NEVER MY LOVE

by matahari2



Chapter Three – The Mystery Box

After lunch, Lee took Amanda's hand and they walked back to the Georgetown Antique Emporium. Lee pulled out the shopkeeper's card. 'Alf Jorgensen, Proprietor', was all it said, other than the name, address and telephone number of the store. Lee smiled to Amanda as he replaced the card in his jacket pocket. "Okay, now, let's have a little talk with Mr. Jorgensen here, and see what he can tell us about your mystery box."

At the time, Mr. Jorgensen was just ringing up the sale of a grandfather clock with an eight-day movement and a solid cherry case. The customers, a well-heeled middle-aged couple, were just giving him delivery instructions as Lee and Amanda approached. "That's correct, Mrs. Stapleton, your clock will be delivered on Thursday, and we will call you that morning to let you know the exact time. Thank you very much, Mr. and Mrs. Stapleton."

"Excuse me, Mr Jorgensen?" Lee began.

"Yes...is there a problem with your music box, Mr. ...?"

"Stetson. No, no, nothing of the kind. We just had a few questions about one of the other music boxes we saw this morning. It's just over this way..." Lee said, directing Mr. Jorgensen's attention to the rectangular music box with the 'secret' compartments.

"Ah yes," Mr. Jorgensen said, "it is an interesting piece of work, isn't it? We just received a small shipment from Paris. This box here and two similar boxes were delivered to the store only yesterday. I would love to show you all three of them. Unfortunately, one of the other two boxes has already been sold. In fact the customer who purchased it will be coming to pick it up later this afternoon."

Flashing a toothy grin at Mr. Jorgensen, Amanda teased, "You don't suppose we could just take a peek at the other two boxes, just to see what they look like? You know, just for fun?"

"Well now, when you put it like that, Mrs. Stetson, I don't know why not," Mr. Jorgensen said, with a twinkle in his eye. He'd assumed a little with the 'Mrs. Stetson', but neither Lee nor Amanda rushed to correct him. "Just follow me," he continued, motioning for them to come along.

Mr. Jorgensen took the two of them to the stock room in the back of the store. There they found two large rectangular boxes, one almost a twin to the box Amanda had investigated earlier. The second box was even larger. It rose to a height of twelve inches, and just as the smaller box had, it looked as though there was room for a false bottom and whatever might lie beneath it. This larger box had a SOLD tag, indicating that it was being held for a Mr. Stanley Parks, of Alexandria, Virginia.

Lee nodded to Amanda, signaling her to keep their friend Mr. Jorgensen occupied while he busied himself with inspecting the larger of the two boxes, and taking down the address for Mr. Parks.

"Oh, Mr. Jorgensen! Aren't these charming. Let me see this one. Let's see what happens when I open the lid here..." she rambled for effect, carefully positioning herself directly between Mr. Jorgensen and Lee's activities. "Oh!" she shouted in mock surprise, when the top drawer popped out. "Wouldn't a child have a lot of fun with one of these?"

"I suppose so, Mrs. Stetson, but you see, these boxes are not toys. They are really intended for storing, and yes, sometimes hiding, fine jewelry. The musical movement is also delicate, and not something to be played with, I'm afraid," Mr. Jorgensen instructed.

"Oh, no, of course not!" Amanda exclaimed. "It's just fascinating, that's all, I mean, with all the little surprises and all."

Just then, Lee indicated to Amanda that he was finished with the larger box. Just as Mr. Jorgensen started to point it out to them, Lee said, "You know, Darling, I don't think you would have really liked that bigger box. It simply wouldn't fit in at our house at all. Why don't we leave Mr. Jorgensen to his paying customers." Then, to Jorgensen, "We have your card, and we live in the area. We'll stop in again some time. Good day!" he shouted back over his shoulder, as he spun Amanda around and guided her out of the store.

"Lee! What was that all about? Did you find out something about the buyer?" Amanda asked, all in a rush.

Lee took her hand and helped her into the silver Corvette before answering. "All I really got was a name, Stanley Parks, which may or may not be his real name, and an address in Alexandria which could also be bogus, for all we know. I think we'll need to watch the store for awhile. After all, Jorgensen did say the customer would be coming to pick up the box today, right? So let's just keep our eyes open, and if we see him coming out with our mystery box, we'll follow him, and see where he leads us."

"Okay, " she said, twisting to face him, "fine," she finished, with a sweet smile.

Lee grinned and kissed her hand, saying, "Say, Amanda, you were pretty good back there. I remember you telling me once, you could still flirt pretty well when you wanted to...you can be awfully cute, too, you know that?" he said, and gave her a soft kiss on the lips. "Uh-oh. See that black limo pulling up in front of the store? Could be our man. But we WILL continue this 'discussion' later," Lee stated, with a wink.

"Promise?" she grinned.

"You bet," he replied. Then they both turned their attention to the storefront.

In about five minutes, the man claiming to be Stanley Parks emerged from the antique store bearing a box of approximately the same size as the one Lee had inspected in the stockroom. Lee managed to click off a few snapshots of Mr. Parks and his box before the man returned to the back seat of the limousine. As inconspicuously as they could, Lee and Amanda followed Mr. Parks to the Alexandria address that had been printed on the sales slip. Lee drove the Corvette around the corner and parked. The first order of business was to phone their Section Chief, Billy Melrose, and bring him up to date.

"Billy, Scarecrow here. We've been checking out the Georgetown antique shops, for imported music boxes...yeah, that's right, I said music boxes. It seems that's how the documents and jewels were to be transported. Anyway, we followed the guy who had ordered this particular music box from someone in Paris. He brought the box here to Alexandria, 505 Columbus Street. The name he gave the store is Stanley Parks, right, 'P – A – R – K – S'. ...Yeah, I got some shots of him coming out of the store. Okay, we'll come back in, then."

Crestfallen, Amanda said, "What?!? We're going back to the Agency?"

"That's right, Amanda. See, without a solid ID for this Parks guy, we can't get very far on the investigation," Lee explained. "At least we know where he and the box are right now. We'll send a team out here once we find out for sure who we're dealing with. Meanwhile, I need to get these photos to the lab."

An hour and a half later, in Billy Melrose's office, Billy, Lee and Amanda were looking at the photos, along with a dossier for Stefan Pascal, of Strasbourg, France, in the region of Alsace-Lorraine, near the German border.

Billy Melrose read from the dossier, "...For the past five years, Stefan Pascal has been a frequent traveler between the South of France and the eastern United States. The latest information we have is that Monsieur Pascal has been well connected in the trade of stolen jewels. Government secrets, however, are a new venture."

"All right, Billy, so that tells us that Pascal is not the end of the line, correct?" Lee asked.

"Right, Scarecrow," Billy answered. "He probably has a regular connection for fencing the jewels, which we can trace easily enough, but we still have to find out what the documents are, and who's interested in buying them. Look...you two have done enough for today. I'll get a surveillance team out to Alexandria, and we'll keep a tail on Mr. Pascal, wherever he goes."

"Okay, Billy, see you later," Lee said.

Amanda added, "Good night, Sir.", and the two of them headed out through the bullpen.

As the pair covered the distance to the closet-elevator, Lee had taken Amanda's hand in his without a thought about all the pairs of eyes that might be watching.

When they passed the entrance to the crosswise corridor, Amanda heard female voices giggling, one of them saying, "How long do you figure it'll be before Scarecrow's back on the market?" The other voice replied, "I don't know...I give it maybe a week!" "Yeah...Tawny in payroll told me she wouldn't mind takin' a crack at him...and I told her, take a number and get in line!"

Almost immediately, the light in Amanda's eyes went dark, and she sighed heavily.

Lee couldn't help noticing her sudden change in mood, and he turned to face her, tipping her chin up with his finger. Quietly, he said, "Hey...are you okay? 'Manda, please don't listen to them, don't let them get to you. Remember, like I've told you before...that may be how I was in the past...before we finally expressed our feelings to each other. But it is all history now."

He could barely hear her as she answered with a little nod, "I know, I know." She paused for another sigh and continued, her eyes full of tears, "At least in my head, I know, Lee, but my heart has a little harder time with all this, you know?"

Right at that moment, the elevator doors opened, revealing a grinning Francine Desmond. She could readily see the scene before her was not one to be intruded upon, what with Amanda's tear-stained face and Lee's look of, what was it, shame? guilt? So for once the tart-tongued blonde didn't say anything but, "Excuse me," as she hurried past them toward the bullpen.

As the elevator doors closed, Lee took a firm grip on Amanda's hand and whispered, "Yeah...I guess I do know, and God! I am more sorry than you could possibly know, that my past history could hurt you like this." At this point, he looked upward, trying to avoid spilling his own tears.

"Oh, Lee..." Amanda whispered. "I'm sorry, I..."

Shaking his head, Lee cut in, "Oh, no, Amanda, I think I've already earned the blue ribbon in that category!" ...at which point, the elevator doors opened onto the Georgetown foyer.

Mrs. Marston had only just heard Scarecrow's last statement, and she didn't have a chance to adjust her eyebrows downward before they arrived at her desk and handed in their badges. "Good night, Mr. Stetson, Mrs. King," she nodded to each of them in turn.

After exiting the building, in an effort to ease the tension, Lee said, "So Amanda, do you have any plans for this evening...you know, with your mother or the boys?"

Amanda was taken aback a little by his abrupt shift, but she attempted a mood shift of her own, and with a half-smile, she answered, "Well, no, nothing urgent. I mean, I'm working on a costume for Jamie's school play, but he doesn't need it until at least next Monday, and Phillip's basketball practice isn't until tomorrow night. I already had their supper ready to go, and Mother won't mind taking care of that, I'm sure." She turned to face him, with her back leaning against the Wagoneer. "Why do you ask?"

"I just thought maybe...would you like to come by the apartment for awhile, you know, maybe get some take-out Chinese food, and relax, just spend a little 'quality' time together? What do you say?" he asked.

Asked? It was more like begging, really, and with that sad, puppy-dog face he'd shown her, how could she say no? "All right, that'd be fine...I'll see you in about ten minutes, then," she said, forcing a small smile as she climbed into her jeep.

He watched as she started down the street. He loved her more than he'd ever thought it was possible to love anyone, and he knew he'd have to find a way to prove to her that she could trust him. And he had ten minutes.

TO BE CONTINUED