The Innocent (40 page)

“S
AME SQUAD
,” said Blue Man.

He and Robie were sitting in Blue Man’s office.

“They fought together for the entire campaign, along with other assignments post–Gulf One.”

“It was no wonder Julie didn’t know about it,” remarked Robie. “She wasn’t even born yet.”

“And her father was tight-lipped about his service,” said Blue Man. “Maybe he didn’t even tell his wife.”

“I know some soldiers don’t talk about their time on the battlefield, but they don’t usually keep the fact that they actually served secret. Anything in his records to warrant such secrecy?”

“Maybe.”

Blue Man pulled out another manila folder from a stack he had on his desk. “As you know, during Gulf One allied forces never actually went into Baghdad. The mission was to drive Saddam Hussein from Kuwait, and that mission was accomplished.”

“Hundred days,” said Robie. “I remember.”

“Right. Now, the Iraqis had reportedly looted much of Kuwait, which is one of the richest Gulf states. Cash, gold, precious jewels, that sort of thing.”

“Is this going where I think it is?”

“Nothing could be proven, but Getty, Wind, and Broome might have had sticky fingers when they were in Kuwait. They were each given general discharges Under Honorable Conditions.”

“You told Julie that her dad got an
honorable
discharge based on medical reasons.”

“That’s right. I did.”

“If they were involved in the thefts, do you think they were able to get their loot back to the States? None of the three showed any signs of wealth,” pointed out Robie. “The Gettys worked at crap jobs and lived in a crappy duplex. The Winds weren’t wealthy. And I saw the Broomes’ apartment. Nothing special.”

“Curtis Getty probably put most of it up his nose. Rick Wind’s finances showed that he never earned much money, but he owned a home and had the pawnbroker’s business. Again, we could find no record of how he was able to buy the business.”

“But he stayed in for the full ride. How would that be possible if he was believed to be a thief?’

“ ‘Believed to be’ is the operative phrase. Lack of evidence, I suppose. But the general discharge he did receive speaks volumes, because there was nothing else in his service record that would have warranted anything other than an honorable discharge.”

“So they got him in the end?”

“And he apparently didn’t contest it. Again, speaks volumes. If he did steal the stuff and still got his full ride and pension and no jail time, and the fruits of his larceny, Wind probably thought he got a great deal.”

“And if he was rich from the thefts, why stay in?”

“We don’t know how much they might have gotten away with. Maybe he saw it as his nest egg and decided to keep drawing his government check.”

“And Leo Broome?”

“Hit the jackpot there. His apartment in D.C. wasn’t much to look at, but they had an oceanfront home in Boca Raton and we tracked down an investment portfolio he’d hidden under another name. Had about four million in it.”

“Okay, at least it seems he stole from the Kuwaitis. So you think someone’s coming for them after all this time? And why stick me in the middle of it?”

“You’re the worrisome piece, Robie. The three ex-soldiers maybe fit a pattern. You don’t.” Blue Man closed the file and looked across the desk at him. “You went back over your recent missions?”

“Five of them. They’re cookie-cutters. No clear reason why someone would want to come after me. And no clear reason why they wouldn’t. So I wasn’t able to narrow down the possible suspects.” He brooded for a few moments. “Julie said her mother told her killer that Julie didn’t know anything.”

“What of it?”

“Didn’t know what? About her dad’s military service? I can tell you right now that that guy on the bus going after Julie was not Middle Eastern.”

“Means nothing. You’re not Middle Eastern either, and yet you’ve worked on their behalf before. They could have hired local talent to do the job. Makes it easier than trying to slip one of their own into the country, especially these days.”

Robie glanced up at him. “So why didn’t you tell Julie about these allegations of theft?”

“I decided to focus on the medals. And nothing was ever proven against Curtis Getty. He might be innocent.”

“But still?”

“What would have been the point?”

“Why?” Robie asked again.

“I have granddaughters.”

“Okay,” said Robie. “I can understand that.”

“But we don’t seem to be any closer to the right answers,” said Blue Man.

“No, maybe we are.”

“How so?”

Robie stood. “They want me involved in this somehow, whatever it is.”

“Granted, but how does that help us?”

“I need to make them try a little harder to engage my attention.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m going to make them push harder. When people push harder they make mistakes.”

“Well, make certain you don’t push them so hard that you end up dead.”

“No, I
want
them to focus on
me
. There’s been way too much collateral damage on this already.”

Robie turned and walked out of the room.

He was going to see Julie. He had nothing really to tell her. And like Blue Man had said, no good could come from informing her of things her father might have done in the past. Robie was convinced that whatever the three soldiers had done more than twenty years ago was irrelevant to the present situation. They were just convenient pieces on the chessboard.

This is about me
, thought Robie.
It started with me and it has to somehow end with me
.

“S
O
, M
R
. B
ROOME AND
R
ICK
W
IND
served with my dad in the Army?” said Julie.

Robie was sitting with her in the FBI safe house. How safe it was Robie wasn’t sure, but he had few options left. The FBI agents guarding Julie looked professional and alert, and yet he kept his hand near his Glock and was prepared to gun them down if they made a move to harm the girl.

“They fought in Gulf One. They left the Army at separate times after that. Apparently, a number of soldiers in their squad got that tattoo on their arm.”

“I still can’t believe my dad was like a hero.”

“Believe it, Julie, he was.”

She fingered the zipper on her jacket. “Did you find out anything else?”

“Not really,” said Robie.

“My dad must’ve been young when he left the military. I wonder why he didn’t stay in.”

“No way to tell,” said Robie quietly. “Some guys do their stint and go on to other things.”

“Maybe if he’d stayed in he might’ve, you know…”

“Well, he might not have met your mother either, if he’d stayed in.”

“That’s true,” said Julie slowly. She eyed Robie closely. “Why do I think you’re not telling me everything?” There was something in her look that Robie recognized. It was the same look he gave people who were simply telling him things they knew he wanted to hear.

“Because you’re naturally suspicious, just like me.”

“Are you holding something back from me?”

“I hold lots of things back from lots of people. But always for a good reason, Julie.”

“That’s not really an answer.”

He locked his gaze on hers, figuring that not to look at her now would be simply an exclamation point on his underlying deceit. “It’s the only one I have to give. I’m sorry.”

“So you haven’t figured out what’s going on, then, have you?”

“Not really.”

“Do you need my help? And don’t say you have to keep me safe. There’s no such place, not even here with super-duper FBI guys all over the place.”

Robie was about to turn her offer down using this very safety issue, but stopped. Something had just occurred to him.

“Your mother said that you didn’t know anything, right? When she was talking to the guy in your house?”

“That’s what she said.”

“So that implies that your parents did know something. That your mother, in fact, probably knew why the guy was there. Why he wanted to kill them.”

“I guess that’s right. But we’ve already covered this ground, Will.”

“And Leo Broome, right before he died, implied that he knew something too.”

Julie wicked a tear from her right eye. “I didn’t know him all that well, but he seemed like a nice guy. And I really liked Ida. She was always nice to me.”

“I know. It’s a tragedy all around. Now, Cheryl Kosmann said that the day before your parents were killed they had dinner with the Broomes at the diner. She said they looked like they had seen a ghost.”

“That’s right.”

“When was the last time you talked to your parents before you went back to your house that night?”

“Just before I was put back in foster care. I never got a chance to sneak over and see my mom at the diner.”

“And how did your mom seem when you did see her last?”

“Fine. Normal. We just talked about stuff.”

“And then later a guy is at their home looking to kill them and your mother is not surprised by it?”

Julie blinked. “You mean something had to happen after I last saw her and before the guy showed up at our house?”

“No, it had to be between you seeing her last and your parents having dinner with the Broomes where they all looked like they had seen a ghost, according to Cheryl.”

“But we don’t know what that something is.”

“But narrowing it down to a specific time period helps. The way I see it, either something happened with your parents, they found out something and told the Broomes. Or the Broomes found out something and told your parents.”

“What about the Winds?”

“That’s sort of the wild card. They weren’t at the dinner, but they must be involved somehow too, otherwise why would they have ended up dead?”

“Do you think it has something to do with their time in the military?”

“My gut tells me that it should. But all the facts don’t point to that. Namely, my involvement in all this. If I’m right and I’m the reason why this whole thing has been orchestrated, why involve your parents, the Broomes, and the Winds? I didn’t know any of them.”

“So you really think all of this is tied to you somehow?”

Robie could sense the question left unspoken.

Was I the reason her parents were killed?

“Yes, I think it does. Too many coincidences otherwise.”

Julie pondered this. “So either the Winds, my parents, or the Broomes found something out. Because they were in the military together the guys might have told each other about it. The bad guys found out and they had to kill them.”

“That makes sense.”

“Yeah, I guess it does,” Julie said, looking away from Robie.

He let a few tense moments pass by before he spoke. “Julie, I
don’t know what’s going on. If this is really all about me and your parents and the others were caught up in it, I’m sorry.”

“I’m not blaming you for what happened to my parents, Will,” she said, though her voice held no conviction.

Robie stood and paced. “Well, maybe you should,” he said over his shoulder.

“Blaming you isn’t going to bring them back. And what I want hasn’t changed. I want to get whoever did this.
All
of them.”

Robie sat back down and looked at her. “I think there was no more than a twenty-four-hour window when whatever got your parents killed was communicated among Wind, Broome, and your dad. If we can trace a call, or a movement, or any type of communication among that group, we might be able to get a better handle on all this.”

“Can you do that?”

“We can at least give it a hell of a shot. The problem is, so far nothing in their background suggests they were involved in anything that could have been the catalyst for all this.”

“Well, they weren’t the only ones in the squad, right? A squad consists of nine or ten soldiers, with a staff sergeant in command.”

“How do you know that?”

“American history class. We’re studying World War II. So my dad, Wind, and Broome are three guys. That means you have six or seven more to track down.”

Robie shook his head, wondering how he’d missed something that obvious. Then he looked down at Julie’s chest.

The laser dot was centered right over her heart.