Billy
 
 

Tuesday night
 

Lee Stetson tucked the strongbox deep into their closet.  When he was finished, he poked his head outside their bedroom.  He could hear Amanda and Jamie talking downstairs.  Wanting privacy for his telephone call, he closed the bedroom door, picked up the phone, and dialed a familiar number.

“Billy Melrose, please,” he said when the switchboard operator answered.

“Who’s calling?”

“Lee Stetson.”

“One moment, please,” she replied, putting him on hold.

Lee waited impatiently, pacing in front of the window in their bedroom.  Glancing at his watch, it was after five in the afternoon, but he doubted that Billy had already left for the day.  Knowing his former section chief’s schedule was often hectic; he presumed he’d be at the Agency for several more hours.

“Scarecrow!  Are they keeping you busy over at Justice?” Billy Melrose asked cheerfully when he picked up the phone.

“Too busy,” he answered thinking about the pile of work that was gathering on his desk.

“Yeah, I know the feeling!” Billy laughed.  “I could use a break.  How about a drink at Nedlinger’s?  I’m buying.”

“Not today.  I need an answer from you,” Lee Stetson said in an all business tone.

“Sure thing, Lee, what can I help you with?”

“I need a yes/no answer on this, Billy,” Lee insisted before asking his question.  Then, swallowing hard, he asked a question he had a feeling he already knew the answer to.  “Did you ever work with Franklin James West?”

There was stone silence on the phone for what seemed like an eternity. Lee wasn’t sure if the line had gone dead.  “Billy?”

“Yes,” his former supervisor replied.

Again, there was silence on the phone.  “Did you work with Amanda’s father?”

“Yes,” Billy reiterated.

Lee sat down on the bed, dumbfounded.  “Why… why didn’t you ever say anything to me… or to Amanda for that matter?”

“I always thought you’d put it together.  Think about it, Scarecrow.  Did you really think I’d partner you up with a civilian if I knew absolutely nothing about her, or her family?” Billy asked his friend.

Lee chuckled slightly before responding.  “It never even dawned on me…”

“I guess I could have said something to you,” Billy remarked, then reminisced.  “When she walked into my office that day, after you two were arrested for… breaking into the Post Office wasn’t it?  I knew she looked familiar.  When I read the initial background check you ran on her, I knew for sure.  I remembered Frank. Her father was a good man; often talking about his daughter, Amanda, even showed me her pictures.  I knew from that moment on that Amanda West King was someone I planned to keep around.

“I don’t believe it!” he replied, stunned.  Lee heard Jamie coming up the stairs.  With his voice low so he wouldn’t be overheard accidentally, he asked, “How did you meet Frank West?”

“Are you in your office?”

“No.”

“Lee, you’re probably aware that this isn’t a conversation for an unsecured line.  Why don’t you drop by my office on your way home, and I can answer your questions.”

“Because I’m already at home,” Lee replied.  “How long are you going to be there tonight?”

“A few more hours at least.”

“Amanda and I will be there shortly.”

“Amanda knows?” Billy asked, sounding rather surprised.

“She doesn’t yet, but I plan on telling her before she figures it out for herself.”

“Hmm, that’s probably a good idea,” Billy remarked before adding, “What tipped you off?”

“It’s a long story, and like you said, this isn’t a secured line, but a recent visit to the Greenbrier was rather enlightening.”

“Oh, I see!”

“Yeah, we’ll see you within the hour,” Lee replied before hanging up the phone.

Going back downstairs, he walked into the kitchen and noticed his wife was heating up leftover Chinese food for dinner.

“I really need to get to the grocery store,” Amanda commented to him.  “I think there’s enough for the three of us.  Jamie’s in a hurry, he’s the official photographer at tonight’s basketball game.”

“Amanda, we can eat later,” Lee hesitated, glancing around to see if Jamie was within earshot, and then continuing on, “we need to run into the office for a while.”

“The office?  Yours or mine?” she asked with a confused look on her face. “Can’t it wait?”

“No, now; Billy’s expecting us.”

“The Agency?  That’s who you called?”

He nodded.

“What now?” she whispered glancing behind him to see whether Jamie was near.

Lee didn’t get a chance to respond.  Jamie entered the room with his camera in tow.  “I’m starved.  Is there a leftover egg roll?”

“Yes, sweetheart, and the rice is heating up.  Did you want the spareribs, or would you prefer the Lo Mein?”

“The ribs would be awesome!” he replied, reaching for a plate.

“Jamie, we have to run out for a while.”

“I need to grab something upstairs,” Lee said, quickly exiting from the room.  He rushed upstairs, retrieved the strongbox, the plates, and the additional bills they had located.  He packed them into an old briefcase, and went back downstairs.  Amanda was waiting for him.

“Be home no later than ten,” she instructed her son.

“Yeah, the game should be over by then and I still have trigonometry homework to finish,” Jamie answered in between bites of his dinner.  “See ya later!”

“Have fun, sweetheart,” Amanda called to him as she and Lee went out the door.

Lee backed out of the driveway and was barely down the block before his wife began questioning him.

“Shouldn’t you have consulted me before you called Billy?  He is my supervisor!  Lee, you know this whole incident is very personal to me.  I’d like to have all the answers before we start telling anyone else,” she lectured sharply, “especially my boss!”

“I needed an answer to one question, and only Billy could answer that,” he replied sensitively.

“What question was that?”

“You remember the initials ‘BBN’ in your father’s letter?”

“Yes, but you said you didn’t know what they meant,” she rebuked sharply.

“I said I wasn’t sure, and I wasn’t.  Not until I made the phone call.  BBN is not a ‘what’ he’s a ‘who’.  Billy’s old code name was, ‘Billy Blue Note.’”

“Oh my gosh, my father knew Billy!” she gasped and Lee nodded silently.  “I’d only heard Billy called that name when King Edmund of Kaptafar was in town.”

“It’s not a codename he’s particularly fond of, and I wanted to be sure before I said anything to you,” he admitted.  “I didn’t want to get your hopes up.”

“What’s in the briefcase?”

“The plates, the bills, and the letter we found up at Camp David today.”

Her eyes grew wide at his response.  “I suppose you told Billy we broke into Camp David, too.”

“Not yet, but I did mention the Greenbrier.”

She cringed, and then asked, only half-joking, “I don’t suppose you brought any aspirin with you?  I think I feel a headache coming on.”

“Amanda, you’re the one who convinced me there was more to the story than a $1000 of bogus bills.  I trusted you and went with your gut feeling when the evidence was telling me the opposite.  We’re running out of answers.  According to your father’s letter, Billy is part of this.  We’ve both trusted Billy with our lives’ on more than one occasion,” he replied, reaching for her hand and squeezing it tightly.  “Trust my judgment on this.  Billy will help us get to the bottom of this - really.”

“I guess you’re right.  I can’t believe he never said anything to me.  I’ve worked for him for all these years,” she sighed heavily, but then a warm smile crossed her face.  “He knew my dad!”

Lee winked at her.  “Yeah, he did.”

A few minutes later Amanda knocked on her supervisor’s door.

“Come in,” Billy’s voice beckoned them.

Lee opened the door for his wife, and followed her inside.

“Good evening, sir,” Amanda nodded.

“Amanda,” Billy nodded, coming around his desk to shake Lee’s hand.  “Good to see you again, Scarecrow.  I haven’t seen you since the Pentagon meeting before Christmas.”

“Been busy, Billy.  You know how it is,” Lee replied, patting his friend on the shoulder.

“Unfortunately, I do.  Have a seat, both of you,” Billy nodded and they sat down.  Amanda fidgeted in her seat, and Lee stared at Billy, shaking his head.  Billy Melrose swallowed hard and broke the ice.  “Your father was a remarkable man, Amanda.  I was proud to call him a friend.”

With that, Amanda grinned brightly.  “I can’t believe you knew my father.  When did you first meet?”

Billy sat back down behind his desk, and glanced over at Lee, before looking at Amanda.  “Much of my association with your father is classified.  Why don’t you brief me, and tell me what you already know.  Then I can fill in the blanks where I can.”

Lee looked at Amanda, who nodded back to him.

“It’s a convoluted story, Billy,” Lee admitted, as he got comfortable in his chair.  “I got a call last Friday from Secret Service telling me they had Philip King in custody for allegedly passing counterfeit money.  Philip refused to tell them where he got the money.  After some coaxing, Philip was released into my custody and I promised to talk to him.  Philip finally told me where he found the money, and we located another $1000 worth of the bills.”

“Where did you find them?  How much in total?” Billy inquired.

“Roughly $1200,” Amanda answered, then added in a small voice, “They found them in an old bed of my mother’s.”

Lee picked it up from there.  “The bills were Silver Certificates, minted back in the early 60’s.  The bills are in excellent condition.  According to the Secret Service, they were bogus, and used in wet operations.”

Billy’s eyes got wider and he motioned for Lee to continue.

“Amanda found some handwritten letters on the bills.  It took a while, but she finally pieced together what it meant.  They spelled out ‘Forsythe’, which you undoubtedly know is the company that runs the bomb shelter under the Greenbrier.”

“Yes, but I didn’t know you did,” Billy remarked.

“I might not work in the field anymore, Billy, but I still have contacts and a network.”

“Lee and I took a drive up to the Greenbrier over the weekend and poked around,” Amanda explained.

“And what exactly did you find?” Billy inquired with a raised eyebrow.

Lee opened up the briefcase he’d brought with him, and carefully unwrapped the plates.  Then he placed them on Billy’s desk.  “We located these $20 printing plates which are a match to the bills Philip was caught passing.”

Billy stood up, picked up the plates, held them nearer to the light, and examined them closely.  From the look on his face, he already knew they weren’t fakes.  “I’m betting my paycheck that these are genuine.”

“You got it.  According to an informed source of mine, the plates, and the bills are real,” Lee confirmed.  “Whether they were used in wet operations... is still a big question.”

“Exactly who arrested Philip?” Billy asked.

“Arlington PD.  He was detained and questioned by them before being handed over to the Secret Service.”

“The Secret Service should have known these weren’t bogus bills.”

“If you run the serial numbers, they’re flagged," Lee explained.  "Any idea why?”

“I’m beginning to have an idea,” Billy admitted, letting out a deep breath.  “This doesn’t explain how you knew I met Frank West, or am I missing something?”

“I told you this was a long story, Billy,” Lee reminded his former supervisor.  “Like Amanda already mentioned, the money that Philip spent, came from an old bed in Dotty West’s spare bedroom.  Amanda said the only one who would have had access to that bed back in the 60’s besides her mother was Frank West.”

“I knew my father wasn’t a counterfeiter, sir, or involved with wet operations.  He was an honest, decent, and very patriotic man,” Amanda defended.

“That he was,” Billy nodded.

“If you take a look at the newspaper that Frank West wrapped the plates in, both of the articles are about Camp David…”

Billy interrupted with alarm, staring at Amanda Stetson and groused roughly, “Tell me you two didn’t break into Camp David?”

“Sir, we didn’t break in.  I did use my Agency ID, and they let us pass through the gate…”

Billy held up his hand, and closed his eyes.  “I don’t want to hear the details!”

Lee chuckled softly before resuming his explanation.  “We assumed the newspaper articles were the clue and we should look in the stables.  We struck out inside the stables, but got lucky when we found a strongbox inside the cupola on its roof.”

“And what made you look inside the cupola?” Billy asked.

“My father built me a dollhouse when I was a little girl.  The cupola on the stables’ roof is very similar in design.  I knew my father worked for the Department of Interior after working for Forsythe.  Camp David falls under the jurisdiction of the National Parks Department, which in turn is run by the Department of Interior.”

“Your father always said you were a smart young lady,” Billy said, shaking his head.

Rummaging through his briefcase again, Lee retrieved the letter that Frank West had written.  “In a letter which Amanda confirms was handwritten by her father in somewhat of a code, he writes ‘AJ found safe.  Contact BBN’.  After giving it some thought, I remembered that in your early days you went by ‘Billy Blue Note’!”

“Will that nickname never die?” Billy grumbled, and then he took the letter from Lee and sat down.  After reading the letter, he placed it back onto his desk before commenting, “What I’m about to share with you, doesn’t leave this room.  Understood?”

“Yes, sir,” they both replied.

“In the early 60’s I was responsible for shutting down wet operations.  However, there were several factions, which were against that idea and tried to go underground.  During that period, the government was also constructing the doomsday shelter…”

“Underneath the Greenbrier,” Lee provided.

“Yes, it had been decided to place the plates inside the shelter along with $250,000 worth of currency in order to have a backup money supply if anything ever did happen.  Around the height of the Cuban Crisis the money, and more troublesome, the plates disappeared.  The money was printed from the plates – I believe these plates,” Billy replied, pointing to the plates that sat on his desk.

“My source corroborated that this money,” Lee took out the bag of money from his briefcase, “matches the plates.”

Billy took the bag of money and observed it carefully.  “Were you aware that your father knew JFK?”

“I figured that out only recently,” Amanda said wistfully.  “He always spoke with great reverence of President Kennedy.  I remember how shocked and upset my father was when he was assassinated.  However, I didn’t know until now that he had a personal connection.”

“I’m not sure how well they knew each other, we never spoke of that,” Billy mentioned before returning to the subject at hand.  “The bunker’s construction was behind schedule.  After the Bay of Pigs Invasion in 1961, and the Cuban Crisis, the Soviet threat seemed to become more real every day.  The crews were working around the clock to finish.  Your father was already working inside the Greenbrier, as an electrician, I believe.  The day I met him up there, he seemed to have his hand in everything, which made him perfect for what I needed.”

“You recruited my father?” Amanda asked with surprise.

Billy smiled.  “Actually, the White House had provided me with a list of three candidates who were working inside the Greenbrier who were already vetted with a high security clearance.  Your father was on that list.”

“Really!” Amanda gasped, she leaned forward, eager to hear more.

“Once I spoke with Frank West, I knew he was the man to help me find the plates.  I was glad to have him on my side.  I wouldn’t have known where to look, or have easy access to all the areas without tipping someone off.  That bunker is huge.” Billy remarked with a heavy sigh.

“Yeah, we know,” Lee replied, glancing briefly at his wife, exchanging knowing smiles.

“Your father placed ‘bugs’ in several strategic locations with the hopes of finding who had taken the plates and money.  He listened to those tapes for weeks, without success.  Then, in a last ditch effort to find the plates, he was assigned to stay as a ‘guest’ for a couple of weeks.”

“I remember!” Amanda cut in.  “We thought it was a fancy family vacation.”

“It might have been for you and your mother, Amanda, but it wasn’t for your father.  Finally, we got the break we needed.  The plates were still on site, but only a small portion of the money was ever found.”

“How much is still missing?” she asked.

“Your father found the plates and eventually tracked down the man who was involved with the theft, but only $20,000 of the money was retrieved.  We knew there was at least one other person, maybe more, but we couldn’t locate them, even after interrogating the perpetrator.  Whoever set it up, had only contacted the culprit by phone.  He claimed he was duped into stealing the money.”

“So someone got away with almost a quarter million dollars!” Lee whistled at the prospect.

“Whether it was stashed somewhere or spent in small increments, without alerting authorities, we never knew for sure,” Billy explained, shaking his head, clearly frustrated.  “The serial numbers were tagged, but to my knowledge, none of it was ever recovered.”

“Until Philip tried to spend some of it last week,” Lee replied.

Amanda’s eyes flared warily.  “My father did NOT steal that money, Lee!”

“Amanda, nobody’s accusing your father of stealing it,” Billy assured her.  “If you’d let me finish, I think I have an answer to why your father had that money.”

“I’m sorry, sir,” she swallowed hard, and bit her lip.  “It’s been an emotional few days.”

“I can imagine,” he replied in a sympathetic tone.  “In late March of 1969, I got a call from your father out of the blue.  We hadn’t seen each other in years.  He asked if we could meet, and of course, I agreed.”

“Did he meet you here, at the Agency?” she asked.

“No, we met at Ned’s.”

“What did my father want to speak to you about?” Amanda inquired anxiously.

“He thought he found the missing link.  He told me he located some of the money missing from the Greenbrier.”

“Where did he find it?” Amanda asked.

“The White House,” Billy answered.

“What!” Amanda and Lee both gasped.

“Back in 1969, they were creating a White House Press Center.  Your father was an electrician and had the security clearances to work inside the White House.  He found the money during renovations and promptly contacted me.”

“How much had he found?” Amanda inquired anxiously.

“He told me he located almost $1500.  He brought two hundred dollars with him as evidence.  The rest he said he stashed in a safe place.”

Lee quickly asked.  “Was it part of the stolen money?”

Billy nodded.  “Yeah it was.”

“So why didn’t Amanda’s father give you the rest of the money?” Lee questioned.

“Because my father died before you could tell him,” Amanda replied in a tear-filled voice.

Lee took his wife’s hand in his, and patted it supportively.  Then he glanced over to Billy and nodded for him to continue.

“The Greenbrier bomb shelter and the missing money had been extremely secretive.  It took weeks to locate where the evidence from the case had been stored.  By the time the box was retrieved from storage, and we confirmed the money was part of the stolen bills, your father had died.”

“And he never told you where he stashed the money,” Lee surmised.

“No,” Billy replied.  "Until now, the case had gone cold."

Amanda retrieved her father’s handwritten letter from Billy’s desk, and studied it for a moment before asking, “What do you know about the West Memo?”

“I’m sorry, Amanda.  I don’t know anything about it,” he shook his head.

There was silence in the room as the three of them contemplated the situation, before Lee surmised, “The ‘West Memo’ must have been written by JFK?”

“That’s feasible.  I was aware your father had an association to the President.  He did report to me, but there’s a possibility he also reported his findings to the White House,” Billy nodded in agreement.  “Let me ask you, who was the agent at the Secret Service who is leading the investigation?”

“Woody Kraus,” Lee instantly supplied.

Billy’s eyes lit up and he motioned Amanda for the letter she was holding.  “May I?”

“Sure,” she nodded, handing it back to him.

Billy scanned the letter, “You mean Elwood Kraus!”

““Woody’s first name is Elwood?  As in EK!”   Amanda gasped, reaching again for her father’s letter.

“So is Woody someone your father trusted or a suspect?” Lee queried, glancing first at Amanda, then over to Billy.

“Your father must have met him when he was working at the Greenbrier,” Billy replied rubbing his chin thoughtfully.  “I know for a fact he never mentioned him to me.”

“What do we know about Woody?” Amanda pressed curiously.

“He’s worked for the Secret Service as long as I remember,” Lee shrugged.

Billy went over to his computer and began working diligently.  A few minutes later, he was reading a bio off the computer screen.  “Elwood Kraus was born and raised in Lewisburg, WV.  Graduated from West Virginia University in 1960, and worked as a Congressional aide from 1960 until 1964.  Then he worked for the National Institute of Health, before taking a job as a Secret Service Agent in 1967.”

“That fits my father’s clue – aide EK.”

“But that doesn’t tell us whether Woody is friend or foe,” Lee replied, running his hand through his hair.  “He hasn’t been entirely truthful with me from the start.”

“Certainly a local boy from West Virginia, and Congressional aide would have known something was going on at the Greenbrier.  The question would be did he get access officially or unofficially?” Billy wondered aloud.

“We still don’t have a motive,” Lee added.

“Money is a rather powerful motive,” Amanda reminded her husband.  “There’s still over $200,000 out there missing. Back in the early 60’s that was a substantial sum of money.”

Billy nodded, agreeing with Amanda.  “Until we know otherwise, Woody is a suspect - understood?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Amanda, there’s nothing I’d like more than to put this case to bed, once and for all.  Consider this your priority assignment,” Billy ordered.  “I’ll arrange for you to access some files that will get you started.”

“Yes, sir,” she agreed willingly.  “We’ll start investigating how Woody’s tied into this and try to locate the West Memo.”

“No more rogue investigation.  I expect to be kept in the loop,” Billy lectured, glancing first at Amanda and then pointing his finger at Lee.  “That goes for you too, Scarecrow.”

“Billy, I don’t work for you anymore,” Lee reminded his former supervisor.

“Does that mean you’re going to let your wife finish this investigation by herself?”

“Of course not…”

Billy chuckled.  “I’ll make a phone call over to Donnelly at Justice, and see if he’s interested in a joint investigation.”

“Thanks, Billy,” Lee replied, standing up and reaching for his wife’s hand.

“All right, you two; you’ve got your work cut out for you,” Billy called out to them as they headed out the door.

“I’ll say,” Amanda mumbled as they walked out of his office and headed for hers...
 

End Part Eight
 

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