Chapter Four                                                                                                                           Thursday, November 16, 1989

Amanda shifted her legs as she tried to get comfortable. The morning meeting was running over, and she’d been standing for a good twenty minutes. So far, everything appeared to be running smoothly. She was going to meet with the agents in charge of security, to get a rundown on the morning’s events once the meeting had concluded. Then, she was going to run through the security tape to see what Kun looked like.

A few minutes later, diplomats and aides streamed out of the conference room. Amanda stood to the side, watching them surreptitiously. She noticed one tall man who glanced around the hallway, then leveled a glance at her. His eyes were dark, and squinted a little as they washed over her. She shivered involuntarily, then watched as he moved away.

Fred Fielder wandered out of the room, then spotted Amanda. “Amanda, we’re over here.”

Amanda walked over to the four agents and said, “Good morning, everyone. How’s everything going so far?”

“Smooth sailing,” Fred bragged. “Not a single issue.”

Amanda looked at his smiling face. He seemed sincere, and the other agents were nodding. “Good to hear,” she replied. “I’d like to see the security tape. We need an ID on Mátyás Kun.”

“Kun?” Fielder asked, confused. “I don’t remember seeing that name on our roster.”

“Let me see your roster, Fred,” Amanda demanded impatiently. She ran down the names on the list. Fred was right…no Kun. “Lee’s not going to be happy about this. Fred, I need a copy of this roster. Damon, I need a copy of the tape.”

The agents scurried around to fulfill her requests. While she waited, Amanda went over to the phone banks and called the Q Bureau. Kelly answered, “Q Bureau,” in a sing song voice.

“Kelly?” Amanda asked. “I need to speak to Lee. Is he there?”

“Sure, Amanda,” Kelly gushed. “I’d be happy to get him. Just a sec!”

While she waited, Amanda remembered that Francine wanted to talk with her about Kelly. Amanda thought she knew why. Kelly seemed to have developed a crush on Ephraim and that had to bothering Francine. Amanda smiled when she thought about Francine being jealous…it was about time!

“Amanda?” Lee came on the line. “What’s up?”

“Lee, we have a problem,” Amanda answered. “I’ll be back at the office in a few minutes with the roster and a copy of the tape. Kun’s name is not on the roster, but we have the right number of people. He’s got to be under an assumed name.”

“OK, I’ll find Ephraim and Francine and we’ll be waiting.”

SMK SMK

Francine and Ephraim sat next to each other in the conference room, waiting on Lee and Amanda. Francine glanced over at Ephraim, who looked over at Francine and smiled. Francine smiled back, then turned away. Ephraim started to say something, but stopped when Kelly walked in the room. She started to smile when she saw Ephraim, but then noticed Francine glaring at her.

“Good morning, Ephraim, I was just looking for you,” Kelly gushed as she walked over to him. “I wanted to tell you just how much I enjoyed our lunch yesterday. It was so much fun!”

“Uh, good, Kelly,” Ephraim stammered, glancing over at Francine. Francine rolled her eyes, then turned to look out the window. “I, uh, enjoyed it, too.”

“Oh, that’s wonderful, Ephraim,” Kelly squealed. “So, want to do it again today? It’s supposed to be gorgeous outside!”

Ephraim glanced again at Francine, then looked at Kelly. He suddenly realized that Kelly was making a play for him. This wasn’t good. No, this wasn’t good at all. “Uh, Kelly, um, I don’t think so. I’ve got a lot to do today.”

“Oh,” Kelly pouted. “Well, maybe we can do it some other time?” She put a really sad face on, and Ephraim suddenly felt really bad. He’d gone to lunch with her the day before to be friendly, but he didn’t want to give her the wrong impression. He was definitely not interested in anything beyond friendship with this girl, if even that. However, he knew that she didn’t have many friends at all and didn’t want to hurt her feelings.

“Uh, maybe,” Ephraim wavered.

“Oh, good,” Kelly raved. “I’ll just get out of your hair then. I’ll see you later!” She wiggled her fingers at him as she pranced out of the room.

“You’re going to have trouble there, Ephraim, if you don’t watch out,” Francine muttered as she turned back towards the table.

“Think so?” Ephraim responded. Francine sounded…almost jealous, he thought to himself. Could she really be jealous? Before he could dwell on this bewildering idea, Lee entered the room with Amanda.

“All right, we’ve got a problem,” Lee announced as they sat down across from Francine and Ephraim. “Amanda discovered that Kun isn’t using his own name. We have to figure out who he is and soon. I’ve got the original list here,” he said as he handed each of them a paper, “and here is the list Amanda got today. There are over a hundred names on each list, so I want you two to go over them together and see if you spot the new name. Amanda and I are going to watch the security tape and see if we can match any names to faces through their badges.”

“OK, boss,” Francine joked. “Ephraim and I can go back to our office, so you can watch the video in here. Amanda, do you have a quick minute?”

“Sure,” Amanda replied. “Lee, why don’t you get everything set up and Francine and I will head to our office to get some coffee.”

Amanda and Francine headed to Amanda’s office. As they entered, Amanda shut the door, then checked the vault. “I’m assuming you want to talk to me about Kelly.”

“Yes,” Francine sighed. “Look, I’m really not trying to start anything, but…I think she’s making a move on Ephraim.”

“So?” Amanda responded with a smile. “I mean, he is single. She’s cute…what’s the problem?”

“Ugh!” Francine grimaced. “I don’t know. I just don’t like her. She’s coming on awful strong. She reminds me a lot of those trophy wives you see. I think she sees Ephraim as her meal ticket.”

“And…if he doesn’t mind…” Amanda continued. She looked at Francine and could tell she was really upset. “Why are you so upset about this, Francine? I thought you just wanted to be friends with him.”

“I don’t know, Amanda,” Francine whispered. “I don’t know what I want. But, I do know that I don’t like her.”

“OK,” Amanda said as she walked over to her friend. “If you don’t like her, she’s gone. I want you to be happy working with us up here, so I’ll speak to Billy about it. She’s nearly done anyway, so maybe tomorrow can be her last day.”

Francine smiled with relief. “I really appreciate this, Amanda. She’s just really grating on my nerves.”

Amanda laughed, then went to get some coffee for herself and Lee. Francine waited and poured some for Ephraim and herself as well. Together, the friends walked back to their respective partners to begin working on the latest wrinkle.

SMK SMK

After lunch and several hours of hard work, the four agents gathered back in the conference room. “Ephraim and I found the name!” Francine exclaimed. “We just found it a few minutes ago. And, let me tell you, it was not easy! Do you know how many of them have the same first or last name? A lot, I can tell you!”

“Great!” Lee interrupted. “Can you tell us what it is?”

“It’s Mátyás Árpád,” Ephraim revealed. “He apparently kept his real first name, then chose a very common last name.”

“Good,” Amanda remarked. “Now, Lee and I went down to the lab after we viewed the surveillance. We had stills made of all the shots where we could see nametags and faces. We got about 75% of the people. I matched up as many names as I could, but we have about 25% still to do. Let’s flip through those and see if we caught him on tape.”

Everyone grabbed a handful of pictures and started flipping through them. A minute later, Lee exclaimed, “I’ve got him!”

The other agents dropped their pictures and gathered around Lee. “Lee, that looks like the guy I spotted this morning. He was really creepy,” Amanda shared.

Lee smiled up at Amanda. She really could pick up on vibes that no one else could. “Great, Amanda! Hopefully, we’ll all be able to spot him now. OK, the meetings are over for today. I’m going to…”

As Lee was talking, the door opened and Kelly started to bounce in, but stopped when she realized that all four agents were present. “Oh,” she exhaled. “I, uh, I, uh…I was coming to see you, Amanda, to see if there was anything else I needed to do before I left.”

Amanda looked at Ephraim, who was very determinedly not looking at Kelly. Then, she glanced at Francine, who had become enamored with the ceiling. Amanda stifled a smile, then responded, “No, Kelly, I think you can go for the evening. We’ve got everything under control.”

“Are you sure? I mean, I don’t mind…”

“Goodnight, Kelly,” Amanda said in her “mother” tone, giving Kelly the same look she gave the boys when they’d messed up big time.

Kelly blanched, then muttered, “Goodnight.” She turned around and walked out dejectedly.

Amanda turned around and gave Francine a grin, who grinned back. “So, Lee,” Amanda said as she sat back down. “You were saying?”

“Uh, yeah,” Lee said, giving Amanda a confused look. “Uh, where was I? Oh, I’m going to take this picture down to the photo lab and get prints made for all of the agents. Tomorrow morning, I’ll be at the first meeting to get the prints to them. Then, I’ll get them to the Secret Service for tomorrow night’s ball. Anything else?”

Everyone shook their head. Amanda smiled and said, “I think we all deserve a nice evening. Lee and I were going to go to Spencer’s for dinner. Would you two like to join us?”

Ephraim grinned and said to Francine, “Think you can put up with me for awhile?”

Francine smiled and nodded, “I don’t see that being a problem.”

Amanda said, “We’re going to run home to drop off my car for Mother. Want to meet at 7?”

SMK SMK

Amanda and Lee pulled up to Spencer’s a little before 7. “So, what’s up with Francine?” Lee asked as they sat in the front seat of the ‘Vette.

“Well,” Amanda began. “Would you believe that Jonathan Stone is getting married and had the gall to send an invitation to her?”

“You’re kidding,” Lee scoffed. “Wow…I had him pegged for a serial womanizer.”

Amanda grinned. “I guess people can change.” Lee looked up at her and grinned, then lifted her left hand to his lips and gently kissed it.

“I guess so,” he agreed. “So…who’s he marrying and why’s Francine upset? I thought she was over that creep.”

“Oh, she is. It’s just that she never expected it. She expected to move on with her life, but not vice versa. It was just a shock. He’s marrying…what’s her name…Elise Clare? No, Eloise Clare,” Amanda shared.

“Eloise Clare?” Lee responded with a whistle. “Wow, Stone hit the big time. The Clares are old school DC money.”

“Anyway, Francine got upset when she received the invite. Also, she took a real dislike to Kelly,” Amanda continued.Lee laughed. “I bet she did. Kelly was a tad obvious, wasn’t she?”

“Oh, you noticed, did you?” Amanda teased, swatting him on the shoulder.

“Hard not to,” Lee retorted. “Poor Beaman didn’t stand a chance.”

“Yeah, well, I’ve already spoken to Billy and tomorrow is Kelly’s last day in the Q. I’m going to tell her tomorrow afternoon.”

“OK, well, that’s your call,” Lee whispered as he leaned in to kiss his wife. “What do you think of Kelly?” They each opened their doors and got out of the car. They met each other at the back and instinctively clasped hands.

“You know, at first I liked her, but then I began to see that she was a little too overeager. Not that that’s necessarily bad,” she said as Lee gave her a little grin, “but, it just doesn’t seem…real. It seems like she’s got a hidden agenda and, well, I guess I want to keep Francine happy. And she is definitely not happy with the moves Kelly has been making.”

Lee laughed and escorted his wife into their favorite steakhouse. A few minutes later, Ephraim and Francine joined them and the two couples enjoyed a great dinner with a lot of laughs, great stories, and some sparks between the unmarried couple that did not go unnoticed by the couple who were married.

“So,” Amanda said as they began to eat their cheesecake. “Do you have your dress ready for tomorrow night, Francine?”

“Oh, yes, actually I do,” Francine nodded as she swallowed a bite. “Remember that blue dress in Magda’s window? Well, I went over today and bought it!” Ephraim threw Francine a startled look. When they’d entered the dress shop the day before, Francine had mentioned she needed a new dress for Friday’s ball and he’d made an off-the-cuff remark about how that dress would look great on her.

Amanda noticed Ephraim’s expression and answered, “Oh, yeah, I do remember it. It would look great on you.”

“How about you, Amanda?”

Amanda gazed at Lee and smiled fondly. “Well, my darling husband bought me a beautiful red gown the last time he was in New York, so I’m all set.”

Francine glanced at Ephraim and smiled, then turned away at the look in his eyes. What was going on with her this week? She thought about all the emotions she’d been feeling: shock at the invitation she’d received; an ache when she thought about Jonathan moving on when she seemed so stagnant; excitement over her official posting to the Q Bureau; trepidation about her partnership with Ephraim…Ephraim… She thought about the feeling that had been one of the strongest this week…stark jealousy at that…Kelly moving in on her…her? When had Ephraim become hers?

“Francine?” Lee joked. “Anyone home?” Francine looked at Lee with a start, then joined in with the communal laughter.

“I’m sorry, I guess I was woolgathering for a minute there,” Francine admitted. “So, what did I miss?”

“Nothing,” Amanda reassured her. “Oh, by the way, everyone,” she continued with a grin towards Francine. “Tomorrow is going to be Kelly’s last day.”

“Really,” Lee said with mock surprise.

“Oh?” Ephraim questioned. “How come?” Seeing the look on Amanda’s face, Ephraim had a pretty good idea as to the reason. He’d realized yesterday that Francine didn’t like Kelly. After seeing Francine’s reaction this morning, it had dawned on him…Francine was actually jealous of the attention Kelly was giving him. When Ephraim had realized that, it had given him a tiny hope that maybe, finally, Francine was beginning to see him in a new light.

“Oh,” Amanda answered mischievously, “I just don’t think we’re going to need her anymore. I think the four of us can handle things just fine.”

Francine coughed and Ephraim worked really hard to stifle a grin. He felt a little bad about Kelly, but knew she had a position waiting in the steno pool for her. She was nice and all, but really a dead bore. He’d tried to talk about various topics, but she seemed interested only in fashion and shopping. That one lunch they’d shared had been sheer torture for him. Of course, Francine didn’t need to know that.

“I agree, Amanda,” Lee said. “How about you two? Are you happy with your move to the Q Bureau?”

Ephraim glanced at Francine, who smiled back radiantly. “Yeah, I think it’s going to be great.”

“Me, too,” Francine murmured. “I think the four of us make a great team.” Ephraim grinned at her emphasis on the word “four” and grabbed her hand under the table, giving it a little squeeze. She squeezed back, then looked him in the eye and smiled.

Amanda and Lee witnessed this little exchange, then gazed at each other. Yes, things were definitely going to be great from here on out.