Chapter 29 - The Letter

By the time Lee and Amanda had cooked dinner, eaten and cleaned up everything, they were exhausted. There really wasn't anything more they could do until the morning anyway. It was important to get some sleep especially when neither of them could keep their eyes open.

They both slept well and were up again as the sun was rising. They took their showers and then met back at the campsite to discuss the plans for the day. Since they were waiting for Francine to call them back, they had time to kill. They decided to walk over and check on Kevin and Lorraine.

"Hello!" Amanda said cheerily as they walked into their view. Lorraine was looking very uncomfortable as she sat at the picnic table.

"Hi! We wondered whether we would see you again," Kevin said as he emerged from the tent.

"We are here still and still trying to figure things out," Lee admitted. Kevin gestured for them to sit down and join them. Lorraine tried again to find a comfortable spot and then said, "Sorry, it has been a bad morning. The little princess has decided that she needs to kick me every two minutes and isn't done yet. Hopefully this is not going to be our relationship for the next eighteen years," she said with a chuckle.

"She's just eager to get out of there," Amanda said helpfully.

"I'm eager for her to vacate too at this rate," Lorraine said with a groan as the baby kicked her hard in the stomach again.

After this final kick, the baby settled down so the four of them could catch up with each other. Lorraine's and Kevin's vacation was drawing to a close soon and they had tried to investigate every cave they could find.

"I was thinking about that map you showed us," Kevin said. "Could I take another look at it? I'm wondering if it will show us any of the caves that we have missed."

Amanda pulled out the map, but before they could begin looking at it, Officer Rodney walked into the camp. "You folks are not easy to find," he said with a grin.

"We should have left you a note," Lee admitted. "I'm sorry Rodney. Let me introduce you to our new friends, Kevin and Lorraine. This is Officer Rodney." Lee then quickly filled them in on an abbreviated version of the outcome of the stolen goods.

When he finished, Amanda turned the group's attention back to Rodney and said, "I can't believe we didn't think to leave you a note."

"No worries. I'm just glad I found you." He pulled a few sheets of paper out of his pocket. "The receptionist wrote this down exactly as Francine told it to her so hopefully it is complete."

Lee began skimming through the sheets while handing each one to Amanda as he finished. Kevin and Lorraine watched them with growing curiosity about what was truly going on.

"There's nothing really here that we didn't already know or don't really need to know," Lee said as he handed the last sheet to Amanda.

Kevin couldn't take it any longer and asked "Come on, you guys said you weren't cops. You are obviously not regular, every day tourists either. Are you going to tell us who you are now?"

Lee shrugged and explained, "I don't see any reason why you shouldn't know. We are agents. We work in DC. We received a mysterious note to come here. We think there might be a link to what has happened to our boss that ties to this park. There's a small chance that our boss is still alive so we are desperately trying to figure out what that link is."

"Your boss?" Kevin questioned. "Is that the friend you mentioned? What was his name? Melvin? Milton?"

Amanda quickly said, "Billy Melrose."

Lorraine had been rubbing her tummy and only half listening but at the mention of Billy's name, she came to attention. "Billy Melrose?" she asked.

"Yeah, do you know him?" Amanda asked excitedly.

"I don't think so," Lorraine said as she crinkled up her nose. "Kevin why does that name sound familiar though?"

"I know, I thought it sounded familiar too when they mentioned it the other day," Kevin confirmed.

"Melrose, Melrose, Melrose, Melrose," Lorraine said over and over as she tried to jog her memory.

Suddenly she sat up straight and said, "I remember! It's on the letter that was hanging up in the office. I'm pretty sure Billy Melrose's name is on it!"

TBC