Lee shook off the paramedics that had arrived along with the firemen and hauled himself back into the Agency, considerably more singed than when he'd left an hour earlier. When he'd bolted into Billy's office and found it empty, he'd looked around wildly until one of the girls pointed helpfully down the hall and said "Try Analysis."
He burst into Efraim's workspace a few moments later, ignoring the shocked looks from Beaman and Billy at the state he was in.
"I'm fine, I'm fine," he pre-empted their questions with a wave of his hand. "But Parker wasn't so lucky. I just pulled him out of a burning building but it wasn't the fire that killed him."
"No?" queried Billy.
"No, I think it was the bullet hole between his eyes that did that," answered Lee. He began hauling things out of his jacket pocket and dumping them on the desk. "But fortunately I had time to check him over before the cops got there to look for anything to do with what he was trying to tell me."
"You stole evidence from a crime scene?" asked Efraim disbelievingly.
"Hey – I'm trying to prevent an international incident here, let's not get fussy about the details, okay?" Lee started pawing through the wallet, pulling out IDs, credit cards and various scraps of paper.
"Oh I do love a pack rat," said Efraim getting into the spirit of things and picking up pieces of paper to study them. "They make an analyst's job so much easier." He held something up with a grin. "Bingo! Paystub for Endicott Roofing."
"A receipt for gas from Buena Vista, Virginia," said Billy holding up another slip of paper. "Why does that sound familiar?"
By sheer force of habit, both men turned to look at Efraim, but it was actually Lee who got there first. "Oh crap, I think I know." He reached over to a nearby bookcase and pulled out a book of road maps, flipping quickly to the right page. He pointed to Buena Vista and looked up at Billy. "It's the town closest to Los Pinos." He began pacing across the room, throwing his hands up. "See? I told you so! Amanda always ends up in the middle of something dangerous!" He skidded to a stop as he caught the other two men exchanging a look. "What? What's that look for?"
"That's not all we have, Scarecrow," said Billy. "Delaney just got back from the Commerce Department; not only is Bo Johnson about to be taken down by over-financing and pending lawsuits, but it also turns out Endicott Roofing is one of his subsidiaries."
Lee looked back and forth between Billy and Efraim. "So he's responsible for the hit at the Embassy?" he asked in an ominously quiet voice. "We've sent Amanda and Francine off to the middle of nowhere to stay with a guy who, by your own description, practically has his own army and now it turns out he's the guy who's responsible for the whole thing?"
"Yes," said Billy, baldly. He held up a hand as Lee started to speak again. "And before you even think of racing off down there, you aren't going to do a damn thing until I get hold of a judge and get you a warrant for you to enter the property, do you hear me? Now Francine is due to call in any moment now and we'll brief her. No one there knows she's an agent so that gives her an advantage, alright? Now step aside and let me go start rattling some cages to get that warrant."
Lee moved out of the way silently and watched Billy leave. He turned to Efraim and said simply "You coming with me?"
"Oh hell yeah."
Francine hung up the phone and stared at it for a moment, gathering her thoughts about all the information Efraim had just given her. She looked up to find Amanda watching her patiently and tossed her head towards the bathroom, walking in and closing the door behind them.
"We were right?" asked Amanda.
"We were right. Bo is up to his neck in bad deals and if he doesn't get those new drilling rights, he'll lose everything. If Penny is working actively to prevent that and he knows it…" she shrugged. "He's desperate – and that's the most dangerous man there is." She sat down on the edge of the tub and pulled her small pistol from her ankle holster as if checking it would calm her down. "The Agency is working on getting a warrant and then they're sending a team down. They're trying to keep it low key and out of the press in the interests of American-Zakirian relations. But in the meantime, the K-9 squad doesn't let Penny out of our sight, right?"
"Right." Amanda agreed. "That should be easy if it's only for a little while longer." She paused and asked idly, "So who's Mr. Melrose sending?"
"Who do you think?" snorted Francine. "Apparently he's mad as stink that Billy didn't listen to him in the first place about his Spidey senses. The only reason he isn't already here is that Billy's making him wait for a warrant so he can't legally be kept off the property."
"Oh."
Francine looked up at her from her perch on the tub's edge. "Oh? I thought you'd be happy to see him."
"Oh I will be," said Amanda, sighing. "It's just that I know he's going to act like somehow this is all my fault – like everything would have been just fine if only I hadn't found Penny in that grocery store."
"Why would he be mad at you? That doesn't even make sense."
No," agreed Amanda sadly. "It's just that he always yells at me like I do with the boys when they do something dangerous and don't get hurt."
"Don't you yell at them when they do get hurt?" asked Francine with interest.
"Oh no, you can't do that – that just makes them cry more. But boy, when I get in trouble with Lee, it's just like I've done something naughty. That day by the grocery store was the maddest I've seen him since Honeycutt Typewriters." She shuddered at the memory of that lucky escape.
"What happened at Honeycutt?" asked Francine. "Did I miss that case?"
"Oh it wasn't a case – that was the job I went to after Connie Beth, remember?" Francine nodded. "Well, it turned out the head of Personnel didn't hire me for my typing skills, if you know what I mean, and Lee walked in just as he was demonstrating that."
"Hoo boy!" breathed out Francine. "Wait – is that the perv Lee told me about?"
"Probably," shrugged Amanda. "There's only been the one, thank goodness, and I had just stomped on his instep and escaped – the perv, I mean, not Lee – when Lee showed up and practically picked him up and tossed him across the room." She grinned slightly at the memory. "That was pretty great but then he dragged me out of there and I mean really dragged me – I probably still have the bruises. He was mad then too." She shrugged and went on, "So I'm pretty sure he'll yell at me for being in the middle of this one too."
"Yeah, probably," agreed Francine. "But I'm still happy he's the one coming down here. Bo will never know what hit him."
"Literally or figuratively?" asked Amanda, starting to laugh again.
"Both. Now let's go find Penny."
They found her just coming out of her room and her shoulders sagged at the look on their faces. "We were right?" she asked, unconsciously echoing Amanda's words from earlier. They nodded and she straightened up, letting the anger show on her face. "Rheza's already downstairs, but as soon as I can get him alone, I want you to come and brief him on everything you know." Her voice had taken on a stern tone as she delivered the order. For the first time, Amanda could really see what Penny was like as a princess – it was like she had taken on some kind of invisible cloak of royalty when confronted with an enemy.
Penny looked at them, eyes bright with a martial light. "Alright, Ladies, let's go." She turned and began to walk towards the stairs, leaving Amanda and Francine to scramble to catch up with her. As they came down the stairs, Bo walked up to greet them.
"Well, ain't that a purty sight, all three of you lovely ladies together?" Amanda bit her tongue at the overblown accent, remembering what her mother had said about Bo growing up in Poughkeepsie.
"Did y'all have a nice time today? I hope you had a chance to relax and enjoy yourselves. You know what they say, Princess, sometimes you just need to lay back and let nature take its course – maybe we can get you relaxed enough for you to finally make that baby Rheza's been pining for, whatta you say?"
Amanda felt Penny tense beside her and knew Bo had found her Achilles heel with unerring accuracy. She lifted a hand and placed it in the small of Penny's back to steady her. The princess relaxed slightly but remained on alert for the next onslaught, but it was Francine that Bo turned his guns on next.
"And look at you, Ms. Desmond, all sun-kissed and looking good enough to eat! Are you sure you're taken? Because I sure do enjoy a woman with curves in all the right places like you!" His eyes raked Francine without ever looking any further up than the top button of her shirt.
Amanda bit back a laugh at the backhanded insult he had managed to deliver to her and Penny even as she watched Francine's annoyance levels rising. When it looked like Bo might actually make a move to put his arm around Francine's waist, she knew she had to intervene before he ended up prematurely injured. That could wait until Lee showed up with the arrest warrant, but in the meantime…
"Mr. Johnson, I almost forgot to ask," she cooed, stepping out in front of the other women and starting to dig through her purse. "I was wondering if I could get your autograph?" She pulled out a piece of paper and a pen and handed them to the preening ex-movie star.
"Well, of course you can, Little Lady!" he boomed. "How would you like me to make it out? To Amanda?" he lifted his pen and started to scrawl.
"Oh no!" she interrupted him. "It's for my mother – could you make it out to Dotty with love? D-O-T-T-Y, not I-E."
"Your mother?" he asked doubtfully. "Oh, well, of course, I do have fans of all ages!" he laughed
She waited until he was done and was handing it back to her before adding in her sweetest voice. "Thank you so much. She'll be just thrilled and so will the ladies in her Seniors Club." She paused again for effect before adding, "She told me she's loved you since she was just a little girl and her mother used to take her to see your movies!"
Bo's face flushed unbecomingly at the double-edged compliment and he couldn't stop the momentary scowl. "Well, that's sure nice to hear," he ground out. He looked from woman to woman but was met with only the most innocent of looks. "Let's go find your husband, Princess. This cowboy could do with strapping on the feedbag soon." He turned and stalked away, leaving all three women shaking with the laughter they hadn't let out in front of him. Francine held up a hand to Amanda who quietly high fived it behind Bo's back.
"God bless you, Amanda King," murmured Penny. "I have never enjoyed a conversation with Bo so much in my life."
