Chapter 17
Lee flew back to Washington the following day. Billy Melrose met him at National and drove him back to the Agency so he could pick up the Corvette; on the way back, he filled his friend and supervisor in on everything that had happened. When he told Billy about the confrontation with Abner Canfield, Billy laughed for a full thirty seconds.
"Oh, I would have loved to have seen that, Lee. Your friend Colonel Van Slaars sounds like a great guy."
"Oh, he is, and unless I miss my guess, we're going to be more than just friends before too many more years go by; his son Rick is pretty serious about my daughter Leeanne."
"How does it feel to say that – 'my daughter'?"
"Wonderful, and Amanda is just in seventh heaven. She always wanted a girl, she said, and now she has one."
"Any plans to add another child to your family of five, now that you don't have to keep your marriage a secret?"
"We've talked about it some, but we haven't made any definite plans. One child at a time."
"Sure."
Billy pulled into the Agency parking garage and stopped next to the Corvette. "I know you need to go up to the Q to pick up the mail we've been holding for you, but Jeannie and I have plans for this evening, so I'm going to take off. I'll see you on Monday."
"Bright and early; after all, my whole family is in Texas, so I have no reason to be late to work. Thanks for everything, Billy."
Lee got out, transferred his luggage to the Corvette, and shook hands with Billy before Melrose drove away. Using his key card, Lee accessed the elevator and rode down to the bullpen, where he was surprised to find Francine at the duty desk.
"Lee! You're back!" she said as she stood up and came around the desk to hug him. "How is everyone?"
"My family is doing very well," he said with a smile. "I have pictures." He reached into his briefcase and produced a polaroid snap of the family at the adoption ceremony. "That gorgeous young lady in the wheelchair is my new adopted daughter, Leeanne Stetson," he said proudly. "We had some trouble with her mother's miserable excuse for a father, so we decided to spike his guns once and for all and just adopt her legally. She was fine with it; she even calls me Dad."
"What kind of trouble?"
Lee explained and Francine said, "Oh, I would have loved to have seen that; the guy had no idea who he was dealing with, did he?"
"Nope. So, Miss Desmond, why are you working on a Saturday?"
"Somebody has to."
"True, but it isn't usually you."
"It was my turn."
"Try again."
"I just needed to keep busy, and what better way than sitting here going through a stack of reports and dossiers?"
"Uh -huh. And?"
"Jonathan Stone called me last night, asked me for another chance."
"I hope you told him to go to hell this time."
"I did."
"Good. You gave the guy plenty of chances to prove that he'd finally grown up, and he blew every single one of them."
"Yeah. Yeah, you're right. Hey, when did you get to be so good at this?"
"I became a parent; that will make a man grow up faster than anything else I can think of."
"Yeah, I imagine it will. So, now that you're an old married man, got any advice for the lovelorn?"
"You're asking me?"
"Hard to believe, isn't it? But yes, I am."
"Amanda once remarked that the Agency and family life don't mix very well. It's hard enough for a man, so I can't even imagine how difficult it would be for a woman. I don't have any advice, sorry. I will say this, though- the person you're looking for will turn up when you're least expecting her – or him, in your case."
"Oh, that helps a lot," she said acerbically.
"It's all I can say. I need to pick up my mail and then go back to my apartment; I had to be up at five this morning to get to Dallas in time for my flight."
"Did Amanda drive you down?"
"No, our next-door neighbor, Bob Van Slaars, did. He offered, and since I preferred that Amanda stay in Denton with Leeanne, I accepted. He and his wife have known Amanda and her boys since the Van Slaars lived in Arlington ten years ago. See you on Monday, Francine."
Agency policy was to hold any agent's mail at the Agency when that agent would be out of Washington for any significant period. Lee went up to the Q, where he found his desk and Amanda's just as they'd left them more than two weeks before when they'd received the terrible news from Texas. He sorted through the mail, setting aside a few bills that would need to be paid, tossing the inevitable junk mail, and focusing on the personal correspondence. There was one from his uncle, who was now living in Dayton, Ohio, where he was a regular volunteer at the Air Force Museum there, and one from Louise, postmarked the day before the accident. He set it aside, unopened; even though it was addressed to him, he wanted to save it for Leeanne, since it was very likely the last letter her mother had written.
He gathered up the mail he wanted to keep and left the office; finding that letter from Louise made him want to go home and read the letter his own mother had left for him so many years before again, and then he was going to pour himself a drink and sleep for about twelve hours.