Sara shuddered and wrapped her arms around herself.
“You know what?” she said. “I’m starting to become terrified of what the truth might be.”
CHAPTER FORTY
* * *
While Sara went back to work, Fiske telephoned his lawyer friend at the JAG office, Phil Jansen, and relayed his request. Among other things, he asked Jansen to obtain a list of the personnel stationed at Fort Plessy during the time Rufus Harms was there.
When Fiske rejoined Chandler, he related his theory of why Wright had been killed. Chandler was impressed. “We’ll check the cab companies too. We can only hope somebody saw or heard something.”
Chandler stared intently at the young man. “So, did you find out anything interesting with Ms. Evans during your time together last night?”
“I think she’s a good person. A little impulsive, but a good person. Very smart.”
“Anything else? At our initial meeting, Ramsey said that she and your brother were close. She have any reason why he might have been killed?”
“You might want to ask her that.”
“Well, I’m asking you, John. I thought we were a team.” He moved closer to Fiske. “I’ve got way too much I don’t understand on the front end of this case without having to watch my backside. You were a police officer; you should understand about covering somebody’s backside.”
Fiske said angrily, “I never let a partner down.”
“Good to hear. So tell me about last night.”
Fiske looked away, thinking how best to handle this. Withholding information was not the best course. So how could he do the right thing with Chandler and avoid destroying Sara’s life and his brother’s reputation?
“Can we get some coffee around here?”
“In the cafeteria. I’ll even buy.”
A few minutes later they were in the ground-floor cafeteria. The Court’s afternoon session was in progress and thus the cafeteria was fairly empty.
Fiske sipped on his coffee while Chandler watched him.
“John, it can’t be that bad, unless you tell me you’re the one running around popping people.”
“Buford, if I tell you something, then you have very specific rules as to what you do with that information and who else learns that information.”
“That’s true. And those rules are what’s stopping you from coming clean?”
“What do you think?”
“I think let’s talk hypotheticals, okay? Now, my job is to collect the facts and to use those facts to ultimately arrest somebody for a crime. If we’re not talking facts, but just theories — like your theory of why Wright was murdered — then I can follow up that theory but I don’t have an obligation to report it to anyone until it’s proven correct by the discovery of facts to corroborate it.”
“So we can talk theoretically and it’ll just stay between you and me?”
Chandler shook his head. “Can’t promise it will stay between you and me. Not if it becomes a fact.”
Fiske looked down at his coffee cup. Sensing he was losing him, Chandler tapped his spoon against Fiske’s cup.
“John, the bottom line here is finding out who murdered your brother and Wright. I thought that’s what you wanted.”
“It is. That’s all I want.”
Really? Chandler suddenly doubted that. “Then what’s the problem?”
“The problem is you can hurt people at the same time you’re trying to help them.”
“Just your brother? Or somebody else?”
Fiske knew he had already said too much. He decided to go on the offensive.
“Okay, Buford, let’s discuss theories for a minute. Let’s suppose that somebody at the Court took an appeal before it was put into the Court’s system.”
“Why and how?”
“Apparently the how is easy. The why isn’t.”
“Okay, go on.”
“Now let’s suppose that somebody else at the Court saw this appeal, discovered that it wasn’t on the system, but didn’t say anything about it.”
“I take it the why on that is also complicated?”
“Maybe not. Let’s further assume that the person who took the appeal did so for a good reason. And that this person went somewhere, to visit the person who had filed the appeal.”
“The eight hundred miles on your brother’s car?”
Fiske stonily eyed the detective. “That’s a fact, Buford, I’m not discussing facts.”