"Well, that was fun," said Amanda, dropping onto the couch. "It's been years since I got to make out with a boy at a drive-in."

"Good thing we took the station wagon," smirked Lee. "The Porsche is a bit limited for fooling around in." He dropped onto the couch beside her and pulled her close.

"Tell me about it. I still have a bruise from the stick shift from our last outing," said Amanda.

"Need me to kiss it better?" he asked, eyes twinkling.

"That might get me more in the mood than that film," she answered. "I mean, I'm sure everyone was laughing at that and not at your seduction technique."

"So mean," murmured Lee, nibbling her ear. "You'll be sorry when I don't do that thing-"

Whatever he was about to say was cut off by a sudden knock at the front door.

"Are you expecting anyone?" he asked.

"No," said Amanda. "And it's awfully late for anyone to be calling."

Lee stood up and reached for his jacket, pulling his gun from the inside pocket. He motioned for her to go to the door, then positioned himself behind it. Amanda peered through the curtain.

"It's Francine," she hissed.

"Oh boy," muttered Lee.

The knocking continued. "Amanda? It's Francine. It's safe to open the door."

"Not quite yet it isn't," Amanda said under her breath watching Lee disappear into the living room. With him out of sight, she opened the door.

"Francine? What are you doing here?" Her heart stopped for a moment. "There hasn't been another murder, has there?"

"No, nothing like that," said Francine. "It's just… Well, you said today if there was anything you could do to help, and I don't know that there is anything you can do, but I was in Arlington and well, Lee always seemed to find you useful and I-."

"Francine." Amanda put her hand on her arm and gave it a squeeze. "You sound like me when I'm off on one of my rambling descriptions. How about you come in and calm down and explain why you're here."

Francine nodded and followed her into the den.

"Would you like a coffee or something?" Amanda asked.

"No, I'm fine." Francine lowered herself onto the sofa and gestured for Amanda to sit down. "I honestly don't know why I'm here except that I knew you lived close by and I needed somewhere to calm down and think for a moment. I need to get hold of Billy right away, but I just need a second to think about it."

"Think about what" asked Amanda.

"I went to Lee's grave tonight," Francine began. "Susan from the steno pool called me because she found something odd, and I went to check it out. Apparently, you'd told her to call me if she found anything about Lee's death?" Off Amanda's nod, she went on. "Good suggestion. Anyway, she did call me, and she did find something. Lee's grave is empty."

Amanda blinked. "What do you mean 'empty'?" She tried very hard to sound as if she wasn't already aware Lee wasn't in there.

"It's been dug up and the coffin is empty," Francine explained succinctly.

There was a muffled sound from the living room as if someone else had been just as startled to hear that.

"Are your mother and boys home?" asked Francine quietly.

"No, but-"

Francine was already up and out of her chair, pulling her gun from her purse and creeping towards the living room.

"Francine, don't! It's just-"

Francine had already swept into the living room, gun raised, when a sheepish Lee stepped out into view, hands raised.

"Me," he finished Amanda's sentence.

Fracine went stock-still, gun still pointing at him while she processed his sudden appearance. "You," she said finally.

"Yep," he agreed. "You can put the gun down now."

"Give me a minute while I decide whether I'm going to kill you or not," she answered. "You're already supposed to be dead – no court would convict me."

"Waste of a bullet," he ventured. "And a lot of paperwork."

"Might be worth it though," she shot back. She let her arm drop with a regretful expression. "But I can't shoot you until you tell me exactly what's going on here." She whirled around and stared at Amanda through narrowed eyes, then turned back at Lee. "Seriously? Out of all the people in the Agency you could have confided in, you chose Amanda over me?"

Lee shifted guiltily. "It's not like that, Francine."

"It really isn't," Amanda interrupted. "He needed somewhere to hide out that wasn't connected to the Agency."

"You work at the Agency!" Francine spluttered. "How is that not connected?"

"Because I'm not important," said Amanda. She saw Lee stiffen up ready to refute that, but gave him a look that made him back down.

He turned to Francine to explain. "Billy wanted everyone to think I was dead so that I could investigate secretly while the guy who attacked me thought he was safe."

"I didn't know until he showed up here after the funeral," Amanda explained.

"You just showed up like Banquo's ghost?" Francine said to Lee. She looked at Amanda. "Did you faint?"

"No, she slapped me," Lee admitted.

"Good for her," Francine responded with a sniff. "You deserved it."

Lee stuck his chin out. "Would you like to get it out of your system as well?"

"No," she answered. She put her gun down on the table and walked over to wrap her arms around him. "I'm glad you're not dead. It's been very dull without you."

Lee put his arms around her and hugged her back. "I'm really sorry, Francine. I didn't think it would go on this long. I thought we'd have it all figured out before the funeral."

"The funeral!" Francine stepped back and looked at him. "Your grave!"

"Yeah, what were you telling Amanda?" he asked, leading her back into the den. "Someone's dug it up?"

"Yes. It did cross my mind you have a seriously disturbed fan who'd dug you up and was going to keep your embalmed corpse like Norman Bates' mother, but I assume they just buried an empty coffin?"

"Yeah. Billy told the guy at the cemetery he was putting someone into witness protection and needed to throw some bad guys off the scent," said Lee. "But if they went to the trouble of digging it up, that means whoever attacked me must be suspicious enough to have gone looking."

"Last night at the hotel!" said Amanda. "Last night, when he was attacking me, maybe he heard your voice or maybe I said your name."

"Do I want to know why you were at a hotel?" asked Francine, eyebrow arching.

"Checking out Jean-Claude's room," said Lee tersely, concentrating too hard to rise to the bait. "And I think you're right, Amanda. He didn't see me, but he must have heard something that put him onto us."

"We have to tell Billy," said Francine. "I told Susan to keep quiet for now, until we figured out what was going on, but apparently she has some little club going at work trying to solve your murder."

"They might surprise you," said Amanda. "They're looking at different angles than Mr. Melrose is."

"Who's 'they'?" asked Lee.

"The steno pool girls," Amanda explained.

"Your devoted fan club," added Francine, enjoying watching Lee blush.

Lee looked at his watch. "Okay, it's late – we may as well wait to tell Billy all this in the morning or we're going to be up all night. Can you go in first thing and explain it to him?"

"Yes but —"

Whatever Francine was about to say was cut off by the front door opening suddenly.

"Amanda? It's just us! We had to come home early," called Dotty from the foyer.

Amanada whirled and shook a finger at the two agents. "You are just work friends, over for a drink and a – a – a card game or something. My mother doesn't know anything about any of this!" she hissed.

"A card game?" asked Francine. "What does one play in the suburbs? Canasta?"

"I don't know! You're the agents! Think of something! Poker, Twister, backgammon! I don't care, just pick something! And get rid of that!" She pointed at Francine's gun on the table then turned to walk up the den steps. "Mother! Why did you have to come home?"

Her voice faded away slightly as she peppered her mother with questions and greeted the boys. Behind her, Francine slipped the gun into her coat pocket, then turned to Lee, who had his lips pressed together to keep from laughing, but he gave up as soon as their eyes met.

"Backgammon?" spluttered Francine, trying to keep a straight face. "Did you tell her?"

"Of course, I didn't tell her!" he said. Lee giving way to the laughter.

"And have you played backgammon with the lovely Mrs. King?" asked Francine.

Lee's face turned stern. "Hey, there's no call for that."

"Interesting," smirked Francine. "I notice you didn't deny it."

Dotty walked in to find them in a stare down. "Oh, how lovely, you have friends over."

Amanda scrambled down the stairs after her. "Mother, you remember Lee Stetson from work? And this is another work friend, Francine Desmond."

Fortunately, Dotty picked up on her heavy hint before saying anything that would give the game away to Francine. "Oh yes, of course I remember Lee. He stayed over when he was recovering from that…" She stumbled slightly over her words as she and Amanda simultaneously recalled how many times Lee had recuperated at their house. "That thing," she finished lamely.

"Well, it was a lovely evening, Amanda," said Francine. "I'll just head off home now. And Lee? We'll chat in the morning about that project? I'll call you at home."

"Call him here," said Amanda. "Lee's had a few drinks," she continued smoothly, enjoying Francine's dumbfounded expression. "I'm going to make up the sofa bed for him."

"It practically has his name on it," added Dotty. "You know, with all that recuperation time here."

"The sofa bed?" repeated Francine in disbelief. "My, oh my, how times have changed," she added under her breath, just loud enough for Lee to hear.

"You should be careful driving home too, Miss Desmond" said Dotty. "That storm that drove us out of Williamsburg is on its way here. It took out all the power in our hotel and then chased us home."

"Thank you for a most stimulating evening, Amanda," said Francine. "I can't say I've ever spent one quite like it."

"Come on, I'll walk you to your car," said Lee, putting an end to her teasing.

He and Francine disappeared out the front door, and Dotty turned to Amanda. "I'm so sorry we're back early, Darling. Were you and Lee having a nice time playing house without us underfoot?"

"Oh Mother," sighed Amanda. "I hope you don't say things like that in front of the boys."

"Of course, I don't," said her mother soothingly. "I'm sure the boys still think Lee is just a nice man who likes to hang out here. And if he loves it so much that sometimes he arrives before they even wake up?" she shrugged. "Well, he must be very fond of them and their mother."

"I am, actually," said Lee, coming up behind Amanda and putting his arms around her. "Thank you for not letting on to Francine about us."

"I still think this is all ridiculous," Dotty replied. "But you're adults and I assume you know what you're doing." She stepped forward and gave them each a kiss on the cheek in turn. "And now I'm off to bed, after that harrowing rainy drive. If I were you, I'd wait until the boys are settled down before you make any sleeping arrangements. Once they're asleep, nothing can wake them." She gave a little wink and vanished up the staircase.

"I really love your mother," said Lee, turning Amanda in his arms so that they were face to face.

"She loves you too, But Lee – we have to figure this out. I can't come up with an excuse for you to stay here if Mother and the boys are here too."

"Well, maybe this whole open grave thing will make our guy make a mistake," said Lee. "He must be panicking a little, wondering what's going on."

"I hope so," said Amanda. She moved her hands to his derriere and gave a little squeeze. "It has been fun playing house though."

"Well, how about you and me cuddle up on that sofa bed and look at that Neiman book you brought home?" he asked. "See if we can find a clue or two?"

"Oh my gosh," said Amanda, leaning into him. "Whoever said romance was dead?"

Lee's kiss made it very clear it hadn't been him.