Jill was wiped out, so she and Warren said their farewells and headed home after Marcie received her crown. The DJ played a couple more songs, but with a room full of parents mostly past their partying days, more alumni started exchanging hugs and phone numbers and saying goodbye.
Lee and Brad walked on while Amanda and Terri followed Marcie to her car. Marcie scratched out her phone number on the back of a gas receipt. "Lee says he knows people in the FBI. This is the number to my office in Santa Barbara. I'm ready to hand over everything Beth and I have collected, as long as she and I can both make a clean exit from his mess."
Amanda took it and nodded. "You can't throw a rock in D.C. these days without hitting someone with a badge," Amanda said. "We take a lot of meetings with government types. If you're serious about talking to someone, Lee will absolutely get one of his contacts to find someone in Los Angeles who can talk to you. FBI, IRS, FTC, whatever, Lee has contacts that can make it happen."
"I appreciate it," Marcie said with a shake of her head. She opened the car door and chucked her handbag over to the passenger seat with a scowl. "I have made a huge mistake with Jerry, and I don't want to get dragged down with him."
"Girl, I understand mistakes," Marcie said. "Brad and I broke up for a year after he joined the Navy. My folks were afraid I was going to jump into marriage and Brad would never be home. Brad didn't want to marry without their blessing, so, we took a break to think about what we wanted. That year I kinda dated another guy - I thought we were friends, and he was fun at parties, but nothing serious. Little did I know he was selling coke and stashing it in my car. My dad found it, and went nuclear, I'm talking BOOM." Terri mimed her head exploding. "My Dad took a tire iron and broke out every window in Dale's van and punched out two of his teeth." Terri laughed to herself. "Dad came home and told me to write Brad and tell him I'd marry him on his next scheduled leave. Dad said being married to a sailor would be hard, but he knew Brad was a good man who loved me, and he'd never find Brad's dope in my car."
Marcie looked disgusted. "Jerry does not care about me. There's a creepy courier who delivers 'business documents' to the house. The guy makes my skin crawl, and Jerry thinks it's hilarious."
An instinct she had never, ever entertained before crept over Amanda, and before she could second guess herself, she grabbed Marcie and hugged her. Terri was within reach, and Amanda dragged her in, too.
The three of them dissolved into laughter over the absurdity of it all.
"Terri got her happy ending, we'll just have to work on one for you, too." Amanda said with determination. "Just be careful about what you remove from the house, you don't want to make him suspicious. You don't want anything rolling back on you. If he's involved in something shady, you need distance from it, not a pocket full of it."
"Distance may well mean a one-way ticket back to Washington. Mother and Dad have that cottage out back by the pool where my grandparents lived. I may just redecorate and move in there. My folks are getting older anyway. I want them to be able to stay in their home as long as possible, and that's more likely if I'm around. And don't worry, it's just a few bills here and there, and not a fingerprint one. Besides, I've been making my own money all along, and I have every penny of it. I'm mostly pilfering his rainy-day money out of spite."
"Well, please be careful. And if you end up back here, just remember, you have friends. Plus, there's a parade of people trying to out-do one another on the D.C. party circuit. With a couple of good Hollywood references, you could probably pick right up working. It might even be a selling point, a touch of Hollywood glamour right here in D.C. You'd be turning down work in no time."
Marcie smiled brilliantly. "Amanda, I've always admired your optimism. I hope you're right."
With one more round of hugs, they saw Marcie into her car and off to her parents' house.
Meanwhile, at the Hicks' car, with the ladies out of earshot, Brad leaned against his door. "You know, Lee, there's plenty of Navy stuff I can't tell Terri. For example, my SEAL team sat through a security briefing off the coast of the Ukraine around…October 1979? With some CIA types. Real hush-hush thing about escorting defectors to safety who had blueprints for a new kind of missile silo."
Lee's normally composed veneer regarding classified matters crashed through the reflective barrier of secrecy, nosed over the side of the canyon of plausible deniability and exploded in flames at the feet of Lieutenant Commander Brad Hicks.
"Operation Scarlet Arrow?" Lee hissed. "No! Seriously?!"
"You had sideburns then. And there was a guy with you, dark curly hair."
Lee's expression fell. Eric. "Yeah, we lost him in '82."
"Sorry to hear it," Brad said with a sad shake of his head. "I'm all too familiar."
"Yeah, same," Lee said. "He was a good guy. Not CIA, by the way."
"No?"
"No."
"But something," Brad insisted. "You're no movie mogul."
Lee studied him. Brad's security clearance probably approached his own. "No," Lee admitted.
Brad scuffed his shoe over a piece of gravel. "Does Amanda know?"
Amanda and Terri were saying goodbye at Marcie's car, three rows over in the lot. Lee watched them for a minute. "I…well…" He blew out a breath.
"You don't like creating exposure for her," Brad surmised.
"Sorry, I realize you're still cleared for a lot of things. This is just hits really close to home. I'll have to tell her we had this conversation. I'll have to report it."
"Please tell me she's just your secretary." Brad looked a little queasy.
Lee smiled as he watched his partner pull Marcie in for a hug. "Nope."
Brad followed Lee's gaze and watched Marcie get into her car. Then his wife, and the girl who used to babysit his kid brother, started walking in their direction.
Brad scrubbed a hand over his brush cut hair. "I feel like I'm gonna wake up tomorrow in a world where the sky is green, and the grass is blue." And then whispered to himself, "Amanda West is a spook." Brad's eyes grew wide, like it finally just dawned on him.
"She's not running around exterminating enemy agents, in case that's what you're worried about."
"Small favors," Brad muttered.
"No kidding," Lee agreed. "You know, a decade ago, I worked a security case at Fort Belvior with Travis Bonner. It's a small world."
"I clearly didn't drink enough tonight," Brad tossed over his shoulder as he turned toward Terri and Amanda.
Terri reached for Brad's arm and hugged it tightly. "You two sure have had a lot to talk about."
"Reminiscing about military life," Brad said. "Bad food."
"Stupid superiors," Lee replied.
"Sleeping in strange places."
"Getting lost."
"Getting yelled at."
"No showers."
"Bullets whizzing past your ear."
"Ok, enough!" Terri ordered. "You're retired, remember?"
"Oh, baby, you know once a SEAL, always a SEAL. Besides, Lee and me, we have things in common." Brad extended his hand to Lee, and they shook. "We should get a beer sometime." Brad pulled Lee in for slapping hug, squeezed him far too tight, and whispered in Lee's ear, "Behave, or they'll never find your body." Brad pulled back and smiled, like threats of murder were as normal as talking football or borrowing yard tools from your neighbor.
Except Brad Hicks clearly had his own shovel.
Lee flexed his aching hand. "Your wife already put me on notice. I'll be on my best behavior."
"Standing right here, fellas," Amanda said. "This is for you." She held the gas receipt out to Lee.
"If Jerry Madison is half as bad as his wife says, I know people who will want to talk to him." Lee tucked the slip of paper in his coat pocket and addressed his next words to Amanda alone. "Time to get you home before you turn into a pumpkin."
Terri grabbed Amanda for one more quick hug and promised to call soon, before she and Brad drove away.