Co-Authored by Tracey Arcieri and Karen LaManna

Chapter 9

"Desmond, what is the status on the address list Amanda gave us?" Billy stepped out of his office and bellowed across the bullpen.

Francine, on the phone, held her hand up indicating she would be right there. She nodded as she jotted something down, confirming, "Ok, I got it. I'll let Billy know. Keep looking." She gathered up the notepad she was writing on and quickly crossed the bullpen to Billy's office.

"What have you got?" Billy demanded as he closed the door behind her. As the hours passed, he became inexplicably nervous. After Amanda stormed out of his office, he couldn't shake the feeling she was going to go off on her own to look for Lee.

Francine pulled out a map, the locations all marked with a circle. She crossed off the first one with a red marker as she said, "Well, there are two teams out looking at the addresses Amanda found. Alpha team has checked out two of them. The first location was a dead end, nothing hidden that they could find." She drew several circles around another marked area, "The second location, here, has several small buildings on the property and the homeowner is not too happy with just giving them permission to search without a warrant."

"What about Beta team?" Billy questioned.

"Beta is still on their first location. They found a small tunnel system under one shed and they are following it toward the Potomac. So far that's all they've found, no sign of Lee, no sign of Gregory," Francine informed him. She marked the location using a blue marker this time.

"So, three down, three to go," Billy confirmed.

"Really, Billy, I still feel like this a little bit of a wild goose chase," Francine admitted. "Why don't we call this off and wait it out. Why waste all these man hours for nothing?"

Billy narrowed his eyes at Francine and pinched his lips together. "Why are you so dead set against this?" he challenged. Francine wasn't immediately forthcoming with an answer. Billy tilted his head and crossed his arms as he tried to discern what was going through her mind when it dawned on him. "You don't want to pursue this because you still think Amanda might be right, don't you?"

Francine shook her head in a weak attempt to disagree with him. "No, Billy, I just think maybe we should be putting our efforts into figuring out what Gregory might do next."

"You're sure this has nothing to do with Amanda?" Billy insisted. Francine shook her head again. "Speaking of Amanda, have you seen or heard from her since this morning?"

"Not since she stormed out," Francine confirmed.

"I have a bad feeling about this. Call her house, see if her mother has seen or heard from her. Knowing her, she's gone off on her own to go look for Scarecrow," Billy lamented.

"Billy, you don't think she'd really…" Francine's voice trailed off with the thought it was a real possibility.

"We may have TWO missing individuals on our hands," Billy stated quietly as his thoughts drifted to where Amanda could possibly be.

"Why did I climb up here?" Amanda muttered as she tried to shift in the small treehouse. Her legs were cramped from sitting in the same position for over an hour. When she heard a car pull into the driveway, she panicked just a little. She ducked down and hoped the family would head directly inside. She heard several children's voices and an adult male's voice instructing them into the house to get their homework done. She glanced at her watch and realized how late in the day it had become. When the voices faded away, she took a chance and stretched up just high enough to scan the yard. When she didn't see anyone, she sat up a little higher and looked over the fence in the direction where the van was still parked.

The sun was just beginning to set when she finally watched Ivan and Dimitri climb into the van and slowly back down the driveway. Dimitri climbed out once again to open the gate as Ivan backed onto the street. Once the gate was closed and locked, they drove off, their headlights sweeping a bright patch of light across the yard where Amanda was still hidden.

She waited until the van was completely out of sight before she looked around to determine the easiest way over the fence and into the yard beyond. She saw a tree branch just above her head that extended close enough to another tree in the yard. If I can just climb from one branch to the other one without being seen, she thought. She took a deep breath, stepped onto the wall of the treehouse and used the tree trunk for balance as she climbed onto the branch above. Once she found her balance, she scooted her body along the branch. The branch held firm with no sign of bending or breaking. She neared the second branch and leaned forward, as she hoped this one was just as sturdy as the first. Carefully, she shifted her weight onto the second tree, her heart pounded in her chest.

Amanda inched her way forward toward the tree trunk. She looked down and with a sigh of relief, she could see the fence below her. She tried to move a little faster but froze when she heard a distinctive cracking sound. "Oh no," she groaned aloud. She felt the branch shift slightly behind her as she moved forward again. "Oh my gosh," she moaned as the branch began to bend downward, taking her with it. She wrapped her arms and legs around the branch and held on tight as it slowly arched closer to the ground. The branch stopped bending and Amanda hung several feet off the ground still, clinging tightly. She glanced down first to judge how high up she was. The she took a deep breath before she released her legs and dangled precariously on the tree branch before she let go and landed on her feet in a crouched position on the ground. The branch immediately snapped back to its original position with an even louder CRACK.

A light on the porch flickered on and Amanda heard the sound of the screen door creaking open and clattered as it closed. She heard footsteps on the wood porch as she tried to stay low and hide behind the trunk of the tree. She peeked her head out enough to see Gregory standing on the porch looking in her direction. Amanda held her breath, afraid he might see her. She was startled when a large raccoon lumbered across the yard from behind her. Gregory shook his head as he turned back toward the door. "I hate raccoons. Damn trash pandas," he muttered as he returned to the house, the screen door slammed loudly behind him. Amanda waited until the light was extinguished before she let out the breath she was holding.

She stayed close to the fence and ducked behind trees as she moved toward the back of the yard and the building that lay in the corner. From everything she read about the Underground Railroad, she knew if Lee was hidden anywhere, it had to be there. She prayed Gregory wasn't looking out the window at that exact moment as she scurried across the yard to the ramshackle building.