“That good, huh, Train?” she replied, trying to follow his lead, keep it light. But it didn’t work. She felt her face get rubbery and her eyes filling. And then he was sitting on the edge of her bed and she was in his arms, wailing like a baby while he patted her back and told her that it was all right, that they were safe. When she was finally still, he grabbed a handful of Kleenexes from a box on the bedside table and wiped her eyes and face. Then he kissed her forehead and looked into her eyes.
His eyes were luminous. Up close, she saw that he had pronounced crow’s-feet in the comers of his eyes. He held her hands in his, and they felt like two warm, calloused paws.
“Wanted to do that for a good long time,” he said. “Under better circumstances, of course.”
“These are pretty good circumstances, considering,” she replied. Then she reached for his face and gave him a long, lingering kiss on the lips. She felt him stir in response, but then she sensed that he was imposing control on himself She felt slightly embarrassed as they stopped, feeling as if she should look away, but for some reason, she couldn’t.
The affection in his eyes was right out there, fully visible.
She tried to summon up that demure look-away expression, the one she’d used to deflect the interest in men’s eyes since Frank had died, but she couldn’t find it, and suddenly she didn’t want to. Train must have sensed what was going on in her mind, because he put a finger up to her lips.
“Slowly,” he whispered. “Let’s not screw this up.”
She smiled at him and reached for his hands again. “No, let’s not,” she said. “I’ve been in limbo for a while, Train.
Observing all the proper conventions. But after tonight … well, I don’t want to put off life or living anymore.”
He nodded his understanding. There was a rattle of some kind of trolley outside in the hallway, and he stood up to pull a chair right next to her bed. “Considering the circumstances, neither one of us should ever go to Vegas. We used up every ounce of luck tonight, and then some. So, tell me what happened.”
They exchanged stories. As she began hers, he extended the coffee cup and she sipped some and then handed it back.
He drank some while he listened, an unconscious small intimacy, which she registered even while she was talking.
When she had finished, he just sat there, his face grim. She realized he felt responsible.
“I know. I should have taken the dog,” she said.
He nodded absently. “And I should have trusted my instincts and gone out there when I first thought about it. Oh well.”
“We’ve got to talk to Sherman,” she said urgently.
“About what his son said. There were two of them.”
Train got up and went to the window. At the moment, he was sick of the Sherman business. What he really wanted to do was take her in his arms and hold her for the rest of the night. He rotated the venetian blinds.
Karen’s room had the same view of the same parking lot, which was still empty. There was a hint of fog hovering over the of grass beyond the parking lot. Three hospital corpsmen in their orderly uniforms were smoking cigarettes out under the ER portico.
“I think we have to talk to Carpenter first,” he replied.
“Mccarty’s orders were pretty specific. Back off the Sherman matter. I don’t know if that’s because you had gone missing or if those were orders from Carpenter given before you went missing. Either way, Sherman is being isolated.”
“Sherman is getting the shaft,” she said, sitting up straighter in the bed. She was silent for a moment. “On the other hand, it got awfully up close and personal today.” She was starting to feel cold again. “Train.”
He turned around.
“Will you sit with me for a while? I don’t want to think about this case right now. I want to make it all go away until I can see sunlight again.
I-“
He shushed her, going back over to the chair next to her bed. He sat down and smoothed her hair. “Let’s kill all these lights. You sleep.
I’ll be right here.”
She hit the switches for the lights, which left only the subdued rose-colored light from the parking lot suffusing the room. Karen shut her eyes and pulled up the covers, leaving her hands clenched up under her chin. He put his hand on her forehead again and smoothed her hair back away from her brow. She reached for his hand and clasped it between her own until her breathing slowed.
He watched her sleep. He was surprised to find himself fantasizing: If he was married to a woman like this, would he ever wake up at night and just watch her sleep? He thought he might. Then he smiled in the darkness. Married?
The lady had been widowed for only a year. She was just feeling grateful, that’s all.
He got up and pulled down a blanket and a pillow from the closet shelf and laid them out on the chair. Then he went over to the window again and looked out. It was now almost 2:00 A.M., and the parking lot was practically deserted. He stepped back over to check on Karen. She was still sleeping, her hands clutching the. covers up under her chin, her breathing deep and regular now. Maybe the sedative had finally taken effect. He sat down in the chair next to her bed and pulled up the blanket. Was this place safe? he wondered.
Should he wake her and get them out of there? He decided against it. He looked over at her sleeping face again. You predicted something was going to happen, and it did. Galantz had made a move against them. And Carpenter was losing his nerve, it seemed. Train slept.
THURSDAY By 11:30 Thursday morning, Train and Karen were sitting, in Admiral Carpenter’s outer office, awaiting an audience.
Train had called Mccarty at seven o’clock to give him a quick debrief of the previous day’s events. Mccarty had seen a short article in the morning paper about a rescue out on the river, but there had been no names. He was stunned into silence when Train gave him the details.
Train also told him they needed to talk to the JAG. They would spend the morning getting released from the hospital, get Karen home for a change of clothes, and then come in to the Pentagon, he said. Train lived too far south of the city to bother going home, so he was sitting there in his suit, the jacket of which was reasonably presentable. The rest of his outfit had been attracting careful glances all morning.
Karen was properly dressed, if a little pale around the edges. He had to work at it not to take her hand fight there in the front office. She had seemed steady enough until the yeoman handed her a cup of coffee, and Train caught the little ripples in it when she held the cup with both hands.
He watched her out of the comer of his eye. She’s solidified on the surface, he thought, but underneath she’s still scared.
Hell, so am 1. Karen stared across the office area as officers and clerks came and went. “This has gotten way out of hand,” she said softly.
“That’s what we’re here to tell the JAG,” Train replied.
The door to Carpenter’s office opened, and Captain Pennington came out.
Captain Mccarty was standing behind him in the doorway. Pennington looked briefly at both Karen and Train, his face neutral. He nodded curtly but did not say hello, then left the office.
“TA-oh,” muttered Karen as they got up. “That’s not a good sign.” But Mccarty was beckoning them into the admiral’s office. He wrinkled his nose at Train’s clothes ds they went in, Admiral Carpenter was standing by one of the windows, his back to them. Mccarty shut the door and cleared his throat. They all stood in the middle of the room for a moment before Carpenter turned around.
“Karen,” he said. “I am so glad you’re back among us.
You gave us all quite a scare.”
“Nothing like the scare they gave me, Admiral,” she replied. Train felt a flush of pride at her quick comeback. If they were going to be yelled at, she was showing no timidity.
But Carpenter did not appear to be angry. “Please, sit down,” he said.
“You, too, Train. I’ve just been on the horn with Detective Mcnair, who told us some of what happened yesterday. We didn’t learn any of this until this morning. Mcnair said he didn’t see the need to wake people up.
