I nodded. ‘He’s serious about everything. He had me arrested
at the airport, to make all his various points.’
‘Arrested?’
I nodded again. ‘Someone ratted me out for those guys in the
parking lot.’
‘Who?’
‘One of the grunts in the audience.’
‘One of ours? Who?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘That’s cold.’
I nodded. ‘Never happened to me before.’
She went quiet again.
‘How was your morn?’ she said.
‘She broke her leg,’ I said. ‘No big deal.’
‘They can get pneumonia.’
I nodded again. ‘She had the X-ray. No pneumonia.’
Her lower eyelids moved upward.
‘Can I ask the obvious question?’ she said.
‘Is there one?’
‘Aggravated battery against civilians is a big deal. And
apparently there’s a report and an eyewitness, good enough to
get you arrested.’
‘So?’
‘So why are you still walking around?’
‘Willard’s sitting on it.’
‘But why would he, if he’s an asshole?’
‘Out of respect for my record. That’s what he said.’
‘Did you believe him?’
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I shook my head.
‘There must be something wrong with the complaint,’ I said.
‘An asshole like Willard would use it if he could, that’s for sure.
He doesn’t care about my record.’
‘Can’t be something wrong with the complaint. A military
witness is the best kind they can get. He’ll testify to whatever
they tell him to. It’s like Willard would be writing the complaint
himself.’
I said nothing.
‘And why are you here at all?’ she asked.
I heard Joe say: You should find out who wanted you at Bird
badly enough to pull you out of Panama and replace you with an
asshole.
‘I don’t know why I’m here,’ I said. ‘I don’t know anything.
Tell me about Lieutenant Colonel Norton.’
‘We’re off the case.’
‘So just tell me for interest’s sake.’
‘It isn’t her. She’s got an alibi. She was at a party in a bar off
post. All night long. About a hundred people were there with
her.’
‘Who is she?’
‘Psy-Ops instructor. She’s a psychosexual Ph.D. who
specializes in attacking an enemy’s internal emotional security
concerning his feelings of masculinity.’
‘She sounds like a fun lady.’
‘She was invited to a party in a bar. Someone thinks she’s a
fun lady.’
‘Did you check who drove Vassell and Coomer down here?’
Summer nodded. ‘Our gate guys list him as a Major Marshall.
I looked him up, and he’s a XII Corps staffer on temporary
detached duty at the Pentagon. Some kind of a blue-eyed boy.
He’s been over here since November.’
‘Did you check phone calls out of the D.C. hotel?’
She nodded again.
‘There weren’t any,’ she said. ‘Vassell’s room took one incoming
call at twelve twenty-eight in the morning. I’m assuming
that was XII Corps calling from Germany. Neither of them made
any outgoing calls.’
‘None at all?’
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‘Not a one.
‘Are you sure?’
‘Totally. It’s an electronic switchboard. Dial nine for an outside
line, and the computer records it automatically. It has to,
for the bill.’
Dead end.
‘OK,’ I said. ‘Forget the whole thing.’
‘Really?’
‘Orders are orders,’ I said. ‘The alternative is anarchy and
chaos.’
I went back to my office and called Rock Creek. I figured
Willard would be long gone. He was the type of guy who keeps
bankers’ hours his whole life. I got hold of a company clerk and
asked him to find a copy of the original order moving me from
Panama to Bird. It was five minutes before he came back on the
line. I spent them reading Summer’s lists. They were full of
names that meant nothing to me.
‘I’ve got the order here now, sir,’ the guy on the phone said.
‘Who signed it?’I asked him.
‘Colonel Garber, sir.’
‘Thank you,’ I said, and put the phone down. Then I sat for
ten minutes wondering why people were lying to me. Then I
forgot all about that question, because my phone rang again
and a young MP private on routine base patrol told me we had a
homicide victim in the woods. It sounded like a real bad one.
My guy had to pause twice to throw up before he got to the end
of his report.
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