Noble Beginnings (18 page)

“I’d sure as
hell like to know why, though. He turned on his own damn men.”

“He never liked
the program.” I said it under my breath

“How’s that?”

“He never liked
the program,” I repeated. “I remember sitting in his office when I was nothing
but a recruit. He was sending us off. He hated it. But he had no choice.” I
lifted my eyes and met Marlowe’s stare. “And now he’s trying to end the
program, permanently. Abbot knew what he was up to. He was going to tell me.
Keller had him killed. He didn’t know we were there though. I didn’t answer his
call.”

Marlowe hiked
his shoulders and held out his hand while his lips formed a frown.

“Anything
else?” I asked.

“I’m afraid
I’ve said too much already, Jack.”

I sat back and
studied his face. He had more to tell me. I could see it in his eyes. I glanced
at my watch. It was almost six a.m. I had to go, get back to the hotel in
Springfield and get my car. I stood and turned to leave.

“Jack?”

I looked over
my shoulder.

“It should go
without saying that I never shared this information with you.”

I nodded,
turned to face him and grabbed the documents off the table. “I’ll be taking
these since you already know what they are.”

He started to
stand in protest, but backed down when I turned my gun toward him. “Take it,
Jack. It really means nothing to you.”

“We should play
poker sometime, Marlowe. You’re horrible at bluffing.” I pushed the door open
and stopped again. “I’m going after Keller. I’ll be back if your story doesn’t
jive.”

I found a taxi
willing to take me to Springfield. Figured that would be better than dealing
with crowded Metro stations. The driver fought the traffic and dropped me off
two blocks from the hotel. I walked the remaining distance. There wasn’t
anything of value in the room, so I didn’t go in. I got in the car and merged
onto I-95 southbound. Along the way I called Conners and told him I had to act
on a lead and I’d get in touch with him as soon as I knew something.

Two hours later
I arrived in Petersburg and parked a block away from the hotel where Jessie and
Bear were staying.

I wanted Bear
to come with me to Keller’s. He could provide backup, even if he wasn’t in the
room during the confrontation. I still didn’t trust Marlowe, and something told
me Keller would be expecting me. I thought about taking this to one of my
agency contacts, but knew that would get me nowhere. For one, the guys I knew
could care less about political BS. They would wave me off and tell me to go
piss up a tree. Regular authorities were out of the question. They’d arrest me
without giving it a second thought. Hell, I probably had a shoot on sight
designation on me by that point.

There was still
the question of who Delaney and Conners worked for, and who pulled the trigger
on Abbot. I hoped Keller could answer those questions for me.

I got out of
the rental car and walked to the hotel. I kept my head down and wore sunglasses.
Cars passed by at regular intervals, but no one seemed to care about the guy
walking on the sidewalk while they were busying themselves driving to work.

The distance
between D.C. and Petersburg, Virginia was approximately 120 miles. That made
the difference in temperature even more astounding. At nine a.m. it was warm
enough here for me to want to take off my jacket. I kept it on to keep my
weapon concealed, but I started to sweat under its bulk.

I reached the
hotel and scanned the parking lot before entering the lobby. A young lady stood
behind the counter. She glanced up at me, smiled, and then returned to her
keyboard when she saw that I had no intention of approaching her.

An elderly
woman stood alone in the elevator lobby. I stopped next to her and waited for
the elevator doors to open. A minute passed. I glanced around and saw that the
elevator call button had not been pushed. I looked at her, smiled and leaned
forward to press the single button with an up arrow printed on it. A chime
sounded and the doors opened. I stuck one hand in the opening and gestured her
through.

“Three please,”
she said.

I had already
pressed the button for the third floor. That’s where Bear and Jessie were
staying.

Less than half
a minute later the doors opened and I waited for the woman to exit. She did so
and turned to the right. I stepped out and turned left.

The room was
located at the end of the hall. I jogged to the door. I wanted to tell Bear
everything I had learned in D.C.

And I wanted to
kiss Jessie.

I stood in front
of the door and rapped on it with my knuckles. A pinhead of light shone through
the peephole cut into the center of the door. A few heavy steps rumbled below
my feet and the pinhead of light disappeared. A second later the door opened.

“Jack,” Bear
said.

I nodded and
stepped through the open doorway as he walked to the back of the room. I looked
around, but didn’t see Jess. My eyes met Bear’s. He wore my disappointment on
his face.

“She’s gone.”

“Where’d she
go?”

“Don’t know. I
woke up and she was gone.” He opened a dresser drawer and pulled out an
envelope. “She left this for you.”

I took the
envelope labeled “Jack” from him and stared at it for a minute. “You read it?”

“Nah.”

“She give any
indication she was leaving?”

Bear shook his
head and hiked his shoulders up an inch.

“You’re sure
she left. She wasn’t taken?”

“Jack, no, man.
We went to sleep. I got up and she was gone. If someone was going to go through
the trouble of taking her from the room, don’t you think they would have killed
me?”

I fell back on
the bed and stared at the ceiling. He had a point. If someone had broken in,
they would have either taken him with them or taken him out. Plus, Bear would
have woken up if someone broke in. The man might be nicknamed Bear and look
like a bear, but he sure as hell didn’t sleep like one.

“Read the
letter, Jack.”

I lifted my
arms and held the envelope over my face. I decided against opening it, at least
for a while. We had work to do. I sat up and tucked the sealed letter into one
of the inside pockets of my jacket.

“I’ll read it
later,” I said. “I need to catch you up on what’s happened.”

I talked, and
Bear listened. He remained silent until I finished.

After I was
done, he said, “You’re sure Keller is behind it?”

I took a moment
to respond. “I don’t know, Bear. But I’m going to find out.”

He nodded and
leaned back in his chair.

“What I need to
know is if you think you can come with me. Can you?”

“Yeah, Jack.
I’m good to go. It hurts, but it won’t stop me if things go south.”

We sat in
silence the next few minutes.

Bear leaned
forward, his mouth open an inch. He furrowed his eyebrows and pointed at the TV
behind me. “Where’s the remote?” He got up.

I turned in my
seat and saw what had shocked him.

Bear picked up
the remote and unmuted the station.

The display
under the woman said her name was Cassandra Phillips. She spoke in the serious
tone all newscasters had to perfect.

“Once again, we
are stunned and shocked to be reporting this breaking news. At six a.m. this
morning, police found the bodies of Richard Gallo and Eddie Bealle, both CIA
agents involved in the conflict in Afghanistan. The reports we’ve received
indicate that the men were murdered, execution style, in downtown Washington,
D.C.”

They flashed
head shots of both men on the screen and then cut to a scene in front of
Gallo’s home. A local news team spoke to his wife, who kept herself half hidden
behind the door. A small child with blond hair clung to her exposed leg.

I tuned out the
broadcast and turned to Bear.

“I just met
with them last night.”

“That’s what
you said.”

“Someone is
going to recall seeing them with me.”

“You didn’t do
it, right Jack?”

Cassandra’s
voice returned on the TV and I spun around to watch.

“There are no
suspects in the case at this time. Police have said they are looking for a
person of interest, but details have not been released. We will keep you
apprised of the story as we become aware of additional developments.”

I threw my
hands behind my head and grabbed my hair. “It’s either the same people that
took out Delaney, or it’s…”

Bear waited a
second and then prompted me to speak.

“Martinez,” I
said.

“Martinez? You
think he’d take out his own guys?”

“They weren’t
his guys. He was loyal to his original team. So, yeah, I wouldn’t put this past
him.”

Bear turned off
the TV and moved to the window. He pulled back the curtains and studied the
parking lot.

“We should go.”

I got up and
walked to the door.

“Yeah. Get your
stuff.”

*
* *

We hurried down
the block and got in the car. The hotel was five minutes from the interstate. I
stopped and filled up on gas, and then hit the interstate heading south. We
drove in silence until we crossed the North Carolina state border.

“It’s a good
six hours to Savannah, so catch up on sleep if you need to,” I said.

Bear said
nothing. He stared out the window. His elbow propped on the door sticking out
the open window.

I reached
inside my jacket and traced the edges of the envelope Jessie left me. I
wondered what the letter said. Probably the same things she said five years ago
when we split up for good. Although, for good didn’t mean forever. She even
told me that. And I thought that maybe for good ended now. Apparently not,
though. I needed to talk to her. To find out if it would make a difference if I
left the military and became a cop or a firefighter or anything other than what
I was now.

“Did she say
anything?” I asked.

“Who?”

“Jessie. Did
she say anything at all that gave you any indication she was leaving?”

“Nah. She just
slipped out in the middle of the night.”

I turned the
wheel, adjusting to the curve in the road and said nothing.

“Maybe once
we’re done you should go back to Virginia.”

“Think she went
home?”

Bear shook his
head. “After what’s happened? I doubt it, man. She probably got on a bus, went
to the airport and picked a destination.”

“That’s how she
ended up in Virginia.”

“I remember,
Jack.”

General Keller
lived halfway between Parris Island, South Carolina and Savannah, Georgia in a
housing development near Hilton Head where the homes cost half a million
dollars. It raised some eyebrows when he bought it, but there were rumors that
his wife had penned a series of romantic suspense novels and nailed down a
seven figure advance from a major publisher. Still, for the regular working man
it was tough to see your superior living in a McMansion and driving around a
ninety thousand dollar Mercedes.

It didn’t take
a math whiz to put two and two together. Abbot and his new Audi A8 and decked
out weekend home. Keller with his oversized house and overpriced Mercedes. They
got it all from kickbacks. Blood money.

We pulled into
the half-constructed neighborhood and turned away from the dirt packed street
where the wooden framed skeletons of houses lined the road. Bear leaned back in
his seat and did his best to stay out of sight. I turned on Keller’s road and
eased past his house, taking in as much of the yellow stucco two story house as
I could in the few seconds it took to pass. We’d been inside the house the
previous summer for a housewarming party he threw a few months after he moved in.
I searched my mind for a map of the layout of the house, but couldn’t recall it
all. The house was big. That’s all I remembered.

The street
looped around and connected with the main road. I turned left and then left
again on Keller’s street and parked the car three houses down from his. There
was a curve in the road that gave us a decent view of the front of the house.
Keller’s black full sized Mercedes was parked in the driveway, and a Jeep
Wrangler with tires stained orange from mud was parked on the street in front
of the house.

“He’s got
guests,” Bear said.

“We can wait a
bit,” I said.

“What if they
don’t leave?”

“Then we deal
with them.”

“Jack?”

I shifted in my
seat to look at Bear. “Yeah?”

“What if—” he
paused and ran a hand across his face. “What if Marlowe lied?”

“You mean what
if Keller wasn’t involved?”

“Well, that,
yeah. But also, what if he set you up? Set us up?”

I nodded
slowly, letting my eyes shift toward the front of the house. “I thought about
that, Bear. I did. Here’s the way I see it. Marlowe gave up Keller without
directly saying his name. He led me to figure it out, meaning one of two
things. Marlowe is as deep in this as Keller, and I don’t doubt that for one
minute, but it’s just what side of it he’s on. He’s for the program, but not
the way it’s being run. In that case, he knows Keller’s involvement with what’s
happened to us and the other teams. He can’t say anything for political
reasons—”

“Or maybe
Keller has something on Marlowe.”

“Yeah, maybe
Keller does have something on Marlowe and if he came out and accused Keller, it
would be political suicide. Maybe even more than that. With all that’s
happened, jail time could be involved. None of us could be considered a choir
boy. Top to bottom.”

Bear nodded and
said nothing.

“Or, yeah, maybe
they are working together. Sent us down here so they could finish what they
started in Iraq. We could walk into that house and be shot on sight.”

After a minute
Bear asked, “What’s your gut tell you?”

I thought it
over.

“My gut tells
me that Marlowe is on our side, at least, as much as he can be. That Keller was
the architect behind this plan and somehow Abbot was involved. Whether he was
for or against is anybody’s guess. I think he was going to blow the whistle the
other night before he was murdered. But, whether Marlowe lied or not, I fully
expect Keller to be ready for me when I knock on that door. They’ve been a step
ahead the whole time it seems.”

“Yeah. Wait.
You’re going to knock on the door?”

“I want you to
wait outside, Bear. You’re going to wait in the car while I go inside. After
five minutes, move to the house.”

“I’m going to
look like a damn peepin’ Tom out here.”

I laughed, the
reaction caused by nerves more than anything. “We’re waiting till sunset.” I
pointed at the wide orange sun hovering over the houses at the end of the
street. “Another half hour and it should be dark out here.”

Bear nodded.

“You remember
the layout of the house?”

“A bit,” I
said. “Walk into a ten by ten foyer. Stairs off to the left, beyond that a
dining room. On the right, the foyer opens up to a huge living room. I’m going
to try and stick to that area.”

“What’s your
plan when you get inside?”

I hadn’t
decided on an exact plan. I thought it over during the drive. There were a few
possible scenarios. I could walk in and Keller could be alone. That would be
simple. Get the confession and leave. But, if he was waiting for me, then
anything could happen.

“Jack? You got
a plan?”

“Winging it,
big man.”

Bear cursed
under his breath and whipped his head side to side. “I’ll go on record as
saying if we die, it’s on your hands.”

“Sounds good.”

*
* *

My boots
thudded against the white concrete sidewalk. The sound echoed through the air.
I had debated whether to cut through backyards or just walk up to the house and
knock. I decided to walk up to the house. I didn’t care if he saw me coming. If
things went the way I hoped, then he wouldn’t think I was there to take him
down. He would think I was there for help. On the other hand, if he knew we
were coming, then he’d be prepared no matter how I entered the house.

Light shone
through downstairs windows. A little white sign attached to a stake was planted
at the corner of his yard. It read, “Don’t walk on the lawn.” I kicked the sign
out of the ground and crossed the grass to the steps leading up to the front
porch. I stopped in front of the red painted front door. I leaned toward the
door, my head turned sideways. Silence.

The handle
turned. The sound of metal clicking broke the silence. I took a step back and
the door swung open. I recognized the swollen face that stared back at me. The
short dark stubble on the top of his head wasn’t there a couple days ago when I
broke his jaw, though.

“Jarhead,” he
said through teeth that were wired shut. His nostrils flared and his eyes
narrowed. He brought his arms in front of him and clenched his fists.

Keller stepped
into view. “Hello, Jack.” He stepped into the foyer and placed a hand on the
young man’s shoulder. “You’ve met my stepson, Mike.”

I nodded and
scanned the room behind them. Three brown leather couches formed a U shape in
the middle of the room. Two small square tables joined the middle couch with
the others. A plain rug covered the hardwood floor in the empty space between
the couches.

“Why don’t you
come on in, Jack?”

Keller pulled
Mike back and gestured me through the door.

I stepped in
and felt his hand on my back.

“Can I take
your jacket?”

I dipped my
shoulder and spun around.

“No thanks.”

He lifted his
hands in an off-putting gesture. “No problem.” He shut the front door and walked
past me and took a seat on the couch facing me. “Have a seat.”

“I’m fine
standing.”

He sighed.
“What can I do for you, Jack?”

Mike walked
past Keller and headed for the hall.

“I want him to
stay in here,” I said.

Mike kept
walking.

“Mike,” Keller
said sternly.

The young man
stopped and turned, then took a seat on the same couch as Keller.

A smug look
crossed Keller’s face. “Why are you here?”

“You know why.”

“I’m afraid I
don’t.”

“Four Marines
are dead. Six are in prison in Iraq. Two are on the run and wanted for murders
they didn’t commit.”

Keller shook
his head.

“I don’t know.
There’s some damning evidence against those two Marines on the run. I’ve seen
it with my own eyes, Jack.”

I said nothing.

“If you need me
to help you, I might be able to arrange something. But, to be honest, killing
that man in D.C., and then Abbot. Christ.” He turned his head toward Mike.
“Look at what you did to my boy here. The assault charge alone carries twenty
years in prison.”

Mike lifted his
head from his chest and stared at me. His lip curled. Even in his current state
I didn’t doubt that he’d attack like a junkyard dog if given the command.

“I know what
you did, Keller.”

Keller put his
hands in his pockets and cocked his head to the side. He grinned and lifted his
eyebrows a half inch.

“What I did? I
don’t follow, Jack. What do you know?”

I took a deep
breath. I had to keep my composure, for now.

“You set all of
this up. You had the Iraqi family killed and then framed me for the murder.” I
left Bear’s name out on purpose. “You didn’t count on Abbot getting us home,
back to the U.S., though. Did you?”

Keller sat back
in the corner of the couch, crossed his arms and legs and smiled at me.

“Abbot pulled a
few strings and got his guys out of there, got us out of there. He didn’t know
that the others had been set up yet. You had a twenty four hour plan and set it
in motion with me. You got wind of what Abbot had done and then had the plans
changed. That’s why the CIA met us at the airport and not Abbot or an MP.”

Keller said
nothing. He sat there with the same smile on his face with his eyes crinkled
upward. He nodded his head slowly.

“So they took
us to Camp Lejeune. Nothing out of the ordinary there, right? I had to report
there at the base quarterly, at a minimum. Throwing us in the brig was a nice
touch though.” I waited for him to respond. He didn’t. I continued. “Then you
tried to have me killed, first with the psycho in the cell, which was a
pathetic attempt, and then in the bathroom. Just nod if I’m right.”

He sat
motionless. The smile slowly faded from his face.

“Didn’t count
on Abbot getting McDuffie to get me out of there though, did you?”

“No, I didn’t.”
He frowned and looked down at the floor. Back up at me.

I smiled. “You
must have crapped a brick when you found out I was heading up to see Delaney. I
just want to know, why didn’t you have him killed before he met with me?”

“Because I
wanted both of you dead and making the hit at the same time seemed the best
option.” He glared at me now.

“Who did
Delaney work for?”

He shrugged and
held out his hands. “We’ll never know, will we?”

“Then you
tracked me to—”

“Let me save
you some time, Noble. We tracked you through your damn cell phone.” He leaned
forward and then stood. Crossed in front of one of the couches and then behind
it, using the couch to separate us. He stopped and placed his hands on the back
of the couch and hunched over it. “Tracked you to the girl’s house. Thought it
would be good to give you a scare before taking you out. You know, the phone
call.”

“All you did
was gave me a head’s up.”

“Yeah, well…”
He lifted a hand and ran it over his head. “We had the men in place to take you
out.”

“I saw them.”

“Martinez
called them back. He wanted to—”

“Martinez,” I
said flatly.

Keller raised
his voice. “Yeah, Martinez.” Then he continued. “He was about to take Abbot
out. We knew you’d be heading there next, so why not try to coincide your visit
with Abbot’s murder, then get you at the next stop.”

“Only you lost
me. Isn’t that right?”

“Yeah.” Keller
turned to glance over his shoulder, and then looked back at me. “Found your
phone, though. Want it back?”

“Keep it. Hate
the damn thing, anyway.” I didn’t give him a chance to talk. “So you gave the
order to take out Abbot. Why?”

“He was going
to screw it up all, Jack. Everything we had going for us.”

“You hated the
idea. Don’t you remember that? You were pissed when you sent us off to Langley
for this program.”

He nodded.
“After a while they, uh, helped me see the light.”

“They paid you
off.”

He hiked his
shoulders a few inches and held out his hands.

“Admit it. You
were getting paid off. That’s how you were able to afford this place.”

“No, actually,
that’s not true. Nancy did get that book deal everyone talked about. We settled
for this place only because I’m stuck here for a few more years.”

“So what did
you do with the money?”

“That’s for me
to worry about, Jack. And it goes beyond the money.”

I studied him
for a moment before responding.

“Then what?”

“Politics,
Jack.” He smiled and stood up straight. “The things I was doing were helping me
get in with the right people.”

“You murdered
Abbot and a man you didn’t know just so you could get a pass in D.C.?”

He smiled and
winked.

I shook my head
and turned toward the door.

“You might not
want to leave just yet, Jack.”

Mike walked
past me and stood in front of the door, blocking my exit.

I laughed and
looked over my shoulder at Keller. “You think he’s going to stop me?”

“No,” Keller
said. “No, I don’t. But you might want to wait a minute.”

I heard
footsteps echo through the room. They came from the hallway behind Keller. A
man stepped out.

“Hello, Jack.”

I nodded.
“Martinez.”

A second man
appeared from the hallway. I recognized his face from the base in Iraq, but
didn’t know his name. His extended arm pulled at something from the hall.

Jessie.

Her glossy eyes
and tear stained cheeks told me all I needed to know.

My eyes shifted
from Jessie, to Keller and back to Martinez, who now aimed his pistol at me.