SMK Chapter 24 - Day 15
Lee pulled his Vette up the driveway to the house and turned off the engine. He sat for a moment, mesmerized. His wife was here. In this very house. He'd gone home to check the video feed so he could try to gauge how she was doing; she didn't look good. He wasn't leaving here today without her.
He blew out a breath as he continued to take stock of the exterior of the house. There was so much that could go wrong. For all he knew, June was planning to poison his food or drink and knock him out. He and Francine had talked about that possibility before she'd left, so he'd had Leatherneck set him up with a watch that not only housed a microphone, but also kept track of his heart rate and respiration. If either dipped below a certain level, it became a whole new operation. Billy, Francine, and Frank would have to come in to take over. He trusted them with his life. More to the point, he trusted them with Amanda's life.
It was time. Lee took a deep breath and pulled the key out of the ignition. He climbed out of the low-slung car, closed and locked the door, and headed up the winding brick sidewalk to the front door.
He didn't even have time to ring the doorbell before the door opened. "Oh, Mr. Stetson! You're here!" June stood aside to sweep her arm toward the entryway. "Welcome. Come on in."
"Thank you." He stepped in and casually looked around. "Nice place you have here."
"Thank you. It belonged to my grandmother." June looked around nostalgically. "It has a lot of memories."
"I bet."
"Here, let me take your jacket." June helped him out of his suit coat and hanged it on a hook near the door. "Follow me."
Lee followed her toward what turned out to be the main part of the house. It was a semi-open floor plan that boasted vaulted ceilings with warm wooden beams that reflected the sunlight coming through the large windows across that back wall of the house. He was going to have a hard time scoping the place out with June able to keep her eyes on him.
"June," he began.
"Yes, Mr. Stetson?"
"It was a long drive out here. Where would I find the little boys' room?"
"Oh, I'll show you." She washed her hands in the kitchen sink and dried them on a towel. "Follow me."
She led the way from the kitchen, through the open dining room, and around the "L" shaped living room to another hallway. Straight ahead was a door, but she motioned for him to go to the right. The bathroom was at the end of the short hallway. "Here you go."
"Thanks." Lee turned, smiled at her, and waited as she went back to the kitchen. Once he heard her there, he turned and looked at the other door. It was not an outside door. The only other outside door he'd seen was in the living room just barely out of June's line of sight. Getting to that was going to be difficult.
He peeked back into the bathroom. Ah, brilliant! There was a small window above the commode that was just big enough for someone to fit through. "There's a small window on the north side of the house next to the living room," Lee whispered into his watch. "I'm going to unlock it. It comes into a bathroom that is in a back hallway." He paused to listen for movement in the hallway, but he could still hear June in the kitchen.
"Going out of the bathroom, there is a door on the right; I'm not sure where it leads, but it would be a place to start. Anything else will be in June's view."
Lee unlocked the window and opened it, flushed the unused toilet, and washed his hands. Now he was going to have to sit back, play a part, and trust his team to find Amanda and help him bring down Fred and June.
"I'll head for the window," Fred offered. "You guys stay here and keep up surveillance. Let Lee and I know the second you see anything." He looked back toward the house. "Who knows if her accomplice will come. Hell. Maybe he's already here and we don't know it yet."
"Alright," Francine carefully concealed her antagonism toward him. "Be careful."
"Be quiet," Frank added.
"Right," Fred agreed. "Here I go; wish me luck."
Fred ran in a crouch toward the house. He knew exactly where that bathroom window was, and he was pretty sure he could fit through the opening. Then, he was going to head to the basement and wait for June to bring Scarecrow down there. She had no idea what would be waiting for them.
June was setting food on the table when he came out of the bathroom. Lee wasn't sure he wanted to eat it; she seriously could have put something in it to knock him out. He was going to have to think of a way to avoid it all without totally offending her.
He looked around at the house for any excuse to delay the meal. "You have a lot of antiques here," he noticed. "Your grandmother's?"
June looked up at him with a smile, then looked around. "Yes, this was all my grandmother's."
"Were you close then?"
"Yes," June continued bringing food to the table. "She actually raised me on and off for most of my life."
"Really?" Lee was surprised by that information; it hadn't been in her file – but then, a lot of things weren't in her file. "I never knew my grandparents." He followed her toward the kitchen. "Can I help you with anything?"
She looked up and smiled again. "That's very kind, but no thank you. Just talking is nice." She pulled drinking glasses out of one of the white kitchen cabinets. "So, you didn't know your grandparents?"
"No," he shook his head and leaned against the countertop. "In fact, I barely remember my parents. They died when I was five. I was raised by my uncle who is still an officer in the Air Force. Moved all over the world my entire life."
"Wow," she looked back at him over her shoulder as she put the glasses on the table. "That's tough."
"Yeah, it was." He really needed to find a way to get out of eating this food. "Hey, you mentioned all of this is your grandmother's." He fingered a delicate doily setting under a vase. "You probably have the stuff out here that's in the best condition, but do you have other things of hers in storage?"
June stopped and turned to face him. "Yes, but why do you ask?"
"Oh, well, I kind of have a thing for antiques," he lied. "A lot of times the pieces people think are the least valuable are actually the most valuable. Those are the ones that you would probably still have in storage."
"Hmm," June looked thoughtfully at him. "Yes, well, I do have some things down in the basement." She nodded her head. "I could show you after dinner…"
"Oh," Lee put on his brightest smile. "Do you think we could take a look now?" He looked around the room. "This stuff is so great, and it helps distract me from the hard stuff going on right now, you know?"
"Well," she looked at the table. "The food might cool off a bit, but if you're sure…"
"Ah, June. That'd be really great. Thank you."
She wiped her hands on the red checkered dishtowel hanging from the handle of the oven. "This way," she began walking through the living room back toward the hallway that had the bathroom. "They're in the basement."
Lee was physically aching to get within reach of Amanda. He could feel her presence in the house, but he knew there were a lot of obstacles to get past before he could free her. He figured Frank was in the basement by now, just waiting for them. Francine and the others would be in place already, and he was glad the ambulances were close by – who knew how many they would need before all this was over.
June opened the other door in the bathroom hallway. Immediately to the right, blue carpeted stairs went upward then turned toward the left. After that set of stairs, there was a second set of stairs that led toward the basement. At the landing where the stairs took a turn to the right, there was another door. This one was locked.
June took a key out of her pocket, inserted it into the keyhole, and turned it until there were two clicks. Pocketing the key, she opened the door and continued down another set of stairs. This seemed deeper than a usual basement.
"A lot of my grandmother's things are down here, Mr. Stetson." At the bottom of the stairs was yet another door. Another two clicks of a key and that one opened as well.
"Impressive," Lee exclaimed softly. "You really take security down here seriously."
"Well," June reached up and turned on a dim ceiling light. "I don't want anyone to get in here." She reached for a switch on the paneled wall to her right. "But I don't want anyone to get out either."
Just as her words registered, she turned and faced him with a gun in her hand. He stood stock still, except his hands went up. June flipped the switch on the wall, and the room filled with light. "What's going on here, June," Lee asked cautiously.
"Well, if you'll take a look over my right shoulder, you'll see something you probably weren't expecting."
Lee frowned but looked. "Amanda!" Without thinking, his body leaned in anticipation of moving toward her.
"Think again, Mr. Stetson." The loud click of the gun being cocked belied her soft voice.
"June…" Lee gazed at his wife for a moment, thirsty for the sight of her and trying to ascertain if she was injured any more than she already had been. "…what's going on here? I don't understand."
"I know you don't; that's part of the problem."
"Problem?" Lee glanced back at Amanda as he tried to calculate his best course of action. Fred still hadn't materialized, so that was still a big unknown.
"Yes, you see," June began pacing in front of him. "The problem is that Mrs. King was distracting you from the truth. So, I had to find a way to neutralize her."
Neutralize? "What truth was she distracting me from, June?"
"The truth that you and I were meant to be together, Lee."
"And you think kidnapping the woman I love is going to somehow make me fall in love with you?" Lee was working hard to keep his voice calm. "I'm not exactly sure how that's supposed to work, June."
"Love?" June quirked an eyebrow. "No, you don't love her. You may lust after her, though I don't really understand why, but you don't know what love means yet," she smiled a sickeningly sweet smile. "But you will; I'll show you." She shrugged her narrow shoulders. "Besides, if you don't want to see anything unpleasant happen to her..."
"You need to explain yourself, June." His patience was quickly waning.
"Oh, Lee. It's simple. Mrs. King is your incentive now for doing what I tell you to do. But in time, you will come to see that we are meant to be together – that I can love you better than she would ever be able to love you." June walked seductively over to him and ran her fingertips down the front of his shirt. "Then we won't need her anymore."
He wanted to vomit. "Amanda," Lee called out. "Amanda, can you hear me?" His gaze darted from June to his wife.
"Ah, your first mistake, Lee."
June started backing up and heading toward Amanda with a key to the cage in her hand. Frantically, Lee tried to think of ways to distract her from any harm she might do to his wife. "I've gotta give it to you, June." She stopped suddenly and stared at him. "This is brilliant. In a million years I never would have thought of this." He swept his hand and his gaze around the room. "You've got to be the brain behind all of this, but you're too delicate to be the brawn." He was purposefully baiting her with sycophantic words.
"And that's where I come into the picture," Fred's voice sounded out from the shadows behind the cage. June jumped, obviously surprised he was there.
Lee smiled inwardly; the wildcard was now in play. His team was probably surrounding the house by now, but Lee didn't want Fred to know that yet; the knowledge would make him careless because he wouldn't have anything to lose.
"Fred?" Lee acted surprised. "What the hell are you doing?" He glanced at June; she didn't look pleased to see him.
"Well, Scarecrow, I'm doing a lot of things, actually."
"Would you care to share?"
"Sure. When the time is right. For now, all you need to know is that I've finally beaten you."
"You're torturing Amanda to one-up me, man?" Lee felt rage building up inside him even more than it already had been. "You son-of-a…"
Fred laughed. "Not so tough now, are you Scarecrow?" He aimed his gun at Amanda. "What would you be willing to do right now to make me not shoot her?" He walked closer to the cage.
For the first time, Lee realized June had made her way inside the cage. She was taking Amanda's blindfold off, but her mouth was covered. A shiver slithered down his spine, and he shot an awkward prayer heavenward. God, she's got to be miserable only being able to breathe through her nose! Please help her! Thank you that she's still alive! As the blindfold fell off, he saw she was awake…and aware. She could only turn her head to the side because of the way she was strapped down, but he could tell when her eyes adjusted to the light, and she was able to zero in on him.
"Amanda." Her name came out of his mouth in almost a whisper, but June moved to her side. His eyes lasered in on her to see what she was doing. She held the knife in her hand, and she was slowly lowering it to Amanda's arm.
"June," panic nearly gripped him, it took years of training to hold it at bay. "What are you doing?" She didn't respond. "June, no, please. Don't."
June looked up at him. "It's too late for this one, Lee. You already earned it for her."
Lee watched helplessly as June quickly and smoothly slit a 4-inch line into Amanda's arm. His body jerked and his eyes slammed shut for just a moment. When they opened again, he could see Amanda's face contorted in pain even from across the room.
Lee looked over at Fred. "Come on, Fred. Amanda's innocent in all of this." Anger and hatred wrestled for precedence inside him. Fury percolated beneath the surface. "She's never been anything but kind to you, man! Why?" Lee shouted.
"Well actually, Scarecrow, she's never been a big fan." Fred shook his head back and forth. "Everyone thinks she's all peaches and cream, but she's had it out for me ever since your gig with Ed Ballon."
"She was just trying to protect my reputation, Fred. She's loyal to her friends." Lee glanced over at Amanda, trying to keep one eye on Fred at the same time. Her fists were still clinched, but her eyes were latched onto him.
"Oh, yes. That reminds me," Fred continued. "Friends, huh?" He chuckled. "Didn't sound like friends when we were listening in on your bedroom activities. Didn't look like friendship after you rescued her from the elevator." Fred cocked his head. "Hey, how'd you get there so fast anyway?"
Lee ignored the question. "You're right, Fred. Amanda and I are way more than friends."
"So how long have you been lovers? Since before that Ballon thing?"
"No, we were just friends back then," Lee conceded. "What's it to you, anyway? You don't care about her. What's your stake in this?"
"I told you; revenge." Fred smiled. "Now, back to my original question. What are you willing to do to stop us from killing her?" Fred looked over at June who was still standing on the other side of Amanda. A wicked grin split his face. "I know what June would like you to do…"
"Forget it," Lee spat out.
"Come, come. Don't pretend to be so virtuous. We both know the master of the Peacock Dance isn't above doing what you must to get the job done, don't we?"
He was done talking to this creep. "June, I know you. You're too smart for this." Her head snapped up at his comment. "Who encouraged you to do this? Surely you understand that this would only make me hate you." Indecision swept across her face. "You're hurting the woman I love, June. How is that supposed to make me want to be with you?" He watched her closely. She glanced over at Fred then back at Lee. "If you really cared about me, you wouldn't want to hurt me; but what you're doing to my wife is hurting me deeply, June." He got just the reaction he was looking for from both of them at exactly the same moment.
"Your wife!" Both faces registered genuine shock.
"Yes," He looked back and forth between Fred and June. "My wife." His tone went dangerous to communicate the fact that he wasn't going to let them get away with what they were doing.
"I don't believe you," Fred replied. "You're too much of a ladies' man – always have been. You couldn't have changed that much."
"June, I want you to listen to me," Lee didn't look over at her; he didn't want to take his eyes off Fred. "What you're trying to do here won't work, and Fred knows it. I don't know what his game is, but he's not smart enough to think of all this on his own. He must be working with someone besides you, June." Lee chanced a look at Amanda and saw fresh blood dripping from her arm down onto the gurney.