Disclaimer: The characters in this story are from the tv show Scarecrow and Mrs. King and do not belong to me. I have not received any money for writing this, nor am I going to. (Sad, isn't it?) However, I would happily accept chocolate-based donations of goodwill. Failing that, I appreciate reviews.
Explanation: I thought that I was done writing Halloween stories for the season, but as the old saying goes, "Never two without three." Anyway, here's the third! I'm dedicating this story to Singerme because her ghost story got me thinking that the Agency could use a ghost story of its own. Happy Halloween!
Tales from the Q-Bureau
By Jestress
Anyone outside the building inconspicuously labeled International Federal Film would have seen only one lit window that October night. It was the window of the room with "Film Library" painted on its door. Of course, few people would have known that since entry to the building was restricted to authorized personnel. Those personnel worked for the espionage organization called the Agency, and they were already aware that the Film Library was really the Agency's Q-Bureau. It was the department that kept the information on all of the Agency's most bizarre cases.
It was just such a case that held the attention of Lee Stetson, the head of the Q-Bureau, and his partner, Amanda King, as they worked late that night. Amanda had already called her mother to tell her not to wait up, although Lee had tried to send her home twice.
"I don't know, Amanda," Lee said as he leaned back in his chair and rubbed his eyes. He was on his fifth cup of black coffee, but it didn't seem to be doing him any good anymore. "Perhaps we should just give it up for the night."
"There's got to be an answer here somewhere," Amanda murmured, staring at the pictures in front of her. By now, the images had pretty well burned themselves into her brain, but she just had the feeling that there was something they were missing. "We know that someone got into that room to steal the documents. We just don't know how."
The day before, some important papers relating to a new missile defense system had been stolen from the private study of a U.S. senator, Oliver Cummings. It was quite a scandal because he had broken regulations by taking the papers home with him to study as he prepared for his next meeting on the subject.
However, what made the case so puzzling was that no one could tell exactly how the papers were taken from the senator's study. Senator Cummings had an excellent security system with video cameras filming the outside of the house. The footage clearly showed that no one had broken in that night.
If the theft had been an inside job, it should have been simple to pinpoint the most likely suspect, but no one who had been in the house that night seemed to have had the opportunity to get into the room and remove the papers. Aside from Senator Cummings and his wife, the other people in the house included the servants, a few dinner guests, and the senator's sister-in-law, Katherine Fowler, who was staying with them temporarily while buying a new house. Senator Cummings also insisted that only he and his wife knew the combination to the safe where he stored his documents.
Lee and Amanda had spent all evening looking at pictures of the senator's study and going over the list of the senator's household staff and guests, but so far, nothing had given them any further insight into the case.
"We've been over the list of staff who had access to the room," Lee said. He paused to yawn. "None of them knew the documents were there, and they couldn't have opened the safe even if they did. The dinner guests were also senators on the committee to study the new missile defense system, so they would have already had access to the same information that the senator did. There would be no reason for them to steal the papers from him. As for Mrs. Cummings's sister, Katherine, she spent almost the entire evening with the dinner guests. She admits that she went into the study once during the evening to look for a book she had misplaced, but she said that everything seemed fine to her, and she didn't find her book. Everyone saw her come out of the study empty-handed. Still, it's got to be one of these people. Security was tight, and there's no way anyone else could have gotten in without being seen."
"Hmmm," Amanda said. Her eyes were closed and her head was drooping.
"Hey!" Lee said, getting up and going to her desk.
Amanda opened her eyes and jerked herself awake.
"You should go home," Lee said gently. "You're falling asleep."
"What about you?"
"I'm more used to this. I could always bunk down on the couch and catch a nap. Your family will worry about you if you don't come home."
"I already told Mother that I might be pulling an all-nighter," Amanda said, trying unsuccessfully to stifle a yawn. "Mr. Melrose wants the report on this incident tomorrow. We have to come up with something for him."
"Yeah," Lee said, sighing and running a hand through his hair. "Why don't we take a little break? Clear our heads? I'll get you another cup of coffee."
"Okay," Amanda said, yawning and stretching.
"Any plans for Halloween?" Lee asked conversationally as he put another filter in the coffee machine. "Are the boys going trick-or-treating?"
Amanda shook her head. "No. They say that they're too old for that stuff now." She sounded regretful. "But, they are having a few friends over to watch scary movies."
"Sounds like fun."
"I didn't know that you liked scary movies," Amanda said with a smile.
"Sometimes I do," Lee said, measuring coffee grounds into the machine. "Not that I believe in ghosts or anything, but sometimes, when I was a kid, I would tell scary stories with the other kids on the bases where my uncle was stationed."
"I also didn't know you were a story-teller."
"Oh, no?" Lee said, raising his eyebrows. "When you spend most of your childhood traveling from one place to another, you hear all kinds of weird things. Did I ever tell you the story about the Q-Bureau? It has its own ghost, you know."
"It does?" Now, Amanda was raising her eyebrows.
"Oh, yes. The ghost of the first person to manage the Q-Bureau, back in the '60s, Hiram T. Gillis."
"Oh, come on." Amanda rolled her eyes.
Lee stopped making the coffee and turned to Amanda, continuing his story in a spooky voice. "Back in the early days of the Agency, the Q-Bureau was created and managed by Hiram T. Gillis, a close personal friend of Harry Thornton's. Gillis was one of the best agents the Agency ever produced, which was why he was assigned the task of forming a department to handle the Agency's most difficult cases and to keep records on the strangest, most unsolvable ones. Gillis soon developed a reputation for solving the unsolvable. However, he always worked alone, without a partner, and that was to be his undoing."
"His undoing?" Amanda asked skeptically.
"One Friday night, he was working very late in the Q-Bureau. It was a difficult case involving the mysterious deaths of some fellow agents. Of course, because he was alone that night, no one knows for sure what lines he was following in his investigation. All we know is that he was found dead in the vault the following Monday."
Amanda was unimpressed. No ghost story was complete without a mysterious death, so she'd been expecting it.
"At first, it appeared that he had somehow been locked in the vault by accident and suffocated because there was no one to let him out and no one had even noticed that he was missing until he failed to show up for a meeting on Monday morning. But, when they examined the body, they found strange marks on his neck."
"Fang marks from a vampire?" Amanda asked teasingly.
"No," Lee said seriously. "They looked like bruises of some kind. No one could ever figure out what caused them. Gillis's death was officially labeled an accident, but unofficially, everyone at the Agency knew it was murder."
"Why?" Amanda asked curiously.
"Because all of the paperwork on the case he was following was missing," Lee said. "It just completely disappeared."
"So they figured that whoever killed the other agents killed Gillis?" Amanda asked.
"And you know what else?"
"What?"
"There were some people who claimed that the marks on Gillis's neck looked like finger marks."
Amanda's eyes widened.
"But they weren't normal finger marks. They looked strange. Kind of misshapen. Maybe not quite . . . human." Lee paused ominously.
Amanda laughed. "Right!" she said. "The murderer was a monster. We all know that monsters are careful about concealing the incriminating paperwork."
Lee gave her a sly grin. "Hey, believe what you want. But, people who have worked in this office at night have sworn that they've heard Gillis's ghost scratching and tapping on the vault door, trying to get out. Some have heard other sounds, too. Strange things that aren't quite human."
"We've worked in this office at night before, and I've never heard anything like that."
Lee chuckled. "Speaking of work, I guess we'd better get back to it soon. I'll just get some water for the coffee, and we'll have another look at those photos."
With Lee gone, the Q-Bureau was suddenly much quieter. Amanda leaned back in her chair and sighed. It was tempting to take Lee up on his offer and go home, but she didn't want to leave him with all the work. She had the feeling that the answer to this case was right under their noses, and they were just missing it.
While she was thinking, Amanda started to doze off. A sudden scraping sound woke her. Or maybe it was more of a squeal or screech. Amanda jerked her head up and looked around.
There was nothing. It had probably been a tree branch scraping the window or something. Unless she'd just dreamed it.
Amanda had to laugh at herself. Lee's silly story had obviously started to invade her dream as she was dozing. Maybe Lee had a point about wanting to send her home. She wouldn't be much help if she was falling asleep. Maybe they both needed some rest.
For awhile, Amanda debated about whether they should take turns napping on the couch in the Q-Bureau or whether they should both go home, get a few hours of sleep, and come in early the next day to start again fresh. The idea of starting fresh was appealing, although Amanda knew that they were on a tight schedule. On the other hand, she was so tired now that she wasn't sure that it was safe for her to drive home alone.
Another sound interrupted Amanda's thoughts. Not a scraping sound this time. Footsteps? She turned toward the door, but it didn't open, and the noise stopped.
Lee certainly was taking awhile with that water. Amanda checked her watch. It was almost one in the morning. How had it gotten to be so late? She hadn't looked at her watch when Lee had left the room. It could have been later than she'd thought, or maybe she'd dozed for longer than she'd thought.
Amanda went to the door of the Q-Bureau and peered out into the hall. There was no sign of Lee anywhere. Everything was dark. Not a sound, not a soul.
She retreated back into the safety of the well-lit Q-Bureau. Safe, except for the ghost and monster, Amanda thought.
Then, she scoffed quietly. Lee had made the whole story up. She knew that. He was just pulling her leg, letting off a little steam by making up that wild story to scare her. But, she wasn't really scared.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Amanda froze. What was that?
Tap. Tap. Tap.
The sound was somewhere close, but it wasn't coming from the vault. Amanda forced herself to be calm and listen.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
She grinned in relief as she realized what the sound was. The coffee maker was dripping. There must have been a little moisture left in it, and Lee had accidentally switched it on when he'd picked up the coffee pot to get some water. Amanda turned it off.
Fortunately, Lee wasn't there to see how much his story was affecting her. However, she was getting kind of worried about how long he was taking.
Once again, she went to the Q-Bureau door and looked out.
"Lee?" she called.
Suddenly, there was a loud scrape followed by a thunk.
"Lee!" Amanda called louder.
There was no answer.
Now, Amanda was really scared. There was someone upstairs besides her, and Lee was missing. She ducked back into the Q-Bureau and turned the lock on the door. As long as the door was locked, she would be safe, but what about Lee? He was all by himself, somewhere, and he could be in trouble.
Just because whatever she'd heard wasn't the monster from Lee's story didn't mean that it wasn't dangerous. If some unauthorized person, some enemy agent, had snuck into the Agency, he could have attacked Lee. He could still be lurking around, waiting to ambush her . . .
But, she had to find out what happened to Lee. She couldn't just leave her partner, her best friend, all alone and in danger.
Quickly, she rifled through the drawers in Lee's desk. She remembered that he had a flashlight that he kept there in case of emergency. Sometimes, he carried it with him when he walked her out to her car after dark. Finding it, she went to the door and listened.
When she didn't hear anything out in the hall, she carefully unlocked the door and eased it open. All was quiet. Slowly, Amanda stepped out into the hall.
At first, she wanted to call Lee again, but then she thought better of it. If there was someone hiding, it was better not to let them know that she was coming. The only sounds that Amanda could hear were her own footsteps and the pounding of her heart. She hugged the right wall and tried to move more quietly.
Sccrrraaaaappe!
There it was again! Amanda paused.
Thunk!
It seemed to come from one of the rooms down the hall. Amanda could see light coming from the crack under the door. There was also some kind of a faint tapping noise and something else that Amanda couldn't identify. A sudden, high-pitched squeal sent chills down Amanda's spine.
Investigating the noises on her own didn't seem like such a great idea anymore. No longer trying to be slow and quiet, Amanda turned and fled back toward the stairs. There were security personnel on the lower floors. She could get them and come back to find Lee.
But there was someone else in the hallway now. He was coming up the stairs. A big shape stepped in front of her suddenly. Amanda screamed.
Splash!
"Amanda! What are you doing? Aim that thing another way!"
Lee Stetson was holding a coffee pot in one hand while the other hand was shielding his eyes from the light that Amanda was shining directly into his face. The coffee pot had been completely full of water before Amanda had run into him. Now, about half the water was missing, and both of their shirts were soaking wet.
"Lee! Lee, there's someone up here! I heard scraping and tapping and—"
"Amanda, calm down!" Lee said. "Boy, that story really scared you, didn't it?"
"Lee, it's not the story! There's really someone up here!"
"Look, Amanda," Lee said, as patiently as a tired man with a soaking wet shirt can, "I just made that story up! There is no such person as Hiram T. Gillis, and there never was. Now, I'm sorry I scared you, and I'm sorry I took so long getting the water. I ran into Ragmop, and he insisted on talking—"
"Lee, please!" Amanda said, grabbing hold of his arm. "Just listen!"
The two of them stood silently in the hallway.
Sccrrraaaaappe!
Amanda looked at Lee wordlessly.
Carefully, Lee set the coffee pot on the floor against the wall and drew his gun.
"Stay behind me," he whispered.
Amanda followed him closely as he started down the hall. As they neared the room that the noises were coming from, Lee motioned for Amanda to stand back. With one swift motion, Lee flung open the door and pointed his gun inside.
"Freeze!"
Thunk!
"Aaaaaaahh!"
Mrs. Marston screamed as she threw her hands in the air and dropped the box that she was holding.
"Mrs. Marston?" Lee asked, lowering his gun. "What are you doing here at this time of night?"
"Well, I was . . . I was, um . . ." Mrs. Marston stammered.
As Amanda peered around the doorframe, she wasn't sure which was stranger, seeing Mrs. Marston sneaking around in the middle of the night or seeing her so rattled. She was nothing like the calm, confident, almost intimidating Mrs. Marston that they were used to seeing in the Agency's Georgetown foyer.
While Mrs. Marston was trying to stammer out an explanation, Amanda looked around the room. The furniture in this disused office was covered with sheets, but there were boxes stacked in various places around the room and a metal cart next to the desk where Mrs. Marston was standing. On the desk, there was a large tape dispenser gun.
"You see," Mrs. Marston finally managed to explain, "Ragmop let me store some things here."
"What things?" Lee demanded, taking a closer look at the boxes.
"My husband and I are moving to a new apartment," she said, shrugging helplessly. "I just needed someplace to store these things for awhile until our new place is ready."
Lee sighed. "You know that it's against regulations to bring things into the Agency without proper inspection or authorization."
"I know." Mrs. Marston hung her head. "But, it was only for a couple of days, and no one was using the space . . . I just didn't want anyone looking through my personal belongings. That's why I was trying to take them away at night."
"And Ragmop was helping you? That's probably why he kept trying to delay me, so that you could finish what you were doing up here."
Mrs. Marston nodded. "I was just fixing the tape on some of the boxes before taking them down to my car."
"Is that what made that scraping sound I heard?" Amanda asked.
"Probably." Mrs. Marston gave her a weak grin. "The tape gun is a little loud."
"I thought I heard some kind of high-pitched squeal, too. What was that?"
"It must have been the cart that Ragmop let me use to move the boxes. It could use some oil." Mrs. Marston moved the cart to demonstrate, and it made the same squealing sound.
"That sounds like what I heard," Amanda said. "But I heard other noises, too. I'm not sure how to describe them. They were sort of strange, maybe not . . . human."
Mrs. Marston gave her a withering look. "I was also humming."
"Oh."
Lee rolled his eyes. "Well," he said, "you understand that I can't let you remove these boxes from the building without having them inspected first. I'm sorry, but since this is a secure facility, we need to know everything that enters and leaves."
"I understand," Mrs. Marston said reluctantly.
"You go on home, and we'll discuss it in the morning. I'll also have a talk with Ragmop," Lee added under his breath.
Mrs. Marston agreed and started to leave the room.
"Wait a minute!" Amanda exclaimed.
Mrs. Marston stopped, and both she and Lee stared at Amanda.
"I know how the papers were stolen!" Amanda said.
Mrs. Marston was confused, but Lee eagerly asked, "What do you mean? How?"
"The senator's sister-in-law was moving, right?"
"Yeah, so?"
"So she must have had boxes of her stuff and needed someplace to put them, just like Mrs. Marston, right?"
"I guess so."
"There weren't any boxes in the senator's study when those pictures were taken of the scene after the theft," Amanda explained, "but that doesn't mean that there weren't boxes there earlier. I think that the senator's wife helped her sister move the boxes out of the room before the authorities came to investigate, probably before her husband even looked for the papers the next day."
"You mean that Mrs. Cummings and Katherine Fowler stole the papers?"
"Well, probably just Katherine Fowler. I think that Mrs. Cummings just didn't want her husband to know that they'd been storing some things in his study without his permission. Like Mrs. Marston, they tried to move these things in and out of the study without him knowing about it, which is why he never mentioned them to the investigators. When Katherine went into the study that evening, she put the papers in one of her boxes, knowing that they would be moved before the theft was discovered."
Mrs. Marston tried to decide whether she should be embarrassed for being compared to a thief or pleased that she had inadvertently helped to solve the crime.
"But how did Katherine get into the safe?"
"Maybe Mrs. Cummings told her the combination."
"Why?"
"She probably had some jewelry or other valuables among the things she needed to store. Mrs. Cummings could have easily suggested her husband's safe as the place to put them."
Lee still wasn't convinced that was the solution. "It's a lot of supposition. You can't even prove that there were any moving boxes in the senator's study. As you said, there weren't any in the pictures."
"No," Amanda said, "but Mrs. Marston's tape gun reminded me that there was a roll of packaging tape sitting on the senator's desk. Katherine probably left it there when she sealed up the box that she put the papers in."
"It is worth investigating," Lee said thoughtfully. "And we'll do that . . . in the morning. Now that we have a working theory, I think that we've done enough for tonight, and we should all go home."
"I'll second that," Amanda said, yawning. Now that she wasn't scared anymore, she was back to feeling tired. "Could you drive me home? I hate to ask you to go out of your way, but I think I'm too sleepy to drive."
"Sure," Lee said with a grin. "It's the least I can do for the person who might just have cracked the senator's case and helped catch the ghost of Hiram T. Gillis."
"Hiram T. Gillis's ghost is up here?" Mrs. Marston asked, looking around as if she expected him to jump out of the walls at her.
"It's just a joke," Lee said with a grin. "There's no such person as Hiram T. Gillis."
"Yes, there is," Mrs. Marston said, pointing at a picture on the wall next to the door.
Lee and Amanda took a closer look. The picture showed a good-looking man, about 40 years old with dark hair. A little brass plaque at the bottom of the picture said, "Hiram T. Gillis."
Amanda looked at Lee. "I thought you said that you made him up."
"Well, I thought I did," Lee said. "I don't know who this guy is. I suppose that I've probably seen his picture before and just forgot about it."
"Yeah," Amanda said. "That's probably it. We'd better go."
After a brief pause to lock up the Q-Bureau for the night, the three of them hurried downstairs and quickly headed out to their cars.
If anyone had remained upstairs in the hallway that housed the Q-Bureau and Hiram T. Gillis's old office, they might have heard what sounded like faint scratching or tapping, a soft chuckle, and maybe something else that wasn't quite . . . human.
The End
Happy Halloween!