Part Four
Thursday, March 26th
It was still dark when his cell phone rang a few hours later. Lee searched the nightstand, grabbed his phone, and whispered, “Stetson… Jim, hi!... Yeah, I was sleeping… No, no, it’s fine,” Lee whispered, trying to shake the cobwebs out of his head as he slipped out of the room, attempting not to wake Amanda.
Lee listened to the information his friend was sharing with him, getting an increased sense that they were indeed, heading in the right direction. Information about National Capital Financial was proving to be rather elusive. Lee was beginning to wonder if it was a front, and not a real company. “I owe you big, Jim… Yeah, as soon as I tie this up, I promise… I’m on my way now... I’ll call you later… Thanks!”
“Lee, is something wrong?” Amanda asked, now standing at the bedroom door, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.
“No, everything is all right. It’s my contact from Wall Street. Go back to sleep.”
“He called you at five in the morning?”
Lee grinned. “Yeah, Jim likes to get to the bottom of things. National Capital Financial is looking rather fishy. I’m going to fly back to New York.”
“New York? Now?”
“If I leave now, I can catch a flight out of Dulles, and be in my office before lunch,” he reassured her, returning to the bedroom and starting to get dressed.
“But NCF’s office is here, in DC. Why fly back to New York?”
“I’ve got computer access in my office there, which I don’t have here. I need to do some research and to talk further with Jim,” he explained logically.
“I’ll come with you,” she offered eagerly.
Lee stopped buttoning his shirt, and walked over to where she stood, leaning against the doorframe. He gave her a kiss on her forehead. “As much as I want to show you the office in New York, you’re forgetting there’s a warrant out for your arrest. They’d pick you up the minute you stepped foot into the airport.”
“I forgot,” she mumbled disappointedly. She sat down on the unmade bed with a glum expression on her face. Tilting her head in his direction, she countered, “I could drive up there.”
Smiling at her appreciatively, he sat down next to her before he replied. “You’re better off here, Amanda. I won’t be gone long. If things work out, I could be back tomorrow.”
“But if I went up to New York, I could help you…” she said in a beseeching voice.
Rubbing her back with his hand, he nodded. “You’ve been a great help to me already, Amanda. If I thought I could sneak you in, I would, but we can’t risk it. We both know the Agency will have my office staked out. You certainly don’t want to get arrested in New York. A night at Riker’s Island is not pretty, or fun.”
With her head hanging low, she nodded. “You’re right.”
Standing up again, he finished buttoning his shirt and tucked in his pants. Then he packed the few things he brought with him. “I’ll call you later today. You remember the drill?”
“Call - hang up, call - hang up, call - tenth ring,” she repeated indolently.
“You got it,” he winked, hoping to perk up her spirits. “Get some more sleep. I promise to call you with an update later today.”
She put on a fake smile and walked him to the door. “Drive safely.”
He gave her a quick kiss and a hug before he disappeared out the cabin door into the darkness.
***
Lee Stetson spent several hours in his New York office with his staff. They were still sifting through data, and the background check they had run on Casper Conrad. Unfortunately, they hadn’t come up with much. Considering he’d passed an Agency background check, Lee hadn’t expected to find anything different. Leaning back in his chair, he took a deep breath, wishing that Amanda was with them. She could always spot something everyone else would overlook.
When he’d first arrived in New York and opened his own business, he ran it solo. Then things started to take off and he couldn’t handle everything himself. He’d been lucky to find Carly. She had recently graduated from NYU with a degree in Criminal Justice. The petite tomboy with straight A’s in college, was bright, but quickly realized she didn’t want to be a cop – she wanted something more exciting. Lee needed someone sharp who he could trust to run his office, and handle various legwork and research. She accomplished that and more.
Jake, his field investigator, was a graduate from Penn State. Jake was a jock, who loved football, but wasn’t good enough for the NFL. He ended up with a business degree, and found the 9 to 5 daily grind, tedious. He wanted action. Although far from a bully, he brought brawn to the business, and his sheer size had come in handy more than once.
“This guy is gorgeous, blonde hair, blue eyes,” Carly commented, glancing at the picture they had of Casper. “What exactly do you expect to find?”
“Something out of the ordinary; anything that doesn’t fit,” Lee answered with frustration.
“He has no wants or warrants. He does have a few points on his license from a couple of speeding tickets in the State of Virginia,” she said.
“Keep digging,” he encouraged.
“He went to a small college I’ve never heard of in Ohio. Majored in Liberal Arts, but his grades were less than stellar. How did he get into the Agency’s Training Program? My grades from NYU were better than his, and all I got was a standard rejection letter!”
“I thought you liked your job here,” Lee commented, glancing over at her.
“I do,” the aspiring detective smiled, “but the Agency… now that’s prestigious.”
Shaking his head, Lee chuckled at her exuberance. “You’d be making a lot less money than you do now.”
“Money’s not everything,” she replied.
“I’ll remind you of that comment when you’re due for your next raise.”
The fax machine rang and they all turned their heads. “What are we expecting?” Lee asked, glancing at his employees.
“Mostly details on National Capital Financial,” Jake, answered. “Jim sent you over what he came up with earlier. It wasn’t much. It’s a privately held company running a hedge fund; consequently, the disclosure rules are more lenient. I’m waiting on some info from a contact who owes me big time…”
“We’ll take whatever we can find. I went through what Jim sent us and you’re right, it wasn’t much, but it’s a start,” Lee commented.
“Let me get the fax,” Carly said, standing up and disappearing from the office.
“Where’s Roz?” Lee asked.
“She’s still tracing the wire transfers,” Jake replied.
“Roz!” Lee shouted for his computer guru. A seasoned woman who’d retired from the government after 30 years of service, but she wasn’t ready for a porch swing.
In only a few moments, Roz sauntered into the room. She was a stylish lady, in her late 50’s, although she had gray hair and glasses, she was quite fit for her age. “You bellowed?”
“Did you get a trace on those three wire transfers?” Lee asked.
“Now what do you think?” she sassed him with a warm smile.
“Roz, my patience is wearing thin,” he answered, rubbing his temple. “We don’t have much. Please tell me you have something?”
“They tried to cover their tracks, but they’re amateurs. I chased it back to Zurich. All three came from the same bank, same account,” Roz informed him. “I’ll follow up on it tomorrow. The banks are closed in Switzerland for the night.”
“Good. At least it wasn’t a dead end.”
“Anything else you need me to work on?” she inquired.
“Jim didn’t know the CEO or the CFO of National Capital Financial and we all know that Jim knows everyone. Ryan Conrad and James Thomas are out there somewhere and I want to know who they are, and where they came from,” Lee growled in frustration.
“I’ll start digging, but those are rather common names. It’s going to take a while,” she advised him. With that said, the older woman disappeared from the room, passing Carly on her way.
Carly entered, waving the fax, excitedly. “More on NCF! Your friend sent a copy of 1997’s last quarter. Not very impressive.”
“Let me see,” Lee asked, reaching for the paperwork. Spreading the balance sheet, cash flow, and the income statement across his desk, he studied them carefully.
Looking over his shoulder, Jake whistled. “They’re losing money hand over fist! Their investors are either nuts or stupid.”
“This doesn’t make any sense. We need their client list!” Lee urged his employees. “That’s the missing piece of the puzzle.”
“They’re not about to give that up,” Carly replied.
“She’s right,” Lee agreed, his jaw muscle twitching. “Which leaves me no other choice; I’m going back down to DC. Carly, can you get me on the next flight.”
Staring at him, she argued. “Lee, you only got back here a few hours ago!”
“Do you have a better idea on how to get their client list?” he asked, but there was silence in the room.
“If you’re going inside, you’re going to need backup. You want me to come with you?” Jake offered willingly.
“No, I have a friend down there who can help me.”
Jake glanced at him, unsettled with the idea. “Lee, you’re risking an awful lot for this woman.”
“Jake’s right, boss. She hasn’t even paid us a retainer,” Carly was quick to point out.
“If the government thinks she’s on the take, well…maybe she is. Maybe NCF is her front,” Jake reminded his boss. “Why don’t you let me run a screen on Mrs. King and make sure she’s on the up and up? You’re the one who always reminds me to follow procedures. This is S.O.P.”
“The hell with the screen! Let’s do a full background check on her and make sure she’s on the level,” the ever-eager Carly suggested.
“I appreciate your concern, guys. I really do,” Lee smiled at each of his rather loyal employees. “I guess it’s time I let you in on a few details that I’ve omitted in the past – my past. I know Amanda King. She was my partner at the Agency.”
“You told me your partner was dead,” Carly replied, appearing hurt by the sudden disclosure.
“My first partner was killed,” Lee replied, thinking back several lifetimes ago, before Amanda came into his life. “Amanda was my second partner.”
“You left the Agency like, over a year ago,” she reminded him. “People change. How well did you know her?”
“I knew her pretty well,” Lee smiled, running his hand through his hair with an impish grin. “She’s also my wife.”
“You’re married!” Carly gasped, shocked at Lee’s disclosure and leaning on the desk for support. Then looking over to Jake, she snickered. “I told you he wasn’t gay!”
“You thought I was gay?” Lee asked wide-eyed, stunned by the idea.
Jake, now totally embarrassed, stammered awkwardly. “Um… well… You never wore a wedding band… and well, um you’re, you know… you dress… impeccably, and you don’t date. More than a few of our female clients have practically thrown themselves at you, and hell, you never even noticed…”
“I noticed,” Lee laughed, remembering the clients rather vividly.
Carly was studying Lee carefully. “You still love her, don’t you?”
Realizing his smile must have given him away, he admitted, “Yeah, I do.”
“What happened?” she pressed.
Lee shook his head and swallowed hard. Suddenly, he was reminded of how Amanda must have felt when Joe King came back from Estoccia. Lee had grilled an unwilling Amanda persistently on their relationship. “Listen guys, I know you have a million questions, but some things will remain ‘off limits’, OK?”
They both nodded reluctantly.
“I need to get back down to DC. The answers are there. I need you to continue working the other leads: the wire transfers, keep digging on the names. Call me if you come up with something, anything.”
“JFK or LaGuardia?” Carly asked, getting back to business.
“Whichever gets me to Dulles sooner.”
Lee made several phone calls on his way to the airport. While waiting for his plane, he tried calling Amanda. When she didn’t answer, he surmised she was outside the cabin, getting some fresh air. Landing at Dulles at eight in the evening, it was now dark. He hurried through the airport, calling her again, using the sequence of rings and hang-ups. When she didn’t answer this time, he began to worry.
‘Where are you, Amanda?’ Lee wondered.
Once inside the rental car, he headed towards DC first, shaking the tail he’d picked up at the airport. He tried calling her again, but she still didn’t answer. There was no reason why she should be outside now, in the dark cold night. Had the Agency found where she was? Wanting answers, he tried another phone number.
“Francine, it’s me. What’s the word?” Lee pressed, knowing that if the Agency had nabbed Amanda, she would tell him. “Nothing new, huh?” he breathed a sigh of relief. “What’s our friend been up to?” Lee probed. “You haven’t seen him this afternoon?” His pulse quickened. “What’s he working on?... He’s out in the field this afternoon…” Lee swallowed hard, suddenly having a bad taste in his mouth. “You’ve got my cell phone number…Call me if something breaks… I’ll talk to you later.”
Certain that he’d lost the tail, Lee changed
direction and floored the gas pedal, speeding towards the cabin.
Panic started to set in. Dialing the number again, he ran the sequence,
hoping this time she would pick up, but nobody answered the phone.
His head started to pound and his heart started to race. Why wasn’t
she answering the phone?
End Part Four
Second Chances
Part Five
The ninety-minute drive seemed to take forever. Lee continued to call the cabin in hopes that Amanda would eventually pick up, but as he closed the distance, she still hadn’t answered. His frustration and anxiety grew with each mile. Now on the winding back roads, Lee had to slow his speed to negotiate the hairpin turns that led to the top of the mountain.
Only a few miles from the turn off to the cabin, he saw flashing lights. Orange traffic cones were set up in the road, making the already narrow country road into a one-lane road. A workman flagged down his car.
“What’s going on?” Lee asked nervously, sticking his head out of the window, unable to make out much in the darkness.
“A drunk driver ran his car off the road late this afternoon. The guy was driving so fast, his car snapped a telephone pole in half. The pole hit some trees which took down the power lines,” the utility worker explained. “It’s a mess.”
Lee took a deep breath in relief. “I’m headed up to my cabin.”
“You live up there?” he pointed.
Lee nodded.
“You’ll be out of power. We hope to have it restored before midnight. Phone service might not be back up until morning.”
“That’s all right. I’ve got a cell phone,” Lee explained.
“Drive careful,” the utility worker said, finally waving Lee past.
Lee could see the downed trees as he drove past, leaf litter remained on the roadway. He took the last couple of miles a bit slower, pulling off a few minutes later onto the dirt road that led to his uncle’s cabin. Parking his car on the gravel pull off, he got out and hurried down the path.
“Amanda!” he shouted out as he neared the cabin, knowing she was probably worried. “It’s me!”
The door flew open almost immediately. Amanda rushed out and wrapped her arms around him tightly. “Oh my gosh! I’m so glad to see you. The power and the phone are out...”
He held her protectively, noticing she was trembling. “I know. It’s all right,” he soothed, patting her back tenderly. “Try to relax.”
“I’m not even armed, Lee. I was afraid to go out of the cabin. I’m not sure what’s going on. It could be the Agency…”
“No, they still don’t know where you are. A drunk hit a telephone pole, which in turn took down the phone and power lines. Everything on the top of the mountain is out,” he explained calmly, all the time she clung to him, protectively. “Amanda, why don’t we go inside? It’s getting cold out here.”
She loosened her grip on him, but still held him close. “It’s chilly inside, too. I hadn’t thought to bring any wood in earlier for a fire. I found a couple of candles and a flashlight in the bedroom.”
Lee took her hands and noticed they were cold. He rubbed them briskly in his own as they walked into the cabin together. It was frosty inside the cabin despite the warm glow the candles provided as they flickered in the night. “You’re right; it is chilly in here. I’ll grab some wood and warm this place up.”
Soon, there was a fire burning in the fireplace, quickly heating up the cabin and bringing light into the room. Seeing the anguish on her face, he asked, “Are you all right?”
“Yeah,” she nodded, sitting down on the couch near the fire. Letting out a long, slow breath, Amanda began to settle down. “I feel kind of silly now. I thought they’d found me…”
“I was scared, too. I’ve been calling you since this afternoon, when I was in New York. I made it up the mountain in record time thinking something had happened to you. Then, I ran across the utility workers and breathed a sigh of relief.”
“Oh my gosh, you flew all the way back down here because you couldn’t get through to me on the phone.”
“No, I had other reasons.”
Amanda rested her head against the back of the couch. “Good, I was starting to feel awful guilty. So, how come you’re back so soon?”
“We don’t have anything concrete yet, but I smell a scam. Information about National Capital Financial is overly elusive. Nobody on Wall Street knows much about them, nor has anyone heard of their CEO or their CFO,” he quickly summed up.
“Maybe someone got nervous thinking I knew more than I did?” she speculated.
“That’s what I’m guessing, but I wish I had a link between NCF and Casper. My team did a full background on Casper. Nothing out of the ordinary, but things aren’t adding up. He came from a small college, mediocre grades, not even a criminal justice background. Why and how he got into the Agency’s program is beyond me.”
“From what I heard, his family had a connection somewhere in the system. Got him in the door, and Beaman bends over backwards to keep the guy in the program. His test scores are consistently the lowest in the class. Normally, he would have been scrubbed by now.”
“Like I said, things aren’t adding up. I need to get a hold of the client list for NCF. I’m going inside.”
Turning her head, her eyes locked on his and she asked, “Tonight?”
“No, I’m waiting for some answers from Fritz the Cat. I need to find out what, if any security they have at their corporate office, building layout, the best way in.”
With concern in her eyes, she asked another question. “You’re not going in alone, are you?”
Placing his hand on hers, he shook his head. “I’m going to need some backup. Do you know anyone I can trust?”
“Yeah, I think I do,” she nodded with a bright smile.
“I’ve brought Casper’s profile and what we could dig up on NCF. You can take a look at it tomorrow when you can see what you’re reading.”
Glancing around the fire lit cabin, she asked him, “When do you think the power will be back on?”
“We should have power before midnight, phone by morning.”
“What you need now is a good nights’ sleep.”
“I won’t argue that,” Lee nodded. Getting up from the couch, he started tending to the fire. “Let me stoke up the fire and then we’ll both call it a night.”
Amanda watched while he rebuilt the fire to a roaring blaze. “Do you think that will keep us warm enough in the other room?”
Lee Stetson wiped the dust and ash from his hands, adjusted the fireplace screen, and stood up. “We’ve spent nights in the Virginia woods, not to mention the streets of Arlington and DC. We managed to stay warm. I’m fairly certain we can figure out a way to stay warm in the bedroom.”
Amanda’s eyes opened wide. “Oh!”
“Amanda, I didn’t mean it the way it came out. Not that I would mind that idea,” he added, coming over and placing his hand on her shoulder. “I meant what I said last night. I want to find my way back to you. We’ve been separated for how long…”
“Fifteen months,” she swiftly supplied.
“There’s nothing I’d like more, than to take you into that bedroom and make love to you until we both fell asleep, but that wouldn’t solve our problems. The bedroom has never been a problem for us. When we get back together, I want it to be permanent, not temporary. If I make love to you tonight, I can’t guarantee that. Do you understand?” Lee asked, his voice was uncertain, but in his heart, he knew he was right.
“Yeah,” she nodded, wiping the tears from her eyes. “Sure.”
Seeing that she didn’t totally believe him, he repeated. “I do want a permanent reconciliation, Amanda.”
“I want that, too, and I don’t want a charge of treason hanging over my head either. I want a clean slate.”
“That will happen,” he reassured her. “We’re getting closer.”
“Yeah,” she nodded, obviously frustrated. “I know you are.”
“There’s something else bothering you,” he probed anxiously, trying to read the look on her face. “What is it?”
“It’s nothing,” she shrugged.
“Amanda, this might be our last chance to work things through. There are already too many miles separating us. Isn’t it time to take down the barriers, not build new ones?”
For the longest time, the only noise in the cabin was the crackling of the fire. Eventually, a whisper of her voice penetrated the room. “I remember when I woke up in intensive care, after the shooting. You didn’t notice that I was conscious. I couldn’t talk with the tube down my throat. I tried to get your attention, but I was so weak and with all the noisy machines and wires, it seemed impossible. It felt like the longest time before you looked at me.”
She stopped for a few moments, and Lee sat back down on the couch beside her. He reached out to touch her, but she pulled away.
“When you did look at me,” she spoke in a hushed voice, “I saw your face. You looked… dreadful. You’d been crying, hadn’t slept in what, three, four days?”
“I slept in the hospital room,” he corrected her; remembering Dotty finally forced him out of the room to go home for a while. “I only left to shower, and then I came right back,” Lee choked out. “I was so worried I was going to lose you.”
“Really?” she replied skeptically, with an arched brow. “I thought maybe…”
“What?” he pressed.
“When I woke up that day, I knew from the look on your face, that we’d lost the baby,” she croaked out slowly, her words deliberate. “I wished, in that instant that I had died, too. I saw your face, Lee. I wondered if it hadn’t been better for you, if I had…”
“How can you say that?” he gasped incredulously, stunned at her statement. “I don’t know what I would have done if I had lost you, too.”
For a moment, she looked less pained, but his soothing words barely covered her deep wounds. Taking a ragged breath, she continued. “Before you realized I was awake, I saw you. You looked angry… full of hate. When you saw my eyes flutter, you put on your game face, Lee, but it was too late. I’d already seen what you tried to hide. I knew we… you and I, would never be the same again.”
“Oh my God!” he exclaimed, raking his hand through his hair. “This isn’t happening…”
“It’s all right, Lee. You had every reason to hate me,” she said, struggling not to cry.
“Amanda, I’ve never hated you. I was angry at the situation,” he tried to explain. “You’re confused…”
She shook her head, staring down at the floor for a while before she looked back up at him. In a voice filled with sadness, she replied, “I know what I saw.”
He stared at her incredulously. He could see in her eyes; she truly believed that’s what she’d seen that day. He reached out to touch her, but again she flinched away.
“I don’t believe this,” he whispered, shaking his head. Standing up, he walked towards the fire. He watched the flames for a while before he turned back to his wife. “Do you remember Dr. Smyth being at the hospital that day?”
Her face looked blank.
“He was there that morning, only hours before your condition finally stabilized,” Lee began to explain, his jaw muscle twitched in anger and he gritted his teeth, trying to calm his fury. “We had words…”
Amanda raised an eyebrow. “What about?”
Lee shook his head. “It doesn’t matter, now. Trust me when I tell you, what you saw that day was anger, yes, even hate. But I swear to you, it wasn’t directed at you; it was directed at Smyth!”
“What did you argue about?” she demanded urgently, but he shook his head again. She persisted. In a calmer voice, she reminded him, “You want to tear down the barriers, Lee. I have a need to know.”
Lee closed his eyes for a moment, remembering the conversation clearly. He swallowed hard before telling her. “You’d lost so much blood before we got you to the hospital. The N.E.S.T. surgeons didn’t give you much of a chance at surviving surgery, let alone recovery.”
“You’ve told me all this before, so did mother,” she snapped irritably, prompting him for something more; something she didn’t already know.
Despite the months that had passed, the memory of that morning was still painful and distinctly burned into his consciousness. Clearing his throat, he struggled for composure, but his face showed the anguish his voice tried desperately to mask.
“You hadn’t improved much at all. In fact, that fourth night, your breathing was shallow and labored. They were forced to put you back on a respirator.” Lee Stetson closed his eyes and paused again, remembering was still agonizing for him. His heart pounded at the gut-wrenching memory; he finally continued with an unmistakable quiver in his voice. “Even with it, I didn’t think you were going to make it ‘til dawn.”
Amanda stared silently at her husband, captivated by the new information he was sharing.
“Smyth came into your room early that morning and saw you,” he grit out irately. “Before dawn.”
Lee stood there, mouth open, but he couldn’t go on. He looked at her with overwhelming despair.
“Smyth told you to pull the plug?” she guessed. From the look on her face, she already knew the answer.
With a faraway look in his eyes, he nodded. “The bastard shrugged off how hard you were fighting to stay alive. He dismissed your life as… an unfortunate consequence.”
“Oh my gosh!” she paled at Dr. Smyth’s lack of compassion. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“We were having enough problems dealing with losing the baby and getting you back on your feet.” With love in his eyes, he explained. “I didn’t need to dump that baggage on you as well.”
“No wonder you didn’t want me to return to the Agency. I can’t believe I went back and worked for that tyrant!” she exclaimed, shaking her head, appalled at her own actions.
“Smyth ordered me back to work,” Lee explained with a shiver. He warmed his hands by the fire, but the shiver hadn’t been caused by the cold. “I refused to leave your bedside. I wasn’t going anywhere until your condition was stable. I wanted to be there when you woke up…”
“You were…” she said with an appreciative smile.
“Little good that did us both,” Lee answered, closing his eyes. He shook his head thinking back to her recent disclosures before continuing his explanation. “Smyth insisted I assume Billy’s position, but I didn’t want it. I wanted to hunt down Billy’s killer. I wanted the bastard who shot you…”
Amanda glanced over at him, tears in her eyes. “I never doubted that.”
“When I turned Smyth down, my punishment for not accepting his demand was being excluded from working on the case entirely. He made sure I was assigned elsewhere; telling me, I’d lost my edge.” Lee stared at the flames before continuing. “Maybe he was right. All I know was there was nothing left for me at the Agency.”
“I don’t know what to say. I’m sorry seems so… inadequate.”
“You’re not the one who needed to apologize. Later that day, when your condition finally stabilized and then improved, he never said a word. He didn’t even care that you lived. Billy always cared about his agents. Smyth…” Lee shook his head in disgust.
Amanda got up, and walked over to where he stood, in front of the fire. After wiping the tears from her eyes, she placed her hands on his chest. “Thank you for being there. Thank you for not…”
“Shhh,” Lee whispered, not wanting her to say it. He wrapped his arms around his wife and pulled her to him, kissing the top of her head. Closing his eyes, he could feel his heart pounding as he held her close.
For the next few minutes, they held each other silently. Drawing strength and comfort from one another.
Rubbing her back tenderly, Lee cleared his throat. “We’re going to work through this, Amanda, all of it. I promise you that.”
In a hoarse voice, she replied. “I know we will.”
Loosening his grip on her, he nodded towards the bedroom. “It’s been a long day. I think we’ve torn down enough barriers for now. We better try to get some sleep. Tomorrow’s going to be a big day.”
“Yeah, you’re right.”
Lee put his arm around her waist and together they walked into the bedroom…
End Part Five
Second Chances
Part Six
Friday, March 27th
The sun made the afternoon feel more like a summer day than early spring. They sat at a picnic table in the park with Fritz the Cat, going over the blueprints of the building where NCF leased its offices.
“It’s the simplest and best way in, Scarecrow. It’ll get you to every office without having to be totally under the radar. The offices you are interested in are here, in the back,” Fritz said, pointing to the blueprint.
“What’s this here?” Lee asked, pointing to another door on the prints.
“It’s the door to the basement.”
“Any way out from there?” Amanda questioned.
Shaking his head, Fritz the Cat answered. “Not that I’m aware of. The best way out is the same way you went in, past the night watchman. If you get into trouble, you have a back door - here,” Fritz said pointing to the blueprints again. “Leads to a long alley; one that I wouldn’t want to get caught in.”
“It’s not foolproof, but it should work,” Lee remarked, rolling up the blueprints, and glancing at Amanda.
“The cleaning crew, I can hardly wait,” Amanda commented less than enthusiastically.
“Well, it was supposed to be a spring cleaning assignment,” Lee teased.
“You two be careful over there,” Fritz the Cat warned, shaking Lee’s hand and patting Amanda on the back before departing.
“Thanks, Fritz, we will,” Lee promised, watching his friend return to his car. He turned back to his wife. “Are you having second thoughts? You don’t have to come in with me if you don’t want to, Amanda. I mean, if we get caught and they run your name, you’ll be arrested for sure…”
“I know,” she answered, a concerned look on her face.
“Maybe I should get Francine to help…”
“No, I’ll go. It’s my neck you’re trying to save,” she pointed out. “Besides, aren’t you forgetting the time Billy assigned me and Francine to work undercover as maids?”
Lee nodded at the long ago memory, but the mention of Billy’s name brought back other memories as well. Neither of them spoke for a few minutes while they sat quietly, lost in their thoughts. Nearby, they watched children playing tag, and a mother, pushing her young child on the swings.
“That should be us over there,” she whispered, her eyes welling up with tears.
Lee reached over and touched her hand. “Don’t go there, Amanda. I had no right to put the blame on you. You had no choice. How could I expect anything less from you, than to try and save a friend?”
“I think about that decision every day, Lee,” she said softly, rubbing her temple. “I wonder what I could have done differently.”
“But you don’t come up with a solution, do you?”
She shook her head.
“That’s because you had no choice. Going to help Billy was the right thing to do. I know it now. Back then, I was too angry at Smyth, Billy, the world.” Lee scooted over close to her and wrapped his arm around her shoulder, pulling her close to him supportively. “I was wrong, and I’m sorry.”
“I wish I could get my heart and my head to see it the same way,” she admitted guiltily.
Turning towards her, he stated with conviction, “There are two things I know for sure about this business, Amanda, and that’s good people die.” Sighing heavily, he continued, “and sometimes there’s nothing you can do to prevent it.”
She gave him a weak smile. “And how did you come to that conclusion?”
“You taught me,” he replied matter-of-factly. “It took me years to get over losing my first partner, but you helped me put it in perspective. Sad thing is I’ve lost my second partner, not to a bullet, but because of my own stubbornness.”
“You haven’t lost me, Lee.”
“Maybe not, but I have let you down,” he rebuked gloomily. He closed his eyes, silently wishing he’d done things differently, and praying that they still had time to repair the damage. “I won’t deny that I was miserable. Hell, I was furious because of what happened – you getting shot, and losing the baby. Instead of working things out with you, I left, as if it was your fault. I should have stayed.”
Amanda glanced away. “You stayed by me until I was healthy enough to get back on my feet. You didn’t leave until I went back to work.”
“I didn’t want you to go back to the Agency,” Lee answered, his jaw muscles twitching and tightening up.
“I know you didn’t,” she whispered, looking away.
Lee couldn’t contain his frustration. With a shake of his head, he challenged, “Then why did you go back?”
“After what happened, I needed some sense of routine in my life. Things between us were… strained at best. You were running from everything: me, the Agency, home. Going to New York with you back then was too much for me to deal with all at once.”
“Why didn’t you take a desk job at least?” he argued, desperate to understand her actions.
“Because I wanted the bastard who shot me!” she gritted out, now her muscles tightened, her hands balled up into fists and her face turned red with rage. “I lost a lot that day, too, you know. I was carrying that baby. I was there with Billy when he died.” Glancing up at her husband, she shook her head angrily. “You weren’t the only one who was furious, Lee. I wanted vengeance for what we lost. Maybe I was wrong for that, but it’s the truth. At that point in time, I wanted to settle the score.”
Lee swallowed hard, never before had he seen Amanda that angry. He was beginning to understand his wife’s motives and actions. Lee wanted to be sure that she understood his. “You do understand that I couldn’t stay. Smyth kept pressing me to take Billy’s job. I couldn’t look at Smyth without wanting to kill him. If I had stayed...” Lee shook his head and stared down at the ground. “I had to leave…”
“I wish you had told me about Smyth,” she spit out his name before regaining her composure, “before I went back to work.” Continuing on, she reflected on her own decisions. “My stubbornness, my choice to go back to the field only made it worse for you, and drove you away. You’d lost your first partner to a bullet, a good friend, and your unborn child. You couldn’t stay and wonder when it would happen to me. You said it yourself, that in this business, good people die and there’s nothing you can do to stop it.”
“Why are you making this easy for me?”
“Blaming each other for what’s already done isn’t going to help get us back together. I know how much you wanted that baby, but I did, too,” Amanda admitted. “The truth is I hurt you deeply when I went back to the Agency. I didn’t know your reasons back then. If I had, I never would have gone back. But all this was too difficult to talk about back then, too painful for each of us.”
“And now?” he pressed.
There was a pause before she answered. “I’m wanted for treason. I don’t think the Agency is an issue anymore.”
“Yes it is,” he replied, his voice was slightly agitated. “Once this is over, we both know Smyth will offer you your job back. Are you going back again?”
“Oh my gosh, no! Not now, knowing what Smyth ordered you to do. It’s time for me to move… forward.”
Lee let out a long, slow breath. He was more than relieved at her decision. It was long overdue. “What are your plans?”
“I don’t know,” she replied, looking away, then continued in a soft voice. “It’s a little premature right now. We still have to clear my name.”
“I thought you had faith in me?”
“I’ve always had faith in you,” she replied solemnly.
“Do you have faith in us, Amanda? Do we get a second chance at happiness together?”
“There’s nothing I want more, Lee,” she whispered tearfully.
Reassured by her admission, he stood up.
Reaching out his hand, he helped her up. “Come on, then. It’s
time we get started. We have some shopping to do before we start
our cleaning job tonight.”
***
“Hello,” Amanda greeted the guard at NCF’s Washington, DC office cheerfully. Dressed in a blue, one-piece janitorial jumpsuit, she carried a tote full of cleaning supplies. Lee was dressed similarly, only a few steps behind her with a vacuum in one hand, a bucket, and mop in the other. “How are you doing,” she paused and squinted to read the name on his badge, “How are you tonight, Alfred?”
“Fine, ma’am,” the guard at the front desk answered, “can I help you?”
“Cleaning crew,” she said politely.
The guard frowned and shook his head. “Sorry, but the cleaning crew was here last night.”
“Yes, we know,” she smiled at the guard and glanced over to Lee. “They were in and out pretty quick, weren’t they?”
“Well, yeah, I guess…”
“They emptied the garbage and that was about it. They got fired. We got a call this morning. Told us if we did a good job tonight, the contract was ours,” she eagerly explained.
The guard picked up his clipboard and flipped through several pages. “They didn’t tell me anything about a new cleaning crew…”
“We didn’t get back to them until late in the day to confirm,” Lee added. “Had to juggle our schedule to accommodate NCF, but we managed.”
“If you don’t mind, we’ve got two more jobs tonight after this one, so we’d really like to get started,” Amanda pressed.
“I should really call NCF and get clearance…” the guard hesitated nervously.
“Hey, if you think that’s best, you know… sure,” Amanda hedged, putting down the tote of cleaning supplies. “You’re only trying to do your job and I’m trying to do mine. I doubt that the head honcho at NCF would mind being called by security at this hour about the cleaning crew! I’m sure he wouldn’t fire you, too…”
The guard swallowed hard. Then he glanced at the clock, and shrugged. Waving them through, he nodded. “Yeah, sure, go on. I hope it works out for you.”
“Thanks, we do, too!” Amanda replied as she and Lee walked past the guard and into the offices of National Capital Financial.
Turning on the vacuum to help with their cover, they worked quickly. They scoured the desk drawers looking for the client list. Going from room to room methodically, they found the office extremely neat and tidy. The few file cabinets they came across were unlocked, but there weren’t any client files.
Eventually, they made it to Ryan Conrad’s office, the CEO. It was the largest office by far. A stately wooden desk graced the room, with two leather chairs in front of it. There was a credenza behind his desk and off to the side, two file cabinets. They immediately went over to the file cabinets, pulling on them; they were locked. Lee glanced confidently at his partner. While he picked one of the locks, Amanda picked the other.
“You’ve gotten better at that,” he remarked, glancing over his shoulder at her. “You’re almost as fast as I am.”
“I had a good teacher,” she winked and started sifting through the files.
“You know, you usually ask me what we’re looking for when we do jobs like these,” Lee commented.
“Yeah, but this time I know what we’re looking for!”
“Let’s hope we find it!” he replied.
They searched through the cabinets doggedly. Flipping file through file, hoping to find something.
Noticing that Amanda had stopped, he leaned over and looked at what had caught her eye. “Did you find something?”
“Yeah, this was lying on the bottom of the drawer.” Amanda pulled out a thin file and flicked through it slowly. “I’ve got it, Lee,” Amanda grinned. “It’s the client list!”
Lee pulled out his camera, snapping several pictures of it. “Great! Take a peek at the desk; see if you can come up with anything else. We still don’t have a connection to Casper.”
Amanda nodded and began to pilfer through the desk drawers of Ryan Conrad. She went through all the drawers, but came up empty handed until she noticed a picture on his desk. “Lee, look at this.”
“Look at what?” he asked with a shrug.
“The picture on the desk,” she pointed.
”Yeah, what about it?” he shrugged looking at a picture of two guys each holding up a fish.
“The two guys in the photo: the guy on the left with blonde hair, that’s Casper. A few years younger maybe, but it’s definitely Casper.”
Lee leaned in for a closer review of the picture. “The other guy, do you recognize him?”
“No, but there is a slight resemblance, maybe they’re brothers?” she surmised.
“An older brother maybe?” he guessed. “The guy looks a bit older than Casper.”
“What was Casper’s father’s name?”
“Steven Conrad. He died a couple of years ago. We couldn’t find a family relationship from Casper to Ryan Conrad. Then again, we couldn’t find much on Ryan Conrad at all.”
“You didn’t come across any personnel records tonight, did you?” Amanda pursued.
“No, but I wasn’t looking for them, either.”
“You would have noticed if you came across them, wouldn’t you? Don’t you think it’s odd that there aren’t any? This is NCF’s only office, and we have absolutely no personnel records on the premises,” Amanda asked with an arched brow.
“Yeah, in this day and age, simply to hire someone, you need a social security card, a picture ID, an application, and a half dozen government forms signed by them to make sure they’re who they say they are,” Lee nodded thinking about the files he had to keep on his own employees.
“Your friend Jim doesn’t know the CEO or the CFO. You can’t find a paper trail on them and we show up here, and they don’t even have any personnel files,” Amanda recited with a questioning look.
“It doesn’t add up. If this is a sales office for an investment company, there should be sales agent desks with brochures and sales literature. Sales reps need to be licensed. Where’s all that?” Lee noted.
“Other than this office, and the front desk, where the receptionist’s station is, the whole place seems rather… impersonal. No family pictures on the desks, no sales awards, no post-it notes, or other clutter. The whole place looks too clean.”
“We’ve found a client list, but where are the client files?” he asked. “They still need to maintain files for the SEC and the NASD.”
“I didn’t see any,” she shrugged.
“The entire company must be fictitious!” Lee remarked, focusing the camera lens on the picture and taking a few shots of the two men. “This whole place is nothing but a fraud! How did National Capital Financial end up on the Spring Cleaning list anyway?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Let’s get out of here and go through the client list. Somebody wanted to leak that this place isn’t what it pretends to be. Maybe that will shed some light on what the hell is going on around here,” Lee suggested, turning off the vacuum and picking it up they headed out of the office.
Amanda sprayed some air freshener down the hallway and waved to the guard when they departed. “Good night, Alfred!”
End Part Six