Sweepers

by P. T. Deutermann

  Karen and Train walked side by side back to IR, saying nothing. Captain Pennington was not in evidence when they reached the office. Two of the IR lawyers were outlining a case on the whiteboard, and the yeoman was threatening the copy machine with bodily harm as he -tried to unjam the paper tray. Karen automatically went to her cubicle to check voice mail.

  The yeoman, seeing Train, gave up on the machine with one last, vengeful kick and then brought Train a computer diskette.

  “This came in from NIS this morning,” he said.

  Train thanked him and dropped the diskette on his desk.

  It had to be the hard copy of the database screen on Jack Sherman. He sat down and checked his own voice mail.

  There was one message, from Captain Mccarty: “The admiral thinks it might be a good idea if Karen stays somewhere else than at her home in Great Falls for a while. See what you can do about that.” Train replayed the message and checked the time stamp. The message had been recorded as they had been walking down the hall from the JAG front office, which meant Mccarty had not wanted to say that in front of Karen. As he was clearing it, Karen was walking over with a yellow phone-message memo in her hand. She had a strange look on her face.

  “What’s the matter?” he asked.

  “I just listened to a message,” she replied. “From Galantz.” Her eyes were a little white around the edges. Train quickly got up, looked around, and then steered Karen into the small IR conference room and closed the door.

  “How do you know? What did he say?” he asked.

  “It was on voice mail. It was-it was the same voice as on the phone Monday night.”

  “Damn. Did you save it?”

  “Yes. But that voice, it’s hardly human.”

  “So much for voiceprints. What did he say?”

  She consulted the message slip. “He spoke my name. He said that I -was lucky last night but that I would have to be lucky every time, and that he had to be lucky only one time.”

  The Irish Republican Army, rule, Train thought. Man had a way with words. He took a deep breath and then exhaled.

  “Look,” he said, “I’ve got to go ransom Gutter, preferably before the afternoon rush hour. Why don’t you come with me? I can take you home right after that. It’s on the way.”

  But Karen was shaking her head, her face turned away to conceal her fear. “I don’t want to go-home I just now,” she said. “Not after yesterday. Not after this.” She waved the yellow slip.

  Train seized on what she had just said to follow through on Mccarty’s suggestion. “Okay, look. I’ve got a sixbedroom house down in Aquia. It’s a pretty secure situation.

  There’s even a housekeeper. You’re welcome to hole up there for as long as you want. Or until we sort this business out. Unless you have-“

  “That would be fine,” she said quickly, surprising him again. She turned away from him, her hands fluttering.

  “Train, I’m scared,” she said. “It embarrasses me, but there it is.

  After everything that happened yesterday, and now with Admiral Sherman missing … There were two of’them yesterday, at least down by the river. That means that Galantz-if that’s who this is-has help. I know they’re watching me. They can get in and out of houses like smoke.

  They-” He realized that she was starting to unravel, her eyes shooting from side to side and her voice rising. Finally, he just reached for her, turning her around and pulling her gently into his arms as she stifled a cry. He stood there holding her, patting her on the back while she let it out, babbling through a stream of tears, her words becoming incoherent, her breasts heaving against his chest and her shoulders trembling. He comforted her and held her for a few minutes until she became still. Then, with an embarrassed expression on her face, she backed away, pushing her hair out of her tear streaked face. Her skin was blotched with patches of red, and mascara had run down her cheek on one side. She saw his look and put a hand up to her face.

  “I’m so sorry, I don’t know what’s the matter with me.

  Of course I can go home. I don’t have to bother-“

  “No way. You’re coming home with me,” he said. “the hell of it is you’re right. This guy has been able to do anything he damn well pleases.

  There’s no way you should be alone, especially isolated in Great FAII5.

  Besides-“

  “What?” she asked, pulling a Kleenex out of her skirt pocket and wiping her cheek.

  “Besides, that’s my tasking. Or what’s left of it. The one Carpenter wouldn’t say out loud when he started speaking in tongues back there.”

  “Train, what are you talking about?” That suspicious look was back in her eye.

  “My tasking, and these are the Great Man’s very words, is to keep Karen Lawrence safe.”

  “And what was that other business, the things he was going to order you not to do?”

  “Finding Galantz and interfering in anyone else’s efforts to find Galantz.”

  She sat down, continuing the damage control on her makeup. “Are we just going to quit? Let Sherman swing in the wind?”

  “No. Galantz almost got us both killed last night. I take that personally.”

  She nodded but said nothing for a moment. “I guess I feel the same way,” she said. “But after that, that bag, I’m not as confident as you are. We should also remember what Admiral Carpenter said: Sometimes we have to assume our boss knows what he’s doing with this thing.”

  Train shook his head. “if he or any of these admirals knew what they were doing with this case, last night wouldn’t have happened. I don’t think they do know what they’re doing. I think they’re flailing, hoping like hell it will all just go away. That the people who created this monster will clean it up sooner rather than later.”

  “But if Galantz is out to ruin Sherman, why in the hell would he be trying to kill me?”

  “I don’t think he intended to kill you. Just take you off the boards. it wasn’t until I showed up that you went in the river. I thought it was because he thinks you’re close to Sherman, Karen. But the attack on you happened after we talked to Jack Sherman. There has to be a tie-in there, somewhere, somehow. I say let’s go back and squeeze that punk again. He lives near Triangle-that’s not far from My place in Aquia.

  Nobody’s given me orders about Sherman’s son.”

  “Spoken like a true sea lawyer,” she said.

  “Yeah, well. So let’s go get my dog out of hock.”

  It was six on the nose when T - rain turned in through the tall brick gates of the von Rensel estate. Karen, following in her Explorer, stared in appreciative silence as they drove up along a curving gravel drive bordered by ancient river oaks overlooking a wide expanse of lawn.

  Beyond a low brick wall at the far edge of the lawn, the Potomac River glinted in the sun, almost a mile wide. Ahead, a moderately sized two-story white house surrounded by columned porches appeared from behind massive boxwood hedges.

  “Wow,” she said to herself. Train had told her a little bit about the family property on the way out to retrieve Gutter, but this was obviously something very special. She was suddenly glad she had asked Train to take her by the house in Great Falls to get some more clothes and her car.

  As they pulled up in front of the house, they were met by a slim Japanese man, who came over to her car and opened her door, bowing politely. Karen got out and bowed back, and Train introduced her to Hiroshi. She was struck by the enormous physical contrast between them, the tree-sized Train and the slim but wiry Hiroshi, who could have been anywhere from fifty to seventy years old. She could see at once that there was a very special bond between them.

  Hiroshi extracted her bag and hanging gear, gave Train’s disheveled clothes a lifted eyebrow, and went up the steps.

  Train then introduced Karen to Hiroshi’s wife, Kyoko, who was waiting on the front porch. Kyoko took Karen inside and showed her upstairs to one of the guest rooms to freshen up. Train went to his own room on the riverfron
t side of the house and changed into clean clothes. Then he went looking for Hiroshi. He found him in the back pantry, doctoring Gutter’s leg, and told him about the events of the preceding night. He explained that Commander Lawrence would be staying with them for. a few days. Hiroshi, ever the great conversationalist, nodded once and continued his examination on the dog.

  Train left him to it and went back in time to meet Karen as she came downstairs. He gave her a tour of the downstairs of the house. “About half the house dates back to the 1790s,” he told her. “This is one of two reception rooms.

  Sort of eclectic in style, after many generations of taste and circumstances. Started out as a smaller copy of Mount Vernon, up the river, and then it was modified several times through the years. It’s not that big, really.”

  “How did your family come to have this land?”

  “The first von Rensel came to the United States in the retinue of the Baron von Steuben. By the end of the American Revolution, he had risen sufficiently in General Washington’s esteem to be granted a four-hundred-acre parcel of land down river from Mount Vernon. My family alternated between prosperity and near financial ruin over the generations, but a strict observance of the rule of primogeniture ensured that the original land grant survived intact well into the twentieth century, when my grandfather Heinrich finally seized the opportunity-to turn four hundred acres of riverfront property into a secure family fortune. These are the original kitchens.”

  “This place has four hundred acres?” she asked.

  “Not. anymore. Heinrich struck an adept political deal with the local county government that basically secured the serenity of the family estate. In return for the sale of the remaining acres of riverside lands to the county for a park, the county agreed never to permit development of that land.

  By the time I was born, only ten walled acres and the house remained of the original eighteenth-century plantation, along with a structure of family trusts, which pays for all this.”

  Later, over a simple’ dinner served by Kyoko on’the screened porch, he told her some more about his own upbringing. She was curious about Hiroshi and his wife. Train told her the story of how the couple had corrie to Aquia.

  “Before my mother died in 1959, my parents maintained a pretty full social schedule up in Washington. They kept a town’ house up in Georgetown a weekends. My father had British I think. I was a lot closer to Hi mother died. When both my parents were g(

  clear that they were expected to stay on in their retirement years.

  “I’ll bet Kyoko wonders when you’re going to get married,” Karen said with a mischievous smile.

  “Wonders and occasionally nags, in her own incredibly polite way,” Train said, returning that smile. Then he surprised himself.

  “Tell me about Frank,” he said. “I sense a loose end there.

  She looked away for a moment, long enough to take a deep breath. “Yes, there is.” She told him the story, faltering when she came to the part about where he had been when his heart killed him, and the possible reasons why.

  I’ll in still tom about it,” she said. “I think he loved me.-

  He was certainly a loving man. And you’ve seen the house, the nice cars, all of that. And yet ..

  He nodded slowly. “Now you wonder if you should pull that scab until you find the truth, or leave it be and get on with your life.”

  “Yes, exactly.”

  “Advice?”

  She looked at him expectantly.

  “You had ten years. If he was unfaithful, he cared enough about you to keep it very discreet. You seemed to have been good friends as well as husband and wife. He left you more than well provided for. There are worse men than I that.

  She nodded, visibly stifling a few dozen buts.

  “And there are better men than that, too, Karen.”

  re She was about to reply to that when Kyoko came in to move the plates.

  Suddenly, Train was yawning. His yawn immediately triggered hers.

  “Tree time in the jungle, I think,” she said.

  “Tell Kyoko if you need anything,” Train said, standing.

  “Breakfast at eight, okay? Then we can kick around next steps.

  “Make it nine,” she replied, yawning again. “I think I’m ps include going to sleep forever. And I assume next Ste going back to see Jack Sherman, right?” she asked.

  “Yes, only this time I’m going to get some answers out of him that make sense.”

  “How, by beating him up again?”

  “I didn’t beat him up. He walked away.”

  She gave him an arch look. “Maybe this time let me do the talking,” she said, getting up. “Remember, the objective is to find out what’s going on.” Train was suddenly too tired to argue. They said good night. Kyoko led Karen upstairs, and Train headed for the library. He was exhausted but too wound up for sleep. He decided to get a brandy and review the NIS file before turning in. He was just putting away the decanter of Armagnac when Hiroshi appeared in the doorway.

  “Hiroshisan,” Train said as the old man came into the study. They exchanged bows, and Hiroshi sat down on the front three inches of one of the upholstered chairs, his back straight as a board and his hands folded politely in his lap.

  “So, I need to tell you what’s going on,” Train said.

  “This is a serious matter?” Hiroshi asked.

  Train knew that Hiroshi would never have dreamed of coming right out with a direct question unless he was very concerned. “Very serious, Hiroshisan. There have been two murders. A senior naval officer is being made to look like a murderer by a man from his past-. It appears to be a matter of revenge for something that happened in Vietnam many years ago. The lady upstairs, Commander Lawrence, was assigned to find out if the accusations were true. I was assigned to help her. Because she became involved, she became a target, too. She cannot be safe until the man behind all this is captured, or killed.”

  “It is a killing matter?”

  “It is for one of the government agencies involved. But the matter is complicated by the fact that some government agencies are at war with one another. I think one agency might be trying to gain advantage over the other by exploiting this matter. This man is something like a ninja who is no longer under control.”

  “Ali,” Hiroshi said. Ninja, he understood.

  “But my military superiors have told me not to pursue this man, and not to interfere in the pursuit efforts of others,” Train continued.

  “My’military superiors are apparently willing to sacrifice the senior officer in order to avoid having the Navy involved in yet another scandal.”

  “Does this senior officer agree to the sacrifice?”

  “No. He feels it is unfair. But in a certain sense, he is not blameless, either. And now there are indications that his son may be involved in this matter. Exactly how, I don’t know. And to cap it off, the senior officer has disappeared, which will probably renew suspicion against him. It is very complicated.”

  Hiroshi thought about all this. “What will you I do?” he asked.

  “There are some aspects to this case that don’t make sense,” Train replied ‘ “Commander Lawrence feels the senior officer is being unfairly set up, and I’m beginning to agree with her. We plan to talk to the senior officer’s son.”

  “Will he talk to you?”

  “One way or another, he will. We think he was involved in what happened last night. And if he was, then maybe we can expose at least him to the police, which might then force the Navy to do the right thing by the senior officer.”

  Hiroshi thought about that for a moment. Then, as usual, he came back to the real issue. “But what of the ninja who seeks revenge?”

  “His own superiors are supposedly hunting him. But if he comes after me, or, more importantly, after Karen Lawrence, I’ll do whatever it takes to keep her safe.”

  Hiroshi thought some more about it. “And if you remove this man, would this not please your superiors? As
well as all the other superiors who want to find this man?”

  Train grinned. “You have, as usual, hit the nail on the head. I thought that Is what my boss had in mind. He may yet want that, but he is not permitted to say it.”

  “Your boss is a most devious boss,” Hiroshi observed, getting up. “I will release the night dogs now. When will you leave in the morning?”

  Around ten or so. I’ll need time to go over my plans with Commander Lawrence. And I badly need some real sleep.”

  Hiroshi nodded again. “This woman has no husband?” he asked. “He died about a year ago-She remains sad.”

  Hiroshi cleared his throat. “What?” Train asked. “Kyoko says not that sad.”

  Train eyed the old man. “Don’t you start, Hiroshi.”

  “Kyoko says Train-sama must open his eyes. Hiroshi says Kyoko is interfering old woman. Hiroshi says-“

  “Hiroshi says good night.”

  There was the barest hint of a smile on the old man’s lips.

  “Hiroshi says good night, Train-sama.”

  Train smiled to himself as the old man closed, the double doors behind him. Kyoko had been after Train to get a wife for’about ten years now, and old Hiroshi had probably been threatened with severe chastisement if he failed to pass along her message about Karen. Not that sad. He chuckled.

  Then he put in the diskette and forced his weary eyes to focus on the screen. He had to enter a standard NIS access code and then his personal security identifier code before the file would open.

  The file began with a biographic history. John Lee Sherman. Lee and Sherman, now there was an interesting apposition of last names. Born in San Diego, California, January 1967. Parents William Taggart Sherman, Marcia Kendall, aka Beth Sherman. There followed a laundry list of residences tracking the admiral’s duty stations, and a schools list, which terminated in 1986 With graduation from Washington -and Lee High School. A homeboy. Right here in the Washing I ton area.