Chapter 3
Amanda hung up the phone and rubbed her head. She had just finished talking to Lee. He was picking her up in twenty minutes and they were going to go see Marcus. Whenever she thought of the man, she got a headache and that strange niggling feeling that she was forgetting something important would return. She stared around the kitchen and then wandered into the family room, looking around. Absentmindedly, she straightened the magazines on the end table. There was something she had to do or find. It was right on the edge of her memory but...She shook her head. It wouldn't come into focus. Closing her eyes tightly, she tried to remember what it was but it seemed the harder she tried to remember, the more elusive the memory became.
Sighing in frustration, she picked up her purse and stepped out of the house, locking the door behind her. Just an hour ago, Mother and the boys had left to visit Aunt Edna for the weekend, so she didn't have to make any awkward explanations, which was nice for a change. She hoped that, over the next few days, there would be time for Lee and herself to be together for a while. Free time was a precious commodity in her life.
The late summer weather was beautiful and she thought she'd wait on the porch for Lee. The air was warm but not stifling hot as it had been a few weeks ago. Children were playing on the sidewalk and riding bikes, their happy voices floating down the street. In the distance, someone was cutting their grass and the scent of a backyard BBQ was drifting by. Her flower beds were bursting with colour, due to her Mother's dedicated efforts and the white picket fence gleamed with a fresh coat of paint that had been applied last month.
As she sat, Amanda idly watched her neighbour across the street. Mrs. DeShaw weeded and watered her garden every night after supper except for Thursday when she went to Bingo with her sister. When the older woman looked Amanda's way, she raised her hand to wave but a white van slowly drove by just at that moment obscuring her view. Frowning, Amanda's eyes followed the progress of the van down the street. The driver had looked vaguely familiar...
Lee drove up as she tried to recall exactly what the driver had looked like and where she might have encountered him before.
"What's the matter?" Lee queried as she climbed into the silver sports car.
Amanda tried to smooth the frown from her face. "Nothing really. A van just drove by and I thought I recognized the driver but I can't quite place him."
"A new neighbour? Someone from one of your committees?"
"No...It isn't someone I know well. More like someone I've only briefly met. Oh well, it isn't important." She reached up and massaged her temples.
"Another headache?"
"Hmm—just a small one, nothing really. Don't worry about it." Amanda fastened her seatbelt and Lee pulled away from the curb. "I'll be happy to see Marcus and thank him in person for sending that rescue team. "
"Well, just remember—he might also be the reason we needed rescue in the first place. The whole thing might have been a set up."
"I find that hard to believe. He was so concerned when we were in the tent and that Frank person was hurting me. And don't forget, he pulled us out of the wreck and reset your shoulder."
"Resetting my shoulder probably gave him great pleasure if he's with the other side. It's the sort of thing a sadist would enjoy doing."
"Lee..." Amanda warned. "Don't have Marcus tried and convicted until we know the whole story."
"Hey, I always keep an open mind." Amanda was silent and after a moment, Lee looked her way. "You don't think I have an open mind?"
"Well," she hedged, "From the Agency's perspective, I guess you do. It's just that agents always seem to be looking for the bad in people and are more than willing to believe it on very fragile evidence. But when it comes to giving people the benefit of the doubt, they aren't nearly so accommodating."
"Agents see more of the bad side of life than most 'normal' people do. It's a survival skill. We're taught to expect the worst and to be pleasantly surprised if it doesn't happen. Unfortunately, pleasant surprises are few and far between."
"I suppose you're right. But I'd rather look for the good in people."
"And that's what makes you a valuable resource for the Agency. You see things in your own unique way. It's also why I need to stick close to you. You tend to wander into situations, oblivious to the potential dangers."
"I guess that's why Mr. Melrose thinks we make such a good team then, isn't it?" She reached across and squeezed his hand.
"I think we make a great team." Lee returned the squeeze and they continued to hold hands as they made their way across town to where Marcus lived.
Lee turned down the quiet residential street and Amanda looked around with interest. It was a tree lined avenue with small frame houses probably built in the late '40's or early '50's. She peered at each home, checking the house numbers: three-forty-four, three-forty-six, three-forty eight.... "There it is, Lee, number three-fifty."
The 'vette purred to a stop in front of Marcus' house. It was a small white home with a covered porch across the front. The grass was a little overgrown and the flowerbeds needed weeding but beyond that, it was unremarkable. Sheer curtains obscured a view of the interior but even so it appeared to be quiet. They exited the car and walked up to the front door.
Amanda rang the bell while Lee casually paced the length of the porch, glancing around at the surrounding houses. When there was no response to the bell, Amanda knocked briskly.
Lee tried to look in the window. "I don't think he's home."
"I think you're right." Amanda pulled open the screen door and blocked the view from the street, while Lee efficiently picked the lock. They had just opened the door when a voice sounded behind them.
"Yoo-hoo! Hello!"
They spun around and Lee quickly slipped the lock pick into his pocket. Amanda put on her friendliest smile and greeted the newcomer. "Hello."
A tiny elderly lady stood at the bottom of the steps staring up at them. She had a large packet of mail in her hands. "Are you friends of Marcus?"
"Ah—yes we are..." Lee began.
"Oh good." The woman interrupted Lee. "I'm Hazel Simms, his next door neighbour. Maybe he mentioned me?"
"Well..." Amanda began only to be cut off as the woman continued talking.
"Marcus is such a nice neighbour, such a good boy, always so helpful, trims my trees, takes my car for repairs—he's never too busy to help out, despite the odd hours he works. That's why, when he asks me if I can house sit for him now and then, I'm glad to return the favour. My grandson cuts his grass and I water the flowers and gather the mail. But, strangest thing, he said he'd be back early this week—Sunday or Monday at the latest—but he never came home. They've started to deliver his newspaper again but I'm not sure if I should call up and have them cancel it for another week or not. Do you think I should?"
Mrs. Simms finally paused for breath and Amanda jumped in. "Mrs. Simms, it is so kind of you to take such good care of Marcus' house for him. The fact is, he's been unexpectedly delayed on business and we were just stopping by to pick up a few things to send to him. If you'd like, we can take his mail from you and deliver it... you know—in case there are any bills that need paying."
"That's exactly what I was thinking. I saw that he has a water bill and a phone bill. Now I know the water bill can wait but the phone company...well, we don't want them mad at us do we? If you could give the bills to him it would be just grand, Mrs...?"
"Keane – Amanda Keane. And this is Lee Steadman. We work with Marcus."
"At that film place? Are you talent scouts, too?"
"Yes, we work with him but no, we're not talent scouts." Lee explained, taking the mail from Mrs. Simms.
"If you could just keep house sitting for Marcus for the rest of this week, I know he'd appreciate it." Amanda smiled at the elderly lady.
"And, if there are any problems with the house, you can contact us at this number." Lee handed her an IFF business card with his name on it.
"All right," Mrs. Simms studied the card for a moment. "Will you be seeing Marcus soon? "
"We certainly hope so," Amanda reassured her. "And when we do, we'll tell him that you are doing an excellent job of house-sitting."
Mrs. Simms beamed and toddled off down the walk. Lee and Amanda watched her until she entered the house next door.
"Lee, did you hear that? Marcus hasn't been back all week. He didn't even come home after the debriefing."
"Or he came home but it was during the night, so no one saw him." Lee cautiously opened the door and peered inside Marcus' home. He scanned the room before deeming it safe and entered, Amanda following close behind. She shut the door and they began to slowly look around.
The house had the stale smell that comes from having been closed up for an extended period of time. A thin film of dust lay on the furniture and an industrious spider had started to build a web on one of the lamp shades. Light streamed in through the gauzy curtains, highlighting the particles of dust that drifted through the air.
After a cursory glance around the room, Lee began to thumb through the mail. "Junk mail... more junk ...mail...magazine... water bill...ah-ha—phone bill! I'll take this in to Billy. He can run any numbers shown and see where that leads." He pocketed the bill and set the rest of the mail on a table beside the door.
While Lee had checked the mail, Amanda had slowly scanned the room. As her eyes passed over the table surfaces, she studied them carefully, then frowned. "Lee, someone's been here recently. Everything has a thin layer of dust on it, but there are marks in the dust, where things have been moved about a bit."
Lee glanced at the table tops and noted the streaked dust that Amanda was talking about. "I think you're right. Marcus did come back at night, just as I thought. Probably he grabbed a few things that he needed and took off."
"It could have been a burglar or someone searching for something."
"No—a burglar would have made a bigger mess. It's more likely that Marcus knew that he had left whatever he was looking for out in plain sight and just did a quick surface search, found what he needed, and left."
"I don't know Lee... I think something has happened to Marcus."
"Why do you say that?"
"Well, he told Mrs. Simms he'd be back last weekend but he never contacted her to extend the house sitting or to have her cancel the newspaper for another week. If he was planning on being away, he would have done that."
"Or maybe he knew that the Agency would realize he'd turned and he's on the run. If he had no plans of ever returning, why would he care what happens to the house?"
"See – you're doing it all ready."
"Doing what?" Lee looked up from the drawer he was now rifling through and stared at Amanda in puzzlement.
"Being negative and close-minded."
"Amanda, I'm not being negative and I'm not close-minded."
"Then why assume Marcus is an agent gone bad? Why not consider other possibilities?"
"Because I'm realistic and I'm doing my job." Lee's voice reflected his exasperation. "One of our own has turned against us. There's nothing that can excuse that."
"But ..."
"That man is the reason we were captured in the first place. Remember how I got hit on the head? How that guard was...was... ' touching' you and then, how he roughed you up, hitting and kicking you? Marcus was in on that somehow, you know."
"Well, I know it looks that way..."
Lee snorted. "Looks that way? Amanda, it was that way and worse—we were shot at, for heaven's sake! We could have died in that crash. Riley knew we'd be coming, he already had a plan in place to sell me to the highest bidder. Marcus is the only person who could have him that information."
Lee shook his head, took a deep breath and then continued. "Amanda, in this business, there's no compromising—no matter what the circumstances. When you join the Agency, you swear an oath to uphold its principles. Every agent takes that oath and it's serious. When you're in the field you have two objectives. Number one is to complete your mission successfully by whatever means necessary. Number two is to keep your fellow agents safe. Marcus broke that oath. When an agent goes bad it makes everyone start to question the people they work with. As a field agent, you have to put your life in the hands of other people and you have to believe that they'll do everything in their power, short of compromising the mission, to keep you safe. If you don't have faith that they're watching your back and are one hundred percent committed to the cause, then you can't give your full concentration to the job. You start second guessing yourself and them—that's when agents make stupid mistakes and that's when people get killed." Lee's voice had become increasingly sharp and his words were spit out as if they left a bad taste in his mouth.
Amanda opened her mouth to speak but Lee shot her a hard look, his lips tight, his expression uncompromising. After a moment of silence he looked away, rubbed his neck and exhaled slowly, visibly trying to calm himself before speaking again.
"Listen, let's just agree to disagree. Either way Marcus isn't here and we need to look for some clues as to where he might be and what's going on between him and David Riley."
"Okay," Amanda answered softly. She took in the set look on Lee's face and let the topic drop. Either he wasn't feeling well or the thought of Marcus being a traitor really was upsetting him. Maybe it was a bit of both...
She volunteered to check out the kitchen and laundry while Lee looked in the bedroom and bathroom. From what she could see, Marcus was a very neat and organized person. Everything was where it should be. He'd emptied the fridge of perishables before leaving and there was no laundry waiting to be done. She checked out the kitchen drawers and cupboards. The glasses were lined up by size and the cups were all sitting with the handles facing the same direction. Amanda chuckled to herself thinking he obviously didn't have two small boys living with him.
Wandering back into the living room, Amanda stared enviously at the neat, orderly room. The pillows were carefully aligned on the sofa and the coffee table was exactly centred on the area rug. Books on the shelf were organized by size and a few pieces of sculpture were tastefully and symmetrically arranged. The only thing out of place was a slightly haphazard stack of magazines on the end table. With a sigh, Amanda realized her house would never be this calm and organized.
She saw two photos on the mantle and walked over to look more closely. One was Marcus with a woman and the other was a rather grainy snapshot of a baby. There was no inscription or date on the back of either.
"Lee?"
"Yeah?" he answered from the bedroom.
"Is Marcus married?"
"Not that I know of."
"Did he have a steady girl friend?"
"He might have but I'm not positive. He was pretty closed mouthed about his personal life and I didn't know him that well." Lee's voice became progressively louder as he returned to the living room. "What did you find?"
"These photos." She held them up for Lee to see, noting that he seemed to have calmed down and was in a better frame of mind. "I think he and this girl were pretty serious. This is his baby—see it has the same eyes as Marcus."
"Hmm—you could be right." Lee said noncommittally while studying the pictures for a minute before setting them back on the mantle. "You'd think someone at the Agency would know about it though. A man doesn't usually keep becoming a father a secret...unless he has something to hide."
"Or, unless there were negative repercussions. Would there be problems at the Agency if people knew about the baby?"
"Not that I can think of...Billy would probably give him a speech about settling down and taking less dangerous assignments but nothing would really change."
"I wonder where his girlfriend and the baby are now?"
"Good question – if that's even who they are. There's nothing in the bedroom or bathroom to suggest that anyone besides Marcus lives here."
"There was nothing in the kitchen either—not even a baby bottle or an infant spoon."
Lee looked around the room once more. "Well, I think that's all we're going to get out of this place. Let's call Billy from my apartment. We can tell him that Marcus' neighbour hasn't seen him all week and about the picture of the girl and the baby but there's really nothing here to prove his innocence."
"Or his guilt." Amanda gave Lee a hard stare before walking towards the door.
"Or his guilt," he repeated with a shake of his head.