in."
"How are you going to distract him?"
"Leave that to me. Just lift the window when I ring the doorbell. That way he won't hear it. I'll count to three, ok?"
"Davy, be very careful please."
"I will. You too, ok? I'm gonna get some supplies from the car. Be right back." Peter nodded and positioned himself under the window so he could lift it easily. He slipped his fingers in the crack and waited. Davy ran over to the car, pulled a suit and fake mustache out of the trunk and slipped them on. Then he placed a hat on his head, grabbed several magazines from the back seat and ran back over to the house and walked to the front door. He cleared his throat and held up his hand. He quietly counted to three on his fingers and just as he rang the doorbell, Peter lifted the window.
Sure enough, the sound of the doorbell covered the sound of the window opening and Mr. Vidic answered the door without any suspicion. Davy launched into a salesman routine trying to get him to buy some of the magazines he had while Peter climbed into the window. He made sure to keep an ear on the conversation outside so he would know when Mr. Vidic was coming back so he could climb back out the window.
"Hello, good sir!" Davy was saying. "Might I interest you in a few magazines? There are some wonderful articles here you might be interested in. This one has an article on a new washing machine!" Peter laughed a little as Davy tried his very best to keep Mr. Vidic distracted. He was even nearly shouting his words and adopting a much thicker accent making it hard to understand him. This tactic seemed to work because Mr. Vidic kept asking Davy to repeat himself.
Peter stood in what appeared to be a dining room. There was a large table in the center of the room and he could see the kitchen through an open door. His first thought was that maybe there'd be an address book by the phone. So Peter quickly crossed over to where he saw the phone sitting on a small end table in the corner of the room. There was no address book, but there was a piece of paper sitting next to it. There were letters and a phone number scribbled on the paper. Peter quickly pulled a pencil and scrap of paper out of his pocket to copy it down. The letters read "B.M.". This meant nothing to Peter other than maybe they were the initials for whoever "M" was. Maybe if they called the number back at the pad, they would be able to recognize the voice on the other end.
"Oh, but sir, these magazines are high quality!" Davy was saying. Mr. Vidic was getting frustrated and trying to leave, so Davy was trying his best to keep him out longer. "They are printed on the finest paper! Recycled even! Don't you care about the environment?"
"I cannot understand you, boy!" Mr. Vidic countered. "You are going to have to speak quieter and enunciate more or else leave me alone!" Peter knew he didn't have much more time, so he quickly dashed into the kitchen. He looked around frantically, but found nothing helpful. Then he walked over to the doorway leading to the living room. Mr. Vidic had his back to Peter so he didn't see him. He was now in a debate with Davy over certain ways to help the environment. Dare Peter go search the living room? Davy seemed to notice him and as if to urge him to do so, raised his voice even louder and began waving the magazines around frantically as one would in a very heated argument. This kept Mr. Vidic sufficiently distracted and the noise level was high enough that Peter wouldn't be heard as long as he was careful. Peter took a deep breath and crept into the living room, walking right behind Mr. Vidic.
He crossed over to the coffee table and found nothing of interest but a few technology magazines and a fishing magazine. This sparked an idea, so he picked up the fishing magazine and showed it to Davy. Davy gave him a look that said he'd seen it, so Peter went back to his searching. He went to another end table with another phone and found an address book. He flipped through it while listening to Davy and Mr. Vidic finish their debate.
"Look, sir, I can see we are just going to disagree, but might I interest you in this fishing magazine?" Peter stifled a laugh knowing that for some reason Micky had picked up a fishing magazine a week prior. Looks like it had come in handy. He'd remember to thank Micky when this was all over.
None of the names in the address book jumped out at him, except for "L. Stills". They already had Lucy's phone number, but now they had her address as well. Peter quickly jotted it down along with the phone number for "B.M." he'd written earlier and shoved the paper back in his pocket. He made sure to place the address book back where he'd found it and looked around again. He couldn't really think of any other place to look, so he carefully crept back over to the window he'd crawled in through. He'd done it just in time as Mr. Vidic finally lost his temper and began yelling at Davy to leave him alone. Peter leapt through the open window and quickly closed it again. The sound of the closing window was muffled by the sound of the slamming of the front door. Peter sat there for a second trying to catch his breath. He'd come within a few seconds of being caught. He jumped when Davy walked over to the bushes.
"That was close," Davy said.
"Yeah," Peter breathed.
"Did you find anything?"
"Not much. I got Lucy's address and a phone number for someone with the initials "B.M.". But nothing else. Should we go to Lucy's?"
"No," Davy answered checking his watch. "We should meet back up with Mike. He should be off by now and we have to pick him up. Mike will decide what we should do next."
"Good idea," Peter said. Davy helped him to his feet and they quickly made their way to the car to tell Mike what they'd found. Peter just hoped it was information they could actually use.
Micky moaned a little and opened his eyes a crack. His neck hurt. His head hurt. In fact most of his body was sore. It took him a moment to figure out why, but then he remembered. Someone had tried to strangle him. He snapped his eyes open and tried to get up, but realized he was tied to a chair. He pulled and fought against the ropes that bound him, but he was tied tightly. He couldn't break free or even loosen them. He remembered he was at Lucy's house when he'd been attacked and desperately tried to look around for her. All he saw was a large room that appeared to be a basement of some sort. Dirt lined the floor and the walls were made of brick. There was a furnace in one corner and crates lined the opposite wall. A staircase led to the only door in the room. There were no windows.
"Lucy!" Micky called trying to see if she was down here somewhere too. If he had been attacked, who knew what had happened to her. "Lucy, where are you?" He was met only by silence. He struggled again to free himself, but it proved just as fruitless as it had seconds prior. Suddenly the door opened and someone began walking down the stairs. A cold breeze hit him and he realized he was sitting in just socks and his boxers. Now he was really confused.
"Shut up, Dolenz," said a very familiar voice. Micky's blood turned cold when he heard it. It was his own voice. He looked up and stared into his own face.
"B-babyface?" Micky stuttered. "When did you get out of jail?"
"A few months ago," he replied. Babyface Morales was the leader of a criminal gang who bore a very uncanny resemblance to Micky. He'd heard the joke before that everyone had a double out there, but never believed it until he met Babyface. Micky, Peter, and Mike had worked together to capture the members of his gang when the police had arrested Babyface, but he'd escaped and Micky and his friends then had to re-capture Babyface too.
"What did you do to Lucy?" Micky demanded. Micky's heart sank when he heard Babyface laugh.
"Lucy?!" he asked incredulously. "You are so thick, you know that? You still really believe that Lucy loves you? She's been working for me the whole time, idiot. I hired her to get close to you. She's a notoriously famous seductress in the criminal world. Made even the best of men crumble to their knees. But I would have thought you would have figured it out when she told me to take care of you. Your friends told you she was no good, and you still refuse to believe it. What a shame." Micky's heart shattered at his words. His friends really had been right. The voice in his head had been right. Why didn't he listen? He hung his head in despair. "You were way too easy to manipulate. I thought it would take longer to split you from your friends. Lucy was very smart. She saw an opportunity and took it. Slipping you some sleeping pills to blow your audition and create anger and tension between your friends? Now that's a stroke of genius. I don't think I'm paying her enough."
"Is that what you want then?" Micky asked. He tried to force himself to sound strong, but his voice came out weak and broken. "To make us fight with each other?"
"Not exactly. I needed you to pull away from each other before I could work on what I really want."
"And what is that?"
"Revenge, Dolenz. You can't just impersonate me then get me arrested and think you can get away with it. You will pay for what you did. You and your little friends."
"Leave them alone. I did this to you. Not them."
"No, you all played your parts. Except for the little Englishman. But I'm quite sure he would have had he been around. But that's why he's going to play an extra special role in my plan."
"Leave him alone!" Micky yelled trying yet again to free himself of his bonds. Babyface laughed again before walking closer to Micky and pulling a handkerchief out of his pocket. He wrapped it around Micky's mouth effectively gagging him.
"I told you to shut up, didn't I? Now, be a good boy and sit still. I want you to see what's going to happen. I have to change my plans a little bit because your friends are meddling a little too much for my liking, but that's ok. I have a way around that. I will succeed in seeing you suffer." He watched as Babyface walked over to a pile of clothes on the floor. He picked them up and put them on. They were the clothes Micky had been wearing when he'd been attacked. Realization struck him like a ton of bricks. Babyface was going to impersonate him. Micky struggled against the ropes tying his hands. He knew by now that his efforts would be fruitless, but he couldn't just give up. He had to keep trying. He couldn't just sit there and let his friends get hurt. He had to tell them he was sorry. He had to tell them they were right. He had to escape somehow. But nothing happened as he watched Babyface walk away.
Mike finished his shift up placing the last box of soup cans on their shelf. He folded the box up and carried it to the cardboard pile in the back room so it could be recycled later on. His thoughts had been on Micky as well as Peter and Davy his entire shift. He hated not knowing what was going on. But he knew that they would need the money once this was all over, and if Mike called in sick this close to having been hired, it might raise a red flag and he could easily lose his job. And since their audition had been sabotaged, this was their only source of income for a while. He couldn't risk losing it. He said good-bye to the manager who smiled back at him before clocking out and walking to the front of the store to wait for Davy and Peter.
A thought had occurred to him to just walk home because he didn't know how long Davy and Peter would be snooping around for, but they had agreed to meet here seeing as how the house was still probably bugged. He was just so anxious and standing there was only making it worse. At least while he was working, he was keeping himself busy so he could sort of take his mind off things, but now that he was standing there he felt his anxiety level soar. If something had gone wrong…if they'd been caught…Mike shook his head refusing to finish the thought. Peter and Davy were a lot smarter than people gave them credit for. They'd figure a way out of any trouble they may have found themselves in. Mike was sure of it. He had to be. The alternative would drive him crazy. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the red flashy Pontiac pull into the parking lot with Peter behind the wheel. Davy was sitting in the seat next to him.
"Hey, Mike," Davy said when the car had pulled up in front of him. Mike jumped in the seat behind Davy and smiled at them.
"How did it go?" Mike asked.
"Not as well as we would have liked," Davy answered.
"They are on to us," Peter added. "We followed Mr. Vidic back to his house and someone called and told him to stay there because we were following him."
"But I distracted him while Peter snuck in," Davy said. "We got Lucy's address and a phone number for someone with the initials "B.M.". What do you want us to do now?"
"Let's head home for now," Mike said after thinking for a minute. "We should check on Micky. I also want to try and find those bugs. I don't like the fact that someone could be listening to us or even watching us."
"No arguments here," Davy said. Peter pulled the car out of the parking lot and drove it to the pad. The whole drive home Davy regaled him on how he had successfully distracted Mr. Vidic. He told Mike how Peter had been incredibly brave to search Mr. Vidic's living room while Mr. Vidic was in it. Mike shot Peter a look that told him that Peter got lucky and should never do that again. Peter blushed a little. They finally pulled up to the pad and the three of them filed out of the car. When they walked in, Micky was standing in the kitchen.
"Hey, guys," he said. He looked a little solemn and something about him seemed a little off to Mike. "Where have you been?"
"We…uh…" Davy started, but trailed off looking to Mike for support.
"I was at work," Mike offered. "Davy and Peter ran an errand I asked them to run."
"More snooping around?" Micky asked his voice laced with anger. Mike tensed immediately. He really didn't want to fight again, but didn't know how he could avoid it if Micky was still this angry.
"Micky…" he started, but Micky cut him off.
"Forget it, Mike," he said. "It's not like I can trust anything you say anymore anyway."
"Micky, don't be like this," Peter pled. "We just want to help you."
"Help me? It just so happens that I talked to Lucy today. You know why she's in town? The conference she was supposed to attend was cancelled. So she went to work to try and earn a little more money. She feels guilty about my not having any money, but still paying for all of our dates, so she wants to pay for the next one. Tell me, does that sound like someone who wants to hurt me?"
"No, but…" Peter mumbled.
"But nothing, Peter. Davy, you can't really believe any of this?!"
"I-I do," Davy stuttered. Micky's face seemed to flash with anger for a second.
"Unbelievable," he said.
"I'm really sorry, Micky," Davy continued finding new strength. "But I do believe them. I think you should listen to us. Hear what we have to say."
"Ok, Davy," he said unbelievably calmly. "I'm listening." Mike moved to stand in front of Davy and Peter trying to stand in between them and Micky. If this was going to lead to another fight, Mike wanted to make sure he took the brunt of it. It was his responsibility. He'd started all of this by blowing up at Micky. But he couldn't push away the feeling that something was wrong; the feeling that something was terribly different about Micky.
