'One assumption some people have is that the mystery behind JFK is a Dallas mystery. Oswald's life there. Ruby and the cops. What really happened in the half hour or so after the first shots. George is connected to the people who run Dallas, and to the extent that the investigation might affect them, especially in a negative way, George has got to be on top of it. Does that make sense?'
'Yeah, it does. But the question is, if it turns out that one of his associates needs to be leaned on, will he balk?'
Dobbs grinned. 'Oh, yeah. He might balk. He might do worse than that. Which is why you have me.'
Karp thought about this for a moment, and then, looking into the blue eyes, asked, 'And why do we have you, Mr. Dobbs? Are the people of Connecticut burning to find out if old Earl Warren went into the tank on this one? Or what…?'
The waiter came and they ordered. When the man left, Dobbs said, 'That's the right question, all right. What's in it for Dobbs. I like you, Mr. Karp, or, if I may, Butch. I'm Hank. You get right to the point, which is sometimes like a dose of oxygen around here, although I should warn you it's a violation of the Federal Anti- Confrontation and Bullshitters' Protection Act of 1973, As Amended.' He smiled at the small joke and Karp smiled too.
Dobbs leaned back and looked up at the ceiling. 'How to put it? Well, first, my constituents. The people of the great state of Connecticut are mainly interested in keeping the insurance industry happy and making sure that when ships and weapons get built, they get built in the great state of Connecticut, as a result of which I spend most of my time on the Banking and Armed Services Committees. In my spare time, I try to do an occasional favor for the United States. As far as personally goes, in 1963, I was at Yale. I'd worked on the presidential campaign in Hartford, and my family had some connections in the past with Jack Kennedy. I'd actually shaken his hand, once, when he was in the Senate. I remember I told him that I was interested in politics and that I was off to Yale that year, and he laughed and told me that if I worked hard I could overcome even that obstacle. I was in Dwight eating a sandwich when some kid ran into the dining room and yelled out that Kennedy'd been shot in Dallas. I went into shock-well, everybody did, really, but I guess I imagined mine was worse. My dad had just passed on that summer and I suppose I conflated the two losses in my mind. It was an extremely bad year for me; I nearly flunked out, as a matter of fact, and had to repeat the semester. Okay, that's personal aspects. There's a political aspect too. I think practically everyone understands that when Kennedy was assassinated, the country started on a downward slope. I think it had more of an effect on the country than Lincoln's did, because Lincoln had mainly finished his work and Kennedy had barely started his. Not that I'm comparing Kennedy to Lincoln-that's not the point. The point is that the country was tipped out of one track and into another, which we're still on and which is no good.'
'Because Kennedy died?' Karp asked.
'Actually, as much as I mourn his loss, no, not exactly. It was mainly because of what happened afterward. The government didn't tell the truth about what happened. Some people decided that a higher national purpose would be served if the facts about the assassination were bent to prove a point. Have you read the Report?'
'Not yet.'
'Then I won't say anything about it; make up your own mind. But give me the point for a moment. That lie was the forerunner of the lies in service of a higher national purpose that got us into Vietnam, and kept us there until the army and the country were nearly wrecked. It was the premise for all the stuff that Nixon's cronies did. The good of the country, as any bozo wants to define it, is more important than the truth. Hey, the good of the country demands that Nixon gets reelected? No problem, we'll burgle, we'll lie, we'll cover up the truth. After a while the people stop believing anything the government says. Hell, we've got a presidential candidate now whose main platform is 'I'll never lie to you.' Like it was a big thing. It's pathetic! And it all started in Dallas, and what we made of it in the Warren Report. If we're ever going to get the country back on the right track, we have to go back to the point when we ran off the rails. That's why I'm pushing this investigation, my little favor, as I said, for the United States of America. Does that answer your question?'
Karp nodded. 'Uh-huh,' he said. It was a convincing speech. On the other hand, Dobbs was a politician; his profession was giving convincing speeches. Maybe he had even given this one before, like Flores with his hoe routine. Maybe it was even true. In any case, it was at least possible that Dobbs was prepared to support a serious investigation. Karp found himself liking the man, despite what Crane had said about Washington and dogs. Karp was himself a connoisseur of fine speeches, and lies, and his instinct told him that Dobbs at least believed what he was saying. Also, the contrast between the patronizing, overbearing Flores and the frankness of Dobbs, a man only two or three years Karp's senior, was gratifying. A congressman, after all.
The food came and they began eating and resumed talking, the subject having been changed by unspoken agreement to fields less fraught with passion and consequence.
Karp walked back down the Hill to the office on Fourth Street. When he entered, Bea Sondergard was sitting on the floor amid a chaos of file boxes, moving papers among file folders of various colors. She looked up at him over the rims of her spectacles.
'How was lunch? I heard you dined with Congress.'
'I had the chicken,' said Karp.
'That's the first step. Chicken, then sirloin, then bribes and fancy girls. He's in his office. Oh, and I had some furniture moved into your place. I took the liberty of deciding on a color scheme.'
'Gosh, I had my heart set on something in rusting gray metal.'
She flashed teeth. 'Then you'll be pleased.'
Bert Crane was on the phone when Karp walked in. The office had been tidied some and Crane now sat in a high leather chair behind a handsome new mahogany desk. And the phones obviously worked. Karp sat down on a new-smelling black leather couch, and waited.
When Crane got off the phone and turned to him, Karp observed, 'You guys work fast.'
'Yeah, it's great, if we stay out of jail. Bea sometimes cuts the corners in procurement. I think she paid for all this stuff with an account that's not quite authorized yet. How was your lunch?'
'I had the chicken. How was yours?'
'As I said, I ate with the press. We just went out on the veldt and they found a dead zebra. But, really-how did you make out with Dobbs?'
'Pretty good, I think. He seems like a straight shooter.'
'I agree. For a politician, anyway. What did you talk about?'
'He filled me in on Flores, similar to what you said. And we exchanged boyish confidences. He told me a story about why he's serious about doing the Kennedy investigation right.'
'The one about JFK and his dad?'
'Just hinted at it. I gathered they were political allies of the Kennedys in some way.'
'More than that. Richard Dobbs was with Kennedy in the Pacific during the war. He was some kind of operations or intelligence officer with Kennedy's PT boat squadron. They'd been at Harvard together, although Dobbs was a little older, and I think they were pretty close. He finished the war as a lieutenant commander and then went right into the Navy Department. When the shit hit the fan in the fifties, JFK was the only politician of any stature who stood by him. An unusual profile in courage for Kennedy, I might add. He was not prone to gestures that might have hurt him politically, and defending Richard Ewing Dobbs was sure as hell in that class.'
'Well, none of that got mentioned. He also talked about how bad it was for the country, the doubts about Warren and all. He sounded sincere.'
'No doubt. Sounding sincere is in his job description.'
'Is being cynical in mine?'
Crane laughed enthusiastically. 'Yes it is, the sine qua non, in fact. But seriously, Dobbs is solid on this investigation, and on most other things too. I didn't mean to denigrate the man. If things get sticky, and they will, I think we can count on him. All you have to remember with Dobbs is, his daddy didn't do it.'
FOUR
'I don't see what's so funny,' said Karp to the ceiling. He was in his office at the New York DA, his soon-to- be-former office. On a nearby chair, a chunky, milk chocolate-skinned man in a tan, pin-striped, double-breasted suit
