Lee leaned against the corner of Billy's desk, stretching out his legs as he leafed through the file he'd just been handed. He bristled a little when he read that the person he would be protecting was only eight years old, a child of a diplomat attending a local elementary school. He began trying to form a coherent argument, a protest that one of the other agents, someone who had kids of their own, would be a better fit for this assignment.
"Before you squawk, Stetson, I want you on this case. The people behind these threats against Kiersted's son, they're not fooling around." Billy leaned back in his chair, looking directly at Lee as though he dared him to argue back.
Lee took a shot at it anyway, even though he knew Billy wouldn't back down. "Come on, what about Greeley? He's got a son of his own and he's a good agent. He'll be able to relate to the kid better than I can."
"Greeley doesn't have the kind of field experience that you do. You won't need to relate to the kid, Scarecrow, you just need to get in there and figure out what's going on."
"What makes you think the threat is coming from inside the school?"
"You haven't the whole report, have you?" Billy got up and circled around his desk, taking the file from Lee. He shuffled through a few papers before he pulled one out from near the bottom of the stack, then handed it back.
Lee scanned it, realization dawning on him as he read. "Whoever's behind these letters, they know every move the kid makes while he's at school, games he played on the playground, even questions he answered in class that day. There's too much inside information here. Random surveillance might get them some of this, but nothing this complete. It's a good bet that it's someone on the inside. Haven't we run background checks on the employees?"
"Yeah, and we've come up with nothing." Billy shook his head, the frustration plain on his face. "We'd pull the kid out of school, but then the threat would still be there and we'd lose our only lead."
"Agreed. These letters point clearly to someone at the school. Pull him out, there goes our advantage."
"That's why we need someone on the inside. I need someone who can investigate and protect this kid until we can find the people responsible."
Lee clenched his jaw. He really didn't want to agree, but now that he was a little deeper into the background of the case, he could feel himself being pulled in.
"How am I going in? What's my cover?"
"That has yet to be determined. That's why you're here. I have a subject matter expert coming in to consult with us on the best scenario for you."
"Subject matter expert? Who—" Lee saw Amanda through the blinds covering the office window and he abruptly stopped talking, glaring at Billy instead. "C'mon, these guys mean business. You can't expect me to take Amanda in there. Between keeping her out of trouble and protecting the kid, I wouldn't have time for anything else."
Billy gestured to Amanda through the window, putting one finger up and silently asking her to wait there for a minute. "I never said anything about her going on the assignment with you. She's just here to give us some inside knowledge. Who else around here has the kind of hands-on experience she does?"
"I guess you're right. But remember, I want to go in there alone."
Billy put his hands up in symbolic surrender. "You got it. She's on this one on a consult-only basis." He went to his door and opened it, allowing Amanda in.
"Good morning, sir. Good morning, Lee." Amanda was her usual, cheerful self, which always made Lee feel just a little tired.
"Good morning, Amanda." Billy gestured to the seat directly in front of his desk and she sat down, looking excited at the prospect of being given a new assignment. "We have a case we need your help with. Now, we won't need you in the field this time, but we do need you to work with us and help us construct the scenario."
Lee tried to ignore the disappointed look on her face, feeling completely secure in his determination that it was best for him to go in alone.
"Who will we be constructing the scenario for, sir? And why would you need my help with it?"
"I need to go undercover at an elementary school. Billy thought your...unique background would help me get my cover story airtight."
"I see." She had her lips tightly pressed together and it was obvious she was trying to hide her amusement. "What kind of cover were you thinking of using?"
Billy and Lee looked at each other. They hadn't discussed any possible scenarios before Amanda arrived.
"Well, posing as a school employee seems to be the obvious choice. Janitor, maintenance, something like that. I'd have full access to the building that way."
"That would take up a lot of your time. School janitors and maintenance men are busy people. There's always a mess somewhere, or something that needs to be fixed. Keeping up your cover would be tough and I don't know how much time it would give you to investigate."
Something about her tone annoyed him. He still hated that Billy seemed to be trying to make him reliant on her, shoving them together at every opportunity. And worse, whatever she was about to say next, she was probably right. That would just give Billy another excuse to continue pushing her on him.
"So what is your better idea?" Lee didn't bother hiding his annoyance, as he wanted his stance on this issue to be clear.
Amanda looked slightly rattled for just a split second, then she seemed to compose herself before she began to talk. "Well, a member of the PTA can go just about anywhere in the school without anyone really saying anything."
Lee shook his head, feeling a little glee at being able to poke holes in her expert plan. "That won't work. A member of the PTA would have a kid at the school. We can't fake that."
"You're right," Amanda admitted. "I still think you'd be too busy as a school employee, though." She bit her lip, obviously deep in thought. "Do you have any information about the school?"
Billy looked through the file and pulled out a few sheets of brightly-colored paper, stapled together at the top. "Here's the school newsletter, Amanda. I don't know how much good it will do us, though."
Amanda took it from him and started reading, flipping through it quickly as though she already knew what she was looking for. "There it is, the PTA column." She was talking mostly to herself, but Lee moved over to her and read over her shoulder. "Aha!" She looked up at Lee triumphantly, pointing to something in the newsletter.
"Aha what?" Lee had serious doubts she'd found something useful so quickly.
"It's a list of the PTA board. There's an open seat. ESL Liaison." She waited, apparently assuming that what she had said made any sense to them at all. "This school must have an ESL program. English as a Second Language. There's an open board seat for a liaison to the program. If Lee went undercover as a parent at the school, especially as a parent of a child in the ESL program, he could volunteer for the open board position. No one would question him being around the school after that."
"That wouldn't be enough to give me open access to the building." Lee tried to shoot her idea down as quickly as he could. Working undercover at a school would be bad enough. The last thing he needed was to be hip deep in busybody parents, pretending to be one of them.
"Oh, you'd be surprised. Before I started working here, I was at the school all the time. Everyone gets so used to seeing PTA parents around that no one will question you. They'll just assume you're working on a project or getting ready for an event."
"There's still one problem. I can't take a kid undercover with me." Lee smirked at her. He knew it was childish, but he didn't care.
"You probably wouldn't have to. The parents on the board aren't likely to have kids in the ESL program, especially since the liaison seat isn't filled. When I do things with the PTA, Phillip and Jamie are almost never with me. They wouldn't expect to meet your son or daughter unless they were in the same class with their child or something like that."
Lee hated to admit that her idea was a good one, but the mission was far more important than petty one-upmanship. "You may have a point there. I guess I adopted a child from another country or something like that? To explain why he's in the ESL program?"
Amanda nodded, looking more excited now that the details were being filled in. "Yeah, that sounds right to me." She narrowed her eyes at him. "So you have a son, do you?"
"Just for the duration of the case." He could tell she wanted to laugh, so he kept his answer short and then looked away.
Billy clapped his hands together. "Good. Very good, people. I like the way this is coming together. Why don't the two of you sit down and fill in the rest of the details. Amanda, can you stay until Lee is clear on everything he'll need to know? We need to get him in there as soon as possible."
"Yes, sir." She stood up, looking at Lee until he realized she was waiting for him to lead her out to someplace where they could work.
He tried to envision the rest of his afternoon, sitting at a desk and talking to Amanda about everything he never wanted to know about the PTA. He suddenly wasn't in a very good mood.
---
Two days later
Bent Maple Elementary School
Lee shifted uncomfortably in his seat as he waited inside the Principal's office. This felt a little too much like the times he had gotten in trouble when he was in school and then found himself sitting in an office just like this one, waiting for the Colonel to come in. Before he could reminisce too much, Principal Dutton returned, closing the door carefully behind her before she began to speak.
"Mr. Stetson, thank you so much for coming. Ever since we first heard about the threats against the Kiersted family, we've all been on pins and needles. I just wish they had let us know sooner." She paused at the corner of her desk, then sat there and leaned in closer to him. "Are you absolutely certain the threats are coming from someone here at the school?" She whispered so quietly that Lee had trouble hearing her and it made him wonder if she was imagining someone listening with their ear to the door.
"I'm sorry, I know it must be hard for you to imagine. There's a lot of inside information in those threats. Do you think anyone outside the school could possibly know that much detail?"
"Well, one of our parents might, but only if they were very involved here at the school."
"That's why I need to be here as much as I can. I'll need access to find the people behind this, Mrs. Dutton."
"Ms." She gave him a significant look as she corrected him, looking quite obviously at her ringless left hand.
"Ms. Dutton." Lee put on a fake smile, suddenly feeling the room getting smaller. "Were you able to arrange anything for me, the cover we discussed with you?"
"I have the PTA President coming in this morning. Becky Wills. I told her you're a new parent, that your adopted son is joining our ESL program, and that you'd like to be involved with the school."
He had a feeling he was going to be hearing that phrase a lot, 'involved with the school'. He could swear he'd heard Amanda use it, too. Something about it reminded him exactly how far out of his element he was.
"Have you arranged things with the ESL teacher?"
"He's been told what we were asked to tell him. If necessary, he will confirm that there is a new, German-speaking student in his class. Geoffrey Stetson is in our computers, his attendance will be reported, and there will be grades in the book for him."
"Good, thank you." Lee was about to ask for more details when he was interrupted by a knock at the door.
"Mrs. Wills is here to see you, Ms. Dutton." The mousy front office secretary was visible only for a moment before she was obscured by a woman with a curly mass of blond hair leaning into the office in front of her.
"Elise, how are you?" She came into the office balancing her large purse on one shoulder and a toddler on her other hip, smiling brightly as the door shut behind her. "I really need to get started on setup, but I got your message that you needed to see me. I hope you didn't call me down here because of a problem with the cafeteria manager. I swear we've obeyed every rule that woman laid out for us when we asked about using that back corner for the book fair but she keeps coming up with new ones."
Lee smiled a little despite himself, as this woman had just done a fair impression of Amanda's conversational style. He wondered if there was something about parenthood or school volunteer work that made a person talk like that.
"Actually, I asked you here to introduce you to Lee Stetson. He's just adopted a son who is now attending our school. He spoke with me yesterday about being more involved with the school, and I have a great idea for that."
There was that dreaded phrase again. He didn't know why it grated on him so much, but he felt like he'd heard it at least a hundred times already.
"It's nice to meet you, Mr. Stetson." Becky Wills shifted her child further up on her hip and offered her hand to Lee.
"Lee." Lee took her hand, surprised at the firmness of her handshake.
"Then you should call me Becky. Who is your son's teacher?"
"He's in the ESL class. He only spoke German when my wife and I started the adoption process earlier in the year. He's learning quickly, but he's not ready for a regular classroom yet."
Becky turned to Principal Dutton, giving her a sly, 'I see what you're doing' look. "You want me to rope this poor guy into taking the ESL liaison slot on the PTA board, don't you?" She left no time for a response before she whirled around and addressed Lee directly. "I hope you know what you'll be in for. We take requests to help out around here pretty seriously."
"We have a very active PTA." Principal Dutton nodded as she spoke and Lee sensed a subtle power struggle between the two women. Nothing either of them would probably admit to, but something he should be aware of.
"About that, I should be down the hall being active in the lunchroom right now." Becky struggled to look at her watch around her son's head as she spoke. "Most of the board will be there, I'll run this by them while we set up."
"I'd love to help out if you need another pair of hands." Lee saw the strap for her purse about to slip off her shoulder and he reached out and caught it at the last minute.
"Obviously, I can use as many pairs of hands as I can get. Come on, follow me before you change your mind." Becky led him out so quickly that he could only throw a weak wave toward Principal Dutton before they were out of the room.
"So, we're setting up books?" Lee was trying to make conversation, but even he could hear how lame his attempt was.
"You didn't have any children before you adopted, did you?" Becky stopped abruptly in the hallway and gave Lee a long look of appraisal, one that left him feeling like he didn't quite measure up.
"No, and I'll be honest with you. I'm kind of in over my head here."
"Well, I can see that." She hoisted her child further up on her hip again. "You poor man, even little Stevie here can see that. I have a secret for you, Lee. We're all kind of in over our heads, we just pretend like we're not." She tweaked Stevie's nose and he giggled.
"He's a cute little guy." Lee had a feeling he was supposed to say that.
"Thanks. He is, when he's not being an absolute nightmare." She turned and started walking again, leaving Lee gaping after her. He stumbled over his own feet and then caught up. "Listen, you're going to overhear some stuff. I'm going to get you on the board, because we need as many involved parents as we can get. Some of these ladies, though, they'd love it if it was a board of one and they were the one."
"Not everyone will be thrilled to see me coming."
"Not everyone has the sense God gave a goose. My grandmother used to say that. Every day it seems a little more true." Stevie started to drool a little and Becky mopped it up with the towel she had slung over her shoulder, never missing a single step as they traveled toward the lunch room.
"So, we're setting up for the book fair today?" He needed to get an idea what they'd be up to. He was content to use today only as an opportunity to establish his cover, but if he could figure out a way to do some investigating, that would be better.
"No, today I'm sure we'll be arguing about how to set up the book fair. We won't agree on how to arrange the tables or where the displays should go and everyone will be trying to duck taking responsibility for the cash box."
"So when will—"
"Two or three of us will finish setting the thing up in a panic, five minutes before we're supposed to open the doors tomorrow."
He decided now was a good time to turn on the charm, really gain this woman's trust. "You let me know when that is, I'll be there and I promise I won't argue with you."
"I think you'd better pinch me, because now I know you're too good to be true." She tried to look at her watch again, contorting her arm and craning her neck around Stevie.
"It's 10:05."
Becky sighed. "No matter what I do, I'm always five minutes late. Let's go, no time to waste."
They rushed the rest of the way to the lunchroom and Lee felt a dozen pairs of eyes on him after they burst through the doors. Before they could make it all the way across the room, two women descended on Becky, both of them trying to talk over the other until Becky silenced them by waving her free hand.
"Suzanne first, then Emily." Becky pointed at each of them as she said their names. "I'll hear you both out before I say anything, you know I will."
"Oh, I'm so glad you're here, Becks." Lee noticed Becky shudder at the nickname, but Suzanne was too busy staring daggers at Emily to pick up on it. Suzanne brushed at her perfectly arranged red hair before she continued. "Some of us have proposed mixing the fiction and non-fiction together. I'm sure you can see how confusing that would be." She straightened her skirt, her hands smoothing out imaginary wrinkles. She looked more like she had dressed to go to a five star restaurant instead of to an elementary school.
"I'm sure it would seem more orderly to someone who has never actually worked a book fair before to arrange books by type, but clearly it's easier to direct each child to a large number of books at their reading level instead of having to show them several different places to look." From outward appearances, Emily was Suzanne's polar opposite. She was dressed in a school logo t-shirt and jeans, her brown hair somewhat captured at the nape of her neck in a messy ponytail.
"Yes dear, that's why professional bookstores are arranged by reading level instead of by topic." Suzanne's plastered on smile did nothing to hide the contempt beneath. "Oh, wait. They are arranged by topic."
Becky took a deep breath and squared her shoulders. "Suzanne, I agree that it seems more intuitive to do a categorical grouping as you're suggesting." Suzanne beamed in triumph, but Lee had a feeling she was celebrating prematurely. "Unfortunately, we've tried that in years past and it's resulted in a lot of kids having trouble finding all the books that are right for them. When we reorganized by reading level two years ago, our volunteers had an easier time directing the kids and sales went up, too."
Emily looked relieved. "I thought that was the reasoning for the change, but I wanted to check with you first. That's why we haven't moved the displays into place yet. I'll go back over and get a few of us started on that now."
Suzanne continued to stand there, staring daggers at Emily's back as she headed back toward the displays. Lee was just starting to wonder if he should somehow break the silence when Becky put on a display of world-class diplomacy skills.
"I can't tell you how valuable it is to the Tigers PTA to have someone as impassioned as you are on the board this year, Suzanne. If we didn't have sales figures to back up our current book organization plan, I would certainly have been swayed by your argument. In fact, I was thinking that you would be the perfect person to take care of the table of other merchandise we keep near the registers."
"Other merchandise?" Suzanne looked intrigued.
"You know, pencils, pens, novelty erasers, those kinds of things? We don't have any pre-existing wisdom for the best way to arrange those. It's very important, our profit margin on those items is quite substantial. It would really help me out if I could just hand that over to you."
"I'd be happy to." Suzanne looked as though her ego had more than recovered with this new responsibility she'd been given. "Consider it done." Suzanne looked pointedly over Becky's shoulder, directly at Lee, then back to Becky, clearly looking for an introduction.
"This is Lee Stetson." Becky took a half step to the side, making Lee feel oddly exposed. "His son is new to the school, in the ESL program."
"Nice to meet you." Lee offered his hand to Suzanne, who looked him over slowly before she shook it.
"You don't seem like someone whose child would need ESL." Suzanne regarded him suspiciously, giving him a harder look than the last KGB agent he'd had to bluff.
"We adopted. His parents worked closely with our government, both at the American embassy in West Germany, but also here in DC, at their embassy. They were close friends of ours. Unfortunately, we lost them about a year ago. Plane crash."
"I'm so sorry to hear that." Suzanne sounded like she was trying to sound sympathetic, but it didn't sound very heartfelt.
"How did you know them?" Suzanne seemed happy to continue grilling him as long as he provided answers. It was fine with Lee, as he was pretty sure Suzanne would take care of spreading his cover story to the entire school.
"My wife works at the State Department. She's known them since before I met her. She spent a few years at the American embassy over there." He put a sober look on his face. "She was so excited to have them here long term. They were here for less than three months before the crash."
Becky looked troubled, pulling Stevie closer to her. "That's really awful, Lee. I'm so sorry." It was clear that Becky's look of sympathy, unlike Suzanne's, wasn't faked at all.
"Thank you. It's still painful, but we've all had some time to adjust. Lots of red tape with the adoption, citizenship issues, you name it." Lee decided it was time to change the subject, especially since he'd just given out most of his cover story and he hadn't even been at the school for an hour yet. "But that's enough about me. I'd really like to get started helping out around here."
"You can help me, if you'd like." Lee glanced at Suzanne's hand as she spoke, suddenly noticing that she also wasn't wearing a wedding ring.
"I'm sorry, I think I'm going to need Lee's help moving the heavier stuff around. See if Michelle wouldn't mind helping you, okay?" Becky waited until Suzanne curtly said goodbye and walked away, then she gave Lee a wry smile. "She and Michelle are thick as thieves, so they'll work well together. It'll also put Suzanne and Emily on opposite sides of the room for the rest of the day."
"Now what?" Lee rubbed his hands together, trying to look excited about the prospect of spending the next few hours lugging boxes around.
"Now, we casually introduce you around until someone else offers up the brilliant idea of making you the ESL Liaison. Can't be me, that would fuel the rumors that I'm power hungry." Becky re-adjusted Stevie, who was now dead weight on her arm, sleeping peacefully with his head laid down on her shoulder.
"Whatever you say." Lee put up his hands in mock surrender, then followed Becky onto the field of battle.
---
Several hours later he was back at the Agency, taking his I.D. from Mrs. Marston and rubbing the back of his neck. Ducking his head to get into the elevator sent a shock of pain down his back and he winced. All he wanted to do was get home and pour just enough Scotch over some ice to help his body untangle, but Billy was expecting a report from him before the end of the day.
He stalked across the bullpen and peeked inside Billy's office, removing his hand from the doorknob when he saw Francine inside. The last thing he needed was Francine teasing him about this plum assignment he'd pulled. He turned around to spend a few minutes stalling at his desk and was surprised to see Amanda coming in behind him.
"Hello, Lee." Amanda's eyes were sparkling and her mood was even perkier than usual.
"What brings you around?" He continued to walk toward his desk, Amanda trailing behind him with a dreamy look on her face.
She waited until he sat down, then she pulled a nearby chair closer and sat down herself. "Courier assignment." Her whisper was over-exaggerated, as though national security depended on no one else in the Agency finding out about it.
"You're working on your own?" He wasn't sure it was a good idea to send Amanda out solo.
"Well, just this once. The original courier was too sick to go so Mr. Melrose called me in at the last minute. And Lee, you're just not going to believe it." She paused, as though she was actually waiting for him to guess. When he didn't, she continued, though her enthusiasm showed no signs of being affected by his lack of participation. "Everything went exactly right, just like it was supposed to. I used the code phrase, I got the package, and brought it back here."
"I'm very happy to hear that." He leaned back in his chair, a little surprised that he wasn't really lying. One of her assignments had to go smoothly someday, didn't it? Maybe that would get her more courier work, get Billy off his back trying to put them together all the time. Well, they could still work together from time to time, but on Lee's terms, not on Agency orders.
"How about you? Are you all set up on your assignment yet?"
"Just went in today." He stopped there, unsure how much he wanted to share with her.
She looked at him expectantly. "And?"
He looked down, weighing his impulse to keep the details to himself against his desire to share the crazy things he'd seen with someone who would understand. "I haven't seen politics this complicated since the last Middle East peace talks."
Amanda laughed. "I probably should have warned you."
"Yes, you should. I can't believe you let me walk into that hornet's nest without telling me what I was in for."
"You'll be fine. You're a professional." She reached behind her and grabbed her purse from where she'd slung it over the back of the chair. "Listen, I should go. If I stay here, I'll ask you a bunch of nosy questions about your case and you'll have to tell me it's need to know. Besides, if I hurry, I can still surprise the boys with a ride home from school."
"Yeah, you should get going then." He watched her get up, but couldn't quite let her go without saying something else to her. "Hey, congratulations. Sounds like you did a great job today."
She blushed and looked down, then seemed to remember the papers she held in her hand. "Oh, were you going to see Mr. Melrose?" When Lee nodded, she held the file out to him. "Could you give this to him when you see him, please?"
"Sure, no problem."
"Thanks." She got two steps away before she turned back. "Lee? You'll be careful out there, won't you?"
"Yes, I promise I'm being careful, even though I've been sent into the dangerous wilds of an elementary school."
"Okay." She looked very self-conscious and he suddenly felt a little bad for teasing her. "I'll talk to you soon."
She was gone before he could think of anything else to say, but he continued to stare after her for reasons he couldn't quite put his finger on.
"Now, were the two of you exchanging recipes for the next bake sale? I hear this is the season for school fundraisers." Lee closed his eyes, recognizing Francine's taunting voice right away.
"Very funny." He let Francine's laughter die away before he went in for a jab of his own. "I was actually taking Amanda's report after her successful courier assignment this morning, since you were in there monopolizing Billy's time. How long has it been since you've been out in the field? Couple of weeks at least?"
"Yes, that's right. It's okay, though. Not all of us are lucky enough to get low-level courier assignments or orders to infiltrate the PTA."
Lee grimaced and stood up, knowing when he'd been beaten. He should know better than to try to go toe-to-toe with Francine's sarcasm. "I'll be in Billy's office if you think up another good one, Francine."
Lee got up and walked across the bullpen without straining his aching back too much, then barely waited for Billy to acknowledge his knock before he went in.
"Scarecrow, good. I was hoping to get an update from you this afternoon."
"Yeah, but first, before I forget...here's Amanda's report from her courier assignment." He dropped the file onto the desk. "She didn't want to interrupt you and Francine, but she needed to leave."
Billy smiled and slid the file to the corner of his desk, staying infuriatingly quiet. Lee was waiting for an opening to ask about Amanda working on her own, but Billy wasn't giving him anything.
"What did you find out at the school today?"
"I'll get to that. First, I have to ask you about this whole thing." He pointed to the file with Amanda's report in it. "Do you really think she's ready to get sent out there on her own?"
"She wasn't alone, I had Schiller out there with eyes on the drop." Billy put both palms down on his desk and leaned forward. "Now, if you're done second guessing the assignments I give out, can you get back to telling me about yours?"
He reluctantly switched gears and started in on his own report. "I don't have a lot to go on, not yet. Spent the morning establishing my cover, but I did get a little time to recon the layout of the school. Oh, and there's a visitor log at the desk at the front office that I got a few pictures of, I'll drop the film off after I leave here. The log only went back to the beginning of last month, but if the person behind those threats isn't an employee, we might find a correlation there."
"Your cover, is everyone buying it?"
"No one seems suspicious. I mostly got a lot of advice about parenting and a few divorcees asking some leading questions about how happy my marriage is. And Amanda was right, if you're there helping out with the PTA, no one looks twice at you. We even borrowed the janitor's keys to open up a storage closet and he didn't hesitate to hand them over to us."
"Good, I'm glad we took her advice on this one." Billy smirked at him, looking so self-satisfied that Lee decided to take another run at him over this whole courier business.
"You really put Schiller out there covering the drop? Schiller, who can't keep his head in the game on a stakeout?"
Billy rolled his eyes. "That was four years ago, and for the last time, he thought the backup team had you covered when he left his post."
"What if he made a mistake like that with Amanda, huh? You keep sending her out there with lightweights like him and she's gonna end up in over her head, and fast."
"You'd rather I only assign her to you?" Billy's smirk grew wider.
"You know what I'm talking about." Lee wasn't sure that was true, mostly because he wasn't sure what he was talking about anymore or how this had come back around to him.
"Actually, I have a shortage of dependable couriers right now. I was thinking about calling her in later in the week for another drop." Billy was suddenly looking at his desk instead of making eye contact with Lee, as though he knew Lee would be against the idea.
"Come on. You've gotta be kidding me."
"She did good work out there today and I need all the reliable people I can get. Give me one good reason why I shouldn't use her."
"This is Amanda we're talking about. She's not going to be content to just pick up packages and stick to the game plan. She did that today, sure, but what about next time, if she sees something she thinks is a clue? She'll go off on her own like she always does. Somebody like Schiller doesn't know her well enough to see it coming."
"You don't see it coming most of the time either." Billy leaned back in his chair, his arms folded behind his head. He was obviously enjoying himself.
"My point exactly. I end up in the lurch half the time and that's when I'm expecting her to find a way to get into trouble. You send her out there with someone who doesn't know how to watch her back, it's going to be a disaster."
Billy's brow furrowed, the first sign of anything out of him other than amusement. "You may have a point there. It's such a shame, though. She really did a great job today."
Lee thought back to the elated look on Amanda's face when he spoke to her earlier and he almost felt bad, getting her grounded like this. He was the one who got her into the business, though, and he would feel responsible if something happened to her.
"I may have something you can give her to keep her occupied." Lee shut his eyes for a minute. He couldn't believe what he was about to say, especially after he had been so set on working this one on his own. "I had to field a lot of questions about Mrs. Stetson today. I might need someone to make an appearance to shore up my cover. Strictly window dressing, so Amanda would work just fine for that."
"If you need her to back up your cover, go ahead. You want me to call her in and run it by her?"
"No reason for her to come all the way down here. I'll drop by her place later and talk to her about it."
"Is that all you need for now?"
"Yeah. When I've got more, I'll get it to you. Since you're so fond of using Amanda as a courier, maybe I'll have her bring it to you."
"Never mind how, just get back to me when you can bring me a lead."
"You got it."
---
Lee waited in the shadows of Amanda's backyard, eavesdropping on Amanda and her mother via the open window over the sink. He wished he could have called instead, but that seemed to draw too much attention to Amanda's association with the Agency. Specifically, attention from Amanda's mother, who never seemed to shy away from speculating on what was going on in her daughter's life. She currently had Amanda cornered, doing a pretty good approximation of a hard interrogation. A mysterious phone call would only have added fuel to the fire.
"Will you be able to get the boys to their soccer practice tomorrow, or should I have them walk over to Jameson's house to see if his parents can give them a ride?" Dotty sounded like she was bustling around the kitchen as she talked, her words punctuated with noises from the cabinets and drawers opening and closing.
"I'm not sure, Mother. At the moment I can, but you never know when I'll get called into work at the last minute." Amanda was doing a pretty good job of hiding it, but Lee could still hear shades of her earlier excitement in her voice.
"I don't know when you're going to finally put your foot down and force that company to set a sane schedule they can give you in advance. Honestly, it's like they have no idea what they need to shoot and when until the very last minute. It sounds like very poor planning to me."
"I'll tell you what. I'll call Jameson's mother tomorrow morning because I need to talk to her about the basket auction anyway. I'll ask her about the boys riding with them, too. If I'm not here at 2:30 tomorrow for whatever reason, you can just send the boys over to her."
"You know I'm happy to help." On its face, it sounded like a resolution to the discussion, but there was nothing final about the tone of Dotty's voice. It sounded like she was working up to something and Lee found himself strangely interested in how Amanda would handle it.
"Yes, and thank you, Mother. Other than the schedule, this is a really good job. I don't think I could hold onto it if I didn't have so much of your help."
"The very last thing in the world that I want to do is pry." Lee almost made an audible choking noise when he heard Amanda's mother say this, as prying into Amanda's life seemed to be her chief pastime.
"I know." Lee could hear tension creeping into Amanda's voice. "It's one of the things I love most about you, how well you balance letting me know you're concerned about me with giving me space to work these things out on my own."
"Such a poorly organized business, making you work all hours of the day and night at such short notice, sending you into goodness knows what kinds of places where you come home with your clothes stained or ripped to pieces. I just want you to think about if it's really worth it."
"I know it must seem unpleasant from the outside, but it really is very rewarding." The dreamy quality had come back into Amanda's voice full force, reminding him of their conversation earlier.
"Only you can decide what you're willing to put up with, sweetheart. They'll treat you exactly as well as you demand to be treated."
"That's very good advice, Mother. I'm going to think about that. I really will."
Lee smiled to himself as he listened to the artful way Amanda deflected her mother. He didn't know how she put up with it. He couldn't imagine having to answer to someone else every time he had to leave the house, but somehow, Amanda managed it.
"I guess I'll go to bed, then. Unless you want to talk over anything, that is, or if you have anything you need to tell me."
"Nothing I can think of, Mother, except thank you for all the help and good night."
Even Lee could read the tension in the long silence after Amanda stopped speaking and before her mother said goodnight and left the kitchen. He waited a few minutes, listening carefully until he was sure Amanda was alone. Then he slipped over to door and knocked twice, quietly. He didn't have to wait long before she came out to join him.
"Hello." She carried a kitchen towel, which she was using to dry her hands. "I hope you weren't waiting out here long. I know how busy you usually are the start of a new case."
"That's kind of why I'm here. I was going over my cover with Billy earlier and I think I could use your help."
"Need more inside information about the PTA?"
"No, I think I might need a little help from you to get my cover airtight before I really have to put it to the test. I got a lot of questions about my wife today. Is it really that strange for a husband to volunteer without the wife also putting in a lot of time?"
"Most of the PTA dads I know are single dads. The rest, their wives drag them along to the meetings and events. So yes, I guess you might seem a little strange to them."
"My cover story is that I'm on a sabbatical from work after the adoption and my wife's still working full time for the State Department. I was hoping that would deflect most of the questions about where my wife is."
"They're being pretty nosy, huh?"
"Yeah, and I'm about to have to take some chances, use that 'in' I've got with the PTA to break off and do some investigating. I was hoping to blend in a little more. Kind of hard to do that when they're all looking at me like I'm in the zoo."
"What you need is a Mrs. Stetson."
"And who better to help me infiltrate the PTA than you?"
"I'd be happy to." She threw the towel over her shoulder, her eyes shining in the moonlight. "When do you need me?"
"I'm helping with the book fair tomorrow and the next day. They were after me to get Mrs. Stetson to come by and take a shift on one of those days, too. Think you could handle that?"
"Working a school book fair? That's got to be the easiest assignment you've ever given me." She laughed a little, but then seemed to remember something. "Mr. Melrose said he might need me again later in the week. Do you think this would interfere with that?"
Lee cleared his throat. He had to sidestep the question because he knew she wouldn't be getting that call from Billy. "I just need you there long enough to help me establish the cover, get them off my back with this whole 'wife' thing."
"Who am I supposed to be? Other than your wife."
"State Department official, working with the West German government. Our adopted son's parents were close friends of yours, attachés to the West German embassy. They were recently killed in a plane crash."
He looked at Amanda, not really surprised to see her reacting to the news as though it had actually happened to her.
"That's really very sad."
"Yes, which is why it's a good thing that it's not true." He watched her recompose herself.
"Am I supposed to be able to speak German?"
"Yeah, I chose German because I'm nearly fluent, but that was before I had to bring you in on the case. Just deflect anyone who asks you about that, change the subject, talk about how everyone you work with never lets you practice your German, whatever you can think of."
"Right." She looked worried, so he made a mental note to watch out for someone cornering her about this little detail.
"What's more important is to really sell the whole State Department angle. You've been with me when I've had to meet with some of those guys, right? You need to find something boring to wear, preferably dark blue or black. You'd be a stickler for the rules, no sense of humor, you know the type."
"I sound like a lot of fun." Amanda suddenly didn't seem very excited about her part in the case.
"You won't need to do it for long, just for a few hours. Then you can go right back to being Amanda King. So will you do it?"
"Sure, no problem."
He played with the wedding band he was still sporting on his left hand and realized he should have grabbed something for her before he left the Agency. "Do you have anything that can pass as a wedding ring?"
"Yeah, I still have my—" Amanda looked down at her hand, then looked back at Lee. "I have something that will work."
"Great, how about eleven o'clock tomorrow?" He gave her the address for the school and started to fill her in on how to check in, but Amanda cut him off.
"Don't worry, I know my way around a school."
"Just make sure you look like you don't. You're supposed to be the career woman who doesn't have time for this stuff, remember?"
"So I have an important government job and I don't know the first thing about volunteering at school."
"That's right."
"And you're a dad who's spending two days at a school book fair with the PTA." She waited for a moment, looking like she was about to start laughing. "Have you ever seen the movie Freaky Friday? It sounds like the two of us got switched around."
"Yeah, I guess we did." He looked down at the ground, letting the irony wash over him for a minute. "I really appreciate this, Amanda. Once you help me sell the cover, then I can start really looking into who might be behind those threats."
"I'll be there." She still looked like she was about to dissolve into giggles, but she managed to hold it together. "See you tomorrow."
He turned and disappeared into the shadows, getting out of there before he found a reason to regret involving her in the case.
---
The next day, 11:10 am
Bent Maple Elementary School
Lee sighed and took a surreptitious glance at his watch, noting that Amanda was now ten minutes late. When he looked up, he noticed the same kid who kept trying to sneak away from the rest of his group and out to the playground was making another run for freedom. He took a few steps to his left and blocked the way, earning a frown from the little boy.
"You'd better watch that one, he looks like an escape artist." Amanda's voice came from just behind him, causing him to jump a little. He hadn't heard her approaching at all and he didn't much like the feeling of being snuck up on.
"You're here. I was starting to worry." He turned around to look at her and his eyes widened in shock for a moment before he composed himself. He dropped his voice to a whisper, pulling her in with a hand on her arm so only she would be able to hear him. "How did you manage this get-up?"
She didn't look anything like the Amanda he was used to. Her hair had been sprayed into submission, plastered back in a severe bun with her bangs arranged ramrod-straight across her forehead. Her makeup was harsh and minimal, slashes of eyeliner and perfectly-lined, dark red lipstick. She had on a dark blue pantsuit with a tailored jacket, her white shirt underneath buttoned all the way to the top. She looked either like a prison warden or some kind of role-playing dominatrix, but certainly not like Amanda King.
"Is it all right?" Amanda looked worried. "And I was late on purpose, I'm supposed to be too busy for this, remember?"
"You're perfect, you look just like one of those humorless yahoos at State." He leaned back, indicating that they needed to stop whispering to each other and move on with the performance. She seemed to understand, giving him a little nod.
Just as Lee was starting to think about the best way for them to jump in, Amanda raised her voice and began for them. "I'm sorry if it isn't good enough, but I made it here as soon as I could. I can't help it if my morning meeting ran late, can I?"
He quickly processed what she was doing, taking just a second to come up with a response. "Well, honey, what matters is that you're here now. I'm really glad you made the time."
"I hardly had a choice, did I? You asked me right in front of Geoffrey last night." Amanda crossed her arms in front of her and he noticed her perfectly manicured, but obviously fake nails. She'd done a lot of work getting ready, just for a one time window dressing assist on his case. If there was one thing you could say about Amanda, it was that she didn't do anything halfway.
"Maybe we can talk about that later." He could feel the eyes of several of the other PTA volunteers on them as he walked her across the room to Becky. They certainly were making an impression, even if it wasn't exactly what he'd envisioned.
"What exactly is it that I'm supposed to do?" There was an odd mix of annoyance and fear in her voice. It occurred to him, just as he caught a hint of a smile in her eyes for a second, that she just might be doing some sort of parody of him.
"I'll introduce you to Becky and I'm sure she can get you set up with something."
"Maybe she has something I can do in the back? I'm still not sure how I'm supposed to act around all these kids."
"There is no back, sweetie, all of the jobs are out here at the fair." He spun her around and looked her in the eye, seeing just a hint of amusement there again before she covered it. "Hey, look, it's going to be okay. You're going to do just fine." Lee gestured toward Becky, who was just giving a handful of change to one of the kids. "Amanda, this is Becky, she's the president of our PTA. She's also in charge here today and she'll let you know what you'll be doing."
Becky looked up, smiling, but the smile died away a little when she took in Amanda's harsh, serious demeanor. "You must be Mrs. Stetson, is that right?"
"Yes, it's lovely to meet you." Amanda held out her hand and put on a very conservative version of a smile. "I can stay until just after one, but I'm afraid I'll have to get back to work right after that."
"We're happy to have the help for as long as you can stay, thank you. Do you think you'd like to walk around with the kids and help them select their books or fill out their wish lists?"
Lee had to cough quickly to cover his laugh as Amanda put on a look of complete shock, as though she had no idea how to do the task she'd been given. A deer in the headlights had nothing on Amanda, not with this look of terror playing over her features.
"I can do that." Lee stepped in quickly, taking Amanda's hand. "Amanda, honey, maybe you can take over from me, standing in the entrance over there. You just have to make sure the kids don't slip away from us. Some of them keep trying to get out to the playground."
Amanda looked relieved. "I think I can handle that. Thank you."
Lee led her over to her station and Amanda arranged herself in the opening, crossing her arms and putting a very stern look on her face. He took a deep breath and turned away, heading out to help the kids find books. It was only after he was in the middle of helping the first boy he approached when he realized he didn't really know what he was doing. He had a sneaking suspicion that Amanda, the real book fair veteran, was probably having a pretty good time watching him flounder, too.
They continued to work this way through the afternoon, Lee asking for help from the parents around him more often than not. He was in the middle of trying to help a girl find a book about the solar system when he caught a movement from Amanda out of the corner of his eye. When he looked over, he saw she was gesturing to him to come over with a very insistent look on her face. He quickly passed the girl off to another volunteer and headed over to Amanda.
As soon as he reached her, she grabbed his arms and pulled him closer. "Stand in front of me so I can point without anyone else seeing."
"Seeing what?" He whispered to her, looking around to see if anyone else was noticing her behavior.
"Do you see that man over there?" She pointed directly at his chest, but at a slight angle. He casually turned around and looked, seeing a man leaning against the wall in the hallway connecting the lunchroom to the rest of the school.
"Yes. Why?"
"What's he doing there?"
"I don't know, probably waiting for someone. It's kind of crowded over here, maybe he's waiting for the rest of his group to finish up at the book fair."
"I don't think so." Amanda had that look on her face, one he had come to know really well. Her mind was working overtime on just the few details he'd given her, even though it was his case and she was only there to strengthen his cover. "Have you seen the younger woman who works in the front office here? With the brown hair?"
"Yeah, but she's squeaky clean. We didn't turn up anything on her background check."
"You didn't turn up anything on anyone's background checks, or you wouldn't be here, would you?" She looked over his shoulder again, narrowing her eyes as though she was trying to make sure she was seeing clearly. "That man was sitting with her in the open area in front of the office when I signed in earlier. She was thanking him for bringing her lunch, and he told her it was 'the least a boyfriend can do.' So what's her boyfriend doing skulking around here without her?"
Lee circled behind Amanda, using the pretense of rubbing her shoulders for a minute as an excuse to be able to look across the room without attracting suspicion.
"He's probably not even signed in, Lee. Look, he's not wearing one of these visitor stickers." She pointed to the orange sticker on her lapel.
Lee thought back to the visitor's log photos he took the day before, how he hoped someone in Research was using those right now to find a correlation between anyone in the logs and the information in the threatening messages that had been received by the Kiersteds. If there was someone around the school who managed to avoid having to sign in and out, that log book might not get him anywhere.
"I asked a few of the moms if they felt safe with their kids here, you know, pretending I was worried about my son's safety. Everyone in the PTA seems to think the school's so secure, that no one can be here without checking in at the front office." Lee walked in front of Amanda again, turning her subtly so that he could keep his eyes on the man.
"But if the person who keeps the log book is your girlfriend, maybe she's not so careful about making you sign in and out, huh?" Amanda looked a little too excited, like she was sure this was the break in the case.
"Okay, this was a good catch, but he could still just be hanging around. I need to get out of here for a little while, see if I can get eyes on what this guy is up to."
"What do you want me to do?"
Lee looked down at his watch. "It's almost one o'clock, which is when you were supposed to leave. I'm going to walk you out to your car, then I'll be free to check up on this guy."
"Where should I go from there?" She leaned toward him conspiratorially and he knew his answer wasn't going to make her happy.
"You will be getting into your car and driving home." He could see her about to start arguing with him, so he kept talking, trying to shut her down. "Listen, I appreciate you giving me this lead, but you were just here to be Mrs. Stetson for a couple of hours, remember?"
She looked frustrated, but she nodded, looking down at her shoes.
"I'll be right back." He made his way through the growing crowd to Becky. He had to let her know he was about to disappear for awhile, because the last thing he needed was someone hunting him down to bring him back to the book fair. "Becky? Amanda has to get back to work. I'm just going to walk her out, if that's okay."
"Sure, no problem. I can see she's in a hurry, so please just let her know how much we appreciate her coming out to help." Becky pointed over Lee's shoulder, toward Amanda.
Lee turned around to see Amanda looking toward the hallway, wringing her hands with obvious anxiety. He followed her gaze and immediately understood. The man who had been there was now missing.
"Thanks. I'll be back as soon as I can, but I might need to help Amanda with something."
"Had a little fight earlier and you have to make it up to her, am I right?" Becky grinned at him.
"Something like that. Thanks." He turned and left before she delayed him further. All he had to do was put out his hand and Amanda crossed the room to take it, walking with him to find the man who had drawn their attention.
"Dammit, where is he?" Lee kept his voice down, scanning the empty corridors that went off to the left and right.
"Lee! Over there." Amanda indicated the front doors of the school with a nod of her head. She was right, their man was just passing through the main entrance, heading toward the parking lot.
"Maybe we're jumping to conclusions here. Looks like he's on his way out." Lee took a few more steps toward the doors, watching for anything suspicious.
"Just a minute, sweetheart. I have to sign out." Amanda went to the visitor's log, scanning down the first page with her finger. "Now, where is my name? I just can't see it." She flipped back to the previous page before the secretary leaned over the desk to help.
"What time did you come in? No, this is for yesterday. You'd be on the next page." The woman pushed a lock of her stringy brown hair behind her ear as she flipped the page back to the most recent one.
"Oh, here I am. Don't know how I could have missed it." Amanda wrote in her departure time and joined Lee where he was waiting for her.
"What was that all about?" He held the door open for her and she went through, catching his arm and pulling him with her so they could continue to whisper to each other.
"I looked through the log while I was pretending I couldn't find my name. The only man's name I could find was yours, going all the way back to yesterday. So he doesn't sign in, but he's lurking around the school. I know if I found out someone was doing that at Phillip and Jamie's school, I'd think it was pretty strange."
"He's doing something inside his trunk." Lee squinted, trying to see what the man was working on, but he couldn't see anything from this angle. "Where's your car?"
"Next row, about halfway down." She pointed toward her station wagon. He shook his head, unable to believe Amanda's natural luck for stuff like this. She was parked at a perfect vantage point for them to keep an eye on their guy.
"Get your keys out. You'll open the driver's side door like you're about to get in and go. Then we'll stand there pretending to talk and I can watch him."
"Right." She pulled her keys out of her purse and he watched her hand for a minute, curious to see if she was nervous. If she was, she wasn't showing it. Her hands looked rock steady.
They reached her car and she opened the door, then she turned to face him. Over her shoulder, he was able to see every movement the man was making inside the trunk of his car. There was even enough sunlight flooding in from this angle that he could make out some of what was inside the trunk and he didn't at all like what he saw. The man appeared to be loading several items from his trunk into a large duffel bag.
"Either this is a huge coincidence and this guy isn't up to anything, or..." He trailed off, concentrating harder on trying to figure out what the items going into the bag were.
"Or what?"
"Or he's getting ready to make his move. Right now. Today."
"What should we do?"
"Do you have anything to write on?"
She turned around and scanned the front seat, then leaned into the car and pulled out a small notebook and a pen. "Here. I was working on my grocery list yesterday. What do you need it for?"
"Write down his license plate information. Then I want you to get out of here, get to a pay phone, and call it in. Maybe we can get an ID on this guy from the car's registration, get a better idea who we're dealing with. Ask Billy to get a backup team over here too, just in case."
"What are you going to do?"
"I'm going to wait here with you until he either goes back in or leaves, then I'm going to follow him and see what he does next."
"With no backup?"
"You'll be on the way calling for them. I'll be fine until then."
She was already shaking her head before she started to argue. "No, no. Absolutely not. You can't go back in there alone."
"I need you to go and call for backup, Amanda. I don't have time to argue about it. That's the way you can help me the most." He noticed their man zipping up his duffel bag. Lee looked away, trying to make it look like they weren't watching him. Out of his peripheral vision, he saw the man staring at them. He couldn't have this guy getting suspicious, especially if he still had to trail him to find out what was going on.
Amanda started to argue with him again, her voice getting too loud, calling too much attention to them. "Lee, you can't go—"
"I know you have to go, honey." He interrupted her, knowing he had to stop her from giving the whole game away. "I can't let you go without this, though."
"Without what?"
He grabbed her and pulled her toward him, gripping her shoulders with his hands. For a split second he saw her shocked expression, but he lost sight of her once he closed his eyes and dipped his head toward hers.
He felt her body go rigid when their lips touched, her arms still at her sides. He broke away just far enough to talk. "Amanda, he's watching us. Just standing here talking was too suspicious."
He brushed his lips against hers again and he felt her nod her head, then she wound her arms around him, inside his jacket. Her body softened against his, molding to his chest in a way he knew he shouldn't think too much about. He turned her a little and then opened his eyes to see if the suspect was buying this little diversion.
Apparently it was working, because the man had hoisted the bag onto his shoulder and he was walking back toward the school. He turned Amanda again, momentarily distracted by the warmth of her body and the feeling of her hands as she brushed them lightly down his back. He forced himself to look over her shoulder, waiting until his quarry was almost all the way back to the building before he broke off the kiss.
"I'm sorry about that, he was looking this way. I had to do something to cover why we were standing here so long."
"It's okay, I understand." There was a tremor in her voice when she first started to talk, but she shook her head a little and then straightened her shoulders. "I'll get to a pay phone and call Mr. Melrose. You be careful, all right?"
"Remember, have them run the plate and send the backup team."
Amanda was already in the driver's seat, putting her keys in the ignition, when Lee shut the door for her and stepped away from the car. After watching her pull out of the parking space, he turned his attention back to the school, heading back to get a line on what their new friend was up to.
---
Twenty minutes later, Lee was still standing at the back of a dark alcove, watching the closet the secretary's boyfriend had ducked into. He rolled what little he knew around in his mind, wondering if he should just burst into the closet and talk to him, find out what was behind this suspicious behavior. He was tempted to do it, but he knew they'd have a better case if he gave him a little room to give away whatever his game was.
He had to keep reminding himself to be patient when ten more minutes went by without anything happening. He was suddenly thankful for the time he'd spent the previous night going over the plans for the school building. If he hadn't been sure there were no other exits from that closet, no windows, no door, no large ductwork or space above the ceiling, he might have felt pressured to make a move. There was still a more than even chance that there was an innocent explanation for all of this, after all, so he could hardly go in there with guns blazing.
"Lee!"
It was Amanda's whispered voice, and she was very close. He ducked out from his hiding place, looking for her so he could quiet her down and then send her away and out of the line of potential fire.
He saw her as soon as he took a couple of steps forward. Amanda was walking with her arm around the front office secretary, who was covering her face with her hands.
"Amanda, get over here!" Lee spoke as loud as he felt he could without attracting the attention of anyone else, relieved when Amanda looked his way and immediately joined him in the alcove.
"Janie, this is Lee. You've met him before, right? He's the one who's going to help us. He's here to make sure everyone stays safe. If you cooperate with him, he'll do everything he can to help you, all right?"
"Amanda, what's going on?" Lee looked between the two women, noticing that Janie was leaning so hard against Amanda that she would probably fall if Amanda took even one step away from her.
"I made that call you asked me to make and Mr. Melrose got the message, but you know, I couldn't just drive away and go home." She looked guilty for a moment, but the expression passed as soon as she looked over at Janie. "I came back and I could tell something was wrong as soon as I talked to Janie in the front office. Something you know shouldn't happen, right?"
"Right." Janie agreed with Amanda, her voice shaky. "I don't know what Jimmy's thinking, but I can't just sit by and let him do it. I don't care if he never speaks to me again, I can't let him take that little boy. I was trying to talk him out of it, I swear. I got him to put it off a couple of times. I just know that if I had more time, I could get him to change his mind." She used the heels of her hands to wipe the tears away from her cheeks.
"Change his mind about what?" Lee looked at Amanda to see if she could give more detail, but Amanda just rubbed Janie's back and silently encouraged her to continue her own explanation.
"He wants to kidnap the kid, Erik Kiersted. He's convinced the family has a lot of money, and Jimmy...well, he really hates anyone who comes here from another country. He said we could teach them a lesson and get enough money at the same time that we'd never have to worry about anything again."
"So your friend Jimmy is the one who sent those threatening letters. What's the plan for the kidnapping?" Lee kept a lid on his temper, re-channelling that energy into the focus he would need to wrap up this case and keep everyone safe.
"He doesn't have a plan, not really. I had him almost talked out of it, but then I screwed up." She looked from Amanda to Lee, her hand playing nervously over her lips as she spoke. "I was just talking about my day last night, after Jimmy brought home dinner." She wrung her hands, looking directly at Lee. "He's not a bad guy, my Jimmy, I swear. He takes real good care of me, always bringing me things just because he knows I like them."
"Erik. You need to tell Lee about Erik." Amanda put her hands over Janie's, stopping her speech about Jimmy's good qualities. "We need to stop Jimmy from making a really big mistake that'll get you both into a lot of trouble, right?"
"Right." Janie took a deep breath and continued. "I mentioned that Ms. Dutton had a weird meeting yesterday." She looked at Lee guiltily. "That meeting she had with you, actually, and that lady from the PTA. Ms. Dutton doesn't usually meet with parents, she makes the Vice-Principal do it. I told Jimmy about you and your son, then he got worried. Said you were probably a cop." She looked down. "Guess he was right. Jimmy's real smart."
"Tell us why he decided to make his move today." Lee needed to move things forward.
"He told me to check out your kid when I got to work today. I saw you come in first thing this morning to help with the book fair, but when I went to the ESL room, your son wasn't there. I asked the teacher. He seemed pretty nervous about me asking questions."
"So you called Jimmy, and he decided to make his move today." Lee finished the story for her, not bothering to hide his disgust.
"He isn't going to hurt the kid, he promised me. It's the only reason I went along with it. The kid would have been just fine as long as his parents paid up."
"The kid's going to be just fine because we're going to stop Jimmy from making this really big mistake." Amanda looked right at Janie, who had now started to cry again.
"No, you are going to get her out of here and I'm going to stop Jimmy." Lee corrected Amanda, getting the expected look of defiance from Amanda in return.
"I'm supposed to call down to Erik's class and tell his teacher I'm coming to get him because his parents are picking him up for a doctor's appointment." Janie looked at her watch. "I'm supposed to do it soon, right before they go to recess. The plan was to call late enough that Erik would get left in the room by himself for a few minutes waiting for me while the rest of his class went out to the playground. Then Jimmy was going to go get him. Everyone on that hall is at recess, no one would have seen them leaving."
"So Jimmy's not leaving that closet until you come for him, is that right?" Lee was beginning to formulate the plan to take this guy down.
"Yeah." Janie looked down at her watch. "They go to recess in about five minutes."
"All right, here's what we're going to do." Lee had the plan clear in his mind and everything was falling into place. "We're going to go to Erik's class. Their teacher will take the rest of the class out to recess, just in case Jimmy checks up on that. Amanda, I'm going to send Erik with you. Janie, where's the safest place they can go?"
"Principal Dutton's office. There are two locks between the inner office and the outside." Janie looked grim, but much calmer. Lee was feeling a little more solid about relying on her for the endgame.
"Amanda, once you're in there, lock everything you can behind you. Don't open the door for anyone but me or Billy."
"Okay." Amanda nodded her head, looking very serious. "I should come with you to get Erik, that way, he'll see that it's okay to wait with me."
"There's a back way between Erik's classroom and the corridor behind the Principal's office. Come on, I'll show you." Janie led them out of the alcove and through a maze of hallways. Lee had to hope he could really trust her, that she wasn't leading them into a trap.
---
It only took a few minutes to clear out the classroom and stash Erik and Amanda in the Principal's office, but Lee was hyper-aware of each passing second as they worked. He could imagine Jimmy would eventually run out of patience, waiting for his girlfriend to give him the signal.
Once everyone was in place, Lee found himself pacing inside the empty classroom, the bad feeling he had getting worse the longer he waited. The entire plan hinged on Janie, on her cooperating with them to stop this kidnapping plot. As the seconds ticked by and turned into minutes, he became more and more sure that trusting Janie had been a mistake.
He slipped out of the classroom, heading back toward the front office. He was careful as he made his way through the school, clearing each corner before he progressed. He hoped Jimmy had just taken some time to get moving, but when he saw the door to the Principal's office standing wide open, he knew Janie had turned on them.
He rushed to the doorway, surprised to see Billy inside the office.
"Scarecrow, the backup team apprehended Erik Kiersted's kidnappers as they tried to leave the building." Billy looked grim and Lee scanned the room, immediately finding the source of Billy's foul mood.
"Amanda!" Lee crossed the room and got to his knees next to her, taking stock of what he could see of her injuries. There was a bad gash on her forehead, blood covering her face and matting in her hair. A bruise was already forming on her cheek, and from the looks of it, she'd probably have a pretty nasty black eye, too.
"Defensive wounds. Look at her hands." Lee gently picked up one of Amanda's hands and checked for the wounds Billy mentioned, wincing when he saw the deep cuts on her palms.
"We should be getting pressure on these cuts." Lee looked around for something he could use, but Billy's hand on his shoulder stopped him.
"The ambulance will be here in a few minutes. The bleeding has stopped and it's better not to chance moving her. We should wait for the professionals."
"Did you get the girlfriend?" Lee looked up at his boss, asking the question between clenched teeth, barely restraining his anger. "She needs to be charged too, conspiracy and kidnapping at least. She was supposed to bring our guy to the classroom I was waiting in, but she must have double-crossed us."
"We got them both. Erik Kiersted's got a pretty good head on his shoulders and he let us know what happened in here, how Amanda got hurt. You're right, the girl brought the kidnapper straight here and helped him get Erik away from Amanda. We picked them up as soon as they came through the front doors. I guess they didn't realize you had backup."
Lee looked down and ran his fingers very gently down Amanda's cheek, following the line of the bruise that was forming. "She's the one who broke this. She noticed that dirtbag skulking around, figured out that he wasn't supposed to be here."
Billy nodded, then got on the radio and asked about the ambulance, getting a response that it was still en route. Lee felt like breaking something in frustration.
"How did she get hurt? What did he do to her? Does anyone know why she's unconscious?" He stopped himself from taking her hand, remembering at the last second about the wounds there.
"The boy told us the kidnappers came in and the man had a knife. He told Amanda to get out of the way and give them the kid, but she put Erik behind her. Amanda tried to talk to the woman, get them to give up. Erik said she told them about the backup team waiting outside, but they thought she was lying. She refused to hand over the boy. They only got Erik out after they knocked Amanda down."
Lee stood up, running his hand over the edge of the nearby desk. "She may have hit her head as she fell." He looked down at her, watching as her chest rose and fell, relieved to see that she still seemed to be breathing normally.
"Back up, Lee. The ambulance crew is here." Billy had gone into order-barking mode, not that it mattered to Lee. He knew if their roles were reversed, she wouldn't leave his side until they forced her to. He owed her the same.
Two EMTs came in, laying a stretcher down next to Amanda's limp body. They pushed past Lee and they both began to work over her, taking vitals and talking over her injuries. Lee stopped himself from asking them any of the questions that burned in his throat, listening carefully to what they said to each other to see what they thought her prognosis was.
"Either of you know how long she's been unconscious?" The dark-haired EMT stood up and turned to face Lee and Billy, while his partner continued to assess Amanda's condition.
Lee looked at the time, thinking back to the last time he saw Amanda before he left her in the office with Erik. "It might be as long as fifteen minutes. Maybe a little less."
"Pupils are equal and reactive to light." The second EMT called this information up to his partner, noting it quickly on a chart before he moved to Amanda's shoulder, preparing her to be pulled onto the stretcher.
"That's good, right?" Lee interrogated both members of the ambulance crew as they moved her and then lifted the stretcher.
"It's a good sign. We need to get her to the hospital, though, they'll have more to tell you after she's admitted and they can do some scans." The dark-haired EMT gave one of Lee's shoulders a gentle pat as they pushed past.
"I'm going with you." Lee followed the EMTs out the door, not willing to take no for an answer.
"There's room for one extra passenger. You stay out of our way, we won't have any trouble."
---
Lee woke up, feeling someone shaking his shoulder and saying his name. He blinked a few times and sat up, trying to remember where he was.
"You've been here for hours. Maybe I should have someone take you back to the school so you can get your car and head home. Amanda's in good hands here." Billy sat on the edge of the couch Lee had uncomfortably arranged himself on.
It all came back to him, seeing Amanda on the floor and covered in blood, the long ambulance ride where they wouldn't let him anywhere near her, and then the wait in her room while they took her away to run their tests and get some x-rays. He looked over at the bed, feeling a little better when he saw she was there, resting comfortably.
"I want to stay until she wakes up again. The nurse is supposed to wake me when she comes back to check on Amanda. They have to wake her every two hours because of the concussion."
"Has someone called her family?"
"Amanda did, the last time she was awake. She told her mother she was injured scouting locations for a shoot."
"One thing about Amanda, she can really think on her feet." Billy looked over at the bed, an expression of pride on his face.
"I should have seen this one coming." Lee said it out loud, suspecting they were both thinking it. "Janie was too shaky, too much under the control of her dirtbag boyfriend. It didn't matter how many locks were between him and what he wanted, his girlfriend had a key to every lock in the building."
"You know what they say about hindsight, Scarecrow. You can't think this way, because you can't afford to second-guess yourself out there. You made a call, it didn't go your way. She'll be all right."
"She had no way to defend herself or the kid and she had to stare down a guy with a knife." Lee shut his eyes, trying not to picture Jimmy slashing at Amanda as she protected Erik behind her.
"Stop beating yourself up. It's over. Take what you can learn from it and then let it go."
The rustling of the sandpaper-like sheets on Amanda's bed interrupted them and both men turned to see Amanda trying to sit up. She yelped a little after she put weight on her bandaged hands. Lee got to the bed and helped her, taking her elbow and letting her use that as leverage to pull herself to a seated position.
"Where's Erik? Is he okay?" Amanda's eyes darted between Billy and Lee, her concern for the child she'd been protecting evident on her face.
"I need you to try to remember, Amanda. You've asked me this before. Take a minute and think. Do you remember the last time you were awake?" Lee settled Amanda's arm at her side, resting his hand lightly on her forearm.
Amanda looked down at her bandaged hands, lifting one up to look at it more closely. She suddenly winced and closed her eyes and Lee clenched his jaw, a jolt of anger and guilt going through him when he realized she was reliving the knife attack.
"I'm at the hospital?" Lee nodded, silently urging her to continue. "And you told me Erik is okay. Did you arrest Jimmy?"
Billy broke in to answer that question. "We were able to arrest him and his accomplice, thanks to you calling in the backup team. You did an excellent job, Amanda. I'm just sorry you had to get hurt on this one."
"Well, it looks like I'm going to be okay, sir." Her voice rang with uncertainty that contradicted her words. "I'm just glad Erik is back with his family."
"I'd like to send someone over to get a statement from you, Amanda, but I think it can wait until tomorrow." Billy gave her a half-hearted smile. Lee knew how much it bothered Billy to see any of his people get injured on a case, especially a civilian like Amanda.
"So that means I'll be here overnight?" Amanda's face fell, but Lee didn't really see how she could be expecting to go home so soon.
"You have a concussion, that's why they have to keep waking you up. They want to keep you for 24 to 48 hours at least, depending on how you're bouncing back and what they see in the scans." Lee looked at his watch. "It's almost eleven o'clock now, you've been here for about eight hours."
"I called Mother, didn't I? I asked her to bring me an overnight bag?"
"That's right. It's good that you're remembering." Lee smiled at her, happier at this small evidence of her improvement.
"I'll leave you alone now, Amanda. Let us know if you need anything, all right?" Billy disappeared through the open doorway, waving over his shoulder when Amanda thanked him.
Amanda looked down, smoothing the wrinkles out of the sheet where it covered her stomach. "You don't have to stay."
Lee took a moment, trying to decide if anything good could come of him saying what he really needed to say. He looked at her bandaged hands and pictured the gashes beneath the gauze and he decided he owed her the truth.
"I should never have left you alone earlier today. It's my fault this happened to you."
Amanda's eyes widened and she instinctively reached out for Lee's arm, stopping mid-gesture when she saw the gauze. "No. Absolutely not. I trusted Janie, Lee, I'm the one who convinced you to trust her too. I never thought she would lead Jimmy to us there, or try to take Erik after they knew you had found out what they were planning to do. You had no reason to believe that either."
"I still shouldn't have left you there, defenseless, while I let her divert me into a classroom halfway across the building."
"Lee, stop. Please. We both trusted her. They were the ones who did this, not you."
He nodded. He didn't really believe what he was agreeing to, but it didn't seem right to argue with her.
She brought her arm up to her head, making a face when she brushed her wrist along her hair. "I hope I get that overnight bag soon. I haven't had this much hair spray in my hair since I was about fourteen years old. I'd love to take a shower and change if the nurses will let me."
"You don't look much like yourself." He smiled at her, a real smile this time. "You did a pretty convincing job acting like you had no idea what you were doing around a school."
"Oh, I just tried to think of what a friend of mine would do if he was in that situation." She was smiling too, and then suddenly, they were both laughing. Lee let his hand fall gently over the bandages on her hands, needing to connect with her somehow. She looked down, and then looked back at him with an expression of panic.
"What is it?"
"Do you happen to know what they did with the jewelry I had on, the rings?"
He went to the other side of her bed, looking inside the plastic bag the hospital staff had used to store her personal effects. "Yeah, they're in here." Lee put the bag in her lap, flattening it out for her so she could see the rings inside.
She sighed with obvious relief. "That's my real engagement ring and wedding band. I tried to give them back to Joe years ago, but he wouldn't take them. I don't wear them anymore, but I'd sure be upset to lose them."
"Well, the next time I need you to be Mrs. Stetson, I'll make sure to furnish you with a different ring. We'll keep this one out of the line of fire."
"I'll look forward to that." She looked over at him and their eyes locked.
For a long, crazy moment, an alternate meaning to the last part of their conversation took over his thoughts. He got a flash of handing Amanda a ring and meaning it, not doing it for a case or a cover. He pushed the idea away as quickly as it had come. He just wasn't the wife and kids type.
"I should go." He suddenly felt a strong desire to get back to his apartment. He told himself he was just tired, that it had nothing to do with engagement rings or thinking about anyone becoming Mrs. Stetson.
"Thank you for staying with me." She started to reach out to him and then pulled away, frustrated again by her bandaged hands.
"I'll come back tomorrow to check on you, see when they might be letting you out." He walked quickly over to the door as he talked, barely letting her acknowledge him before he left.
The door closed behind him and he leaned back against it, needing his heart to slow down a little before he walked out to get a cab. He needed to talk to Billy, get himself a case he could work on his own. A little space to get his head clear seemed like the right call, and Amanda might need some time before she was ready to go back in the field anyway.
He pushed off from the door, putting all thoughts of engagement rings and the domestic life behind him. If he understood one thing about himself, it was this: He wasn't ever going to become a real PTA dad.
Story Notes:
Timeline: S2, a bit before Charity Begins At Home
Minor Warnings: References to off-screen violence and kidnapping.
Disclaimers: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
Feedback: Please. Here or at amanda_rex AT yahoo DOT com
Thanks: Thank you to Cheryl for the beta, but also for having the original idea for us to write stories about Lee and the PTA.
Minor Warnings: References to off-screen violence and kidnapping.
Disclaimers: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
Feedback: Please. Here or at amanda_rex AT yahoo DOT com
Thanks: Thank you to Cheryl for the beta, but also for having the original idea for us to write stories about Lee and the PTA.
Chapter End Notes: