Sweepers (48 page)

“I don’t think so. I think he means to disgrace him and then let him live with that disgrace-for’d long time.”

Hiroshi gave another nod. Disgrace was much worse than being killed.

“Commanoer Lawrence and I interfered. I think the first. attack on her was meant to neutralize me. The second time was meant to remove both of us. Now I think if we were just to stay here, nothing more would happen to us. Or to anyone else here,” he added pointedly.

Hiroshi gave a dismissive snort. “Let him come here. Life is sometimes boring.”

Train laughed out loud. “Not with this guy, Hiroshisan.

But my other problem is that my superiors are playing at some kind of game.”

Hiroshi was silent for a moment while he absorbed this news. Then he gave Train a sideways look. “You will remain here?”

“I’m not sure. When I was in the Marines, we were taught not to sit still and wait for the enemy. Waiting in one place just simplifies his problem. There’s another factor: The senior officer’s son is involved in this matter. He has been helping the man who is behind the killings.”

Hiroshi shook his head. ““The son helps the man who would destroy his father? What kind of son is this?”

Karen was coming back out of the house. There was a hint of sunrise across the river. “There’s history, Hiroshisan. The father treated the son very badly long ago. The father is not entirely innocent here. Send Gutter out, please.

Hiroshi bowed . and went back into the house as Karen walked up, carrying two mugs of hot coffee. A moment later, Gutter came trotting out from behind the house. Together, they walked across the front lawn and down a gravel path toward the river oaks. Train was amused to, see that Gutter was staying closer to Karen than to him. Dogs figure stuff out, he thought. There was a thin band of red light defining the silhouette of the Maryland hills across the Potomac. They could hear the honking of some Canadian geese upstream in the park; the sound made the Galantz problem seem remote.

“Have you figured out what we’re going to tell this poor man?” she asked, taking his hand.

“I’m getting the inklings of a plan,” he replied, kicking a dead branch off the path. “Although Mcnair might not like having his hand forced. I think we need to tell Sherman about his son’s involvement. Then maybe suggest we put the two of them face-to-face, see what happens.”

“What about your deal with Mcnair?”

“So far, we’ve kept it. Sherman came to us, not the other way around.

But here’s the problem: Mcnair knows the kid’s involved. He may have told the Navy. If he has, what use does Galantz have for the kid now?

Jack’s served his -purpose-another nail in Sherman’s political coffin.”

“Which makes Jack expendable?”

“Yeah, I think so. I think he plans to kill the kid and heap final insult to injury. Things of value, remember? Galantz knows that, despite the estrangement between father and son, it would just about crush Sherman if his son became the final victim.”

Karen shivered in the predawn air. “And we’re the ones who told Mcnair.

I’m beginning to feel a little like a puppet, aren’t you?”

“And the son thinks Galantz is more of a father to him than his real father. He’ll never see it coming.”

“Wow. Like he said, years of planning.”

Train nodded. “I’m starting to regret our deal. This stinks. We ought to do something.”

Karen paused to watch the morning twilight play on the broad silvery expanse of the river. An alert catbird discovered them and began to scold from one of the oaks. “We have company,” Karen said, glancing back over her shoulder.

Train looked. Admiral Sherman was coming across the lawn. Karen quietly disengaged her hand from Train’s. Even from a distance in the dawn twilight, they could see that his face was haggard and his eyes unnaturally bright, almost as if he might have a, fever. He was wearing his navy blue uniform trousers, shirt, and black tie, but he had a beige civilian car coat on over his uniform. Karen felt Train tensing up as the admiral came across the wet grass. She felt a pang of disappointment that Train was still suspicious of this man.

“Good morning to both of you,” Sherman said, the fatigue audible in his voice. There were dark pouches under his normally youthful eyes.

“Hiroshi said you were out here. Mr. von Rensel, I hope you’ll forgive this intrusion.”

“Good morning, Admiral,” Karen replied, jumping in before Train could say anything. “I hope your night wasn’t as interesting as ours.”

Sherman stared down at the grass for a moment and then out over the river. “I’ve been driving,” he said. “All night.

Never done that before. Just got in the car and drove. All the way east to the north side of Baltimore, then back down to D.C. Trying to sort some things out.”

“How did you end up here?” Train asked.

“Mcnair,” Sherman said. He looked from one to the other. “We need to talk. I want to know what my son has to do with all this.”

“Did Mcnair tell you about our being attacked last night?”

“Only that you had been. That you would fill me in—on that and on Jack.

He said that you and I needed to talk.”

“Where were you last night, Admiral?” Karen asked as gently as she could, trying not to sound accusatory.

Sherman frowned, but then he answered. “Where? I was up in Maryland, near the Pennsylvania line. A little town called Hamey.”

“So were we, Admiral, courtesy of Detective Mcnair,” she said, giving him a moment to comprehend that they knew, that Mcnair also knew. “We do need to talk. Train, let’s all go back up to the house.”

Over coffee, fresh fruit, and hot rolls, Karen told the admiral about what had happened since Wednesday. She finessed what they knew about the hospice situation, limiting it to the fact that his wife was still alive. With one eye on Train, she told the admiral about Jack’s admissions. Train dutifully kept silent. Sherman’s face was grim when she was finished.

“Great God,” he snapped. tossing down his napkin. “I had no idea. This guy is on a god damned rampage.” He looked from one to the other. “How muqh of this does the JAG know?”

Karen looked at Train for a brief second. He picked right up.

“He knows about what happened out on the river,” Train said. “To my knowledge, he doesn’t know about the attack on the road last night, or your situation at the hospice. I’m not sure he knows of your son’s involvement.”

The admiral let out a long breath. “If he doesn’t, he will,” he said.

“Mcnair will probably be filling him in shortly. Perhaps it ought to come from me. Technically, I’m probably A.W.O.L. right now, anyway.”

“Why did you bail out, Admiral?” Karen asked.

His face tightened, but then he relaxed. “I felt everything closing in.

Usually, I go up there out of a sense of responsibility. She’s there because of me.” He stopped to take a deep breath. “But the second reason I go there is to seek. refuge. It’s the one place in this entire world I can go and never be judged.”

“Karen nodded slowly. Train continued to study the table cloth.

“Now tell me what Jack’s role is in all this. Did he help Galantz kill those two people?”

“From a legal standpoint, I think the police would say he was an accessory after the fact,” Train said. “But he did admit to being part of Karen’s abduction.”

“He was there? At Elizabeth’s? At Galen’s?”

Karen gave Train a reproving look. “He says he wasn’t.

He claims his only role was to show up at the funerals, so that you would see him. But we think he’s definitely working with Galantz. The attack on us out on the highway involved a machine Jack uses at work.”

“Damn,” Sherman said, rubbing his face. “And Mcnair knows this?”

“Yes, sir, he does,” Train said. “But we’re not sure what exactly he’s doing with it. Galantz is the guy Mcnair really wants.”

“My God,” Sherman muttered. “My own son.”

Train leaned forward. “We think that’s part of the plan, Admiral.

Galantz has been contemplating revenge for years.

He encounters your son at the recon training school, realizes who he is, befriends him, then sets something up that gets Jack thrown out of the Corps. Once Jack get’s out on his ass on civvy street with a bad discharge and a drinking problem, here comes his old buddy from recon school to make life interesting again.”

“And fold him into his master plan to destroy me.”

“We think so. Use Elizabeth’s homicide to frame you, or at least to get you in trouble with the Navy. We think Galen Schmidt became a target of opportunity.”

“Because I went to see him when I got the note,,” Sherman said, his face gray.

Train sidestepped that remark. “And if that didn’t do it,” he continued, “Galantz puts Jack in our faces. We focus on Jack, the cops are right behind us, and now you and your son are involved in homicides.”

“Jack was a hater,” Sherman said softly. “I never figured him as a dupe.”

Karen reluctantly began to shake her head. “No, sir. I think he’s in this willingly. I’m sorry, Admiral, but that’s what I -took away from talking to him’ “The admiral stared down at the ground. Karen’s heart went out to him when she saw the desolation in his eyes.

Galantz has won, she thought.

“Jack’s not exactly-how shall I say this-socially functional?” she said.

She described the living conditions at the trailer, and Jack’s physical state when she first found him.

Sherman shook his head and pushed back roughly from the table, causing Gutter to sit up. Sherman got up and stared out through the windows for a minute while Kyoko came in and silently cleared away the dishes.

“I told Mcnair I need to go resolve this,” he said finally.

“I’ll call the JAG. I had thought of maybe going to see Jack, alone, to try to sort this out. But … He didn’t finish this thought. Karen looked at Train. She could now see at least two problems with what Sherman was suggesting. If the police found the two of them together, the implications might be very disturbing for the police. But worse, she wasn’t sure the admiral would stand up under the emotional assault of his son’s boasting about helping Galantz, as he surely would. And then of course, there was Galantz. She was relieved when Train stood up.

“The phone’s in the study, Admiral,” he said. “Then if you’d like to shower and shave before you go in, Kyoko will show you to a guest room.”

The admiral rubbed the sides of his face with both hands, his characteristic gesture, and then nodded absently. He followed Train to the study, where Train showed him the phone. Then Train came out, closing the door behind him.

Karen met him in the hallway.

“He’s at the end of his rope, I think,” Train said. “Taking him to see Jack doesn’t seem like such a good idea just now.”

“1. agree. If the police showed up, they’d be very suspicious if they found the admiral there, especially if Jack seized the opportunity to deny Galantz’s existence and point the finger at his father.”

“Damn. He would, too.”

“That three-star is going to force Sherman out,” she said.

“And he knows it.”

“I hate to say this,” Train said, “but maybe you should go in with him.

He’s-going to need a friendly face.”

She smiled up at him. “About time you were nice to this poor mart-. And why, exactly, do you hate to say that?” she asked.

Train actually flushed a bit under her direct look. “I don’t want to let you out of my sight. Things of value, you know?”

She, smiled again and squeezed his hand. But then she thought about Sherman’s situation. “If they agree to see him this morning, on a Saturday, they’re not going to want any commanders in the room,” she said. “Especially commander lawyers. This will be a flags-only meeting.

No mere mortals allowed. At least not until they get all the blood off the walls.”

“Yeah, but I’m worried about what he might do afterward. Like try to go to find Jack, and maybe walk into Galantz in the process.”

Karen was not fooled. “And while we’re gone, kind sir?

You will be staying right here like you promised? Like a good Train, right?”

Train was looking over her head and squirming perceptibly. She grabbed his elbow and steered him away from the closed-study door. “You promise me, Train von Rensel. No Lone Ranger stuff. You be here when I bring this poor man back out here. You promise, right now, or I don’t go with him.”

“I wasn’t thinking of-“

“Oh yes you were,” she said. “Now you promise me-“

The study door opened and the admiral came out, running his left hand through his hair. They turned to see what he would say.

“It’s show time,” he announced. “At noon, I’m to meet with Admiral Kensington in his office. I think they’ve made some decisions.”

“Admiral, Karen thinks she should go with you,” Train said before Karen could speak. “Moral support, if nothing else.”

Sherman gave Karen a weary smile. “This isn’t going to be a pretty sight, Karen,” he said. “They’d probably invite you to wait out in the hallway. And if you did come in, I have to warn you that commanders who get in the middle of a flag-level gunfight do so at their professional peril.”

“I’ll take my professional chances,” she replied, shooting Train a look.

“Besides, I have firsthand knowledge of the facts, and the law.”

“Well, I’d appreciate the hell out of it. Not that they’re likely to let facts or law get in the way of a little purge. Mr. von Rensel, may I take you up on that offer of a guest room?”

I I This is Admiral Kensington’ “He’s coming in. At noon.

“Have you solved our problem?”

“Yes, I have. Those people sent someone over this morning. He was able to lift the protocol long enough for me to edit the file and then replace it. Then he put the protocol back in place. I’ve lifted the access restrictions as of Monday morning and returned it to the archives. Until then, there’s a security trap on it.”

“You’re telling me more than I want to know. Very well.

You told him to come to my_ office?”

“At noon.”

“Good. I’ll send everyone home before then. Is this going easy way or hard way?”

“That’s not knowable, Admiral. But that detective has been in touch. It seems Sherman’s son is involved in the homicides somehow.”