Jack Ryan 7 - The Sum of All Fears (71 page)

She had to confront him, had to get it into the open, had to find out.

How?
she asked herself. That was the question. Could she discuss it with someone at Hopkins . . . a psychiatrist, perhaps? Get professional advice . . . ?

And risk having it get out, risk having her shame widely known? Caroline Ryan, Associate Professor, pretty, bright Cathy Ryan can't even hold onto her own husband? What do you suppose she did wrong? her friends would whisper when she was elsewhere. Sure, they'd all say that it couldn't be her fault, but then they'd pause and look embarrassed, and after a moment they'd wonder aloud what she might have done differently, why she hadn't noticed the signals, because, after all, a failed marriage was rarely the work of a single partner, and Jack wasn't really the sort to play around, was he? The embarrassment of it would be worse than anything in her life, she thought, forgetting for the moment times that had been far worse.

It didn't make any sense. But she didn't know what to do about it, though at the same time she knew that doing nothing was probably the worst thing of all. Was it all a trap? Did she have any choices at all?

“What's the matter, Mommy?” Sally asked, a Barbie in her hands.

“Nothing, honey, just leave Mommy alone for a while, okay?”

“Jack says he's sorry and can he come out of his room?”

“Yes, if he promises to be good.”

“Okay!” Sally ran out of the room.

Was it that simple? Cathy wondered. She could forgive him almost anything. Could she forgive him this? Not because she would want to forgive him. Because there was more to it than her pride. There were also kids, and kids needed a father, even a neglectful one. Was her pride more important than their needs? The other side of that—what sort of household would they have if Mom and Dad didn't get along? Wasn't that even more destructive? After all, she could always find . . .

. . . another Jack?

She started crying again. She cried for herself, for her own inability to make a decision, for the injury to her character. It was the sort of weeping that did nothing for the problem, except make it worse. Part wanted him gone. Part wanted him back. No part knew what to do.

“You understand that this is strictly confidential,” the investigator said, rather than asked. The man before him was short and overweight, with soft, pink hands. The Bismarck mustache was obviously an affectation to make him look manly. In fact he didn't look terribly impressive at all, until you took a close look at his face. Those dark eyes didn't miss a thing.

“Doctors are accustomed to confidentiality,” Bernie Katz replied, handing the credentials back. “Make it fast. I have rounds in twenty minutes.”

The investigator thought that his assignment did have a certain elegance to it, though he wasn't sure that he approved. The problem was that playing around wasn't exactly a felony, though it did usually disqualify a man from a high security clearance. After all, if a man could break a promise made in a church, then why not one made merely on paper?

Bernie Katz leaned back, waiting as patiently as he was able, which wasn't very patient. He was a surgeon, accustomed to doing things and making his own decisions, not waiting for others. One hand twirled at his mustache as he rocked in the chair.

“How well do you know Dr. Caroline Ryan?”

“Cathy? I've worked with her on and off for eleven years.”

“What can you tell me about her?”

“She's a brilliant surgeon, technically speaking, exceptional judgment, superbly skilled. She's one of the best instructors we have on staff. She's also a good friend. What seems to be the problem here?” Katz"s eyes narrowed on his visitor.

“Sorry, I'm the guy asking the questions.”

“Yeah, I can tell. Get on with it,” Katz said coldly, examining the man, watching body language, expression, demeanor. He didn't like what he saw.

“Has she made any comments lately . . . I mean, trouble at home, that sort of thing?”

“You do understand, I hope, that I am a physician, and things said to me are privileged.”

“Is Cathy Ryan your patient?” the man asked.

“I've examined her in the past. We all do that here.”

“Are you a psychiatrist?”

Katz nearly growled back an answer. Like most surgeons, he had a temper. “You know the answer to that.”

The investigator looked up from his notes and spoke matter-of-factly. “In that case privilege does not apply. Now, could you answer the question, please?”

“No.”

“No, what?”

“No, she has made no such comments, to the best of my knowledge.”

“Comments on her husband, his behavior, changes in the way he's acting?”

“No. I know Jack pretty well, too. I really like the guy. He's evidently a good husband. They have two great kids, and you know the story on what happened to them some years back as well as I do, right?”

“Correct, but people change.”

“Not them.” Katz"s comments had the finality of a death sentence.

“You seem quite certain.”

“I'm a doctor. I live by my judgment. What you are alleging is crap.”

“I'm alleging nothing,” the investigator said, knowing it was a lie, and knowing that Katz knew it for a lie. He'd judged the man correctly from the first moment. Katz was a hotheaded, passionate man unlikely to keep any secret he deemed unworthy of being kept. Probably one hell of a doctor, too.

“I return to my original question. Has Caroline Ryan acted in any way different from, say, a year ago?”

“She's a year older. They have kids, the kids are growing up, and kids can be a bother. I have a few of my own. Okay, so she's gained a pound or two, maybe—not a bad thing, she tries to be too thin—and she's a little tireder than she ought to be. She has a long commute, and work is hard here, especially for a mother with kids.”

“That's all, you think?”

“Hey, I'm an eye-cutter, not a marriage counselor. Not my field.”

“Why did you say you're not a marriage counselor? I never brought that up, did I?”

Clever son of a bitch, aren't you?
Katz thought, letting go of his mustache. Degree in psychology, maybe . . . more likely self-taught. Cops were pretty good at reading people. Reading me, even? “Trouble at home for a married person generally means a troubled marriage,” Katz said slowly. “No, there has been no such comment.”

“You're sure?”

“Quite sure.”

“Okay, thank you for your time, Dr. Katz. Sorry to have bothered you.” He handed over a card. “If you hear anything like that, I'd appreciate it if you called me.”

“What gives?” Katz asked. “If you want my cooperation, I want an answer. I don't spy on people for the fun of it.”

“Doctor, her husband holds a very high and very sensitive government position. We routinely keep an eye on such people for reasons of national security. You do the same thing, even if you don't think much about it. If a surgeon shows up with liquor on his breath, for example, you take note of it and you take action, correct?”

“That doesn't happen here, ever,” Katz assured him.

“But you would take note of such a thing if it did happen.”

“You bet we would.”

“Glad to hear it. As you know, John Ryan has access to all sorts of highly sensitive information. Were we not to keep an eye on such people, we would be irresponsible. We've—this is a highly sensitive matter, Dr. Katz.”

“I understand that.”

“We have indications that her husband might be acting . . . irregularly. We have to check that out. Understand? We have to.”

“Okay.”

“That's all we ask.”

“Very well.”

“Thank you for your cooperation, sir.” The investigator shook hands and left.

Katz managed not to flush until the man was gone. He didn't really know Jack all that well. They'd met at parties perhaps five or six times, traded a few jokes, talked about baseball or the weather or maybe international relations. Jack had never begged off on an answer, had never said I can't discuss that or anything. Pleasant enough guy, Bernie thought. A good father by all accounts. But he didn't know the man at all.

Katz did, however, know Cathy as well as he knew any other doctor. She was a thoroughly wonderful person. If one of his kids should ever need eye surgery, she was one of the three people in the world whom he would trust to do the fix, and that was the highest compliment he could pay to anyone. She'd backed him up on cases and procedures, and he'd backed her up. When one needed advice, it was the other who got asked. They were friends, and associates. If they'd ever decided to leave the Hopkins/Wilmer faculty, they would have set up an office together, because a medical partnership is even harder to maintain than a good marriage. He might have married her, Katz thought, if he'd had the chance. She would have been an easy girl to love. She had to be a good mother. She drew a disproportionate number of kids as patients because in some cases the surgeon needed small hands, and hers were small, dainty, and supremely skillful. She lavished attention on her little patients. The floor nurses loved her for it. Everyone loved her, as a matter of fact. Her surgical team was extremely loyal to her. They didn't come any better than Cathy.

Trouble at home? Jack's playing around behind her back . . . hurting my friend?

“That worthless son of a bitch.”

He was late again, Cathy saw. After nine this time. Couldn't he ever get home at a decent hour?

And if not, why not?

“Hi, Cath,” he said on his way through to the bedroom. “Sorry I'm late.”

When he was out of sight, she walked towards the closet and opened the door to check the coat. Nothing. He'd had it cleaned the very next day, claiming that it had been spotted. It had been spotted, Cathy remembered, but, but, but . . .

What to do?

She almost started crying again.

Cathy was back in her chair when Jack came through on his way towards the kitchen. He didn't notice the look, didn't notice the silence. His wife stayed in her place, not really seeing the television picture her eyes were fixed on while her mind kept going over and over it, searching for an answer but finding only more anger.

She needed advice. She didn't want her marriage to end, did she? She could feel the process by which emotion and anger were taking over from reason and love. She knew that she ought to be worried about that, ought to resist the process, but she found herself unable to do either as the anger simply fed on itself. Cathy walked quietly into the kitchen and got herself a drink. She didn't have any procedures tomorrow. It was okay to have one drink. Again she looked over at her husband, and again he didn't notice. Didn't notice her? Why didn't he notice her? She'd put up with so much. Okay, the time they'd spent in England had been all right, she'd had a fairly good time teaching on staff at Guy's Hospital; it hadn't hurt her tenure at Hopkins a bit. But the other stuff—he was away so damned much! All that time back and forth to
Russia
when he was messed up with the arms treaty, so many other things, playing spy or something, leaving her at home with the kids, forcing her to lose time at work. She'd missed a couple of good procedures for that reason, when she'd been unable to get a sitter and had been forced to stick Bernie with something that she ought to have done.

And what had Jack been up to all that time? She had once accepted the fact that she couldn't even ask. What had he been doing? Maybe having a good laugh? A little fling with some sultry female agent somewhere? Like in the movies. There he was, in some exotic setting, a quiet, darkly-lit bar, having a meeting with some agent, and one thing might have led to another . . .

Cathy settled back in front of the TV and gulped at her drink. She nearly sputtered it back out. She wasn't accustomed to drinking bourbon straight.

This is all a mistake.

It seemed as though there were a war within her mind, the forces of good on one side, and the forces of evil on the other—or was it the forces of naiveté and those of reality? She didn't know, and she was too upset to judge.

Well, it didn't matter for tonight, did it? She was having her period, and even if Jack had asked—which he wouldn't, she knew—she'd say no. Why should he ask, if he was getting it somewhere else? Why should she say yes if he was? Why get the leavings? Why be second-string?

She sipped more carefully at her drink this time.

Need to get advice, need to talk to
somebody! But who?

Maybe Bernie, she decided. She could trust Bernie. Soon as she got back. Two days.

*     *     *

“That takes care of the preliminaries.”

“Sure does, boss,” the coach said. “How goes the Pentagon, Dennis?”

“Not as much fun as you're having, Paul.”

“That's the choice, isn't it? Fun or importance?”

“Everybody all right?”

“Yes, sir! We're pretty healthy for this far into the season, and we have this week to get everybody up to speed. I want another crack at those Vikings.”

“So do I,” Secretary Bunker said from his E-Ring office. “Think we can really stop Tony Wills this time?”

“We can sure try. Isn't he one great kid? I haven't seen running like that since Gayle Sayers. Defensing him is a bitch, though.”

“Let's not try to think too far ahead. I want to be in
Denver
in a few weeks.”

“We play 'em one at a time, Dennis, you know that. Just we don't know who we're playing yet. I'd prefer LA. We can handle them easy enough,” the coach thought. “Then we'll probably have to handle
Miami
in the division game. That'll be harder, but we can do it.”

“I think so, too.”

“I have films to look at.”

“Fair enough. Just remember, one at a time—but three more wins.”

“You tell the President to come on out to
Denver
. We'll be there to see him. This is
San Diego
's year. The Chargers go all the way.”

Dubinin watched the water invade the graving dock as the sluices were opened. Admiral Lunin was ready. The new sonar array was rolled up on its spool inside the teardrop-shaped fairing that sat atop the rudder post. The seven-bladed screw of manganese-bronze had been inspected and polished. The hull was restored to full watertight integrity. His submarine was ready for sea.