Probity: A Legal Suspense Novel

by Thomas Gatta

  Scott nodded, “Yes, we’ve got to focus on trying to get something from them about how Bennett’s work supported the DOD mission and what he was and wasn’t authorized to do.”

  “Is the information so sensitive that we’ll need to ask for time in the judge’s chambers?”

  “Maybe, but let’s see what we can get first.”

  Maddie nodded, “Okay, let me review what I’ve got on the supervisors and we can talk more later this afternoon about our strategy with them.”

  She sat back in her chair and looked at Scott. “I have to tell you before I go, though, about my day yesterday and a prospective visitor we may have to the office this afternoon.”

  Scott raised his eyebrows and said, “Oh? Go for it.”

  “Okay, but I need to fortify myself with more coffee first. Want some? And I brought in some banana muffins. They’re whole grain with heart-healthy omega-three flax seeds.” Maddie looked at Scott and said, “Stop rolling your eyes. They’re good!”

  Scott laughed. “Yes, I want more coffee, and I’d love a heart-healthy muffin. If I eat one, can I skip the gym this evening?”

  Maddie smiled and shook her head. “No, but they should give you more energy when you work out. I’ll go get them, while you get the coffee.”HH

  - 36 -

  Scott sat back down at his desk while Maddie folded into the chair at his table, sitting cross-legged with her coffee and a plate of muffins in front of her. She said, “Okay, let me tell you about yesterday and our potential visitor this afternoon.”

  Scott drank his coffee and munched on his muffin. “These are good. Are you sure I can’t skip the gym?”

  “Yes, I’m sure, but you can have another one for energy.”

  She held out the plate to him, and he took another, asking, “Is this visitor someone you met on your run yesterday?”

  “Yes. I went running along the Potomac. My legs were giving out after about eleven miles, and I stopped at a bench along the path.”

  Scott raised his eyebrows. “Eleven miles, hunh? I wonder why?”

  “Yes, well, seated next to me on the bench in her running togs was Kate Gutzmann, the targeter that Sommers interviewed and planned to call as a witness.”

  “Strange coincidence. Did you recognize her?”

  “Yes, it was, and no, I didn’t know who she was. Not at first. After she reintroduced herself, I did. I wasn’t in on Sommers’ interview of her. I’d only met her once, briefly, in the office. Apparently she was in the courtroom last week. I told her we’d need to re-interview her before we call her to the stand.”

  Scott nodded. “Yes, I know who she is from Sommers and the notes on the case, but I’d like to talk to her myself before calling her to the stand.”

  “Well you can do that this afternoon.”

  Scott raised his eyebrows. “Oh?”

  “Yes. We had a short discussion, but it was quite interesting. Not only was Kate one of the targeters in Kabul who was passing information to Bennett and his team, but she also had a relationship with Bennett.”

  “Meaning?”

  Maddie looked at Scott and replied, “For him casual, recreational sex. For her, probably something more.”

  Scott asked, “Woman scorned?”

  “Maybe. Maybe something more. I told her I’d like to help her, and I would.”

  Scott nodded. “Maddie, you want to help everybody.”

  She smiled, “Have another muffin.”

  Scott looked up at the ceiling and shook his head. “What else happened?”

  “Well she also said she didn’t want to sound unpatriotic. She seems to think that if she says anything negative about Bennett, she’ll be seen in the SU as undermining the mission.”

  “I don’t understand that.”

  “Neither did I. I think it relates to the work Bennett was doing and not diminishing the mission by providing negative information on him. I’m hoping she’ll explain more today. She said she has something interesting to bring us. So we’ll see.”

  Scott asked, “What time did she say she’d come in?”

  “She didn’t. Just sometime in the afternoon. I alerted the guard, and I’ll go down and bring her up when she arrives.”

  “Sounds good. I’ll take a look in the file and see if Sommers has anything more on her.”

  Maddie nodded. “I think I’ll see what I can find out, too.” She got up from the table and headed to the door. “See you in a bit.”

  - 37 -

  At 2:15, Kate parked her car on the street and checked the meter. No need to feed it on a Sunday. Good. She looked up at the building where the EDVA attorneys had their offices. Kate wondered whether she’d gone completely nuts. If she did what she was considering, there would be no turning back. Sending the recording to Craddock of the messages Sean left on her answering machine was bad enough, but this was all-out. She probably would be revealed in court. And who knew how the SU would react. Even though the conversations were private, the SU attorneys would have kittens. They would think up some reason to get her for not going to them first. So they could have buried the information. This was the sort of stuff they’d never want out. She knew that. Mission first and all.

  Few people were walking in the area even though it was a beautiful day to be out. Anyone watching the building would see her go in. Kate shook her head. She was becoming paranoid. She had an excuse to see the prosecutors. They were interviewing her for her testimony. Besides, once she handed over the recordings, it might not matter anyway. She was delaying and had to make a decision. She reached into the pocket of her slacks and fingered the small disk that held the recordings. Kate looked at the building again. Would she be unpatriotic and pathetic if she gave the recordings to the prosecutors? She had to decide: go in or go home.

  - 38 -

  At 2:30, Maddie stuck her head in Scott’s office and said, “She’s here. I’ll go down and bring her up to my office. I think she might be more comfortable in there than in either of the conference rooms. Do you want to meet us there in a few minutes?”

  “Sure. Should I bring some coffee? The rest of the muffins?”

  Maddie smiled and said, “Yes, please. See you in a few minutes.”

  *

  Kate looked at both lawyers seated with her at the small table in Maddie’s office. Like her, they were dressed casually. Maddie appeared like what she probably was—fresh and ambitious and—with her Earth Day sweatshirt—idealistic. Scott Gardner was harder to figure. In his 40s, he was tall, in good shape, and had dark hair with just a sprinkle of gray. Gardner didn’t look much like a lawyer today with his jeans and a polo shirt that let his muscles show. He looked honest. Kate wondered if he really was.

  When Maddie had introduced her to Gardner he had smiled and asked her to call him Scott. He’d offered her coffee and Maddie’s banana muffins. She’d taken a cup of coffee, but not a muffin. The muffins looked good, but she wasn’t sure her stomach could handle one right now.

  Maddie had explained that she’d told Scott that they’d met and talked briefly yesterday on the running path.

  Maddie said, “Kate, I didn’t fill Scott in on all of our conversation yesterday, but I did tell him that you might have something interesting to share with us today pertaining to Bennett and your relationship with him.”

  Kate nodded. “Thank you. I suspect our conversation is ‘official’ this time?”

  Maddie nodded yes.

  “Okay, then. I’d like to give you a little more background than I gave you yesterday about my relationship with Sean. I should tell you both that I didn’t discuss what I’m about to tell you with Mr. Sommers. He didn’t ask. He focused only on my job as a targeter. I’m assuming you already know about that from him?”

  Both Maddie and Scott nodded.

  “To summarize for you again, I provided targeting information to Sean and his team and coordinated information with the SU. I saw the cables that went back and forth between SU Command Central and Sean’s team. So, I
was aware of the targets that Sean wanted to hit and what was approved. Usually SU managers wanted pretty detailed information before approving a raid. The process could be lengthy, but, sometimes, if the target was someone or people we were convinced were terrorists or had been watching for a long time, the process could be circumvented with a phone call. A cable was supposed to follow later.”

  Kate took a drink of her coffee and glanced at Maddie and Scott. Both looked interested and were taking notes.

  Kate continued, “Anyway, I provided some of the information to Sean and his team on the suspected terrorists they were seeking when they conducted their raid on the school. We had collected a lot of information on a group of Taliban and al-Qa’ida sympathizers in the Khandahar area. These were guys who had been killing Afghans and laying IEDs in the area. We had reports that the group was to meet in the vicinity of the school, but we hadn’t verified the information. Our sources also told us that the group would be in the area for only a few days. We couldn’t, in the time we had, get corroborating information from our sources that the group would be at the school or the exact date it would be leaving the area. Sean’s team got a report from its assets indicating that the school was the rendezvous point for the terrorist group and that it would be leaving the area by the 30th of the month.”

  Kate took a deep breath and continued, “It was already the 28th, so if Sean’s team was going to go after the group, it had to launch its raid on the 29th or never. He sent a cable to us in Kabul and to SU managers at Command Central telling us his plans, but we really didn’t have time to collect more information on the group or to verify Sean’s report about where the group would be or when it would be leaving. Nor was there time for an approval cable—at least not one before the fact of the raid. My understanding is that Sean coordinated the approval for the raid by telephone with my seniors in Kabul. That’s what a cable out of Khandahar said to us and to SU Command Central later, after Sean’s team had conducted the raid.”

  Maddie looked at Kate and asked quietly, “So, given what you know as a targeter with access to the information Sean had, was he and his team acting rashly to conduct the raid on the school?”

  Kate shrugged and said, “Rashly? I don’t know. If he wasn’t bold, he’d risk missing the terrorists, at least I’m sure that’s what he thought. And perhaps that’s what my bosses in Kabul thought, too, if they approved the raid. And you’ll have to ask them whether they did. I don’t know, other than what’s in the cable.”

  Scott tapped his pen on his legal pad, looked at Kate, and smiled gently as he asked, “Kate, you said you’re sure that Bennett thought he’d risk missing the terrorists. Why are you sure what he thought?”

  Kate took another drink of coffee and reached for a napkin and a muffin. She broke the muffin apart but didn’t take a bite as she replied, “I know because he told me. This is the part about my relationship with Sean.”

  Kate paused for a minute, tucked her hair behind her ear, and examined her muffin. She said, “The second day after the raid took place, SU managers, I guess because of protests from the Afghan Government about what happened at the school, asked that Sean return to Kabul. Command Central said to fly him out of the country as soon as possible. I saw him the night he got back to Kabul, before he flew out the next day.”

  As she shredded the muffin into crumbs, Kate continued, not looking at either Scott or Maddie. “Sean and I had a relationship—on and off. He came to see me the night he flew into Kabul. He had a lot to say.”

  She paused and then said, “Sean is a zealot. He wanted to get the terrorists who were laying the IEDs and stirring up trouble in Khandahar. Sean also sees himself as the expert, the authority on conducting anti-terrorist raids. He was pumped up about what he’d done at the school and wanted hero-worship. Instead he got flown out of Kabul, and SU managers started asking lots of questions. I think some of the managers were worried about Afghan President Karzai getting so worked up over the killings. Karzai was annoyed with us before the raid, and my bosses were afraid his anger would further poison our relationship with him. Plus, the Afghan press was really playing up the deaths. Protests were popping up not just in Khandahar but also in Kabul, with effigies of Karzai and the US flag being burned. It probably was a good idea to get Sean out of the country.”

  Maddie looked at Scott and then at Kate. She asked, “Kate, what, exactly, did Bennett tell you the night he returned to Kabul?”

  Looking at the shredded muffin and poking some of the crumbs with her finger, Kate said, “Sean, as I said, seemed to want to brag. He said he’d shot the boys while they were in their beds—pop, pop, pop, pop, pop. He said they didn’t stand a chance against him, the master slayer. And he told me he didn’t care what anyone said, that the boys, even if they weren’t terrorists, would have become terrorists later if he hadn’t killed them. He said others—on his team, in Kabul, and back at the SU—were jealous of his success and would try to get him. He said he should get a medal, not be sniped at.”

  Scott asked, “Kate, did Bennett tell you specifically whether he knew the boys were not terrorists?”

  “Not specifically, but it was pretty clear to me he didn’t care whether they were or not when he killed them.”

  Scott asked quietly, “What about you?”

  “I care.”

  Kate drank more coffee and continued to mash muffin crumbs. “Our job was to target terrorists, not schoolboys. Accidents do happen, and sometimes we’re wrong in our assessments. I know that. But I think we need to feel remorse when we screw up.”

  Maddie asked, “And Bennett doesn’t feel remorse?”

  Kate looked up and met Maddie’s eyes. “No, I don’t think for anything he’s done.” She paused for a few seconds then said, “And no one is willing to hold him accountable.”

  Kate glanced at the clock on Maddie’s wall. She looked back at the attorneys and said, “So, now you know a bit more. I have something to leave with you, but then I need to go.” She paused, shook her head, and then said, “I’m sorry, I can’t stay. I have other commitments this afternoon.”

  Kate reached into her purse and pulled out the recording she had made of the messages Sean had left on her answering machine. “I made this for you.” She put the recording on the table and pushed it toward Maddie and Scott. “Sean called me Friday evening and left a couple of messages for me on my answering machine. I think they’ll give you a sense of the man you’re dealing with. I don’t know if you can or would want to use them in court. I’m afraid that, if you do, you’ll destroy my career.” She shrugged, “Maybe me, too.”

  Kate stood, gathered up her purse, and said, “I really do have to go now. Thanks very much for the coffee and muffin—sorry about the mess with the crumbs. Can I see myself out?”

  Maddie nodded and responded, “Yes, just let me walk you to the elevator. You can give the guard your visitor badge when you get off.”

  Maddie got up and walked with Kate out of the office and to the elevator. She pushed the button for Kate and said, “Thank you for coming in today. I know it was hard for you.” She smiled at Kate as the elevator door opened, “Take it easy this afternoon. We’ll be in touch later, and we’ll figure something out.”

  Kate nodded and entered the elevator. The door shut, and she covered her face with her hands.

  - 39 -

  Dan O’Neill surveyed the courtroom as he waited for the trial to resume. He wished some of his kids from his US Government classes could be here to observe. They’d learn a lot—not just about the workings of the court but also about human nature. Last week had been interesting, and he was eager to hear more from the next batch of witnesses. He knew something about Afghanistan and about Khandahar. That was where some of his friends and classmates from West Point had lost their lives. He was more familiar with Iraq, though. He’d left much of his leg in Fallujah.

  The room was full, and Dan noticed that some of the same spectators from last week had returned as well as new people.
He guessed that the dark suited contingent in the back was from the SU. Several reporters were present, and the court official was closely monitoring them to ensure that they behaved and didn’t try to sneak photos. Dan also noticed a man in the very last row in the back who appeared ill at ease. The man was neatly dressed, thin, and had a dark complexion and dark hair. Dan guessed that the man was from Afghanistan and wondered what his connection to the trial might be.

  The defense and prosecution tables were quiet, and the lawyers on both sides were poring over notes. Dan thought the attorneys probably had spent some long hours in the office over the weekend. The defendant was in a dark suit today, too, like the other SU officers in the back of the room. Dan speculated that maybe things were about to get even more serious than last week.

  As the judge finished speaking, Dan glanced at the other jurors. Most looked like they’d had rough weekends. Vivian, in particular, looked haggard, despite her careful makeup and designer suit. She’d been more catty than usual in the jury room this morning. Her comments had set the tone for the day. As Andy had mumbled to him on way to the jury box, some of their fellow jurors seemed more ornery and beast-like than his llamas.

  The prosecution was calling one of the defendant’s managers. The man, “John,” appeared to be in his fifties. He had graying hair, a goatee, and a thick southern accent. The clerk swore John in, and the prosecutor, Gardner, began questioning him.

  Gardner asked, “Sir, I understand that much of what you do is sensitive, but could you describe for the court in general terms your role and relationship to the defendant?”

  “Yes. I was chief of operations for SU activities in Afghanistan, and Sean Bennett reported to me as well as to other managers in Kabul and at SU Command Central.”

  “So, you were aware of and would have approved or disapproved the defendant’s operations in Khandahar?”

  “Yes. That was my role.”

  Gardner asked, “And did you approve the raid on the school?”