Chapter Three

October 29, 1991

10:00 PM

When the doorbell rang Amanda ran headlong down the stairs to answer it, praying that it wouldn’t be the police-or worse yet, someone from the Agency with bad news. When she saw Lee standing there all the things she’d been planning to say to him faded away. All Amanda could do was pull him inside and hold on to him, feeling his body close to her own and burying her head in his shoulder. .

“Lee you just about scared me to death,” she said, finally, reluctantly pulling away. Amanda stepped back, looking into Lee’s eyes. “Where were you?”

For a moment Lee said nothing. He just stared at her, his expression unreadable. “I was out.”

“Out?” Amanda’s tone was incredulous. “Lee, you go to the grocery store, which is ten minutes away, come back four hours later and all you can tell me is that you went out?

“The groceries are in the trunk,” Lee said. “I can go and get them if you want, Amanda.”

“Leave them,” Amanda said. “I don’t care about the groceries. I care about you. Tell me what you were doing all this time.” Her voice was rising as she spoke. There was a noise on the steps- Amanda turned around to see Jamie, wearing a t-shirt and sweatpants and rubbing sleep out of his eyes. The expression on her younger son’s face was worried.

“Everything okay, mom?” Jamie asked.

“Everything’s fine, Jamie,” Amanda told him. “Lee and I are just having a discussion. We’ll try and keep it down.”

“Okay,” Jamie spoke in the middle of a yawn.. “G’nite.” Amanda waited until Jamie was upstairs before turning back to face her husband.

“Just tell me where you were.”  Quiet anger filled her voice. “It’s way past dinner. I had to give Jenna her bath and put her to bed myself, not to mention doing the dishes, which I did even though it was your night to do the dishes.”

“Would you just stop babbling?” Lee stepped forward and for some reason Amanda found herself taking an involuntary step back. Something in his eyes unnerved her. “I had some last minute work to do at the office and later I stopped by Nedlinger’s for a drink. No big deal. Now may we please call it a night?”

Amanda shook her head. “Nice try, but I called the office, Lee. Did you think I wouldn’t? I spoke to Billy and Francine and you weren’t there.” She took a deep breath. “So I’m asking you to tell me where you were.”

“And I’m telling you to quit nagging me!” The harshness of her husband’s tone caused Amanda to flinch. “Look, I’m tired, Amanda. We’ll talk later.” He turned to go upstairs, but Amanda blocked his way.

“When you’re ready to be honest with me you can come upstairs. Until then you’re sleeping on the couch.”

Lee stared at her for a moment, and for a moment Amanda was worried that he might try and push his way past her. “Fine,” he said shortly. “I’ll be down here. Good night.”

Amanda went upstairs, unable to shake her growing conviction. Something had changed, she thought, sitting down on her bed. And something was very wrong.

“Crazy,” she whispered to herself. What could have possibly changed in the space of four hours? She had to be imagining things, and yet-Amanda picked up the phone in her bedroom and dialed information.

“Washington, DC.-Nedlinger’s,” she said to the operator, who dialed the number for her.

“Hello,” Amanda said, when the bartender answered. “This is Amanda Stetson-oh hello. No, I’m fine, everything’s fine. Kids are fine too. Look, this is going to sound like a strange question, but was Lee there tonight?” Her fingers clutched the receiver. “A woman? Are you sure?”

“I thought it was strange too, Mrs. Stetson,” the voice on the other end of the line said. “I know how devoted he is to his family nowadays. It was just a brief meeting, though. Five minutes at the most. I’ve never seen her before, but they did seem to be very chummy. I’m sure there’s a good reason for it. ”

“Yes,” Amanda said. “There must be a good reason. Thank you, good night.” She hung up the phone and put her face in her hands.

“What is going on?” She whispered. But there was no reply.

TBC