the phone and dialled Franz at Fort Irwin. Five o’clock in the
afternoon, it was the middle of his work day.
‘Am I going to get past your main gate?’ I asked him.
‘Why wouldn’t you?’
‘Willard’s chasing me. He’s liable to warn anyplace he thinks
I’m going.’
‘I haven’t heard from him yet.’
‘Maybe you could switch your telex off for a day or two.’
‘What’s your ETA?’
‘Tomorrow sometime.’
‘Your buddies are already here. They just got in.’
‘I haven’t got any buddies.’
‘Vassell and Coomer. They’re fresh in from Europe.’
‘Why?’
‘Exercises.’
‘Is Marshall still there?’
‘Sure. He drove out to LAX to pick them up. They all came
back together. Like one big happy family.’
‘I need you to do two things for me,’ I said.
‘Two more things, you mean.’
‘I need a ride from LAX myself. Tomorrow, first morning
arrival from D.C. I need you to send someone.’
‘And?’
‘And I need you to get someone to locate the staff car Vassell
and Coomer used back here. It’s a black Mercury Grand
Marquis. Marshall signed it out on New Year’s Eve. By now it’s
either back in the Pentagon garage or parked at Andrews. I
need someone to find it and to do a full court press on it,
forensically. And fast.’
‘What would they be looking for?’
‘Anything at all.’
‘OK,’ Franz said.
‘I’ll see you tomorrow,’ I said.
I hung up and turned the pages in the army directory all the
way from F for Fort Irwin to P for Pentagon. Slid my finger
down the sub-section to C for Chief of Staff’s Office. I left it
there, briefly.
‘Vassell and Coomer are at Irwin,’ I said.
351
‘Why?’ Summer said.
‘Hiding out,’ I said. ‘They think we’re still in Europe. They
know Willard is watching the airports. They’re sitting ducks.’
‘Do we want them?’ Summer said. ‘They didn’t know about
Mrs Kramer. That was clear. They were shocked when you told
them, that night in your office. So I guess they authorized the
burglary, but not the collateral damage.’
I nodded. She was right. They had been surprised, that
night in my office. Coomer had gone pale and asked: Was it a
burglary? It was a question that came straight from a guilty
conscience. That meant Marshall hadn’t told them at that point.
He had kept the really bad news to himself. He had come back
to the D.C. hotel at twenty past three in the morning, and he
had told them the briefcase hadn’t been there, but he hadn’t
told them what else had gone down. Vassell and Coomer must
have been piecing it together on the fly, that night in my office,
in the dark and after the event. It must have been an interesting
ride home. Harsh words must have been exchanged.
‘It’s down to Marshall alone,’ Summer said. ‘He panicked, is
all.’
‘Technically it was a conspiracy,’ I said. ‘Legally they all share
the blame.’
‘Hard to prosecute.’
‘That’s JAG Corps’ problem.’
‘It’s a weak case. Hard to prove.’
‘They did other stuff,’ I said. ‘Believe me, Mrs Kramer getting
hit on the head is the least of their worries.’
I fed the phone again and dialled the Chief of Staff’s office,
deep inside the Pentagon. A woman’s voice answered. It was a
perfect Washington voice. Not high, not low, cultured, elegant,
nearly accentless. I guessed she was a senior administrator,
working late. I guessed she was about fifty, blonde going grey,
powder on her face.
‘Write this down,’ I said to her. ‘I am a military police major
called Reacher. I was recently transferred out of Panama and
into Fort Bird, North Carolina. I will be standing at the E-ring
check point inside your building at midnight tonight. It is
entirely up to the Chief of Staff whether he meets me there.’
I paused.
352
‘Is that it?’ the woman said.
‘Yes,’ I said, and hung up. I scooped fifteen remaining cents
back into my pocket. Closed the phone book and wedged it
under my arm.
‘Let’s go,’ I said. We drove through the gas station and
topped off the tank with eight bucks’ worth of gas. Then we