December 27, 1989. A small Georgetown restaurant.
"A-man-da! I don't know about this…" Lee was uncomfortable as they
finished their lunch.
"Do you want a CHOCOLATE cookie?" She offered her husband the plate
of assorted COOKIES they had ordered for dessert.
"Yeah, thanks." He took a cookie and ate it.
"Hello, Amanda! Lee." The young colorfully dressed tarot reader sat
at their table and laid her cards down in front of her.
"Hello, Annie." Amanda greeted her contact warmly and offered her the
plate of cookies.
"Thanks." Annie took one, ate it and then turned to Lee. "Are you
ready for your reading today?"
"Y'know, that's more Amanda's thing…"
"Go on, Lee." His amused wife urged. "You never know—maybe she'll
give you some much needed insight."
Both women were smiling at him expectantly. He knew when he was
outnumbered. He could put it down to humoring his pregnant wife. "OK,
whatever." His tone was not enthusiastic.
Annie pulled her tarot deck from the bag she stored it in. "Here—
shuffle and think of a question. Stop when you feel its right."
Lee rolled his eyes but dutifully shuffled the cards. All he could
think about was why they were there. Annie had left a message for
Amanda that she had some information.
Eventually he stopped shuffling and at Annie's direction he cut the
cards into three piles, using his left hand.
"Which do you like best?" The reader asked.
He pointed to the middle pile feeling distinctly foolish. Then the
right pile.
Annie collected the cards and dealt five cards in a row face
down. "Don't worry. It isn't the end of the world." She reassured
him. Lee remained stoically silent.
The first, left-most card was of a woman standing in a marsh, bound
and blindfolded with eight swords stuck into the ground around her.
"You were in a situation where you felt crowded—restricted—not enough
room to move."
Lee's mind was a blank. He couldn't think of anything that matched
that description.
The second card was of a tower struck by lightning. It said "The
Tower" at the bottom.
"Then something totally unexpected happened—some sort of disaster—
possibly a fire or some other sort of destruction?"
The fire! The garage! But Lee hadn't been thinking about his home
situation…
The third card showed a man at a workbench carving a pentacle. Seven
other pentacles were around him.
"And now there is work—construction—something new is being created."
How did she do it? Could she have stacked the deck? He hadn't seen
her do anything suspicious—he'd done all the shuffling and cutting of
the cards.
The fourth card was of a woman sitting up in bed, holding her head in
her hands. Nine swords floated in the blackness above her.
"This indicates some distress—something's gonna happen that causes
someone—a woman I think—a great deal of upset and distress. She'll
come to you for help."
Lee immediately exchanged a look with his pregnant wife—was she going
to be OK? So far the pregnancy had gone well—but things could always
happen…
"It isn't Amanda. It's some other woman close to you." Annie assuaged
his fears for their unborn child.
Lee thought furiously—Francine? Who else could it be?
The last card showed a man dancing and juggling two pentacles—he
looked distinctly off-balance.
"Someone's gonna come to help—but there will be a bit of double-
dealing—someone's going to try to pull a fast one on you."
"What! That's impossible…" Lee was indignant.
Annie looked Lee in the eye—she seemed to be thinking. Then she
fanned out the deck and offered it to him. "Why don't you pull
another card? Let's see if there's more to this."
Lee looked dubiously at the deck—then carefully pulled out one card.
Annie took it and laid it face down.
Amanda placed her hand over the card before Annie could turn it
over. "Annie. Why don't you tell us why you called us here."
Annie sat back and shuffled the remainder of the deck as she talked
to Amanda and Lee.
"I did a party at the house of a British diplomat last night—Boxing
Day. Though I didn't see any BOXERS there at all."
"It's a British holiday—Boxing Day—the day after Christmas." Lee
filled her in.
"Oh. Well, the place was nicely decorated. They had a huge tree with
ORNAMENTS, GLITTER, MISTLETOE. And CANDLES everywhere. There was this
display with a TEDDY bear sitting in a SLEIGH all dressed up like
Santa, driving through the SNOW. He had a CANDY CANE in his paw. It
was really cute."
At Lee's impatient glance, Amanda quickly spoke up. "It sounds very
nice. Did something happen at the party?"
"Oh yeah. I was sitting in a corner doing my readings—people would
come and go. During one of the quiet times I heard two men talking.
One of them musta had a bit too much RUM PUNCH—he sounded a bit
sloshed. He's a Senatorial staffer—an aide for one of the senators on
the Senate Select Intelligence Committee. He was talking with a
Russian—at least he sounded Russian anyhow."
Amanda nodded. "Go on."
"The Russian was threatening the aide. I think it was BLACKMAIL. The
aide was supposed to photograph some documents the senator was going
to get. He didn't want to but the Russian said he'd kidnap the aide's
mother and take her for a RIDE and then tie her to a POLE and stick
hot NEEDLES under her fingernails. The aide finally agreed to do it
and the Russian handed him a small package. Then the Russian left. I
watched the aide UNWRAP it. It was a really small camera." She looked
distressed. "That's all they talked about. The aide left after that."
"That's very good, Annie. Do you know the name of the aide?" Amanda
asked.
"He mentioned boring—bow rim? Something like that."
"That would probably be Senator David Boren—the head of the
Committee." Lee offered.
"Yeah—Boren—that could have been what he said." Annie agreed.
"What did the aide look like?" Amanda tried to get more information
out of the young woman.
"He was young—sort of Page of Wands."
"Page of Wands?" Amanda was lost.
Annie nodded. "Blonde, tall, somewhat earnest but not too bright. He
had a big Adam's apple."
"We can check the staff of Senator Boren. I bet we'll find your young
man soon enough." Lee affirmed.
"Thank you for coming to us with this information. We appreciate your
help, Annie." Amanda smiled warmly at her new family member.
The reader shrugged. "You asked me to help—and like I said—I hear
stuff from time to time. I just feel sorry for this guy—he's in way
over his head and he's scared."
"We'll find him and make sure it turns out all right." Amanda assured
her.
"That Russian was a real BAH HUMBUG guy. And you're the ELVES who are
going to make it all right. So let's look at this last card, OK?"
"Whatever." Lee replied—though he was intrigued to see that last card
in spite of himself.
The extra card showed a seated man clutching a pentacle tightly in
his arms. Two more were under his feet, and another was over his
head. He looked smug and self-satisfied.
"The four of pentacles. Looks like the scam won't work. You'll be
able to hold on to what's yours—and maybe make a little extra on the
deal. You sure don't like to be beaten or swindled. Just don't get
too physical with the guy, OK?" Annie chided Lee.
Amanda repressed a smirk. That sounded like an angry Lee for sure.
"Thank you, Annie. That's a very interesting reading." She handed the
reader her fee, and they left the restaurant.
In the car Lee asked his wife something that had been bothering
him. "Have you had her checked out yet?"
"Oh yeah—first thing. She's clean as a whistle."
"But what about those cards—what's up with that?"
"What do you mean?" Amanda asked innocently—even though she knew what
Lee was trying to communicate.
"Did you tell her about the garage fire?"
"No Lee. This is the first I've seen her since the Henderson case.
She called and left a message with the switchboard, and I arranged
we'd come to see her at lunch. We didn't talk about anything else."
Lee was silent for a while. Then he changed the subject. "We'll visit
Senator Boren's office, and bring some fake documents for his aide to
photograph. That way the aide won't know anything and the Russian
will get something, and maybe we can spread a little false intel to
keep the Russians busy chasing a wild goose."
"That sounds like a plan. And we can keep an eye on the aide, too.
Make sure he and his mother are safe."
"Yeah sure. That too." He looked over at his wife. "You always think
of others, and want to make sure they're safe, don't you?"
She shrugged. "Isn't that why we do what we do? To keep the rest of
the world safe from the bad guys?"
"Yes it is." He took her hand and kissed it. "Let's go do our bit for
mom, apple pie and the American way."
"Then we can go home. Mother made EGG NOG."
End
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