Cameron Andrews Box Set

Chapter 3-1

Chapter 3Cam barely waited a full four days to call Craig back. Wednesday, when she’d first made the call to Craig, had been the thirteenth and Cameron took that to be a good omen. So, on Sunday afternoon, St. Patrick’s Day, just one month before her birthday, she called the number on the plain white card.

“Yes.” Craig’s voice answered the phone.

“Hi. It’s me. I want in.”

“Great. I’ll get back to you.” And the phone went dead.

Cam looked at the receiver in her hand. She hadn’t expected a brass band but at least more than “I’ll get back to you.” Had they lost interest in her? Had something turned up in her background report that had turned them off? Damn this secrecy s**t! Well, might as well get used to it.

Russ, her partner, was beginning to suspect something. Twice last night, she hadn’t heard him talking to her; her mind was miles away. She hated being secretive around him.

They’d been partners for almost three years. They trusted their lives to each other. She’d never hidden anything from him.

“Just tired, I guess,” was her response to his inquiry.

“Hey, Radcliffe, don’t get burned out on me,” he warned. “Why don’t you take a few days off? You’ve been going at this full press for a while now.”

“Maybe,” she’d said, chuckling to herself. Theirs was a good relationship. Radcliffe and Russ. When had that nickname started? The first day they’d worked together, she’d gone off on a long analysis of the situation and Russ had stared at her, laughing that she sure talked a lot. It must be the expensive education she had, you got the amount of words you paid for. He had gone to a State college. It was cheap, so he never had much to say. “Radcliffe.” The nickname had stuck.

When Cam walked to her desk the next afternoon, there was a message for her to return a phone call to a Maggie Thomason. She picked up her phone and dialed the number. A sweet, young voice answered. “Dr. Thomason’s Office.”

“Maggie Thomason, please.”

“One moment. May I tell her who’s calling?”

“Cameron Andrews, returning her call.” The line clicked to dead air but within a few moments, Cam heard a warm, rich voice.

“Cameron, thanks for calling back so quickly. We have a mutual friend who thinks we should meet. I was wondering if we could have dinner tomorrow evening.”

“A mutual friend? May I ask who?” Might this be her first connection?

“He said you dropped in to see him a few days ago. Really thought we’d hit it off. I’d love to get together.”

So, Craig! Yes! Cam’s mind and heart raced.

“Yes. Sure. I think that’d be great. I’ll look forward to it.”

“Why don’t I pick you up at the station. What time are you through?”

“My shift is over at seven.”

“Then I’ll be there at seven.”

“Yes, fine. Can I ask one question? What’re you a doctor of?”

“Psychiatry.”

“Uh huh,” Cam said. She heard a chuckle from the other end of the line.

“You can look me up in the phone book,” Maggie said. “I have a legitimate practice. But you can just tell your friends there that you have a date.”

“Sure.”

“Until tomorrow, then.” The phone went dead. Cam looked at the phone, then back to the office. Russ was sitting on his desk, legs dangling over the edge when she hung up.

“Problems?” he inquired.

“No. Not at all.” Cam looked at him with a puzzled expression. “I just got asked out on a blind date.”

“Sounds promising.” He looked at her with a wry smile on his face. “I have to hand it to you, Radcliffe. I never had women calling me for dates. How do you do it?”

“Just living well,” she smiled. “Besides, you’re already married.”

He nodded, with a warm smile. “Yeah. Now, that’s the way you should go. Marie thinks you don’t get out enough. If you dated more, maybe you’d find someone to settle down with.”

Cam looked at him, incredulously. “You’ve been discussing my love life with your wife? What? Don’t you have one of your own? You gotta dissect mine?”

“There’s a lot I can’t tell her, you know that. We have to have something to talk about. Besides, it makes her feel more secure to know that you and I aren’t fooling around when we stay out all night on a stakeout.”

“Maybe I should call her and have a long talk,” Cam threatened, drawing out the word “long” as far as she could.

“Oh no!” Russ feigned horror. Then his mood changed and he shook his head. “We got a tough one tonight. Are you up to it?”

“Yeah, I’m up to it. What’s the deal?”

“Some coke laced with strychnine showed up over by Johns Hopkins last night. Two kids dead. Another in the hospital.”

“Whew! As if the coke itself wasn’t deadly enough. Now they’re adding strychnine! Witnesses?”

“Just the one woman, in Hopkins. Still in intensive. Freaked out of her mind. Won’t talk to anyone.”

“Maybe I should go see her.”

“Hoped you would.” Russ hesitated, “Now, Radcliffe, are you sure your mind’s on this one? You’ve been looking kind of strange lately. Something else bothering you?”

Cam looked into Russ’ concerned face. They’d always been very honest with each other, knew they could count on each other for anything. She took a deep breath and lied to him outright for the first time. “No. There’s nothing else on my mind. I am fine. Let’s go have a talk with this lady.”

Russ slid off the desk, handed Cam a file, and strode out toward his car. Cam looked at the file in her hand and then followed.

* * * *

The next evening, Cameron looked up from her desk as a very handsome woman, in her mid to late thirties, in a flowing magenta dress with a short, tailored beige wool jacket, walked into the outer office, precisely at seven o’clock. Her dark hair, which was lightly sprinkled with grey, was swept back in a neat shag that fell just below her collar. The woman had an elegance about her that was highlighted by the expensive clothing. A hint of gold jewelry added just the right touch.

“That her?” Russ asked, his eyes wide. “Not bad. How do you do it? Women that good never threw themselves at me.”

“You got the best one there is. I told you, I’ll swap you anytime.”

“Fat chance.” Russ laughed as Cam took her blazer from the coat rack and walked out of their enclosed cubicle. As she approached, Maggie extended her hand and Cam took it, while looking into warm grey eyes that wrinkled slightly at the corners.

“Maggie? I’m happy to meet you. I’m sorry I’m not very dressed up. We had a lot of running around to do today. I could stop home and change if you like. I hope wherever we’re going doesn’t have a dress code.”

“No. It’s not a problem. I’m still dressed from the office. We’ll be going someplace very casual. You should be comfortable.” Maggie examined Cam’s neat grey slacks and red rayon shirt. “I see nothing at all wrong, in any way, with how you’re dressed. Let’s go. I’m parked out front and I really don’t want to get a ticket,” she added with a light laugh that made Cam smile.

They walked out into the cold evening air and got into a late model yellow Mercedes.

“I was a little confused at first,” Cam admitted as Maggie pulled away from the curb. “This is part of Craig’s interview process?”

Maggie laughed quietly. “In a way, yes,” she said in a lowered voice, “but it wouldn’t look good to have you going to see a psychiatrist, now, would it?” She reached into her purse without taking her eyes off the road and handed Cam a small leather wallet. “That’s my ID so you’ll know for sure, going in, what this is all about. I have to officially inform you that what we may talk about and what may be revealed to you is of a highly confidential nature. Revealing any of this may be a breach of national security, which may carry a very heavy fine and penalty. Do you understand?”

Cameron nodded.

“Don’t nod. I have to hear it out loud,” Maggie said with a smile in her voice.

“I understand,” Cameron replied.

“Good.” Maggie reached under the dashboard and switched off a tape recorder which she dropped into her purse. “That’s done,” she sighed. “I hate this legal stuff but it’s regulations. I help Craig out with special assignments, you know, psychiatric evaluations. I’m the one that is called when they think an agent has been out in the field too long. No one in the Department knows me, so I get a chance to size people up without them realizing what’s happening. And I really do have my own practice.”

“Yes, I know. I did look you up.”

“Good. I like that. Good initiative. Never take anything at face value.”

“You’ve been in practice for ten years. Graduated from Temple and spent two years in Vietnam as a paramedic. You do a lot of community service work, especially at drug halfway houses. You’ve been divorced for five years, have no children, and currently no romantic involvements. Have I done my homework correctly?”

“Excellent!” Maggie beamed at her. “Craig said you were good. But you did miss the mole on my right shoulder blade.”

Cameron almost blushed. “Should I be fooled into thinking you’re really going to be a friend?”

“I hope we will be. In fact, Craig thinks we should even make it look like we’re more than just friends. I’m glad I like you.”

“You just met me.” Cam watched Maggie as she maneuvered through the evening traffic going into City Center.

“You don’t believe in like at first sight?”

Cameron smiled. “Yeah. I do. It’s just that I expected you to be more conservative. It did take you almost three months to decide on which condo you were going to buy.”

Maggie glanced at her with a small amount of amazement. “Well, we have done our homework. I’m usually very slow in making up my mind about inanimate objects, but I’m well-trained in sizing up the human factor. Would you like to see the condo I finally chose? Or do you already have pictures of it?”

“No pictures. But, do you think you should take me to your home already? This is our first date.”

Maggie chuckled once again, that beautiful warm chuckle that pleased Cameron very much. “Actually, I have every intention of taking you to my place. It’s much quieter there and we don’t have to worry about eavesdroppers. We do need to stop and get a bottle of scotch, though. I’m afraid I don’t have any in the house. I never developed the taste for it. It’s Dewer’s, right?”

“This is turning into an ‘I know more about you than you know about me’ contest. Doesn’t that take all the mystery out of our relationship?” Cam asked.

“You’re right. This could get too embarrassing. We should stop. You know I’ve read your file. I know you’ve done your homework. Let’s stop at that. I’m sure there are lots of things that we don’t know about each other.”

“Right. What do you usually drink?”

“A good vodka stinger or white wine depending on whether I need to keep my mind straight.”

“Which are you drinking tonight?”

“I haven’t decided yet.” There was that chuckle again. They pulled into a liquor store parking lot and Maggie got out of the car. When she returned, she was carrying five-liter bottles each of scotch and vodka.

“I hope that’s not all for tonight.” Cam commented.

“Let’s just say I’m looking ahead to the future.” She turned to Cameron. “Tonight is just getting-to-know-you night. Relax. I’m not fully on duty. That will come later. I want to know you as a person before I start dissecting you as a potential agent. I’m a little nervous, myself. I usually come in at a cocktail party or meeting or I watch some seasoned agent get grilled and make my evaluations from behind a two-way mirror. I very seldom get to meet people one on one and hardly ever before they’ve been given an assignment. Craig thinks that you’re too top-secret for the regular shrinks to work with. And he thinks you’re very special.”

“Do you know what my assignment will be?”