Authors: Don Brown
Code 13 (36 page)
“As far as the attacks on these officers go, we have been working with NCIS every day, and of course the JAG Corps has been cooperating with NCIS and also local law enforcement, and we expect the killers to be apprehended.
“I have time for just a few questions.” The admiral paused, then pointed. “Yes. Karl.”
“Admiral, Karl Rogers, Associated Press. We've heard that both of these officers were working on the same contract. Could you comment on that?”
Cameron glanced at Brewer, then said, “Karl, that is accurate. Other questions?”
Multiple hands were raised.
“Yes. Lisa.”
“Admiral, Lisa Rogers, Reuters. Sir, we've heard these officers were both working on a legal opinion for that contract that might pave the way for a mammoth-sized drone acquisitions project for the U.S. Navy. Could you comment on this, and will the Navy now assign another officer to this project? And are you concerned about the safety of officers working on this project?”
“Wow, Lisa. That's about ten questions wrapped into one.”
Laughter.
“Which one would you like me to answer first?”
“Whichever one you would like, Admiral.”
Cameron sipped from a glass of water. “Okay. Yes, your sources are correct. It's no secret that the Navy has been considering an experimental rollout of a drone fleet to protect our coasts against potential adversaries and terror threats. Both officers were in fact working on a legal opinion for a drone project. So yes, they were working on the same project. Yes, we will assign the project to another officer, and while we are always concerned about the safety of all our personnel, we're confident in the ability of NCIS to keep our officers safe.”
Rumbling in the gallery. “Yes. Mary.”
“Mary Warren,
Washington Post
. Admiral, has the Pentagon issued any warning to U.S. personnel about terror threats in the wake of these attacks on the two officers?”
Another sip of water. “At this point, we have no evidence to suggest these attacks were coordinated terror attacks. So we want our people to be cautious and vigilant as always, but not to overreact. Bill?”
“Bill Scheiffer, CBS News. Admiral, you say you have no evidence to suggest these killings are terror-related. But don't you find it beyond coincidental that we have two officers murdered from the same division working on the same project?”
Cameron nodded. “Bill, I see and share your concern. But no, at this point, we aren't aware of any terror threat or coordinated attack.”
“Quick follow-up, sir,” Scheiffer said.
“Sure.”
“Are you at liberty to give the name of the JAG officer who will now be handling this project?”
Cameron hesitated. “Sure. Why not? The new JAG officer assigned to the project is Lieutenant Commander Caroline McCormick. And we expect that she will complete the JAG phase of the project and will do an excellent job.”
“Admiral . . .”
“Admiral . . .”
“Sir, just out of curiosity . . .”
Caroline cut off the television. She had heard all she needed to hear.
Her name had just been broadcast to millions of people all over the world. Soon, most of the world, perhaps even the killer, would know.
The question had been a plant and the answer deliberate.
The bait had been set on the trap.
And the idea had been hers.
She got up off the sofa and walked into the kitchen.
A lone bottle of pinot noir sat in a rack atop the fridge.
She reached for it, took it out, and brought it up to her face. Though she liked her red wines at room temperature, the wine bottles remained cool. The glassy exterior of the bottle, chilled by the air conditioner, felt refreshing rolled against her cheeks.
She set the bottle on the table and reached into a drawer for a corkscrew. She held it up against the light and examined it. Even the corkscrew reminded her of him. In a sense, it had linked them together that Saturday when they lounged in the plush green grass of Coronado Tidelands Park, celebrating his deep selection to lieutenant commander. The corkscrew had sat on their checkered red blanket on many occasions at La Jolla, too, as they lounged on the grass above the cove, their toasts and celebratory sips of wine enhanced by one of the most romantic sights in the worldâthe orange sun, a big, benign, lazy ball, dipping below the horizon and into the Pacific.
The corkscrew had gone with them to the Southern California mountains that day when they opened the bottle of Castle Rock that had
accompanied the warm, luscious apple pie they bought from Mom's Pie House, the quaint little pie-baking shop just off Main Street in Julian.
How odd, and how amazing, that something as insignificant as a corkscrew could evoke such powerful and emotional memories of love forever lost.
She worked the corkscrew once again, this time popping the cork off the pinot noir.
She poured herself a glass of wine and took a sip. Another sip followed the first.
Then words flowed from her lips, words she had memorized at Camp Caroline, a Christian Bible camp in North Carolina she had attended years ago as a teenager.
“ âYea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.' ”
She raised her glass in the air and said softly, “Good-bye, P.J. I'll love you forever.”
As she took another sip, the wine went down smoothly, leaving a warm sensation in her esophagus.
She let the effects go to her head and let her thoughts linger on him a few seconds longer. Then she walked to her bedroom, sat down at her computer, and closed her eyes.
When she opened her eyes again, thirty minutes had passed.
That should be enough time.
She opened her email and began to type.
From: LCDR Caroline McCormick, JAGC, USN
To: Captain David C. Guy, JAGC, USN
Divisional Director, Code 13
Office of the Judge Advocate General
United States Navy
Subj: Acknowledgment of Assignment: Legal Opinion, Project
Blue Jay
1. Acknowledge assignment for completion of legal opinion letter, and understand my assignment to draft a legal opinion to the Secretary of the Navy with no predetermined directions on determining the proposed legality of the contract and bill presented to the United States Congress.
2. Acknowledge my assignment to present a legal opinion on the legality of the proposed joint use of Project Blue Jay drones to be shared between the U.S. Navy and the Department of Homeland Security, with a focus on (1) whether the proposed use would be legally permissible under the doctrine of
posse comitatus
, and (2) whether domestic surveillance proposed under the joint use would be legally permissible under Fourth Amendment prohibitions against illegal search and seizure, as well as whether such surveillance would be in violation of the Constitutional right to privacy, also under the Fourth Amendment.
3. After having reviewed the files left behind by both LCDR MacDonald and LT Simmons, the undersigned has discovered that LCDR MacDonald drafted two separate opinions, one opining that the proposed project was legally permissible and another opining that the proposed project was not legally permissible, based on
posse comitatus
and Fourth Amendment principles.
4. The undersigned is committed to a thorough and independent review of all research conducted by LCDR MacDonald on these issues. However, based on a review of Commander MacDonald's notes on this issue, and based on an original draft of an opinion letter sent from LCDR MacDonald to LT Ross, it appears that LCDR MacDonald had come to the conclusion, or was coming to the conclusion, that joint use of Project Blue Jay drones, as proposed jointly, for budgetary reasons, by
the Departments of the Navy and Homeland Security, was legally permissible.
5. Based on my preliminary review of LCDR MacDonald's work, the undersigned will finish and complete both legal opinions,
acknowledging that each legal opinion contains conclusions contradictory to the other
, and will, based on additional legal research, submit one or the other to the Secretary of the Navy.
6. As directed by your instruction, the undersigned will choose and send a final opinion letter within 72 hours.
7. Please acknowledge and submit further instructions as necessary.
Very respectfully,
C. M. McCormick
LCDR, JAGC, USN
Caroline took a moment to read over what she had written, then took a deep breath, uttered a silent prayer, and hit the Send button.
There was no turning back. The trap had been set. And she just might have signed her death warrant.
NEW YORK CONCRETE & SEAFOOD COMPANY
MID-ATLANTIC OFFICES AND WAREHOUSE
ANACOSTIA RIVER
SOUTHEAST WASHINGTON, DC
MONDAY AFTERNOON
Vinnie Torrenzano sat in the back office of NYC&S's Washington warehouse, which, like the larger warehouses in New York and other sections of the country, had served the family in a variety of ways.
On some days, maybe once a week, fishing trawlers coming in off the Chesapeake would dock at the piers down by the waterfront and dump tons of lobster and crab into the company's refrigeration boxes for packing and shipping to fish markets and groceries in the Mid-Atlantic region.
Of course, if seafood were the only enterprise in which the family held an interest, then the family could have selected other, more logistically efficient locations for the company's Mid-Atlantic location.
But neither seafood nor
concrete
constituted the bulk of the company's off-the-books profit margin, and thus the selection of the nation's capital as the site of the Mid-Atlantic headquarters reflected the company's need to conduct certain other aspects of the business. The “other-than-seafood” operations, shortened to “OTS,” as those operations were known to the company's accountants and corporate
bigwigs, constituted a large part of the reason for the location of the warehouse in DC.
Today was one of those “other ways” in which the conveniently located facility would serve the family, supporting one of those OTS enterprises.
Vinnie rather enjoyed his business jaunts to DC. For in DC, he got a lot of the well-deserved respect he often missed out on in New York.
In fact, he was so respected around this place that they called him Mr. T.
The boys on payroll here, even the nerdy computer wonks, understood that
he
was their meal ticket and that
he
was their connection with New York.
Vinnie took a sip of bourbon, sat back, alone, and tinkered with his laptop. He had grown to enjoy these temporary assignments to DC. They gave him a chance to get away from the wife.
Have a little fun.
What Maria didn't know wouldn't hurt her.
No reason for her to know.
And certainly no reason for Phil or Big Sal to know.
Plus, with the boys working down here in the DC warehouse giving him the respect he deserved, knowing that he was from New York and was part of the family and all, they knew to keep their mouths shut.
Anyway, he hoped the job here would be wrapped up soon, which would give him more time for a little rest and relaxation on the ground before having to head back up I-95 to company headquarters.
Only one more work-related task remained. And he should be putting the finishing touches on that anytime now.
But in the meantime, time to lay a little groundwork.
He struck up a cigarette, sucked a warm cloud of satisfying nicotine into his lungs, mixed the nicotine with another big swig of bourbon, then typed www.hotflightattendants.com into his browser. He always had a thing for blonde stewardesses wearing a nice little hot navy blue skirt as part of their flight uniform.
A moment later, he was online and back in business.
“Yes!” He pumped his fist into the air when he saw that target number one had sent him a reply.
Her name was “BuffytheDCgirl.”
At least that was her screen name.
She purported to be a leggy flight attendant for American Airlines, and if she looked anything like her photos, she was red-hot smoking. Based on her profile, she was looking for someone to take her out who was “red-hot affectionate,” but she wasn't ready for any commitments.
Perfect. Fun with no strings!
He grinned and let his Italian mind race to faraway places that only a brain oxygenized by Sicilian blood could imagine.
Her reply came up, and he took another sip before he started to read.
“Here we go,” he said to himself.
Dear SeafoodMagnate,
I loved your profile and am flattered that you would reach out to me! Thank you for the nice comments.
Such a gentleman! What a way with words!
Can you see me blushing already? Haha!