Pete, what do you have on Thornton?'
'I don't know what you're talking about,' he said, his voice lowered to a whisper. 'Now let me go.'
'You're playing a dangerous game,' I said. 'Not with Thornton but with Jenkins. If he's involved, you could be in big trouble.'
'What do you mean if, Lieutenant? A second ago you said you knew what was going on. Leave me alone, please.' With that, he pulled his arm from my grip and walked out the main door, glancing left and right as he headed for a jeep. I took a deep breath, shaking my head at Brennan's foolishness. Hoping I was wrong for his sake, I walked into Thornton's office and pushed the door hard, so it slammed against the wall.
'What the-I'll call you back, I have to go,' said Thornton, slamming down the receiver. 'Boyle, are you drunk?'
'I was last night, Major. You know what would have tasted really good for breakfast? Ham and eggs. Not powdered eggs and Spam, but the real thing. Know what I mean?' I sat myself down on the corner of his desk and stared at him.
'Any problem, Major?' A corporal leaned into the office from the hallway, glanced at me and back to Thornton.
'No, nothing wrong,' Thornton said. 'Wind took the door. Shut it, will you?'
The door clicked shut and we were alone. Thornton didn't say anything. He didn't ask me why I was blabbing on about ham and eggs, like any innocent guy would've. Instead, he gulped as sweat broke out on his forehead.
'I have a few questions,' I said.
'Have you found the BARs yet?' Thornton was putting a brave face on things, trying to put me on the defensive. It might have worked with some lieutenants but not this one.
'Gee, Major, no. You see, things have been kind of confusing, trying to figure out who's involved in a dangerous arms theft and who's involved in penny-ante bribery and skimming of army funds.'
'What are you talking about?' He tried to put some indignation into it, but it came out as desperation.
'First, where did the whiskey come from?'
'Huh?' I knew I was right. Any honest senior officer would have called the MPs by now. Instead, Thornton sat looking up at me, his mouth hanging open.
'That's one of my questions. Where did the whiskey come from?' I pointed to the corner of the room, where three cases of Irish whiskey had been the last time I was there. This morning, only one remained.
'You know how it is, Boyle…'
'OK, let's try this one. How did Brennan find out?'
'Find out what?' The last word had a long, drawn-out sound, as if he were about to start crying.
'That's OK, Major, I have more. Like what did you do with the paperwork you took from the communications center?'
'It's around here somewhere, I may have misplaced it. I wanted to look into it myself, I thought maybe I, I… I don't know,' Thornton said, exhausting himself with lies.
'What's in that drawer?'
'Which drawer?' Thornton asked, his eyes darting for a second to a desk drawer.
'That one,' I said, pointing to the middle drawer on his right. 'The one you stuffed some papers into when I was here. It's locked I bet. Right?'
'No, look, it's empty,' he said with pathetic eagerness. He pulled the drawer open, revealing a paper clip and dust.
'Your other drawers empty too?'
'No, they aren't. Why?'
'Because, you stupid oaf, why should that drawer be empty unless you got rid of everything in it?'
'Boyle, you can't talk to me like that, really.'
'OK, call your CO. Tell him. Tell him there's a second louie in your office saying real bad things about you.'
'Hold on, hold on. We can work this out.'
'Maybe,' I said. 'Let's start by me telling you a few things, and you tell me if I've gotten anything wrong.' I raised my eyebrows, waiting for him to answer.
'Huh? Oh, OK, sure.' He shook a cigarette from a pack and lit up. He didn't offer me one.
'You and Jenkins cooked up some sort of scheme. My guess is that he started with a few personal gifts to you. Whiskey to start, then some nice cuts of meat, pork, and lamb, just for you. You liked it, and then one day he suggested an arrangement. Basically he bills the army for more than he delivers and gives you a kickback. Who's to know? It's all food to be consumed, and you're in charge of the paperwork. Once you leave, it will all disappear anyway. Why not make some dough while you can? Hell, you know the division is headed for trouble, might as well make some hay while the sun shines, right?'
'He's a very nasty man.'
'I'm sure he forced the arrangement on you. But then Brennan comes along, assigned to kitchen detail. I don't know how, but he sees that things don't add up. Maybe he compares a bill of lading from a delivery with the invoice or the receipt, it really doesn't matter. I bet he went straight to you.'
'I told Jenkins it had to stop. I did!'
'But he said no. He told you he'd take care of Brennan.'
'I didn't want that to happen.'
'No, it would draw too much attention. So you move Brennan out of the kitchen, which suited him just fine. I'm sure you said you'd implicate him if he said anything. Then you started pulling paperwork, getting rid of any evidence. That's what was on your desk the other day. That's why you were so upset.'
'How did you know?'
'Heck has been pawing through Lasner's communications, you knew that. It didn't make any sense that it was part of his investigation into the BAR theft. He had to be looking into something more long- term. I knew Brennan had been nervous about seeing Jenkins's delivery trucks on the base, and then I remembered he'd been working in the kitchens when he first got here. I figured Jenkins had threatened him, and that you and Brennan were each holding the threat of talking over each other's heads. Then, when the BAR raid came along, you figured it was the perfect opportunity to take Brennan down for a crime he had no part of.'
'But I'm not arresting him; there isn't going to be a court-martial.'
'Right. Because he's got something on you. Something he probably showed you this morning.' I leaned to look into the wastepaper basket by his desk. A thin layer of ash lay at the bottom. 'Which you burned. What are they? A stack of invoices and receipts that don't match?'
'Yes,' said Thornton, as he held his head in his hands. His voice cracked with emotion. 'He had receipts from the deliveries at the mess hall, matched up with invoices I signed off on. It's enough to put me away.'
'What does Brennan want?'
'That's just the thing,' he said, looking up to me as if I might have the answer. 'He said all he wants is to be left alone. But Jenkins won't leave him alone as long as he has that evidence. I tried to reason with him, to give him money, but he won't listen.'
'Why was he so cheery when he left here?'
'I told him I'd work on a transfer for him, back to his old outfit.'
'In Italy?'
'Yes. They're still on the line, attacking along the Volturno River, someplace I never heard of. Can you believe it? He wants to go back to that.'
'Yeah, hard to believe a guy would want to go back into combat rather than associate himself with you.'
'Hey, if Brennan had just kept his mouth shut, everything would have been fine. But no, he had to go and screw things up. If Jenkins does anything to him, it won't be on my head, I'll tell you that.'
'Where's the money?' I asked.
'What money?'
'Don't even try-'
'Listen, Boyle, if you've got some evidence against me, go ahead and take it to Heck. Come to think of it, why
