Chapter 5

After the Red Sox game at Fenway Park, Lee returned to the Parker House. He made arrangements with the concierge to have a car delivered for the following morning. From the lobby he called Amanda's room hoping to get together for a nightcap.

The unanswered phone took him by surprise. 'That's odd, thought she would have sent the old guy on his way by now. I couldn't wait to get away from my old college professors.'

Lee spotted her from the bar, and noticed the old friend was a handsome, well-dressed man. Not exactly the dull as stick, absent minded professor type he expected. Lee watched the couple from a far, his surveillance techniques being put to good use. 'I'm tempted to march right over and sit down, between them.' Justifying his curiosity Lee convinced himself it was okay. 'After all, I'm Amanda's producer, I need to check up on how she made out scouting locations today.'

Then his keen agent skills took over and he noticed the way they sat, closer than they needed to be, the eye contact never broken between them, Jeffrey's hands were securely resting upon hers. They looked like a couple involved in an intimate situation and no third party would be welcome.

Lee was mesmerized. 'What part did he play in Amanda's past, would he be content to stay in Amanda's past?'

It sure looked as if his intentions were for the present, a hopeful look of what might be. Lee thought he must have been reading all these signs wrong. 'She couldn't be involved with someone else. What do I mean by someone else? We're not emotionally involved, we're only friends, barely partners. It's her own personal life. She can see anyone she wants. After all, he had been out of her life for three years, there was nothing going on, she was just playing her cover. All too well if you ask me.'

Sitting with his back towards the dance floor, Lee looked straight ahead at the mirror behind the bar and watched the couple, as Amanda was pulled in close and they began to dance.

'I know how good that feels, the last time we danced like that I wanted the music to play all night. Everything seems so natural, and comfortable when I' m with Amanda. I don't have to turn on the charm, she would see right through it anyway. She really is something else, smart and compassionate, and lovely to look at.' His own thoughts surprised him. 'I can't be thinking of Amanda like a woman! I have to think of her as a partner.'

It was only thoughts of her femininity and grace that occupied his mind. He remembered how she fit perfectly into his arms and how the loose wisps of her hair had tickled his nose. How she glided across the dance floor effortlessly and how stunning she looked in that black dress she wore to the last embassy event they attended together.

Lee felt an urgent need to get away, as far away as he could. He left the hotel and started walking towards Quincy Market. Walking around the marketplace was not the same without Amanda strolling along side him as she did the night before. Sounds of life, laughter, music, and couples talking surrounded him. He watched as a mime entertained the crowd. Everyone seemed to be in pairs. Lee felt out of time and out of place.

Lee wondered, 'How can I be surrounded by so many people, and feel so alone?'

Somewhere along the line things had changed. The women he had found so alluring no longer held the same appeal. Lee thought about his recent dates with Cindi, Margo and Jillian they didn't seem so important anymore. They just wanted to have some of that Stetson charm to make them feel beautiful and wanted. It was all a game he was getting tired of playing.

When Lee returned to the hotel he was pleased to see Amanda was no longer dancing. 'Good, I'll get a chance to tell her about tomorrow's drive up to Cape Ann, and check up on how this evening went.'

As he neared the door to her room he heard voices'Must be the TV, It's too late for her to be calling home to check on mother and the boys.' Just as he was about to knock, there was laughter that unmistakably belonged to Amanda, along with a baritone voice that could only belong to a man.

It was not the TV. Taken aback, Lee realized Amanda was not alone, she was 'entertaining' Ferguson in her room.

Lee entered his room, astonished with her behavior. 'How could she, what was she thinking?' Clenching his fists, this was a new form of torment for Lee. 'Maybe I should call the front desk and get my room changed. I don't want to listen to the muffled sounds coming from her room the rest of the night.'

Thinking the situation through, Lee decided it was better not to make a big deal about this. 'She's a grown woman capable of making her own decisions; she certainly has reminded me of that often enough.'

Wearing out the carpet in his room Lee recalled, last year when that parking lot attendant, Scotty got in trouble way over his head. It was just another stakeout, but Amanda's mother thought she was having a clandestine affair. 'I laughed out loud when she said that. Her mother should know better than that.'

Amanda had persisted 'you never can tell who's the type for what. I'm not the type to be a spy, but look at me. I mean, you never really can tell what a person would do under . . .'

Was she seeing someone after Dan, or whatever that weatherman's name was. Fergusen could have been back in DC for meetings with the government. Maybe they never stopped seeing each other, even if it was infrequently.

Sometimes long distance relationships can work out the easiest. His mind drifted to the brunette he met in The Hague. Her job as an international translator occasionally took her to Washington, long enough for a weekend rendezvous. No need to go out on the town, when there was so little time to spend together.

Even in London, six months ago, after that compromising photo with Lord Bromfield was published in the newspapers. Lee tried to console her by claiming "Nobody who knows you is going to believe it, you in the middle of a sex scandal. All they have to do is take one look to know it's ridiculous."

He remembered an indignant Amanda asking, "Why is it ridiculous? Just because it isn't true, doesn't make it ridiculous."

Maybe it wasn't ridiculous, Amanda could have met a handsome successful man in Washington and been having an affair. She certainly was quite capable of making up excuses for getting out of the house on a minutes notice. After all men do find her attractive, intelligent, easy to be with… and a magnet for trouble.

Trouble always finds its way to her doorstep. Even when she should have been safe at home, she still managed to get into trouble. Like in April, when Sylvia Sampson stopped by the agency. That cute blonde, June Philips, dropped all the files. She mixed up the shadow files with the active ones; it nearly cost Amanda her life.

'Reading Amanda's obituary knocked me for a loop. I had no idea losing Amanda would have an effect on me that way. Her house was full of condolence cards and flowers.

'I tried to find that elusive silver lining and pointed out at least she knew she was well liked. But she knew that already.'

Lee reasoned, 'She must know how I feel, too. But how could she know, when I don't even know myself.'

'I do know the incredible sense of loss I felt when she quit the Agency to go work for Byron Jordan. I did my best to hide my disappointment. I had never considered there would be a time when Amanda wouldn't be there, when I couldn't count on her.'

'It was me she turned to when she needed to get out of trouble. I had complete faith in her innocence. It was obviously a set up. It did feel pretty normal to go charging in to her rescue: first from jail, and secondly from the garage. How could they chloroform her, and leave her to die? If I hadn't stopped by when I did…'

She bounced right back. At least we were able to get her job back, and with a raise. She won't easily be tempted to leave the agency again. Lee surmised with a satisfied grin.

It was midnight when he heard Amanda's door open, and shut as Jeffrey departed. Relieved this ordeal was finally over; Lee continued to be preoccupied with thoughts of Amanda. 'She knows how much I care about her. It seems to me I spend plenty of time in her backyard; peering through the kitchen window, just to check up on her.A few weeks agoshe thought I wanted to rent the Kuperman house just to get close to her.'

A smile crept across Lee's face as he remembered Amanda's suggestion, "We could go to dinner; you don't have to move down the street."

Maybe that is exactly what we should do. When we get back to Washington, steak, and a bottle of wine, a baked potato on the side at Spencer's or a quiet booth in the back of Emilio's.

It was pleasant thoughts of Amanda that drifted though his mind as he fell asleep.

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End of chapter 5