Chapter Sixteen
Doug was in the little town of Castaic, just north of Los Angeles, when he called Mandy. Bakersfield was only about 72 miles north of where he was and through the area they call "The Grapevine." He was already heading in that direction on Interstate 5 so it would be an easy stop for him in Bakersfield to try and hunt down Mohalid.
When he got to Bakersfield he went to the local Mercedes dealership that is located along the west side of the freeway. He waited until the dealership was closed for the night and then waited until everyone had gone home before he snuck onto the car lot. He soon found a used Mercedes that was the same year as Bahir's car and exchanged license plates. He figured that would buy him enough time to be pretty far away by the time they figured out what he had done.
Although he didn't have a lot of money on him, Doug decided he would stay a few days at some cheap hotel and look for his new target, Mohalid. He went to an area of Bakersfield where they had inexpensive rooms and got a room for the night.
That night he lie in bed and thought about all the things he'd been through during the days and hours leading up to killing all the terrorist in San Diego. He also started trying to figure out how he was going to kill his next target. He believed the only way he would know how he was going to kill him was to locate him first and then figure out how he could do it. He knew he didn't want to spend a lot of time hunting him down and watching him for days. He had to make this a quick kill and then move on as soon as possible. He tossed and turned for most of the night, struggling to get everything out of his head. It wasn't until the early morning hours that he was finally able to close his eyes for some much needed sleep.
When he got up, he combed his hair down, put on his Muslim attire and headed to one of the local mosques. He didn't have any luck finding out anything about Mohalid at the first one so he went to three other mosques. He didn't have any luck locating him at any of the first three, but on the fourth one he was finally able to talk to some people that knew Mohalid. Doug told them he was Mohalid's family and had just come over from Iran. Hearing that information, they gladly told him where he lived.
Once Doug had the location of Mohalid's apartment, he drove over there and parked in one of the visitor parking spots. It was a huge apartment complex, approximately 200 of them all clustered together on about 10 acres. The units were older, but well maintained. There were lots of trees and shrubs leading up to each door entry and he thought it would make a good place to hide in while he observed and then attacked his target.
He started lazily making his way around the complex. He soon saw an older African American man that had come out of his apartment so Doug approached him. He told him that he'd just come over from Iran and he was looking for his family, a young Iranian man by the name of Ragale Mohalid. The old man told him he didn't know him, but he thought there were a group of young Iranian men that lived in an apartment just around the corner from him. He believed it was apartment B-4.
Doug thanked him for his time and slowly made his way around the corner and looked to see if Mohalid was anywhere to be found. Not finding anyone home, he waited around outside of the apartment for a while and hoped someone would show up. Not having any luck, he decided he would ask someone if they knew Mohalid. He knocked on one of the neighbor's door and after a few knocks a young teenage boy came to the door. Doug told him he was looking for Ragale Mohalid and the young man said he believed he lived in the apartment next door, but he wasn't sure. He said he had heard some of the other men saying that name when they talked to each other. All he knew was that they were all from the middle east somewhere and they played soccer all the time. He said they weren't very friendly to anyone. Doug didn't want to stick around and ask too many more questions because he didn't want people to become suspicious of him. He thanked the young man for his help and he left. He decided he would come back after dark and hide in the bushes and see if he could approach his target.
Doug left the complex and grabbed some lunch then went back to the hotel to try and figure out how he was going to kill this terrorist. He couldn't use the Garrote on him, he was too young and too quick for Doug to get it around his neck. He couldn't use the potassium chloride on him for the same reason. He also knew he didn't want to use the AK - 47 rifle or he might get caught by someone while he was trying to escape the huge apartment complex. He decided he would use the old conventional method, a baseball bat. After he made up his mind what he was going to do, he took a nap for a few hours and just relaxed.
When it started getting later on in the day Doug went to Wal-Mart and picked up a cheap metal bat. He then made his way back to Mohalid's apartment. When he got to the apartment complex, he parked in the street, not too far from his target's location. He then waited until it was dark. When he was sure it was dark enough for it to be safe, he got out of his car and slowly made his way to apartment B-4. The men weren't home so Doug hid in the tall bushes and shrubs so no one could see him and waited and watched for his target to come home. He was there for a few hours, hoping to get a glimpse of Mohalid and maybe kill him.
It was around ten thirty at night when three men dressed like they had been playing soccer came strolling up sidewalk toward the door. They were laughing and joking and talking about soccer. Doug wasn't sure if one of these guys was actually his target, but he was hoping he could somehow find out. He stayed crouched in a fixed position, holding on tightly to the bat and not wanting to draw any attention to himself. He knew he couldn't do anything, because there were three of them and all he had for a weapon, was a bat. He also knew he could never outrun them.
The entire stakeout just didn't feel right to Doug and it was just about that same time that one of the men spotted him hiding in the bushes. He said to his friends, "Hey, there's a guy hiding in the bushes over there." He and the other two men started walking very quickly toward him. Doug threw down the bat so they wouldn't see it and walked out from where he was hiding. He immediately said, "I'm sorry, I had to take a pee and this looked like a good spot. I didn't mean to scare you guys." The young men were within a few feet of him by then and one of them angrily said, "You stupid old man, get the hell out of here. That's no place to take a piss. Just get out of here and go back to the street." He motioned with his hand for Doug to leave. Doug replied, "Okay, I'm sorry, I just really had to go bad." He immediately turned and started to walk in the direction of his car. One of the men gave him a shove from the back, "Go back in the street where you belong and stay away from here, you homeless piece of crap." It angered him that the young man had shoved him and treated him like a homeless person, but he didn't look back as he left.
Once he got back to his hotel room Doug decided after the confrontation he had with the young men he was going to skip this target. He didn't have a lot of time to identify Mohalid and he didn't like the method he had to kill him. Not being able to take his time and plan it out also bothered him. He had told himself that if something didn't feel right during one of his missions, then he should skip it and try to rethink his strategy. For now, he was going to trust his instincts and skip killing Mohalid and maybe come back at another time. He checked out of the hotel and headed the hour and fifteen minute drive north to Visalia. He decided he would find a place to stay there for the night, while he figured out what he was going to do and where he was going to go.
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