B. Subject is able to distinguish right from wrong and is able to adhere to the right. He is mentally capable of participating in his own defense.
C. Subject is cleared for action deemed appropriate by command.
“What does this mean?” Ami asked.
“This is strictly a guess, but let’s assume that Rice wanted to reestablish a relationship with Vanessa Wingate when they met again in D.C. Only she’s not interested in him the way she was when they were teenagers. Rice knew she hated her father and suspected he had done all sorts of terrible things, including murdering her mother, so to win her back to his side he made up this story about her father ordering him to commit all sorts of crimes. Maybe-if he’s in a paranoid state-he even believes it.”
“I checked the St. Martin’s Prep yearbook,” Ami said. “Rice did graduate in the class of 1970 with Vanessa Wingate.”
“That doesn’t mean that he was her lover in high school,” French said. “But, true or not, it looks as though he believes that she was his lover. If he was obsessed with Vanessa, he may have seen her with Congressman Glass and decided that they were lovers. He may have imagined that Glass was a rival who was standing between him and the object of his desire. That might explain why he was depressed. He may also have convinced himself that Vanessa would be his again if he removed this obstacle. That would be one explanation for why he murdered the congressman.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
Vanessa wasn’t in when Ami called her hotel, so she left another message. Her client called her back just before noon and they arranged to have lunch at Brasserie Montmartre, a restaurant that was a few blocks from Vanessa’s hotel and within walking distance of Ami’s office. Ami reserved a booth so that they would have privacy. Vanessa was waiting for her when she arrived.
“We have a lot to discuss,” Ami said as soon as they ordered. “First, I spoke to Ray Armitage. There’s been a new development in his case in Colorado so he won’t be back in Portland for two more days. Second, the district attorney has made a plea offer.”
“What is it?”
Vanessa looked tense as Ami explained what Brendan had told her.
“So Dan will have to go to prison if he takes the offer?” Vanessa said.
“I’m afraid so.”
“What if he turns it down? Will he still be locked up?”
“Yes, unless Armitage persuades the judge to set bail that’s low enough for Dan to meet. Otherwise he’ll be in jail, unless he’s acquitted.”
“How soon will we know about bail?”
“Armitage told me that he’ll set a bail hearing right away, but he’ll need some time to digest the facts, talk to Dan, line up witnesses, etcetera. It might be a week or so.”
Vanessa was pensive while the waitress placed their orders on the table. When the waitress left, Ami looked directly at her.
“Are you Morris Wingate’s daughter?”
Vanessa hesitated.
“Did you go to high school with Carl?”
Vanessa could not hide her surprise. “He told you his real name?”
Ami nodded. “And I know that both of you graduated in 1970. I’ve checked the St. Martin’s yearbook.”
“What else have you been up to?”
“I’ve consulted a psychiatrist. He’s interviewed Carl. We’re concerned about his mental health.”
“I see.”
“Vanessa, Carl has told me a number of things that are very unsettling. If I’m going to help him I have to know if they’re true.”
“What did he tell you?”
“I can’t reveal what he told me, because our conversations are protected by the attorney-client privilege; and I don’t want to tell you, because I want to see if you both tell the same story. It will help me judge Carl’s mental state.”
“What do you want to know?”
“What was your relationship in high school?”
Vanessa looked sad. “It was very intense our senior year,” she answered softly. “It ended when he was drafted.”
“Why?”
Vanessa looked down at the tabletop. “Carl had a full scholarship to Dartmouth. It was his dream to go there. If he’d tried, he could have gotten a deferment so he could go to college and avoid the draft. My father talked him into going into the army. I felt that he had chosen my father over me.”
Vanessa raised her eyes and looked into Ami’s. “I hated Carl for that,” she said.
“When was the next time you saw him?”
“In 1985 in Washington, D.C. It was a coincidence. I was on a date and so was he. We were at the same restaurant. He recognized me and came over. A week later, we had dinner together.”
“So you started dating Carl again?”
“I wouldn’t call it dating. We met for dinner every once in a while. Sometimes he’d wait for me after class and we’d go for coffee. It was strictly platonic.”
“How long did this go on?”
“A few months.”
“Why did you stop?”
“Carl disappeared for a few weeks.” Vanessa ate a forkful of her salad. It was obvious that she was stalling while she debated with herself what she would say next.
“Did you worry when Carl stopped coming around?” Ami prompted.
“Not at first. As I said, we weren’t dating. He was just an old friend. We’d had a teenage love affair, but that was a long time ago in a different life. I’d been married, divorced; a lot had happened since high school. I missed seeing him, because he was a nice guy; but I also thought that he wanted more out of the relationship than I did. I assumed that he had sensed the way I felt and wanted to be the one to break it off rather than face rejection.”
“So you didn’t have any romantic feelings for Carl when you met again in D.C.?”
“If he’d asked me to go to bed with him I would have turned him down.” Vanessa sighed. “Honestly, at that time, I liked being with Carl, but, well, he was a sergeant in the army. If he retired he was going to be a language teacher who might become a professor someday. I was spending my days in Congress with dynamic men and women who were doing big things on a national or worldwide stage and my evenings with brilliant law students who were going to run the world. Carl was fun but I didn’t see a future with him.”
“Did you see Carl again?”
Vanessa got very quiet.
“Did he show up at your apartment in the early morning?” Ami asked.
“Yes.”
Ami smiled. “This is like pulling teeth.”
Vanessa did not return the smile.
“He told me about the Unit,” Ami said.
“Thank God,” Vanessa said. Then she started to talk.
“Carl told me that he was in a secret army group composed of a small number of highly trained men that was run by my father. It was concealed within the Agency for Intelligence Data Coordination, and the men carried out assassinations, among other illegal activities. He said he’d just returned from a mission in which he had followed orders and murdered two people. He wanted to get out of that life. He was desperate.”
“Did you try to help him?”
“Yes. I knew that my father conducted business in our house on the California coast. There’s a safe in his den. One day I was in the den when he opened it. He wasn’t careful, and I memorized the combination. Father was in Washington, so I flew home on a red-eye and searched his den. I found the records of ten men in the safe.”
“Were these the records for the Unit?”
“Nothing in the records connected the men to the Unit Carl had told me about, but I guessed that these were the members because Carl was in the group and they had a very high level of training.”
“What did you do with the records?”
“You know very well what I did with them.”