Home Goes The Warrior

by Jeff Noonan

  “Say that again? Lee I’m going to tape this so I don’t miss anything. Now, let’s start over.” Tom was suddenly all business.

  Lee went over the entire story from the time he saw the Cadillac in the parking space this morning through to his conversation with Jane. When he was done, Tom switched off the recorder. “Holy crap, man! This might be what we are looking for. I’ll get some people on it right away. I’ll check out the whole story and make sure he is who he says he is. We’ll dig deep on him.”

  “Tom, go into the four kids’ backgrounds also. This whole thing could be some kind of a setup. Like those ‘Soviet sleeper cells” that we used to be warned about back when Stalin was in power. The whole thing is just too neat to be real.”

  “You got it. If there isn’t anything else, I’m going to work on this right now.”

  “Hold up, Tom. What about the wiretap or whatever it is? Do you have anyone that can find out about it for me?”

  Sure. Sorry. I wasn’t thinking. We have some experts here that I can send out. When do you want them?”

  “Probably at night when the shipyard is quiet. It could be any night at their convenience. Just call me on this radio the evening before they come here, and I’ll make sure that they can get into the shipyard to do the work.”

  “No. We can make all the arrangements ourselves. I don’t want your name on paper around there on any official FBI business. Too easy to leak to the wrong people.”

  “I guess that makes sense. But I think the cat is long out of the bag as far as these guys go. They aren’t shooting at me because they think I’m just another Navy guy.”

  “Yeah, I guess. But we can still do our own legwork to get in the yard. No reason to involve you.”

  “Okay. Call me anyway and I’ll open the office and show them around. By the way, I’m going to be off on Thursday and Friday, getting ready for Maggie to get here. But I’ll stay near the radio, and I’ll be ready whenever your guys want to come in or you need to call me.”

  “Sounds good. I’ll call as soon as I have a schedule. Probably tomorrow evening.”

  “Sounds good. I’ll talk to you then. Call me earlier if you learn anything exciting.”

  “Will do. Thanks again, Lee.”

  A full day passed before Lee heard from Tom again. It was on Tuesday evening when the radio let out what sounded like a series of high-pitched burps, indicating that someone was calling. Lee was getting ready for a shower, but he grabbed the receiver immediately. “Lee here.”

  “Hi, Lee. Tom here. How about tomorrow night for the bug investigation?”

  “Sounds good. Late at night, I hope.”

  “Yeah. We’re set up to come in after the second shift leaves. Plan on being at your office at about 1:30a.m. Does that sound all right?”

  Yeah. I’ll meet them in the parking lot between my office building and the shipyard commander’s building.”

  “It’s not them. I’m coming in with the crew. I want to see the layout first hand.”

  “Great. I’ll see you then. By the way, have you learned anything more about our suspects?”

  “Only one thing of significance so far. We’re still digging like mad. But it might interest you to know that the youngest of Symington’s four adopted children was a girl. Her name was Marie Novak. She and her older sister, Sheila, were adopted together when they were thirteen and eleven years old. She’s the same Marie who killed herself in Heathrow airport.”

  “No kidding? At first, I was wondering if that could be the case. But I discarded the thought because old Randall was so calm. I definitely didn’t catch any kind of a vibe about losing a child or anything like that. The same was true for her sister, Sheila, and Thomas Sloan. Man, what kind of human beings are these? This is one strange operation, Tom.”

  “Yeah, I agree. I have some thoughts about these adoptions. But we are looking into them now. I’ll let you know anything we find out.”

  “Thanks. Now one more thing, Tom. I’d like to get a call from you tomorrow at work, on the bugged line. I’d like for you to call me and tell me all about Marie’s death, as if you’d just put it all together with the fire and the Skimmers’ deaths. Then thank me for my help and tell me that you’re closing the case out. I’ll agree and thank you for your help, and we’ll sign off. Do you see where I’m going?”

  “Yes I do. Great thinking, Lee. Hopefully, a call like that will cause them to lower their guard. I’ll call about mid-morning. See you tomorrow night.”

  “Yeah. No rest for the wicked, eh? See you.” The loud click seemed to fill the room and echo as the radio connection was broken.

  The next day dragged for Lee. He stayed around the office until he got the telephone call from Tom. The call went as planned.

  Then he headed out to the ships in overhaul. He spent as much time as possible out on the ships, checking on the work progress. He stopped aboard USS King and spent a couple of hours with the engineers and technicians working on the missile systems. He knew many of them from the times when they had worked aboard ships in Bath, Maine, while he was stationed there. The world of shipboard missile systems was a small one, and it was impossible to work in this environment without learning to know one another. By now, Nixon and Knuckles had told the story of his confrontation with Vince Askew to all the newcomers, and they had told their old Lee Raines stories to them, so he was welcomed by all.

  When the work day finished, he went home and made supper. Then he changed into jeans and a T-shirt before lying down for a catnap, setting the alarm for eleven o’clock. When it went off, he washed up, had a cup of coffee, and headed for the shipyard. He was in his office shortly after midnight.

  Right on time, Tom Wright showed up in the parking lot with four others. Lee met them and brought them into the office reception area. Once there, they went through the introductions, and he explained the layout of the building to them. Soon the technicians were tracing the phone lines and inspecting the receivers while Tom and Lee waited for them.

  “Tom, I thought this process would be more automated. Don’t they have scanning equipment for bugs?”

  “They do. But that will be the last thing they do before they leave. Right now they’re looking for hard-wired eavesdropping equipment, which is actually more common than the little transmitter bugs that the TV programs like to show us.”

  Tom suddenly smacked his forehead and turned to Lee. “Dammit, Lee. I almost forgot the news I had. The ballistics came back on that slug you dug out of your car’s upholstery. It’s an exact match to the bullet they took out of Bernie Shapiro! The techies tell me that it was fired by an older 30-06 rifle, possibly an old military gun. Apparently newer rifles have more controlled grooving. This one had been fired so much that the barrel was very worn. That possibly saved your life, because an old rifle barrel like this couldn’t possibly still be as accurate as a newer one would be.”

  Just then, one of the technicians came out of Lee’s little office. “Mr. Wright, you should see this.” Tom and Lee both followed him into the office.

  The tech held up a wire that was running under Lee’s desk. It was actually a thin, black wire. But it was covered with tape that was the same color as the desk and was running through the space behind the desk drawers. “This is hooked into the phone lines. Very neatly done, and it looks quite effective. We’ll trace it out from here. So far, we’ve followed it under the carpet and up the wall behind the wallboard. We can see it above the false ceiling, where it looks like it’s running back into the rear of the building. We’re following it back now. Do you want us to disconnect this thing or leave it in place?”

  Tom looked at Lee. “What do you think?”

  Lee was on his hands and knees, looking at the wire under his desk. “Let’s leave it in place. I can cut it if I need to make a quiet call. But I don’t want to alert them that we know about it yet.”

  “Good call.” Tom turned to the technician. “I’m going to take some photos of this. Then put it back j
ust like you found it. Let’s leave it, but continue tracing to see where this thing goes. Let’s get some pictures of the track it takes above the ceiling also.”

  “Got it.” The technician left the office to relay the instructions to his assistants. Lee and Tom followed him back into the bowels of the building. The team was moving along rapidly, using short ladders to look above the false ceiling tiles. Working with two ladders, they were leapfrogging one another as they worked back down the wire. It didn’t take long before one of them announced, “Here’s where it goes down into a locked office area.”

  Tom turned to Lee. “Do you have a key?”

  “Nope. But it looks like they’re saying that the wire comes down right behind Thomas Sloan’s office. That locked door is the door to his office. But I don’t think the office goes back quite as far as the spot they’re indicating.”

  Tom turned to one of the technicians. “No key. Open it up. Try not to leave any marks on the door or the lock.”

  It took about two minutes before the door swung wide. The old government door lock was no match for this crew.

  Lee was right. The wire didn’t come down in the office. But there was a closet behind the office that Lee hadn’t noticed before. It was also locked, but this lock didn’t last any longer than the other one. The technician swung the door open and started laughing. “It’s an old-style tape recorder like we used to use when we were chasing Pretty Boy Floyd fifty years ago. It’s the kind that turns on when the phone in the office is lifted off its cradle and then turns off again when the phone is hung up. I haven’t seen one of these in years.”

  Tom and Lee crowded in to see the equipment. Lee wasn’t familiar with any of this, but Tom was chuckling along with the technician. “Damn, they could buy a better unit at Sears & Roebuck. I guess old Randall must be a frugal boss. But it must work, I guess.”

  Carefully, Tom took pictures of the entire installation, including one taken of the open door behind the desk, a picture that clearly showed both the recording equipment and the nameplate of the desk in front of it The nameplate read, “Thomas Sloan, Department Manager, Electronic Engineering Department.”

  When they finished, they carefully put everything back as it had been before. They wiped clean any area disturbed by their progress through the ceiling tiles. Then they loaded their equipment and headed out. They had found what they expected and, like professionals everywhere, were not wasting any time. Lee drove home to catch a few hours sleep. He was off from work today so he could do more around the house before Maggie arrived. She was flying in tomorrow evening.

  He lay awake for a long time that night thinking about the Symington group, as he was now calling them. Except for the one called Marie, they apparently weren’t involved with any kind of financial scams. There was only one explanation. They had to be spies! If so, this was huge. Thomas Sloan, like his adopted father before him, had access to virtually every secret and every system that the United States Navy possessed! He and his sister even managed the security vault where all the classified information on ships and their specific systems was maintained!

  My God! They’ve had access to the detailed design of our shipboard weapons and electronic systems, as well as all of the Navy’s secret frequencies and codes, for at least twenty or thirty years! If they’ve been passing them on to Russia or China, our Navy is doomed in any kind of shooting war. This isn’t just huge. This is a game-changer, on an international scale!

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR - THE HOMECOMING

  ee was up at his regular time and went for a run around the streets of Wallingford. He was loving the winding roads, rolling hills, and tall trees that characterized the community. But today he didn’t see much of anything. The revelations of the past few days were troubling. Not only that, but Maggie was due to arrive tomorrow, just as the investigation was reaching a critical mass. As much as he wanted to see her, he didn’t want to put her in danger. But he knew she wouldn’t delay her arrival if she knew about all of this. Instead, she would probably come sooner to try to protect him. There just wasn’t any answer except to let her come and then try to keep her clear of Symington and his people.

  His mind was a thousand miles away as he ran. When he got home, he jumped in the shower and then grabbed a breakfast of coffee and donuts. He carefully made extra coffee and left lots of donuts for the women who were due to start working any minute now.

  He had contracted for a cleaning service, “The Cleaning Maidens,” to come in today and work their magic on the house. He had been painting, repairing, and planting around the place for weeks and, as a result, it wasn’t the cleanest home he’d ever lived in. He knew he didn’t want Maggie to see this place in its present condition. So he’d asked his real estate agent for a recommendation for a service and then contacted them. They were due to start at eight o’clock this morning.

  At 8 a.m. sharp, a van pulled up with four workers in it. He greeted them with, “I guess you’re the Cleaning Maidens?” The large lady who was obviously in charge answered him with a chuckle, “Been a long time since any of this crew were ‘Maidens,’ but we’re here to clean your house, so you can call us whatever you want.”

  They were all older women who knew their business. They divided into two-person teams and began a zone attack on Lee’s accumulated messes. At the same time, they appreciatively demolished his donut stash and proceeded to devour anything else he put out. He stayed with them, bringing in pizza for lunch, and made sure they had everything they needed to get the job done. It took them the entire day, but the house was immaculate before they left that evening.

  That night he ate his dinner at Packy’s. He wasn’t about to cook anything and disturb the incredible cleanliness of that kitchen.

  Randall called the group to order after dinner. Sheila silently cleared the dishes, listening carefully as the three men talked. When the table was cleared, she joined her adopted brothers as they talked with Papa.

  “I am not as concerned as I was.” Papa was holding the floor. “I’ve seen many Navy people come and go. Now that I’ve met him, I must say that he doesn’t seem any different from the norm. I think he just got lucky when he stumbled onto the Skimmers. Who knows, he may not have even known anything if they hadn’t overreacted and sent those two out on Mustin Field to kill him. I saw absolutely no indication that he knows anything that’s going on around him. Even as I talked to him, he was just hurrying to get out to the ships so he could look important, like all of these Navy peacocks like to do.”

  Fedya nodded in concurrence, but Toma wasn’t so confident. “I don’t know, Papa. I’d like to agree, but there’s something about this guy that scares me. I can’t put my finger on it, but I’m nervous about him.”

  Papa turned to his remaining daughter then. “Shura, what are your thoughts? You’ve met him, haven’t you?”

  “I have, Papa. I think Toma is overreacting on this one. He just seemed like another Navy guy to me. Maybe a little more humble and willing to listen than most Navy officers, but not so much that it makes him any more of a danger to us than any of them. But I do agree with Toma on one thing. I do want him dead, and I do want it to be a slow, painful, death. He killed my sister!”

  “In time, Shura. In time.” Papa’s voice was calm and reassuring. “We have to wait for now. We don’t know that he’s looking for anything past the Skimmers and their petty theft. Toma, has he been talking to the FBI people recently?”

  “No Papa. The last call between them was when the FBI agent told him that he was closing the Skimmers’ case. I’m not sure if we can count on that call being the truth, but maybe it was. Maybe we’re in the clear. But I still don’t understand why they haven’t traced Marie back to us here. She was your adopted daughter. You’d think they would at least notify us officially of her death.”

  “Maybe they haven’t had time to identify her yet. As far as I know, her body is still in London. She might have had time to get rid of her American passport and identification. If
so, they may never trace her back to us.”

  “Well, we need to watch for some kind of notification, and we need to be emotional if it comes.”

  “Agreed, Toma. But for now, let’s carry on our mission as normal. Just because the Skimmers have been taken out of the picture, we aren’t necessarily in any more danger than we ever were. We were working this effort for over twenty years before the Skimmers came along. We’ll just continue doing our jobs. Agreed?”

  “Agreed, Papa.”

  Lee arrived at the airport over an hour early. He was as excited as he could ever remember being. At the same time, he was nervous. He had put a lot of money and work into the house, and Maggie hadn’t seen it yet. What if she hated it?

  Damn. I’m like a teenager waiting to take my favorite cheerleader to the prom! He had to laugh at himself at that thought. But it didn’t help. He was still nervous. He thought about stopping for a drink but decided against it. He didn’t want to meet Maggie with booze on his breath.

  Finally the wait was over. The winged behemoth nuzzled into its berth and began disgorging its human cargo. Lee was as close to the exit ramp as he could get. Person after person came out of the big doors, and still no Maggie. He became progressively more nervous and even began sweating. What if she’d changed her mind? What if her parents had thought this wasn’t right for her? Lee had met them briefly, but he had no idea if they approved of him and their only daughter. What if? What if? What if? His mind was racing a mile a minute, and still there was no sign of Maggie.

  Then she was there! Tall, proud, smiling excitedly, she was there! It wasn’t until she ran over and threw her arms around him that his fears finally vanished. He was so excited that he tried to talk even as she was kissing him. “My God, I love you so much,” came out muffled and almost unintelligible. But her reply, “Me, too. Me, too,” was almost as bad. He suddenly realized that they were both trembling.