King and Maxwell

by David Baldacci

  “I didn’t know about that.”

  “But someone did come and talk to you, right?”

  Tyler sipped his hot chocolate and didn’t answer right away. He stared up at the sky.

  “Looks like more snow is on the way,” noted Michelle as she glanced over at him. He seemed so conflicted that her empathy for him suddenly swelled.

  Are my maternal instincts finally kicking in? How scary is that?

  More miles passed in silence.

  “We’ll be home soon,” prompted Michelle.

  Tyler kept staring out the window. “They told me not to talk to you.”

  “Who is ‘they’?”

  “The Army.”

  “So guys in uniform?”

  Tyler glanced at her. “They weren’t wearing uniforms. They had on suits.”

  “So how do you know they were from the Army?”

  “Because they were there to talk about my dad. He was in the Army. Who else would they be?”

  “Did they show you some ID?”

  “Yeah, but they flashed them so fast I couldn’t see what they said. Besides, I wasn’t really focused on that.”

  “Was your stepmom there?” Tyler nodded. “So what else did they tell you?”

  “That you were probably trying to take advantage of me. That you couldn’t find out anything they hadn’t already told me.”

  “About your dad’s death, you mean?”

  “Yes.”

  “And what did you say to that?” she asked.

  “I… I didn’t say much,” Tyler admitted.

  “What else did they say?”

  “That you could cause trouble for us. That it might mess up our getting stuff from the Army—you know, like benefits.”

  Michelle sighed, but then looked angry. “So they really laid a guilt trip on you. Talk about taking advantage of someone.”

  “I don’t want to mess things up for my dad, Michelle.”

  “Trust me, neither do we. Are you going up to Dover to get your dad’s remains?”

  Tyler shook his head.

  “Why not?”

  “Because of what else they said.”

  “Which was?”

  “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  “Come on, Tyler. You chose to ride home with me. You must want to talk to me.”

  Another mile went by without either of them breaking the silence.

  “They said there wasn’t enough left of my dad to put in a coffin,” he finally said.

  Michelle jerked the wheel and the truck did a little wobble across the lane before she righted it. “What! I thought he was shot?”

  “He was. Only a mortar hit right at the spot where he had gone down. It… it sort of blew him to pieces.”

  Now Tyler put his sleeve up to his face and quietly wept into his arm.

  Michelle pulled the Land Cruiser off onto a side road, put it in park, and handed him some tissues from her console. He took them without looking at her. She wanted to lean over and hold him, but decided that might be unwelcome and more than a little awkward under the circumstances.

  So she simply sat there staring straight ahead and watched shimmers of heat vapor lift off the hood of her truck and disappear into the darkness.

  “Thanks.”

  She turned to Tyler and accepted the crumpled pieces of now wet tissues. She tossed them into the backseat.

  “Why didn’t they tell you that before?” asked Michelle. “Why wait until now?”

  “I don’t know,” said Tyler softly.

  “What did Jean say to all this?”

  “Not much. She just took it all in and then started crying so hard the men in suits got up and left.”

  “Very compassionate of them to drop the hammer and then flee the scene. What did you do?”

  “I went up to my room and locked the door.”

  Michelle reached out an arm and lightly touched him on the shoulder.

  He glanced over at her. She read apprehension on his features.

  “Tyler, why were you so determined to hire Sean and me? Your father was dead. Nothing would change that. Any other details would be hard to come by since his death happened in Afghanistan. It’s not like Sean and I can fly there and start investigating.”

  He shrugged but said nothing.

  “There has to be something, Tyler. You’re a smart young man. You don’t strike me as the type to just jump into a decision without thinking it through.”

  When he still said nothing, Michelle asked, “Will you be driving Kathy to school next year?”

  He glanced at her in surprise. “Kathy? How did you know about that?”

  “I spoke to her at Panera. She really likes you. And she’s worried about you.”

  “I was thinking about maybe driving her to school. Sometimes,” he added.

  “I think she’d like that.”

  Michelle grew quiet and waited. Nothing might come out of the next few seconds. Then again, everything might come out of the next few seconds. She surreptitiously crossed her fingers wishing for the latter.

  “The thing is, it was the date the guys gave me.”

  “What date and what guys?”

  “The Army guys who came the first night to tell me about my dad.”

  “Okay. What about the date?”

  “He died the day before they came to tell us.”

  “All right. Sometimes it takes that long to confirm everything. They don’t want to get it wrong.”

  “Yeah, I know that.”

  He stopped talking but Michelle said nothing. She sensed he was about to drop a bombshell.

  “See, the thing is, my dad sent me an email.”

  Michelle shot him a glance. “When did he send you the email?”

  “After he was dead.”

  CHAPTER

  14

  SEAN WATCHED HER ENTER THE RESTAURANT. She was thinner and healthier looking than the last time he’d seen her. Her hair and makeup were immaculate. She was dressed in a hip fashion that belied her actual age. The fishnet stockings and stilettos made her long legs even longer and sexier. The skirt was a little too short for Sean’s taste, and the neckline revealed a bit too much. Several men at other tables gaped at her, earning the instant wrath of their wives or dates.

  Sean had to admit his ex was even more put together than when they were married, and still a very lovely woman.

  On the outside.

  He rose when she walked over. When she attempted a hug, he instead quickly put out his hand for her to shake. She looked amused and shook it. They sat. She hooked her coat over the back of her chair.

  “I was very surprised to hear from you, Sean.”

  “I guess I surprised myself, Dana.”

  She leaned forward, eyeing him closely.

  “Let me guess, you want some of the alimony back?”

  He managed a chuckle. “Little late for that. Statute of limitations has expired.”

  “Lucky me.”

  “Plus, what grounds would I have?”

  “Don’t look to me to tell you.” She ran her eye over him. “You’ve kept yourself in shape.”

  “So have you.”

  “You like the new hair color? Blonde never seems to go out of style so I made the switch, permanently.”

  “Very becoming.”

  “Very understated compliment, thanks.”

  “How is the general?”

  “Piling up the air miles and working longer hours than I would like.”

  “Nature of the beast. You want a drink?”

  “Your memory is failing if you even have to ask.”

  Sean motioned for the waitress, who came and took their drink orders.

  Sean ordered a Bombay Sapphire and tonic; Dana, Johnnie Walker Black solo on the rocks.

  “That’ll put hair on your chest,” said Sean after the waitress left.

  “Would you like to see for yourself?”

  He sat back. “Ever the flirt.”

  “Nothing
wrong with that. It brings me joy.”

  “But you go home to the general every night, of course.”

  “I would, except he’s not there most nights. The military is like bigamy on a massive scale. Curtis is married to me and the DoD.”

  “So why did you marry him?”

  “Because he comes from a prominent family and has a trust fund that helps support us. We live in a beautiful home complete with a housekeeper. I drive an SL550 Roadster. I travel where I want when I want. We’re invited to great parties and I get to meet the most interesting and influential people. And he loves me.”

  “I note that you put the love part at the end.”

  “I like to prioritize.”

  “I can see that.”

  “So what have you been doing with yourself? Still a private detective with what’s-her-name?”

  “Her name would be Michelle Maxwell.”

  “Right. I read about some case you were involved in recently. She almost got killed, didn’t she?”

  “She’s very much alive and fully healed.”

  “What a relief,” she said casually.

  Sean gritted his teeth and said nothing.

  When their drinks came he took a sip of his. She took a longer pull of hers.

  “I thought you would go for the Gold Label. It’s even more expensive,” he said.

  She put her glass down and licked her lips. “At a base level I’m a simple girl. I have my desires, and not all of them are expensive. In fact, some of the best are free.”

  “Nothing is really free.”

  “Well, you found that out, didn’t you?”

  “That I did. You screwed around on me and ended up with half my money and alimony for more years than I care to count. Doesn’t seem fair, does it?”

  “The fact is, we never should have divorced, Sean. You were just overly sensitive.”

  His features darkened. “About your sleeping with other men while I was out of town working? I wouldn’t call it overly sensitive. I’d just call it appropriately pissed.”

  “You were gone. I was bored. What exactly did you expect? You know my sex drive has always been insatiable. It’s math, one and one gets you to two. Anything less than that just doesn’t work.”

  An older man at the table next to theirs who had been lasciviously eyeing Dana nearly choked on a mouthful of pork.

  “Did you ever consider getting a pet?” asked Sean.

  “No. And for the record I don’t have a pet now.”

  “So what the general doesn’t know won’t hurt him?”

  She shrugged, took a sip of her drink, and said, “Can we get down to why you called?”

  “I need a favor.”

  She looked suitably surprised. “Then your foreplay was quite underwhelming. Care to try again?”

  He leaned forward. “I’ve got a client, a very young client who just lost his dad in Afghanistan.”

  “I assume the father was military?”

  “Yes.”

  “So you really want the favor from Curtis, not me.”

  “In a roundabout way, yes.”

  “What do you mean roundabout?”

  Sean took another drink of his gin and tonic. “It’s sensitive.”

  “I thought these things were pretty straightforward. Soldiers die, the Army notifies the next of kin. They go to Dover to see the flag-draped coffins and then they bury the dead at Arlington, if that’s their wish.”

  “Very clinical of you.”

  “In all the time I’ve been married to Curtis we’ve been at war. I’ve seen this film play out a lot. I hate it that we’re losing young men and women over there every damn day. It has aged Curtis like you wouldn’t believe. Years ago, while we were dating and he didn’t have a single star on his shoulder, he was a field commander over there. He was in combat. He was badly wounded. He very nearly came home in a coffin. I sat next to his hospital bed at Walter Reed for over a month wondering if he was going to make it.”

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t know that.”

  “I may not be the perfect wife, but I do care about him. We have a good life together.” She looked away. “And the fact is I haven’t, well—” She paused and glanced down for a moment before staring directly at him. “The fact is I’ve been completely faithful to Curtis. I just wait at home like a good wife until he comes back, whenever that might be. And even though he’s technically stationed at the Pentagon he goes to the Middle East on a regular basis and I wait here holding my breath and praying he gets back in one piece. I’m not sure why I go for the guys who carry guns and get shot at.”

  Sean gave her a puzzled look. “Then why are you all dressed up like you’re going to walk down a Victoria’s Secret runway? And why all the ‘insatiable’ talk?”

  She pursed her lips. “Because I haven’t seen you in a long time and I thought it was the act you wanted to see.”

  “How could you possibly think that, Dana?”

  “Because I know you would never believe that I’ve changed so why should I even bother trying to convince you? The old Dana was just easier and not nearly as soul searching. And today has been a long day and I guess I just couldn’t muster the energy.”

  “As crazy as that sounds, it actually makes sense.”

  “Oh goody.” She pulled her coat on, covering her chest. “I’m freezing. I should have worn a sweater, and these stilettos are killing my feet.” She kicked them off and rubbed one foot against the other. “And these stockings look a lot better than they feel. It’s like being a tuna caught in a net.”

  He smiled. “Why do I feel like I’m talking to an entirely different person?”

  “Do you not realize that I know how much I hurt you?”

  “I guess I never thought about it. Your actions spoke quite loudly.”

  “I was selfish and stupid. We could have had kids.”