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

Chapter 15

Day 7 (Monday)

Back at the Agency

"Yeah, Billy..." Lee nodded his head and looked up as Amanda walked through the door. His eyes lit up in welcome, and he smiled. "... yeah, okay. We'll be right down." Lee hung up the phone and looked back at Amanda who was taking off her gloves and waiting expectantly. Smiling, he stood and walked over to her, giving her a quick kiss on the cheek. "Hi. Billy's ready for a group update. Were you able to track down Jennifer and her address?"

"Hi yourself," Amanda smiled up at him then made her way over to his desk and sat in his chair. "Can I have about ten minutes or so?"

Curious, Lee followed her over to his desk and half-sat on the edge of it beside her. "I suppose so. What's up?"

"Well, I've got two possibles, and I want to try to track down an address before we meet up with everyone else." Amanda's fingers were already working the computer keyboard.

Lee picked up his phone and dialed Billy. "Hey, Billy...Yeah; it's me. Look. Amanda just got back from tracking down a lead, and she wants a few minutes to finish up on the computer here...Yeah, just ten minutes or so...You got it...Thanks, Billy."

He slid his hip off the desk and came around behind his chair to look over her shoulder. "What do you have?"

"Well, Mrs. Dennis gave me two possible names. I have a hunch which one it is, but she wouldn't give me an address, so I'm looking for the mother's name in our data base." She punched a couple of keys on the keyboard and studied the screen. "That's interesting."

"D'you get a hit?"

Amanda sat back into the chair, absently-mindedly rubbing her hand over her belly. "No." She looked up at Lee. "Nothing."

"What do you mean by nothing?"

"I mean nothing. No address, no driver's license, no social security number. Nothing."

Lee leaned over her shoulder, bracing one hand on the desk beside Amanda and the other on the back of the chair. "That is interesting."

Deep in thought, Amanda looked back at the computer screen and rubbed the backs of her fingers under her chin. "They're new in town, right?" She looked back up at him.

"Right..." He looked down into her eyes. "Where's this train going, Manda?" Then it dawned on him. "Right! Real-estate. The mother had to buy or rent a place. How much data do you think you can get through in..." he looked at his watch. "...eight minutes?"

"I don't know, but I'll get through as much as possible."

Twenty minutes later, Lee opened the door to Billy's office and ushered Amanda in before him. "Sorry we're late." He glanced around the room as Amanda made her way over to the sofa and sat. Billy and Francine were sitting in the armchairs, and Beaman was standing next to the sofa, leaning his shoulder against the wall. Lee sat beside his wife.

"Yeah," Amanda continued the explanation. "I was tracking down an address, and it proved more complicated than I thought it would."

Billy smiled. "Well, then, why don't you go ahead and start, Amanda."

She looked around the room. "Well, alright." Amanda opened the file she'd brought with her and glanced over it. "So, I'm pretty sure the Jennifer that Philip has been referring to is Jennifer Keifer." She looked up from her notes. "Jennifer lives with her mom, whose name is Tanya Smith. Now, I looked up Tanya Smith, and I couldn't find anything on her. I mean nothing. It's like she doesn't exist. I was, however, able to track down an address through a rental agency which, by the way, is interesting in and of itself because I don't know how she rented a place without some kind of identification." She looked back at her notes. "They live in the Whitefield Apartment complex on N. Thomas Street, and the rental agency is a small local one called..." She looked back at her notes. "...Patriot Realty..." She looked back around the room. "...and buried in the list of owners is a very interesting name...Grant Hutchins."