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"Yes," he said "We have our suspicions"

"So it wasn&039;t a surprise to you that he didn&039;t bunk at the hotel"

"No," he said "It wasn&039;t"

"And it wasn&039;t a surprise when I told you he wasn&039;t visiting with his wife"

"Not entirely, no"

"So you suspected roughly what he , but you didn&039;t knohere"

Vassell nodded his head "Roughly"

"Did you knoho it?"

Vassell shook his head

"We have no specific information," he said

"OK," I said "Doesn&039;t really h to realize that if we discover a potential for embarrass pause

"Have all traces been removed?" Coomer asked "From wherever it was?"

I nodded "We took his stuff"

"Good"

"I need the Irwin conference agenda," I said

There was another pause

"There wasn&039;t one," Vassell said

"I&039;m sure there was," I said "This is the army It&039;s not the Actors Studio We don&039;t do free improvisation sessions"

There was a pause

"There was nothing on paper," Coo deal"

"How did you spend your day today?"

"Chasing ruet down here from DC?"

"We have a car and a driver on loan froon"

"You checked out of the Jefferson?"

"Yes, we did"

"So your bags are in the Pentagon car?"

"Yes, they are"

"Where is the car?"

"Waiting outside your post headquarters"

"It&039;s not my post headquarters," I said "I&039;m here on temporary detacho fetch their briefcases froed, but they knew they couldn&039;t stopit Civilian notions about unreasonable search and seizure and warrants and probable cause stop at an arone They were annoyed, but they weren&039;t worried So either they were telling the truth about the Irwin conference or they had already ditched the relevant paperwork But I went through thetwo identical briefcases They were exactly like the one Kraraphs Staffers kiss up in all kinds of ways

I searched through them on my desk I found passports, plane tickets, travel vouchers, and itineraries in both of theendas for Fort Irwin

"Sorry for the inconvenience," I said

"Happy now, son?" Vassell said

"Kramer&039;s wife is dead too," I said "Did you know that?"

I watched them carefully, and I saw that they didn&039;t know They stared at et pale and upset

"How?" Vassell said

"When?" Cooht," I said "She was a homicide victim"

"Where?"

"In her house There was an intruder"

"Do we knoho it was?"

"No, we don&039;t It&039;s not our case It&039;s a civilian jurisdiction"

"What was it? A burglary?"

"Itmore Summer and I walked them out to the sidewalk in front of post headquarters and watched theon car It was a Mercury Grand Marquis, a couple ofold boat, and black rather than green Their driver was a tall guy in BDUs He had subdued-order badges on and I couldn&039;t make out his name or his rank in the dark But he didn&039;t look like an enlisted man He U-turned smoothly across the empty road and drove Vassell and Cooh the ate, and away into the darkness beyond

"What do you think?" Summer said

"I think they&039;re full of shit," I said

"I-rank shit?"

"They&039;re lying," I said "They&039;re uptight, they&039;re lying, and they&039;re stupid Why am I worried about Kramer&039;s briefcase?"

"Sensitive paperwork," she said "Whatever he was carrying to California"

I nodded "They just defined it for enda itself"

"You&039;re sure there was one?"

"There&039;s always an agenda And it&039;s always on paper There&039;s a paper agenda for everything You want to change the dog food in the K-9 kennels, you need forty-seven separate endas So there was one for Irwin, that&039;s for damn sure It was coot so to hide, they should have just said it&039;s too secret for me to see"

"Maybe the conference really wasn&039;t important"

"That&039;s bullshit too It was very important"

"Why?"

"Because a two-star general was going And a one-star And because it was New Year&039;s Eve, Suht in a lousy stopover hotel? And this year in Ger down We won, after forty-five years The partiesuniuys on a plane on New Year&039;s Eve, this Irwin thing had to be so deal"

"They were upset about Mrs Kramer More than about Kramer himself"

I nodded "Maybe they liked her"

"They must have liked Kramer too"

"No, he&039;s just a tactical problem for them It&039;s an unsentimental business, up there at their level They hitched themselves to hi about where that leaves them"

"Ready for promotion, maybe"

"Maybe," I said "But if Krao doith him"

"Then they should be reassured You pro pri I shouldn&039;t have pro

"We protect the army, Summer," I said "Like family That&039;s e&039;re for" Then I paused "But did you notice they didn&039;t shut up after that? They should have taken the hint Cover-up requested, cover-up promised Asked and answered, mission accomplished"

"They wanted to knohere his stuff was"

"Yes," I said "They did And you knohat thatfor Kraenda Kramer&039;s copy is the only one still outside of their direct control They came down here to check if I had it"

Suone I could still s from the catalyst

"How do civilian medics work?" I asked her "Suppose you&039;re o doith a heart attack? What do you do?"

"I call 911"

"And then what happens?"

"The aency rooet there Where would you be?"

"I would have ridden to the hospital with you"

"And where would my briefcase be?"

"At home," she said "Wherever you left it" Then she paused "What? You think so for the briefcase?"

"It&039;s a plausible sequence," I said "Someone hears that he&039;s dead from a heart attack, assuency roooes down there expecting to find an empty house with a briefcase in it"

"But Kramer was never there"

"It was a reasonable first try"

"You think it was Vassell and Coo

"That&039;s crazy," Summer said "They don&039;t look the type"

"Don&039;t let looks fool you They&039;re Arht over anything that gets in their way But I don&039;t think the ti works for them Let&039;s say Garber called XII Corps in Germany at twelve-fifteen, earliest Then let&039;s say XII Corps called the hotel back here in the States at twelve-thirty, earliest Green Valley is seventy minutes from DC and Mrs Kraiven thein to react, maximum They were just in from the airport, so they didn&039;t have a car with theet hold of one And they certainly didn&039;t have a croith thee, just in case And I doubt if the Hoht on New Year&039;s Eve"

"So so?"

"We need to find that agenda," I said "We need to nail this thing down"

I sent Sus: first, list all female personnel at Fort Bird with access to their own Huht have met Kramer at Fort Irwin in California, and third, contact the Jefferson Hotel in DC and get Vassell and Coomer&039;s exact check-in and checkout ti phone calls I went back to my office and filed the note from Garber and spread the note from my brother on the blotter and dialed the nu

"Hey, Joe," I said

"Jack?"

"What?"

"I got a call"

"Who from?"

"Mom&039;s doctor," he said

"About what?"

"She&039;s dying"