Chapter 3
"The taxi will be here in 10 minutes?" Lee said into the phone in the living room of his apartment.
"All right. Thank you." He hung up the phone and walked back into his bedroom, to where he had left his suitcase lying open across his bed. After he had stormed out of the office, after the fight with Amanda, he had come straight to his apartment and started to pack. There was certainly no point in him wasting any more time here. Amanda had made everything perfectly clear. She wanted to be with Joe and she wanted him to stay out of it.
He opened one of his dresser drawers and pulled out several pairs of socks. He stuffed them into his suitcase and went back to another one of the drawers, where he started pulling out some of his shirts. After sorting through them and deciding on which ones he wanted to take, he shoved them into his suitcase and headed to the adjoining bathroom, to get anything that he would need in there.
He knew that just picking up and taking off like this was an immature thing to do after an argument, but at this point, he just didn't care. He walked back out of the bathroom with his arms full of bathroom accessories. He dropped them in his suitcase, not caring what order they ended up in when they landed. He looked around the room, mentally checking off everything that he would need. He couldn't think of anything else, so he zipped his suitcase. He lifted it off of the bed and carried it and the matching garment bag, which he had packed before he called for the taxi, and took them out into the living room, leaving them next to the door.
The taxi would be here any minute to take him to the airport. He had decided to take a taxi, deciding that it would be better to leave his car in the apartment's parking garage instead of the airport one, where some irresponsible clown might come along and ding it.
He walked over to the window and looked outside at the usual afternoon traffic. His mind wondered back to the angry look on Amanda's face, when he had told her to stay away from Joe. Maybe he had been a little excessive, but he knew that being with Joe couldn't possibly be what was best for her?
"Or was it?" His mind asked, taking a sudden turn. Maybe it was better for her to be with Joe. Joe had certainly been treating her better than he had recently. He was sure that Joe was looking a whole lot more appealing to Amanda right now than he was. Maybe she was right and things would be better for everyone if he just stayed out of it.
Lee saw the taxi pull up in front of the building. He would have to think some more about this later. He walked over to the coffee table and picked up his ticket and the envelope that Billy had given him. He tucked them into the pocket of his jacket and then walked over to the door to get his suitcases. He searched the room with his eyes, making one more quick check. He had gotten everything.
* * * * *
Amanda stayed and worked for the remainder of the afternoon. She had kept hoping that Lee would come back, but he never did come, so she finally gave up. She drove home with her mind filled with the argument they had had that afternoon. They had fought before, but it had never been this bad. This time she didn't know if he would ever want to talk to her again. He was so angry.
Well, she was angry, too. How dare he tell her not to see Joe? I mean, who was he to tell her who she could be with? He certainly wouldn't like it if she started telling him that dating all of those girls in the steno pool wasn't good for him and he should steer clear of them. He would tell her that he was a grown man and could make his own decisions. Well, she was a grown woman and could make her decisions, too. Lee was just going to have to accept that. No, Lee Stetson wasn't going to win this one, she told herself fiercely. He wasn't.
Amanda pulled into the driveway, noticing Joe's rental car in front of the house. What was he doing here tonight? Amanda got out of the car and went inside the back door, stepping into a very busy household.
Inside, her mother was rushing back and forth from the kitchen to the dining room carrying various casserole dishes. Philip, was cutting up some tomatoes and tossing them on top of a salad, and she could see Joe and Jamie in the dining room setting the table.
"Hello, everybody!"
"Hi, mom," Philip said, glancing up momentarily from his task.
"Hey, mom" Jamie shouted from the dining room, "look who's here." He motioned towards his father.
"Hello, Amanda." Joe waved and then continued to place the silverware on the table.
"What's going on here?" Amanda asked, first looking at Philip for an answer, but then turning to her mother when she dashed back into the room. "Mother, what's going on?"
"Oh, Amanda, I'm glad you're here. We were just setting things up to have dinner." She glanced down at her watch. "I was afraid that you might be late, but I see you're early."
"Yes, just a little." She placed her hand on her mother's shoulder and guided her back out of the room, out of Philip's earshot. "Um, mother," she said in a whisper. "What is Joe doing here? I didn't invite him to dinner tonight."
"I know, I did," Dotty said excitedly. "You see, he stopped by after work to see the boys with some more tickets for another Orioles game. Since he was here I invited him to dinner and he agreed. Isn't that just wonderful!" She spun around and went back to work on setting the food out on the table.
"Yeah, great," Amanda called out after her mother. "Just great," she grumbled. All of her hopes of a quiet evening to think were gone down the toilet.
* * *
* *
Lee scanned the airport baggage claim area with his eyes for his contact. His instructions were to get off the plane and go to the baggage claim area to get his luggage. After he retrieved his suitcases, he was to stand outside and wait until someone walked up to him and held out a newspaper, saying, "Excuse me, sir, but I believe you dropped this," Lee would turn to him, accept the paper and say, "Thank you". This would confirm that he was the person to pick up from the airport. Lee didn't know who came up with this recognition code. Probably one of those rookies in the code department who thought they were coming up with something more inventive.
A couple of minutes ticked by and Lee impatiently glanced at his watch. He had only been standing there for 5 minutes. He sighed heavily and shifted his weight to another foot. He was about to find a seat on one of the benches, when he heard someone clear their throat. "Excuse me, sir."
Lee turned to the person who had spoken to him. "Thank y." he started with his part of the recognition code, but stopped when he realized who he was talking to. "Eddie!" A big smile spread across his face as he looked at his long time friend.
"Hi, Lee!" The tall man looked back at Lee, a smile equally as big on his face. He held out his hand to Lee and Lee took it and then pulled him into a bear hug. After a moment, Lee pulled away from him and stared at Eddie in disbelief. "What are you doing here, man? I thought one of your rookies was coming out to meet me and bring me back to your office."
"Yeah, well a little change of plans." He bent down and picked up one of Lee's suitcases. He nodded his head to the right for Lee to start following him to his car. "It's been years since we've gotten the chance to work together. I thought this way we could catch up a little bit. I also figured I could fill you in on everything we know about this case so far, while we are in the car." He paused at an old, dark green sedan, pulled out a set of keys from his pocket and opened the trunk.
Lee shook his head and handed his garment bag to Eddie. "You haven't changed a bit, Eddie. Always thinking of work." Lee walked over to the passenger side of the car and waited for Eddie to unlock the door.
"Hey, you find something that works, why change it?" He grinned at Lee above the car. He unlocked his door and then the passenger door, and they got into the car. He started up the car, and backed out of the parking space. Once, he had made it out onto the highway, he started up the conversation again. "You, on the other hand, have changed a lot from what I've been hearing recently." He glanced over at Lee with a knowing smile on his face. "You have a new partner who apparently has changed a lot of your old habits."
Lee felt his breath catch in his throat at the reference to Amanda. He had been thinking about her almost the entire flight and had finally been distracted from her when he met up with Eddie. Now, she was pulled into his thoughts again.
"I had a hard time believing that you were working with a partner at first," Eddie continued, not noticing Lee's sudden tenseness. "Especially, after all of those times when you swore you would never work with anyone again. But then I continued to hear more and more about how successful you have been the past couple of years on the cases you have worked on. After a while, I was finally able to see that your partner-I'm sorry, what did you say his name was?
"He is a she," Lee informed dryly.
"A woman!" Eddie said, a little taken aback, but then suddenly his smile widened even more. "You've changed even more than I thought, Scarecrow."
"And what is that supposed to mean?" Lee demanded.
"Nothing," Eddie said defenselessly. "It's just that I seem to remember in the past that any time you spent with a woman it wasn't work." He gave Lee another knowing look and Lee glared at him.
"Look," Lee said through clenched teeth. "Do you think we could just drop the subject of Amanda and just---"
"Amanda, huh? That's a nice name!"
"Eddie!" Lee warned.
"Okay. Okay." Eddie decided it would be better to drop the subject. He could tell that he was really starting to get to Lee. He really had changed. This Amanda must really have gotten to him. She must be a pretty impressive person if she could change someone like the stubborn-as-an-ox Scarecrow. Eddie shook his head. He would welcome the day he would be able to meet her. If he ever got that chance he would give her a round of applause.
* * * * *
The next morning, Amanda drove to work still tired from the sleepless night she had had worrying about how things were going to be between Lee and her after their argument. She already wanted Lee as more than a friend, but if she couldn't even have that she didn't know what she would do.
She didn't know how she had made it through the previous evening. They had had what should have been an enjoyable dinner with her family, but she was barely aware of anything going on around her. She just went through the motions of dinner and then they all sat in front of the TV to watch a movie. She hardly paid any attention to it and before she knew it the movie was over. The next thing she knew Joe was asking her if she wanted to come with him and the boys to an Orioles game that coming up Saturday. She had declined telling him that she was going to use that time to get caught up on some work. She had been spending a lot of time with him lately and she wasn't sure if she wanted that.
When she arrived at the Agency, she was immediately called into Billy Melrose's office. "Good morning, sir," she said, stepping into the office.
"Good morning, Amanda." He motioned for her to take a seat in one of the chairs in front of his desk. Once she was seated he continued. "While Lee is gone on assignment I want you---"
"Excuse me, sir," Amanda interrupted. She leaned forward in her chair. "Lee is gone?"
"Yes. He went on an assignment in New York yesterday. Didn't he tell you?"
Amanda stared at him for a few seconds, unable to say anything. He had just left. Just like that. Without telling her or even bothering to say good- bye. "Well, maybe it was classified", she thought, trying desperately to come up with some viable explanation for him just taking off like that. But if that were true, then Billy wouldn't have just told her about the assignment.
She cleared her throat. "Um, no he didn't." She had hoped that her voice would have come out sounding like this news he had just unveiled hadn't bothered her, but she knew instantly that it hadn't. It had come out sounding exactly the way she felt, hurt. "But, he probably didn't have time," she continued, trying to make a vain attempt to cover things up. "We were so busy yesterday that.Well.." She trailed off.
"You're probably right," Billy jumped in. He could tell that this was hard on her even though she was trying not to show it. Why hadn't Lee told her that he was going on this assignment? Had they had an argument or something? Something was definitely wrong and he was going to get to the bottom of it as soon as Lee got back. He didn't need the best team he had at the Agency having communication problems, for one of better terms.
"While Lee is away," Billy said, continuing on with his explanation, "you will be working mostly on office work and if the need arises for you to go out in the field, you will partner up with Henderson."
Amanda inwardly groaned. Not only was she not going to be with Lee, but she might have to be partnered up with that grabber Henderson. "And how long will that be, sir? That Lee is gone?"
"Not long, hopefully, but this guy they're after is real smart. It could take a while to catch up to him. If we're lucky, it will only take a couple of weeks. Worse case scenario is looking at 2 or 3 months, but I doubt that will happen.
All of Amanda's final hopes were drowned by that final piece of information. She left Billy's office feeling completely deflated and numb. How could he do this? They had a disagreement and he didn't even think enough of her to try and work things out reasonably. Instead he just dashed off.
By the time she reached the Q Bureau, the numbness and sadness she had felt was starting to wear off and was being replaced by anger. If this was the way he was going to play it then fine. Two could play this game. She sat in his chair at his desk and picked up the phone and dialed. "Joe King, please," she said, to the person who answered. If Lee was going to get on with his life, then so was she. "Joe, hi, it's Amanda. I was thinking about it and I would love to go to the game with you and the boys on Saturday"
"The taxi will be here in 10 minutes?" Lee said into the phone in the living room of his apartment.
"All right. Thank you." He hung up the phone and walked back into his bedroom, to where he had left his suitcase lying open across his bed. After he had stormed out of the office, after the fight with Amanda, he had come straight to his apartment and started to pack. There was certainly no point in him wasting any more time here. Amanda had made everything perfectly clear. She wanted to be with Joe and she wanted him to stay out of it.
He opened one of his dresser drawers and pulled out several pairs of socks. He stuffed them into his suitcase and went back to another one of the drawers, where he started pulling out some of his shirts. After sorting through them and deciding on which ones he wanted to take, he shoved them into his suitcase and headed to the adjoining bathroom, to get anything that he would need in there.
He knew that just picking up and taking off like this was an immature thing to do after an argument, but at this point, he just didn't care. He walked back out of the bathroom with his arms full of bathroom accessories. He dropped them in his suitcase, not caring what order they ended up in when they landed. He looked around the room, mentally checking off everything that he would need. He couldn't think of anything else, so he zipped his suitcase. He lifted it off of the bed and carried it and the matching garment bag, which he had packed before he called for the taxi, and took them out into the living room, leaving them next to the door.
The taxi would be here any minute to take him to the airport. He had decided to take a taxi, deciding that it would be better to leave his car in the apartment's parking garage instead of the airport one, where some irresponsible clown might come along and ding it.
He walked over to the window and looked outside at the usual afternoon traffic. His mind wondered back to the angry look on Amanda's face, when he had told her to stay away from Joe. Maybe he had been a little excessive, but he knew that being with Joe couldn't possibly be what was best for her?
"Or was it?" His mind asked, taking a sudden turn. Maybe it was better for her to be with Joe. Joe had certainly been treating her better than he had recently. He was sure that Joe was looking a whole lot more appealing to Amanda right now than he was. Maybe she was right and things would be better for everyone if he just stayed out of it.
Lee saw the taxi pull up in front of the building. He would have to think some more about this later. He walked over to the coffee table and picked up his ticket and the envelope that Billy had given him. He tucked them into the pocket of his jacket and then walked over to the door to get his suitcases. He searched the room with his eyes, making one more quick check. He had gotten everything.
* * * * *
Amanda stayed and worked for the remainder of the afternoon. She had kept hoping that Lee would come back, but he never did come, so she finally gave up. She drove home with her mind filled with the argument they had had that afternoon. They had fought before, but it had never been this bad. This time she didn't know if he would ever want to talk to her again. He was so angry.
Well, she was angry, too. How dare he tell her not to see Joe? I mean, who was he to tell her who she could be with? He certainly wouldn't like it if she started telling him that dating all of those girls in the steno pool wasn't good for him and he should steer clear of them. He would tell her that he was a grown man and could make his own decisions. Well, she was a grown woman and could make her decisions, too. Lee was just going to have to accept that. No, Lee Stetson wasn't going to win this one, she told herself fiercely. He wasn't.
Amanda pulled into the driveway, noticing Joe's rental car in front of the house. What was he doing here tonight? Amanda got out of the car and went inside the back door, stepping into a very busy household.
Inside, her mother was rushing back and forth from the kitchen to the dining room carrying various casserole dishes. Philip, was cutting up some tomatoes and tossing them on top of a salad, and she could see Joe and Jamie in the dining room setting the table.
"Hello, everybody!"
"Hi, mom," Philip said, glancing up momentarily from his task.
"Hey, mom" Jamie shouted from the dining room, "look who's here." He motioned towards his father.
"Hello, Amanda." Joe waved and then continued to place the silverware on the table.
"What's going on here?" Amanda asked, first looking at Philip for an answer, but then turning to her mother when she dashed back into the room. "Mother, what's going on?"
"Oh, Amanda, I'm glad you're here. We were just setting things up to have dinner." She glanced down at her watch. "I was afraid that you might be late, but I see you're early."
"Yes, just a little." She placed her hand on her mother's shoulder and guided her back out of the room, out of Philip's earshot. "Um, mother," she said in a whisper. "What is Joe doing here? I didn't invite him to dinner tonight."
"I know, I did," Dotty said excitedly. "You see, he stopped by after work to see the boys with some more tickets for another Orioles game. Since he was here I invited him to dinner and he agreed. Isn't that just wonderful!" She spun around and went back to work on setting the food out on the table.
"Yeah, great," Amanda called out after her mother. "Just great," she grumbled. All of her hopes of a quiet evening to think were gone down the toilet.
* * *
* *
Lee scanned the airport baggage claim area with his eyes for his contact. His instructions were to get off the plane and go to the baggage claim area to get his luggage. After he retrieved his suitcases, he was to stand outside and wait until someone walked up to him and held out a newspaper, saying, "Excuse me, sir, but I believe you dropped this," Lee would turn to him, accept the paper and say, "Thank you". This would confirm that he was the person to pick up from the airport. Lee didn't know who came up with this recognition code. Probably one of those rookies in the code department who thought they were coming up with something more inventive.
A couple of minutes ticked by and Lee impatiently glanced at his watch. He had only been standing there for 5 minutes. He sighed heavily and shifted his weight to another foot. He was about to find a seat on one of the benches, when he heard someone clear their throat. "Excuse me, sir."
Lee turned to the person who had spoken to him. "Thank y." he started with his part of the recognition code, but stopped when he realized who he was talking to. "Eddie!" A big smile spread across his face as he looked at his long time friend.
"Hi, Lee!" The tall man looked back at Lee, a smile equally as big on his face. He held out his hand to Lee and Lee took it and then pulled him into a bear hug. After a moment, Lee pulled away from him and stared at Eddie in disbelief. "What are you doing here, man? I thought one of your rookies was coming out to meet me and bring me back to your office."
"Yeah, well a little change of plans." He bent down and picked up one of Lee's suitcases. He nodded his head to the right for Lee to start following him to his car. "It's been years since we've gotten the chance to work together. I thought this way we could catch up a little bit. I also figured I could fill you in on everything we know about this case so far, while we are in the car." He paused at an old, dark green sedan, pulled out a set of keys from his pocket and opened the trunk.
Lee shook his head and handed his garment bag to Eddie. "You haven't changed a bit, Eddie. Always thinking of work." Lee walked over to the passenger side of the car and waited for Eddie to unlock the door.
"Hey, you find something that works, why change it?" He grinned at Lee above the car. He unlocked his door and then the passenger door, and they got into the car. He started up the car, and backed out of the parking space. Once, he had made it out onto the highway, he started up the conversation again. "You, on the other hand, have changed a lot from what I've been hearing recently." He glanced over at Lee with a knowing smile on his face. "You have a new partner who apparently has changed a lot of your old habits."
Lee felt his breath catch in his throat at the reference to Amanda. He had been thinking about her almost the entire flight and had finally been distracted from her when he met up with Eddie. Now, she was pulled into his thoughts again.
"I had a hard time believing that you were working with a partner at first," Eddie continued, not noticing Lee's sudden tenseness. "Especially, after all of those times when you swore you would never work with anyone again. But then I continued to hear more and more about how successful you have been the past couple of years on the cases you have worked on. After a while, I was finally able to see that your partner-I'm sorry, what did you say his name was?
"He is a she," Lee informed dryly.
"A woman!" Eddie said, a little taken aback, but then suddenly his smile widened even more. "You've changed even more than I thought, Scarecrow."
"And what is that supposed to mean?" Lee demanded.
"Nothing," Eddie said defenselessly. "It's just that I seem to remember in the past that any time you spent with a woman it wasn't work." He gave Lee another knowing look and Lee glared at him.
"Look," Lee said through clenched teeth. "Do you think we could just drop the subject of Amanda and just---"
"Amanda, huh? That's a nice name!"
"Eddie!" Lee warned.
"Okay. Okay." Eddie decided it would be better to drop the subject. He could tell that he was really starting to get to Lee. He really had changed. This Amanda must really have gotten to him. She must be a pretty impressive person if she could change someone like the stubborn-as-an-ox Scarecrow. Eddie shook his head. He would welcome the day he would be able to meet her. If he ever got that chance he would give her a round of applause.
* * * * *
The next morning, Amanda drove to work still tired from the sleepless night she had had worrying about how things were going to be between Lee and her after their argument. She already wanted Lee as more than a friend, but if she couldn't even have that she didn't know what she would do.
She didn't know how she had made it through the previous evening. They had had what should have been an enjoyable dinner with her family, but she was barely aware of anything going on around her. She just went through the motions of dinner and then they all sat in front of the TV to watch a movie. She hardly paid any attention to it and before she knew it the movie was over. The next thing she knew Joe was asking her if she wanted to come with him and the boys to an Orioles game that coming up Saturday. She had declined telling him that she was going to use that time to get caught up on some work. She had been spending a lot of time with him lately and she wasn't sure if she wanted that.
When she arrived at the Agency, she was immediately called into Billy Melrose's office. "Good morning, sir," she said, stepping into the office.
"Good morning, Amanda." He motioned for her to take a seat in one of the chairs in front of his desk. Once she was seated he continued. "While Lee is gone on assignment I want you---"
"Excuse me, sir," Amanda interrupted. She leaned forward in her chair. "Lee is gone?"
"Yes. He went on an assignment in New York yesterday. Didn't he tell you?"
Amanda stared at him for a few seconds, unable to say anything. He had just left. Just like that. Without telling her or even bothering to say good- bye. "Well, maybe it was classified", she thought, trying desperately to come up with some viable explanation for him just taking off like that. But if that were true, then Billy wouldn't have just told her about the assignment.
She cleared her throat. "Um, no he didn't." She had hoped that her voice would have come out sounding like this news he had just unveiled hadn't bothered her, but she knew instantly that it hadn't. It had come out sounding exactly the way she felt, hurt. "But, he probably didn't have time," she continued, trying to make a vain attempt to cover things up. "We were so busy yesterday that.Well.." She trailed off.
"You're probably right," Billy jumped in. He could tell that this was hard on her even though she was trying not to show it. Why hadn't Lee told her that he was going on this assignment? Had they had an argument or something? Something was definitely wrong and he was going to get to the bottom of it as soon as Lee got back. He didn't need the best team he had at the Agency having communication problems, for one of better terms.
"While Lee is away," Billy said, continuing on with his explanation, "you will be working mostly on office work and if the need arises for you to go out in the field, you will partner up with Henderson."
Amanda inwardly groaned. Not only was she not going to be with Lee, but she might have to be partnered up with that grabber Henderson. "And how long will that be, sir? That Lee is gone?"
"Not long, hopefully, but this guy they're after is real smart. It could take a while to catch up to him. If we're lucky, it will only take a couple of weeks. Worse case scenario is looking at 2 or 3 months, but I doubt that will happen.
All of Amanda's final hopes were drowned by that final piece of information. She left Billy's office feeling completely deflated and numb. How could he do this? They had a disagreement and he didn't even think enough of her to try and work things out reasonably. Instead he just dashed off.
By the time she reached the Q Bureau, the numbness and sadness she had felt was starting to wear off and was being replaced by anger. If this was the way he was going to play it then fine. Two could play this game. She sat in his chair at his desk and picked up the phone and dialed. "Joe King, please," she said, to the person who answered. If Lee was going to get on with his life, then so was she. "Joe, hi, it's Amanda. I was thinking about it and I would love to go to the game with you and the boys on Saturday"