by Geri Krotow
“Who is it, General?” Brad’s question was a demand. Spots of color lit up his cheeks, and Joy wondered if he was clenching his hands to keep from strangling Grimes. Why hadn’t he mentioned any of this during the trial?
“The one from Gitmo. The guy the two of you set loose. His village had a lot of angry men in it. They don’t see him as a hero—he’s a traitor to them. You have to remember that the Taliban brainwashes them to believe that we, the Americans and our allies, are to blame for all the death and destruction.”
“So you’re saying he’s indirectly responsible because the people from his former village are angry with him? Why would they come out here, though?”
“My guess is they want to get on the news somehow—maybe to let that one you got released see they’re still viable. It’s their way to ferret him out, if you ask me.”
Joy shuddered at the thought of Farid coming to harm after everything he’d already been through.
“You’ve done a lot of thinking about that case, General.” This remark earned her a glance from Grimes. Maybe he wasn’t such a Marine Machine.
“You have a boss at the Bureau, Iverson?”
“Yes, it’s Mike Rubio—former Navy Lieutenant Rubio.”
“Same guy who was lead on that SEAL team with you, right?”
“Yes, and my closest friend. We’re lucky to be working together again. What does he have to do with this?”
“You sure he hasn’t set you up? That maybe he wants you out of the picture?”
Shock hit her as General Grimes said the same thing she had. She looked over at Brad and saw the way he was staring at Grimes. He seemed as surprised as she was.
Brad shook his head before he responded.
“You know how ridiculous that is, General. You don’t like SEALs, fine, but Mike’s the best our country has. The best of the best. You saw that firsthand when we were downrange.”
Grimes took a swig of his joe. “Never hurts to turn over every rock.”
“Any other rocks you think we may be overlooking?” Joy ignored General’s pinched expression. As if she was irritating him.
“The explosion was all over the news this morning.” Grimes motioned with his hand toward the big-screen television that sat in the corner of the room. “It’s a punch to the gut to see that all our work, all the young men and women sacrificed—and the terrorists are still out there. Trying to come here.”
He leveled a stern glance at Joy and then focused on Brad. “I’ll do whatever it takes to keep us all safe. I don’t have the same confidence in the Bureau you work for.”
At their stunned silence, he strode over to the table that held the TV and picked up the remote. Seconds later the room reverberated with the sound of a news anchor’s voice. A map of Whidbey Island was projected behind her, with a photo of a Growler jet superimposed on it.
“It’s believed that the explosion near Whidbey Island yesterday morning was set off by a former Naval Officer who’s suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Officials are not releasing the name of the suspect until he is safely in the custody of the US Government.”
Air whooshed out of Joy’s lungs, and she propped her elbows on Grimes’s table, proper military manners be damned.
Brad didn’t budge. He sat stone-faced with his fists resting on the table in front of him. As though he were ready to do battle with Godzilla.
Didn’t anything shake the man?
“I know it’s not unheard of for an agent to be used as a temporary scapegoat. I don’t have a problem with it if that’s what the mission calls for.” He said nothing else. Joy’s lawyerly opinion told her it was to protect Grimes, too.
“Looks to me like either your boss sold you out, or the authorities don’t want to alarm the public. By the way, how do I know it’s not you who blew up that boat?” Grimes fired off.
Joy mentally braced herself for whatever Brad said next.
“You don’t. And does it really matter at this point? I doubt you would’ve let us in the door if you thought I was playing on the wrong side. And you still haven’t answered the question, General. What was it about the mission four years ago that’s got someone after me?”
Grimes stared at Brad, and Joy admired the way Brad returned his stare with no hint of backing down. She also appreciated that Brad wasn’t giving Grimes any information he couldn’t glean from the news reports.
“Sounds to me like you got yourself in a world of hurt, son.”
Son? From Grimes? To Brad, the Navy chief he’d treated like absolute dirt during the proceedings for Farid?
“Brad didn’t do anything wrong, sir. You know him. You worked with his team on a number of missions. We’re here to see if you recall anything that can help us get to the bottom of who’s really responsible for this plot against you, and possibly the Naval base.”
Joy was surprised at how steady her voice sounded, considering that her insides were quaking.
“I’ve worked with a lot of officers and troops over the past decade. Any one of them could be considered stellar. And just like that, any one of them could turn on a dime, too.” The general snapped his fingers in midair. The crack seemed loud in the silence left by the powered-off television.
“Brad’s not one of them.”
Brad sent her a look of sincere...annoyance.
“I’m not talking about you. I’m talking about your boss at the Bureau.” Grimes acted as if Joy wasn’t there. She could handle that, provided they got what they needed from Grimes.
“I’m with you on that, General. You can’t trust me any more than you can trust the next guy. That’s why we’re not staying long—just long enough to see what you remember about our debriefs. To see if there’s something we missed.”
“I told both of you everything I knew during the trial. But let me give you a quick refresher. Your team, Iverson, was assigned to secure the three villages on the western edge of the territory we were responsible for. Two of the three went like clockwork. The third village was problematic. We had civilian casualties as a result—all caused by the Taliban, but everyone blamed us. The terrorists who are after you now are probably related to the suspect you let out of jail. With the aid of my testimony in Norfolk.” He didn’t hide his disgust.
“General, I’d say you’re missing a few key points about the op. And the terrorists I’ve been monitoring are domestic.” Brad’s jaw was tight, and a vein throbbed on his forehead.
“What I remembered was enough to free a man you both believed to be innocent.” Was he still bitter over the fact that Joy had curtailed his desire to opine on the stand about how no Afghan villager who’d had any contact with the Taliban could ever be trusted? She’d respected the fact that he’d had to send in thousands of young men and women to face down the enemy, but she wasn’t going to allow prejudice of any kind in her courtroom.
Well, the US Military’s courtroom.
“Farid was innocent.” Brad spoke quietly yet with fierceness.
“Really? So where is he now?”
Joy spoke up. “Witness Protection.”
Brad answered simultaneously, their voices in unison. “You know that, General.”
Grimes shook his head, his thin lips curled in a frown full of derision. “Let’s play it my way. Pretend Farid wasn’t innocent. That he’s still connected to the terrorists. If you were him, and you were freed by the enemy and placed in a ‘safe’ community, aka Anywhere, USA, what would you do?”
“Farid was innocent, General,” Joy insisted. “A court of law declared him so.”
Brad flung her a “shut up” glance.
Anger made her skin prickle, and she wished she could kick his leg under the table. Or better yet, take her chipped coffee mug and throw it through the mirror that hung on the wall.
“There was no evidence to keep him incarcerated, Commander Alexander. That’s a far cry from being innocent.”
“I worked with him for over seven months, General. I know his character.” She
’d met Farid’s family, too, and celebrated with them when he’d been freed. Brad had been there as well, and had worked as hard if not harder to free the man who’d been in the wrong place for all the right reasons.
Just like Brad yesterday.
She suddenly felt a germ of doubt. They couldn’t have been wrong, could they? Her case had been airtight once it went before the court.
“General, let me get your opinion straight out. The bad guys wanted me dead, and now Mike’s in cahoots with them?” Brad’s voice, incredulous verging on sarcastic, cut through the fear that was trying to grab hold of her logic.
“Do we need to go over everything again?” Joy looked at the microwave clock. “I have to get to work. General, can Brad use your phone to call me when you two are done here?”
Grimes shrugged. “Leave him here all day. It’s as safe a place as any for now.”
* * *
“I’LL WALK YOU OUT.” Brad was beside her in a flash. She suspected he didn’t want to give Grimes the chance to prevent their private conversation.
Back on the gravel driveway, Brad reached over and took her hand. “Thank you for what you’re doing.”
“No thanks needed. It’s the right thing to do. I have to admit I’m not thrilled about leaving you here with General Tough Guy.”
Brad chuckled. “He’s a badass, isn’t he? But there’s nothing to worry about. He’s wrong about Mike, you know. It’s his way of feeling involved when he’s not part of it anymore. I understand how he feels.”
“We both do. It’s never easy leaving the military, whether it’s after a few years or a lifetime.”
They stood in silence, gazing out over the wooded area around General’s deck.
Brad squeezed her hand. “Go. He’s more apt to say something useful with just me here.”
“I don’t disagree with that. He doesn’t like me.”
“He’s just as tough on me, Joy. He’s a ballbuster.”
“Maybe. Promise you’ll call me at the office if you need anything.” Her voice broke, and she blinked. Where were these emotions coming from?
She looked at the lines that radiated from the corners of his eyes, his sun-darkened skin, his rough beard. His placed his fingers under her chin, and she raised her head. She didn’t want him to see her tears but needed the eye contact.
“You’re the only person who’s ever done so much for me, Joy.”
“It’s my job.”
“Not now, it isn’t.” His gaze shifted to her lips.
“Brad, not here...”
He gave her a quick, firm kiss.
“I can damn well kiss you if that’s what we both want. We’re equals in this.”
* * *
JOY DROVE TO the office with the taste of Brad on her lips, grateful that she’d only be thirty minutes later than her start time of nine o’clock. Paul had given her a lot of leeway as a newbie and she was willing to take advantage of it. She used the showers allocated to the attorneys, since she didn’t want to waste time going back home to get ready. Fortunately, the small shower room was empty, and she was able to enjoy the hot water for a good ten minutes.
As she sat in front of her computer and worked on the firm’s caseload, her mind kept drifting back to the conversation with Grimes. The man had never been one of her favorites, but Brad was right. Grimes’s assessment of the situation was most likely correct.
She immediately picked up her desk phone when it rang two hours later. “Joy Alexander.”
“Joy, it’s Dennis. Your package arrived a few minutes ago. Do you want me to bring it to you?” Dennis’s voice was as steady as if he was talking about a book order and not classified information that she wasn’t privy to anymore. Well, only for the next few hours.
“No, I can come back to base.”
“I don’t think that’s the smartest course of action.”
“Oh?”
“We’re basically in lockdown until they find out who was responsible for the explosion. It’d take you an hour to get past the initial check at the gate.”
She put her hands in her lap and leaned back from her keyboard. Yesterday’s base security had already been tight. She couldn’t wait that long.
“Okay, I’ll have to meet you somewhere. What’s convenient for you?”
A brief pause. Odd, because Dennis had never been the type to hesitate.
“How about the parking lot near Deception Pass, right off the highway?”
Joy looked at her computer’s clock. “I can be there. What time?”
“Noon.”
Dennis ended the connection, and Joy replaced her phone. In less than an hour she might be able to crack open this case for Brad.
* * *
“I’VE COPIED AND pasted the pertinent parts. I didn’t want you to have anything that could get you in trouble, like the date and time stamps.”
They stood outside her car in the small lot for Deception Pass Park. Cars pulled in and out as other workers took advantage of the beautiful day to have impromptu picnics and walks.
Dennis was in running gear, no doubt using his lunchtime workout to bring her the case notes. He looked strong and fit, his fresh-faced attractiveness unmarred except for the small worry line between his brows.
She’d worked with Dennis long enough to know when he was stressed.
“Thank you so much, Dennis.” She reached through the car window, took the large envelope and placed it on her passenger seat.
“I just hope he’s worth it, Joy.” Sincerity reflected in the depths of his eyes and for about the hundredth time, Joy wished they’d had some kind of chemistry between them.
“I’m sorry it didn’t work out for us, Dennis. You’re a true friend.”
“Aw, that seems to be my role in life. The male friend.” There wasn’t any self-pity in his comment. Only a self-deprecating smirk that revealed his own regret.
“You’re a good man. There’s a lucky woman out there who’s going to find you.”
They’d had so many discussions when they worked together—about life after the Navy, whether they wanted to have families, what their favorite pastimes were. In the end, Joy had resigned her commission, and Dennis had received the promotion she’d dreamed of getting when she’d started out.
“How’s the new job going so far?”
“I can’t say I’m, uh, completely immersed in it, not yet.”
Dennis nodded. “Understood. Promise me one thing, Joy.”
“Anything.”
“Let me know when you find whatever you’re searching for. And if it doesn’t work out with this guy, let me take you to dinner.”
“That’s two things, Dennis.”
“I mean it, Joy.”
“I know you do.” Impulsively she reached up on tiptoe and kissed his cheek. “I’ll call you when all’s said and done.”
She walked around her car and slid into the driver’s side, looking back only once to see that Dennis was watching her car pull out.
Why couldn’t the nice, safe, steady guy be the one she had all that chemistry with? She turned onto Highway 20 and headed south toward Oak Harbor.
As a sailor she’d give her life for any of her shipmates, hands down. But as a civilian, as a woman with her heart on the line, there was only one man she’d consider risking it all for.
Brad.
CHAPTER TWELVE
HALFWAY THROUGH THE AFTERNOON, Joy slipped out to her car for her coffee break. She smiled at a couple of other office personnel who were out enjoying the day. Serena, too, was outside, seated on one of the patio chairs arranged on a side deck of their building. Built like a home, the legal office looked inviting, and yet it maintained an air of professionalism and quiet authority.
Leaving her windows down to enjoy the warm breeze, she thumbed through her old case notes, looking for her personal commentaries on Farid’s, Brad’s and Grimes’s statements. If she located her personal observations first, she’d be better able to compare them with their
testimonies.
She wondered if the authorities were monitoring Dennis. It’d be a stretch, but with the explosion and the focus on terrorists, and his request for the files on another terrorist trial, it was possible he’d set off some sort of communications security trip wire. And it would be her fault.
He’d been smart by copying only what she needed and leaving his official copies on base. He could record the destruction of the files he had and send the report to headquarters. It wouldn’t be the first time a JAG had looked into a past case to double-check the facts. If necessary he could claim he’d asked for the wrong case numbers.
It didn’t take her long to reread her entries. At first glance, she didn’t think she had anything she could use.
“Secure the villages...”
Grimes’s words from this morning reverberated in her memory.
She scanned the court documents for Grimes’s statements on the witness stand. He’d kept his answers short and succinct, just as he had when she’d interviewed him beforehand. The mark of a flag officer—he was used to his subordinates hanging on his every word.
The hours talking to him, feeling as though she was talking to a brick wall, came rushing back. He’d been monosyllabic in his responses wherever possible. He’d never given her one damn personal insight into what had really gone on when his Marines had entered the villages shortly after Brad’s SEAL team had secured them and declared them safe.
Any GI who saw his buddy shot down by the enemy was bound to have a problem with local nationals. At least until that GI was away from the battle and able to sort out the difference between extremists and ordinary, law-abiding citizens.
And while Grimes had led troops into battle with a nearly perfect record, not all his troops were pristine examples of the United States Marine Corps. War crimes against civilians had, regrettably, been committed by both sides. Grimes was famous for routing out any Marine who didn’t live up to the highest moral standards expected by the Corps. Any illegal incidents had never touched Grimes’s career. They shouldn’t have; although he was accountable for all the actions of those under him, he couldn’t be held responsible for the behavior of a few rogue Marines. Surely he carried the weight of those disreputable actions in his heart, though.