“I’m wondering if she was doing more than husband hunting,” Olivia said.
Sanders leaned back in his chair, and Olivia felt his eyes probing her for wisdom.
“I’d like to hear why,” he said. “I’m sure any time soon I’ll be buried under a new review of the Leviathan data. So this will be my only distraction for a while.”
“My analysis of Ghaffari is that she has a deep-rooted hatred of something, and that something is probably authority figures, especially male authority figures.”
“Her fiancé fits the description.”
“What about the others?” she asked.
Sanders flipped through pages of a folder.
“You know,” he said, “you may be on to something. I didn’t see it until you mentioned it because I was focusing on demographics like age and rank, which seemed random. But if you look at the photos of the guys she targeted, all of them look like authority figures. Even the young guy, Petty Officer Wendell, who’s only twenty-six, has gray hair and an air of distinction. Everyone else is over thirty.”
“May I?” she asked as she reached for the folder.
“Sure.”
“They all look distinguished with age,” she said. “Most men pick up an air of bitterness or weakness with age, but not these guys. Proud. Actually, more proud looking than distinguished.”
“She’s had sex with all six men,” Sanders said, “over a period of nine months. And that’s just the guys that admitted it. I’m no PhD, but for a woman her age, that sounds like deep issues, husband hunting or not.”
Olivia folded the pages of the folder and stared at Ghaffari’s victims of seduction. She felt something clicking in her mind.
“Commander Pastor is the only commanding officer,” she said.
“Yes,” Sanders said.
“She had extended relationships with two other men, Senior Chief Thomas Wilson of the Bainbridge and Lieutenant Commander Howard Reardon of the Truxton. Two months each.”
“Yes,” Sanders said.
“The fleeting relationships with the others were at most three weeks. She moved with purpose and skill through the men until she found one to—”
“Yes?”
“To take the bait.”
“But what bait and why?” Sanders asked. “What makes this more complex than seeking a husband?”
“Destroyer sailors, all of them. Positions of authority or at least an air of presumed authority. Her body given freely, detached, used as a tool.”
“Or a weapon.”
“Wait,” she said.
She flipped through pages and scanned the testimonies from each man.
“The three men with the fleeting relationships stated that she broke of the affair with no apparent ongoing interest in the man, right?”
“Sounds right,” Sanders said. “I admit that I haven’t yet given much time to look into this.”
“But Wilson and Reardon state that she pushed them for marriage before she cut off the relationship.”
“Still smells like textbook husband hunting.”
“What’s common among the three she wanted to marry — Wilson, Reardon, and Pastor — that’s missing from the other three?”
“Are you asking me or quizzing me?”
“You’re the navy guy. Is there something about their jobs?”
She slid the folder back to Sanders and watched him flip through pages.
“Reardon and Pastor are an executive officer and commanding officer respectively. So they have full access to almost anything on the ship. Wilson’s a radio chief.”
“What about the other three?”
“Engineering petty officer, deck chief, sonar chief.”
“There’s nothing in common between the last three, is there,” she asked.
“Not really.”
“What about pay?”
“The officers make the most money, of course, but Wilson is young for a chief. The deck chief and sonar chief that she ditched quickly have bigger paychecks. Money doesn’t define her search.”
“How about roles on their ships?” she asked.
“Communications,” Sanders said. “The senior officers have access to anything on the ship, but Wilson narrows it easily to ship-to-shore communications. That’s what they all have in common, and that’s interesting.”
“Maybe,” Olivia said. “I need to learn more.”
“How?”
“By meeting her. I need to figure out if she’s chasing down a man to fill a life function or if she still thinks she’s a young girl in a war zone seeking a way to fight back.”
“How do you plan on that?”
“I’m going to find her on campus. Maybe start by going to one of her lectures.”
Sanders nodded towards a desktop computer.
“Go ahead and log in as a guest. See if you can find her schedule.”
Olivia logged in and browsed the Old Dominion site.
“Look,” she said. “She’s giving a public talk tomorrow night on self-esteem, poverty, and youth. Can you help me arrange for a room on base for tonight?”
“Sure. You don’t waste any time, do you?”
“No, I don’t. And as long as I’m here, I’d like you to keep me company. Can you take me to dinner?”
“Well, sure. Do you always get dates with guys just like that?”
“I just know how to read body language and knew you’d say yes.”
“It was that obvious I was impressed with you?” he asked.
“From the moment you saw me.”
He seemed flattered but then took on a somber tone.
“Look, Olivia, as long as we’re sprinting down lover’s lane, I have to be open about something. I’m HIV-positive. I earned it from a whore during a drunken port call, I lost my wife from it, and I make no excuses about it. This scares off ninety percent of the women I meet, and I make it a practice to lead with candor instead of wasting time.”
“Gerry requested you personally?”
“Well, yeah, Director Rickets asked for me personally to work with you on this, but it makes sense since—”
“Damn him!”
Sanders stared at her blankly.
“Sorry,” she said.
“Whoa. It’s okay. What’s going on?”
“I’m HIV-positive, too,” she said. “We’ve been set up.”
“You mean Director Rickets.”
“Yes, Gerry is trying to play Cupid.”
“Oh,” he said, blushing.
“I want to leave now,” she said.
“Good idea.”
Sanders stood and escorted her into the hallway. She heard his heels clapping the floor as he kept pace.
“You know, Olivia, you asked me out before you knew I was HIV-positive.”
“I know,” she said. “I had no business.”
“You had every right.”
“But I don’t need Gerry playing daddy and moving people around for me like pawns. I’ve thought about this every second of every day that I can’t force myself to think of something else, and I want to do this on my own.”
“Since when?”
“What?”
She stopped abruptly.
“Since when?” he asked. “You said you’ve thought about this every day. Since acquiring the virus or since some time later than that?”
She remembered Jake and wondered who she was outside of the relationship with him. She felt free but vulnerable.
“Since I became free,” she said.
“Interesting.”
“Yes, and I want to tell you more over dinner, assuming you’ll have me. I want you to take me out.”
“Of course,” he said. “My pleasure.”
A full bird captain approached, scowling. He brushed by Olivia with a curt greeting.
“Excuse me ma’am,” he said.
He turned to Sanders.