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Lee Stetson shouldered open his apartment door. It was 11 p.m. and he was dead tired. Automatically he noted that the tell-tales he set up each morning were still in place.
Pocketing his keys, he heel-toed his shoes off and tossed the bag of Chinese food onto the living room table. Heading towards the kitchen, he blindly stabbed a finger at the message recorder. It rewound for several seconds before beginning to play.
"Beep. Hi Lee. It's Celeste. I missed you at the embassy party last night. Give me a call when you get a chance."
Lee didn't glance back as he flipped the kitchen light switch.
"Beep. Lee, it's Loretta. I'm back in town. You usually send flowers. Call me."
Giving a brief disdainful look at the dishes in the sink he yanked out a clean glass from the cupboard, then began digging through drawers for chopsticks. He could have sworn he'd saved some from his last trip to Okinawa. He liked the thin Japanese sticks better than the squared off wood ones the take-out place gave you.
"Beep. Lee, where have you been? I miss you... your charm... your warmth... your...everything. Why don't you call?"
Lee glanced toward the living room and ruefully shook his head. Pulling a bottle of imported beer from the fridge, he flipped open the top. Yanking at his knotted tie, he took a long cool swallow.
"Beep. Hi, Lee. It's Randy. Pick up if you're home. Are you there?"
Throwing his jacket towards the other side of the couch, Lee sat down and began digging through the contents of the waxed paper bags.
"Beep. Lee. Jessica. I've got tickets to the Kennedy Center. Let me know if I should expect you."
He dug through the Moo-Shu Pork looking for Shitake mushrooms.
"Beep. Lee? It's Amanda. You won't believe what happened to me today." Lee's hand shot out to grab the memo pad and pen resting beside the box of Kung Pao. "Well, I was coming out of Jake's Place and this man came up to me and handed me a note and said go meet the woman in the blue dress. Well, of course, I didn't know who the woman in the blue dress was. In fact I didn't even know who the man was. He had the oddest accent and really beady little eyes. It was a good thing mother and the boys weren't there. Anyway, the note says to meet the woman in the blue dress at midnight at the Memorial, but which one, it doesn't say and there are so many. I tried calling the Agency but you had already left for the day and so I thought...Beep."
The distinct click of the apartment door swinging shut could be heard as the recorder ran out of tape.