Conclusions

Saturday, August 10, 2002

1:40 PM

Billy sighed as he looked at the Metro blueprints sprawled across his
desk. "I was afraid of this," he said. "I was hoping it was just
coincidence, but there has to be a connection here."

"A connection with what?" Lee said.

"In the past few weeks there have been thefts at several chemical
laboratories across the US," Francine said, handing Lee a folder.
"The chemicals by themselves are relatively harmless, but our Agency
scientists tell us that when combined they can form an odorless,
colorless and deadly nerve gas."

"To attack the Metro?" Lee said.

Billy nodded grimly. "The 1995 attack on the Tokyo subway killed
around 12 people," he said. "If they used the ventilation systems and
these secret entrances to spread the gas it could potentially kill
hundreds, maybe even thousands. I'm putting you and Amanda on this-we
really need our best team on the job."

"I'll call Amanda," Lee said.

"You do that," Billy said. "And check up with Augie again-I have a
feeling he might know more than he's telling us."

1:45 PM

Jenna had been up in her room for nearly an hour without even so much
as a peep from her. It was so unlike Jenna that Amanda had just about
made up her mind to go upstairs and talk to her when the phone rang.

"Hello," Amanda said.

"Hey Amanda, it's Julia. How are you all doing? It's been quite a
while."

"It certainly has," Amanda said. "We'll have to get together soon-is
your husband having one of his famous barbeques soon?"

"As long as he promises not to set the backyard on fire," Julia said.
"I still can't get grass to grow on that patch he damaged the last
time. Listen, I just called to see if Jenna's coming to Lisa's pool
party on Monday. We sent out the invitations over a week ago and I'm
just calling everyone who hasn't confirmed yet."

"I'm sorry, Julia," Amanda said, feeling a slight pang of guilt as she
remembered looking at the lavender envelope printed with balloons,
putting it in the miscellaneous category and promptly forgetting about
it. "It's just been a really hectic week-plus Jenna's been grounded."

"That explains why we haven't seen her," Julia said. "Usually she's
over here so often that I think we must have a second child. Will she
be able to make it?"

"I don't know," Amanda said. "It looks like she'll be grounded this
next week too, so I'm just not sure."

"Teenagers, huh? Well I certainly hope she can," Julia said. "You
know Jenna's been here for every birthday since they both were in
diapers."

"I'll see what we can do, Julia," Amanda said. "Maybe I can make an
exception for-wait a minute-you said you haven't seen her? Jenna
didn't come over this afternoon?"

"No," Julia said. "Was she supposed to?"

Amanda's mind was racing, trying to fathom the reasons for Jenna lying
about her whereabouts. "Don't worry about it," she told Julia. "I'll
talk to you later, okay?"

"Okay," Julia said. "I'll put Jenna on the guest-list just in case.
Bye Amanda."

"Goodbye," Amanda said. She had barely hung up the receiver when the
phone rang again.

"Grand Central Station," she said.

"What?" Lee said.

"Just a little joke, the phone never seems to stop ringing sometimes,"
Amanda said. "So what's up?'

"Nothing good," Lee said. "Billy wants us both on this job. How soon
can you be down here?"

"About an hour," Amanda said. "Just give me time to drop Jenna off at
mother's house and I'll be there."

"Can't Jenna stay at home by herself? She's done it before."

"Not this time," Amanda said. "She snuck out. I caught her sneaking
back in and then she lied to me about where she'd been."

"She lied? That doesn't sound like Jenna."

"Well sneaking out doesn't sound like Jenna either. Frankly I don't
know what's going on." A sudden noise made Amanda look up. For a
moment she thought there might have been someone at the top of the
stairs. Had Jenna been listening? She couldn't be sure.

"Amanda?" Lee's voice sounded worried.

"I'm fine, Lee," Amanda said. "I'll see you at the office in an hour."

"And don't worry about Jenna," Lee said. "We'll talk to her together
later on-get this all straightened out. I love you. "

"I love you too," Amanda said. Hanging up the phone she went upstairs.
"Jenna?" she called out. Jenna's bedroom door was closed. Amanda
pushed it open. Her daughter was lying on the bed writing something in
a notebook. At Amanda's entrance she quickly closed the notebook and
pushed it under her pillow.

"You're supposed to knock," she said.

"I'm sorry, sweetheart," Amanda said. "But your father just called and
I need to go into the office. I'll drop you off at Grandma's house on
the way, okay?"

"Can't I stay here?"

Amanda shook her head. "No, after this afternoon you really can't."
She fully expected her daughter to give her another argument; instead
Jenna just sighed.

"Okay. Just let me find my shoes and I'll be down in a minute," she
said. Again Amanda was struck by that feeling that there was
something very wrong here, something she was missing.

"I'll be downstairs," Amanda said. "I love you, Jenna." She was
rewarded by a brief smile.

"Love you too, Mom" Jenna said.

4:30 PM

"I made you some popcorn ," Dotty said, coming into the den with a
large plastic bowl. "And I figured you could use some company too."

"Thanks Grandma," Jenna said. She was curled up in a corner of the
sofa, her knees drawn to her chest and her eyes fixed on what was
happening on the screen. "Where's Captain Curt?"

"Out on his boat," Dotty said with a sigh. "I think he still misses
Florida where the beach was practically in our backyard."

"Do you ever miss Florida?" Jenna asked, taking a handful of popcorn.

"Well it was beautiful-especially in the winter and spring," Dotty
said. "But there's a few things they forget to put in those tourist
brochures."

"Like what?"

"Things like the bugs, the lizards and the crabs," Dotty said. "Do
you know that they have love bugs that fly together when they mate?"

"Really?" Jenna said.

"I'm serious," Dotty said. "One day we drove to Kissimmee and
thousands of them flew into the grill of our car-it looked like
something out of a horror movie. Also I can't begin to tell you what a
shock it was to open my front door one morning and see two crabs
sitting right on my front doorstep-just about scared me to death."

"Well I'm glad you came back," Jenna said. "I missed you."

"I missed you too, sweetheart." Dotty said, looking at the television
screen. "Just what is this we're watching?"

"Some TV movie I think," Jenna said. "This woman married this man but
she didn't know that he was in the Mafia and now his whole family's
hiding in this big house."

"How could she not know?" Dotty said.

"I guess she loved him," Jenna said. "You don't want to question
people you love."

"Well if you marry someone you should at least find out what they do
for a living," Dotty said. Suddenly a helicopter appeared on the
screen, gunmen firing on the people below. She looked over at Jenna,
noticing how hands clenched, her whole body tensing as she watched the
action on the screen.

"Darling maybe you shouldn't be watching this," Dotty said, knowing
Jenna's experiences with real guns.

"I'm fine," Jenna said. Suddenly a dark-haired woman fell to the
ground, a red stain spreading rapidly across the front of her sweater.
Dotty heard her granddaughter's sudden sharp intake of breath.

"Oh my gosh," Jenna said softly. Dotty decided enough was enough.

"Jenna I'm going to change the channel," she said, grabbing and
clicking the remote. "I happen to know there's a nice dance program on
PBS that you might enjoy more."

"That's fine," Jenna said. "I'm really okay, I just, I- didn't
expect that to happen. Everything looked peaceful at first."

"Well if someone gets mixed up with the Mafia I guess that's what
they have to expect," Dotty said.

They both sat there in silence for a few moments, watching a group of
people on the screen dancing to `Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy'.

"Grandma, how would you know?" Jenna suddenly said.

"How would you know what?" Dotty said.

"If someone in your family was like a gangster or in the Mafia or
something. How would you know?"

"How on earth do you expect me to answer a thing like that?"

"Just answer," Jenna said.

"Well if they have relatives called Uncle Sal or Big Tony that's
probably a dead giveaway," Dotty said.

"Grandma I'm serious! How would you know?"

"Jenna I really don't know," Dotty said. "Luckily I don't know anyone
with gangsters in their family-and neither do you."

"No I guess not," Jenna said.

"Is there something you want to tell me?” Dotty asked.

"Well there's this friend of mine," Jenna said. "She's been noticing
her parents doing some really strange things and she told me about it.
And I just thought-"

"That they might be gangsters?" Dotty chuckled. "Honestly-you have an
imagination just like your mother's."


SMK SMK SMK SMK

Across the street from the house a blue van was parked. In the van sat
two men-their eyes trained on the house.

"I say we go in and take her now," the younger man said. "There's just
one old woman, Uncle-she wouldn't be any trouble."

"One old woman, Rudolpho?" Franco said. "I'm just one old man-do you
think that I'd be no trouble? Suppose she's armed? What then?"

"I'm only saying-" Rudolpho began.

"Well I'm saying that we wait," Franco said. "Those plans are vital to
our mission. We wait until the Scarecrow's child is alone, and
unprotected. Then we strike."