The General's Daughter

reason, I’d be having the conversation, not you, Colonel.”

“Damn it, Brenner, you’ve gone too far—”

“Colonel, I’m taking my prisoner out of here.” I said to Moore, “Stand up.”

Without a glance toward his lawyer, he stood.

“Come with me.”

Cynthia and I left Kent’s office with poor Colonel Moore in tow.

We escorted him down the corridors and into the holding cells. Most of the cells were empty, and I found an open door right next to Dalbert Elkins. I gave Moore a little nudge into the cell and slammed the door shut.

Dalbert Elkins looked at Moore, then at me, and said in a surprised tone, “Hey, Chief, that’s a full colonel.”

I ignored Elkins and said to Moore, “You’re charged with what I said before. You have the right to remain silent, you have the right to counsel of your choice.”

Moore spoke for the first time, reminding me, “I have counsel. You just threatened to arrest him.”

“Right. And anything you say may be held against you in a court-martial.”

“I don’t know who did it.”

“Did I say you did?”

“No… but…”

Dalbert Elkins was following all this closely. He said to Moore through the bars, “Colonel, you shouldn’t get a lawyer. It makes him mad.”

Moore glanced at Elkins, then turned his attention back to me. “Colonel Kent informed me that I was restricted to post, so I had no choice but to seek counsel—”

“Now you’re worse than restricted. You’re confined.”

Dalbert said, “They’re letting me out. Restricted to barracks. Thanks, Chief.”

I ignored Elkins and said to Moore, “I have hard evidence that puts you at the scene of the crime, Colonel. There are enough charges against you to put you in jail for ten or twenty years.”

Moore reeled backward as if I’d hit him, and he sat heavily on the cot. “No… I didn’t do anything wrong. I just did what she asked me to do…”

“You suggested it.”

“No! She suggested it. It was her idea.”

“You knew fucking well what her father did to her at West Point.”

“I only knew about a week ago—when he gave her his ultimatum.”

Elkins looked at Cynthia and asked her, “What did he do to you?”

I said to Elkins, “Pipe down.”

“Yes, sir.”

I said to Moore, “I want you out of this Army. I may let you resign for the good of the service. That depends on how cooperative you are.”

“I’m willing to cooperate—”

“I don’t care if you’re willing or not, Colonel. You will cooperate. You will fire your attorney.”

Elkins began to second that, but thought better of it and sat down on his cot.

Moore nodded.

“What were you wearing out on rifle range six?”

“My uniform. We thought it would be best, in case I ran into any MPs—”

“Those shoes?”

“Yes.”

“Take them off.”

He hesitated, then took them off.

“Give them to me.”

He handed them through the bars.

I said to him, “I’ll see you later, Colonel.” I said to Elkins, “How’s my buddy?”

He stood. “Fine, sir. They’re letting me out tomorrow morning.”

“Good. If you run, you die.”

“Yes, sir.”

I walked away from the cells, and Cynthia followed. She asked, “Who was that other guy?”

“My buddy. The reason I’m here at Hadley.” I explained briefly, then went into the office of the lockup sergeant. I identified myself and said to him, “I have a Colonel Moore in lockup. Have him strip-searched and give him only water tonight. No reading material allowed.”

The sergeant looked at me wide-eyed. “You have an officer in lockup? A colonel?”

“He may not have access to counsel until sometime tomorrow. I’ll let you know.”

“Yes, sir.”

I put Moore’s shoes on his desk. “Have these tagged and delivered to hangar three at Jordan Field.”

“Yes, sir.”

We left and headed toward our office. Cynthia said, “I didn’t know you were going to lock him up.”

“Neither did I until I saw the lawyer. Well, everyone wanted me to arrest him.”

“Yes, but for murder. And you don’t put a commissioned officer in a common lockup.”

“Silly custom. If he goes to Leavenworth, this is good training.” I added, “Besides, people talk better when they’ve tasted jail.”

“Right. Not to mention a strip-search and no rations. The regulations say he has to have at least bread and water.”

“In each twenty-four-hour period. Meanwhile, I haven’t had a decent meal myself in forty-eight hours.”

“You’re going to be officially criticized for the way you’ve handled this.”

“That’s the least of my problems at the moment.”

We entered our office, and I flipped through the phone messages. Aside from the news media, there weren’t many calls. No one wanted to speak to me anymore. There was, however, a message from the worried Major Bowes of the CID, the worried Colonel Weems of the staff judge advocate’s office, and the anxious Colonel Hellmann. I called Hellmann at his home in Falls Church, where his wife assured me that I was interrupting his dinner. “Hello, Karl.”

“Hello, Paul,” he said in his jovial manner.

“Thanks for the fax,” I said.

“Don’t mention it. Don’t ever mention it.”

“Right. We’ve spoken to General and Mrs. Campbell, as well as to Mrs. Fowler. Cynthia and I can reconstruct nearly everything that happened that evening from about the time Captain Campbell had chicken for dinner at the O Club, to the time she reported for duty officer, to the time she took the humvee out ostensibly to check the guard posts, right up to and including the murder and beyond the murder, to dawn and to me becoming involved in the case.”

“Very good. Who killed her?”

“Well, we don’t actually know.”

“I see. Will you know by noon tomorrow?”

“That’s the program.”

“It would be good if the CID could solve this case.”

“Yes, sir. I’m looking forward to a promotion and a raise.”

“Well, you’ll get neither. But I will get that letter of reprimand out of your file as you politely requested.”

“Terrific. Really good. You may get another to take its place. I arrested Colonel Moore, had him thrown in the lockup here, strip-searched, and put on water.”

“Perhaps you could have just restricted him to post, Mr. Brenner.”

“I did, but then he ran off and got a JAG lawyer.”

“That’s his right.”

“Absolutely. In fact, I arrested him in front of his lawyer, and almost arrested the lawyer for interfering.”