Harper said, 'I still don't understand why you didn't have Talmadge killed like the others.'
Braxton offered the old Army physician another question: 'Well, for one thing, have you recovered the old microfilmed files you left in Belzoni?'
Harper sighed and, with considerable effort, straightened up and faced Braxton. He was taller than the General and more than two decades older. When he spoke, his voice failed to hide his own lack of patience.
'Obviously I would have told you if I had. Why do you keep giving me that question instead of an answer?'
'Because you keep asking me that very obvious question.' Braxton worked to maintain a neutral tone. 'You know darned well our Mr. Talmadge got his hands on those records and his do-gooder lawyer burned them all on CDs. For all we know, lawyer Shanker or an ally made arrangements to have the CDs turned over to the press if Talmadge dies in our hands.' Braxton paused to select a tone of voice conveying the appropriately serious edge. 'The problem with old men is that time and guilt loosens their lips. When consequences disappear, people do things that we can't tolerate.'
'Clark, you know that without the microfilm of the documents, or your testimony, the CD copies can be dismissed as forgeries,' Harper responded. 'Something concocted by desperate people who want to block your election.' He paused. 'Besides, the real dynamite is still here.' He tapped his head.
Braxton shook his head. 'Frank, with all due respect'- which is rapidly diminishing, you old fool, Braxton thought-'you simply don't understand the process. All those ankle-biting Chihuahuas in the media have to do is release the CD a couple of weeks before the election and I've lost.'
Harper shrugged.
'Until we find those documents-and any copies which might be out there-we cannot be sure, and until we are sure, my bid to rescue this great country from its own sloppy foolishness is in grave danger.'
'Yes, yes.' Harper waved his free hand about. Braxton noted that Harper had, indeed, left a handprint on the black granite. 'But don't you think the longer he continues this'-Harper pointed toward the screen-'this repeating drama, the greater the danger?'
Damn! The old fool was losing it. And he's wasting my time as well, Braxton thought as his eyes strayed to his desk and the two unread hardcover thrillers by David Baldacci and Dale Brown. They were his favorite authors and had much rather be reading them rather than nursemaiding a broken-down old sawbones.
'Frank, you're a brilliant physician, a gifted researcher, and a loyal, patriotic soldier who has served his country well.' Braxton turned toward Harper and placed his hand on the old man's shoulder and felt the bones. 'You understand the inner workings of the human body, and I, for one, am grateful for your work.' Braxton paused as he shifted from the richly warm congratulatory tone that had brought a smile to Harper's face, to one now of wisdom and caution.
'But, Doctor, dealing with these sorts of situations is not your expertise. The Good Lord didn't bless me with the immensity of your intellectual gifts, but he did give me an operational sense of how to handle things such as this, and I think you should let me worry about that. It's worked well so far-this division of labor-for damned close to forty years, hasn't it?'
Braxton paused. 'Think about it: How many from your original program are left?'
'Only Talmadge and you,' Harper said without hesitation. 'We have a few more recent head-wound veterans using the medications, but those are administered indirectly'
'And who knows the whole story from beginning to end?'
'Just you and I.'
'There,' Braxton said. 'See? I've done all right with that part of things, have I not?'
Harper offered an uneasy smile. 'I only wish I had been as successful with the others.' He nodded toward the screen.
Braxton was disappointed at Harper's swift concession. Not long ago, Harper had been a formidable intellectual opponent. They had enjoyed sparring and Braxton didn't always win. But, the General knew, it was time for being graceful.
'Frank, I admit we failed by not taking Talmadge out before he fell into the hands of people we don't yet control. But by the time we found out, he was spilling the beans to the shrinks in Jackson. You know as well as I do, we can't do anything while he's in custody. That would only invite more questions. Things will change after my election, but until then we need to work with what we have.
'But you have to admit his mental condition and the nature of his crime pretty much destroyed his credibility. Nobody wants to believe a man like that.'
Harper shrugged and made his way to the window 'Except for Jay Shanker and the nosy bitches at the legal foundation.' He looked over at Braxton. 'And of course we still have the daughter to contend with and she's as bad as her mother. And there's Stone.'
'I disagree. She's not half the lawyer her mother was. And we're well on the way to taking care of Stone.'
'Oh, yes, your crack teams have taken very good care of him so far'
'Stone's a capable man,' Braxton said evenly enough to keep the brief flare of anger from showing on his face. 'He's a natural two-percenter-and not one of ours. We have ways to handle him.'
'How- '
Braxton shook his head. 'You don't want to know.' He nodded. And the gas chamber will take care of Talmadge. Either that or the cancer. That's my bet.' Braxton faced his old comrade. 'Frank, things will be fine so long as your records don't emerge from the grave you were supposed to put them in.'
CHAPTER 23
Jasmine's head rested on my right shoulder. We leaned against each other in adjoining plastic chairs in an unoccupied office at the LAPD's Pacific Division Headquarters. She slept lightly, wrapped in a borrowed blanket.
The open door gave on to a fluorescent-lit deskscape of paper, phones, and tired people winding down their watch. At the far corner, two uniformed officers and a plainclothes detective escorted a handcuffed man tagged with prison tattoos out of an interview room, the same one I had occupied for almost two hours. Events before then had been predictable: first there was one black-and-white, then a Smokey-and-the-bandits parade populated by backup uniforms, plainclothes detectives, scene supervisors, crime scene van, forensic techs, then finally the coroner and a meat wagon.
Jasmine and I had made things as easy for them as possible. We bagged my gun and our assailant's in separate Ziplocs, labeled them properly, and set them on the kitchen counter before going outside to wait.
Then they brought us here to the architecturally undistinguished building on Culver Boulevard just off Centinela in a nondescript neighborhood filled with two- and three-story stucco apartment buildings, strip malls, gas stations, and dueling gang graffiti.
Across the big squad room, Darius Jones, the detective sergeant who had driven us here, emerged from the watch commander's office shaking his head. I heard nothing, but someone in the office must have spoken because the detective stopped in the doorframe and turned around. He stood a couple of inches taller than me, nearly as broad in the shoulders, a lot sloppier at the waist, and nearly filled up the doorframe. He'd played defensive tackle for USC until he'd blown out his right knee at the end of his senior year.
Darius Jones shrugged and continued to shake his head as he headed toward the main reception area. My stomach growled; I rubbed at the stubble on my jaw with my free hand and checked my watch. Again.
Hours had dragged by after detectives had interviewed Jasmine and me and then quickly agreed it was self- defense. But because there had been a homicide, Jones needed his supervisor's okay to let us go. Approval took a lot longer than expected thanks to a platoon of Oakwood boys who showed up in rival gang turf a couple of blocks away with Molotov cocktails and large-caliber weapons.
I tried now to enjoy the feeling of Jasmine's head against my shoulder, but the intractable fatigue and adrenaline hangover of the past twelve hours had left me drained, distracted, and dwelling on death. In a previous life, I had seen a lot more than the average person and had frequently been on the dealing end of it in service to my
