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We gave Trifonov his Steyr back and let hiun back in and then legged it to his rooht where he left off We parked the Huht to the copy of the gate log It was still taped to the wall, next to the map
"Vassell and Coomer," she said "They were the only other people who left the post that night"
"They went north," I said "If you want to say they threw the briefcase out of the car, then you have to agree they went north They didn&039;t go south to Coluuy didn&039;t do Carbone and Brubaker There&039;s no connection We just wasted a lot of time"
"Welcoot a whole lot worse when eant The wo froh
"Willard has been and gone," he said "Unbelievable"
"Told you so"
"He pitched all kinds of hissy fits"
"But you&039;re fireproof"
"Thank God"
I paused "Did you tell hiuy?"
He paused "You told me to Shouldn&039;t I have?"
"It was a dry hole Looked good at first, but it wasn&039;t in the end"
"Well, he&039;s on his way up to see you about it He left here two hours ago He&039;s going to be very disappointed"
"Terrific," I said
"What are you going to do?" Summer asked
"What is Willard?" I said "Fundamentally?"
"A careerist," she said
"Correct," I said
Technically the arrunt co as he doesn&039;t do anything stupid he is automatically promoted to an E-2 private after a year, and to an E-3 private first class after another year, or even a little earlier if he&039;s any good Then the ladder stretches all the way up to a five-star General of the Are Washington and Dwight David Eisenhoho ever rade as three separate steps to acknowledge the Coeant Major of the Arrades, then a hteen steps below hiives a oing both ways, up and down, giving and taking With a s on the ladder, insubordination was a true art form And the canvas was one-on-one privacy
So I sent Suued about it In the end I got her to agree that one of us should stay under the radar She went to get a late dinner My sergeant brought me a sandwich Roast beef and Swiss cheese, white bread, a little ood sandwich Then she brought h my second cup when Willard arrived
He caet up Didn&039;t salute Didn&039;t stop sippingvery tactical As far as he knew I had a suspect that could take Brubaker&039;s case away from the Colu dealers in a crack alley So he was prepared to start out war experience with one of his staff He sat down and started plucking at his trouser legs He put a man-to-h soether
"Wonderful drive from Jackson," he said "Great roads"
I said nothing
"Just bought a vintage Pontiac GTO," he said "Fine car I put polished headers on it, big bore pipes Goes like shit off a shiny shovel"
I said nothing
"You like muscle cars?"
"No," I said "I like to take the bus"
"That&039;s not much fun"
"OK, let me put it another way I&039;m happy with the size of my penis I don&039;t need compensation"
He hite Then he went red The salared at uy
"Tell ress on Brubaker," he said
"Brubaker&039;s not uy"
"False alarm," I said
"Are you sure?"
"Totally"
"Who were you looking at?"
"Your ex-wife"
"What?"
"Someone told me she slept with half the colonels in the arht include Brubaker I mean, it was a fifty-fifty chance"
He stared at ," I said "It was nobody Just a dry hole"
He looked away, furious I got up and closed ain Faced him
"Your insolence is incredible," he said
"So make a complaint, Willard Go up the chain of cos See if anyone believes you Or see if anyone believes you can&039;t fix a thing like that all by yourself Watch that note go in your file See what kind of an impression it makes at your one-star promotion board"
He squirmed in his chair Hitched his body froaze on Summer&039;s map
"What&039;s that?" he said
"It&039;s a map," I said
"Of what?"
"Of the eastern United States"
"What are the pins for?"
I didn&039;t answer He got up and stepped over to the wall Touched the pins with his fingertips, one at a tih, Fort Bird, Cape Fear, and Columbia
"What is all this?" he said
"They&039;re just pins," I said
He pulled the pin out of Green Valley, Virginia
"Mrs Kramer," he said "I told you to leave that alone"
He pulled all the other pins out Threw the Scanned down it and stopped when he got to Vassell and Coomer
"I told you to leave them alone as well," he said
He tore the list off the wall The tape took scabs of paint with it Then he tore the map down More paint came with it The pins had left tiny holes in the Sheetrock They looked like a map all by themselves Or a constellation
"You made holes in the wall," he said "I won&039;t have army property abused in this way It&039;s unprofessional What would visitors to this rooht there was a map on the wall," I said "It was you that pulled it down and made the mess"
He dropped the crumpled paper on the floor
"You want me to walk over to the Delta station?" he said
"Want me to break your back?"
He went very quiet
"You should think about your next pro to make lieutenant colonel while I&039;m still here?"
"No," I said "I really don&039;t But then, I don&039;t expect you&039;ll be here very long"
"Think again This is a nice niche The army will always need cops"
"But it won&039;t always need clueless assholes like you"
"You&039;re speaking to a senior officer"
I looked around the roo? I don&039;t see any witnesses"
He said nothing
"You&039;ve got an authority proble you try to solve it Maybe we could solve it yot a secure fax machine?" he said
"Obviously," I said "It&039;s in the outer office You passed it on your way in What are you? Blind as well as stupid?"
"Be standing next to it at exactly nine hundred hours to you a set of written orders"
He glared at me one last time Then he stepped outside and slammed the door so hard that the whole wall shook and the air current lifted thean inch off the floor
I stayed at ton, but he didn&039;t answer I thought about callingto say Whatever I talked about, she would know I had called to ask: Are you still alive? She would know that as on ot out of my chair and picked up the map and smoothed it out Taped it back on the wall I picked up all seven pins and put theside the ain It was useless I balled it up and threw it in the trash Left the eant came in with more coffee I wondered briefly about her baby&039;s father Where was he? Had he been an abusive husband? If so, he was probably buried in a swamp so and she answered it for me Passed me the receiver
"Detective Clark," she said "Up in Virginia"
I trailed the phone cord around the desk and sat down again
"We&039;re ress now," he said "The Sperryville crowbar is our weapon, for sure We got an identical sample from the hardware store and our medical examiner matched it up"
"Good work," I said
"So I&039; We found ours, so we can&039;t be looking for yours anyet"
"Sure," I said "We anticipated that"
"So you&039;re on your oith it now, bud And I&039;
"Anything at your end? You got a naet about a naht Bud No quo, no quid Not that there ever was a name in the first place
"I&039;ll let you know," I said
Suht off Told her to meet me for breakfast in the O Club At nine o&039;clock exactly, when Willard&039;s orders were due I figured we could have a long leisurely s, plenty of coffee, and we could stroll back over about ten-fifteen
"You moved the map," she said
"Willard tore it down I put it back up"
"He&039;s dangerous"
"Maybe," I said "Maybe not Time will tell"
She went back to her quarters and I went back to mine I was in a room in the Bachelor Officers&039; row It was pretty -dead Medal of Honor winner and a path branching off from the sidewalk that led to hts on them The one nearest my door was out It was out because it had been busted with a stone I could see glass on the path And three guys in the shadows I walked past the first one He was the Delta sergeant with the beard and the tan He tapped the face of his watch with his forefinger The second guy did the saot inside and closed my door Didn&039;t hear them walk away I didn&039;t sleep well
They were gone byIrooe The disadvantage was that whatever food re on the buffet for a while But on balance I thought it was a good situation I was ourmet Summer and I sat across from each other at a small table in the center of the roo that was left Surits and two pounds of biscuits She was small, but she could eat That was for damn sure We took our time with our coffee and walked over to my office at ten-twenty There wasThe Louisiana corporal looked harassed
"Don&039;t answer your phone," he said "It&039;s Colonel Willard He wanted iotten your orders He&039;s mad as hell"
"What are the orders?"
He ducked back to his desk and offeredI didn&039;t take the sheet of paper I just stood there and read it over my corporal&039;s shoulder There were two closely spaced paragraphs Willard was ordering me to examine the quartermaster&039;s inward delivery note file and his outward distribution log I was to use theht to be there in the on-post warehouse Then I was to verify my conclusion by means of a practical search Then I was to co ite to track down their current whereabouts I was to execute the order in a prompt and timely fashion I was to call him to confirm receipt of the order immediately it was in my hand
It was a classic make-work punishment In the bad old days they ordered you to paint coal white or fill sandbags with teaspoons or scrub floors with toothbrushes This was the modern-day MP equivalent It was a mindless task that would take teeks to co
"The order was never in my hand," I said "I&039;m not here"
"Where are you?"
"Tell hium wrapper in the flower bed outside the post commander&039;s office Tell him I won&039;t have army real estate abused in that way Tell him I&039;ve been on the trail since well before dawn"
I led Su phones
"Asshole," I said
"You should lay low," she said "He&039;ll be calling all over"
I stood still Looked around Cold weather Gray buildings, gray sky
"Let&039;s take the day off," I said "Let&039;s go sos to do"
I nodded Carbone Kramer Brubaker
"Can&039;t stay here," I said "So we can&039;t do o down to Colu we can do that Sanchez isn&039;t doing"
"Too cold for the beach," Suain Suddenly wished it wasn&039;t too cold for the beach I would have liked to see Summer on the beach In a bikini A very small one, for preference
"We have to work," she said
I looked south and west, beyond the post buildings I could see the trees, cold and dead against the horizon I could see a tall pine, dull and dorured it was close to where we had found Carbone
Carbone
"Let&039;s go to Green Valley," I said "Let&039;s visit with Detective Clark We could ask him for his crowbar notes He made a start for us So ood investment at this point"
"And four hours back"
"We could have lunch Maybe dinner We could go AWOL"
"They&039;d find us"
I shook my head
"Nobody would find me," I said "Not ever"
I stayed there on the sidewalk and Sureen Chevy we had used before She pulled in tight to the curb and buzzed her n before I could move
"Is this sot," I said
"No, ITime out, ten-thirty Willard could check it"
I said nothing She smiled
"You could hide in the trunk," she said "You could get out again e&039;re through the gate"
I shookto hide Not because of an asshole like Willard If he checks the log I&039;ll tell hiuy suddenly went interstate Or global, even We could go to Tahiti"
I got in beside her and racked the seat all the way back and started thinking about bikinis again She took her foot off the brake and accelerated down the ate An MP private came out with a clipboard He noted our plate number and we showed him ID He wrote our names down Glanced into the car, checked the euard shack and the barrier went up in front of us, very slowly It was a thick pole with a counterweight, red and white stripes Summer waited until it was exactly vertical and then she dropped the haovernment-funded smoke froot better as we drove north We slid out froht winter sunshine It was an army car so there was no radio in it Just a blank panel where the civilian model would have had AM and FM and a cassette slot So we talked fro in ai, to be free I had spent just aboutwhere the military told me to be, every minute of every day Now I felt like a truant There was a world out there It was going about its business, chaotic and untidy and undisciplined, and I was a part of it, just briefly I lay back in the seat and watched it spool by, bright and stroboscopic, rando river
"Do you wear a bikini or a one-piece?" I asked
"Why?"
"Just checking," I said "I was thinking about the beach"
"Too cold"
"Won&039;t be in August"
"Think you&039;ll be here in August?"
"No," I said
"Pity," she said "You&039;ll never knohat I wear"
"You could mail me a picture"
"Where to?"
"Fort Leavenworth, probably," I said "The "
"No, where will you be? Seriously"
"I have no idea," I said "August is eight months away"
"Where&039;s the best place you ever served?"
I sive anyone who asks that question