by Brian Haig
Then I remembered that I’d noticed something earlier in the film. I said, “Take it back to the point where I’d just emerged from the crowd. Slow motion again.”
So they did. Probably they thought I was reveling in my moment of glory. Truth be known, I’m not above such things.
This time, though, I stopped looking at myself and saw it more clearly. The figure was foggy and blurry, but there was something about him, something odd.
“Take it back and freeze it when I say freeze.”
It was impossible to be sure. The film was too out of focus. The figure was twenty, maybe thirty yards from me. What made him appear out of place was this: He was standing perfectly upright. He wasn’t diving for the ground, or running, or anything. He was standing with his hands on his hips, a pose of command. He was located at almost exactly the spot the shooter had looked for his signal.
I turned to Harry. “Can I have a copy of the film?”
He said, “Sure, man.”
So Allie and I collected the film, and then I took her hand and we left.
When we got outside Allie said, “What did you see?”
I felt bad about it, since reviewing the film was her idea, but I had no choice. “Nothing.”
She looked at me in disbelief. “Nothing? Why’d you ask for the film?”
“Hell, who knows? I guess so I’ll always remember how Maria saved my life.”
Constructing that particular alibi made me a real louse, but I knew it would end any further curiosity on Allie’s part, because really, how could she argue with that?
She smiled grimly and nodded, and we returned to base, me wondering about that figure in the film, her reliving the nightmarish sight of the woman she loved getting struck in the head by that bullet.
Back at the office, I furtively stepped outside and used a cell phone to call Spears’s office. I told my favorite colonel I needed to see Mercer and I needed to see him right away. I gave him my number, and he said okay and hung up.
I stood under a shady tree for three minutes before my cell phone rang.
He said, “Drummond, Mercer here.”
I said, “I need to see you. It’s important.”
“I’m busy. How important?”
“Damned important.”
“All right. We’re gonna have to be tricky about this. You’re being watched.”
“By who?” I asked.
“I’ll tell you later. Go down to the Post Exchange. Loiter around by the jewelry counter and we’ll take it from there.”
I grabbed my cane and told Imelda I’d be back in an hour. Then I hobbled over to the Post Exchange. The PX just happened to be the one support facility located on the other half of Yongsan, and I worked up a good sweat, cursing at Mercer as I hobbled around on that cane. The blast of air-conditioning as I entered the building nearly made me kiss the floor. I went to the jewelry counter and looked at watches. When I finally glanced up, the ruthlessly coldhearted Miss Kim was perusing some earrings on the other side of the glass counters.
She held up a pair, shook her head, and then moved off toward the stereo section. I slowly followed her. She stood studying a gargantuan-size pair of Infinity tower speakers until a guy walked by her, she glanced at him, and he nodded. Then she hooked a finger in my direction for me to follow her.
I have to tell you I thought all this cloak-and-dagger stuff was simply hilarious. These people probably run Geiger counters over toilet seats before they take a squat. She led me through some doors and into the warehouse in the back.
We walked around stacks of boxes and cabinets, until we turned a corner and ran right into Buzz Mercer.
I said, “You moonlighting as a warehouseman on government time?”
“Heh-heh,” he said, although I had the impression he didn’t really think it was funny. Maybe it wasn’t. “You got two trailers on you, Drummond. They didn’t come inside, although if you’re in here too long, they might get suspicious. And make sure you buy something before you leave – you know, for authenticity.”
“Who are they?” I asked.
“We’re not sure. We took their photos this morning. We’re checking them with our friends over at the Korean CIA at this moment. In fact, the reason we diverted you all the way over here was so we could make them pass through the post gate. We had a man there checking their IDs as they came through. Maybe we’ll have a better idea soon.”
As he spoke I could see his eyes inspecting my damage. Some of the bruises I was sporting had started to yellow around the edges, so I was sort of a walking kaleidoscope of colors. He didn’t seem too distressed by my condition.
I reached inside my trouser pocket and withdrew the videocassette tape Harry had given me. I handed it to him. “This is an uncut ABC tape of the massacre. You got people who can enhance it? Maybe clear up some of the blurring where the camera’s not focused properly?”
“Depends how many color pixels the camera caught.”
“Okay, here’s the thing. There’s a point in the film where I’m running out of the crowd, going after one of the two shooters. Then there’s a point where the shooter pauses to draw a new magazine.”
He wearily said, “We all know about that, Drummond. It’s been on all the TV news shows.”
“Right. Here’s the thing, though. Study the shooter just before he makes the decision to drop his weapon and hightail it. He looks over to his right.”
His interest perked up. “Okay, so there’s a spotter, or somebody else who was there.”
“Right. I think I passed right by him. I think he’s in the film. He’s standing perfectly upright, as calm as can be. Everybody else is either hitting the concrete or moving in confusion. Not this guy. He’s watching. He’s composed. That’s what I want you to check.”
Mercer took the videocassette tape. “Who do you think he is?”
“I haven’t got a clue.”
“Okay, we’ll give it a try.”
“How long?”
“Hard to say. Won’t take us long to compress and code this and send it back to Langley by satellite. It’s two in the morning there, though. They’ll have to roust some techies out of bed and get ’em to work.”
“It’s worth it,” I told him. “Trust me.”
“Yeah? Tell me more, Drummond.”
“Not yet. Get a clear picture of this guy.”
At that instant, Mercer’s cell phone rang. He pulled it up to his ear and turned away from me, so he could murmur and whisper with whatever spook buddy was on the other end. It was a brief conversation.
He put the phone back in his pocket and looked at me. “The guys following you are Korean cops. I guess they’re trying to keep an eye on you because of all the trouble you’ve been causing.”
“Yeah, I guess,” I said.
It was Wednesday afternoon. The trial opened Friday morning. We had thirty-six hours left. I hoped I wasn’t imagining things. I hoped the CIA’s techies could find enough color pixels to get a reasonable picture of this guy. I hoped he wasn’t just some guy who turned out to be deaf and blind and was standing perfectly still only because he didn’t have a clue what was going on. What I really hoped was that he didn’t turn out to be a tree.
CHAPTER 32
The time had come for Katherine and me to pay another visit to our client. With thirty hours left till the trial started, we’d reached what lawyers call the moment of decision. We climbed into the sedan and I insisted on hitting McDonald’s and the Class VI store, which, to the uninitiated, is the military version of a liquor store, only the prices are much cheaper because the booze is untaxed. If the drunks of America had any idea how much Uncle Sam gouges them, there’d be another American revolution.
I splurged on two six-packs of Molson and another bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue. I wasted a moment trying to persuade Katherine to get her OGMM buddies to recompense me for my costs, but she’s a stickler on these things. She said bribes don’t fall within OGMM’s idea of allowable expenses.
I guessed she was apprehensive about admitting to Whitehall that his defense was damn close to hopeless. That’s never a great feeling. On the other hand, Katherine had spent most of her legal career telling clients they didn’t stand a chance. I don’t know what her win-loss record looked like, but if it was 0 for 100, I wouldn’t be surprised. She’d won plenty of appeals, because that was the point of her strategy, but she was probably accustomed to seeing jury foremen shuffle their feet, and avoid her eyes, and look up at the judge, and say, “Hang the bastard.”
So what was making her so pent-up? It wasn’t the public spotlight, I didn’t think. She’d bathed in the public glare more than any other ten attorneys combined. She’d been cover-storied on magazines, profiled on those television news magazine series, had her glitzy moments with Larry King and Katie Couric.
Was it because this was a murder trial? After all, the worst that comes from your ordinary gay trial is maybe a few years in the slammer. More often than not, it’s a dishonorable discharge from the service, which is really nothing but a fancy epithet for being fired. Maybe the stakes were getting to her. Maybe the thought her client could get the death sentence was eating at her insides.
Anyway, the big bully rushed right down when the desk guard retrieved him. He broke into a huge, hungry smile when he laid eyes on me, and I winked and pointed a finger at the search room. He nearly sprinted for it.
He dug his hand inside the bag, withdrew his scotch, his two burgers, grinned hungrily, and then led us to Whitehall’s cell. I could teach that Pavlov guy a few tricks.
Again he said one hour, ushered us into the cell, then wandered off, actually caressing the bottle of scotch. I was smitten with envy. I wanted to caress that Johnnie Walker Blue with my tongue.
Thomas got up and studied both of our bleak faces for a stagnant moment. Then he reached out a hand and I shook it. He actually hugged Katherine, and I’ll be damned if she didn’t collapse into his body, then start sobbing on his shoulder. I heard these small, muffled moans. Her body was quaking.
He stroked her hair and said, “Hey, hey, come on. Take it easy, okay. Katherine, really. Don’t get all worked up. I know you’re doing your best.”
She finally pulled herself away, and I scratched my head a few times. I’ve seen some things in my day, but a defense attorney crying on a client’s shoulder? Everything was backwards in this case. But even more backwards was seeing Katherine Carlson with tears on her cheeks.
I decided it was time to immediately rearrange the mood in this tiny cell, so I put down my legal case, opened it, tossed two Big Macs at Whitehall, and then withdrew three beers.
I said, “Hey, Tommy, this guy walks into a bar with a monkey. The guy takes a stool at the bar, and the monkey perches next to him. The guy orders a drink while the monkey starts eating everything it can reach – peanuts, olives, lime slices, even napkins. The monkey wanders over to the pool table, where a couple of guys are playing, and he jumps up on the middle of the table, then lifts up the cue ball and swallows it whole. The monkey’s owner immediately knocks down his drink and says to the bartender and the other customers,‘Hey, I’m real sorry. The little bastard always eats everything he can get his hands on. I’ll pay for everything, I swear.’ So he does, and then he leaves. A month later, he and the monkey come back again, they take stools at the bar, and the guy orders a drink. Everybody in the bar watches as the monkey reaches across the bar, grabs a Maraschino cherry, holds it up to his eye, reaches down and stuffs it up his butt, then pulls it out and eats it. It’s so gross, people are getting sick. The guy says to the bartender, ‘Hey, I’m really sorry. I know it’s disgusting, but ever since he ate that cue ball, he measures everything he eats.’ ”
Tommy started laughing like hell. These huge guffaws were erupting from his throat. The joke was funny, but it wasn’t that funny. I guessed the tension and pressure had him teetering on an emotional cliff.
As for Katherine, she coldly said, “Is that a joke?”
Tommy said, “Actually, I think it’s a parable for my situation. I’m like that monkey. Now that I’ve been locked in this cell for ten days, I’ve measured my future.”
Katherine frowned, but I chuckled because he was right.
Then we all went over and sat down on Tommy’s sleeping mat. Katherine was in the middle, and we all propped our backs against the wall. For a few minutes, we took sips from our beers while Tommy wolfed down his burgers. This was actually a chivalrous attempt by Tommy and me to give Katherine time to stop sniveling and get collected.
Then Katherine skillfully explained everything that had happened over the past two days, from the massacre, through our meeting with the judge, through our interrogations of Jackson and Moran. She told him what we suspected and how disgustingly little headway we’d made in proving any damned thing. She explained how we expected Fast Eddie to handle our pitifully small inventory of revelations and courtroom surprises.
Tommy heard her out. He occasionally took another sip from his beer. Otherwise he was inert, peaceful, unresponsive. It struck me that he expected everything he was hearing.
I had to admire his self-control. If it were me, knowing I’d been expertly framed for murder and other hideous deeds, and I was hearing my attorneys say they were making a complete hash of my defense, I would’ve been screaming my lungs out.
When she finished, he got up and went over to my legal case and withdrew three more Molsons. He opened them and then handed one to Katherine and one to me.
“No shit,” he said, grinning proudly at me. “You actually went to the demonstration?”
“Couldn’t resist it,” I admitted.
“God, I wish I could’ve seen that.”
“You might be the only guy in the world who didn’t. The damn thing was broadcast by every network.”
“Think you’ll get in trouble?”
“Probably,” I admitted.
The Army’s not particularly vindictive, but like any organization, it has its limits. A picture broadcast worldwide of an officer in uniform amid a sea of homosexuals ain’t exactly what the Army means by “be all you can be.” I wasn’t looking forward to the next promotion board. But Tommy Whitehall’s problems were a little more grim than mine. Enough said.
Then Katherine said, “Thomas, sit down, please. We need to make some decisions.”
He squatted on his haunches and faced us. It was a very Asian gesture, that squat. Only ten days in a Korean prison and already he was going native on us.
Katherine said, “I’m going to be blunt. Golden’s a very shrewd and experienced attorney. Maybe we can get one of his witnesses to recant. Most likely Jackson, but not Moran, who’s a tough nut. And Bales is even tougher. He’s going to come across like a knight in shining armor.”
Tommy said, “Okay.”
Katherine let loose a heavy breath. “I recommend we take the deal.”
Tommy bounced up to his feet. “What?”
“Look, I don’t like it, but it’ll keep you out of the electric chair. It’ll buy us time.”
“I’m not pleading. Get it out of your head, because I’m not taking their deal.”
“Thomas, please listen. We’ve got one day left. The second we walk into that courtroom, the offer’s moot. It’ll be withdrawn. I’d like to approach the other side and try to bargain off the charges of committing homosexual acts and consorting with enlisted troops. If we plead on murder and rape, I think we can get them to go for it.”
“I don’t care.”
She reached over and grabbed Whitehall’s leg. “You’ll still be alive. I’ll dedicate my whole life to getting you an appeal. I won’t
stop, Thomas. I’ll never stop. You know I won’t.”
“So what? We’ll both waste our lives over this thing? I won’t permit it.”
Katherine looked over at me. Her face was beseeching. She was pleading with me to intervene, to do my best to convince her client to take the rap.
I said, “Good call, Tommy.”
“What?” Katherine roared.
“He’s making the right call. It’s an obvious frame-up.”
“Can you prove that?” Katherine asked, knowing damn well I couldn’t.
“Nope,” I admitted.
“Then what in the hell are you doing? A few days ago you thought a deal was the right way to go. You helped convince me.”
I knew that and I felt bad about it, too. But I couldn’t tell Katherine I was working an angle with my CIA buddies. Granted, there were no sure bets, but if something broke we could be off to the races. So all I said was, “I changed my mind.”
I looked up at Tommy. Katherine was still holding his leg. He was staring down at me.
I said, “We’re going to break this thing. Maybe not before the trial, but we’ll get it eventually. I don’t care if I have to resign my commission and come over and do it myself. We’re going to break this thing.”
“You’d do that?” Tommy asked.
“I’d do that,” I assured him.
And I would. I’d just decided that. For one thing, a lot of people had been killed and something had to be done about that. And one of those people had died to save me, and it might sound corny, but didn’t I owe her something? For another, I’d had plenty of clients convicted, but I’d never had one where I was so thoroughly convinced he was being railroaded. I didn’t approve of Tommy’s lifestyle choices, but he’d been a damned good soldier. And as the judge said, if a soldier can’t get justice, then I was wearing the wrong uniform.
