November 1, 1986
Lee couldn't stop thinking about Amanda and what she could possibly be going through. How could he have left her alone in the van? It wasn't supposed to happen this way. Addi Birol now had her. What was he doing to her? Was he hurting her, torturing her for information on Nightcrawler? How far would he go? Lee was tormented with all the thoughts racing through his mind. He paced back and forth in Billy's office like a caged animal.
"Forget it, Scarecrow", Billy said. "The best thing you can do is stay way."
Aw damnit Billy, the guy is a terrorist with nothing to lose. And he took Amanda to get to me! Don't you see that?" Lee shot back.
"I KNOW which one of my agents is in trouble. I always know. Does she know about Nightcrawler?"
Lee hesitated before answering, a pained look spreading across his face.
"Yes….she knows Nightcrawler is my source….and that is ALL! Birol won't believe her."
Billy picked up the note on his desk and read it aloud "Nightcrawler for the woman."
"Aw, stay out of it, Lee. Because if he gets you, he'll use Amanda to break you! And we'll lose the best source we've got!"
Lee glared at Billy as he spoke.
"Could you watch Amanda suffer?"
"How'd he pick her out, Scarecrow?" Dr Quidd asked.
"Random? Or he figured the CSN crew for a front, or he figured out something else! I don't know! If I knew I would have stopped him!"
"So, he duped all his lieutenants about the interview?" Quidd asked.
"Yeah, and he outsmarted me, and he bagged Amanda all by himself. And now he has got us by the back pockets because we don't have a clue! I do this for a living, Doc."
"Then act like a professional!" Billy said sternly. "Let Yusef and the A Tag Team get her. We can't even let her family know until Birol makes this public! You go charging after him, you will simply eliminate the need. You know what I mean? Why don't you bunk down in the tac center out of harm's way."
"I'll make it a medical order, Scarecrow. Put you out for a few days. It will be best." Quidd added.
"Don't you try me"
"Easy, think it over. Your first loyalty is to your source. Nightcrawler has been at considerable risk for us. You owe it…"
"I know EXACTLY what I owe, Doc. And if I have to, I will pay it back in my own blood!"
Lee stormed out of Billy's office into the bull pen.
"He thinks it's his fault, Quidd. Maybe it is. If we try and tie him down now someone will get hurt."
"More going on with him than guilt. He's got an emotional hang-up and that's not good."
"For an agent that can be bad. I remember when he didn't have any emotions at all."
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Lee walked out of the bull pen and straight to his car. He didn't know where he was going but he knew he couldn't stay confined within the walls of the agency. He had to do something to find her. After driving around Washington, D.C. for more than an hour, Lee found himself at the scene of the botched interview. Maybe Birol had left some clues behind. Lee parked the car and stared at the building where Birol was in his grasp yet got away. He outsmarted the entire agency team and took Amanda right from under his nose.
"Damnit!" Lee said as he pounded the steering wheel of the silver Corvette. "Don't give it up, Amanda. I'm coming for you."
Just then, the phone in his car rang. Lee snatched it from the cradle before it could ring again.
"Stetson" he said, his voice filled with anxiety and desperation.
"Scarecrow? It is me" said Nightcrawler's voice.
"Where are you? Where is Amanda?" Lee barked.
"I do not know. Addi will not tell anyone where she is, just that he has her."
"Is she alright? Has he hurt her?"
"I do not think he has hurt her. He needs her to get Nightcrawler…..to get me."
Lee closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the headrest as he grasped the handset tightly in his fist.
"Are you still there?" she said.
Lee let out a heavy sigh.
"Yeah. Yeah, I'm here. Think, damnit! Where can I start looking for her? I've got to get her back before Birol hurts her."
Mara hesitated and then spoke.
"If…if he finds out that I am Nightcrawler, he will kill me. I don't want to die, but I do not want her to die in my place. Meet me tomorrow morning at 7:00, at the usual spot and I will see what I can find out."
"Tomorrow? No that's too late…"
Mara had hung up. He had no way of contacting her. Lee had no choice but to wait out the long night ahead of him and pray that Amanda would be safe until then.
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November 2, 1986
Lee drove around all night waiting for 7:00am to arrive. He parked his car and walked over to the photobooth where he would always meet with Mara. He stepped inside and pulled the curtain. Hearing nothing from the adjoining booth, Lee looked at his watch and saw that he was a few minutes early. He reached up and scratched his face, feeling 2 days' worth of beard growth there.
"Come on, come on! Hurry up" he said in a hushed whisper.
He waited 10 more minutes inside that photobooth before he got out and began to pace. It was not like Mara to be late, in fact she was usually early. These early morning times were always when she preferred to meet. She could get away easily and without notice.
Lee checked his watch again. She was now 20 minutes late. He knew that she wasn't going to show. He also knew that something bad must have happened to keep her away. Lee's stomach dropped into his feet. He could feel all the blood draining from his face as panic began to set in.
"Amanda!" he said as he beelined for his car and drove off as fast as he could back to the agency.
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Lee roughly pushed the clothes out of the way on the false closet bar and exited the elevator across from the bull pen. He yanked open the glass doors and practically sprinted for Billy's office to see if there was news. Billy saw him coming and opened the office door. He pushed his way past Billy into the office.
"Well, any news?" he said almost breathless, his eyes wide as he looked from Billy to Francine and then to Dr. Quidd. No one said a word. "Come on! Someone answer me!"
"Lee, why don't you sit down." Billy said in a calm, low pitched tone.
"No! I don't want to sit down! Someone tell me if there's any news about Amanda."
"Lee.." Francine began. She stopped for a moment to swallow back the tears that were beginning to form in her eyes.
Lee began to take on a very defensive posture. His body became electrified as each of his senses were heightened and alert. His fight or flight instinct was beginning to kick in and if someone didn't tell him something immediately, he was going to start with fight.
"What?" he screamed. "Tell me, damnit! What have you heard?"
Billy inhaled deeply and spoke in his authoritative, professional tone.
"Scarecrow, we received word about 35 minutes ago that Mara Petrak was found dead outside one of what we assume to be Addi Birol's safe houses."
Lee clenched his teeth together for a moment and nodded slightly.
"I was afraid that something had happened. We were supposed to have met this morning and she never showed." He took a moment to pause before he asked his next question. "And Amanda?"
"We, uh, received this about an hour ago" Francine said holding up a manila envelope.
Billy nodded to Francine. "Go ahead" he said.
Francine walked around Billy's desk and pressed play on the tape deck. The voice of Addi Birol began to speak.
"As you will soon find out, I have discovered who Nightcrawler is…..or should I say was. I have killed Mara Petrak. She will no longer betray me. And since I no longer need Amanda King to find out the identity of Nightcrawler, I have killed her, too. You will find the photographic evidence you need along with her necklace in the envelope. Tell Scarecrow he should have left me well enough alone. Now not only is his precious Nightcrawler dead, but so is his partner."
Francine clicked off the machine. Lee stood frozen in the center of the room unable to breathe.
"Lee, I can't tell you how sorry…" Billy began.
"NO! NO, DAMNIT! SHE'S NOT DEAD!" Lee snapped back.
He quickly snatched the envelope out of Francine's hand and ripped it open. From it fell Amanda's diamond and heart necklace, landing on his shoe. He looked at the 8x10 photo that he now held in his hand. He saw Amanda on the floor of what looked to be a basement, wearing the same clothes he had seen her in a few days ago. She had been shot in the head…..blood pooled all around her face and shoulders, her body lay stretched out as if she had been sleeping.
"NO! SHE'S NOT DEAD! SHE'S NOT DEAD" he said over and over again. "We've got to find her! This is some kind of hoax. We've pulled them before. That's what Birol is doing now, using her to get to me. She's not dead!"
"Lee", Billy began in soft tones, "Birol has made no demands. He's killed Nightcrawler and he seems to have dropped out of sight. Why would he fake Amanda's death? The only reason he took her was to identify Nightcrawler. Now that he has done that….Lee, she's gone."
Lee began to shake. The room began to turn black at the edges of his vision and white stars began to fire in his mind's eye. Dr. Quidd quickly pulled a chair behind him and helped him to sit, pushing his head forward bending over slightly.
"Breathe, Lee" Dr Quidd said.
Francine squatted down and picked up Amanda's necklace off the floor and took the photo out of Lee's hand. Lee lurched forward and grabbed Billy's trashcan and was immediately sick into it.
Francine looked at Billy with tears running down her cheeks. She felt absolutely helpless in that moment. Billy looked back at Francine and dabbed the tears off his own face with the handkerchief that had been in his pocket. Neither knew what to say. No one really thought this moment would ever come, especially not for Amanda King. Francine placed the remnants of the envelope and its contents on Billy's desk and began to lightly rub Lee's back.
"It will be ok" she said in a calming tone.
Lee began to rock back and forth in the chair. Out of his throat came a low, guttural cry of pure anguish and torment. It was primal and devoid of any emotion but unadulterated grief. The sound grew louder and louder until it was just a scream…a never-ending continuous scream of anguish. Francine, Billy, and Dr. Quidd all stepped back away from Lee as he leapt from the chair. His body was beyond tense. He was crazed, his head jerking back and forth looking around the room. Suddenly, he picked up the chair and threw it as hard as he could through the office's plate glass window, glass shattering and flying in every direction.
"That should have been me, Billy! THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ME!"
Lee pounded his hand against the shattered window frame cutting his palm and now bleeding profusely.
"Calm down, man" Billy tried to say to him, but Lee wouldn't listen. He kept looking for things to destroy.
As Lee began to pull the books off the bookcase, Dr. Quidd gave Lee an injection with a hypodermic needle to the side of the neck. Lee staggered for a moment and then dropped to the floor unconscious.
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Lee awoke to a dark, unfamiliar room. He shook his head slightly to clear out the cobwebs that had taken up residency there. He tried to lift his hand to his head but found that both hands were strapped to the bed. He tried to remember where he was and what had transpired before he passed out. At least he assumed he passed out. He didn't remember anything after….
"Oh, God" he said aloud. "Amanda!"
Lee began to thrash back and forth, trying desperately to get his hands free. What he was remembering couldn't possibly be true.
"No…no! She's not dead! I KNOW she's not dead!"
Lee thrashed and kicked with all his might but to no avail. Francine came rushing into the room and turned on the soft overhead light. Her eyes were red and puffy. It was obvious she had been crying.
"Francine! Get me the hell out of here! Untie me!" Lee ordered.
"Ssshhh! Ssshh! Lee, calm down. You're going to hurt yourself."
"I DON'T WANT TO CALM DOWN! I WANT TO GET OUT OF HERE AND FIND AMANDA!"
Francine pulled the nearby stool over to Lee's bed. She looked and him and tried to smile through her tears.
"Lee…..just lie there and listen to me, ok?"
She took a breath in through her nose. Lee calmed his body but his emotions were still in overdrive.
"Lee….Yusef and the A Tag Team have been all over the house where the picture was taken. There is no sign of Birol….and no sign of Amanda. But there was…..there was a very large blood stain in one of the rooms. It has been tested and it is human. And it is the same blood type as Amanda."
Lee squeezed his eyes shut and pounded his fists against the bed.
"They also found her purse there with her wallet. She was there."
Lee snapped his head towards Francine, fire shooting out of his expression.
"Where is her body? I want to see her body!" he said is a low, harsh whisper.
"There was no body at the house. We don't know right now where it is."
Lee's expression changed for a brief moment to hopeful.
"Well then maybe she's still alive. Maybe that picture was a fake…"
Francine shook her head slowly.
"Lee, Yusef said there was too much blood there for anyone to have received a wound like that and survived." Francine paused for a moment before going on. "Billy has met with Dr. Smyth and they both agree that it is time to tell Amanda's family. They are going to declare her…"
She didn't finish the sentence. They both knew what she was going to say.
Lee's face fell back into despair. He closed his eyes and arched his head back. A silent scream began to immerge from his throat followed by sobs of grief. Francine quickly released his hands from their bonds. Lee sat up and grabbed onto Francine. They both sobbed in each other's arms.
"Why couldn't it have been me?" Lee said to no one in particular.
Francine hugged him tighter. There were no words for her to say. They had all lost people in this line of work, some of them closer than others. She knew that Amanda was much more than a partner and friend to Lee. She had become his whole world.
"I don't know if he will survive this one" she thought to herself as she continued to grieve her lost friend, Amanda.
