Lee “Scarecrow” Stetson
“Yeah,” said Lee into the phone. “In Arlington, the one at Wilson and Edgewood. Will I be able to pick it up for her? Okay. Thanks, Doc.”
Footsteps sounded behind him as he hung up, and he turned to see Joe at the foot of the stairs. The other man had come through the living room a few minutes earlier, but he’d barely noticed; all of his attention had been on a weeping Amanda. She’d tossed and turned all night, apologizing every time she woke him up as they lay on the pullout couch in Joe and Carrie’s living room. It wasn’t until he’d wrapped himself around her, trapping her arms and legs, that she’d fallen asleep and stayed that way. He doubted it had been restful.
After her outburst in the kitchen, Lee had followed her back into the living room where she was curled onto the as-yet-unmade pullout bed, crying as hard as he’d ever seen from her. He’d sat down and tried to pull her into his arms, but she’d jerked away and he’d let her go. She lay like that for a long time, sniffling and sobbing, her entire body shaking and heaving for a long time before it finally subsided. She’d then gotten up, beginning to jerk the bedding off of the mattress.
“Amanda,” he’d begun.
“These need to come off before we put the bed back into the couch.”
“Amanda.” But she’d jerked away again, and he hadn’t been able to do anything more than watch as she stripped the bed and put the couch back together. Afterward, she sank down onto it, her face drawn back into that horrible numb expression he’d seen when he first woke up this morning. He’d been able to put his arms around her then, but she didn’t respond any more to his presence than she had when she was crying.
Out of desperation, he’d called Dr. Pfaff at the Agency. “Shock,” the psychiatrist had said. “I can give you a short-term prescription for tranquilizers.”
“Damn it, Doc,” he’d started, “she just lost half her family. She doesn’t need to be medicated out of —”
“It’s only for the weekend,” Pfaff had interrupted. “Just enough time for her to get herself back together. She’s psychologically strong, Lee. She has coping mechanisms, and once she can work her way through to using them, she’ll be fine. I want to see her Monday morning.”
“I don’t know what we’re going to be doing then.”
“Find the time to get her in here. I can make it an order if you want.”
Over on the couch, Amanda hadn’t moved a muscle during the entire conversation, even when he’d said her name. With a long sigh, Lee had capitulated. Pfaff had agreed to call the prescriptions over to her usual pharmacy instead of making him go all the way back to Georgetown to get them.
“How is she?” asked Joe now, bringing Lee back to the moment.
He shook his head. “Not good. That was one of the Agency doctors. He’s going to call in a prescription for a few days of tranquilizers.” Seeing Joe’s expression, he repeated Pfaff’s words. “I don’t like it, either, but I don’t know what else to do. He did say we were right not to take her back to the house last night.”
Joe nodded. “I’ll talk to Carrie. You can stay here as long as you need.”
“No, we’ll go to my apartment. Jamie can —”
“You heard him in there,” said Joe. “If you’re going to do that, you should at least let him stay here, where he has a bed.”
He scrubbed both hands through his hair. Separating Amanda from Jamie might make things worse instead of better, and he doubted it would do much good for Jamie either. It was only his own distaste at the idea of staying with Amanda’s ex, he realized, that had him wanting to get out of here so quickly.
“Lee,” said Carrie from the entrance to the kitchen. “At least leave her here while you go over to the house for her things. That way she doesn’t have to wait in the car for you.” She held up a piece of paper. “Jamie and I made a list.”
He crossed the room to take it. “Thanks. You’ll — you guys have the number for my car phone, don’t you? Joe, you call me if anything —”
“I’m going with you.”
They both turned to stare at him.
“Two of us will make it a faster trip, and…” he trailed off, pointedly looking at Lee’s bare left hand. “You and I need to talk anyway.”
Even when he and Amanda were the only people in her house, it had never been completely quiet. But it was now, and that was more than a little unnerving. Lee could have sworn he’d caught glimpses of Phillip and Dotty out of the corners of his eyes, and their voices seemed to echo from every corner. He’d shaken his head to clear it more than once; there were no such things as ghosts, and his memory was already vivid enough.
Working quickly, he made his way through Amanda’s dresser, pulling out clothing and personal items as he filled up one of her travel bags. It kept him from having to listen to the weird, reverberating silence. He wondered if they’d ever be able to come back to this house so full of memories.
He’d been going through the drawers as quickly as he could, comparing things he found with Carrie’s and Jamie’s list, but then his hand closed on a solid square-shaped object. Pulling it out, he saw that it was a velvet-covered jewelry box, and when he opened it, his breath caught: her engagement and wedding rings, stored inside for safety. There was also just enough room in the box’s domed cover for a satin pouch, which he discovered contained the locket she’d once used to carry a microdot.
At the time, a little over two years ago, the locket had contained an old picture of Phillip and Jamie. Opening it now, he saw that she’d changed the contents: the boys’ picture was more recent, and on the formerly empty opposite side…his breath caught again, this time with a hitch. It was a photo of the two of them, snapped just after they’d said their wedding vows. She’d trimmed the print to mostly focus on him, leaving her own face at the very edge.
Lee hadn’t realized how much his appearance had changed in the years they’d worked together, but he decided that the changes were mostly for the better. While it was true that there were some lines around his eyes and mouth, and he could see the first hints of gray in his hair, those signs of aging were more than eclipsed by the joy and wonder in his facial expression. They’d been so happy that day.
Neither of them had suspected that they’d be caught in someone else’s crossfire just two days later, leaving her clinging to life.
His hands shook as he shut the locket, returned it to the pouch, and then returned the pouch to the box before slipping it into his pocket. They’d pulled through then. They’d pull through now. They didn’t have any other option.
Closing the suitcase, he made his way out into the hallway and down to the den. Another packed travel bag sat next to the couch, but Joe himself was in the kitchen, cradling his right hand and grimacing as he searched through cabinets. He’d insisted he was fine, but the pain medicine shouldn’t have worn off that quickly.
Dropping Amanda’s bag next to Jamie’s, Lee headed into the kitchen and pulled out the first-aid kit. “What’d you do?”
“Nothing.”
He silently indicated the hand that was still curled against the older man’s chest. With a sigh, Joe held it out for inspection. The bruising was spectacular, but there were no obvious deformities and a full range of motion. When Lee worked it through its range of motion, he hissed in pain and sweat popped out on his brow. “Okay. Not broken.”
“I know.”
“But you did a number on it.”
Joe made a soft scoffing noise that, at another time, might have been a laugh. “You should see the wall.”
Shaking his head, Lee went back to the cabinets for Amanda’s craft box. Joe’s gaze followed behind. “You know your way around in here pretty well.”
“That the best insult you can come up with?”
“I don’t mean it to be an insult.”
Lee pulled out an unused popsicle stick from the box, breaking it half and then starting on the edges with a bit of leftover sandpaper. “Then what do you mean?”
“Exactly what I said. You know your way around in here, better than I used to, even.”
He shrugged and kept sanding. “I usually help clean up after dinner. Even cook it every now and then.”
“So you are here a good bit.”
That led him to pause and look up. “Your point?”
“I don’t see anything here that belongs to you, but you’re familiar with the house. You knew how to handle Jamie when he was upset. And you claim that you and Amanda are married.”
He felt himself bristling. “We are. Have been since February.”
“Eight months? Then why haven’t I heard about it?”
Deciding the sanding job was good enough, he started digging through the first-aid kit for some tape. “We didn’t think it was safe.”
“Safe? Wasn’t she shot right around then? Was that before or after you got married?”
“After,” admitted Lee. “Right after, actually. That was supposed to have been our honeymoon.”
“So that’s why you were in California. Was it a case?”
“No.” He positioned the popsicle stick between the last two fingers of Joe’s hand and began taping them together, buddy-style. “We were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“And now this. Which isn’t based on a case either, is it?”
“It’s too early to tell.”
“That cop seemed pretty sure.” Joe winced again while he finished the taping, but kept his hand still. “You couldn’t have done anything to prevent this, any more than you could’ve prevented Amanda being shot. Right?”
“What are you getting at?”
“You can’t protect them from everything.” With his uninjured hand, Joe slapped the craft box closed. It narrowly missed Lee’s own fingers. “You had no reason to think there was any danger yesterday, any more than you had any reason to think you’d be unsafe in California.”
“So?”
“Life’s dangerous even when you aren’t working cases! But when you are, don’t you think she and the boys are safer with you being in here instead of skulking around the garden and running off to hide whenever someone like Edna Gilstrap might see you? Haven’t you ever thought about that?”
The skin under Lee’s collar heated up. “Now, you wait just a damn minute. Only a few people even know Amanda works with the Agency!”
“Really? You’ve been on dozens of cases together. Everyone in the intelligence community knows you’re an operative and that she’s your partner! Hell, they even knew it around the EAO, and that was before the two of you helped clear my name.” He rounded on Lee, voice rising. “And you can bet if they knew already, so did half the lawyers and most of the private investigators in this town. Not to mention all the folks from the three-letter agencies and the government itself.”
“Oh, come on —”
“Don’t give me that. This city is lousy for secrets, and you damn well know it! So don’t try this ‘keeping the family safe’ baloney. It was stupid at the time, and it’s even more stupid now!” Joe paused, breathing heavily. “I don’t even know why you thought that in the first place. Just being partners was enough to paint the target. Getting married only turned it a brighter shade of red.”
The heat began spreading onto Lee’s face. “It’s also none of your damn business!”
“Getting married? No. But protecting my ex-wife and children? That’s absolutely my business! So do that already!”
“I am!”
“Do it right! Be here!” Joe spun away. “And, oh my God, I can’t believe I just said that.” He stalked out of the kitchen toward the den. “Let’s go.”
Lee forced himself to take a minute to put the first-aid kit and box away, feeling his temper cool as he did so. Still, he stared at the cabinet door for a long time before opening the one beside it and taking out a bottle.
Filling a nearby glass with water, he carried both items into the den. “You, ah, you need any more aspirin? I…” he trailed off. “I know what those package directions say, but as long as you have something on your stomach, it’s okay to double up every now and then. I’ve had to do it myself sometimes.”
Joe let out a long breath. “Yeah. Thanks.” He swallowed quickly and then handed the bottle and glass back. “Sorry. I guess I’m still trying to work through everything.”
“No,” said Lee. “You’re right. I just —” he stopped, having run out of words. “Let me put these away and then I’ll carry the bags out. You don’t need to make that hand any worse than it already is. And we’ll get you some more painkillers when we stop at the drug store for Amanda’s prescription.”
He did one more thing after rinsing the glass and putting everything back in the cabinets. Reaching under his shirt, he pulled out the chain Amanda had given him for his birthday this past summer. Then, he unclasped it, slid the wedding ring off, and put it on his hand.
The little box in his pocket felt like it was burning a hole right through the fabric.