Screen Captures Courtesy of Swoopes For personal use and select distribution only © April 2002 by Amber Stockton Spiderweb - tagalogueWritten by Juanita Bartlett, Stephen Hattman & Mark Kessler (excerpts from the episode belong to them)
Lee followed Amanda to the coffee machine. "Did we get any…did you get any good information from the general?" Amanda lifted the coffeepot to pour some into two cups. Larner walked into the bullpen as she asked, and answered the question for Lee. "Even more than expected." "Oh, hello, sir! Would you like a cup of coffee?" She handed Lee his cup. "No, none for me, thank you, Amanda," Larner replied. Lee turned to face Larner and took his cup from Amanda. "What about Margaret Brock?" "Well, her trial is set for next month. She and her friends are assured of life in prison." "Hmm," Lee replied and sipped his coffee. "Well, sir, Lee was just helping me to reconstruct my file." "Yeah, it's, uh, slow going, but we're almost finished. Then we can close the book on Spiderweb," Lee added with a pleased smile. "Amen!" Larner stated. "Well, there is just one ... more tiny little thing..." Amanda began, seeming hesitant. "Really, what's that?" Larner asked, appearing interested. "Well, sir, you know the fifty-thousand dollars that was deposited into my bank account?" "Mm-hmm." "That was American money, wasn't it?" Lee had a bad feeling about where Amanda was going with this and started to interrupt, but all he could manage was, "Umm." He looked between Larner and Amanda, and held his breath as he waited to hear what she would say. "Well, it was in dollars, yes. It was part of a general operating fund the Russians set up for Margaret." "Oh, so that was actually Russian money. They just made it into American dollars before they deposited it into my bank account. Because, you know, if that money belonged to our government, well, gee, you know, I'd give it right back." She shrugged and gave them an innocent look. Lee blinked and looked at her in both amazement and disbelief, then turned to glance at Larner with a similar look. Amanda watched them both and sipped coffee from her cup. "Scarecrow…" Larner muttered in a warning tone. Before he could reply, Amanda continued, only making him sweat even more. "I mean, you know, we certainly wouldn't want to give the Russians that money, would we?" "It's, uh, evidence." He looked at Larner, seeking some support. "It must be evidence." "Right…Carry on." Larner nodded with approval and turned to leave. "Oh, yes, sir. Thank you very much, sir," Amanda called as Larner left. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Lee looked out the window and saw Larner shaking his finger, so he turned back to face Amanda, panic rising inside and causing his heartbeat to quicken. "Uh…" He paused and tried to think of what to do or say to get out of this mess. "Um, Amanda…" "Yes?" She looked at him with such an innocent expression, he had to wonder if she really was serious. After all of the doubt about her character with this recent case, he couldn't bring himself to believe she'd be anything but truthful with him. "Uh, could you finish typing in the file update for me?" "Sure." She nodded. "Where are you going?" "I have to make a quick call to Legal," he told her and left the bullpen. Just as soon as he walked behind her, he glanced back to see Amanda smile and lean back against the table as she sipped her coffee, so he paused for a moment. When she laughed, Lee knew he'd been had! With a grin, he decided that two could play at this game. "You know," he said and popped back around the door, startling her and almost making her spill her coffee as she jumped away from the table, "I really don't think it's important to make that call to Legal. Why don't we just get back to work on reconstructing your file?" He shrugged and started to walk back past her to the desk where they had been working. "Oh, but Lee," her voice stopped him, "won't Mr. Larner be upset if you don't get this money thing resolved?" "I don't think it's that big of a deal. It's not like the money was ours to begin with, so no one's losing out on anything. Why don't we forget about it?" He turned his head away to hide his grin and waited for the protest he knew would come. "Oh, no! I couldn't do that!" He heard her approach from behind. "Lee, I'm sorry about what I said a moment ago. I didn't really mean it when I said I was going to keep the money. You really do need to do something, since it's going to make me feel awfully guilty if it stays there. I know I wasn't involved in any way with it, but I don't like knowing that it's there, so whatever you need to do to..." "Amanda," he interrupted. "It's already taken care of. That call to legal was for Larner's peace of mind. I had already made arrangements for the money to be transferred out and, for all intents and purposes, dissolved." He paused and extended his arm to encourage her to join him. "Now, can we get back to work on your file? We're almost done, and then we can forget all about this entire thing." He placed a hand at her back and guided her as they walked. Once they reached the desk, Lee sat down at the typewriter and glanced over the information they had already compiled. "All right, how about after the braces, or no braces, as you said?" "Lee, can I ask you a question?" "Hmh?" "When you were ordered to search my house, were you just obeying orders or did you tell Mr. Melrose or Mr. Larner or whoever issued the order how ridiculous it was that I would be a double agent?" Lee held his breath for a moment and searched for a way to reply. She had asked the one question he had hoped she wouldn't ask. He knew he could talk his way out of it and assure her that he didn't doubt her, but he had hoped that his assurance at her house would be enough. Obviously, it wasn't, or she wouldn't be asking again. "Yes, Amanda," he finally said. "I did, but it was no use. Larner was convinced that you were the double agent, and nothing short of hell freezing over was going to stop him from his quest to prove your involvement." "Oh, well, I understand that, but I was just wondering how you and Mr. Melrose felt. Francine made it clear how she felt with her comparison of me to a family dog, and she actually apologized, somewhat, in her own way, but I would feel bad if I had done anything to make you or Mr. Melrose feel that such suspicion had any grounds." Lee glanced across the top of the typewriter at Amanda, pacing back and forth and nervously fidgeting with her hands. Somehow, he had to reassure her, help her to feel that none of this was her fault. "Amanda," he began, but she looked like she hadn't heard him. "Amanda," he said again, only this time stronger. She stopped and looked at him. "Would you stop pacing and come sit down...please?" She looked at him and nodded, then walked over and took a seat. Before he had a chance to continue, she spoke. "Lee, you know, I would understand if you and Mr. Melrose suspected me. There were a lot of gaps in my files and a lot of suspicious things I was doing that happened to coincide with Spiderweb." "Amanda, we didn't..." She continued as if he hadn't spoken. "So, you really don't have to feel bad if you did." "Amanda, would you..." "Even if just for a moment." "But, I already..." "Besides, you did tell me the other day that here was not the place to discuss whatever it was that was happening, and I went home expecting to hear from you later that night, but you never came, so I wondered what was going on. Then, you show up at my house to search it and try to tell me that everything is all right, and..." "Amanda!" he interrupted again. "Would you stop it already?" She immediately appeared chastised by his impatient tone. "I'm sorry." "Now, the reason I didn't come was because we were swamped with this investigation surrounding Spiderweb. I tried to get away, but I couldn't. Then, when I was ordered to search your house, and you came back, I figured it was a good time to explain everything to you." "I really am glad you did." "What I started to say a few moments ago was that Margaret did a damn good job tampering with your file. She changed all the right information and dropped all the necessary hints to make you a very believable suspect. It's a good thing you realized how easy it would be for her gain access to the personnel files and classified information, or we might still be wondering about all of this." "So, then you did suspect me." It was more of a statement than a question. He sighed and shook his head, then ran his hand through his hair in agitation. "All right, I'll admit it, I did suspect you....but, it was only for a little while ... about as long as it took me to drive from the Agency to your house and see that map of Czechoslovakia." "Lee, that's all right. I told you I would understand." "Well, Amanda, you have to admit, there was a lot of incriminating evidence against you." He glanced back down at the typewriter and thought of the long list of things that had given cause to suspect her: the large monetary deposits, her visit to the Czech Embassy, the radio transmitter, the absence of a thorough background check, her appearance at the restaurant the night of the first murder, her mention of the codeword for the assignment, her casual glance at the checkpoints along the Durak route, and the coded message near her house. It amazed him that they hadn't busted her much earlier. They had certainly tried and convicted many others with much less. "Yes, I know, and I'm really sorry the first two men had to die. I'm glad I was able to help get General Karogan to safety, though." She paused and lowered her head. "Thank you, Lee, for believing in me." Her voice was barely a whisper. "Hey." He reached out to cover her hands with his and waited until she was looking directly at him. "We all ought to know by now that you would never do anything like this, so if any fault should be placed anywhere, it should be on us for doubting you in the first place." "Oh, it's really not a big deal, Lee." She shrugged. "Like you said, there was a lot of evidence against me. Anyone would have been suspected, had they been in my place. I do understand." "But you didn't deserve to go through all of that." He gave her hand a gentle squeeze. She glanced down at their hands, then looked up at him. "Thank you." The hint of a smile on her face and the look in her eyes caused him to become very uncomfortable. Clearing his throat, he sat back in his chair and removed his hands from hers. "So, now that we've got that straightened out, have you spent a lot of time with that Topping fellow?" "Not really. Why do you ask?" "Oh, no reason. I hadn't seen him before, and I wondered if the two of you saw each other since that night. You mentioned you met him at the PTA and that he has a boy in Jamie's class, so you must have a lot in common." "In many ways, yes." Lee watched her face as she replied, although he didn't know why it was so important to him. For some reason, the thought of Amanda going out with another guy immediately had him wondering what qualities that guy had that Amanda found attractive. He'd seen one or two of the men she'd been out with, and they really weren't all that great. "Well, that's good," he finally said. "So, shouldn't we get back to my file?" "Uh...yeah." He shifted in his seat. It was a good thing they had a task to complete, because he was feeling very foolish for asking about Amanda's dating interests. At least she hadn't pursued it any further and inquired why he was asking. He didn't even know if he could explain it himself. Passing it off as simple concern for her, especially considering the one or two times her choices had resulted in security breaches or added trouble, he focused his attention on the typewriter and prepared to finish reconstructing Amanda's file. There was plenty of time later to ponder the feelings he had where Amanda was involved. (THE END) |
