‘I would certainly hope not.’
‘You want to know everything Lucy is doing,’ he said.
‘Of course.’
‘Do you tell her everything you’re doing when you’re working a case?’
‘Absolutely not.’
‘I see.’
‘Why did you hang up on me?’
‘You got me at a bad time,’ he answered.
‘You’ve never hung up on me before, no matter how bad the time.’
He took his glasses off and carefully folded them. He reached for his coffee mug, looked inside and saw it was empty. He held it in both hands.
‘I had someone in my office, and I didn’t want this individual to know you were on the line,’ he said.
‘Who was it?’ I said.
‘Someone from the Pentagon. I won’t tell you his name.’
‘The Pentagon?’ I said, mystified.
He was quiet.
‘Why would you be concerned that someone from the Pentagon might know I was calling you?’ I then asked.
‘It seems you’ve created a problem,’ Wesley simply said, setting the coffee mug down. ‘I wish you hadn’t started poking around Ft. Lee.’
I was astonished,
‘Your friend Dr. Gruber may be fired. I would advise you to refrain from contacting him further.’
‘This is about Luther Gault?’ I asked.
‘Yes, General Gault.’
They can’t do anything to Dr. Gruber,’ I protested.
‘I’m afraid they can,’ Wesley said. ‘Dr. Gruber conducted an unauthorized search in a military database. He got you classified information.’
‘Classified?’ I said. ‘That’s absurd. It’s one page of routine information that you can pay twenty dollars to see while you’re visiting the Quartermaster Museum. It’s not like I asked for a damn Pentagon file.’
‘You can’t pay the twenty dollars unless you are the individual or have power of attorney to access that individual’s file.’
‘Benton, we’re talking about a serial killer. Has everybody lost their minds? Who the hell cares about a generic computer file?’
The army does.’
‘Are we dealing with national security?’
Wesley did not answer me.
When he offered nothing more, I said, ‘Fine. You guys can have your little secret. I’m sick and tired of your little secrets. My only agenda is to prevent more deaths. I’m no longer certain what your agenda is.’ My stare was unforgiving and hurt.
‘Please,’ Wesley snapped. ‘You know, some days I wish I smoked like Marino does.’ He blew out in exasperation. ‘General Gault is not important in this investigation. He does not need to be dragged into it.’
‘I think anything we know about Temple Gault’s family could be important. And I can’t believe you don’t feel that way. Background information is vital to profiling and predicting behavior.’
‘I’m telling you, General Gault is off limits.’
‘Why?’
‘Respect.’
‘My God, Benton.’ I leaned forward in my chair. ‘Gault may have killed two people with a pair of his uncle’s damn jungle boots. And just how is the army going to like it when that hits Time magazine and Newsweek?’
‘Don’t threaten.’
‘I most certainly will. I will do more than threaten if people don’t do the right thing. Tell me about the general. I already know his nephew inherited his eyes. And the general was a bit of a peacock, since it seems he preferred being photographed in a splendid mess uniform like Eisenhower would have worn.’
‘He may have had an ego but was a magnificent man, by all accounts,’ Wesley said.
‘Was he Gault’s uncle, then? Are you admitting it?’
Wesley hesitated. ‘Luther Gault is Temple Gault’s uncle.’
‘Tell me more.’
‘He was born in Albany and graduated from the Citadel in 1942. Two years later, when he was a captain, his division moved to France, where he became a hero in the Battle of the Bulge. He won the Medal of Honor and was promoted again. After the war, he was sent to Ft. Lee as officer in charge of the uniform research division of the Quartermaster Corps.’
‘Then the boots were his,’ I said.
‘They certainly could have been.’
‘Was he a big man?’
‘I am told that he and his nephew would have been the same size when General Gault was younger.’
I thought of the photograph of the general in the dress mess jacket. He was slender and not particularly tall. His face was strong, eyes unwavering, but he did not look unkind.