Child, Lee – The Enemy

the sort of guy who emptied his case and turned it upside down

and shook it every time he packed for a trip. I put everything

back inside and buckled the little straps and laid the case on the

floor by my feet.

‘Speak to the dining-room guy,’ I said. ‘When we get back.

Find out who was at the table with Vassell and Coomer.’

‘OK,’ Summer said. She drove on.

We got back to Bird in time for dinner. We ate in the O Club bar

with a bunch of fellow MPs. If Willard had spies among them,

they would have seen nothing except a couple of tired people

doing not very much of anything. But Summer slipped away

between courses and came back with news in her eyes. I ate my

dessert and drank my coffee slowly enough that nobody could

think I had urgent business anywhere. Then I stood up and

wandered out. Waited in the cold on the sidewalk. Summer

168

came out five minutes later. I smiled. It felt like we were

conducting a clandestine affair.

‘Only one woman ate with Vassell and Coomer,’ she said.

‘Who?’ I asked.

‘Lieutenant Colonel Andrea Norton.’

‘The Psy-Ops person?’

‘The very same.’

‘She was at a party on New Year’s Eve.’

Summer made a face. ‘You know what those parties are like.

A bar in town, hundreds of people, in and out all the time, noise,

confusion, drinks, people disappearing two by two. She could

have slipped away.’

‘Where was the bar?’

‘Thirty minutes from the motel.’

‘Then she would have been gone an hour, absolute minimum.’

‘That’s possible.’

‘Was she in the bar at midnight? Holding hands and singing

“Auld Lang Syne”? Whoever was standing next to her should be

able to say for sure.’

‘People say she was there. But she could have made it back

by then anyway. The kid said the Humvee left at eleven twenty

five. She’d have been back with five minutes to spare. It could

have looked natural. You know, everybody comes out of the

woodwork, ready for the ball to drop. The party kind of starts

over.’

I said nothing.

‘She would have taken the case to sanitize it. Maybe her

phone number was in there, or her name or her picture. Or a

diary. She didn’t want the scandal. But once she was through

with it, she didn’t need the rest of the stuff any more. She’d

have been happy to hand it back when asked.’

‘How would Vassell and Coomer know who to ask?’

‘Hard to hide a long-standing affair in this fishbowl.’

‘Not logical,’ I said. ‘If people knew about Kramer and

Norton, why would someone go to the house in Virginia?’

‘OK, maybe they didn’t know. Maybe it was just there on the

list of possibilities. Maybe way down the list. Maybe it was

something that people thought was over.’

I nodded. ‘What can we get from her?’

169

‘We can get confirmation that Vassell and Coomer arranged

to take possession of the briefcase last night. That would prove

they were looking for it, which puts them in the frame for Mrs

Kramer.’

‘They made no calls from the hofel, and they didn’t have time

to get down there themselves. So I don’t see how we can put

them in the frame. What else can we get?’

‘We can be certain about what happened to the agenda.

We can know that Vassell and Coomer got it back. Then at

least the army can relax because we’ll know for sure it isn’t

going to wind up on some public trash pile for a journalist to

find.’

I nodded. Said nothing.

‘And maybe Norton saw it,’ Summer said. ‘Maybe she read it.

Maybe she could tell us what all this fuss is about.’

‘That’s tempting.’

‘It sure is.’

‘Can we just walk in and ask her?’

‘You’re from the 110th. You can ask anyone anything.’

‘I have to stay under Willard’s radar.’

‘She doesn’t know he warned you off.’

‘She does. He spoke to her after the Carbone thing.’

‘I think we have to talk to her.’

‘Difficult kind of a talk to have,’ I said. ‘She’s likely to get