Billy Melrose
It occurred to him that he didn’t need to stand away from Amanda’s family anymore. But that wasn’t a pleasant thought, because of the reason: Dotty West wasn’t there to berate him, ask questions he couldn’t answer, or extol her daughter’s virtues.
Billy had been impressed with the woman the first time he’d met her, and during the Stemwinder incident, he’d come to genuinely like her. She’d reminded him of nearly everything he liked about her daughter: the curiosity, the loyalty, the determination to make things right even when they were topsy-turvy. He’d hoped, one day, to at least be able to give her a compliment about her parenting. Unfortunately, though, that was never going to happen. That saddened him more than he had expected.
He stood with Francine and a knot of other people from the Agency, people who had come to like Amanda and who wanted to pay their respects. It was one of those near-perfect days that often happened in October: warm, but not hot, with clear blue skies and low humidity. The sun was bright, but not so high as to cause a glare as it reflected off the two caskets that would soon be lowered into the ground.
All of them were wearing dark, somber colors. The death of a child was always especially tragic. And nobody should ever have to arrange two funerals instead of one.
Billy could see Scarecrow and Amanda clearly from his vantage point. He was also able to identify Amanda’s ex-husband and his new wife, as well as an adolescent boy with blond hair and glasses: Amanda’s younger son. He fidgeted periodically, clearly unhappy about the fact that his mother wouldn’t let go of his hand. It was understandable, he thought, and on both sides; he was now her only child, but he was too old to need a parent’s physical control.
Scarecrow — Lee, Billy corrected himself mentally, since they weren’t at the Agency — noticed the fidgeting too, and said something to Amanda, tightening the arm he had around her. They were both wearing unadorned, unbroken black. He hadn’t even known that Lee owned a black dress shirt; it had never appeared at the office.
Amanda, who was dry-eyed, didn’t respond to whatever Lee said, and the long lines of grief on his senior operative’s face deepened. This one was hitting them both as hard as he’d thought it would, and the obvious worry in Lee’s stance didn’t bode well for either of them. This past Monday, Lee had brought Amanda in briefly to speak with Dr. Pfaff, but they’d come and gone without visiting the bullpen.
Nobody, least of all Billy, had blamed them.
Taking a deep breath, Lee said something more to Amanda, turning slightly toward her and briefly causing the sunlight to flash off of his wedding ring. After a moment that stretched out far too long, she shuddered and let go of her son’s hand. That, he thought, didn’t look good, given how even a keel she tended to have.
Then Billy’s mind stuttered to a stop. Wedding ring?
He looked again, closer this time. No, he wasn’t imagining it: Lee Stetson was indeed wearing a wedding ring. So was Amanda King. The engagement ring she wore with it was periodically catching the sun’s rays, reflecting them with a sharp, bright energy that seemed too cheerful for the circumstances.
What in the world? They weren’t on a case or otherwise undercover; in fact, they were in plain sight of a number of family, friends, and co-workers. When Lee had changed his life insurance beneficiary earlier this year, he’d listed Amanda as his partner, not his wife. She had used the same word to describe him when she’d changed her beneficiary shortly after returning from disability leave.
Of course, he mused, marriage was a type of partnership. But shouldn’t this have been caught when they’d run Amanda through a routine security check after she came back from her leave? The check had uncovered the fact that they’d gone to California together — Lee hadn’t “flown out the minute he heard” about the shooting — but Billy had chalked that little fib up to them trying to keep their relationship off the record.
Apparently, though, the check had missed the exact nature of said relationship.
The next time they did a round of periodic checks, Billy decided to make sure Scarecrow was on the list. It would give him ammunition for when he asked, once they were back in the office. It also, he thought, might lead to a pretty amusing scene. Goodness knew they could all use one right now.
Beside him, Jeannie tugged gently on his hand. “Are you seeing what I’m seeing? Their left hands.”
“Yeah,” he whispered back. “Just noticed.”
“Maybe you should ask them after the service.”
He gave her a sideways look. “Wasn’t planning to talk to them. They need their privacy, to spend time with family and friends.”
She shook her head. “No, we’ll stay a few minutes. They’ll be glad we were here, Bill, and they can use all the support they can get.”
The others from the Agency departed quickly and quietly, but it still took several minutes to work their way over to the couple once the formalities had ended. Jeannie drew Lee into a hug, going up on her toes to whisper something into her ear. He put his arms around her, returning the embrace and giving Billy the opportunity for a clear, close view of his left hand. Yes, the plain gold band, worn on the fourth finger, was definitely a wedding ring.
As he withdrew from the embrace, Lee met Billy’s eyes. “Thanks for being here. We appreciate it.”
“Of course, son.” Was that a hint of defiance in Lee’s expression? “We wouldn’t have missed it.”
Then he turned and saw Jeannie frowning as she withdrew from where she’d hugged Amanda, and he forgot all about the ring as he took in the expression on his newest agent’s face: it was blank, utterly and completely flat. Which, until then, was a phrase he never thought he’d use in the same sentence as Amanda King’s name.
There was a tap on his office door the next week’s Monday morning. After Billy called out an acknowledgment, an exhausted-looking Lee came in. He held a large mug of coffee in his left hand, which still had the ring on it, and sat down without any further invitation. “I saw that look at the funeral. You need an explanation.”
“Yes. I do.” A quick-and-dirty check, during the week since the funeral, had uncovered the marriage license, but he wasn’t ready to reveal that yet.
Lee closed his eyes. “February 13th.”
“So that was why the two of you were so anxious to get out of there after we collared Felicia McMasters.” He paused. “It’s pretty bad luck to be late to your own wedding. Did you make it on time?”
“Yeah.” Lee opened his eyes again. “Just barely, though.”
“Good. That’s good, Lee. I’m happy for both of you.”
A small, cautious smile appeared. “Thanks.”
“All right then, now I want you to tell me why you didn’t disclose this up front. You both know we run routine re-clearances on our agents. Didn’t you think it would be uncovered soon or later? Why was it such a big secret to begin with?”
“Amanda’s family.”
“You’ll have to do better than that, Scarecrow, because it doesn’t make any sense.”
He took a long sip of coffee before answering. “Remember the Chinese Trade Fair case? Tran Van Khai?”
“What about it?” Then a memory surfaced. “Wait a minute. You were looking at real estate listings right around then. Were the two of you already engaged?”
“Yeah, and we were planning to make an announcement, but…” he trailed off. “They went after Khai’s family even after he faked his own death, Billy! I couldn’t do that to Amanda’s mother and chil —” he cut himself off as his voice broke, taking a breath before he continued. “We had to keep them safe. She agreed with me.”
“That has to be one of the stupidest things I have ever heard you say!” Lee’s eyes widened, but Billy wasn’t done. “What on earth could’ve made either of you think that not being there constituted protection? If anything —”
Lee held up a hand. “Look, I’ve already heard it from Amanda’s ex-husband, the morning after we got home from the hospital. You’re both right. It was stupid.”
“Well, it’s nice to know that you finally thought clearly about it!” But Billy’s exasperation had spent itself. “I suppose that’s why you’ve decided to come clean about it now.”
“Something like that, yeah. There’s also the matter of Agency policy.” The defiance began to creep back into Lee’s expression. “You said it yourself, after the P-2 incident. We’re one of the most efficient teams you have, and our numbers prove it. Amanda and I talked a while back. Neither one of us is ready to give up field work.”
With a sigh, Billy sat back in his chair. “You don’t have to. I had started to suspect something had changed between you two, as far back as that mess with Sinclair and Blackthorne. So I checked the regs. As long as one of you isn’t reporting to the other one, the Agency can allow it. Which is part of the reason I put her back under my direct supervision as part of your disciplinary action.”
Lee swallowed, looking him firmly in the eye. “There’s something else, and I should tell you now. I don’t buy the car accident theory.”
Billy felt his eyes narrow. “Why not?”
“Arlington PD estimated her speed at the time of the accident as between forty and forty-five miles an hour.”
“So what?”
“So the speed limit through that stretch is thirty-five, and if anything, Amanda’s mother tended to drive too slow. She was so terrified of making a mistake that she sometimes created traffic problems from being too cautious. She absolutely would not have been speeding. Not even by the few miles an hour most of the rest of us would.”
“Maybe she was distracted. And didn’t I read somewhere that these new sport-utility vehicles can flip over at lower speeds?”
“The speed estimate was based on tire tracks. The investigation said she’d lost control of her rear wheels. But she flipped to the left and forward, Billy. That doesn’t make any sense.”
“Maybe she hit something or dropped a wheel. Physics can be strange sometimes.”
“The median is concrete through there.” Lee shook his head. “And even if the tires came off the road, she still wouldn’t have been going fast enough to roll completely over. The car should’ve ended up on its side, between the two sets of lanes. Not spinning into oncoming traffic!”
Billy folded his arms. “I take it you’ve already started looking into this.”
He scrubbed a hand through his hair. “Yeah. It…it gave me something to do. We stayed that first weekend with Amanda’s ex-husband and his wife, but we’re at my apartment now.”
“That can’t be a long-term solution.”
“No. Jamie — Amanda’s son — is sleeping on the couch in my living room, and that’s not going well.”
“What does Amanda think about this?”
Now a look of what might have been anguish appeared on Lee’s face. “Dr. Pfaff still has her on tranquilizers. But she insisted that Jamie go back to school today. He was more than ready. I took him in before coming to work.”
“She’s at your apartment alone? Did Pfaff sign off on that?”
“Yeah, he thought the quiet and some time to herself might do her some good. She’s not a danger to herself, if that’s what you’re worried about. And I…” he trailed off. “I kind of needed a break.”
“I can understand that,” said Billy, and not without sympathy.
“I’ve already put some feelers out about the crash investigation. I should hear something soon. Or, at least, I hope I will.”
“So do I,” he answered, “And good luck to you. But you’re going to need to work this with your own time and resources. And I mean that, Scarecrow, unless and until you find something that can tie it to this Agency,” he added before Lee could voice his protest. “Announcing your marriage is going to put you even further into the spotlight than you already are. Which is, by the way, a good thing. You’re going to have to let us throw you a shower or a party or something, once you’re both ready. But some of the attention you’re about to get might not be the kind you want.”
His lips thinned. “Yeah, I know. At the same time, it’s — it’s something of a relief to stop keeping extra secrets. We already do enough of that in the line of duty as it is.”
“So there’s nothing else you’re holding back, now?”
“No.”
Although he hadn’t noticed its absence, Billy now recognized that he hadn’t heard that particular ring of truth in the younger man’s voice for quite a while. That, alone, made the statement believable.