was curious. Or even concerned. He’d been an infantryman for
sixteen years. And the type of guy who gets into Delta, he’s got
a lot of unit loyalty. Maybe more loyalty to his unit than to his
lover.’
‘I don’t believe it,’ Summer said.
‘You should,’ I said. ‘It all fits. Andrea Norton more or less
told us. I think she knew about Kramer. Either consciously
or subconsciously, I’m not sure which. We accused her, and
she wasn’t annoyed, remember? She was amused instead. Or
bewildered, maybe. She was a sexual psychologist, she’d met
the guy, maybe she’d picked up a vibe, professionally. Or the
absence of a vibe, personally. So in our minds we had her
in bed with Kramer, and she just couldn’t make it compute.
So she didn’t get mad. It just didn’t connect. And we know
Kramer’s marriage was a sham. No kids. He hadn’t lived at
home for five years. Detective Clark in Green Valley wondered
why he wasn’t divorced. He once asked me, divorce isn’t a
dealbreaker for a general, is it? I said no, it isn’t. But being gay
is. That’s for damn sure. Being gay is a big-time dealbreaker
for a general. That’s why he kept the marriage going. It was
cover, for the army. Just like the girlfriend photo in Carbone’s
wallet.’
‘We have no proof.’
‘But we can get close. Carbone had a condom in his wallet, as
well as the girlfriend photo. A buck gets ten it’s from the same
pack as the one Walter Reed took off Kramer’s body. And
another buck gets ten we can comb old assignment orders and
find out where and when they met. Some joint exercise somewhere,
like we thought all along. Plus Carbone was a vehicle
guy for Delta. Their adjutant told me that. He had access to
their whole stable of Humvees, any old time he wanted it. So
another buck gets ten we’ll find he was out in one, alone, on
New Year’s Eve.’
349
vVas he killed for the briefcase? In the end? Like Mrs Kramer?’
I shook my head. ‘Neither one of them was killed simply for
the briefcase.’
She just looked at me.
‘Later,’ I said. ‘One step at a time.’
‘But he had the briefcase. You said so. He ran off with it.’
I nodded. ‘And he searched it as soon as he got back to Bird.
He found the agenda. He read it. And something in it made him
call his CO immediately.’
‘He called Brubaker? How could he do that? He couldn’t say,
hey, I was just sleeping with a general and guess what I found?’
‘He could have said he found it somewhere else. On the
sidewalk, maybe. But actually I’m wondering if Brubaker knew
about Carbone and Kramer all along. It’s possible. Delta is a
family and Brubaker was a very hands-on type of CO. It’s
possible he knew. And maybe he exploited the situation. For
intelligence purposes. These guys are incredibly competitive.
And Sanchez told me Brubaker never missed any angle or any
advantage or any wrinkle. So maybe the price of Brubaker’s
tolerance was that Carbone had to pass stuff on, from the pillow
talk.’
‘That’s awful.’
I nodded. ‘Like being a whore. I told you there would be no
winners here. Everyone’s going to come out looking bad.’
‘Except us. If we get the results.’
‘You’re going to be OK. I’m not.’
‘Why?’
‘Wait and see,’ I said.
We carried our bags to the Chevy, which was still hidden
behind the lounge bar. We put them in the trunk. The lot was
fuller than it had been before. The night was heating up. I
checked my watch. Almost eight o’clock on the east coast,
almost five on the west coast. I stood still, trying to decide. If we
pause for breath even for a second, we’ll be overrun again.
‘I need to make two more calls,’ I said.
I took the army phone book with me and we walked back to
the greasy spoon. I checked every pocket for loose change and
came up with a small pile. Summer contributed a quarter and a
35O
nickel. The counterman changed the pennies for silver. I fed