‘Impossible,’ I said. ‘Delta’s orders and operational logs and after-action reports aren’t anywhere near HRC. They’re either destroyed or locked up for sixty years at Fort Bragg. No disrespect, but your sister couldn’t have gotten within a million miles of them.’
‘So how does this help us?’
‘It eliminates Sansom’s combat career, that’s how. If Sansom is involved at all, it’s in some other capacity.’
‘Is he involved?’
‘Why else would his name have been mentioned?’
‘What capacity?’
I put my fork down and drained my cup and said, ‘I don’t want to stay in here. It’s ground zero for this other crew. It’s the first place they’ll check.’
I left a tip on the table and headed for the register. This time the waitress was pleased. We were in and out in record time.
Manhattan is both the best and the worst place in the world to be hunted. The best, because it is teeming with people, and every square yard of it has literally hundreds of witnesses all around. The worst, because it is teeming with people, and you have to check each and every one of them, just in case, which is tiring, and frustrating, and fatiguing, and eventually drives you crazy, or makes you lazy. So for the sake of convenience we went back to West 35th and walked the shady side of the street, up and down opposite the row of parked cop cars, which seemed like the safest stretch of sidewalk in the city.
‘What capacity?’ Jake asked again.
‘What did you tell me were the reasons behind the suicides you saw in Jersey?’
‘Financial or sexual.’
‘And Sansom didn’t make his money in the army.’
‘You think he was having an affair with Susan?’
‘Possible,’ I said. ‘He could have met her at work. He’s the kind of guy who is always in and out of the place. Photo opportunities, stuff like that.’
‘He’s married.’
‘Exactly. And it’s election season.’
‘I don’t see it. Susan wasn’t like that. So suppose he wasn’t having an affair with her.’
‘Then maybe he was having one with another HRC staffer, and Susan was a witness.’
‘I still don’t see it.’
‘Me either,’ I said. ‘Because I don’t see how information would be involved. Information is a big word. An affair is a yes-no answer.’
‘Maybe Susan was working with Sansom. Not against him. Maybe Sansom wanted dirt on someone else.’
‘Then why would Susan come to New York, instead of D.C. or North Carolina?’
Jake said, ‘I don’t know.’
‘And why would Sansom ask Susan for anything, anyway? He’s got a hundred better sources than an HRC clerk he didn’t know.’
‘So where’s the connection?’
‘Maybe Sansom had an affair long ago, with someone else, when he was still in the army.’
‘He wasn’t married then.’
‘But there were rules. Maybe he was banging a subordinate. That resonates now, in politics.’
‘Did that happen?’
‘All the time,’ I said.
‘To you?’
‘As often as possible. Both ways around. Sometimes I was the subordinate.’
‘Did you get in trouble?’
‘Not then. But there would be questions now, if I was running for office.’
‘So you think there are rumours about Sansom, and Susan was asked to confirm them?’
‘She couldn’t confirm the behaviour. That kind of stuff is in a different set of files. But maybe she could confirm that person A and person B served in the same place at the same time. That’s exactly what HRC is good for.’
‘So maybe Lila Hoth was in the army with him. Maybe someone is trying to link the two names, for a big scandal.’
‘I don’t know,’ I said. ‘It all sounds pretty good. But I’ve got a local tough guy too scared to talk to the NYPD, and I’ve got all kinds of dire threats, and I’ve got a story about some barbarian crew ready to slip the leash. Politics is a dirty business, but is it that bad?’
Jake didn’t answer.
I said, ‘And we don’t know where Peter is.’
‘Don’t worry about Peter. He’s a grown-up. He’s a defensive tackle. He’s going to the NFL. He’s three hundred pounds of muscle. He can take care of himself. Remember the name. Peter Molina. One day you’re going to read about him in the paper.’
‘But not soon, I hope.’
‘Relax.’
I said, ‘So what do you want to do now?’
Jake shrugged and stumped around, up and down on tile sidewalk, an inarticulate man further stymied by the complexity of his emotions. He stopped, and leaned on a wall, directly across the street from the 14th Precinct’s door. He looked at all the parked vehicles, left to right, the Impalas and the Crown Vics, marked and unmarked, and the strange little traffic carts.
‘She’s dead,’ he said. ‘Nothing is going to bring her back.’
I didn’t speak.
‘So I’m going to call the funeral director,’ he said.
‘And then?
‘Nothing. She shot herself. Knowing the reason won’t help. Most of the time you never really know the reason, anyway. Even when you think you do.’
I said, ‘I want to know the reason.’
‘Why? She was my sister, not yours.’
‘You didn’t see it happen.’
He said nothing. Just gazed at the parked cars opposite. I saw the vehicle that Theresa Lee had used. It was fourth from the left. One of the unmarked Crown Vics farther along the row was newer than the others. Shinier. It winked in the sun. It was black, with two short thin antennas on the trunk lid, like needles. Federal, I thought. Some big-budget agency with the pick of the litter when it came to transportation choices. And communications devices.
Jake said, ‘I’m going to tell her family, and we’re going to bury her, and we’re going to move on. Life’s a bitch and then you die. Maybe there’s a reason we don’t care how or where or why. Better not to know. No good can come of it, just more pain. Just something bad about to hit the fan.’
‘Your choice,’ I said.
He nodded and said nothing more. Just shook my hand and moved away. I saw him walk into a garage on the block west of Ninth, and four minutes later I saw a small green Toyota SUV drive out. It went west with the traffic. I guessed he was heading for the Lincoln Tunnel, and home. I wondered when I would see him again. Between three days and a week, I thought.
I was wrong.
NINETEEN
