CHAPTER 44

The waiting had stretched out for what seemed an eternity. And then, finally, Lee and Francine made some headway. His telephone conversation with Carrie had gone much better than Lee had anticipated, considering the fact that he'd omitted an awful lot of details as to the reason why he so urgently needed to contact the boys.

To quote the rulebook, the less the public knows the better for the spies who must work around the dilemma.

At any rate, they had finally obtained a name for the owner of the cabin from Carrie. Now, they needed a telephone number and an address for the cabin.

But, Lee realized that he was going to have to make the next step of the quest without Francine. She was looking more than a little battle fatigued and he was beginning to worry about her. It took some insistence on his part, but he eventually managed to get her to see it his way.

So, after shooing her away to go get some rest and with name in hand, Lee made his way out into the bullpen and began scanning the sea of faces to see who might be able to lend a hand.

His eyes settled on Cheryl, who, at the moment, was also looking more than a little weary.

He approached her desk and pulled up the neighboring seat.

"Hi," he told her.

"Hello yourself," she told him. "How are you feeling?"

Lee shrugged.

"About as exhausted as I think you are," Lee told her. "And, I really hate to bother you, but I need a favor."

"Ask away," Cheryl told him.

"I need to run a trace on this name. It's the owner of the cabin where Amanda's sons are vacationing. I need to find out exactly where it is so that we can find the boys."

Cheryl took the slip of paper from him.

"Consider it done. Oh, you might want to check on Mr. Melrose. I don't think he's feeling very well and we girls really think he needs to get some rest as well."

Lee could tell by her expression and by the tone of her voice that she was worried. Well, she had company in that one. Worry, it had seemed, had settled in amongst the masses in high quantities.

"I'll go have a talk with him," Lee said as he rose out of the chair, a little more slowly than he would have liked. He had to admit that he wasn't feeling all that well either, something more that many of the Agency employees had in common.

Cheryl frowned as she watched that tall agent walk away. She could hear him sniffling a little and he looked as though he hadn't slept in days. And, even though he hadn't said it, she knew he was filled with concern for his wife. She recognized that look, knew the helplessness that filled one when your loved one was in danger and there was nothing that you could.

She only hoped that Lee's situation did not end with the same tragic results that had ended her marriage far too early for her liking.

With a heavy sigh, she resigned herself to pushing those emotions away and concentrating on the job at hand. If Lee Stetson needed Amanda's children found then she was going to use whatever resources the Agency had at hand to help make that happen.

An agent might get all the glory when a case was officially closed but she knew that there were always the people in the background who went sometimes silently unrecognized. But, in the end, they were still a part of the process and that was what counted.

She was determined to help make a difference and she knew just the group of ladies who could help.