Part Three
Saturday, January 2, 1988 9:30 A.M.
As Lee and Amanda sat in Billy's
office, Amanda was trying to figure out a way to ask her Section Chief for some
time off. She decided that being straightforward was her best bet. "Sir,
Lee and I need Tuesday off. Jamie won
an essay contest, and we would like to attend the awards ceremony."
"I read about it in the
Washington Post. Congratulations. I can't promise anything, but this is what I
can do: Francine finally decided it would be a good idea for someone to
investigate while she waited, so Beeman and Fielder have been running this
since yesterday. You two will be assigned to help them out. Then, if you do
come up with some leads by Tuesday morning, I can override Francine's authority
and have Beeman and Fielder follow them up. Then you two can have the rest of
the day."
"Now, I've got to get back
upstairs. I'll let Francine brief you on what has been going on." Billy
opened the door to leave as Francine entered.
Glaring at Lee and Amanda, Francine
asked them, "Why couldn't I contact you two yesterday? I really needed you
here!"
"I'm sorry, Francine,"
Amanda told her. "Phillip didn't hang up the phone properly after talking
to his girlfriend. We didn't notice it until late afternoon."
"Well," Francine sighed as
she opened a folder; "'Operation Beat It' has been compromised before it
even started. Somehow the terrorist group found out."
"How could anyone found out
about it? A mole?" Lee wanted to know.
"The only people who knew about
it were Billy, Dr. Smyth, and us. I had this office, and all of the rooms we
discussed it in, swept for bugs. None
were found."
"Maybe they drugged you for the
information, Francine," Lee suggested, with a smirk.
"That's not funny,
Stetson."
"Sorry, Francine," Lee
apologized, trying to contain a chuckle.
"Never mind. I want you and
Amanda to investigate the security breech. I want to know how it happened, and
I want it yesterday."
"Um, Francine," Amanda
began. "You might want to talk to Mr. Melrose about our schedule for
Tuesday."
She raised an eyebrow in question.
"He said if we came up with
anything by the morning we'd get off for the afternoon. We need to attend a
special awards ceremony for Jamie."
"I don't like the idea, but
fine," Francine said. That would still give her three days of their time.
"Get to work."
"We're on it," Lee
responded as he led Amanda out of the office.
**SMK**SMK**SMK**
Later that day, in an apartment
across the hall from Lee's, Natalia Jones sat reading the Washington Post. She
was waiting for her partner and lover, Peter Curless. She had decided to take
Mathers' advice and have Peter do some digging on Stetson and King.
The door opened, and Peter walked in
with a grin on his face. " Hello, my love," Peter said as he kissed Natalia.
"We've hit pay dirt."
"You've found something?"
Natalia asked. Peter nodded and she smiled, dropping the newspaper.
"That's wonderful!"
"It took a lot of digging, but
I found something, and it's good. You wouldn't believe how deeply buried it
was, but I found it…Lee Stetson married Amanda King on February 13, 1987!"
Natalia smiled. "And no one
knows but them...and now, us. Perfect."
At that moment, Mathers entered the
apartment, carrying a picture. He looked at the paper on the floor. "Is
that today's Post?"
"Yes, why do you ask?"
"Go to the front of the Metro
section. Look at the article with the headline 'Arlington Students Win Essay
Contest.' You should find it very interesting."
Natalia quickly found the article
and started reading. "James King, Angela Davis, and Ramona Jones are the
first, second, and third place winners of the eighth annual 'Young Writers of
Virginia' essay contest. James King,
the son of Amanda and Joe King, will read the winning essay at an open awards
ceremony scheduled to take place on Tuesday at 6:30 P.M., in the auditorium of
the Arlington Heights Middle School."
"Why should I care about this
article, besides that my niece won third place?" Natalia wanted to know.
"James King is Amanda King's
son. You know, Stetson's partner."
Natalia snatched the picture from
Mathers. She carefully looked at the newspaper and the picture. James King was
indeed Amanda King's son. "Good
job, Mathers. I think we may finally have something we can use. Why don't you take the rest of the afternoon
off? Peter and I have some plans to make."
"Sure thing," Mathers said
as he left.
As his footsteps faded down the
hallway, Natalia turned to Peter. "Okay.
We know that 'Operation Beat It' will start next week. We also know that Lee
Stetson and his partner are married, and that his partner's son won an essay
contest. Now, the awards ceremony is on Tuesday, and here's what we're going to
do…we're going to go to the ceremony as the aunt of the third place winner and
her boyfriend. After we hear the kid's essay, we'll contact Stetson and his
wife and threaten to reveal their marriage if they don't get us the information
we want on 'Operation Beat It.' When they hand over the information, we'll run
off to some tropical island where the Feds can't touch us. How does that sound?"
"Natalia, you are a genius.
What about Mathers?" Peter stood next to her and began to kiss her neck.
"We'll eliminate him," she
purred.
"That's good," he sighed
as he nibbled up to her ear.
"We'd better start preparing,
if we want to be able to accomplish my plan." Natalia sighed. "But
first, I guess we have some other business to attend to."
"Urgent business," Peter
said as he carried Natalia to the bedroom.
**SMK**SMK**SMK**