Part Three

Lee took his wife's hand. "We will be safe," he told her. "How's Jenna?"

"She insisted on calling everyone to check that they were all
right and now she's asleep. God only knows how long that will last."

"I'm just glad The Agency sent someone that Jenna hadn't met,
otherwise we would've had some awkward explanations to make," Lee
said. "Though I would like to know where Beaman dug up that cop's
uniform."

"Those pants he had on were just a little too tight, did you notice? Wait till I tell Francine." Her expression turned serious. "We need to think about telling her what we do for a living, Lee. She's starting to ask questions and notice things- it's
going to be hard to keep her in the dark for too much longer."

"What kind of questions has she been asking?"

"Things like why we go off on unexplained trips at strange hours, how
we end up getting hurt sometimes, why you're so good at self-defense
and fighting, that kind of thing," Amanda said. "And remember that
incident when she was in the Nutcracker Ballet that one Christmas?"

"She hasn't forgotten about that yet?" Lee asked.

"It was only four years ago," Amanda said. "I try to come up with
plausible answers, but I don't think she's satisfied anymore."

Lee groaned softly. "It was so easy when she was a sweet little girl
and believed everything we told her."

"Well now your sweet little girl is approaching 13, buster," Amanda
said lightly. "I hate to tell you, but it only gets harder from here."

"I know that, Amanda. But she's safer if she doesn't know."

"Really," Amanda said. "And were Mother and the boys any less safe
after we told them?"

"That was different" Lee insisted. "We told them about our marriage
and our jobs because we were having Jenna, remember?"

"That wasn't the only reason." Amanda thought back to that
spring day in 1988. "At least not for me. I felt like we were living a
lie-there was so much tension between us--it was a weight off my mind to finally be able to tell them the truth."

"Yeah I have to admit that it was nice to finally be able to spend
more time with my wife," Lee said. "But Jenna's too young-Jamie and
Philip were much older."

"Oh come on Lee," Amanda said. "Philip was 15 and Jaime was only 13-"

"And Jenna's only 12."

"-Jenna will be thirteen in just a few months," Amanda countered.
"That's no reason. Knowing the truth might make Jenna feel safer."

"How so?"

"Well she'd know that we could protect her."

"I guess," Lee said. "But I want to tell her for the right reasons-not
because some maniac stalker is forcing our hand." Amanda tactfully
decided to change the subject.

"Did Jenna's interview turn up any leads about who could be doing
this?" She asked Lee.

"Not really," Lee said. "Jenna doesn't have any enemies that she's
aware of and she hasn't noticed anyone strange hanging around. I'm
betting that the background check on Johnston will turn up something
more."

"I really think we should keep her home tomorrow."

"I thought about that too," Lee admitted. He wrapped his arms around
his wife while she leaned her head back against his chest. "But
she'll be under 24-hour Agency surveillance, Amanda. Jenna will be
just as safe there as she would be at home."

"Does she know that?"

"Well Beaman told her that we'd all be protected."

"Personally I'd like to wrap her in a little cocoon to keep her safe
until we catch this guy," Amanda said. "Jenna's been through so much
already,Lee. I don't want her to be hurt anymore."

"We will catch him," Lee said, his arms tightening around his wife-his
lips brushing against her neck. "And Jenna will be safe. We're a team,
Mrs. Stetson. Remember?"

"I remember," Amanda said, turning around as her lips met his.

SMK SMK SMK SMK

"I told you it wasn't over," Gary Johnston chuckled as he leaned over
her bed. His hand reached out and touched her cheek. The touch made
Jenna feel sick to her stomach, but she couldn't even move away
because he'd tied her down. Tears came to her eyes and she saw Gary
smile at her helplessness.

The moon shone in through the window, and gleamed against the knife
that Gary had removed from his pocket.

"First you, little one," he said, running the ball of his thumb over
the blade, "And then your entire family."

"Please don't," Jenna whispered. But Gary just smiled. She watched as
the knife came slowly downwards, towards her chest, and the pain made
her scream…

"Jenna!" Someone was calling her name, holding her arms tightly, and
despite the ropes binding her to the bed Jenna desperately tried to
pull away...

SMK SMK SMK SMK

"Jenna you're dreaming," Lee said. He and Amanda were both sitting on
Jenna's bed, Lee's arms holding his struggling daughter. "Please wake
up." Lee said.

Jenna's breath came in rapid gasps. Her dark eyes were wide open, but
unfocused, her pupils dilated. Lord only knew what she was seeing.
Sweat was running down her forehead and soaking her nightgown. Her
arms flailed wildly, her fists hitting Lee's chest as she tried to
pull away from him.

"Let go of me! I want my Dad!" She screamed.

"Jenna it's me," Lee said. "Look at me. We're here-you need to wake
up."

"No!" Her scream was even louder this time. "Going to kill me,
Gary-He'll kill everybody…"

"He's not," Amanda said, reaching out to touch Jenna's arm.
"Sweetheart, you're here. You're safe now." Somehow that seemed to
calm her. Together he and Amanda held Jenna until they felt her relax
back into sleep. Lee and Amanda carefully laid Jenna back onto her
pillow.

"That wasn't just an ordinary nightmare, Amanda," Lee said. "What's
going on here?" But he could tell from her expression that she didn't
have any answers either.

November 6, 2001
7:30 AM

"I called Dr. Pfaff this morning, and he said they're called night
terrors," Amanda said, putting three pieces of bread into the toaster.
"He said they happen to children between the ages of 3 and 12 and that
given the current situation it's perfectly normal. However, we should
bring Jenna in if they keep happening every night."

"Normal?" Lee raised his eyebrows as he sipped his coffee, trying to
wake up. "That was normal? Amanda, Jenna's eyes were open but she
didn't see us-we couldn't even wake her." As hard as he tried, he
couldn't get that glazed, fearful expression out of his mind.

"Well it's a good thing we couldn't," Amanda said. "Pfaff said that
trying to wake someone during a night terror only makes things worse.
The thing to do is just to make everything as normal as possible and
chances are that Jenna won't even remember what she dreamed about."

Lee took a small bite from the buttered toast that his wife had put in
front of him. "I think maybe you were right last night- we should keep
her home."

"Keep who home?" Jenna came into the kitchen, wearing jeans and a
hooded grey sweatshirt. Her dark blond hair had nearly grown back to
its pre-January length, and she had it pulled back with a matching
grey headband. "Do you mean me?"

"I thought that maybe after yesterday you might feel better staying at
home," Lee said.

Jenna's brow furrowed. "Last night the policeman said I could still
go to school," she said. "Has something else happened?"

"Nothing's happened, sweetheart," Amanda said, "We just want you to
know that if you did feel like staying at home we'd understand. It's
your decision." Jenna sat at the table and put her backpack down on
the floor beside her. Amanda put a bowl of cereal, some toast and a
glass of orange juice in front of Jenna.

"I couldn't stay home," Jenna said, speaking between bites of cereal.
"Not even if I wanted to. Today's the first day of dance team practice
and I have a math test and a history essay to turn in and the math
teacher doesn't give make-up exams unless you can prove you're going
to die or something. And besides I'm not scared-the police will be
watching me. Right?" Lee saw a shadow cross his daughters' face after
she said those words, and then she fell silent. She was putting on a
brave face, Lee realized. Lord knows, he'd done it himself often enough.

Jenna ate a couple of bites of toast and then drained her orange juice
in one gulp.

"Are you sure you still want to be on the dance team?" Lee said.

"Lee…" Amanda said.

"No, it's okay, Mom," Jenna said. "After seeing those pictures I
thought about that too. But the dance team is something that I really
want. I'm not ready to give it up just yet."

Amanda patted Jenna on the back. "I'm very proud of you, sweetheart,"
she said.

"Dad is it okay if we leave early?" Jenna said. "Lisa wanted to pick
up our uniforms at the school bookstore before class."

"Sure, if you want," Lee said, giving his wife a brief hug and a kiss.
"See you at work-I love you."

"I love you too," Amanda said. Lee grabbed the Corvettes' keys from
the basket on the counter.

"Love you Mom," Jenna said, as she gave Amanda a hug. "Have a good
day, and be careful. Promise?"

"I will, sweetheart," Amanda said, her eyes brimming as she hugged her
daughter tightly. "You be careful too."

7:45 AM

Jenna was subdued during the ride to school. Usually she couldn't stop
talking, Lee thought, but today she just sat there, playing with the
stereo and trying to catch the songs that came in between the
commercials and talking. He missed his daughter's endless chatter-it
reminded him so much of Amanda. Lee cleared his throat.

"Jenna," he said. "If you need to talk to someone about your feelings
–you know, about what's going on, you know you can."

"You mean someone like Dr. Pfaff?" Jenna asked.

"Maybe," Lee said. "But you can always talk to us too."

"I know that." Jenna said, looking over at her father. "Dad, why does
your company have Dr. Pfaff? I mean, it's a movie company, and he's a
psychiatrist. What's he there for?"

"Why do you ask?" Lee  wondered where this question had come
from so suddenly.

"I'm curious," Jenna said. "It doesn't make a whole lot of sense."

"Well," Lee racked his brain for a plausible answer. "Ah, well,
film-making can be very stressful, and sometimes we need to talk to
someone-so that's what he's doing there."

"So he talks to people about making movies?"

"Sort of," Lee said, feeling very much as though he was digging a very
deep hole for himself. "Sometimes film-makers have personality
conflicts, differences of opinions-those kind of things."

"And Dr. Pfaff helps with that?" Jenna wore a skeptical expression on
her face.

"Yes he does," Lee said. There was a long silence.

"Well if that's what he really does he must have thought my problems
were pretty weird," Jenna said. "I mean, what happened then-what's
happening to me now, it's not exactly normal, is it?"

"It doesn't matter what the problem is," Lee said. "The point is that
just like your mom and I, he's there to help you."

"How can you and mom help?" Jenna said. "You're in danger too. The
note said anytime and anywhere. I mean, for all we know someone could
be watching us right now. "

The expression on Jenna's face was pleading. She wanted reassurance,
Lee knew. He struggled for the right words to comfort his daughter.
"Jenna, What Bea-I mean, what the police officer said last night was
true." Lee said. "They'll be watching you and they won't let anything
happen."

Jenna stared down, looking hard at her hands. Drops of Jupiter' was
playing on the radio. "Who's going to keep an eye on you and mom?" 

"Someone will be keeping an eye on us," Lee said. "But Jenna, you
should know that your Mom and I are pretty capable of looking out for
ourselves."

"Okay, but what about everyone else?" Jenna said, finally looking at
her father, "Jamie's in Charlottesville and Philip's working in
Portsmouth-they're too far away for the Arlington Police to do
anything."

"They'll be safe."

"Grandma and Captain Curt?"

"Jenna, they're very safe-they're all the way in Florida," Lee said.
"Next you'll be asking about Aunt Edna, Aunt Lillian and Uncle
Chester. You talked to everyone last night, didn't you?"

"Sure, everyone who was there. I'm just worried."

"Yeah, I know that," Lee said. "And I'm telling you that everything
will be fine."

"But how can you really know?" Jenna said. "Can someone be watching us
every minute? Every second?"

"There are no certainties, Jenna, you know that." Lee said. "But I can
tell you that people will do their best to keep you and everyone else
safe. That's all I can say."

His car pulled up in front of Kenmore Middle School-he could see
Jenna's friend Lisa standing by the front entrance, grinning and waving.

"I'm going to pick you up after dance practice," Lee said. "Around 5
PM, right?"

"Right," Jenna said. "Well, I better go-love you, Dad. Take care,
okay?" She gave him a hug and turned to get out the car.

"You too," Lee said. He watched as his daughter walked towards Lisa,
Amanda's words from last night echoing in his head: She's starting to
ask questions and notice things- it's going to be hard to keep her in
the dark for too much longer'

"Just a little while longer," Lee said to himself. He waited until he
was sure that both Lisa and Jenna were safely inside the school before
he slowly pulled out of the parking lot.

7:55 AM

She looked very pale, he saw, as he watched her walk into the school
with her friend. There were faint circles under her eyes, too-a sign
that she hadn't slept well the night before. At the thought of what
he had planned for her and her family today, his own lips curled
faintly upwards.

"Just you wait, Jenna," he said under his breath. "Just you wait."

8:40 AM

It had begun raining shortly after Amanda left the house, fat drops of
water splattering across her windshield. She turned the wipers on,
absently humming along to the song that was playing on the radio, but
her mind was on her daughter.

Amanda knew they were going to have to explain to Jenna what they
actually did for a living very soon-not because some stalker was
forcing their hand, but because the time was right. Even Dr. Pfaff had
agreed with her, saying that the truth might lessen Jenna's trauma.
The only trick lay in convincing her husband. Amanda suspected that
part of Lee's problem was because he was still coming to terms with
the fact that Jenna was growing up.

She put on her turn signal as she braked at the red light. The next
thing Amanda remembered were a pair of bright headlights shining through
her rearview window-so bright that she couldn't see for a moment. Then
there was a horrible noise of crunching and grinding metal. Amanda's
head hit something hard-the steering wheel- and after that there was
nothing at all.

TBC