Late that afternoon, Agent Stephanie Newton knocked on the section chief's door hesitantly. Billy looked up from his desk and motioned her in.

"What is it, Agent Newton," he inquired.

"I have my report on the hotel registrations that you requested," she said awkwardly.

"Good," He said as he reached for the folder she was holding, however, she hesitated in giving it to him. "Is there a problem?"

"Well, Sir, with what I found, I feel even more uncomfortable than ever."

"I understand that Amanda is a friend of yours and something of a mentor to you, but we can't let our personal feelings get in the way when we have a job to do. Just tell me what you found."

She took a deep breath, opened the folder and explained, "Well, I found a hotel registration for Mr. and Mrs. Stetson dated February 13th at a little place called the Crystal Springs Inn in Marion. I confirmed with the hotel staff that they checked in around 7PM that night and checked out at 6AM the next morning. They actually remembered Mr. Stetson vividly because apparently when they checked out, to use their words, he had "raised hell" over the fact that their room wasn't ready when they arrived and something about a "slow-as-molasses" chambermaid who wouldn't leave him alone with his bride."

Billy chuckled and said, "That sounds like Lee. Is that all?"

No, Sir," Agent Newton answered. "It seemed a little strange to me that they were there such a short time, so I did some further digging and found they were on a flight to Fresno at 9AM, also as Mr. and Mrs. Stetson. They rented a car at the Fresno airport and then my research took a disturbing turn."

"How so?"Billy asked thinking he already knew the answer based on what he'd received from the other freshmen agents and what he knew of the events of that period, but he wanted to hear it from this agent's point of view.

"Well, Sir, that rental car was later turned in on an insurance claim due to damage from flying bullets and I found that Mr. Stetson and Mrs. King had had another hotel reservation in a little town called Las Palmas, also registered as Mr. and Mrs. Stetson and that they never checked in." Billy nodded. "You knew about that?"

"I had my suspicions," Billy said. "Amanda was shot on the 14th. She was hospitalized for two weeks while she recovered."

"Oh, God," Agent Newton said in horror.

"It's alright, Agent Newton, she made a full recovery."

"I don't understand, Sir, were they on an undercover assignment? Is that why they were registered as husband and wife and what led to her being shot? It doesn't quite make sense. If they were on an investigation, why wouldn't they have just flown to California instead of spending the night in Marion?"

"As I said earlier, I'm afraid that's on a need-to-know basis," he answered as he once again reached for the file in her hand. This time she handed it over. "You've done some excellent work here, Agent Newton," he said with a warm smile. "Thank you," he said dismissing her with a wave of his hand.

"Yes, Sir," she said as she made her way to the door. She hesitated before leaving.

Billy sensing her reluctance to leave asked, "Is there something else?"

"Can I just ask a question? Is Mrs. King in some kind of trouble?" she asked nervously.

"No, she's not," Billy said in a reassuring tone with a smile at her. She smiled back then quickly made her exit.

Billy added her file to the rapidly growing pile he already had from the other freshmen all trying to out-do one another, his reading glasses firmly perched on his nose as he perused them and worked on compiling data as Dr. Smyth entered the room, lit cigarette in hand.

"How's it going, Billy?" He asked as he took a puff then began idly twirling his cigarette holder in his hand as he glanced backward at Agent Newton's rapid retreat. "I've been hearing there are now some sour grapes coming off the office grapevine. I assume that means our newbies are living up to their assignments."

"Yeah," Billy answered looking up at him. "I was just going over some of the reports now." He looked down at the pile on his desk. "They've done some really good work. This Agent Dodd actually filled in something we hadn't even asked him to look for, which makes perfect sense when I think back to the events around that time."

"Oh? And what's that?"

Billy pulled a file from the stack an opened it, "It's an obscure report dated February 14th from the agency motor pool about a missing limousine that was never checked back in. Leatherneck had filed a report on it where he'd used the homing device in it to track down its location and had found it parked at a little place in Marion called the Crystal Springs Inn, which Agent Newton just informed me that Lee and Amanda spent a night in. I did a little checking myself after receiving Agent Dodd's report and found that the local Justice of the Peace, a guy named Tagsworth, keeps that place in business with the couples he marries."

Smyth perused the file Billy had handed him and said, "So, you think this Tagsworth is the one you tied our two wayward agents together?"

"I'm sure of it," Billy said as he pulled out another file.

"Valentine's Day, huh?"Smyth said thoughtfully. "How very cliché'. I wouldn't have thought our Scarecrow would have been so obvious."

"Actually, he wasn't," Billy said as he handed him a document from the file he had in his hand. "They were married the day before, on the 13th."

Smyth reviewed the document Billy gave him and said with a chuckle, "Friday, the 13th. That may be even worse."

"It was," Billy said. "If you read the rest of Leatherneck's report, it says that when he investigated the missing limo, he couldn't find any reason for it to be there. No one at the agency was registered at the hotel by the time he found it late on the 14th. This makes sense with Agent Newton's report stating that they'd already checked out by then."

"If my memory serves me correctly, that would have been right around the time that Scarecrow called you from California to tell you that Mrs King had been shot."

Billy nodded, "It was. Looking at the dates, they weren't even married a full day when she was shot."

"Well, that certainly explains a lot of his change in behavior when they returned. For years, he didn't want to be out in the field without her, but the first couple of months after that, he did everything he could to keep her out of the field. I have to admit it had me puzzled. I could see it while she was still recovering from her shooting, but once she made a full recovery and was cleared for active duty again, there seemed no reason for it."

"And it explains the sudden shift in the types of assignments he's been willing to take," Billy added. "There used to be a time when he threw himself into this job, wanted to work every weekend, couldn't wait to travel...But lately he's been doing everything he can to get out of weekend or out-of-town missions."

"In order to stay home with the little woman, I imagine," Smyth commented as he took another long drag off his cigarette contemplatively, "Or as close to it as they can get since they don't actually share a home."

"What I can't figure out is why he tried so hard to get out of their current assignment," Billy said with a somewhat confused look on his face. "I mean, I know that Amanda was just hospitalized for exhaustion and malnutrition because she ran herself down looking after her sick kids, but that should have been cleared up with a little rest and food."

"I think I can answer that," said a voice from the doorway.

"You don't knock?"Smyth said contemptuously at the young agent who'd just entered.

The younger agent looked sheepishly at both of the older men and said, "Sorry, it's just you said you wanted my report right away." At seeing Dr. Smyth still staring him down, he stammered, "I...uh...I'll just come back later."

"No, it's ok," Billy said with a glare at Dr. Smyth. "Come on in, Agent Grayson. I do want to hear your report."

"Well, Sir, You assigned me to interview Mrs. King's ex-husband, which was not easy, by the way. He was very hostile and demanded that I make it quick because I was intruding on his time with his wife and kids. It was like pulling teeth to get anything out of him," the agent said in a rush.

"Is there a point to this story?"Smyth snapped in irritation.

"Yes, sorry, Sir," He said. "Well, he told me that he wasn't going to discuss anything with me regarding his ex-wife and that if I had questions about her relationship with Mr. Stetson, I should ask her, but it was very obvious that he was hiding something. That got me to thinking that there was more going on, so I did a little investigating into Mrs. King's recent hospitalization. According to the hospital staff, Mr. Stetson raised quite the stink when they wouldn't give him any information in the ER about Mrs' King's condition, which under the circumstances, I can completely understand."

"Let me give you a tip, Son," Smyth said. "Playing Agatha Christie and drawing out the suspense will not win you brownie points with me. Get to the point already."

Billy held up a hand to Dr. Smyth and said in a calmer tone, "What circumstances, Agent Grayson?"

Agent Grayson handed Dr. Smyth a file and said, "These are Mrs. King's test results from her trip to the emergency room."

Smyth's eyes widened as he read the report. "Well, this will certainly set the acid tongues wagging," he said.

"What is it?"Billy asked. Smyth silently handed him the file. When Billy found what he was looking for, he said, "I'll be damned!"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Once Efraim had finished cleaning up and Amanda had dressed, the four agents were gathered in the kitchen of their cabin, Amanda at the stove cooking for the group while Lee had set the laptop up on one end of the kitchen table and the other two were flipping through the files from the agency.

"Amanda, this is some great work you did," Lee was saying as he perused the computer files she'd put together.

"Thank you," she said with a smile. "Like I've told you before, I can get a lot done when I don't have any distractions."

"I don't know," Lee said with an impish grin. "I was rather enjoying distracting you."

"What did she find," Efraim said impatiently trying to keep the topic of conversation on the case.

"Travel records for Klein," Lee said. "Numerous trips to Munich, that line up within a day of all of the disturbances in Berlin."

"Ok, sounds like a correlation, "Efraim said."However, it's over 300 miles from Munich to Berlin. Do we have corresponding travel records from city to city?"

"No," Lee said, "But that doesn't necessarily mean anything. There are a lot of ways to get from Munich to Berlin."

"I think I've got it here," Francine said indicating the file in front of her. "Look at this. This is the background info on Klein. It seems he's got an 80-year old grandmother who lives in Munich."

"Which is the perfect cover for his travel," Amanda added. "That's what prompted me to look at his travel records to start with. Lee, pull up temp file A-870."

Lee punched in the appropriate keystrokes and perused the computer screen for a moment. "Aha," he said. "Granny has a car that she pays to keep garaged since she was diagnosed with glaucoma and can't see to drive anymore."

"Bingo," Amanda said triumphantly, "And that car was recently re-registered with new license plates. So, I asked myself, why would an 80-year-old grandma worry about registering her car when she hasn't been able to see to drive it in ten years?"

"Of course," Efraim said. "It's the perfect cover. Klein flies to Munich under the guise of visiting his ailing granny, and then takes her car to drive the six hours to Berlin, make his mischief and fly out of Munich again."

"Exactly my thought," Amanda said.

"And it seems, during his trips, Grandma, racked up quite the phone bill with calls to guess who?" Lee said.

"Murdoch," Francine and Efraim said in unison.

"Yep," Lee answered.

"Well, that makes perfect sense with what we overheard today during the scavenger hunt," Francine said.

"Oh?" Amanda said as she began stacking the files neatly on one end of the table and setting out plates for dinner.

"Here, let me help you with that," Lee said as he rose from his seat to finish setting the table.

"Well, aren't you just the picture of domesticity," Efraim said sarcastically to Lee.

"I am a happily married man," Lee said with a glare at Efraim. "I've done this a few times at Amanda's house."

"Amanda's house, not yours," Efraim said. "I get that you guys are married, but if you're so happy, why aren't you living together in one house? Why all the secrecy, so you can still play the field while keeping Amanda to yourself? I wouldn't put it past a guy like you. You want to keep her from being with anyone else, but still want to play around, like that Chambers guy keeping his wife on a string."

"No, I am nothing like that son of a bitch," Lee said hotly.

"Then why?"Efraim demanded.

Lee looked at Amanda and the don't-lose-your-cool look on her face, took a deep breath and said, "Look, it's a long story and one I don't really want to get into right now. Let's just concentrate on this case. We can tell you the whole thing another time, ok?" He and Amanda finished putting dinner dishes on the table and both sat down.

"So, what is it you overheard," Amanda inquired as she began to fill her plate.

"Oh," Francine said as she also began to help herself to the dinner Amanda had prepared. "Klein and his Misses were talking about a "nature walk" they were planning to take tonight at midnight with the Murdochs, something about wanting to get whiff of the night-blooming jasmine."

"You think it's code for a meet?"Lee said between mouthfuls of food.

"That's our theory," Efraim said. "We were thinking that a pair of us might join them on their little "nature walk." Covertly, of course."

"Right," Amanda said.

"You two should do that," Lee said. "And while they're gone, Amanda and I can get a peek inside their cabins; see what they might be hiding."

"Or you could follow them while we search their cabins," Efraim suggested.

"No, I agree with Lee," Francine jumped in quickly knowing exactly why Lee would want to take the safer route of searching the cabins. If it was indeed a meet, she knew Lee wouldn't want Amanda in the line of fire if things got hairy. "You know, we should be the ones to follow them. I mean, you and I do have more field experience than Amanda does and we all know how she always seems to find trouble," she added in a snarky tone quickly followed by an apologetic glance at Amanda.

"Oh, thank you so much, Francine," Amanda said in an equally sarcastic tone and when Efraim looked away from her, added in a softer tone, "Really, thank you." She flashed Francine a grateful smile to acknowledge Francine's attempt to keep her pregnancy quiet and still keep her safe.

"Good, then it's all settled," Lee said with a firm nod, and also shooting Francine a grateful smile. "You guys will tail them while we search their cabins.

Efraim began to protest, but when all three other agents glared at him, he thought better of it. "I guess so," he said with a shake of his head as he focused on his dinner wondering just what was really going on.