Mindy directed Colleen and David to each of the two guest bedrooms while she and George put their luggage in the master.
“Breakfast will be at 7:30 AM,” she said. “George has a full day ahead of him.”
“On Monday morning I’m going to begin looking into whatever is going on with these two ships and why there’s a cover-up. Leave everything to me.”
Chapter 22
Colleen, David and Mindy spent a leisurely Sunday organizing their belongings in the Land’s apartment. On Monday, after the Senator went to work, they did some shopping and enjoyed a pleasant lunch at one of the nearby restaurants. Upon returning to the apartment, Colleen realized her briefcase with all her notes and the sample of metal was missing. She remembered giving it to David when the Senator asked her to sit in the front seat of the aircraft.
“David, where did you put my briefcase?”
“Oh, I left it under the seat in the helicopter. With all the excitement, I forgot to take it with us.”
“Well, we will have to get it tomorrow,” said Colleen.
Senator Land returned around six that evening and they dined in.
“I began some inquiries into the events that you have been going through. I don’t mind telling you that, old Southern gasbag, Senator William Casey, Jr., gave me a hard time about looking into an incident which happened so long ago.”
“Oh, George, you know his son, the Governor, is going to make a run for the White House. It might be no more than political grandstanding,” suggested Mindy.
“Grandstanding or not, he certainly seemed intent on sweeping it under the rug as quickly as possible.”
“I wonder why he would do that,” asked Colleen.
“You never really know with the Casey’s. They have been in politics so long; they are like an institution.”
“Do you know where their money came from?” Colleen prodded.
“Well, its common knowledge the base of their money was tobacco. They received a number of exclusive contracts during the Second World War to supply cigarettes for the ‘C’ ration packs that the GI’s carried. I also suppose there were other interests as well, but this occurred when Senator William Casey was Governor of North Carolina and had considerable influence in Washington. He is the father of William Casey, Jr., who I had the run-in with today. William Casey, the father, who by now is ninety, still maintains a tight grip on the family’s vast fortunes and political reach. They maintain an enormous estate called Briarwood in North Carolina where he was once Governor and a large summer compound near Cape Fear on the coast. The grandson, William Casey, III is now the Governor of North Carolina and rumored to be running for President in the next election.”
They spent the remainder of the evening discussing the Caseys’ and Washington politics in general and retired around 10:00 PM.
On Tuesday morning, June 19, Senator George Land left his apartment building at 8:15 AM and strode toward his waiting limousine. Already, the morning air was oppressive with humidity and coming through the door was like walking into a steam bath. The sidewalk bustled with people and the Washington traffic was heavy. Diagonally across the street, a white van with a sign for a janitorial company sat double-parked, causing frustrated drivers to have to pull around.
As his driver opened the door, the Senator broke his stride and quickly moved toward the air-conditioned limousine. In mid step, something tugged at his right shoulder, spinning him around and causing him to twist his ankle and fall. He silently cursed to himself for falling and was embarrassed as people began to stare. In the background, the squeal of tires signaled an urgency as the white van sped away. For a moment, time seemed suspended, he then heard his driver calling 911.
“James, I’ve just turned my ankle, come and help me get up.”
“Lie still, Sir.”
A crowd was beginning to gather. The distant wail of a siren slowly grew louder.
A searing pain jabbed through his right shoulder and his arm began to ache, as a bloodstain on his jacket grew larger.
“James, what happened?”
“Someone shot you. I think it came from a van that was parked across the street. It’s lucky you were only hit in the shoulder.”
Again, Senator Land cursed silently to himself.
The approaching siren reached a crescendo, then abruptly stopped. Seconds later, the crowd parted as the paramedics moved toward him.
“It’s Senator George Land, he has been shot,” stated James.
They were soon cutting away his jacket.
“Is that necessary?”
“I’m afraid so Sir and it already has a rather large hole in it,” replied the medic. They dressed the wound to stop the bleeding, placed the Senator on a stretcher and loaded him into the ambulance.
“Better call Mindy and let her know what’s happened, James.”
“I think your driver already has, Sir,” replied the medic, “Just relax, everything will be all right.”
The police were questioning James and asking for any witnesses to come forward.
The Senator lay wondering if this was just a random act of violence; or, if it was in some way connected to the mess Colleen had gotten involved in. He had made his opening remarks in the Senate about starting an investigation into the USS Morgan and Aratusa affair. “Jesus,” he thought, “these people work fast; and if that’s it, then they are in grave danger.”
Colleen and David were in the living room when Mindy entered crying.
“Mindy,” questioned Colleen. “What is it?”
“It’s George; he has been shot and they have taken him to the hospital.”
She paused for just a beat, as a coldness seemed to sweep over the room. “It happened right outside while he was getting into the limousine. He will be all right, I think; they told me it is only a flesh wound in the shoulder. We should go to the hospital. Colleen, can you or David drive me? I don’t think I am up to it.”
“Of course; do you want to go right away?”
“Yes, the sooner the better. They have taken him to the Walter Reed Medical Center.”
The media was already out in full force as they arrived at the hospital. On their way to the emergency room, cameras followed their every move. Banks of reporters were shouting questions. Somehow, they managed to pass and found George in the emergency room. He looked a little pale but smiled when he saw Mindy.
“It looks as though some of my constituents are not entirely happy with me,” he joked.
Dr. Leventhal introduced himself and explained that while the Senator did not have a life threatening injury, it was indeed serious. Mindy would only have a few minutes with him as they were headed to the operating room to remove the bullet and repair the damage.
“The FBI has already been here and asked me a lot of questions, but I’m afraid I wasn’t much help. I had just come out of our building and when James opened the door, I decided to sprint to the car and the cool air conditioning. I took one fast step and twisted my ankle, or so I thought. In reality I was shot and the impact caused me to fall and twist my ankle.”
“I’m just glad you weren’t killed.”
“You may not believe this but right now my ankle hurts a lot more than the bullet wound.”
Colleen standing with tears in her eyes said, “It’s because we involved you; I just know it.”
“Colleen, that may be true but please, don’t blame yourself. There are some bad guys out there and we are going to find them. Right now, you two need to stay out of sight until I can figure out what’s going on.”
Dr. Leventhal let them know it was time for the Senator to go to surgery. The operation, he explained, should take a little over an hour and another hour in the recovery room. After that, he would be back in his room around 1:00 PM.
Mindy gave George a kiss an
d squeezed his left hand as he was wheeled away.
As the three of them left the emergency room, they noticed the media crowd waiting outside the door.
Mindy turned to Colleen and David saying, “It might not be a good idea for you two to appear on the evening news.”
“We may already have, so to speak,” replied David, “when we got caught coming in.”
“Yes, but the less the better for now. You take my keys to the apartment and leave by another exit. I’ll take care of the vultures outside and meet you back at the apartment.”
“Are you sure you’re up to it?” asked Colleen.
“It’s one of the duties of a Senator’s wife. James can bring me back”
Mindy left and headed toward the waiting throng of reporters. David noticed a muscular looking man in a dark gray suit and wearing an earphone looking at Mindy as she left. He was wearing an earphone.
“Colleen, we have to find another exit,” David cautioned.
Colleen stopped an orderly and explained they did not want to be involved with the media. He led them to a service exit where they quietly slipped out of the building. David drove Mindy’s car back to the apartment. Apparently they got away unnoticed.
At the apartment building, they were directed around a police barricade blocking the sidewalk in front of the entrance. An investigation was underway where Senator Land had been shot. Again, there was considerable media coverage. Cautiously, they made their way around the investigation site and went directly to the elevator inside.
Chapter 23
Senator Land’s Apartment: Tuesday, June 19.
The ride in the elevator took forever; they were quiet, both lost in their own thoughts. As the elevator door opened, Colleen noticed the door to the Land’s apartment was ajar.
“David, look.”
He stopped Colleen and signaled for her to be quiet. He whispered to go quickly down the hall and around the corner and wait for his signal. David crept up to the partially opened door and listened carefully. It was risky and probably a little foolish, but it seemed as though the apartment was empty. Still, it was hard to be sure. He heard nothing. He went back down the hall to where Colleen was and dialed the Senator’s phone number on his cell phone. They could hear the phone ringing from the hallway, but there was no answer. David felt whoever might have been in the apartment was gone. They waited several minutes and entered the Land’s apartment, cautiously opening the door.
“Oh no!” cried Colleen.
David stood staring; the place was a mess. Drawers pulled out and their contents strewn about, tables turned over, lamps broken and lying on the floor; even the cushions on the sofa were removed. The bedrooms and kitchen had been subjected to the same brutal process.
Colleen began to cry, “I feel so angry at whoever is doing this to us; what have we done?”
David went into the kitchen and felt a chill run up his spine. There on the cabinets, spray-painted in large black letters were the words “Mind your own business.” He slowly mouthed the words, “My God, what have we gotten into?”
When he returned to the living room, David noticed one table and lamp seemed to have gone through the entire ordeal unscathed. He began to think there was a harsh similarity to the break-ins at their own apartments. Was there a bug planted in the lamp? Was it the same as his apartment? Was there a pattern here? He hoped it was only a simple burglary. It all sounded plausible and right if you didn’t know any better; but his subconscious screamed it was far more than that. David suspected the same people might be involved and they were looking for the same things. The big question, of course, was what are they looking for?
“Mindy will be devastated; why did all this have to happen right after the Senator was shot, what are we going to do?” sobbed Colleen.
“We had better wait for Mindy to return and try not to touch anything. At that time, I suppose we will have to call the police.”
“Do you think we could turn on the TV?” Colleen suggested.
They set the TV back up and scanned the news stations. News of the attempt on the Senator’s life was everywhere. A shot of Mindy coming into the hospital showed that she was possibly with two other people, but the area was so crowded it was hard to tell. They could also have been media people with their faces obscured and out of focus. Another station had Mindy making a statement to some reporters in front of the hospital.
“The Senator has received a bullet wound to his right shoulder. At this moment they are removing it and he should be up and around in a day or two. My husband was shot twice before in Vietnam and says, ‘This is no big deal.’ I’m sorry but that’s all I have for now.”
David went over to the one lamp that was standing and began looking for a bug.
The doorbell rang, startling them both. It was 10:45 AM.
Colleen went to the door and tentatively asked, “Who is it?”
“Colleen, it’s me, Mindy.”
Chapter 24
Slowly Colleen opened the door. Mindy looked tired as she stepped inside. Colleen hugged her saying, “Oh Mindy, it’s awful, I’m so sorry we got you into this.”
Her face went white and her eyes widened. “What, what’s happened here?”
“I’m afraid there has been a break-in. It appears they were after something and I know we are at fault.” Colleen felt a cold heaviness settle over her. She wept; those big blue eyes just filled with tears.
“Have you called the police?” questioned Mindy.
“No.”
David held up his hands and motioned for them to be silent. He turned up the television’s volume and whispered to Mindy and Colleen, “There is a bug in the lamp on the table and there may be others as well.”
Mindy’s face took on a steely look as she loudly said, “Now let’s get this place cleaned up.”
With that announcement Mindy suddenly became a tower of strength as she dug into the task at hand. Colleen and David followed suit.
“Has there been any word on who did the shooting?” asked Mindy.
“No, or at least they are not saying if they do know,” Colleen explained.
For a moment, he watched the two women at work straightening up the mess. David began a kind of pantomime act to get their attention, mouthing the word bug.
“What are you ….doing?” admonished Colleen.
“Come here, please.”
He motioned to Mindy and drew them into a huddle. “We are forgetting about the bug in that lamp, the one which wasn’t knocked over,” disclosed David.
“Oops,” mouthed Mindy.
“All right, maybe I am being a little dramatic, but my apartment was bugged when it was broken into and I already found one here. Most likely there are several more. We need to find them fast.” He turned the lamp over to show them what it looked like and whispered, “Start examining everything you pick up and don’t say anything except casual conversation. Use hand signals if you find one. I’ll look in the ceiling lights and above the kitchen cabinets.”
“There is a step ladder in the hall closet,” indicated Mindy.
A careful survey of the apartment turned up six bugs; one in each of the rooms. David collected all but one, leaving it in the living room lamp. He placed the remaining bugs in the freezer compartment of the refrigerator.
Again, he motioned for a huddle; this time, in one of the bathrooms. “We will leave the one in the lamp operational and take it into each room as we straighten up so they think all of them are still working. That way, we can use it to feed them false information if we need to.”
By 1:30, they had the apartment in some semblance of order. Again, it appeared the perpetrators had taken nothing. They were certainly looking for something and that something was obviously not there.
David motioned them into the bathroom again. “I t
hink they were looking for the briefcase. By mistake, I left it in the helicopter under the front seat when we arrived the other night. With all that has happened, I completely forgot about it.”
Colleen’s eyes widened, “Perhaps it would be a good idea to get another one to use as a decoy. We could fill it with stuff to make them think we have lost all interest.” She was perhaps right, but the ploy had not completely worked in Washington when they left their false notes in the hotel wastebasket.
“I’m getting hungry,” admitted Mindy. “With all that happened today, we missed breakfast and it’s already past lunch time.”
“Can we go out?” quizzed Colleen.
“Yes and we will get another briefcase too. Let’s leave a false message,” whispered David, “then we can go someplace else, get lunch and pick up the briefcase. Mindy, where is the busiest lunch place you can think of and how far away from there is a quick drive-through hamburger place? Also, is there an office supply store somewhere nearby?”
“The Senatorium is always busy and has two doors, one on each street. As far as office supplies goes, there are several relatively close.”
“Good; now when we go back into the living room. Just follow my lead,” directed David.
“Mindy, do you know where we can get a decent lunch”
“The Senatorium has a great menu, if you don’t mind waiting a little bit.”
“Sounds fine to me, why don’t you call for reservations and see if James is available to drive us there. After lunch we’ll head back to the hospital.”
Mindy called James and instructed him to pick them up shortly, then made a reservation for three people at the Senatorium for 2:00 PM.
While in the car, David instructed James to drop them at the front door of the restaurant, then immediately go to the side door and wait for them to come back out.
The Senatorium stood filled with elite Washington persona on the proverbial two-hour martini lunch. It was quite crowded and shoulder-to-shoulder at the reservation desk. As planned, Mindy and Colleen immediately went toward the powder room, waited briefly, then went out the side door and quickly got into the limo. After waiting in line and speaking with the girl at the desk, David headed toward the rest room and quickly slipped out the side door to the waiting limo. The deeply tinted windows on the Senator’s limo made it dfficult to distinguish if anyone was in there or not. As instructed, James quickly drove away, then, circled the same block three times to prevent anyone from following. On the second pass, David spotted what looked like an unmarked car a good distance back.
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