***See Disclaimer in Part 1***

Part 5

In a car down the street from Amanda's home, Gordon Redding and
Karen Brinkman sat, trying to unobtrusively observe the occupants of
the inviting white house.

"Now we're getting somewhere," Karen remarked to her partner in
crime. "It looks like they're packing up the last few things for
their trip. How much stuff do you need just to go camping,
anyway?" she questioned.

"Oh, you know the trailblazers," he replied. "Always prepared."

"Well I don't think she'll be prepared for what she'll find when she
gets home," Karen answered with a smirk. "There they go. They`re
pulling out of the driveway now." she said, covering her face with
the newspaper she held. "Time to turn into sweet little Amanda, and
set a trap for her Scarecrow."

Redding looked toward her. He decided that he was going to be glad
when this was all over. Yes, revenge, especially toward Stetson,
was going to be sweet. But secretly, this woman really gave him the
creeps. She enjoyed killing entirely too much.

Several minutes after the departing car had passed them, they both
got out of their vehicle, and started to approach Amanda's house.
From around the corner, a van pulled up, and three armed men exited
quickly, yelling "Freeze, federal agents!"

Karen gave him a panicked look, then shouted, "Quick Redding, back
in the car!"

They both ran the few steps back to the car, Redding taking a bullet
in the leg just as he was entering the passenger side of the sedan.
Karen immediately started the car, peeling out from the curb.

"Faster," he cried. "We've got to lose them and get back to the
house." Redding was holding his right leg, blood seeping through
the gaps in his fingers.

She maneuvered dangerously in traffic, cutting people off, and
zooming through red lights. Finally, it seemed that they had lost
their tail. More cautiously, she made her way back to the rented
house that had been their hide-out. What she didn't notice was that
another car had picked up their trail several blocks back.

Redding was gasping in pain, moaning aloud through clenched teeth.

"Don't be such a wimp," she said unsympathetically. "It's probably
not all that bad. I'll take a look at it and bandage it when we get
back to the house."

"How did they find us?" he managed to gasp.

"I don't know," she answered. "But I think this is definitely going
to make it more difficult to nail Stetson. Since they're on the
lookout for me now, I'll have to kill him without being seen. You
wouldn't consider a bonus for pulling it off, would you?"

"Always money with you," he said, grimacing. "I think you'd better
be sure that I'm going to pull through this if you expect to be paid
at all."

"Oh, you will. It doesn't look that bad. I've seen worse," she
muttered as they pulled into the driveway of their lair.

They exited the car, without incident this time, Karen helping
Redding quickly into the back entrance of the house. Down the
block, two agency sedans and a van pulled up, agents quickly
spilling out of the vehicles. They quickly conferred on the best
way to surround the dwelling, and soon took up their positions.

***
Lee hadn't been in the van when the shooting had started. He had
been down the street, and around the corner, in one of the cars,
which eventually picked up the suspects' trail, to the upscale home
they now saw before them. The agents quickly devised a plan of
attack, formulating a way to cover all exits and sweep each room as
quickly as possible, minimizing the fugitives' chance of escape.

With practiced stealth and synchronization, they burst into both
front and back doors simultaneously.

Gordon Redding was sitting at the kitchen table, his injured leg
propped up on another chair. "Don't shoot!" he cried out, at the
first sign of danger. Even though he had a gun on the table in
front of him, he held his hands high, and had turned a ghostly shade
of white. The three agents he saw before him, all of their guns
trained on him, were just too much for him. "Don't shoot, I
surrender. Please, just get me to a hospital. I don't want to die."

"Okay, tough guy," Francine said, eyeing him scornfully, as she
confiscated his gun and took out her handcuffs. "Where's your fake
Amanda hiding? We know she's here."

"I don't know," he answered fearfully. "She left me here a few
minutes ago. She said she was going to go find some first aid
supplies, but I haven't seen her since. I think she's abandoned
me. Please, can you get me to a hospital?"

"We'll get you an ambulance," Billy Melrose answered
gruffly. "Fred, Francine and I are going to pursue the other
suspect," he said, addressing the remaining agent. "Can you keep
an eye on this guy, and call for an ambulance?"

"Sure, Billy, no problem," the man responded. "We don't want to
give her a chance to get away."

With that, Billy and Francine resumed their search of the house.

***

Lee Stetson and Frank Duffy entered the front of the house, while
the remaining agents waited outside, covering all the exits. Lee
nodded his head in the direction of the staircase, while motioning
with his hands that he would search the remainder of the downstairs,
meeting up with the other agents towards the back of the house.
Frank nodded his agreement, his eyes appraising the length of the
steps he found before him.

With that, the pair split up, each moving cautiously along their
chosen route.
Lee had already gone through the dining room and an elegant
ballroom, when he came to a richly appointed sitting area. It was
an unusual room, in that it had three entrances, the one Lee was
coming through, and two doors on the wall directly facing him. But
what drew his attention immediately was the sight of the woman tied
to the chair facing him.

"Amanda, what are you doing here!" he cried out. He knew that it
could be the imposter. But if this was the fake Amanda, Redding's
accomplice, what was she doing tied up?"

"Lee, thank goodness you're here," she cried out. "Last night when
I got home, this horrible man kidnapped me! And there was this
woman who looked just like me with him. Lee, I think she's with the
boys! You've got to find them. Who knows what she might do to
them."

He looked over at her doubtfully, not sure whether this was a
plausible explanation or not. Would the fake Amanda go off in the
woods with the real Amanda's boys? Maybe she was going to kidnap
Amanda's family to draw him out. He started toward her, still
trying to determine whether or not she was the phony or the real
thing.

"Lee, look out behind you!" she screamed, her eyes looking past him,
toward the open doorway.

On sheer instinct, he turned around, pointing his gun toward the
unknown threat. All at once, he heard three shots ring out behind
him, and felt something whizzing past his left arm. Swiftly turning
around, he saw what appeared to him to be Amanda slumped on the
ground beside the chair, a gun lying beside her. In the doorways
facing him, he saw Billy and Francine, guns still drawn, both
staring at the woman crumpled on the floor.

"Amanda?" he asked, approaching her cautiously. He kicked the gun
out of the way and knelt by her side.

She coughed painfully, and opened her eyes. "No, but you couldn't
tell, could you, Stetson? I almost had you that time. If I had
gotten you alone, you wouldn`t have stood a chance," she gasped
out, struggling for breath.

Billy and Francine approached.

"It's not . . ." Francine asked, appalled by the sight before her.

"No, but she's an awfully convincing copy, isn't she?" Lee asked, as
he took off his jacket to cover the pseudo-Amanda, to keep her from
going into shock. "How did you know?" he asked, looking at his co-
workers. "I wasn't even sure."

Billy answered for them.

"When we approached from the back of the house, we each took a
door. We could see her in there talking to you, but when she
tricked you into turning around, she threw off the ropes around her
wrists, retrieved a gun from under her leg, and raised it up to
shoot. I think we both knew that was something the real Amanda
wouldn't do," he said, looking over at Francine, who was nodding
her confirmation. "Instinct took over, and we both shot at the same
time. I think she managed to get off a round too, before she went
down."

"Yeah, Billy," Lee said, his hand absently fingering the gash in
his jacket sleeve where the bullet had torn the fabric.

"I'll go see if that ambulance is here yet. I think she might be in
worse shape than Redding," Francine said.

"Yeah, Thanks for walking in when you did," Lee responded, as she
left the room. "You know," he added to Billy, "even knowing that
it might not be the real Amanda, when she called for me to watch
out, I guess my gut feelings just took over, and I turned around.
That was a close one."

"Too close, Scarecrow. Too close," he answered

Lee wasn't going to admit it, but seeing her lying there like this,
even knowing it wasn't really Amanda, gave him a sick feeling in the
pit of his stomach. She didn't look good, and he didn't know if she
would make it.

They stayed with her until the paramedics arrived, an agent riding
in the ambulance with each suspect.

***TBC in Part 6 (Epilogue)***