Too Close to Home: A Scarecrow and Mrs. King Continuing Story - Book 2

Chapter 13

Day 5; Saturday Evening

Q-Bureau

"Mrs. Bentley was pretty furious with both the boys, but she was very cooperative." Efraim leaned his shoulder against the vault door. "According to Brad, this Jennifer girl that Philip mentioned is new at school, and Brad's only known her for a couple of weeks. He doesn't even know her last name."

Lee stood behind Amanda who was sitting at her desk. He could sense the tension radiating off her. "Yeah," He shifted his eyes back to Beaman. "That fits with what Philip told us."

"He swears he never talked to Jennifer about giving Melissa anything illicit, and that he was not aware of anything like that happening."

"And since none of the other kids overheard that conversation, it's Philip's word against Brad's." Amanda sighed and absent-mindedly rubbed her hand over her belly. She looked over at Billy. "When will we get the drug tests back so we can prove that Brad must have at least known something?"

Billy sighed. "That's going to take at least another week."

Amanda's eyebrows raised. "Even with the rush because of Melissa being Senator Heartley's daughter?"

Lee reached down and laid a hand on her shoulder, squeezing just enough to offer his emotional support. "What about the brother, Beaman?"

Efraim shrugged. "It seems he was legitimately pre-occupied by his girlfriend. He took advantage of the fact his mom was gone and offered to let Brad host a party to keep him occupied while he and his girlfriend went off alone together."

"I really don't think Brad's our supplier." Amanda looked across the Q-Bureau at Billy and Francine. "Part of the problem, yes, and I think he definitely knew about the drugs...possibly even took some himself. But Philip's been friends with him since fifth grade." She turned to look up at Lee. "His mom is part of the PTA." Frustrated, she shrugged her shoulders. "I just don't see how they can be involved in targeting anyone."

"I tend to agree with Amanda," Francine surprised everyone. "But I still think we should check them out just to cover our bases."

"Agreed." Billy nodded his head and looked toward Francine. "Why don't you run a background security check on the family..." He took off his glasses as he thought. "...include friends and associates past and present." He turned toward Lee and Amanda. "Amanda, do you know anything about this Jennifer?"

"No." Amanda shook her head. "That's a new name to me. As you already know, she's new this year, and I don't know her or her family."

"Do you think you could use your contacts at the school to get some information?"

"Well, I can certainly try."

Lee got her attention with another squeeze on her shoulder. "Go ahead and try to do that, Amanda. See if you can find out where she transferred from, who her parents are, that kind of thing." Amanda nodded her head. "Meanwhile, I think I need to go back and talk to T.P..." Lee rubbed his stomach subconsciously. "...maybe even Marco now that we've got a similar M.O. as to what was going on under Foster's mentor."

"Oh, Lee," Amanda frowned up at him. "I hate the idea of you going back to talk to Marco."

Lee offered her a humorless chuckle. "You think you hate the idea?"

Without so much as a knock, Dr. Smyth opened the door and swooped down on them. "Well, well..." He looked around the room, "...the gang's all here. Good. I'm partial to one-stop shopping." He took a drag of his cigarette then pulled it out of his mouth and looked at it. "I got a call today from Pennsylvania Avenue. Senator Heartley is a personal friend of the White House, so this unfortunate incident with his daughter is now our unfortunate incident."