“Paper quality? Was it stationery, or a notepad?”
“Cheap stuff-something you’d buy in a Seven-Eleven if you were in a real hurry. Lined. Five by seven.”
Train nodded. “Was there a stamp?”
“A stamp.” Sherman wrinkled his brow. “You know, now that you mention it, I don’t think so. I’ve been trying to conjure up an image of the postmark since you asked, but now I think. there was no postmark, because there was no stamp.” He looked up. “Which means he just put it through the slot.”
“Back to your son, Jack,” Train prompted. “You said you’d had no contact with him for several years. Longer if you discount that last letter. Did you know where he was during that time?”
“Jack’s last letter came from Quantico, you know, South of here. I assumed that’s where he landed when he was thrown out of the Marines, but I have no idea if he stayed there or moved elsewhere.”
“Was his letter addressed here-I mean, to your house in Mclean?”
“No. It came to my office in Bupers, during my second tour there.”
Train nodded again. “My point is that he either knew or found out where you were stationed. He was keeping track of where you were, even if you didn’t know where he was.”
Sherman began pacing around the edges of the counters, nodding to himself. “I guess that’s right,” he said. “I mean, if you don’t suspect you’re a target, and take no precautions, somebody could know just about everything about you.”
He stopped as the implication of that reasoning penetrated.
Karen could see him visibly slump.
She got up and went to him. “Admiral, we’re ranging pretty far afield here. I think where Train’s going with this is that finding Galantz might be next to impossible, especially if he is a professional operative. But maybe we should go find your son instead. Find out what he was doing at those two funerals.”
Sherman stood there, his eyes staring down at nothing.
“He was there to gloat. He was grinning at me down in Annapolis. That’s what made me stand up. He was grinning-there isn’t any other word for it.”
Train stood up.’ “That doesn’t mean he’s a murderer. He may have been secretly keeping track of you constantly for all these years. Sons who’ve become disaffected from their fathers often do that. He may well have taken some pleasure in your loss-“
“Losses.”
“Well, yes, Sir, losses. I think we need to find your son, talk to him.”
“Does ‘we’ have to include the cops?”
Train looked at Karen, who shook her head imperceptibly.
Implicating Sherman’s son would compound the whole mess in the eyes of the Navy hierarchy.
“No, sir, not yet, anyway,” Train replied, taking her lead.
“Let the cops work Galantz. I will, too, and we’ll feed them what we get. Meanwhile, I’ll try to track down Jack and talk to him, see what the hell this is all about. What is-his full name, Admiral?”
“John Lee Sherman. Supposedly there are Virginia Lees in my ex-wife’s family.” He paused. “And what will you do if you get thesense that he is involved in these killings?”
“Then we will have to tell the cops. Actually, an argument could be made for doing that right now. You do understand where they’re focusing at the moment?”
“Yes indeed,” the admiral said. “And you’re suggesting that we give them my son’s possible involvement, thereby taking some of the heat off me?”
Train started to reply but thought better of it. Sherman was shaking his head, “I’m boxed,” he said. “Someone’s killed my ex-lover and my oldest friend and implicated me.
The powers that be in the Navy are starting to circle the wagons. The police are saying I’m not a suspect but that they want to execute a search of my life, and one of the ways out is to accuse my son of being involved in the homicides, the kid I neglected for most of his childhood? C’mon, guys! ” if
“Admiral, wait a minute,” Karen said.
“Think about it.
you’re in a box with no apparent way out, someone had to set this up. I mean, it’s just not likely that all of this just happened. And the police aren’t stupid: They’ll see that, tw.”
Train concurred. “A week ago, you were ops normal.
Now two people tied to you are suddenly dead, under suspicious circumstances. You are under suspicion, by both the cops and the Navy flag community. Your son, whom you haven’t seen for years, makes two appearances. Karen’s right. This mess didn’t just come out of the blue.
Somebody has set it motion.”
“Wonderful.”
“Then “s more, Admiral. We should expect something else to happen. I don’t know what, but somebody’s stepping through a plan. The momentum is with him right now. He’s not just goingto stop. You need to become vigilant. Be aware of your surroundings, your exposure. Be careful. Do you own a gun?”
The admiral stared at him. “Yes, I do. But-“
“Carry it-in your briefcase, in your car. I’m serious.”
“But I don’t have a permit, or anything like that.”
“Think of it this way, Admiral. You don’t want to be facing this guy in a dark parking lot and wishing you had put the god damned gun in your pocket that morning. Now, we could kick this thing around al . I night.
But I recommend you go home, and Karen. and I -will start in on finding Jack tomorrow. We’ll make sure the cops continue to receive everything we get on Galantz, and I’ve pulled some strings in the intelligence world to see if there is a connection there.
You concentrate on being vigilant. Let us work the problem.”
Sherman nodded slowly. Karen could see that he was struggling to keep his equanimity, but she thought Train had it right. Sherman was in the box. Someone outside the box would have to get him out. He straightened his uniform jacket, thanked her for the drink, and nodded good night to Train.
She . accompanied him to his car. He paused by the driver’s side door.
“I feel like I should be a whole lot angrier about this than I am,” he said. “But I feel more resigned than anything else. I guess it’s because I do own a big piece of what’s behind this. What happened to Galantz back there in Vietnam-leaving a guy behind in a combat situation is a major wrong.”
“But certainly you had operational justification-” she began, but-he was shaking his head. “we’re talking about an almost-sacrosanct law of the bat refield. You don’t leave your wounded; hell, you don’t even leave your dead. Men will fight on even in the most hopeless situations as long as they believe that. We did the wrong thing out there. And as for Jack … well, look ^at happened to his mother.”
“Whoever’s doing this is counting on your feeling that way, Admiral,”
Karen replied, sidesteppingthe immediate truth of what he had said.
“Train’s right: You need to focus right now on situational awareness.
You have little maneuvering room. We still do.”
“Unless Carpenter gets some direction from higher up and recalls you and von Rensel.”
She hadn’t thought about that. He saw her look and smiled, but his eyes were filled with sadness. “Even paranoids can have enemies, right? Good night, and . thank you for your help. I guess-I’m in your hands right now.”
She resisted a strong urge to comfort him somehow.
“We’ll figure it out, Admiral. Good night.”
He backed his car around and drove off down the driveway. Train came out onto the front porch and watched him go. The night was clear, but there was no moon up yet, leaving the grounds and fields around the house in dee shadow. Karen wondered where Harry, the Lab, was.
“Poor bastard,” Train was saying. “Assuming he is innocent, someone’s working quite a campaign on him. Tell me, is there somewhere to get a bite around here?”