Chapter 3: Picnic in the Park

The evening was actually pretty pleasant, Lee thought as they ate their burgers on a park bench. There was a light, cool breeze. They were surrounded by people having fun. It was kind of nice, watching the people on the bike path. Amanda was quieter than usual, both because she was eating and because she was keeping an eagle eye out for the mysterious flasher. Of all the odd ways to spend an evening, Lee would be hard-pressed to think of an odder one than having a picnic while waiting for a flasher to show up, but he was even more surprised to find that he was enjoying himself.

So far, nothing at all strange had happened. Lee watched a happy young couple stroll by, hand-in-hand. The guy said something to the girl, and she laughed. Lee turned to look at Amanda.

The breeze ruffled her dark curls. She was leaning forward slightly, gazing intensely about her, waiting for the first sign of trouble. Lee smiled and shook his head. She had focus, he had to give her that. At least he'd persuaded her not to bother with the binoculars. They would have attracted too much attention. To the people passing by, she must look like Miss Wholesome-and-Innocent. Who'd ever suspect that she was there to try to spot a man running around naked?

Hopefully, the guy wouldn't show up. Then, he and Amanda could finish this evening in peace. She couldn't stay out too late because she had to get home to her mother and the boys, but maybe she'd like to get a cup of coffee or something on the way home.

Lee was about to suggest the idea to Amanda when a girl suddenly fell off her bike in front of them. A couple of the other cyclists had to stop short to avoid running over her. Amanda, ever the helpful mother, hurried over to see what the problem was. Lee got up to help also but stopped when he spotted the distraction that had caused the girl to crash.

"Oh, no, not you again!" he groaned.

There he was, in all his trench-coated glory. Lee looked back over at Amanda. She was still busy helping the girl, who seemed a bit hysterical. The two cyclists who had almost hit her had gotten off of their bikes to help. Lee turned back in time to see the weirdo flash a group of women standing by the bike path. Two of them screamed and looked away. The other two just stared, open-mouthed.

"That's it!" thought Lee. They'd come here to take care of the problem, and if Lee dealt with it quickly, Amanda might not even see. Lee rushed toward the guy, but the guy took off running.

He was fast. Lee was in good shape, but even he found it difficult to keep up. They rounded a curve in the path, the flasher just a little ahead of Lee. Lee only lost sight of him for a moment. Then, suddenly, he was gone. Lee looked around wildly. Where did he go?

Lee poked at the bushes beside the path, checking to see if the creep was hiding there, but there was no sign of him.

"Oh, great!" Lee thought. "Lee Stetson, alias Scarecrow, ace federal agent and international intelligence operative, out-smarted by some weirdo in the park. If it gets back to anyone at the Agency, I'll never live it down."

The guy was gone, so Lee decided that he'd better get back to Amanda before anything else happened. When he reached her, she was watching a couple of police officers talking to the group of four women.

"Oh, there you are," Amanda said. "I was about to come looking for you."

"What's happening?" Lee asked, gesturing to the policemen.

"Well, it turns out that the girl fell off her bike because she saw the flasher, and she was startled," Amanda said. "I looked around, but by the time she was able to tell me what she saw, he was already gone."

"Yeah, I know. I was chasing him," Lee said. "Now that he's gone, we can go, too."

"Wait, Lee! There's something else. While those women over there were distracted by the flasher, someone stole one of their purses."

"Sounds like the purse-snatcher Billy told us about," Lee said.

Great. Both of them show up, and Scarecrow couldn't catch either, he thought. He really hoped that Amanda wouldn't tell everyone at the Agency about this.

"Did you get a look at the thief?" Lee asked.

Amanda shook her head. "No, I was looking for the flasher. Then, one of the ladies started screaming that her purse was gone. Nobody actually saw the theft."

"So nobody saw the thief at all?" Lee asked. "That doesn't give the police much to go on."

"Nobody was able to give them a real description of the flasher, either. At least, not his face."

"Right," Lee said, rubbing his forehead. The whole thing was giving him a headache. Even though he'd been chasing the guy, he hadn't gotten a very good look at his face, either. The most he could tell the police was that the guy was blond. "Well, I think I'd better get you to your car so that you can go home."

"I just can't believe I missed seeing him a second time!" Amanda said.

"Be thankful," Lee said firmly. "We should all be as lucky."