He nodded, then said, “I had no idea what I was going to find out there at night.”
“Well… about 0215 hours. At the time she designated.”
“Yes. And you put your lights out, and…”
There was a long silence while General Campbell considered my hanging conjunction. Finally, he said, “I got out of the car and went to the humvee, but she wasn’t there. I became concerned and called her name, but there was no reply. I called again, then heard her call to me, and I turned in the direction of the rifle range and saw… I saw her on the ground, or I saw this figure on the ground, and I thought it was her and that she was hurt. I moved quickly toward the figure… she was naked, and I was… I suppose I was shocked, confused… I didn’t know what to make of this, but she was alive, and that’s all I cared about. I called out and asked if she was all right, and she replied that she was… I got up to her… you know, it’s difficult to talk about this.”
“Yes, sir. It’s difficult for us, too. That’s not to try to compare your loss with our feelings, but I think I speak for Ms. Sunhill, too, when I say that during the course of this investigation, we’ve come to… well, to like your daughter.” Well, maybe I wasn’t speaking for Ms. Sunhill. I continued, “Homicide detectives often have feelings for the deceased even though they’ve never met them. This is an unusual case in that we’ve viewed hours of videotapes of your daughter’s lectures, and I felt that your daughter was someone I’d like to have known… but I should let you tell us what happened next.”
General Campbell was starting to lose it again, and we all sat there awkwardly for a minute or so while he took a lot of deep breaths, then he cleared his throat and said, “Well, then I tried to untie her… it was very embarrassing, I mean to her and to me… but I couldn’t get the rope untied, and I couldn’t get the stakes out of the ground… I tried… I mean, whoever did it drove those stakes very deep, and tied those knots… so I said to her I’d be right back… and I went to the car and to the humvee, but I couldn’t find anything to cut the ropes… so I went back to her and told her… I told her… I said that I’d drive up to Bethany Hill and get a knife from Colonel Fowler… Bethany Hill is less than ten minutes from range six… In retrospect, I should have… well, I don’t know what I should have done.”
Again I nodded. I asked him, “And while you were trying to untie the ropes, you spoke, of course.”
“Just a few words.”
“But surely you asked her who had done that to her?”
“No…”
“General, surely you said something like, ‘Ann, who did this?’ ”
“Oh… yes, of course. But she didn’t know.”
“Actually,” I informed him, “she wouldn’t say.”
The general looked me in the eye. “That’s correct. She wouldn’t say. Perhaps you know.”
“So you drove back along Rifle Range Road toward Bethany Hill.”
“That’s right. And I called on Colonel Fowler for assistance.”
“Did you know that there was a guard posted at the ammo shed about another kilometer in the opposite direction?”
“I don’t know the location of every guard post at this fort.” He added, “I doubt I would have gone there anyway. I certainly didn’t need a young man to see my daughter like that.”
“Actually, it was a woman. But that’s irrelevant. What I’m wondering is why you made the U-turn with your headlights off, sir, and why you proceeded for at least a few hundred meters with them off.”
He must have wondered how I knew this, then he probably realized I’d interviewed the guard. Finally, he replied, “To be honest with you, I didn’t want to attract attention at that point.”
“Why not?”
“Well, would you? If you just left your daughter tied naked to the ground, would you want anyone else involved? I had it clear in my mind that I had to go to Colonel and Mrs. Fowler for help. Obviously, I didn’t want this incident to become public.”
“But the incident, sir, was a crime, was it not? I mean, didn’t you think she’d been molested by some madman or several madmen? Why would you wish to keep that private?”
“I suppose I didn’t want to embarrass her.”
Cynthia spoke up. “Rape should not be embarrassing to the victim.”
General Campbell replied, “But it is.”
Cynthia asked, “Did she indicate to you in any way that she was willing to lie them while you went and got Colonel and Mrs. Fowler?”
“No, but I thought it was the best thing.”
Cynthia inquired, “Wasn’t she frightened out of her mind that the rapist or rapists would return while you were gone?”
“No… well, yes, she did say to hurry back. Look, Ms. Sunhill, Mr. Brenner, if you’re suggesting that I did not take the best course of action, then you’re probably correct. Perhaps I should have tried harder to get her loose, perhaps I should have put my pistol in her hand so she could try to protect herself while I was gone, perhaps I should have fired the pistol to attract the attention of MPs, perhaps I should have just sat there with her until a vehicle came along. Don’t you think I’ve thought about this a thousand times? If you’re questioning my judgment, you have a valid point. But do not question my degree of concern.”
Cynthia replied, “General, I’m not questioning either. I’m questioning what actually went on out there.”
He started to reply, then decided to say nothing.
I said to him, “So you drove to the Fowlers, explained the situation, and they went back to assist Captain Campbell.”
“That’s correct. Mrs. Fowler had a robe and a knife to cut the ropes.”
“And you didn’t see your daughter’s clothes anywhere at the scene?”
“No, I didn’t.”
“Did you think to cover her with your shirt?”
“No… I wasn’t thinking very clearly.”
This was the man who, as a lieutenant colonel, led a mechanized infantry battalion into the besieged city of Quang Tri and rescued an American rifle company who were trapped in the old French citadel. But he couldn’t figure out how to aid his daughter. Obviously, he had no intention of offering her aid and comfort. He was royally pissed- off.
I asked him, “Why didn’t you accompany the Fowlers, General?”
“I wasn’t needed, obviously. Only Mrs. Fowler was needed, but Colonel Fowler went along, of course, in case there was trouble.”
“What sort of trouble?”
“Well, in case the person who did that was still around.”
“But why would you leave your daughter alone, tied, naked, and exposed if you thought there might be any chance of that?”
“It didn’t occur to me until after I was back on the road. Until I was nearly at the Fowlers’ house. I should point out that the drive to the Fowlers took under ten minutes.”
“Yes, sir. But the round trip, including your waking them and them getting dressed and driving back, would take close to thirty minutes. After waking them and asking for their assistance, the natural response of any person—a father, a military commander—would be to race back to the scene and to secure the situation until the alerted cavalry arrived, to use a military analogy.”
“Are you questioning my judgment or my motives, Mr. Brenner?”
“Not your judgment, sir. Your judgment would have been excellent if your motives were pure. So I guess I’m questioning your motives.” Normally, you don’t question a general about anything. But this was different.
He nodded and said, “I suppose you both know more than you’re letting on. You’re very clever. I could see that from the beginning. So why don’t you tell me what my motives were?”
Cynthia responded to that and said, “You wanted to make her squirm a little.”
The fortifications had been breached, to continue the military metaphor, and Cynthia charged right through. She said, “In fact, General, you knew that your daughter was not the victim of some rapist, that she hadn’t been
