Saturday August 23rd
 

Dotty went through the metal detectors, and waited tolerantly while her pocketbook was hand searched.  Then, she presented her identification to an armed guard and was told to sign in before she was given a visitors pass. Next, she walked down a short, non-descript hallway, lingering at the locked metal door until the officer opened it with his key.  Once inside, her identification was checked once again before she traded her visitor’s pass for a clip-on visitor’s badge.  Frustrated with the tedious process, she sighed heavily while she waited for further instructions.

“Number one,” the guard directed her, pointing towards the cubical across the room.  The drab, white block walls in the visitors meeting room had no adornments.  There were no windows in the internal chamber. The smudged glass that separated the visitor from the prisoner had a conspicuous number ‘1’ pasted on it.  A plastic chair with a small counter on each side of the glass gave little privacy or comfort.

Dotty smiled faintly at the man.  She realized he was only doing his job, but she was uncomfortable in the jail’s visiting room.  The previous visit to see her son-in-law was months ago.  She vowed back then that it would be her last visit until he was freed.  Never the less, she found herself back here again in this inhospitable place.  Rubbing her hands against her arms as goose bumps suddenly appeared did nothing to soothe her discomfort.  It wasn’t the temperature in the room; in fact, it was warm and stuffy.  It was the idea that Lee could spend the rest of his life behind bars.  She shuddered at the terrible thought.

The plastic chair was worn and uninviting.  It squeaked on the floor as she moved it and creaked when she sat down.  It made the empty room feel even more uninviting.  She waited impatiently for Lee to be escorted into the visitors lounge.

“I wonder if you expect to see Amanda after your recent court testimony,” Dotty mumbled aloud, knowing he was not expecting her for sure. Moments later she heard the door open up and she observed her son-in-law, wearing prison garb, enter the room.  She could see the concern in his face from the moment he laid eyes on her.

Rushing to the prisoner side of the cubicle, he almost knocked over the chair on his side of the room.  “Dotty, is Amanda in the hospital?  Is she sick?  Tell me the truth,” he demanded anxiously.

“Relax, Lee, she’s fine,” Dotty explained quickly, putting his fears aside.

“You’re not lying to me, are you?” he persisted, staring at her intensely.

Dotty raised an eyebrow, but shook her head.  Lee was carrying enough of a burden, she wouldn’t add to it by withholding the truth.  “No, Lee,” she confirmed.  “She’s all right.”

Lee sighed and leaned back in his chair, he ran his hand through his short-cropped hair.  “I’ve been worried since she fainted in court.  Nobody would give me a straight answer.  Did you take her to the doctor?”

Dotty had to stifle a chuckle at Lee’s enduring concern for his wife.  If only the jury knew the truth. “Yes, but other than being exhausted and stressed out, there’s little he can do.  She won’t take a sleeping pill and she doesn’t have an appetite.”

“She is looking terribly thin,” Lee concurred.  “You’ve got to get her to eat, Dotty.”

“You certainly aren’t helping any considering what you said the other day in court.”

He looked away, unable to face his mother-in-law.  Eventually he answered, “She has every reason to hate me.”

“Is that part of your plan, Lee, to drive your wife away?” Dotty asked, wondering if that was indeed her son-in-law’s intentions.

Leaning close to the glass and in a whisper, he replied, “I’m poison to her, Dotty.  I’m trying to protect her.”

“You can’t.”

“I’ve got to try.”

“So far you’re doing a lousy job,” Dotty reported crossly, giving him a stern glare.  She wanted to say more, but she didn’t.  She was angry with him, but knew, deep down, he was a good man.

“My options are severely limited in here, Dotty,” Lee sighed heavily, his face looking fatigued, his eyes distant, sad.  “I’m doing what I can.  I had some ‘assurances’ made to me.”

Dotty shook her head.  She knew her son-in-law well enough to know he would do anything to protect his wife.  She didn’t know what it was he was trying to protect her from – neither did Amanda. What Lee couldn’t realize, even after more than twenty years of marriage, was that his attempts to protect his wife only steeled her resolve to help him even more.  The love those two shared was a bond that would not easily be broken.

“By whom?” she asked suspiciously.

Lee shook his head, refusing to tell her.  He wouldn’t look her in the eye.

Dotty might not be a trained investigator, but she understood enough to figure things out.  “You cut a deal, didn’t you Lee?” Dotty pressed, her anxiety level rising by the second.

His voice low, he answered in a voice barely perceptible.  “I made an ‘agreement’ with the D.A.”

“That bastard?” she shuddered, a repulsive look crossing her face.  “You’re nothing but a meal ticket to him!  He’s the devil in an expensive suit!”

Lee didn’t respond to her outrage.  Certainly, he couldn’t deny the statement.  It had been clear from the start that Quentin Broderick was using this case to advance his career.  With the news coverage about the trial, a juicy position on the bench or perhaps the Senate was definitely a possibility.

“Did you even run this by Amanda before making this ‘deal’ of yours?”

“No,” he mumbled almost apologetically.

“Don’t you think you should have?” she snapped her anxiety turning to anger.

“Amanda would have been against it, just like you are,” Lee replied knowingly, rubbing the temples of his head with his fingers, frustrated but seemingly alone.  “It was the only way.  Otherwise, they might…”

Lee didn’t finish his sentence.  Instead, he looked down.  Dotty waited, hoping he would confide in her, but silence filled the room.

“Might what?” Dotty prompted anxiously.

“Dotty, I’m up to my neck in trouble.  I want Amanda out of this.  This is my problem, not hers.  She’s still Agency.  They’ll watch over her.  She’ll be safe.”

“Safe from whom?”  Dotty snapped sharply, angrier than worried for the moment.  She stared at Lee waiting for a response, but he was steadfast in his silence. “That’s part of the problem, Lee.  Your wife isn’t Agency.  Yesterday morning she was terminated by them.”

“What!” Lee grumbled loudly slamming his fists angrily on the counter.  “She was fired?  Why?”

“Oh come on now, Lee,” Dotty chided, her voice filled with emotion, but trying to rein in her anger.  “What did you think the Agency was going to do after you admitted on the witness stand that you’re a double agent?  You two are married and were partners for years!  Did you think the government was going to turn the other cheek?”

“I thought it would keep her out of it.  They assured me…”

“Don’t tell me you’re as naïve as you told everyone your wife is!” Dotty scolded him.  “You made a deal with the D.A., not the Agency!”

“Damn them all!” Lee growled, pounding his fist on the counter again, as his jaw muscle twitched from being clenched so tight.  It was obvious that he was livid.  Taking a deep breath, he glanced over to Dotty and asked a question of his own.  “Amanda must be really furious with me, huh?  She doesn’t usually miss a chance to visit.”

“On the contrary,” Dotty replied, her voice soft and soothing.  “I talked her into going down to Charlottesville to visit Jamie, Cindy, and the kids.  She hasn’t seen them in weeks, and frankly, she needs to unwind.  A day with her grandchildren will do her a world of good.”

“You’re right,” Lee replied in a relieved voice, a smile grew across his face.  “How are the kids?  The baby must be crawling all over the place trying to keep up with her big brother.”

“Baby Abby will be starting to walk soon.  Andy is learning his colors right now.  He’s been pestering Jamie to paint his room green, like the grass.”

“Knowing Amanda, she’ll take Andy down to Home Depot to pick out the paint. I’m glad she went,” Lee laughed heartily and his smile held for a while, before sadness crept back in.  It wasn’t long before his poker face returned.

Dotty could see from the expression on Lee’s face that he missed seeing the grandkids, too.  Although he wasn’t either Philip’s or Jamie’s biological father, both of their children called Lee ‘grandpa’ and he loved every minute of it.

“Yes, Amanda always did like to paint,” Dotty nodded, recalling a memory from long ago.  “I remember one time, years ago, when the boys and I went away for a few days that she painted the dining room this awful drab color of gray.”

“Gray, really?  How odd!” Lee replied, his eyes flashed remembering the reason.  The Agency had used Amanda’s dining room as an interrogation room with the help of Emily Farnsworth. He quickly changed the subject.  “I’m surprised you’re here.  I know you hate coming down here.”

“Amanda made me promise to see you.  If I didn’t, she wouldn’t have gone to Jamie’s.  She wanted to make sure you had a visitor this weekend.”

Lee smiled, looking rather uncomfortable in his prison uniform.  “I appreciate it.  Really I do.”

“I know you do, son, and it’s the least I can do,” Dotty answered, but she was worried for him, actually for the both of them.  She wished there was more she could do for her son-in-law, other than showing her steadfast support.  Their life of ‘National Secrets’ and ‘Need to Know’ was a world she never fully understood.

“Tell Amanda not to worry about me,” Lee suggested.  “Tell her to move on with her life.”

“Oh, come on, Lee, we both know that’s never going to happen,” Dotty’s voice got lower; she glanced around the room looking for the cameras and leaned against the divider, making it more difficult for the camera to view her.  In a whisper, she answered.  “You two love each other.  I know it, you know it, and she knows it.  Nothing, not even a life sentence in prison can change that.”

Lee’s eyes got moist for a few moments.  He blinked furiously before looking down and composing himself.  “She knows that…”

Dotty nodded.  “Of course she does; never doubted it for an instant.  Phillip and Jamie know it too.  Amanda mentioned something about a Stemwinder rerun – whatever that means…”

“When the world turned upside down,” he remarked with a flash of his brilliant smile.  That was when he first admitted to Amanda that he loved her.  “She believed in me back then, too.  I don’t think things are going to turn out as rosy as they did back then.”

“Don’t give up so easily, Lee.  Maybe there’s a way you can rescind your ‘agreement’ with the D.A.” Dotty suggested.

“After what I admitted on the stand the other day?  Not likely.”

“What about a mistrial?”

“No grounds.”

“You lied on the witness stand.  Isn’t that grounds?”

“I’m rather certain I’m not the first defendant to lie on the witness stand,” Lee remarked.

“Most defendants lie because they’re guilty.  We both know you’re innocent,” his mother-in-law clearly pointed out.

Lee chuckled slightly at the irony.  “Touché!”

For a few moments, they were both silent, contemplating their own thoughts.  It wasn’t until another visitor was allowed into the room that the silence was breached.  Dotty glanced over at the other woman who entered the room, assigned to the cubicle next to them.  She smiled briefly at the other woman before turning her attention back to Lee.

“No matter what happens, son, we will always stand beside you.  We might not understand why you’re doing it, but we know the sacrifices you’re making,” Dotty reiterated, wishing there was more she could do for her son-in-law.  “We love you.”

Lee swallowed past the lump in his throat.  A genuine smile grew on his face, and the twinkle in his eye returned for a fleeting visit.  “I appreciate that, Dotty.  More than I can ever say.  Now go on home and make Amanda her favorite meal, and make sure she cleans her plate. Tell her that…”

“I will, Lee, and take care of yourself, too!” Dotty returned with a smile, putting her hand on the Plexiglas before turning away.  With that said Dotty got up out of her chair, turned, and left.

End Part Four
 

Go to:  Part Five
 

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