SMK Chapter 12 (Day 4)

"So, you fouled it up again." His contact uttered the words softly and with utmost disdain.

"Look, you know Scarecrow," he quietly defended himself. "It's like he was born under a lucky star or something." He looked around to make sure no one seemed to be paying undo attention to their conversation. "You add Mrs. King to the mixture, and he might as well be Superman."

"I told you that you were underestimating their connection." His contact's gaze pierced right through him. "You don't ever underestimate anything, you idiot." He shook his head in disgust. "No wonder you can't stand Scarecrow. He makes you look bad at every turn."

He looked at the gray walls, metal doors, bars, and Plexiglass windows around them in an overly exaggerated manner. "I guess you would know all about that..." he swung his gaze back to his contact on the other side of the Plexiglas and raked his eyes up and down the orange jumpsuit. "...wouldn't you? Now, can we stop psychoanalyzing me and figure out our next move?"

His contact just looked at him, not flinching, not blinking, no emotion. It was unnerving. "Yeah. Sure." The reply held no inflection whatsoever.

"Maybe we should just get rid of them, quick and easy."

His contact leaned back in his chair and studied him. "No...no..." he leaned forward again, propped his elbows on the counter in front of him, clasped his hands together, and leaned his chin into his hands. "No, the girl has to take the fall. Then she dies in the act."

"And if she doesn't?"

"Come on, Bro. I've been doing the thinking for you ever since your first day at the children's home when you were eight. Can't you come up with something...interesting?"

He didn't like being reminded of those days, and his contact knew it. Even then, being protected by the older boy had come at a cost. Seemed like he'd always been the one stuck doing the dirty work. "What do you mean?"

"Come on, man! The chick is whacked, don't you think? Surely that can come in handy."

He glanced up at the clock on the wall. His time was almost up; he needed to shore up some plans quickly. "Yeah, I guess it could. In a 'he said/she said' situation, who would really believe a woman insane enough to do what she's doing, huh?"

"Now you're thinking." His contact actually smiled. It was a rare enough occurrence that it was a bit frightening. "Keep letting her call the shots, Bro. You can put ideas into her head if you think you need to, but let her keep thinking she's the one in control and you're just doing her bidding." He tapped his fingers on the counter. "She'll do our dirty-work and hang herself in the process."


"Alright, let's look back at the files of the employees who were at the bombing...just to see if there's something we missed yesterday." Lee sat on the sofa, Amanda was back in her spot on the floor leaning back against the sofa, and Francine was sitting at the table in the kitchenette.

"Okay," Francine flipped through the files and pulled out a few. "I've got Leatherneck's, Dane's, Frank's..." she flipped some more. "Aha. And here's Fred's." She handed those to Lee.

"I've still got June's here," Amanda interjected. "I think I'll keep doing a deep probe on her."

"Great," Francine searched through the files some more. "I'll grab Mark's, Mrs. Marsden's, and...Judd's."

"So, what are we looking for, exactly?" Amanda didn't raise her eyes from the file in front of her.

Lee ran his finger under his lip and gazed down at her as he thought. "Let's go back to backgrounds and known associates."

"Do you think I should start with my hunch about Frank and see if we can tie him to June in any way."

"No," Lee shook his head, and Amanda turned and focused her gaze on him. "One of the basic rules of investigative work is to not try and prove your hunch..."

"...because you always will." Lee and Francine finished the quote from the investigator's handbook at the same time.

"Okay," she quirked her eyebrow. "But I'll be real interested to see what we come up with when I cross-check both of them against our list of potential enemies."

"You know, this just seems so bizarre," Francine sighed. "I don't know June very well, but how long have we known Frank, Lee? I mean, we've worked with him for years."

"I know." Lee commiserated. "Frank may not be my favorite co-worker in the world, but he's still our colleague." He shrugged his shoulders. "Like it or not, Amanda did make a legitimate observation." He reached out and squeezed Amanda's shoulder as he spoke. "It's okay to check them first."

"I think we should rule out Leatherneck, Lee." Amanda turned and looked at him. "He was with you when the whole thing happened."

"Well, kind of," Lee hedged and rubbed the back of his neck.

Francine stopped in the middle of reading a sentence to look up at him. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Look," Lee continued. "I don't suspect him at all. But just to cover our bases, he wasn't with me the whole time. I left him in the garage when I headed back here, but I didn't come straight here." He shrugged his shoulders. "I honestly don't know when he left the garage or what route he took to get here. I just know he walked in the door a few minutes after I did."

"He's got the mechanical know-how to pull off something like this..." Francine observed.

"Amanda," Lee turned back to her.

"Yeah?"

"Do you have that list of potential enemies we put together?"

"Sure." She shuffled through a stack of papers on the coffee table and plucked one out. "Here it is."

Lee took it, stood up, and went over to the "office" area. He made a couple of copies, gave the original back to Amanda, gave one copy to Francine, and kept the other for himself. "Just so we all have a copy to make things easier..."

Francine glanced down at the list. "Wow. This goes all the way back to when you two first started working together. How are we going to narrow it down?"

Amanda tapped her pencil on her chin "We decided to start with anyone internal, then go to domestic, then work our way out to international."

"Alrighty, then," Francine sighed. "At least that breaks it up a little bit."

"So, who've we got?" Lee asked.

"Under the 'internal' category? Well, we've got…" Amanda skimmed the list. "…sixteen names. Dr. Theodore Glaser, Marshall Holt, David Benson, Edson Ballon." Amanda stopped and thought about that last name. "Should we consider Edson Ballon as internal?" She looked around at Lee and Francine for confirmation.

"I don't see why not," Francine answered. "If Dr. Glaser is internal, why not Edson Ballon?"

"Good point." Amanda conceded.

Lee picked up reading off the list. "Harry Hollinger, Margaret Brock, General Patterson, Peter Brackin, Serdeych, Larry Crawford, Nick Cross, Bryan Foster, Jake Lawrence, Gerald Falken, and Karl Eagles."

Francine whistled. "That's quite a list."

"Yeah. And wasn't there another agent that worked with Gerald Falken and Karl Eagles, Amanda?"

Amanda nodded her head. "I can't remember her name, though. I'll see if I can dig it up."

"And lastly, Sidney Rollins," Francine finished. "Can we leave out Marshall Holt, General Patterson, Bryan Foster, and Jake Lawrence?"

Lee turned his head and looked over at her. "Reasons?"

"Well, while they're all government employees – or were - but they weren't actually Agency."

Lee ran his hand over his hair. "Yeah." He thought for a moment then nodded his head.

"They wouldn't really have the same inside connection that we're looking for anyway, would they?" Amanda asked.

"No," Francine replied. "I don't think so."

"Alright, then," Lee conceded the point. "Let's start with the others. That's what..." he counted. "...twelve names?"

"No," Francine checked the list again. "Some of these people have already passed away."

"Right," Lee nodded. "What am I thinking?"

"Ummm, I think you're thinking you and Amanda almost ended up on the dead list? I think it's okay if you're not on the top of your game at this exact moment."

Lee looked down at his wife and wound the ends of her hair around a couple of fingers, allowing himself a moment to enjoy the silky feel. She turned and smiled at him. "Yeah, I guess you're right about that," he responded softly as he gazed into her eyes.

"Yep." Francine tried to ignore them as she looked at her list. "Ted Glaser, Serdeych, Margaret Brock, Karl Eagles, and Sidney Rollins have all passed away."

"Yes, and I just heard that Larry Crawford was found dead in his prison cell," Amanda added.

"That's right," Lee nodded his head, remembering the recent news. "They think the Russians got to him."

"Okay, then. That leaves just 6 names." Francine pulled out the respective files from her pile. "Benson, Ballon, Hollinger, Bracken, Cross, and Falken."

"Alright, let's divvy these up and get to it." Lee stood and helped Amanda to her feet.

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