Chapter 2

"Lee, what is that?" Amanda asked as he pulled everything out of the space.

"I don't know. I've never seen it before," Lee commented. Carrying the shirt and envelope to his desk, the first thing he did was look them over. "They've been in there a long time from the looks of them."

He looked between the two items to decide which he wanted to investigate first. It was odd, to say the least, to find them stuffed under a drawer filled with empty files. Picking up the envelope, he carefully opened it, allowing the contents to slide out onto his desk. Inside were a handful of photographs and a file labeled Margaret Duncan. Amanda picked up the photos and filled through them as Lee opened the file.

"Who is she? She's very pretty," Amanda commented on the woman in the black and white pictures. She appeared to be tall with very dark, curly hair. She was athletically built, even in the dress she was wearing. The most striking feature were her large eyes. One appeared to be very light where the other was very dark.

Lee was flipping through the pages in the file, trying to make some kind of sense of the handwritten notes in it. After a few minutes he finally answered Amanda's question. "Her name is Margaret Duncan… Maggie…. And I think she was Harry Thornton's first secretary."

Amanda didn't understand. "Why were these shoved under that drawer then?"

"Because I think…this used to be Harry's office at one point," Lee said as he ran his hand through his hair.

"Lee, what do you mean you think…" Amanda was cut off when the phone began ringing.

Lee picked it up on the second ring, "Stetson. Hey, Billy. Yeah, Amanda's right here. We can be down there in a few minutes. Okay, on our way."

Hanging up the phone, Lee stood, taking Amanda's hand in his. "That was Billy. He needs us in his office ASAP."

Amanda followed him toward the door, "Did he say what for?"

As Lee opened the office door, he said, "Nope, just asked us to come down."

Locking the door behind them, they made their way down to the bullpen. Lee knocked on Billy's door and opened it when he heard the response, "Enter."

Amanda immediately sat down on the couch where Lee chose to stand. Billy walked over and locked the door behind them. Then he proceeded to close the blinds. Turning to Lee and Amanda he said, "What I am asking you both to do doesn't leave this office. It's off the books. Do you understand me?"

Lee looked at him, "What's going on, Billy? The last time you asked me to do something off the books I almost got killed."

"I received a phone call today from a friend. I need you to find someone. Top secret. No one, I mean, no one needs to know about this," Billy stated firmly. He knew he was being cryptic but they would soon understand why.

"Sir, who is it you need us to find?" Amanda asked, concerned.

"Her name is Lauren Proctor. She is 26 years old, born and raised in Virginia Beach with her mother and her stepfather," Billy told them.

"Why do we need to find her? What's so important about her?" Lee questioned his boss, knowing this was out of character for him.

"Because I just got off the phone with Harry V. Thornton and he asked us to," Billy informed them.

"Harry? What does Harry want with her?" Lee shook his head, confused.

Billy hated this part, "I can't tell you, not yet. Harry just asked specifically if you two would locate her for him. You don't need to bring her in, just find out where she is, what she's doing?"

"But Sir, why would Harry ask for us? I mean, it sounds like a simple research assignment for any new agent," Amanda asked. She wasn't trying to be disrespectful to Harry but this wasn't a matter of national security.

"Amanda, Harry said you both would be best to handle this with discretion. Said it would take a delicate touch. He thought you would be the perfect pair for the job." Billy smiled at her. He knew by appealing to her better assets as an agent, he could convince them to take this case for Harry.

"Well, thank you sir. I'm sure we could get this done in no time. Does he have a picture maybe of her so we have an idea of who we might be looking for?" Amanda relaxed.

"Billy, why us? There's more to this. With Harry involved there has to be," Lee was skeptical. Something wasn't sitting right with him.

Billy looked at Lee, knowing he wasn't going to back down until he had more information so he shook his head. "I'm telling you what I can, Scarecrow. Harry asked. Come on, Lee… this is Harry we are talking about here. Remember, the guy that started this place. Gave you a job."

"All right, all right, it's for Harry. I get it. But Amanda's right. Without a picture or some kind of description, it's going to be hard to track her down. Other than where she grew up, does he know anything else?" Lee conceded.

"If he knew, he wouldn't be asking for you two to find her, now would he. He said you can call him to set up a meeting. He'll go over what he does know, but from the sounds of things, it isn't much. I'll take you both off active duty for the next few days to give you time to find her. Full pay, no loss of vacation time," Billy knew he just upped their ante.

"Sir, that's awful generous of you. I don't want to take advantage…" Amanda started to say but Lee took her hand and practically pulled her out of the office.

"That's fine. I'll contact Harry now and set up a meeting. In the meantime, Amanda has to put our office back together. Thanks Billy. I'll… ah… I'll let you know when we find her," Lee rushed Amanda out the door.

"Lee, if you need something, don't forget to mind your manners." Billy reminded him of a secret code system they used in the past.

Once out of the bullpen, Amanda stopped and looked at Lee. "What was all that about?"

Smiling, Lee winked at her, "Billy just took us off active duty for a few days AND sent us to look for someone in Virginia Beach. Think about it. You… me…. Alone…. No distractions... "

Amanda began to walk toward the elevator talking quietly, "Lee, we're being sent there to work, not to … be alone."

Inside the elevator, Lee leaned in close to her. Gently kissing her neck, just behind her ear he whispered, "Doesn't mean we can't take advantage of some alone time."

Amanda tried hard not to respond but he knew he got to her. He could see the blush coming up her neck as he kissed her again, then blew gently on her wet skin. "Lee, stop, someone might see you," she tried rolling her head to stop him, thankful when the doors opened and Mrs. Marsten was sitting at her desk. Amanda practically ran up the stairs back to their office. By the time she got to the top, she remembered she didn't have her key and had to wait for Lee who took his time walking up the stairs and down the hall.

Unlocking the door, Lee walked in, shaking his head at the condition of the office. "Amanda, seriously, you really think you can get this all organized by this afternoon?"

"Well, that depends?" Amanda smiled at him, ready to get him back for his teasing in the elevator.

Lee looked at her, his eyes narrowing. He wasn't sure what she had on her mind. "On what?" he asked.

"Well, are you going to sit there and watch or if you help me we can get home faster," Amanda teased.

"Let me just sign off on the reports from yesterday while you start, then tell me what you need me to do," Lee answered quickly.

Sitting back down at his desk, he looked at the envelope and shirt they had found earlier. "Amanda, since we're going to be talking to Harry anyway, let's bring these with us. Maybe he can give us some insight on what they're about." Lee took the items and placed them on Amanda's chair beside her purse so they wouldn't forget them.

Picking up the phone, Lee called Harry and set up a meeting at a local bar for 7:00 that night. Looking around, he still had no idea how Amanda thought she was going to get everything organized but by 3:30 that afternoon they were putting away the last file.

Shaking his head, Lee looked around and said, "I've got to hand it to you, Amanda. I really didn't think you were going to be able to get it all done. Not to mention we can actually find things in there now. What made you decide on organizing each drawer like that? I mean, I never would have thought to group the files first, then alphabetize them. And to see how many duplicate files we had? No wonder we were missing reports."

"Well, it's just one of those things. I knew I kept finding files that matched something else so why not pull them all, group them, then refile. It will make things a lot easier moving forward, don't you think?" Amanda waved her hands for emphasis.

"I think even Francine will be able to find what she's looking for now," Lee laughed. Closing and locking the vault, he looked around one last time. "Let's grab that file and head out of here before she comes back up here. And you need to make arrangements for the boys for the next few days. Is a 3 hour drive one way, so maybe we should just stay there overnight and see what we come up with. If you stay at my place tonight, we can leave first thing in the morning." Lee just smiled at her, dimples deep, hoping she would say yes.

"Joe has the boys this weekend so let me see if Mother doesn't mind watching them tonight and tomorrow. I'll see if Joe can pick them up Thursday after school. I just remembered the boys have no school Friday so maybe they can spend the day with Carrie. They still need to have their tuxes fitted for the wedding." Amanda went through her mental checklist.

"Well, let's go talk to your mother first before we meet with Harry," Lee took her hand as they walked down the stairs.