Disclaimer: none of these characters belong to me; they belong to Shoot the Moon Enterprises and Warner Bros to whom I am eternally grateful for the opportunity to take them out for a spin.
"Hi, Billy."
Lee's voice down the phone line had an odd tone to it that had Billy's hackles up in an instant. There was something in just those two words that reminded him of when his daughters phoned home, worried that they were going to be in trouble for whatever had just happened. It was not the usual cheerful cocky voice of one of his best agents, it was subdued and off-kilter.
"Scarecrow?" he responded, glancing at the clock on the wall. "Aren't you supposed to be on a flight back to Washington right about now?"
"Ahhh, yeah, well…it seems like I might be here a little bit longer."
Everything in Lee's voice suggested he was bracing for his boss to yell at him, but Billy had been a manager – and a father – long enough to know there's usually a good reason not to start shouting right away and that it's usually because you want to save the good yelling for later in the conversation.
"A little bit longer?" he repeated carefully. "Care to explain? Has something gone wrong with the case?"
Lee looked down at the handcuff fastened loosely around his wrist and sighed. "No, nothing like that. It looks like there's some personal stuff I have to sort out first."
"With your uncle?" asked Billy, knowing Robert Clayton was posted nearby.
Unseen by Billy, Lee blenched at the idea of his uncle ever finding out anything about this. "God no!" he answered immediately.
"So girl trouble then? As usual?" Billy managed to get just the right blend of sarcasm and disappointment into his response to make Lee wince.
"Not exactly," sighed Lee. "Look, with luck this shouldn't take more than a day to sort out and I'll be on the first flight out I can manage."
"See that you are," growled his boss. "And you'd better have come with a damn good reason why by the time you get here."
"Sure thing, Billy," Lee answered sounding distracted. "And um, thanks for understanding."
A muffled grunt of disapproval was all he got as he hung up, mind already racing trying to figure his way out of this predicament.
Lee looked back down at the sheet of paper in front of him, then at the door that had closed only a few minutes before. "Okay Stetson, let's get you out of this mess."