The General's Daughter - The General's Daughter Part 44
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The General's Daughter Part 44

I ignored Elkins and said to Moore, "I have hard evidence that puts you at the scene of the crime, Colonel. There are enough charges against you to put you in jail for ten or twenty years."

Moore reeled backward as if I'd hit him, and he sat heavily on the cot. "No... I didn't do anything wrong. I just did what she asked me to do..."

"You suggested it." suggested it."

"No! She She suggested it. It was suggested it. It was her her idea." idea."

"You knew fucking well what her father did to her at West Point."

"I only knew about a week ago-when he gave her his ultimatum."

Elkins looked at Cynthia and asked her, "What did he do to you?"

I said to Elkins, "Pipe down."

"Yes, sir."

I said to Moore, "I want you out of this Army. I may let you resign for the good of the service. That depends on how cooperative you are."

"I'm willing to cooperate-"

"I don't care if you're willing or not, Colonel. You will will cooperate. You cooperate. You will will fire your attorney." fire your attorney."

Elkins began to second that, but thought better of it and sat down on his cot.

Moore nodded.

"What were you wearing out on rifle range six?"

"My uniform. We thought it would be best, in case I ran into any MPs-"

"Those shoes?"

"Yes."

"Take them off."

He hesitated, then took them off.

"Give them to me."

He handed them through the bars.

I said to him, "I'll see you later, Colonel." I said to Elkins, "How's my buddy?"

He stood. "Fine, sir. They're letting me out tomorrow morning."

"Good. If you run, you die."

"Yes, sir."

I walked away from the cells, and Cynthia followed. She asked, "Who was that other guy?"

"My buddy. The reason I'm here at Hadley." I explained briefly, then went into the office of the lockup sergeant. I identified myself and said to him, "I have a Colonel Moore in lockup. Have him strip-searched and give him only water tonight. No reading material allowed."

The sergeant looked at me wide-eyed. "You have an officer in lockup? A colonel?"

"He may not have access to counsel until sometime tomorrow. I'll let you know."

"Yes, sir."

I put Moore's shoes on his desk. "Have these tagged and delivered to hangar three at Jordan Field."

"Yes, sir."

We left and headed toward our office. Cynthia said, "I didn't know you were going to lock him up."

"Neither did I until I saw the lawyer. Well, everyone wanted me to arrest him."

"Yes, but for murder. And you don't put a commissioned officer in a common lockup."

"Silly custom. If he goes to Leavenworth, this is good training." I added, "Besides, people talk better when they've tasted jail."

"Right. Not to mention a strip-search and no rations. The regulations say he has to have at least bread and water."

"In each twenty-four-hour period. Meanwhile, I haven't had a decent meal myself in forty-eight hours."

"You're going to be officially criticized for the way you've handled this."

"That's the least of my problems at the moment."

We entered our office, and I flipped through the phone messages. Aside from the news media, there weren't many calls. No one wanted to speak to me anymore. There was, however, a message from the worried Major Bowes of the CID, the worried Colonel Weems of the staff judge advocate's office, and the anxious Colonel Hellmann. I called Hellmann at his home in Falls Church, where his wife assured me that I was interrupting his dinner. "Hello, Karl."

"Hello, Paul," he said in his jovial manner.

"Thanks for the fax," I said.

"Don't mention it. Don't ever ever mention it." mention it."

"Right. We've spoken to General and Mrs. Campbell, as well as to Mrs. Fowler. Cynthia and I can reconstruct nearly everything that happened that evening from about the time Captain Campbell had chicken for dinner at the O Club, to the time she reported for duty officer, to the time she took the humvee out ostensibly to check the guard posts, right up to and including the murder and beyond the murder, to dawn and to me becoming involved in the case."

"Very good. Who killed her?"

"Well, we don't actually know."

"I see. Will you know by noon tomorrow?"

"That's the program."

"It would be good if the CID could solve this case."

"Yes, sir. I'm looking forward to a promotion and a raise."

"Well, you'll get neither. But I will get that letter of reprimand out of your file as you politely requested."

"Terrific. Really good. You may get another to take its place. I arrested Colonel Moore, had him thrown in the lockup here, strip-searched, and put on water."

"Perhaps you could have just restricted him to post, Mr. Brenner."

"I did, but then he ran off and got a JAG lawyer."

"That's his right."

"Absolutely. In fact, I arrested him in front of his lawyer, and almost arrested the lawyer for interfering."

"I see. What is the charge, if not murder?"

"Conspiracy to conceal a crime, actions unbecoming, being an asshole, and so forth. You don't want to discuss this on the phone, do you?"

"No. Why don't you fax me a report?"

"No reports. Maybe Warrant Officer Kiefer can fax you a report."

"Oh, yes. I hope she's being helpful."

"We didn't know we had a third partner."

"Now you know. I actually called you because the CID commander there called Falls Church, and he's rather upset."

I didn't reply.

"Major Bowes. You remember him?"

"We've never met."

"Nevertheless, he's making all sorts of threats."

"Karl, there are about thirty officers on this post, almost all of them married, who were sexually involved with the deceased. They're all going to threaten, beg, plead, cajole, and-"

"Thirty?"

"At least. But who's counting?"

"Thirty? What is going on out there?" What is going on out there?"

"I think it's something in the water. I'm not drinking it."

Cynthia stifled a laugh, but too late, and Karl said, "Ms. Sunhill? Are you there?"

"Yes, sir. Just picked up."

"How do you know that thirty married officers were sexually involved with the deceased?"

Cynthia answered, "We found a diary, sir. Actually, a computer file. Grace got into the deceased's computer." She added, "The officers include most of the general's personal staff."

There was no reply, so I said, "I think we can control this if that's what they want in the Pentagon. I'd suggest transfers to thirty different duty stations, followed by individual resignations at varying intervals. That wouldn't draw any attention. But it's not my problem."

Again, no response.

Cynthia said, "General Campbell intends to resign tomorrow after his daughter's funeral."

Karl spoke. "I'm flying down tonight."

I replied, "Why don't you wait until tomorrow? There's an electrical storm here, tornado warnings, wind shear-"

"All right, tomorrow. Anything further?"

"No, sir."

"We'll speak tomorrow."

"Looking forward to it. Enjoy your dinner, sir."

He hung up and we did the same.

Cynthia commented, "I think he likes you."

"That's what I'm afraid of. Well, how about a drink?"

"Not yet." She pushed the intercom and asked Ms. Kiefer to come in.

Kiefer entered with her own chair, now that we were all equals, and sat down. She inquired, "How's it going, guys?"

"Fine," Cynthia replied. "Thanks for sticking around."

"This is where the action is."

"Right. I'd like you to go through all your MP patrol reports for the night of the murder. Listen to the tapes of the radio transmissions, check the desk sergeant's log, see if any traffic or parking tickets were issued that night, and talk to the MPs who had duty that night, but be discreet. You know what we're looking for."

Kiefer nodded. "Yes. Cars and people where they're not supposed to be after about 2400 hours. Good idea."

"Actually, you gave me the idea when you told us about Randy Six. That's the sort of thing that could be significant. See you later."

We left Ms. Kiefer in our office. In the hallway, I said to Cynthia, "You may have something there."

"I hope so. We don't have much else."

"Drink?"