Chapter 2 - The Night of Death
After he exited Amanda's car, Lee went upstairs to his apartment. He noticed that Amanda had waited for him to get inside safely so he turned on the lights for her benefit so she would know she could leave. Her mothering ways definitely got on his nerves now and then. He was an agent and agents were used to having their life in danger. If she was going to stay in this line of work, she needed to get used to that fact. Of course as a precaution, Lee turned on every light and lamp in his apartment to make sure that the killer would know that there might be witnesses if he tried anything.
Lee stripped down as he headed into the bathroom. He took a nice, relaxing shower and then put on his pajamas and robe and came out. He found that his adrenaline was pumped pretty high so he knew he wasn't going to sleep anytime soon. He grabbed that book that he still hadn't been able to finish and sat down to read.
There was suddenly a commotion outside his window so he got up to make sure that he wasn't getting company. It seemed to be just a cat fight so Lee started to turn off his desk lamp so he could head to bed when there was a knock at the door. Who in the world would be knocking on his door this late? Lee immediately grabbed his gun and made sure it was loaded as he walked over to the door. He didn't expect to see Floyd the doorman when he opened the door but he was sure relieved that he did. Floyd handed him a brightly wrapped box that had been delivered earlier. There wasn't even a shipping label on it with his name. Lee was immediately suspicious and carried it over to place it on a table. He didn't hear any ticking so he took that as a good sign but as he pulled the cover off the box, the thing jumped at him and Lee jumped with it. Inside there was a jack in the box with a note. Since Lee had placed a mirror above the table, he observed how nervous he looked and even more so when he read the note that asked him if he was "Getting nervous?" Things were getting out of hand quickly. He put the cover back onto the box and added the note to the other one so he could bring them to the agency to be analyzed.
Lee went to bed but he didn't have much luck getting any sleep.
The next morning Lee headed to see Leatherneck. He was hoping his car was ready but when he arrived, he found out that Leatherneck hadn't even had time to look at it yet. However as promised, Leatherneck let him borrow a car. He pulled it into the agency lot and then made his way to Billy's office so they could discuss these killings some more. Francine showed a slide of the agents that had been murdered but after the 4th agent was shown, Lee decided he had seen enough and turned on the lights. They tried to again figure out the connection and Lee joked that maybe the real connection was that all of the men had played "backgammon" with Francine. Of course he was just teasing Francine. The only real common thing among all of the dead agents was that they were all young, single and nice looking. Lee was determined not to let the whole thing get to him though and he walked back out to his desk so he could get some work done. As he began looking through some paperwork that he had asked for, he suddenly heard what sounded like a bomb ticking and he began frantically pulling his desk apart to find it. It turned out to be a Polaroid camera that had been set up to take his picture to scare him. However, Billy decided that this was too serious and demanded that Lee come with him so he could arrange for protection. Billy brought him to his office and then made calls to let the higher ups know that Lee was being targeted. It was quickly agreed that under no circumstances was Lee to be assigned any new cases and for now he would be grounded.
"Come on Billy. You know I get bored when I'm stuck in the office all the time."
"Well your choice is that or I can put you up in a safe house and then you will really be grounded."
"Okay, okay. What about Amanda though?"
"What about her?"
Should I tell her to stay away from the agency for a few days? If I'm grounded, there won't be much for her to do. I know she was looking forward to coming back to work though. In fact, she should be here shortly."
"Why don't you call Mrs. King and tell her not to come in today. We'll figure out about tomorrow." Billy said as Francine came through the doorway. "Oh don't bother if you were going to call Amanda. She called earlier and said that her Mother asked her to help get some last minute things for a trip they were taking so she wasn't going to be able to come in today."
"Well that's good news. I don't need her mothering me today." Lee said as Billy looked on smiling.
"Well let me treat you to an early dinner." Billy said. "Drive your car to the back of Monk's and meet me inside, okay?"
"Yeah, okay." Lee said.
"Lee, stay out of trouble along the way,"
"Yeah."
Lee headed out to the parking lot and got into the borrowed car and drove it to the back of Monk's. He then went inside where he found Billy waiting for him. The whole place seemed to be pretty quiet and Lee found little to talk to Billy about. They ate their meals mostly in silence and drank their beer and then Billy threw down some money and they headed out the back. Lee decided it was time to put his foot down about being babied. He was a great agent and he didn't need someone holding his hand the whole time. Billy would have none of it though and told Lee that he would be with protection from now on and that included at that moment. He ordered Lee to go meet Wilson at the agency so he could follow him home. After ribbing him about his car being in the shop, Billy headed out to the street to where his car was parked.
Meanwhile Lee got into the car and put the key into the ignition but the car wouldn't start. As he tried again, Lee noticed a movement in the back seat and immediately put his arms up to protect himself. The man had a knife and Lee managed to mostly deflect it but his shoulder did get hit in the process. Lee knew he needed to get out of the car if he was going to have any chance at all so he opened his door and got out but the man in the back slammed his door into Lee and caused him to fall to the ground. Lee began fighting for his life as the killer tried to stab him with his knife. The killer punched him in the face so that he could get a better shot at stabbing him. The punch made Lee loosen his grip on the knife and the killer brought the knife down to try to stab him. He was about to finish the job when a woman screamed and the killer panicked and ran.
"Help him! Please someone help him!" The woman yelled and Billy came running.
"What's going on?" Billy asked as he came onto the scene.
"Some man dressed all in black was attacking that man. He had a knife. Is he dead?" The woman asked while still sounding hysterical.
Billy ran up to Lee and saw that he was alive. He quickly took his jacket off and placed it on top of Lee's head and said "I'm sorry Ma'am, you should probably stay away. Unfortunately this young man is dead."
"Oh my God! Why would anyone murder someone like that?" She wailed.
"I'm not sure but can you call an ambulance?"
"Of course" She agreed and headed to a payphone.
Billy moved the jacket so Lee could see him. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, he just got my shoulder but thankfully my jacket stopped it from going too deep. It just hurts a little."
I think it best if the killer thinks he killed you, don't you?"
"I was thinking that same thing. How are we going to do this?"
"I'll have you brought to Parker General and they can announce your death there. We'll talk more once we are secure, okay?"
"Yeah."
The ambulance arrived shortly after and Lee's body was loaded into it. Billy told the ambulance personnel that this was a Government agent and that no one would be able to handle the body except the agency so they didn't even look at Lee. Billy asked if he could use the radio and he made a call to a doctor he knew at Parker General. As soon as the ambulance arrived, Lee's body was wheeled into a private room and left. Billy followed and the doctor soon arrived.
"Hi Cal, thanks for coming. This has to be kept completely secret, okay?"
"Sure Billy! You know you can trust me. Let's take a look at him." Cal jumped as Lee removed the jacket. "Oh dear God, you just scared the crap out of me. Billy you didn't tell me he was alive."
"Well I couldn't do that and keep it a secret, could I?"
"True. But you still could have warned me when I came into the room."
"Sorry Doc. He got my shoulder with the knife. It doesn't feel deep but it does hurt."
"Let's take a look. Yes, you are one very lucky man. Let me get that cleaned up and bandaged and then you will be good to go."
"Billy, I think this gives us the perfect chance for me to start trying to figure out who this man is. If we make him think that he killed me, he will move on to a new victim and I can start tracking him."
"I agree. That means we have to make it convincing though which includes keeping you in hiding and going all out on a funeral for you."
"Yeah, I hate deceiving everyone but there doesn't seem to be any way around that."
"Lee, you know we can't tell anyone that you are alive. Not Francine and not even Mrs. King."
"Come on Billy, we can't leave Amanda thinking I'm dead. She'll never forgive me for that."
"We have to. All of this has to look real or else the killer could get suspicious. We don't know for sure that Mrs. King could be convincing if she knew you were alive. No, we have to let her believe you are dead. I'm sorry Lee."
"Yeah, well not as sorry as I am. Billy, I just went days thinking she might be dead. I at least had hope though since we didn't have a body. If she is told that I was killed, she will have no hope. It would be cruel to leave her in that state." Lee said as he swiped his hand slowly through his hair and his face was full of anguish.
"Lee, are you sure there isn't something between you and her? You have known Francine a lot longer but yet you haven't said anything about how upset she will be about your death. Instead, you are worried about the feelings of someone you have only known for 3 months."
"Amanda is different Billy. She cares deeply about things and she is very sensitive. Francine has learned to be hard souled over the years. She's agency and she will understand. I'm not sure Amanda will."
"Trust me Lee. Once you explain it to her, she will understand."
"Yeah. Well where do I go in the meantime? I can't exactly stay at my apartment."
"No, I'll get you to a safe house in Maryland for the next 3 days. I need you to stay there though. There will be no sneaking back into DC, understand?"
"Yeah, it will give my shoulder a chance to mend a little. Where am I going to stay after the funeral though?"
Billy smiled and said "Well when you show Mrs. King that you are still alive, you can nicely ask her for a place to stay. Didn't I hear something about her family going away for the weekend? It'll work out perfectly."
"Yeah, if she doesn't kill me first." Lee said as he swiped his hand through his hair again.
TBC
