SMK Chapter 14 (Day 7)

"Billy, I should have known," Lee paced Billy's office and ran a hand over his hair. "You'd think by now I'd know to listen to Amanda's hunches."

"There was no way to know, Scarecrow," Billy sat calmly behind his desk. "Don't get down on yourself. Fred's worked here for years; he had all of us fooled."

Lee turned around, strode to a chair in front of Billy's desk and dropped into it. "Yeah, well, what I don't get yet is why. Why would Fred hook up with Davy, and what in the world does June have to do with all of this?"

"I have a feeling those are the million-dollar questions."

There was a knock at the door; Billy motioned for Francine and Amanda to enter. "So, did you find anything?" Lee asked as they came in.

"It took a lot of digging; but, oh, did we find something," Francine held up the file in her hand and waved it back and forth.

"Well?" Lee was impatient. He wanted this to be over and his wife to be safe.

"You wanna give us the short version?" Billy prompted.

"Yes, Sir," Amanda sat in the chair next to Lee's. "It seems that Fred and Davy go way back. Way, way back."

"Yeah, like 'back to childhood' back," Francine inserted.

"No..." Lee drew out the word in disbelief. "Let me see that," He grabbed the file from Francine's hand before she even had a chance to offer it to him. "Are they family?" He opened the file and skimmed the first page.

"Not really," Amanda answered. "But they did grow up together in the same boys' home in Bethesda."

"That's not in either of their files," Billy pointed out. "Why is that not in their files?"

"I don't know," Francine shrugged. "It should have been. How could the agency have missed something like that?"

"Hmmm..."

Lee looked over at his wife to see her brow furrowed. "Amanda?"

"I just had a thought." Her gazed bounced between the three of them.

"Just say it, Amanda," Lee encouraged her.

"Okay, but I don't even know if it's important." She looked around again. "You remember three years ago when that Buzz Blade actor tried to kill Lee?"

"Russell Sinclair." Francine sighed. "Yeah, but what does that have to do with anything?"

Lee held up his hand, shot Francine a frown, then looked back at Amanda. "Go on, Sweetheart." Francine rolled her eyes. She rarely followed Amanda's logistical gymnastics.

"What was that lady's name in personnel who hired him and left information out of his file?"

"Patsy," Billy stood abruptly. "Patsy Peters!"

Francine's eyes went wide. "You don't think she..."

"…Did the same thing with Frank's and Davy's files?" Lee shook his head. "Well, that would explain some things, but honestly, Amanda, I'm not sure how that helps us at this point."

Amanda bit her lip. "Yeah, I know. But it at least answers the questions about why they would be working together and why we didn't make the connection." She looked around at the other three in the room. "And it might create some more questions that need answers like, 'who else did she do this with, and do we need to go back over all those files?'"

"More importantly," Francine brought the conversation back around to their current situation and nodded toward the file in Lee's hand. "Maybe this answers the question as to what Davy and Frank are up to and why." The other three looked over at her, waiting for her to continue. "Oh, come on." She rolled her eyes. "Who put Davy away?" She shot a pointed look at Lee. "It wasn't Santa Claus."

"Yeah..." he nodded his head. "...it was me, but it wasn't only me." Lee looked over at his wife, concern evident in his gaze.

"What do you mean?" Billy looked back and forth between them.

"Well, Billy, remember how I was running the internal investigation on who was leaking information to the Bulgarians?"

"Yes..."

"I recruited Amanda to help me with it." He looked over at her again. "She's the one who investigated Davy's finances, talked to Davy's wife, and basically started figuring things out."

"Then there was the..." Amanda started.

Lee's head nodded as his gaze met hers. "Yeah, and then there was the..."

"Well," Amanda looked toward Billy. "You see, Sir, I had this badge..."

"Yeah, Billy, Amanda had this fake badge."

"Right, it was fake, Sir, but I used it to talk to Davy's wife..."

Lee looked at her again, nodding his head. "Right, and then to flag down the police and get them to follow you..."

Billy cleared his throat. "That was over two years ago, and I don't give a horse's patootie about the fake badge. What happened?" He held up his hand as both Lee and Amanda took a breath to explain. "Just one of you, please...Lee?"

"Davy had me in the car and was taking me out somewhere to kill me." He looked over at Amanda again. "Amanda followed us and, well, we were in Fairfax County, and she started speeding to get the attention of the police." He looked back at Billy, who nodded his head. Everyone knew you didn't speed in Fairfax County. "Anyway, long story just a little shorter, she got the police to follow her to where Davy had taken me."

"Are you saying Davy knew about Amanda's involvement?" Billy's brow wrinkled.

"Yes, that's what I'm saying," Lee nodded his head slowly.

"So, he has motive to go after both of you..."

"Basically, yes."

Billy rubbed the back of his neck. "Boy, you two really have a knack for getting into trouble together..."

"And getting out of it," Amanda added quickly. "We'll get out of this one, too." She reached over and squeezed Lee's hand. "But I still don't understand where June comes into all this...or if she's even connected."

"Right," Billy sat again. "Have we had a situation update from Leatherneck yet?"


Interesting how June and Fred end up together in the same location so often, Leatherneck stealthily listened at the door before striding into the staff lunchroom with light bulbs in his hands. He had purposefully shaken one of the ceiling bulbs a little too hard yesterday to break the filament because he knew from watching that June came in here every day at this time. The light bulb gave him reason to be skulking around.

"It's time to do something," June's normally sweet, shy voice sounded harsh and annoyed.

"Okay, why is it time now, and what do you want to do?" Leatherneck couldn't see Fred, but that was definitely his voice.

"I'm tired of watching the two of them together, Fred!" June's voice raised.

"Hey, keep it down, would you?" Fred loud-whispered the admonishment. "You want the whole agency to hear this conversation?"

"What I want," she lowered her voice ominously, "is Mrs. King dead and Lee Stetson needing someone's shoulder to cry on."

"And you think that someone will be you. Yes, I know." Fred responded. "But what makes you think he'll turn to you? You've seen the way they are together lately."

Leatherneck watched through the gap between the door and the door-jam as June abruptly turned her back on Fred.

"If she dies," Fred continued, "the last thing he'll be interested in is another woman. All he'll be interested in is finding who killed her and smearing them all over the pavement."

She spun back around to face Fred. "Okay, mister know-it-all. What would you suggest then? I'm paying you big money for helping me with this, so earn it!"

"Oh, because I didn't earn it when I broke into his house and bugged it? And because I didn't earn it when I kidnapped her in the elevator and set off that bomb?"

"Yeah, about that," her eyes narrowed. "You almost killed him. What was that about? I'm paying you to kill her – not him!"

"Yes, well, honestly, I didn't think he'd get there so fast," Fred shook his head as he stirred a spoon around in a coffee cup.

"So?"

"So, what?" He looked up at her.

"So, do you have any ideas?"

Fred stirred his cup again, set the spoon down, and lifted the mug to his lips. Gingerly, he took a sip of the hot drink, pulled the mug away from his lips, and sighed. "Well, I think we're going to have to find a way to separate them."

"How? They're stuck together like super-glue."

"I was hoping you'd have some thoughts on that." Fred took another sip of his drink.

June turned back to the wall and gazed at the painting of a cabin in a forest. Slowly, she started speaking again. "I think we're going to have to use Mrs. King to draw him into a trap." She turned back to Fred. "But how we're going to get to her," she shrugged her shoulders, "I'm not sure."

Leatherneck heard a sound coming from around the corner in the hallway. Having no choice but to go into the staff room with the light bulb, he jerked away from the doorjamb and strode in just as Duffy rounded the corner.. "Oh, hey Fred, June," he smiled and made eye-contact with both of them. "How's it goin'?"

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