‘After I got off the phone with the dispatcher.’
‘You tell them how or where he was dead?’
‘I said a probable heart attack, nothing more, no details, no
location,, which is starting to look like a very good decision
llOW.’
‘What about the flight?’ I said.
‘American Airlines, yesterday, Frankfurt to Dulles, arrived
25
thirteen hundred hours, with an onward connection nine
hundred hours today, Washington National to LAX. He was
going to an Armored Branch conference at Fort Irwin. He
was an Armored commander in Europe. An important one. Outside
chance of making Vice-Chief of Staff in a couple of years.
It’s Armored’s turn next, for Vice-Chief. Current guy is infantry,
and they like to rotate. So he stood a chance. But it ain’t going
to happen for him now, is it?’
‘Probably not,’ I said. ‘Being dead and all.’
Garber didn’t answer that.
‘How long was he over here for?’ I said.
‘He was due back in Germany inside a week.’
‘What’s his full name?’
‘Kenneth Robert Kramer.’
‘I bet you know his date of birth,’ I said. ‘And where he was
born.’
‘So?’
‘And his flight numbers and his seat assignments. And what
the government paid for the tickets. And whether or not he
requested a vegetarian meal. And what exact room Irwin VOQ
was planning on putting him in.’
‘What’s your point?’
‘My point is, why don’t I know all that stuff too?’
‘Why would you?’ Garber said. ‘I’ve been working the phones
and you’ve been poking around in a motel.’
‘You know what?’ I said. ‘Every time I go anywhere I’ve got a
wad of airplane tickets and travel warrants and reservations and
if I’m flying in from overseas I’ve got a passport. And if I’m
going to a conference I’ve got a briefcase full of all kinds of
other crap to carry them in.’
‘What are you saying?’
‘I’m saying there were things missing from the motel room.
Tickets, reservations, passport, itinerary. Collectively, the kind
of things a person would carry in a briefcase.’
Garber didn’t respond.
‘He had a suit carrier,’ I said. ‘Green canvas, brown leather
bindings. A buck gets ten he hada briefcase to match. His wife
probably chose them both. Probably got them mail-order from
L. L. Bean. Maybe for Christmas, ten years ago.’
26
‘And the briefcase wasn’t there?’
‘He probably kept his wallet in it, too, when he was wearing
Class As. As many medal ribbons as this guy had, it makes the
inside pocket tight.’
‘So?’
‘I think the hooker saw where he put his wallet after he paid
her. Then they got down to business, and he croaked, and she
saw a little extra profit for herself. I think she stole his briefcase.’
Garber was quiet for a moment.
‘Is this going to be a problem?’ he asked.
‘Depends what else was in the briefcase,’ I said.
27
TWO
l
PUT THE PHONE DOWN AND SAW A NOTE MY SERGEANT HAD I.EKF
me: Your brother called. No message. I folded it once and
dropped it in the trash. Then I headed back to my quarters
and got three hours’ sleep. Got up again fifty minutes before
first light. I was back at the motel just as dawn was breaking.
Morning didn’t make the neighbourhood look any better. It was
depressed and abandoned for miles around. And quiet. Nothing
was stirring. Dawn on New Year’s Day is as close as any
inhabited place gets to absolute stillness. The highway was
deserted. There was no traffic. None at all.
The diner at the truck stop was open but empty. The motel
office was empty. I walked down the row to the last-but-one
room. Kramer’s room. The door was locked. I stood with my
back to it and pretended I was a hooker whose client had just
died. I had pushed his weight off me and dressed fast and
grabbed his briefcase and I was running away with it. What
would I do? I wasn’t interested in the briefcase itself. I wanted
the cash in the wallet, and maybe the American Express card.
So I would rifle through and grab the cash and the card and
ditch the bag itself. But where would I do that?