“Yes,” Tataglia said wearily, “I understand it.”
“Third, if you do decide to answer any questions, the answers may be used against you, do you understand that?”
“Yes, yes,” Tataglia said, and actually yawned.
Carella thought We are going to get you, you little prick.
“You also have the right to consult with an attorney before or during police questioning—”
“My attorney is Colonel Loomis.”
“And to terminate the questioning at any time. Is all of that clear?”
“Yes, it is all perfectly clear,” Tataglia said.
“Good,” Carella said, and reached into his inside jacket pocket and took from it the letter he had found in the Harris safety deposit box. “Have you ever seen this before?” he asked.
“What is it?”
“I should really ask whether you’ve ever seen the original of this. This is a carbon copy. Have you ever seen the original of this?”
Tataglia took the letter and studied it. “No,” he said at last.
“It’s addressed to you,” Carella said.
“At Fort Lee, Virginia. I was transferred from there in September. This letter is dated November sixth.”
“Ah,” Carella said.
“May I see the letter, please?” Loomis said.
“Certainly,” Carella said, and handed it to him. “You never received this letter, is that right, Major?” he said.
“That’s right,” Tataglia said. “The Army isn’t always very good at forwarding mail,” he said, and smiled.
“What do you make of its contents?” Carella asked.
“It’s contents?”
“Yes. You’re seeing it for the first time now...”
“I haven’t even read it,” Tataglia said.
“Oh, I thought you’d read it. Colonel Loomis, would you give him the letter, please?”
“I wouldn’t answer any further questions, if I were you,” Loomis said. “Mr. Carella, Mr. Stewart, I would like to suggest—”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Tataglia said, and took the letter from Loomis. “I have nothing to hide.”
Good, Carella thought. You're just what we think you are, and we’re going to nail you to the wall. He watched as Tataglia slowly and carefully read the letter. Finally, Tataglia looked up.
“Have you read it now?” Carella asked.
“Yes.”
“For the first time, right?”
“That’s right.”
“What do you think of it?”
“I have no idea what it means.”
“You don’t know what it means?” Carella said.
“That’s right.”
“It seems to me that Jimmy Harris is suggesting that you stuck a bayonet in Lieutenant Blake.”
“That’s nonsense.”
“Lieutenant Blake was killed, wasn’t he?”
“Of course he was.”
“But this isn’t how he was killed. He wasn’t killed the way Jimmy Harris suggests.”
“He was killed when a mortar shell exploded near him.”
“Ah,” Carella said.
“I told you that when you came to see me yesterday.”
“Yes, but Jimmy seems to have thought you stuck a bayonet in the lieutenant.”
“I have no idea what Jimmy thought or didn’t think. Jimmy is dead.”
“So he is. He seems to have thought the others also stuck bayonets in the lieutenant.”
“I repeat—”
“Because in his letter he says you and the others killed the lieutenant.”
“I don’t know what others you mean.”
“I would guess the men in Alpha Fire Team, wouldn’t you?”
“I don’t know what the letter means. I can only think Jimmy was crazy when he wrote it.”
“Ah,” Carella said. “You think he just invented all this, is that it?”
“I don’t know what he invented or didn’t invent. I only know that this is an obvious attempt at blackmail.”
“Then you didn’t stab Lieutenant Blake?”
“Of course I didn’t!”
“Excuse me,” Loomis said, “but I really feel the major should not answer any further questions. Major Tataglia, as your legal advisor...”
“I have nothing to hide,” Tataglia said again.
“What happened that day?” Carella asked.
“What day?”
“The day Lieutenant Blake got killed.
“There was a mortar attack,” Tataglia said, and shrugged. “He was killed by an exploding mortar shell.”
“Was this before or after he ordered Alpha up the hill?”
“What hill?”
“Up the hill to attack the mortar emplacement.”
“I recall no such order.”
You'd been fighting with another gang all that month—
Heavy fighting, man.
And now you were resting.
Yeah, and Lloyd told us to go on up.
What did he mean by that?
I told you. Upstairs.
“The lieutenant didn’t order Alpha up the hill?” Carella asked.
“I don’t know what hill you mean.”
“Where was the lieutenant’s command post?”
“I don’t remember.”
“Wasn’t it on the low ground? Near some bamboo?”
“I don’t remember.”
“This was the day you were promoted in the field, wasn’t it?”
“Yes, but I don’t remember where the command post was.”
“Danny Cortez says it was near some bamboo at the bottom of a hill.”
“I don’t even know who Danny Cortez is.”
“He was in Bravo. The lieutenant ordered Bravo up the hill, and then he came down to get Alpha. He ordered Alpha up the hill, too, didn’t he?”
“No.”
“But the men refused to go, didn’t they?”
Damn straight, man. The boys told Lloyd to shove it up his ass. Then they all grabbed him, you know, pulled him away from Roxanne where they were standin there in the middle of the floor. Record still goin, drums loud as anything. Guy banging the drums there.
“Isn’t that what happened?” Carella asked. His scalp was beginning to tingle. He understood it completely now. It had taken him a long time to see it but now it was crystal-clear. He didn’t need Lemarre or Leider to explain what had happened that day. He knew what had happened. “Did you and the lieutenant struggle?”
“No, the lieutenant and I didn’t struggle.”
“Didn’t you tell him the men didn’t have to go up that hill if they didn’t want to? Didn’t you tell him they were tired?”
“I told him nothing of the sort.”
“But he was there, isn’t that right?”
“Where? I don’t know what you mean.”
“At the command post. He wasn’t killed before he got to the command post, was he?”
“I don’t... I don’t remember when he was killed. We... the mortar attack started when he was coming down the hill.”
There’s this post in the middle of the room, you know? Like, you know, a steel post holdin up the ceiling beams. They push him up against the post. I got no idea what they fixin to do with him, he the president, they askin for trouble there.
“What was the lieutenant’s first name?” Carella asked.
“What?”
“Lieutenant Blake. What was his first name?”
“Roger.”
Roxanne’s cryin. They grab her. She fightin them now, she don’t want this to happen, but they do it anyway, they stick it in her, one after the other, all of them.
“Danny Cortez saw it,” Carella said. He was lying again. He didn’t give a damn. He wasn’t going to let this son of a bitch off the hook. If the courts reversed it later, the hell with it. He wasn’t going to let him get away now.