The two Marine guards, ever present at that entrance to the underground portion of the Agency, straightened imperceptibly at the approach of the hottest new team Melrose had put together. Amanda King and Francine Desmond strode into the bullpen side by side. Shoulders square, faces determined, they looked exactly like what they were: highly successful females in a predominantly male world. They had even taken to dressing similarly. Both wore slim dress pants with low-heeled ankle boots. Sweaters topped the ensembles, Francine in her vivid electric blue, Amanda in a more understated soft pink.
William Melrose watched their approach with a mixture of emotions, pride and affection the foremost of them. They'd been partners for six weeks now and after giving him only a few headaches and three severe cases of heartburn they had settled into a relationship that obviously worked. All previous animosities seemed to have been forgotten and they got along well. As long as no one broke the two cardinal rules around Amanda King: don't touch her and don't mention Lee Stetson.
After the fire that claimed Scarecrow's life, Amanda had withdrawn for several days. Staying at Lee's apartment, not talking to anyone from work or even her family, she had given him much worry those first few days.
Suddenly, with no prompting from anyone, she had reappeared at his office and stated that she wanted to come back to work, with one condition. She wanted the in-depth weapons and combat training she had always declined. Both Lee and Billy had often encouraged her to take the course. She had declined, stating that it was a waste of time. She could never really shoot anyone and she was sure she wouldn't ever be able to karate chop some bad guy into submission. No, she had joked that she would continue to rely on her brain and Lee's brawn to keep them out of trouble.
But on that day in his office, Billy had seen the determination in her eyes as she made her request, and while he wasn't sure exactly what her motivations were, he knew she needed the distraction and he needed her back on the job. She got her training and in a week she returned, the cool, efficient agent that he now saw approaching his office. He had hesitated to put her in the field alone, yet he wasn't sure she would tolerate another partner so soon.
Francine had fit the bill perfectly. She was making noises about wanting to get back in the field and Amanda needed a partner she knew and trusted. So he had tossed them together and hoped for the best. And that was exactly what he got. Except for the partnership of Scarecrow and Mrs. King, this was one of the most productive that the Agency had seen. The two women had busted several operations, each in a matter of days, which the other sections had been working on, unsuccessfully, for weeks. Now he had to tell them that this latest bust had yielded more information than they had hoped for. And not all of it was what they had anticipated. Billy had to break Amanda's cardinal rule number two.
"So you're telling us that this man, West Dougan, has information about Lee's death and he won't talk to anyone but me?" Amanda paced nervously around Billy's office. She and Francine had entered, expecting to be briefed about what their prisoner had divulged about Phillip Marsh's operation. Now she was being told that Dougan had information about why and how her partner, husband and lover had been killed. She had thought she had it all figured out. She stood in front of the window that looked out over the bullpen and mulled it over once again. She thought it all out and she came up with the same conclusion as she had the last thousand futile times.
She was the reason he was dead. She had not been strong enough to pull the trigger and kill the man who had dragged him into a building wired to explode. She had not been able to focus on her target, for worry about the very man she was trying to save. She hadn't taken the shot and he had been forced into the building and before she could get in to get him out, it had blown up in her face. The blast had thrown her several feet away and she hadn't been seriously injured. Not physically at least. Her heart and her soul were another matter completely.
Melrose moved from his chair and stepped in front of the restless pacer. "Amanda, I know this is a shock. But if Dougan has information about who paid to have Lee killed, we could put that person away, where he deserves to be. We know that it was a professional job. Lee was assassinated. You got in the way and it went down a little differently than Forrester intended. He got hit as well. But it was assassination all the same!"
Amanda remained at the window and continued to look out over the bullpen. She had wiped Lee out of her mind. At least that was what she told herself. It didn't count that she still dreamed about him every night. She couldn't help what her subconscious did. It didn't matter that she couldn't go into the Q Bureau for any reason. She was a bit claustrophobic now, that's all. It didn't matter that she still saw his eyes sparkling with morning secrets, when she drank her first cup of coffee out his favorite mug from her cabinet at home. She had always liked that mug as well. She slept in his favorite gown because it was comfortable, not because it reminded her of the night he had taken such pleasure in giving it to her, then removing it from her body. She didn't deserve to have such good memories of the man she had failed. So she simply didn't have them, or so she told herself.
Francine watched her partner standing by the window and felt again the helplessness she so hated. She had felt that helplessness when she found Amanda lying in that parking lot as the building erupted in flames behind them. She had felt that helplessness when Amanda refused to let her in Lee's apartment to help her deal with her sorrow. She had felt that same helplessness each time Amanda took chances, alone, to catch the bad guys. She hated to feel helpless, but Amanda simply would not be helped.
Francine looked at Billy for guidance, but none was forthcoming. This was one situation that Amanda was just going to have to deal with. She was going to have to go to this man and discuss Lee Stetson and his death for the first time in eight weeks, for the first time ever for that matter. She spoke to her partner's back, "Amanda, do you want me to do it? I mean maybe he'll tell me. Or I could go with you? Just as back up, you know?"
She reached out to lay one hand on Amanda's slim arm, but pulled up short as she remembered what reaction yesterday's simple touch on the shoulder had evoked. She recalled her action just in time as Amanda turned to face them both.
"No, Francine. I'll go alone. It's my responsibility and I'll make good on it." She walked across the office and opened the door without another word. She hesitated only briefly, and then proceeded to the interrogation room two floors down.
In that tiny, square room, West Dougan sat and waited on the one person who might get him out of this mess. He had information that she wanted and if she wanted it bad enough, she would help to get him out of the predicament he was in now. She had clout in this organization. After all, she had been the partner of the great Scarecrow.
As he waited for her arrival, he considered where he was. He had heard of the Agency, but had never really been sure that he believed in it or its hotshot agents. That is, until a few weeks ago when Phillip Marsh had approached him and his brother, William, about assisting Forrester with this particular assignment. Marsh had hired Forrester to kill Scarecrow. Then he had sent the Dougan brothers to insure that it was done properly. In other words, to insure that the good name of Phillip Marsh could in no way be attached to the act. And the only way to do that was to kill the killer, after he had done his deed. The classic double-cross, what a joy to have been a part of.
It had gone according to plan, until the lady agent had shown up. She had followed them to the abandoned office building on the outskirts of town. While they waited on Forrester to finish the job, she had snuck around to the other side of the parking lot. She waited until her precious agent boyfriend was out of the car and being escorted into the building that was to be his final resting place. Boy, were they surprised when she pulled a gun and demanded that Scarecrow be released.
The Dougan brothers, who prided themselves on their acute instincts, smelled trouble and made a quick getaway, but not before they saw Forrester call her bluff and drag the drugged Scarecrow into the building. They moved on down the road but felt and saw the blast that was to have ended Scarecrow's life as well as the paid assassin, Forrester. Now they knew good and well that neither man had time to get out of the building and they figured that their mission was a success.
West Dougan heard the door to his holding cell open at that point and his thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of the lady agent herself.
Now that Amanda had seen him up close and had observed his behavior through the interrogation room mirror, she realized that she had seen him before. He had been on the scene that evening. That evening when she had failed to do what she needed to do. When she had failed Lee.
West Dougan wasn't a major player. He and his now dead brother were small-time, hired henchmen. They had appeared to be more like escorts for the man who had taken Lee from his car in front of her house. Forrester had walked up casually to the corvette window. He had leaned in and injected Lee with an unknown chemical and pulled him out of the seat and into the waiting Oldsmobile. She had seen the limp form of her husband shoved into the back of the car and she had seen the beady, dumb eyes of the man who sat before her now, meet her own just as the window slid closed and the car sped away from their home in Arlington. For weeks now those eyes had haunted her, taunted her. Taunted her with the knowledge that he knew she couldn't save Lee no matter how she wanted to.
Now those eyes looked smugly at her, waiting, expecting her to do just as he wanted.
"All right, Mr. Dougan. Here I am. What do you want?" Amanda took the chair across from him and laid her hands calmly on the table before her.
"I want you to help me out of this little jam I seem to be in." His matter of fact tone seemed to amuse Amanda as she laughed softly before answering him.
"Now, just why would I do that? What possible reason could I have for wanting to help the man who had a part in killing my partner?" Amanda's tone was derisive as she sneered at the man over the expanse of the table.
"Why, Mrs. Stetson?" he leaned in close, almost conspiratorially, to the surprised agent, "Because I know that he wasn't just your partner and because I know that he isn't dead."
TBC
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