Residue Part 2

Chapter 2

Amanda returned from lunch and getting to her desk was met by Francine who asked, "Where's Lee? I heard a case he was working on went belly up-"

Just then Billy came out of his office and seeing her stated, "King? My office...NOW!"

He slammed the door to his office as Amanda gulped commenting uder her breath, "Oh, boy..."

Francine with wide eyed amazement answered to her, "Wow! He's never mad at you. Wonder what's up?"

Amanda sighed knowing Francine's penchant for gossip and remarked, "I don't know, Francine. Care to join me so you'll satisfy your growing curiosity?"

Francine quipped, "I thought you'd never ask..."

But as Francine came behind her to enter Billy's office he bellowed seeing her, "Desmond! This doesn't concern you. Get out of here now!"

But Francine answered firmly, "No, Billy! I'm sorry. But Lee and Amanda are my friends too and I have just as much right to be concerned here as you do. In fact, I'll help them if need be. Now what's wrong?"

Billy grumbled and handed Francine Lee's resignation and other letter to read replying as he looked at Amanda, "Oh, nothing. Just that I feel blindsighted all of a sudden by this interruption to my already busy day! Maybe you could shed some light on it, Mrs. King?!"

Amanda cleared her throat as she felt Billy's stare boring into her and stated, "I can't really, Sir. I-I mean he mentioned it to me when I saw him earlier. but I don't know the specifics really. Um, something about Dr. Smyth and where he could put his orders...Um, his words, not mine. I'm sorry. I did tell him to at least talk to you in case you weren't aware of this whole thing, but he wouldn't budge-"

Billy rested his head in his hands as his elbows were on the desk.

He sighed answering, "All right. Where is he now? I'll call him in here and he can-"

But Amanda shook her head commenting, "I'm sorry again Sir, but he pretty much told me that it's a waste of time. He said that if Dr. Smyth wants him gone, he's out."

Billy looked at her disbelievingly and groaned responding, "Great! Now I have to call what's his name and get HIM to tell me what's going on!"

Dialing Dr. Smyth's extension he answered to Amanda gruffly, "I assumed that since you're Stetson's partner you'd naturally want to help him any way you could, but I see now how wrong I was..."

Not believing what she just heard Amanda swallowed and replied, "Francine, I need to have a word with Billy alone. Could you excuse us, please?"

Noting the sudden tension in the room Francine gulped as she stared at the two and nodded remarking, "Um, sure..."

As she got to the door she looked at the two and commented lightly, "Just don't kill each other, okay? It'd be a hell of a mess for maitenance to clean up tonight."

Getting back to her desk she dialed Lee's car phone and when he answered she commented urgently, "Lee? You'd better get your butt back here because the "s" is really hitting the fan now...Why? Oh, I dunno. Maybe because you left your resignation and goodbye letter for Billy and he's now chewing Amanda out about it because he thinks she's hiding something! No! I'm not kidding, damn it! Now, you'd better high tail it back in here before your partner's the next unemployed agent-"

When Billy's office door opened she hung up quickly but seeing it was Amanda responded concernedly seeing her, "Everything all right?"

Amanda shrugged and commented, "Not really. I'm going home now. And no, I'm not fired. But if you happen to hear from Lee please tell him to call me? It's...It's important."

As Francine nodded and watched Amanda get her purse out of her desk and leave in the elevator she shook her head thinking, How could one lousy case screw everything up this badly?!

TBC