Darkside (46 page)

“Not exactly, sir.”

“Ultimately, Mr. Hays,” Jim said softly, “even if the Dark Side buries it, internally they'll want to blame somebody. This dant always has to blame somebody, right? And it's never gonna be the system's fault, is it? She won't commission.”

Hays blinked but then nodded. He stared bleakly at the Severn River, where three haze gray YPs, signal flags flying, were rumbling in toward the seawall to practice mooring, pursued by a cloud of diesel exhaust. Jim prepared to get up from the bench. “You and Julie Markham still talking?”

“She's polite. As long as I keep it casual.”

“Okay. If Markham won't talk to us,
we'll
question Booth. Tell her that. Ask her which version of the story she wants us to hear.”

Hays frowned.

“Another thing,” Jim said. “I'm telling Branner for two reasons. One is to find the truth. Second, to protect Markham.”

“From?”

“From Booth, dummy. If he's the badass you say he is, once we bring him in, he may decide that Markham pointed the finger.”

“But she didn't—I did.”

“He can't know that, can he? So if you still value that young lady, make sure you stay in touch with her tonight, at least until you hear from either Branner or me that we have Booth. Got it?”

Hays nodded again while he massaged his calf muscles. A breeze off the river stirred the trees around them.

“There's more to this than I'm telling you,” Jim said, thinking now about that shark business. “This guy could be a whole lot more dangerous than you appreciate. Does Markham's lawyer know any of this?”

“I don't know, sir. Julie's not exactly sharing right now.”

“You better start. You're done exercising. Go find
Markham. Tell her that we know. Tell her we're going to confront Booth. And even if she doesn't want it, stay nearby.”

“Yes, sir.” Hays gulped, looking afraid. “I got it.”

 

It was 3:30 by the time Jim got cleaned up and back to his office, where he put a call in to Branner. Voice mail. Then he called her cellphone. More voice mail. He hung up without leaving a message. Okay, Special Agent, where the hell are you? he wondered. He called her cell phone back and left a message this time for her to call him ASAP, adding that he had a line on a possible suspect in the Dell case.

He had a big decision to make. Tell the dant what he'd uncovered about a possible link connecting Markham, Dell, and this Dyle Booth, or wait to talk to Branner first. If the heavies were coming back in the cover-up mode, they'd tell him to go back to supervising parking tickets in the Yard. The dant had put him into this spider fight, and the dant could take him back out, or even take his job. A direct order from Captain Robbins was never an exercise in ambiguity. It would be a lot more difficult to back Branner off the case, unless she, too, received some unambiguous guidance from her own chain of command, who had apparently been present at the elephant conclave up in D.C. today.

His phone rang.

“You try to call me?” Branner asked.

“Yeah, both lines.”

“And you didn't get me, just like Harry Chang can't get me right now unless he drives down here and clamps my wheels. I got back-channel word that they're shutting the Dell case down. SecNav decision. They're gonna rule it an accident, a DBM. Kid went up on the roof, fell off. End of story. I was on my way up to headquarters when a little bird whispered in my cell phone, so I shut off my phone and turned around. Checked voice mail and got your message.”

“Right,” he said. “Tommy Hays, Markham's ex-boyfriend?
He came to me with a name. We need to talk, but not on an open line.”

“Well hell, detective,” she said. “How about your place?”

 

Ev checked his voice mail when he got back to the office at 4:15. No messages from Julie or anyone else. He could understand not hearing from Julie. She might not even get back to her room until five o'clock or later, and she wouldn't be carrying her cell phone around the Yard. But he was a little worried about Liz, after basically having told her he didn't want to see her last night. He shut his office door, took a deep breath, and called her office.

“You're not mad at me, are you?” he blurted.

She laughed. “Of course not. Besides, my first ex blew into town last night for some corporate board meeting. He called me and we went out, got seriously drunk, and I think we had a grand time. Have you heard from Julie?”

He was so taken aback by what she'd said that he was about one second slow in answering. He consciously had to keep the surprise out of his voice. “Uh, no I haven't. I put a call in to her cell phone voice mail, but, um, heard nothing.”

“Ev?”

“What?”

“I was kidding, Ev.”

“Oh, good,” he said without thinking. He heard her laughing again. Now he felt like an idiot. A teenage idiot at that.

“I'm so damned frustrated,” he said. “With all this…
stuff
going on with Julie. Cops in Bancroft Hall. Having to pretend that either the mids or I give a shit about classes at this point in the year. The dant taking me aside to make threats.”

“I did talk to Jim Hall. He confirms that they can hold up a commission. He says it's usually done with football players who can't pass the commissioning physical, but they can do it to anyone.”

“Great,” he groaned. “And where the hell's Julie?”

“She's got her head down. Exams are imminent. I'd suggest we leave her alone until something definitive happens. You're letting your imagination wear you down.”

“That's for damned sure,” he said, running his fingers through his thinning hair. “It's just that I feel I'm supposed to be doing something. Not just sitting here.”

“Actually,” she said, “the less you do, the safer Julie probably is. Call me tonight.”

“I will. If I don't shoot myself first.”

“Go row your boat again. But only half as hard this time.”

 

It was 4:30 by the time Jim got to the marina. He saw Branner's Bronco in the marina parking lot and he pulled in next to it. Branner was sitting out in the cockpit, letting the last of the afternoon sun warm her face. She was slouched into one of the deck chairs, hands down on the chair rails and her head thrown back. Her eyes were closed. In repose, her face looked much more feminine and a lot less severe. She sat up when she felt the boat stir as he came aboard.

“So what do you figure?” he said. “If they can't call you, they can't shut you down?”

“That's an order I didn't want to hear until I talked to you. So speak to me.”

He sat down and told her what Hays had told him about Dyle Booth and his own near miss with electrocution.

“Judas Priest! And this guy's a
midshipman
?” she asked, echoing his own question.

“Remember our discussion about Boy Scouts, and how this whole place operates on trust? How they assume, going in, that they're dealing with basically good guys?”

“But they must have tests,” she said. “Plus, there's all this class-to-class supervision and mentoring. How can a guy like what you're describing—”

“Hays says the mids know he's weird, but he apparently goes around at full military throttle. You know the type: fills out the uniform, everything polished and spit-shined to the
max, twenty-four-seven military bearing. ‘Gonna be a gung ho Marine, sir, yes,
sir
!'”

A passing seagull veered away when Jim raised his voice. “But what's the connection to Dell?” she asked.

“Julie Markham. Remember, Hays is her ex-boyfriend. Apparently, they broke up because Julie Markham stepped out.”

“Oh shit. With this Booth dude?”

“Apparently. Some swim team trip, an away meet. I don't have details, but the thrust of what he said was that, whatever happened, she regretted it. A lot. She subsequently shut Booth down. Booth's not pleased.”

“And Dell?”

“Well, that's the interesting bit. Hays said Julie Markham kind of had Dell under her wing.”

Branner's eyes narrowed. “But she said—”

“Yeah, right. Not so, according to Mr. Hays. But Hays is running scared now, after that attempt to kill him. Plus the fact that Captain Rogers told them to shut down. And graduate.”

“Anybody ordered you to shut down?” she asked.

“I called in to see if the dant was back. His admin puke told me they're stuck out on Route Fifty somewhere.” He looked at his watch. “They'll be back soon, though, so whatever we're going to do, like talk to Markham, we have to do it now.”

“They're scared,” she said. “Yesterday, they were threatening to delay Markham's commission if she didn't talk. Today, they're telling the Honor Committee they won't graduate if they
do
talk?”

“The Academy is under the SecNav's thumb. An order is an order. And I think they'll still burn Markham, just to say that they burned somebody.”

She got up and stretched. Jim admired the view, then asked if she wanted a beer. She said no, but he went below to get himself one. Jupiter swore at Jim amiably for not letting him out of the cage. Jim banged the bottom of his cage, provoking more bad language.

When he came back topside, Branner was sitting down again. “How's about we call that lawyer?” she said. “Markham's not going to talk to either of us without her anyway. Get her to set up a meeting. While we still can.”

“Markham probably doesn't understand that she's still in danger even if they do shut the investigation down. If not from the dant, then from Booth. Because there's more. You remember that graffiti down in the tunnels? That shark thing?”

“Yes?”

“That's what they call this Booth guy, on the swim team. Or actually, what he calls himself. The Shark.”

She gave him a long, level look. “
He's
our runner? The vampire wanna-be who likes to set traps and beat people up?”

He nodded. “They ever find that missing Goth girl?”

“Not that I know of,” she said, looking grim. “And he got Bagger, too, most likely.”

“And tried to fry Hays. Literally, this time.”

She looked across the water toward Bancroft Hall. “Man!” she said. “What kind of a monster did they let into that place?”

“A real one, if this is all true,” he said quietly. “And I'm thinking that we do have a way to make Markham talk to us after all.”

“How?”

“Dell was in her batt but not her company. She broke the chain of command if she was mentoring him outside his own company system. They could claim that if she hadn't interfered, whatever happened to Dell might have been avoided. Indirect responsibility, but enough to negate everything she's worked for here.”

“That's pretty thin. You think they'd do that?”

“I think this commandant would. He's a surface a Navy guy. Surface guys always have to blame somebody. And remember, their system is not—repeat,
not
—at fault here.”

“Much,” she said, shaking her head.

“Okay, so we explain this to Markham. Now she has
everything to lose by keeping quiet. And maybe something to gain by coming clean to somebody—namely, us.”

She thought for a moment. “How are we going to send for either of them if the Academy is shutting down the investigation?”

“Because so far, no one's told us that officially.”

She shook her head. “I hate these frigging games.”

“Then let's get moving, before they do, Markham first, then Booth. And quickly.”

 

Ev was home, preparing to go out on the water again, when Julie finally called. “Something's happening,” she said without preamble.

“Whoa, start at the beginning, Julie. What do you mean, ‘Something's happening'?”

“Tommy Hays went to talk to that security officer, Mr. Hall. He told him…some stuff.”

“What stuff?”

Julie didn't reply for a moment. He realized she had put her hand over the mouthpiece of her phone. Then she was back. “Tommy's here with me right now. We're down in Mitscher Hall, behind the mess hall. Tommy says he's going to stay close to me until he hears from Mr. Hall.”

Ev shook his head. “I'm not following, Julie. What's going on?”

“Mr. Hall told Tommy that the Academy is probably going to close down the NCIS investigation, but that they're going to blame
me
for what happened to Brian—Midshipman Dell.”

Ev, bewildered, dropped into a kitchen chair. “Slow down, Julie, and let's not do this on the phone. Can you get loose?”

“Dad, I think I should go to see Liz DeWinter.”

Well, about goddamn time, he thought. “I heartily agree,” he said. “Let me find her, tell her what's happening. She's probably still at the office. Call me back in five.”

He hung up and phoned Liz, who was still in the office. Keeping the explanation very short, he asked if Julie could
meet with her there. Liz said fine. Ev called Julie's cell phone and relayed the news.

“Can Tommy go with me?”

“Uh, hell, I don't know. I guess so.”

“Because—oh shit, wait one, Dad.” He heard the phone hit the table, and then he heard Julie say, “Yes?” He waited again while she talked to someone else. He heard what sounded like some intense conversation, then Julie came back on the cell phone.

“That was the OOD's mate. The front office says I'm to report to the commandant's office to meet with the NCIS in thirty minutes.”

“Don't go,” he said. “Go to Liz's office instead.”

“But Dad—”

“Go to Liz's office. Then get Liz to call the dant's office and tell them you'll meet with NCIS, but only in her office. If they insist, Liz can go back there with you, but this'll give you time to talk to Liz, tell her what the hell's happening.”