Chapter 4: "Am I Comfortable at Amanda's?"

Lee couldn't sleep. While the bunnies and bears had been good for Philip and Jamie, they didn't have the same effect on him. He felt cold and restless. And scared. He hated to admit it, but this dark and damp garage reminded him of when he was in the catacombs. Don't go there, he silently scolded himself. His beating heart and breathlessness betrayed him. He reached for the flashlight and flipped it on. The tiny beam flickered around the room. Once Lee's eyes had acclimated to the dim light, he got up from the mattresses and made his way over to the light switch by the door.

The darkness vanished immediately, and he felt better. He didn't like the dark. And he especially didn't like cold, dark, damp floors where goodness-knows-what could skulk by. He felt his chest relax as he blew out the breath he was holding.

He spotted the metal Berenstain Bears lunchbox in the laundry basket, along with an assortment of drinks and snacks. Opening the lid, he found that Amanda had made him several turkey sandwiches. She also packed carrot and celery sticks, an orange, and two apples. But the best part was the small Tupperware container of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. When did she have time to bake those? he pondered, biting into a cookie first. The crunch of the outside melted away into the soft gooeyness of the center, and he closed his eyes to savor the sweetness.

Lee perched on the stool and began to eat one of the turkey sandwiches. It really hit the spot. "How does she possibly make a boring turkey sandwich taste so delicious?" he asked aloud.

Amanda was a mystery to him. She was so different. Where he was rough, she was soft. Where he was demanding, she was patient. Where he was adversarial, she was sweet. And there was the root of the problem. Working with someone that sweet just wasn't going to be practical.

Amanda had already been in more than a few precarious situations in the short time that they'd known each other, and every one of them was his fault. He resolved that after this case, he'd talk to Billy about making sure Amanda did only desk work moving forward. He already felt enough guilt about her role in their partnership, and he wanted her out before something else happened. It was bad enough that she had been attacked in the bathroom at the King Edward Hotel the other night. He didn't want to see that look of fear in her eyes ever again.

The storm was slowly moving away, and only a steady, light rain remained. Lee shivered. The garage was cold, and the sweat suit wasn't thick enough to keep him warm. He got up and began to search through the boxes on the shelves, looking for blankets or some more warm clothing.

He lifted a lid off of a box marked "HIGH SCHOOL" and peeked inside. While he knew what he was searching for wouldn't be in the box, his curiosity made him look. Inside were photos, an old cheerleading uniform and pom-poms, and a yearbook. Arlington High School, Class of 1968. He flipped through the pages until he found her:

Amanda West

Cheerleading 9-12, Captain 12

Art Club 9-12, President 12

Drama Club 10-12

National Honor Society 11-12

Swim Team 9-12

Yearbook Committee 12

Lee nodded his head in appreciation. Not a bad list of activities. He looked at the young face of the beautiful girl in the photo above her name. He smiled slightly, then turned the pages to find more photos of her doing activities and events during her senior year. Who woulda thought that Amanda had been cool in high school, let alone popular?

Scribbled on almost all of the pages were heartfelt messages from friends who were most likely forgotten. RMA. LYLAS. NEC. "What the hell? Even crypto would have trouble deciphering some of these acronyms," he chuckled.

One message caught his eye because of the painstakingly neat handwriting. "Dear Amanda," Lee read out loud. "To the prettiest girl in school. Thank you for rescuing me from the Chem Lab. Don't ever change. - Connie B."

Lee flipped the pages back to see what Connie B. looked like, but there was no photo - only a message that said he had been absent on Picture Day. Lee returned the yearbook and put the lid back on the high school box and opened another.

He was not expecting to find a photo album, a veil, and a dried bouquet of flowers inside the box. Again, curiosity won out, and he pulled the photo album free. On the first page was an invitation that read:

Carl and Dorothea West cordially invite you to the wedding of their daughter

Amanda West

to

Joseph King

2:00 pm on Saturday, July 22, 1972

Arlington Presbyterian Church

Reception to follow at the Arlington Country Club.

The first photo was Amanda in her wedding dress, happily smiling at the camera. Lee thought she looked absolutely stunning in her simple white satin gown with a lace bodice. Her hair was straighter then, with the lacy veil floating down her back and held by a satin crown.

He turned several pages until he came to a photo of Joe and Amanda. "So, this is Joe," mused Lee. He assessed his partner's ex-husband with scrutiny. He was short, even shorter than Amanda, with a shock of long wavy brown hair and blue eyes. They both looked happy. "What happened, Joe? How could you leave Amanda… and your sons?" He closed the album, shoved it back in the box and pushed the box back into place on the shelf.

After looking through boxes of old toys, baby clothing, and all sorts of household junk, he came across two blankets. He promptly shook them to clear the dust, pushed the toddler mattresses together again and settled down on them, pulling the blankets tightly around himself. Finally drifting off to sleep, his final thought was, Why is Amanda storing toddler mattresses, old toys, and baby clothes?

TBC