CHAPTER FOUR
Early the next morning, Lee and Amanda were having breakfast in their suite. Lee finished off the rest of his coffee and looked over at Amanda who had just put down her knife and fork having eaten all of her large fried breakfast.
"Good?" he enquired.
"Mmm, very good," she replied with a satisfied smile.
"I'll take your word for it," he said with a slightly disgusted look on his face. The thought of food in the morning just made his stomach churn. "So, what's on the agenda today?" he asked interestedly. "It's our last day, so is there anything special you want to do? Anymore sightseeing?"
Amanda pursed her lips thoughtfully. "I think I just want to have a look at the shops and see if I can get a little something for mother and the boys."
Happy that he wasn't going to be subjected to another bout of the guidebook, Lee, foreseeing a leisurely stroll around the shops, suggested they walk to Oxford Circus and take a look in Hamleys on the way as the toy shop stocked gifts for kids of all ages. Amanda agreed and they were just leaving the suite when the phone rang. It was Lisa Meer.
"Are you happy to meet at 1.30 for lunch, Amanda?" she asked. "I won't take no for an answer, I must repay your husband for helping me yesterday."
Not one to appear rude, Amanda was quick to accept the invitation. "Of course, we'd love to. Where should we meet?" she asked.
"How about in the foyer here in the hotel?" Lisa suggested.
"Alright, we'll see you then." They said goodbye to each other and Amanda put the phone down, turning to face Lee. "We've got to be back here by 1.30 to have lunch with Lisa."
"Lisa?" Lee echoed in some puzzlement.
Amanda picked up her purse and guided him over to the door. "Mrs. Meer. She wants to thank you for yesterday."
"But I…" he began to object.
"No time to talk now, Lee, we've got lots of shopping to do before we have to come back here and we've only got…" She checked her watch and gasped, "…three hours! Gosh, we'd better hurry."
Lee mumbled a half-hearted protest as they exited their suite and he followed her down the corridor to the lifts. He saw that she had pulled out a pad and was busily writing things down. He groaned inwardly, knowing that it was a list of things to buy. So much for a leisurely browse around the shops.
Two hours later Lee followed Amanda down Oxford Street carrying thirty bags of shopping. At least, it felt like thirty bags of shopping. In reality it was only five and it wasn't that they were heavy but more a case of being a little bulky.
"Amanda just how to you propose to fit these into our cases for the flight home?" he enquired mildly coming to a stop and putting the bags down.
His wife halted then turned and paused in ticking off another item on her list as she stared at the bags. "We'll manage," she replied cheerfully and bent her head to study the list again thoughtfully.
"We'll manage," Lee muttered to himself sarcastically as he shifted the bags around in order to make them less awkward to carry. "More like I'll manage," he moaned unhappily to himself.
"We just have to get Mr. Melrose something and then we're finished," Amanda continued, not hearing her husband.
Lee picked up the bags again and nodded. They had just taken a couple of steps when Amanda suddenly stopped and pointed down the busy street. "Isn't that, Lisa?" she asked.
Lee looked in the direction Amanda was pointing. He saw the woman he'd helped the day before standing in front of a store seemingly window shopping. "Yeah, it is," he confirmed, then narrowed his eyes as he saw a man walking up to her from behind. He seemed casual enough but Lee noticed that his left arm was in a sling and he kept glancing to each side of him. All of a sudden, he realised that it was the same guy who'd tried to snatch Lisa's purse the day before.
"Wait here, Amanda," Lee ordered as he dropped the bags and sprinted off, leaving his wife staring after him in open-mouthed amazement.
Lee bore down on the man just as he ripped the handbag off of Lisa's shoulder and tried to run. Lisa let out a scream as Lee made a flying tackle on the mugger, causing them to fall heavily on the ground. The man let out a cry of pain and dropped the purse as he held onto his injured arm.
"Alright buddy, that's it. You're not getting away a second time," growled Lee as he stood and all but dragged the hurt man up with him. The agent held his quarry tightly by the scruff of the neck and pushed the man's right arm hard up behind his own back to keep him in check.
"Lee!" Lisa exclaimed, shaking her head.
"Don't worry, Lisa, I've got him," Lee assured her, not noticing her worried look. He then turned back to his captive who'd started to speak.
"You've got it wrong," the man gasped, his pain obvious. "I can explain."
"I don't think so, pal," Lee replied angrily.
"Just check my jacket's inside pocket. I have ID I can prove I'm not a criminal," the man retorted, the pain in his arm causing his words to come out between gritted teeth.
Lisa appeared at Lee's elbow and laid her hand on his arm. "He's telling the truth, Lee," she concurred urgently. "You must let him go."
Lee looked her and then at the small group of people that he suddenly realised were huddled around them. Amongst them was Amanda who was trying to push her way through the ever growing crowd.
"Excuse me. Can I just get through there please? Excuse me," he heard his wife say before finally joining him.
"Amanda, check this guy's pockets for ID will you?" Lee asked as he turned the guy towards her.
She nodded and rifled about in the man's jacket until she found his wallet. She pulled it out of his pocket and opened it up. Her eyebrows rose slightly and she looked up at Lee ruefully. "You'd better let him go, Lee," she advised and held up the man's wallet for her husband to see.
Lee read the ID and sighed. "Lieutenant Brody?" he queried as he released the man.
The man nodded and rubbed his injured arm. Lisa hurried over to him and wrapped her arm around his waist. "Are you alright?" she asked in concern.
"You know him?" Amanda commented in surprise as she looked at the other woman.
"Yes, we work together. I'm his partner," Lisa replied as she tenderly reached for his injured arm.
Brody pulled away from the woman and sighed in obvious irritation. "Lisa how many times do I have to tell you? We're not partners, OK? You just help me out from time to time."
If Amanda hadn't noticed that Lee was about to lose his temper completely, she would've laughed at the irony of the situation. Moving to calm things down, she placed a warning hand on Lee's arm and nodded slightly towards the murmuring crowd. "Let's do this in private," she suggested with a soft smile.
Lee reined in his temper and took a deep breath, exhaling slowly. "You're right," he agreed.
His wife nodded then turned to the surrounding throng. "OK, break it up, nothing to see here," she commanded, deepening her voice to sound authoritative. "Break it up, break it up, now."
The interested gathering murmured louder then gradually started to disperse. Amanda turned to Lee and grinned. "I've always wanted to say that," she confided with a chuckle.
Lee just shook his head in disbelief. "I can't believe it worked," he admitted. "You sounded like an old cop show."
"Well, you'd know," Amanda retorted lightly. "I'm sure that's where you got a lot of your moves."
Before Lee could make a reply, it soon became obvious that Amanda's request wasn't the real reason why the crowd had left. Parked at the roadside was silver Mercedes and standing by it were three men dressed in suits. The two younger men were holding up their ID's and herding the people swiftly, but quietly, away.
The other man approached them with a genial smile, his hand outstretched towards Lee. "Ah, Mr. Stetson, I'm very pleased to finally meet you," he said cordially.
"Do I know you?" Lee queried bluntly without shaking the other man's hand.
"Major Cavendish," the man replied, letting his own hand fall back to his side. "MI6."
Half an hour later, Lee, Amanda, Brody, Lisa and the Major were crammed into a booth at the back of a small, virtually empty café, each with a large mug of coffee in front of them.
"When you tried to apprehend Lieutenant Brody at the Tower yesterday, we checked with the police who you were and ran our own background verification," said Cavendish and raised his eyebrows as he added, "Needless to say, we were very surprised to find out who you were. No wonder the Lieutenant had a hard time getting away. You're not the normal tourist."
Lee shrugged his shoulders. "I'm here on vacation with my wife. I didn't think I had to let anyone know about that."
"Oh you don't," Cavendish immediately assured the younger man. "We were just relieved that it was another professional that nearly caught our man and not a 'have-a-go-hero' type. Wouldn't look to good if Joe Public could scupper our plans so easily."
"What exactly are your plans?" Lee couldn't resist asking.
Brody and Cavendish exchanged a look and after a nod from the older man, Brody explained.
"We were trying to make an exchange look like a purse snatching. We've made it known that Lisa was writing the 'less than wholesome' memoirs of an extremely well known politician and she kept them locked up in a safety deposit box. It was also made known that she carried the key to that box in her bag."
"Yes, you see, we've had a spate of blackmailings from an organisation who manages to somehow get a hold of these type of documents with surprising ease," Cavendish said, taking over the story. "So the idea was that Brody would steal the purse and then try and contact the organisation. They'd check his story, naturally, so we wanted the police reports to be authentic. You never quite know who's behind these things so it was better to be safe than sorry."
"I see," Lee commented then looked over at Brody. "Sorry about the arm."
Brody shook his head dismissively. "Don't apologise. It was a good move. I just wish I'd seen it coming."
"Well the old moves are the best ones," Amanda quipped in and laughed at Lee's frowning look.
Unfazed, Amanda let the men continue their conversation and turned to Lisa who was sitting quietly in the corner. "How long have you been in the business?" she asked her curiously.
"Not long, only about eighteen months, in fact," Lisa admitted self-consciously. "I met John when he was on a case. He purposely bumped into me then shoved a parcel into my hands and told me to pass it on for him because he was in trouble." She laughed. "I suppose it all sounds quite unbelievable really. I mean, who in their right mind would just take a package from a perfect stranger?"
Amanda smiled. "Oh, you'd be surprised," she replied with a glance in Lee's direction. "And I'm sure John was very persuasive."
Lisa smiled at that. "Oh yes. Yes, he was," she agreed with a dreamy look on her face. "And then, after I did as he asked and was resigning myself to never seeing him again, he just appeared one night outside my house to thank me. We've been together ever since." Amanda raised her eyebrows at that comment and Lisa quickly added, "As work colleagues of course."
"Oh, of course," Amanda concurred trying not to smile. Lisa reddened but was saved from further embarrassment when Cavendish and Brody suddenly stood up.
"I think we'd better get back to the office my dear," the Major said with a warm smile. "There's some reports I'd like you to type up before you leave tonight."
"Certainly, Sir," Lisa replied and also stood. She looked at Lee and Amanda. "Goodbye, it was nice meeting you both. Enjoy the rest of your holiday."
"Thanks…and good luck," Amanda replied with a wink at the other woman.
Lisa smiled in return then blushed again as she glanced at Brody and back at Amanda then surreptitiously held up her hand with two fingers crossed.
Amanda grinned then both she and Lee bade a final farewell to their new friends.
Amanda sighed and had just picked up her mug to finish her coffee when Lee suddenly turned to her with a puzzled look. "What was the 'good luck' and crossed fingers all about?"
"Oh, nothing much," she replied nonchalantly. "Just a little girl talk and female support that's all."
Lee smiled knowingly. "Lisa likes Brody, huh?"
"How did you guess?" Amanda asked in surprise.
"Easy, she looks at him the way you used to look at me when we first started working together," Lee told her matter-of-factly.
"Oh please, I didn't ever look at you like that," Amanda dismissed with a rather inelegant snort.
"Yes you did. I just ignored it," Lee needled.
"Not all the time you didn't," Amanda retorted.
"So you admit that you did used to look at me like that then, huh?" Lee pressed as he leant a little towards her with a smile.
Amanda smiled in return and leaned in too. "Only if you admit that you do get your moves from old cop shows."
"Deal," Lee chuckled and kissed her warmly on the lips.
They finished their coffee's and then left the café to walk back to their hotel. Upon reaching their room, Lee gratefully put the bags of shopping down and flopped onto a chair.
"We're going to need another case," he said as he watched Amanda peer into the bags and check her list.
"Oh Lee, trust me, I'm a woman, I know how to pack," his wife replied confidently. "Besides, there's something else we're going to need that's more important."
"What's that?" he asked.
"Mr. Melrose's present," Amanda informed him. "We forgot to get it." She checked her watch and looked at him expectantly. "If we go now we can be back in an hour and then we'll have just enough time to pack, pick up the rental car and leave for Dorset."
Lee rose from the chair and walked over to her. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her to him gently until their bodies touched. "How about we look for something for Billy in Dorset and spend an hour here instead?" he suggested.
Amanda dropped the list onto a nearby table then placed her hands on his shoulders and moved even closer to him with a grin. "I think that's a great idea," she murmured before kissing him deeply on the lips.
Lee grinned as the kiss ended and he slowly started to undo the buttons on her blouse. "Let's make sure we get him something really nice," he said as he gently pushed the silky fabric aside and off of her shoulders, leaving it to fall carelessly to the floor. "I want to let him know how much I appreciate him letting us have this time together so I can do this..." He leaned in and kissed her again before picking her up in his arms then walking over to the bed where he lay down with her on top of the covers.
"Me too," Amanda gasped out as Lee's hands began to wander seductively over her body. She let out a sigh as her husband began to nuzzle her neck and smiled contentedly as she tugged his shirt free from his jeans. "Me too."
THE END