“Tyler got that email. Edgar hacked it and figured it out. Who’s to say a third party won’t do the same?”
“So they know the father communicated with the son?”
“After he supposedly died.”
“And Tyler knows that because he told me that. Do you think he might tell anyone else?”
“I sincerely doubt he’ll confide anything to his stepmom Jean.”
“Kathy said she’d talked to him. Maybe he told her.”
“I hope they talked without using their phones or computers.”
Michelle nodded in understanding. “The Pentagon would have all of that locked down. The thing is, kids these days don’t seem to actually talk to each other anymore. They just text each other.”
“Well, for their sakes I hope they broke that rule this time.”
“Sean, why would the Army say a soldier is dead if he really isn’t?”
“I guess I can think of a few reasons, but none that make any sense at all.”
“And Dad wanted his son’s forgiveness. For pretending to be dead? For putting him through all of that horror?”
“Maybe. And now Tyler believes that his father is alive,” Sean pointed out.
“Part of me hopes he is. Because if he isn’t and Tyler finds out the truth?”
Sean nodded in understanding. “He’ll have lost his dad. Twice.”
CHAPTER
18
“HOW IS TYLER DOING?” ASKED MICHELLE.
She and Sean were sitting across from Kathy Burnett at the Panera.
“Not that good. He’s really moody and doesn’t want to talk.”
“But you said he did talk to you?” noted Sean.
Kathy fiddled with the paper cover from the straw for her soda.
“A little.”
“Face-to-face?” asked Michelle. “Meaning not over your phones?”
“No, he drove over to my house earlier today. We talked in my backyard.”
“What did he tell you?” asked Michelle.
“Is Tyler in some sort of trouble?” Kathy blurted out.
“No,” said Sean. “Does he think he is?”
“I know he’s worried.”
“Just tell us what he said and maybe we can make some sense out of it,” advised Michelle.
“And you’re really wanting to help him, right?”
“He came to us, Kathy,” replied Michelle quite truthfully. “He hired us to look into this for him. Since he’s our client, our only interest is what’s best for him.”
Sean nodded in agreement and then they both eyed the teenage girl.
“He told me there’s something weird with his dad’s death.”
“Weird how?”
“The Army is saying that he’s dead, but Tyler thinks there’s more to it.”
“Based on what?” asked Michelle, though she knew the answer.
“He wouldn’t say. But he did tell me that the Army is jerking him around. Changing the story on how his dad died. They were supposed to go up to Dover to see his dad’s coffin come in. But then they said there was a delay.”
“Did they tell him for how long?” asked Sean.
“If they did he didn’t tell me. He was really upset about that.”
“Did he mention any emails he might have gotten from anyone?” asked Sean quietly.
Kathy shot him a glance. “Emails? From who?”
“I don’t know. I’m just asking. Trying to feel out the situation.”
She looked suspiciously at both of them. “If Tyler hired you, why aren’t you asking him these questions?”
Sean and Michelle exchanged a glance.
Sean said, “It’s a little complicated, Kathy.”
Michelle added, “We wanted to get some information from a friend of his, to gauge how he’s doing, what he’s talking about. We know he’s really upset and maybe not thinking too clearly. But what you’ve said so far is consistent with what Tyler has already told us.”
Kathy nodded, apparently satisfied with the explanation. “He did tell me that he doesn’t trust the Army.”
“I can understand that,” said Sean. “How are things with him and his stepmom?”
“Tyler didn’t mention her. He never really talks about her actually. I know they live in the same house, but that’s about it. I don’t think there’s much interaction at all.”
“When did his dad go into the Army reserves?”
“About a year or so ago.”
When Kathy again seemed to be growing suspicious from all the questions, Sean quickly said, “How about your mom? How much longer will she be in?”
“She has two more years to go to get her full pension. Then she gets it right away, so she can enjoy it before she’s, you know, really, really old, like fifty.”
Sean exchanged a glance with Michelle.
“Perish the thought she should have to wait until she’s that old,” said Sean dryly.
“Foot in the grave,” added a smiling Michelle.
“I wonder if Sam Wingo pulled his full twenty?” said Sean.
Kathy said, “I don’t think so. Tyler said his dad went into the Army after he turned twenty-five. The paper said he was forty-five when he was killed. That means he’s not old enough to have served twenty years if he left the Army a year ago.”
Michelle said, “Okay, but then he apparently left the Army only one year short of a full pension. Why do that after busting your hump for nineteen years?”
“Maybe he got a better job that would pay him a lot more money,” said Kathy.
“Could be,” said Sean, who sounded far from convinced.
“Have you seen any sign of more money in the Wingo household?” asked Michelle. “I mean, they haven’t moved, right? But what about a new car, computers, renovation to the house?”
“No, nothing like that. And Tyler never mentioned anything. Their house is nice but it’s, you know, like just a regular house.”
“So if not money, why else would he have left?” wondered Sean. He glanced at Kathy. “Did Tyler ever talk to you about what his dad did at work? DTI?”
“He just said he was in sales. You know, he’d meet with clients and stuff and sell things.”
“DTI specializes in foreign translators for the country of Afghanistan primarily,” said Michelle. “You wouldn’t think you’d need a big sales force to push that product.”
Kathy shrugged. “My mom says it takes forever to sell stuff to the government because of all the rules and red tape. But when you do sell something you can make a lot of money. But you have to know people, she told me.”
“Which would make sense to use an Army vet to sell things to the Army,” said Michelle, looking at Sean.
He nodded slowly. “Kathy, can you think of anything else that might help us?”
She started to shake her head no, but then stopped. “Well, Tyler did say one thing. It might not be important, especially since his dad is dead.”
“What?” asked Michelle.
“He and his dad had this code language they used that only the two of them could understand. They’d use it in emails when his dad was deployed.”
Michelle asked, “Why would they use a code?”
“The military’s not supposed to monitor personal emails but lots of people think they do. And I think it meant a lot to Tyler that he and his dad had this special code. I did something similar when my mom was over there.”
Sean said, “Did he tell you what the code was?”
“No.” Kathy drew a long breath. “I don’t understand why all this is happening to him but I know it’s not his fault.”
“No, it’s not,” agreed Michelle.
Kathy checked her watch. “I have to get going. My mom is expecting me.”
“Do you need a lift?” asked Michelle.
“No, the bus picks up right outside.”
“We can take you,” said Sean. Kathy looked at him warily and he added, “And you’re very smart not to accept rides from peo
ple you don’t really know.”
Kathy gave him a shy smile, collected her bag, and started to walk off.
“I hope you can help Tyler,” she said.
“We will help him,” replied Michelle.
After she left Sean turned to Michelle. He said, “Okay, we learned a lot, but not much that was actually helpful.”
“What’s bugging me is why leave the Army one year short of getting your full pension? I mean, who does that?”
“Well, whoever does it has to have an awfully good reason. And with Wingo it can’t be because of disciplinary problems,” observed Sean.
“Right. He was in the reserves and they sent him back over there so it wasn’t like he’d screwed up or gotten a bad-conduct discharge.”
She looked over at the doorway and stiffened.
“Okay, this is about to get a little dicey.”
Sean looked at the door.
Two men in military uniforms were standing there. They spotted Sean and Michelle and started walking toward them. And both men were armed.
CHAPTER
19
“WOULD YOU TWO LIKE SOME COFFEE?” asked Sean as the uniforms stopped in front of their table. “It’s cold out there. Almost as cold as it’s gotten in here.”
“Sean King and Michelle Maxwell?” asked one of them.
“The military knows all,” said Sean pleasantly.
“Could you please step outside?” said the same uniform. His stripes and insignia showed him to be a sergeant in the military police.
“I think we’re just fine right here, actually,” said Michelle.
“Could you step outside?” said the uniform again.
“Why?” asked Sean.
“We need to talk to you.”
“Which is something you can do right here.” He motioned to two empty seats at the table.
“We would prefer if this took place outside.”
“Then we have a difference of opinion. But since you’re military police and neither of us is in the military, I’m not seeing how you get us outside against our wishes when we are breaking no laws that would allow you to execute a citizen’s arrest.”
“You the lawyer?” said the other uniform. “You sound like one,” he added when Sean nodded.
The sergeant laid a hand on top of his sidearm.
“That would be a career-ending mistake, Sergeant,” said Sean. “And neither you nor I would want that.”
“Then I guess we do this the harder way.”
“What way would that be?” asked Michelle warily.
The sergeant slipped his phone out and sent a text.
Five seconds later the door to the Panera burst open and in walked three men in suits.
“Sean King and Michelle Maxwell?” said the lead man.
“Who wants to know?” replied Sean.
Three Homeland Security badges were shoved in their faces.
“Let’s go,” barked the lead agent.
As Sean and Michelle were yanked from their seats, the sergeant said, with a smile, “That’s the harder way.”
The forty-minute ride in an SUV with blacked-out windows landed them at a facility in Loudoun County, Virginia, that was surrounded by large stands of trees. They were hustled through the front doors, taken past security after their weapons were confiscated, and led down a hallway.
Sean said, for the umpteenth futile time, “What the hell is this about?” And for the umpteenth time he received not a single answer.
They were taken to a small, bare conference room and told to sit. The door was closed and locked behind them.
Sean looked around the space.
Michelle said, “DHS? Why are they involved? Isn’t the DoD enough of an eight-hundred-pound gorilla?”
Sean put a finger to his lips and pointed to a small listening device poking out above the molding next to the ceiling.
A few minutes later the door opened and a man entered. He was about Sean’s height, around fifty, still trim, with thick legs that stretched his pants to near capacity. He wore no jacket. Against his white dress shirt was a shoulder holster with no pistol in it.
He was holding a file. He sat across from them and read from the file for so long that Sean was about to say something when the other man looked up.
“Interesting stuff,” said the man. “I’m Jeff McKinney, by the way. DHS Special Agent Jeff McKinney to be precise.”
“And I’m an especially pissed-off private citizen,” replied Sean.
“Make that two,” said Michelle.
McKinney sat back. “Coffee, water, tea?”
“Answers and apologies would do just fine,” answered Sean. “With the apologies preferably up front.”
“Apologize for what? Doing our job?”
Sean shook his head. “Not gonna cut it, McKinney. I don’t think Homeland’s job is to jerk law-abiding citizens out of their chairs at a public place without telling them why or reading them their rights. So we’ve technically been kidnapped. Unless you’ve added felonies to your official duties, you’ve got a massive lawsuit coming your way. I’ll want to spell your name right. Is it M-c or M-a-c?”
McKinney smiled and tapped the file. “Let’s talk Tyler Wingo.”
Sean leaned forward. “Let’s talk you letting us the hell out of here.”
“But I haven’t asked my questions,” McKinney said pleasantly.
“You can direct them to my lawyer. I’m going to call him right now.”
“You don’t need a lawyer. You haven’t been arrested.”
“We have been detained against our will. Same thing in my book. But if we haven’t been arrested, then you have no power to hold us.” He started to rise.
“National security trumps a lot of what’s in the Constitution, Mr. King. So please sit back down. I don’t want to resort to restraints, but I will if I have to.”
“You’re only digging your hole deeper.”
“I think we both want the same thing. What’s good for Tyler Wingo.”
Sean sat back down while Michelle warily watched both men.
“Well, if you’re working with the Army I seriously doubt that.”
“What do you have against the Army? They’re good people.”
Sean leaned back in his chair and seemed to make up his mind. “Okay,
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