Who's the Boss?

Chapter 26

So Lee and Francine were at Hunter Rutherford's house, determined to get Amanda back. But so far, their plan hadn't gone as expected. Despite getting past the bodyguards and with Rutherford poolside, they now had laser beams pointed at their chests. It was obvious that Rutherford's armed men had secretly been watching them, trained to shoot them if necessary.

From where he sat, Hunter calmly stated as he took another sip of his drink, "I'd advise you two to sit down like civilized people; things will go much more smoothly for you."

Gritting his teeth, Lee and Francine sank back into their seats.

The laser beams instantly disappeared.

"See when happens when you cooperate?" Rutherford smugly asked, "and now that the air has been cleared as to who has the upper hand, explain to me why you two are here."

Lee's sounded insistently angry, "We know you have Amanda, Rutherford! You should know that kidnapping is a class four felony, and I'll make sure you spend the maximum time in prison!"

For a split second, Lee could've sworn he saw a look of surprise flash over Rutherford's face.

But then it was gone in an instant and Lee figured that perhaps he had imagined it. Trying to keep himself from choking Rutherford, Lee reached out and grabbed his drink instead.

A tray of appetizers had been previously set up at the table and Hunter reached over for a stuffed mushroom and popped in his mouth before he proceeded.

"I assure you I don't know what you are talking about regarding Amanda," Hunter calmly claimed.

Lee slammed his drink back down so hard that part of his drink sloshed over the table.

"THE HELL YOU DON'T!'

His yelling caused the re-appearance of Manny, the manservant, who efficently proceeded to wipe the table before disappearing once again.

The anger and iced tea spillage from Lee, however, had been purposely done. With Rutherford and his manservant being distracted, Francine had been able to covertly plant a listening device underneath the table.

"Tsk, tsk, Mr. Stetson," Hunter lectured, unaware of the planted bug, "You MUST learn to control your temper!"

As expected, Lee indignantly jumped out of his seat, but Francine held him back.

"Lee!" Francine warned, "Sit down! Otherwise you'll have Rutherford's men on us again!"

The reminder of the laser beams caused Lee to sit back down, his face a mask of frustration. As he took his seat, however, he was able to catch Francine's eye and she nodded, letting him know the device was securely in place.

Meanwhile the millionaire's eyes were filled with venom as he leaned forward to address Lee.

"You think you have it all figured out, don't you, Stetson? First you have the nerve to accuse me of kidnapping Lucy, a mere librarian's aide...and now you burst into MY residence, uninvited, and accuse me of kidnapping Mrs. King, a dull housewife! If you think you can threaten my stellar reputation, you are sadly mistaken!"

Francine jumped in, "Mr. Rutherford! These are not veiled threats! We can and will tear this house inside out if we have to, in order to find Mrs. King! Now, if you decide you want to cooperate, I'm not saying we won't prosecute you, but we can certainly talk to the DA about a lighter sentence!"

"I've told you, already," Hunter confidently insisted, "I do NOT know the whereabouts of Mrs. King!"

"LIAR!" Lee's eyes were like steel as he pointed a shaking, accusing finger at Hunter, "Listen Rutherford, you have her, and if you don't hand her over, I'm going to have an entire platoon of agents swarming about your place! Nothing will be left upturned and afterwards, your so-called precious antiques will look like a pile of rubbish!"

"Is that so?" Hunter responded, casually taking a sip of his iced tea. After putting his tea down, he matter-of-factly stated, "It will be a total waste of time for them." After pausing he added, "...You know, Stetson, even though I was not the one who kidnapped Amanda, I might know who the actual kidnapper is!"

"We already know who kidnapped her!" growled Lee, "It was your right hand man Hiltson!"

"Really now?" Hunter placed his glass down, "So there you go. You have nothing on me."

Rutherford's evasiveness and smugness was really getting on Lee's nerves.

Lee would try a different tactic, "Rutherford, you've allowed us onto your property quite handily; your gates practically welcomed us with opened arms! You obviously need something from us. What is it?""

"Ahhh, at last, you've come to your senses!" Hunter gave a satisfied smile, "Everything comes at a price, doesn't it?"

He rang a small bell that had sitting on the small poolside table and soon his man servant Manny appeared with a typed paper and handed it over to his boss.

Lee narrowed his eyes, "What is that?"

"A contract," Hunter explained, "it states you will stop any investigations into my business and give me immunity from any type of prosecution. In exchange, I will tell you were Mr. Hiltson is, right at this moment, so you can deal with him and get back your Mrs. King."

For a second Lee considered the deal.

But Rutherford was a wanted drug criminal; how could they give him immunity? Lee thought. No, they will find Amanda on their own. This Rutherford was truly the scum of the earth and needs to be put away!

"RUTHERFORD, YOU'RE CRAZY IF YOU THINK YOU ARE GOING TO WALK AWAY, SCOT-FREE!" Lee burst out in anger.

Francine reprimanded him with a sharp,"Lee! This isn't helping Amanda!"

Then turning to Hunter, Francine coolly stated, "As a representative of the government, Mr. Rutherford, the idea of giving you immunity would be considered... absolutely absurd. In other words, it's an adamant NO!"

"...with an added,' GO TO HELL' to boot!'" Lee supplemented.

The personal jabs didn't seem to bother Hunter in the least.

"Then we are done," he dismissively announced, plastering on a fake smile, "Have a nice day, Mr. Stetson, Ms. Desmond!"

From seemingly out of nowhere, two armed bodyguards appeared.

Unfortunately neither guard was Rutherford's right hand man, Lester Hiltson. And Lee couldn't figure out Rutherford's continual denial of any involvement in the kidnapping, unless...

suddenly, flashes of ideas entered Lee's mind.

...the time when after Lee beat up Hilton in the library and Hiltson had fearfully stated, "...best to die quick like this than face what HE will do to me..." (He WHO?)

...when Lucy was kidnapped, the kidnapper's note had signed off with an'H'. (at the time Lee had assumed the 'H' stood for 'Hunter'. What if it stood for 'Hiltson'?)

...at the Liberty Club, when Rutherford claimed no knowledge of Lucy's kidnapping and then the restaurant was shot up (why would Rutherford risk being injured?)

And these random thoughts caused Lee to suddenly draw a different conclusion…

He slowly faced Rutherford, his tone accusing, "Turns out I was wrong, wasn't I, Rutherford?" he rhetorically asked, "You actually had no involvement in the kidnapping; it was all Hiltson's doing!"

Rutherford causally popped another appetizer in his mouth. It took awhile for him to chew it, "You ARE rather slow at this, aren't you, Stetson?"

"And Hiltson wasn't your right hand man, was he?" Lee conjectured, "in fact, it was actually the other way around!"

He thought he had it all figured out until he saw Hunter's reaction.

There seemed to be a new coldness in Hunter's voice, "I do NOT answer to Hiltson!" he claimed, shooting Lee a look of disdain.

"Lee, he may have a point," Francine pointedly reasoned, "I don't think Lester Hiltson's light bulb is bright enough to plan two kidnappings!"

"...then if it's not that," Lee re-analyzed, "the only thing it could mean is...Hiltson reports to someone even more powerful than you, which means both you and Hiltson are working for HIM!"

Besides not denying it, Rutherford's exasperated face said it all.

"We were discussing this contract!" he snapped,holding it up, "So do we have a deal or not?"

"No deal!...We've got bigger fish to fry now!" Lee confidently stated as he stood, and then he warned, "but I'm not done with you yet, Rutherford. Not by a mile!"

Hunter didn't seem the least bit fazed. He knew Lee had nothing on him.

"You'll never get me on anything, Stetson!"

Lee ignored his statement, "Come on, Francine!"

"Francine stood, "Gladly!" She then snarkily added, "And don't bother having your goons show us the way out! I wouldn't want them to get lost, being that they probably don't know their left from their right!"

Rutherford figuratively waved them away, an annoyed look on his face, "Good riddance to you two."

Before Lee left, he told Hunter, "I swear to you, Rutherford, I'm bringing Amanda back safe and sound! And after I either arrest Hiltson or beat him up to a pulp, I'm coming for YOU!""

Then Lee got the satisfaction of seeing Rutherford's discomfort.

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Back at the Agency, Francine had immediately gone to her desk to listen to any conversation Rutherford had with his men from the listening device they had secretly planted. Lee was already updating Billy in his office. It couldn't have been more than 20 minutes later when Francine came in and stated that Rutherford had mentioned a 'Senator' several times in his talks with his men.

Billy's mind clicked, "Yeahhhh...I seem to remember there was a some kind of connection between Rutherford and a state senator..."

Meanwhile, Francine had left to continue with her eavesdropping while Billy was busy shuffling through the many stacks of files he had on his desk. He must have found what he wanted because a smile appeared on his face.

"Got it!" he announced, as he took the file out and began skimming.

Meanwhile, Lee was getting impatient, "What does the file say?" He wanted to know, "is there a Senator mentioned?"

"Hold on, Scarecrow," Billy stated, lifting a hand as he continued scanning for information.

"Well?" Lee asked, mere seconds later.

Billy stopped his reading to address Lee, "Which part of 'hold on' don't you understand? The 'hold' or the 'on'? Good God, Man, stop interrupting me!" he exclaimed as he went back to his reading.

To Lee it felt like he was sitting in his seat for a week as he stared at Billy reading. He never realized how shiny the top of Billy's head was. But now was not the time to mention that.

At last Billy pointed a finger at one of the pages, "Here! Looks like Rutherford used to contribute to the campaign of State Senator Bob Sanderson of Virginia!"

"Bob Sanderson...why does that name sound so familiar?" Lee wondered, "wasn't he in the news fairly recently?"

"You're right," Billy nodded, "about a year ago, there was a criminal investigation and political scandal concerning allegations of government involvement in illegal drug trade between two states. Sanderson was at the center of this. Unfortunately one witness was unreliable and the other witness went missing, so we couldn't make any charges stick and Sanderson was never indicted."

"Hmmm..." Lee steepled his hands together in deep thought, "What a coincidence that both the Senator and Rutherford have been suspected of being in the drug trade. Anything else intriguing about our illustrious senator?"

"Hold on and this time I mean 'hold on'," Billy stated as went into his file case. After pulling out a file, he skimmed its contents, "Interesting."

Lee felt like lunging at Billy, "What...WHAT?"

"Seems the senator also heads up the Virginia Gaming Commission in the state legislature."

Lee looked surprised, "I didn't know you can gamble in the state of Virginia."

"You can't, or at least not in the way that you'd think," Billy explained, "Virginia gambling laws are relatively restrictive. While casinos are specifically prohibited, the state allows horse racing and off-track betting at licensed facilities."

Lee lifted an eyebrow, "Any chance Rutherford plays the ponies?"

"Let's just check on that, shall we?" Billy suggested as he switched files and flipped a few pages of Rutherford's file.

"According to his taxes here," Billy stated, "Rutherford's accountants had file a miscellaneous itemized deduction on Schedule A of his tax return. That means Rutherford must have tried to take a tax deduction on his gambling losses."

"Any way we can find out how much he lost last year?"

"No, the information is not accessible to the public nor to our Agency," Billy sighed, "but I'm thinking that it must have been a huge amount; otherwise he wouldn't want to itemize it and I have a feeling the numbers are skewed anyway."

"Okay, okay," Lee stated his thoughts out loud, "so let's say Rutherford likes to play the ponies with wads of cash, but he plays them poorly."

"It's possible," Billy mused, "so what you're saying is that despite Rutherford International Inc. outwardly being a success, Hunter, the individual, might be in debt?"

"It could happen that way, couldn't it?" Lee stated, "and maybe, just maybe Rutherford talked to Senator Sanderson about his financial situation. It would make sense that they are at least acquaintances, being they run around in the same social circles. And because of the debts Rutherford accumulated, he may have contacted the Senator to obtain some credit or perhaps to borrow some money from him."

"That's a lot of perhaps."

"But it's possible, isn't it?" Lee was more convinced than ever, "And in exchange for settling his bets, Rutherford would help the Senator out by smuggling drugs for him! Easy to do when you run a shipping empire."

Billy was more logical, "But we need proof, Lee! Without proof, you're just another agent with an opinion!"

Lee frustratingly ran his hand through his hair, "I know! I know!"

Just then a door knock interrupted their conversation and Francine came in.

"Tell us you've got something on where we can locate Amanda," Billy cajoled her.

"Luckily I picked up a poolside chat between Rutherford and Hiltson," she stated, "they had been arguing back and forth...but I don't think you're going to like what I'm going to tell you."

Lee sat up straighter and steeled himself for the bad news, "Was the conversation about Amanda? She's alright, isn't she?"

Francine looked slightly worried.

"If I'm interpreting the phone message correctly, she's fine...for now," she told him, "but Rutherford was definitely angry at Hiltson, because Hiltson was threatening to get rid of the 'package' very soon, after 'experimenting' with her a bit!"

Lee jumped up, "WHAT THE HELL IS THAT SUPPOSE TO MEAN?!"

He looked as thought he had aged 10 years.

"Lee, we need calmer heads," Billy advised, "that's the only way we'll be able to find Mrs. King."

Francine declared, "Between all of Rutherford's and Sanderson's holdings, the possible places Amanda could be held are staggering!"

"Wait! Hold it!" Lee's eyes danced with tense excitement, "When we spoke with Lucy after her being kidnapped, I remembered Lucy mentioning that she was held in a building much like a warehouse! Rutherford has a ton of those, right? Perhaps Hiltson used one to hide Amanda, so let's narrow our searches to warehouses that Rutherford owns!"

"Okay, that cuts the search in half," Francine considered, "but that still leaves at least a half a dozen different locations!"

"...whichever place Hiltson picked, he would most likely be holding Amanda at some remote location," Lee envisioned, "the more isolated the building, the better!"

"That's good!" Billy encouragingly stated, as he turned to Francine, "Francine, could you get us the location of any semi-abandoned warehouses that might be leased to Rutherford International or under the name of Senator Sanderson?"

"I'm on it!" Francine enthused, as she left to do her research.

After she left, Billy tried to Lee some comforting words.

"Don't worry, Scarecrow, we'll find her!"

"I need to believe that!" Lee hopefully stated, "We need to bring Amanda back home to the people she loves!"

Billy gave Lee a questioning look back, wondering what he meant by that.

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