Jack glanced out the back window and shivered.
“Around. I dunno. He comes and gets me when he needs me. He just shows up, man. Always at night. He’s like a goddamned ghost.”
“So Admiral Sherman’s nothing to you?”
“Not’since he did what he did. Back there in D.C.,” Jack said, a hint of the old sneer coming back into his voice. The rotgut, she thought. Watch him.
“You mean when he divorced your mother.”
Jack didn’t say anything, just stared down at the floor.
Even so, Karen could sense the enormous resentment festering in this kid.
“Why do you call Galantz-Mr. Smith-your old man?”
Jack wiped his lips again and glanced sideways at the bottle. “Because he took care of me, back there in recon school, when I was getting my ass kicked by them other guys, the bigger guys. They were gonna wash me out, but Mr. Smith, he stood up, man. He knew about … about what happened to my mother. Said he was gonna be the old man I never had.
Said he’d get me through it. And he did, too.
Them other guys, they were afraid of Mr. Smith. He’s a bad bastard. Not like some a those guys, go around acting tough.
He is tough, man.”
“Yeah, real tough guy. Kidnapping women. Blinding them first, then stuffing them in a bag. Then if something goes wrong, quick, Jack, throw her in the river. A real man, that. A real tough guy.”
Jack’s face went blank as he squirmed around on the sleeping bag. “We was just gonna keep you. Not hurt you.
That’s what he said.”
“Why?”
“I dunno. I don’t ask him questions. He calls, I come. I owe him, that’s all. I owe him big. He told me to get a boat, meet him by the Key Bridge. I did what he told me. I owe him, man.”
“Why? What do you owe him for?”
“That’s personal.”
“Look at me,” she said. He didn’t move. She raised the gup, trying to remember how many rounds were in it. Not that many. “Look at me, Jack.”
Slowly, he raised his head, his face a study in pain and anger in about equal proportions. “I know what happened to your mother,” she said.
“That she shot , herself. “
His eyes blazed. “Because of him, the way he was. I want him dead. You listening to me? I want him dead! All those years, he was always gone.
Off on those ships, no time to come home, no time for us. Always the big fuckin’ deal.
Have to work late. On the fast track here, people. Movin’ right up here.
You got no damn idea, man. My mother, fryin’ her brain with the booze because she was always alone. Going’ to bed drunk, getting’ up drunk, drunk when people came around, drunk when 1-hell, lady, what would you know about any of that shit? You’re one of ‘em, aren’t you? You’re a goddamn officer, just like him.”
Karen took a deep breath. “So you blame him for what happened to your mother?”
“Fuckin’-A, I do. She was-she didn’t deserve that shit, man. Neither of us did. Don’t you think we deserved a little bit of his fucking time all those years? So yeah, when Mr. Smith comes knocking, tells me he’s gonna do a number on that prick over some shit went down in Nam, now that he’s a big-deal admiral, and do I wanta help out a little, I said fuckin’-A.
In a fuckin’ heartbeat.”
“Were you involved in what happened to Elizabeth Walsh?”
“Never heard of her. Oh, yeah, she was the new punch, right? My mother’s replacement? Smith told me about her.
How she had this little fall down the stairs.”Flying lesson,’ he called it. He gave her a damn flying lesson. Told me to go by the funeral, told me where and when. Told me to make sure I rode the bike by so he would see me. Yeah, I was involved.”
“And the funeral for Admiral Schmidt? He told you to go to that one, too?”
“Yeah. Said it was important that he saw me there, too.
Said it was part of the plan. Said old geezers like that, they live too long. Said he was just helping nature along.”
“But you did not help to kill them?”
Jack took a deep breath, as if suddenly realizing how much he had told her. His eyes started blinking. “Look at me, man,” he sobbed. “Just fuckin’ look at me. Look where I fucking live. How I live. I’m a fucking drunk, just like my mother. For the same reason my mother was a drunk.
And he don’t give two shits and never has. So, yeah, I helped Smith with that deal at your place. But that’s ‘ all. Whatever he did to those other two, he did what he did. None of my fuckin’ business. Rest of the time, I’m usually right here, man, boiled out of my fuckin’ gourd, okay, man?” He stopped and took another hit. “And I’ll tell you something else,” he said as he tried to get up. “He comes around again, tonight, tomorrow, whatever, asking? I’m gonna sober right up and say yes, man.
Whatever the fuck it is, what’ ever the fuck he needs, he’s got it from me, man.”
“But don’t you understand? You’re involved in murder.”
Jack, halfway to his hands and knees now, just shook his head. His face was red flushed, his eyes on fire. “Don’t give a fuck. Because he’s gonna do what I always wanted to do, bring that pretty bastard down, man. Far as I’m concerned, that pretty bastard murdered my mother and fucked me up for life. Mr. Smith, man? He’s the fuckin’ Lone Ranger and I’m fuckin’ Tonto, man. Now why don’t you just leave me the hell alone, okay?”
He flopped down onto the sleeping bag, his face hidden from her, his shoulders shaking. Karen stared at him for a long moment and then backed out of the trailer. She eased the hammer down on the .45 and put it back in her purse as she walked back through the weeds to the Explorer. She unlocked the car, got in, and started it up, glancing down at the phone when it beeped. Three calls in the system for her.
Uh-oh, that had to be Train. Sleeping Beauty had awakened and had probably gone hermantile when Hiroshi told him where she had gone. She decided to wait until she got back to fill him in.
She steered the Explorer carefully down the dirt hillside, keeping the bag close and open in case some of the locals at the other trailer decided to come out to play. The .45 lay right at the top, exuding a comforting whiff of cordite into the area of the 4front seat.
Train was just getting into his car when he heard the sound of Karen’s Explorer coming up the drive. He took a deep breath and got back out, trying not to slam the door. Control, he said. This is the time for lots and lots of control. He saw Hiroshi standing in the doorway to the kitchen, his face a wooden mask. Train had awakened at eleven and realized he had slept long past eight. Upon going downstairs anding out that Karen had left three hours earlier, he had tually yelled at Hiroshi for not waking him up. Then he banged around the house for a while, worried more than he would have thought possible, trying to decide whether or not to go after her or to wait for word. He had placed three calls to her car phone, to no avail. Anything could be happening out there. Then he had called the maintenance department at Quantico airfield and found out that Jack Sherman had not reported for work-which meant that Karen had probably gone out on her own to Cherry Hill, which was no place for a woman alone, even if she wasn’t the target of some mad bastard. That had settled it, and he was on his way when she returned to the house. He tried to neutralize his face when she got out of the car.
“I got him to talk,” she said in a rush. “I know you’re mad at me for going off alone, but I got him to talk. Now let’s go inside where we can talk privately.” She smiled up at him’, took his arm, and steered him toward the house.
Damn the woman, he thought, his anger melting when she grabbed his arm, but he went along, ignoring Kyoko’s efforts to erase the smile that was on her face as they went into the house. Look at Kyoko. Damned women were all in it together.