“I need you to tell me.”
“I took them to Eric Glass.” Vanessa’s voice broke. “He was a very decent man.” She took a sip of water. “Eric was on the House committee with oversight of the intelligence community. I told him what Carl had told me about the Unit. Eric was going to have one of his staffers run a check on the men whose files were in my father’s safe.”
“This meeting was at Lost Lake on the night the congressman was murdered?”
“Carl did that,” she said in a voice that was barely above a whisper. A tear trickled down her cheek. “He tortured Eric for the records, then he cut his throat.”
“You saw him?”
Vanessa nodded slowly.
“There was so much blood. And the look on Eric’s face…”
“What happened to you after the police came?” Ami asked.
“That night is a blur. I’ve blocked out most of it. All I can remember are flashes, little snapshots. But I remember very clearly what my father did to me.” Vanessa’s sorrow was rapidly replaced by bitterness. “He put me in a mental hospital, and I spent a year in hell. He made certain that no one would ever believe a word I said about the Unit.” Vanessa pointed to her forehead. “I have a big red stamp right here. It says ‘Ex-Mental Patient, Nutcase.’ When I came out of that place I was addicted to the drugs they gave me, unemployable.” Vanessa gritted her teeth. Ami could see the rage building. “You have no idea what I’ve been through.”
“Vanessa, I know you don’t want to believe it, but there is another possible explanation for the Unit that doesn’t involve your father. The psychiatrist who interviewed Carl thinks that he may be suffering from a rare form of mental illness called a paranoid state. According to my expert, it’s a possible explanation for his story. Carl may be so disturbed that he actually believes he was in a secret Unit run by your father. That’s why his story sounds so plausible.”
“You see what I’m up against?” Vanessa said. “No one believes me! But I know that my father did run the Unit. He is evil. And now I’ve got a chance to set things right. I’ve got a witness who can tell the world what my father is really like. But I’ve got to get him out of jail before they kill him. Any minute now my father will learn that Carl Rice is alive and send his men after him.”
“Carl is perfectly safe, Vanessa. He’s locked in the secure ward of the hospital. There’s a policeman guarding him. No one can get to him.”
For a moment, Ami thought that her client was going to argue with her, but suddenly Vanessa calmed down.
“I guess you’re right,” Vanessa said. “Carl is probably safe in a guarded, locked ward.”
“He is. Try to keep calm. Ray Armitage is the best. He’ll be on the case very soon. Then we’ll get some results. Okay?”
Vanessa nodded. “I’m sorry I got so upset. You’re doing a great job.”
Ami smiled, but she was certain that Vanessa had not meant a word she said since her rapid mood change.
After lunch Ami walked back to her office and went over everything she knew about Rice’s case. She had no new insights until she reread Captain Howard Stienbock’s psychiatric report. The doctor had concluded that Carl had a mental problem in 1985. Dr. Stienbock’s testimony would establish that her client had a long-standing psychiatric problem if Ray Armitage decided to go with an insanity defense.
Ami dialed Walter Reed Hospital on the chance that Stienbock was still working there. The hospital operator had no listing for a Dr. Stienbock, so she transferred Ami to the personnel department. After being kept on hold for fifteen minutes, Ami was informed that Dr. Stienbock was deceased.
“When did this happen?” Ami asked.
“December of 1985.”
That was only months after he’d written the report on Rice.
“How did he die?” Ami asked.
“That’s not in his file.”
“Was he married? I could call his wife.”
“He was single.”
“Do you have the name of a next of kin?”
“I’m sorry, but I can’t give out that information.”
Ami thanked the woman and hung up. Then she turned to her computer and did an Internet search for Dr. Howard Stienbock and Walter Reed Hospital. There were only a few hits, but one was a newspaper story in the Washington Post about a hit-and-run accident that had claimed the life of a psychiatrist employed by Walter Reed Hospital. According to the story and Stienbock’s obituary, the doctor had been in the Special Forces during Vietnam and had seen combat of an unspecified nature during the war.
Ami turned away from the computer and stared at her wall. Stienbock’s death proved nothing. It just meant that he was unavailable as a witness. But the connection to the Special Forces did give her pause. So did the fact that the driver of the car that killed the doctor had never been apprehended.
Still, Ami had no more proof now that Carl Rice was part of a secret army unit than she had before she’d tried to find Dr. Stienbock. Vanessa based her belief in the existence of the Unit on the statements of Carl Rice, who might be delusional. Vanessa’s only supporting evidence was a collection of army records she could not produce, which may have been in the General’s safe for a purely innocent purpose. But what if Carl wasn’t lying? How could you prove that the Unit existed when all trace of it had been erased?
A thought occurred to Ami. According to Vanessa and Carl, after Carl confessed his activities in the Unit, they had seen each other only one time, for a few seconds, in Congressman Glass’s house. Carl said that Vanessa spoke his name, then ran away. So how did Carl know about the army records Vanessa had stolen from her father’s safe? If the records existed, and Vanessa hadn’t told him about them, there was only one other person who could have-General Morris Wingate.
Ami tried to think of another possibility. Maybe Carl saw the records while he was torturing Glass in Glass’s office. But why would he take Glass to the office? Why not torture Glass in bed where he found him?
Ami wondered whether there was any mention of the army records in the official reports of the murder. If they were still in Glass’s office when the police arrived, it would prove that Carl’s story was a lie; but it would be some evidence in Carl’s favor if the army records were not inventoried in the police reports.
Ami made a snap decision. Mary O’Dell’s son, Bobby, was Ryan’s best friend. She would ask if Ryan could stay with Mary for a night or two. If she could get a flight to San Francisco this evening, she could be at the Lost Lake police department first thing in the morning.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Vanessa knew that Dr. Ganett would be in his office at six in the evening because she’d called earlier, posing as Sheryl Neidig, to tell him that she had exciting news that she wanted to tell him in person. Ganett had been eager for her to come over and had agreed to wait at the hospital. Vanessa put on her wig and dressed in black slacks and a blue silk blouse that showed off her figure. She was also wearing sunglasses and hoped that Ganett would assume that they were a Hollywood affectation.
When Vanessa conceived her plan, she did not realize how nervous she would be when the time came to execute it. When she knocked on Ganett’s office door, she felt slightly nauseated, and her hand was shaking. The doctor told her to come in and motioned her to a chair.
“I just received fabulous news from LA,” Vanessa said, fighting to keep a tremor out of her voice. “Fox is crazy about doing a made-for-TV movie about Daniel Morelli and the whole problem of Little League parents, and they are very hot about you consulting for us. They’re also considering-very seriously, I might add-the possibility of a role for you, and I don’t mean a cameo.”
Ganett brightened. “That is exciting.”
“Here’s the thing, though. When you do these movies based on real events you have to move fast so the events are still fresh in the viewer’s mind when the movie airs.”
Ganett nodded knowingly.