Blackmailing for Fun and Profit

"Oh, this is free. It's the negative that's going to cost ya."

"How much?"

"Oh, well… I think we'll probably start with dinner at Spencer's and then we'll take it from there." J. Edgar's Ghost, S. 3

"Dinner at Spencer's, hmmm?" Lee said. He leaned closer and closer, his eyes on Amanda's soft mouth, as if he were moving in for a kiss – and then she realized he was expecting her to kiss him. Well, if he was expecting her to kiss him, he was going to be disappointed. She drew back and watched the disappointment flicker across his face before he schooled his expression to an impassive blank.

She desperately wanted to laugh out loud, but she kept her face impassive as well. "Yes, I think so. Your treat, of course."

"Amanda, when we go to Spencer's I always pay."

"Yes, that's true, but this time, I'm going for the big score."

She watched the heat come back up in his eyes, just as she'd intended. She'd chosen her words deliberately, since she knew what 'score' meant to a healthy, red-blooded male like Lee Stetson.

"The big score?" he asked. Was his voice just a tiny bit husky? She thought so.

"Oh, yes. Something this important can't be had for just a simple steak dinner, you know."

"It can't? What if a good bottle of wine was included?"

"You're getting warmer, Stetson." In fact, she thought, if he gets any 'warmer' he's likely to spontaneously combust. Oh, this was fun! To add fuel to the fire, she added, "I'm in the mood for something provocative and full-bodied."

"So am I," he said, glancing down at her slender figure.

"Then we're in agreement; that's good. A good steak, a loaded baked potato on the side, a special bottle of wine, and then…."

"And then?"

"The hot fudge brownie."

A few hours later, Amanda finished the last decadent spoonful of hot fudge brownie, topped with vanilla ice cream and smothered in hot fudge sauce, with a sigh of utter contentment.

"That was… exquisite," she said, as she set her spoon down on the empty plate beside the spoon he'd used. The dessert was so big and so decadent that the restaurant expected a couple to share it, so it had arrived with two spoons instead of just one.

"Yes," he agreed, and she knew he wasn't just talking about the dessert. "Well, Mrs. King, I've met your demands, all of them. Do I get my negative back?"

"Who said you'd met all my demands? I haven't listed all my demands."

"I should have known better than to think you'd be satisfied with just dinner, wine and a hot fudge brownie. You're like all blackmailers, you know that? Give them what they want, and they just keep coming back for more. It never ends."

"I know," she said with smile that Lee thought was more like a smirk. "I've got the upper hand and there's not a thing in the world you can do about it."

"Not a thing? Nothing?"

"Well…"

"Out with it," he growled. "And this time, I want the whole list, all of it, not just a piece of it. Don't forget, I did a thorough background check on you when you first started working with us, and I know a thing or two about your past. What about that little incident at UVA back in '71?"

"What incident?" she asked, pretending ignorance.

"Don't act all innocent, Miss Kappa Rush Chairman Amanda West. You know the one I mean."

"Sorry, not following you."

"Oh, that's rich! You did nothing but follow me when you were helping Harry with the Gregory case. I told you as plain as I knew how 'do not follow me', but you didn't listen."

"What does that have to do with a boxer raid on the Zeta house in '71?"

"Aha, so you admit it! You were the mastermind behind that little incident."

"How did … you were a Zeta," she remembered.

"I was a Zeta, and we Zetas stick together. All I had to do was find out who was president of the UVA Zeta chapter back then, call him up, play the 'old fraternity brother' card, and - jackpot!"

"If you knew all that already, why go along with my scheme?"

"And miss a chance to take you out to dinner and watch you have a spiritual experience with a hot fudge brownie? Not a chance! And now, Miss Rush Chairman, I have a few demands of my own."

"What kind of demands?"

"After we leave here, we're going for a long drive. I promise I'll get you home by sunrise, but that's all I'm promising."

"By sunrise? Where are we going? Virginia Beach? The Blue Ridge?"

"You'll see."

"Well, since you've got that incriminating evidence, I guess I'll just have to go quietly."

"I guess you will. Oh, and I want my negative back."

"I didn't bring it."

"Did you mail it to your Aunt Minnie in Maine like you did the last time I gave you a package?"

"No….."

"Then what?"

"It's on your desk."

"On my desk?"

"Remember how J. Edgar hid those pictures in old dusty files?"

"Yes…."

"It's on your desk, in a file marked 'Kappa Iota Tau'."

"You knew that I knew about the boxer raid all this time!"

"Well, yes, I did."

"You snooped on my desk."

"Yes, but I prefer to call it 'intelligence gathering'. That is what we do, isn't it? Gather intelligence?"

"Amanda King, you are getting pretty damn good at this job."

"Well, thank you, Stetson, but I learned from the best. Now then, since we're quits in the blackmail department, how about that drive? I have a yen to see the sun rise over Virginia Beach."

"Good thing I always keep a blanket in my car just in case, then."

"Oh, you did a pretty good job of keeping me warm the last time we spent the night together; I'm not worried."