Chapter 3: The Men in the Brown Sedan

"I want mom to help me with my costume!" Jamie protested as Amanda pinned up the hem of Philip's cape.

"Your costume is easy, Wormbrain!" Philip said. "All you've got to do is wear old clothes and—"

"Mom! Philip called me Wormbrain!"

"I heard him," Amanda said. "Philip, do not call your brother Wormbrain, and Jamie, I'll help you with your costume next. Get your grandmother to—"

They were interrupted by the ringing of the telephone.

"I'll get it!" Dotty said from the kitchen.

Amanda heard her mother say, "Hello? Just one moment. Amanda! It's for you."

"Could you finish with Philip's cape?" Amanda asked as she stood up. "Then, make a list for me of what Jamie needs for his costume."

"No problem. Let me see that cape."

While Dotty knelt to have a look at Philip's cape, Amanda hurried over to the phone.

"Hello?"

Without any preamble, the familiar voice on the line said, "Mrs. King? Are you busy this afternoon?"

"What?"

"Are you busy? We could use your help with something."

"Help with what?" Amanda asked eagerly. If Lee Stetson was calling her for help, Mr. Melrose must have been serious about his job offer.

"Do you know the gas station at Grove and Madison?"

"Sure."

"Can you meet me there in about an hour?"

"Yes, but—"

"Great. I'll see you there."

There was a click on the line as he hung up. Amanda stood there, holding the phone. She had no idea what Lee was talking about, but something important must have come up for him to call her like this. She glanced over at her mother and the boys and saw that her mother was giving her an odd look.

Since she was still holding the phone, Amanda smiled, gave a little laugh, and said, "Well, if it's that important, I'll take care of it. No, it's no trouble at all. I'm glad to help. I'll see you soon! Good-bye!"

"Who was that?" Dotty asked.

"Someone from my club," Amanda said lightly. "They want me to, um, pick up some pamphlets that we're going to pass out at our next meeting."

"Pamphlets? About saving the clams?"

"That's right," Amanda said. "Ways to save the clams . . . Why we should be concerned about saving the clams . . ."

"Pick up one for me, too," Dotty said. "I'd like to know why we should be concerned about saving the clams."

"Sure, Mother, I'll try," Amanda said with a sigh.

About an hour later, she pulled into the parking lot at the gas station to find Lee Stetson already standing there, leaning up against his Porsche. As she pulled into the next space over, he walked around the car to open her door for her.

"Ready to get started?" he asked as she got out.

"Get started with what? Lee, what are we doing here?"

"Amanda, I need . . . Billy suggested that I recruit you to help us with something," Lee said.

"With what?" Amanda asked. He could see the spark of curiosity in her eyes.

"I have to drive this car over to the Agency's impound lot," Lee said, pointing to the red Plymouth a couple of spaces away. "Someone there will be performing a thorough search of the car, but I'd like to have a look at it myself first."

"Have a look at it for what? Whose car is that?"

"I'll explain while we're doing the searching. I'll start with the front seats, and you look in the back."

Amanda noticed that Lee didn't bother to unlock the car doors to let them in. They were already unlocked. It was a two-door car, so Lee folded down the front passenger seat so that Amanda could climb into the back.

"We're just giving things a brief once over," Lee said. "Just look under the seats and see if you can spot anything unusual. I'll pop the trunk so we can have a look in there, too. I'm going to check the glove compartment."

"Lee, I don't know what I'm looking for!" Amanda protested. "I'd like to help you, but I don't see how I can until I know what's going on!"

Lee sighed. "I know. It's just hard right now because I'm not totally sure what we're looking for, either. All I know is that one of our agents is missing, a man named Richardson, and he was carrying something important that he'd obtained from a Russian safe house in the area."

"But you don't know what it was?" Amanda asked as she climbed into the back of the car.

"No. Before he disappeared last night, he thought that the Russians may have been following him. Then, we found his car here this morning. The doors were unlocked, probably with Richardson's own keys, and it looks like the car has been searched. That makes us think that they didn't get whatever Richardson was carrying last night," Lee said as he unfolded the front passenger seat and sat down to look in the glove compartment.

"But if they searched this car before, how do you know that they didn't already find what they were looking for?" Amanda asked, getting out her little keychain flashlight and leaning down to look under the front seats.

"Because Richardson's registration is missing, and his apartment was also searched. A lot less neatly than the car, I might add. I discovered that when I went to get his spare car keys so I could move his car. If the KGB found what they were looking for in the car, they wouldn't have continued searching. We're taking another look at the car in the hopes that they missed whatever they were looking for."

Amanda poked her hand down the back seats in case someone had slipped something between the cushions.

"There's nothing in the glove compartment," Lee said. "I'm going to check the trunk."

"There's nothing back here, either. Could you let me out?" Amanda asked.

Lee reached over to pop the trunk lid and then helped Amanda out of the back seat.

There was nothing of interest in the trunk. Richardson had a spare tire, a first aid kit, and a small box of tools, but nothing that seemed out of the ordinary.

"Well, Richardson may win awards for having one of the tidiest cars in the world," Lee said, "but as far as I can tell, there's nothing in here that's going to help us. We'd better get it over to the Agency's lot."

"What will the Agency do with the car?"

"They'll go over it more thoroughly, check under the upholstery and other places that would be more difficult for us to search. Amanda, don't move for a moment."

"Why?"

"I think there's someone watching us."

"Who?"

"A couple of guys in a brown sedan, behind you. Don't look at them!"

Amanda had been about to turn around, but she froze. "What are we going to do?"

"Well, I was going to have you follow me to the Agency's impound lot so that you could drive me back to my car after I dropped off this one, but I think I'll have to change plans. You're coming with me."

"I'm coming with you? In the Plymouth? What about my car?"

"We'll get it later. Just get in the car."

Lee ushered her into the car, closing the door when she was settled in the passenger seat. As he walked around the car to get in the driver's seat, Amanda tried to casually glance at the brown sedan. From where she sat, she could see the car but not the people inside.

As Lee pulled out of the parking lot, he said, "We're going to take a turn around the block and see if they follow us. If they don't, I'll bring you back to your car, and we'll go to the impound lot. If they do, we're going to have to lose them."

"Lose them? How?"

Lee grinned. "I've got a couple of tricks up my sleeve."

The brown sedan stayed with them as they circled the block around the gas station.

"They're still there," Amanda said.

"Okay, they're definitely following us," Lee said, watching the car in his mirrors. "Don't look back at them. It's better that they assume we haven't spotted them yet."

"What are you going to do?

"We need a place that's busy this time of day. Someplace with a large parking lot full of cars, preferably close by."

"There's three places that I can think of."

"Where?"

"There's a shopping mall, a car dealership, and a pizza place where high school students like to hang out."

"Those all sound good. Which is the closest?"

"The pizza place is about a mile down the road from here, on the right."

"Okay, we'll go there. You've got your seat belt fastened?"

"Yes."

"Good. Just tell me when to turn. And hang on."

"We're not going fast."

"We will be."

When they pulled into the parking lot at the pizza place, Amanda saw a large group of kids and adults crossing the lot. She knew that they were there for a birthday party because they were carrying presents and balloons.

"Be careful of the children, Lee!"

"I see them," he growled.

"Maybe this wasn't such a good idea. If we're going to do something dangerous, we shouldn't do it around kids."

"They'll be okay. It's not really dangerous, just tricky. This is really more a matter of timing than anything else."

Lee circled the lot a couple of times until he saw someone's backup lights go on.

"Hang on!" he said, speeding up.

Amanda gasped as they raced past the car backing up. Glancing back, she saw that the brown sedan was blocked now that the car had backed up further. There was loud honking from the brown sedan. Then, Lee veered off through some empty parking spaces, quickly heading toward one of the exits from the parking lot and back onto the main street.

"Are they still following us?" he asked.

"No," Amanda said, looking behind them again. "Are you sure that wasn't dangerous?"

"Well, it was less dangerous than letting the KGB catch us, and I was careful to watch for pedestrians."

Shakily, Amanda nodded. "That was scary."

"I've seen scarier. Now, we'll get this car to the Agency's lot and grab a taxi back to our cars. Then, I've got to go to the Agency and report this incident."

"Do you want me to come with you?"

"No, that's okay. You can go on home. I'll call you later if I need you."

"Lee, if they're the ones who were after Richardson, then they're also probably the ones who searched this car earlier, right?"

"I suppose so, yeah."

"So, if they already searched it, why are they after this car now?"

"I don't think they've found what they're looking for yet," Lee said grimly. "That means that we'd better find it first."