“Everything’s okay, Jace. You’re going to be okay.”
She squeezed his hand. “I want you to stay.”
The Officer in Charge moved to the other side of the bed. “Jacey, I sent a chopper for your father. They’re in the air on their way back from Rutgers right now. They should be here in fifteen minutes.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“Are you up for a couple of questions? There’s someone here who wants to talk to you.”
“I don’t feel so good.”
Ash squeezed her hand and leaned close to her ear, whispering. “It’s Kerry.”
“Okay.”
The Officer in Charge stepped into the hall. Agent Kerry pulled up a stool and sat close to her bed. His voice was warm, reassuring. “It’s just me and Ash, Jacey.” He looked over at Ash. “Close the door. Don’t let anyone in.” Ash swung the door shut and leaned against it. “What happened?”
“I was on Brewerton Road. They threw a blanket over me.”
“How many were there?”
“More than one. I could hear them whispering.”
“What happened next?”
“They tied me and put me in the trunk of a car. They tied me to a tree, and then the car drove away. One guy stayed.”
“Did you get a look at him?”
“No.”
“Did he say anything?”
“Just a few words. He said, ‘Where’s your daddy?’ He said, ‘Your daddy couldn’t help you this time.’ Then he said . . .” She started to sob.
Agent Kerry touched her hand. “That’s okay. We can talk later.”
“No. I’ve got to tell you what he said. He . . . he told me he would kill me.”
“Did you recognize his voice?”
“No.”
“Is there anything you can think of that will give us a start figuring out who did this?”
She thought for a moment. “I don’t know if this helps, but he masturbated as he was beating me. I could hear him.”
Kerry gave her hand a squeeze. “That’s enough for now. I’ll stop by tomorrow morning.”
“Thanks.”
He pointed at Ash. “Stick with her.”
“I will.” Ash waited until Agent Kerry had left. He put his lips close to her ear. “The Officer in Charge is going to come in here in a minute. You can tell me, Jace. Was it Rose?”
“I don’t know.”
“It was him. I can smell the sick son of a bitch.”
“Let Agent Kerry deal with it, Ash. Don’t do anything stupid.”
“Don’t worry.”
She turned her head toward him. A dull pain ran from her neck down her left arm.
“Hurt?”
“A little.” She reached up with her right hand and stroked his cheek. “You need to shave.”
“I didn’t bring my razor.”
“I love you, Ash. I want you to stay here with me. I won’t be able to sleep without knowing you’re here.”
“I’m here, Jace.”
“Ash, is this what it’s like?”
“What’s like?”
“War.”
“All I’ve done is read about it in books.”
“It hurts bad.”
He lifted his eyes and found a crack in the plaster on the wall over near the window. It looked like a creek running through a meadow covered in snow. “I don’t know what war is, Jace, but what you’ve been through is close enough.” He looked down at her. She was already asleep.
CHAPTER 40
* * *
THE ARMY Blackhawk touched down in the parking lot behind the hospital. Slaight threw the door open and stepped out, turning to help Sam. “Duck your head,” he shouted over the roar of the whirling rotors. They ran across the parking lot toward a clutch of cadets and officers standing on the sidewalk. The Officer in Charge saluted.
“Sir, Major Hall. This way, sir, ma’am.” He turned and led them down the sidewalk through a back door into the hospital. They made their way up a narrow set of stairs and went through a door into a brightly lit corridor. The Officer in Charge led the way around a corner and down another corridor. He stopped before an unmarked door. “She’s in here, sir.”
Slaight pushed the door open, taking Sam by the hand. They walked together to Jacey’s bedside. She was asleep. Sam touched her shoulder. “Jacey?”
“Mommy?” Jacey’s eyes fluttered open. She turned her head, grimacing from the pain.
Sam rested her hand on Jacey’s arm. “Jacey, are you okay?”
“Sort of.”
Slaight walked around to the other side of the bed. “You look like you could use some water. Are you thirsty, Jace?”
She licked her lips. They were dry. “Yes, Daddy.”
Slaight picked up a carafe and poured half a glass of water. He stuck a straw in the glass, held it next to Jacey’s pillow, and helped her lift her head to get the straw between her lips. She drank deeply.
“Tastes good.” Pain shot through her stomach, and she jerked forward involuntarily. Tears formed in her eyes, and her face contorted.
Major Vernon walked in carrying new IV fluid. “General and Mrs. Slaight, I’m Major Elizabeth Vernon. I’m the duty doc tonight.” She moved quickly to unhook one of the IV bags and rehook the new one. “How are you, Jacey?”
“She’s in pain,” said Sam.
“I’ll push another cc of morphine,” said Major Vernon.
Slaight followed her into the corridor. “What can you tell me, Major?”
“She took a bad beating, sir. She’s got some bruises and contusions. The wounds don’t look grave enough to have caused internal bleeding, probably because she was wearing her uniform and they had thrown a blanket over her, but we’ll X-ray her in a couple of hours. I want to get her stable and comfortable first. I don’t think the X rays are going to show any additional damage, but you never know.”
“I got a report over the radio on the way up here that she was sexually assaulted. Is that so?”
“Yes sir.”
“In what way?”
“I haven’t talked to her yet, but it looks to me like they used a piece of wood. She’s got some contusions and swelling around the vaginal opening, and I removed two splinters from her upper thigh. I’m pretty sure she was not penetrated, sir, but we’ll be able to tell more in the morning. She’s traumatized. It’s best not to press too hard under these conditions.”
“I understand.”
“General Slaight, she’s a brave young woman. I haven’t heard a complaint from her yet.”
“The night is still young, Major,” Slaight said, trying to lighten the moment.
Major Vernon smiled. “She’ll probably want eggs instead of Jell-O when the food cart comes in with breakfast.”
“You’ve got the picture.”
“Excuse me, sir. I want to get that morphine.” Slaight walked back into Jacey’s room. In a moment, Major Vernon returned with a syringe of morphine and pushed it through her IV. Jacey’s facial muscles relaxed almost immediately. “Better?”
“Thank you.” She tried to lift her head, looking around the room. “Where’s Ash?”
“He was here with you?” her mother asked.
“Yes.” She looked up at her father. “Daddy. He’s going to do something stupid. You’ve got to stop him.”
“Do you know where he went?”
“He’s looking for Rose.”
Slaight walked out of the room and signaled to the Officer in Charge. He ran down the corridor. “Yes sir.”
“There was a cadet here with my daughter, Ashford Prudhomme. Find him.”
“Yes sir.”
“Call the MPs. Turn out the Cadet Guard. I want him brought in. He thinks he knows who did the beating, and he’s going after him.”
“Right, sir.” Major Hall saluted and ran back down the corridor, disappearing around the corner.
Major Vernon came out of the room. “Five more minutes, sir. She needs to rest.” He nodded his assent.
At her bedside, Slaight hugged his wife close and said, “Jace, your mother and I are going to let you get some rest. Your mother’s going to stay with you.”
“Daddy, you’ve got to find Ash.”
“We will.”
“I’m afraid he’ll kill him, Daddy.”
“Don’t worry, Jace. I’ll take care of it.”
“Try not to worry, Jacey. Everything is going to be all right.”
“Okay, Mom.”
Slaight leaned over the side of the bed and kissed his daughter on the forehead. Her eyes were closed. She was drifting off. He took Sam’s hand and led her into the corridor.
“This is my nightmare,” she whispered.
“Mine, too.”
“We never should have let her go to West Point. This place is evil.”
“If Jacey hears you say that, you will break her heart, Sam.”
“But it’s so wrong, Ry. I can’t help it. She’s my baby.”
He held her in his arms. “She’s going to be a lieutenant next year, Sam. There’s going to come a day when she’ll be sent far away, and she’ll be out there with her troops, on her own. That’s the way it is when kids grow up.”
“I know, Ry. It’s just so hard to see her in such agony.”
“She’s tough. She was tough when she was three years old. You were the one who saw that.”
A sergeant walked up and saluted. “I’ve got a car for you outside, sir.”
“One moment, Sergeant.”
“I feel so helpless. I wish there was something I could do.”
“Go in there and sit with her and be her mom. That’s what she needs. She’s going to come through this okay, Sam. She’s strong.”
AGENT KERRY called for his CID forensics team and sent them up into the woods with a generator and a brace of crime-scene lights to search for physical evidence. They took the two kids to lead the way to the place where they had found Jacey. Now Kerry was standing on the first floor of the MP barracks. Fifteen young military policemen were standing along the wall in front of him. Several were in uniform. Some of them had been pulled off weekend passes and were in their civvies. The rest had been asleep, and were in pajama bottoms and GI drawers and shower clogs.
He pointed to the uniformed MPs. “I want you five to form a team and get up there behind Delafield Pond and secure the crime scene. Nobody goes in or out of there without my say-so.” The uniformed MPs took off. He turned to the others. “The rest of you, I want you to find this cadet. His name is Ash Prudhomme. Here’s his photograph.” He passed a Xerox blown up from the Howitzer, the West Point yearbook. “He’s not a suspect. We think he’s gone after the guys who kidnapped Jacey Slaight. Your job is to find him and bring him back here and hold him. Nobody sleeps until he’s in our custody, understood?”
“Yes sir!” came the chorus from the MPs.
“Get moving.”
The last of the MPs had left the barracks when Kerry heard the door open at the end of the hall. He turned to see Lieutenant Colonel Percival striding toward him.
“What’s going on, Kerry?”
“I turned out the barracks. We’re trying to locate Cadet Prudhomme.”
“Prudhomme? He’s a suspect?”
“No sir.”
“Then why are you looking for him?”
“He’s gone after Rose, sir.”
“The Honor Committee Chairman? What for?”
“He thinks Rose did the beating, sir.”
“That’s absurd. Prudhomme’s a more likely suspect than Rose.”
“I’m going to be straight with you, sir. I haven’t got time to talk right now.”
“Are you being insubordinate with me, Mr. Kerry?”
“No sir. I’m just in a hurry. Now if you’ll excuse me, sir, I’ve got work to do.” He brushed past Percival and headed down the hall toward the exit.
“Chief Warrant Officer Kerry! Come back here!”
Kerry stopped. “Sir, you want to come along, that’s fine with me. We can talk in the car.”
“Goddammit, Kerry, I’m ordering you!”
Kerry stuck a finger in his ear and cocked his head. “I’ve got a buzzing in my ear, sir. Can’t hear a thing. Must be an old war wound acting up.” He opened the door and walked into the cold night air. He checked his watch. Three A.M. Rose would be holed up in some motel down near Rutgers by now, doubtlessly with his pals, probably with an alibi a mile wide and an inch deep. He climbed in his staff car and started the engine. He’d start with his company orderly room.
***
KERRY DROVE into Central Area and pulled up in front of Company B-2. The light was on in the first-floor orderly room. Prudhomme was way ahead of him. He jumped out of his car and ran inside. Weekend leave forms were scattered across the top of the Formica counter. He went through them. Rose’s was missing. Prudhomme must have taken it. He looked around for the sign-out book, opening desk drawers. Nothing. He opened the closet and found the sign-out book jammed under a pile of manila folders. He ran his finger down the list of names, each with a contact phone number written next to it. There it was. Rose. A 201 number. New Jersey.
Kerry picked up the phone. “Thompson, get ahold of Atlantic Bell. Get me an address for this number.” He read off the ten digits. “I’ll be in my car.”
As he passed through the main gate he reached for his red light and hit a switch; the light flashed, and he stuck it on the top of the dashboard and stepped on the gas. The rain had stopped and the road was clear. He blew through Highland Falls and turned on 9W.
Just before he reached the Bear Mountain Bridge, his phone rang. “Kerry.”
“Thompson. I’ve got that address for you. Comfort Motel. Eleven-twenty North Main Street. Bound Brook, New Jersey.
“Got it. I want you to look up the license number for Cadet Ash-ford Prudhomme. I need the make and model.”
“Wait one.”
Kerry made the circle at Bear Mountain and picked up the Palisades Parkway headed south. “Thompson, you got that license for me yet?”
“One minute. Here it is: 1997 Toyota Celica convertible. Black. New York one, Y for Yellow, B for Bravo, six-six-two, N for Nancy.”
“1YB662N. Got it. Patch me through to the State Patrol.”
“Wait one. Okay, you’re on.”
“New York State Patrol, this is Military Police Agent Kerry. I’m headed south on the Palisades Parkway, and I’ve got a stop-and-hold for you. It’s a 1997 Toyota Celica convertible, color black, license one, Y for Yellow, B for Bravo, six-six-two, N for Nancy. Driver is West Point Cadet Ashford Prudhomme, male, twenty-one, brown hair, six feet one inch, about one-eighty. He’s wanted as a material witness. We need him picked up and held for West Point authorities. Repeat. Prudhomme is not a suspect. He is not armed. He is not dangerous. He is to be stopped and held for West Point authorities. Copy?”
“Agent Kerry, this is New York Patrol headquarters, we copy. Stop and hold Toyota Celica convertible, black, 1997, 1YB662N. Ashford Prudhomme.”
“He is headed south for Bound Brook, New Jersey. Can you relay my stop-and-hold order to New Jersey State Patrol?”
“Roger, Kerry. Do you need an escort?”
“It would help.”
“Give me your location.”
“I’m coming up on 17A.”
“Roger. We’ll have a patrol car with you shortly. Look for him coming up on your rear.”
Kerry pressed his foot to the floor. The speedometer read eighty, eighty-five, ninety. A flashing blue light appeared in his rearview mirror. Headlights blinked him twice as a New York Patrol car passed him doing over a hundred. The patrol car pulled in front of him. Kerry’s radio crackled.
“Agent Kerry, this is New York Patrol One-sixteen. I’ve got you to the New Jersey line.”
“Roger, One-sixteen.”
“It’s coming up.”
“Roger.”
They sped past the New Jersey State sign, and Kerry spied a New Jersey Patro
l car coming out of a rest area on the right.
“We’re gonna pass you off to New Jersey Patrol. See you around. New York One-sixteen out.”
“Thanks, One-sixteen.” The blue lights of the New Jersey Patrol car rushed up from behind.
“New Jersey Patrol Alpha Five-eight. We’re coming around you.”
“Got you, Jersey Alpha Five-eight.”
“Where we going tonight?”
“Bound Brook.”
“Roger, Bound Brook. Follow us to the exit for 202. We’ll take Route 202 and pick up 287 southbound.”
“Roger, Alpha Five-eight.”
“You got a name back there?”
“Kerry.”
“We’ve notified patrols south of here to look for your Celica. If he’s out here, we’ll get him.”
“Thanks, Alpha Five-eight.” Kerry looked down at his speedometer again. He was right on one hundred miles an hour. The steering felt tight. The car was planted. They flew around a semi-truck, slowed for the 202 exit, and picked up a three-lane. The Jersey Patrol car put on his siren as they passed through Suffern. Ahead he could see the overpass for 287.
“Follow us. We’re going right.”
“Roger.”
They swept the on-ramp and regained speed. “Any word on the Celica, New Jersey Alpha Five-eight?”
“Negative.”
Kerry mentally crossed his fingers. Prudhomme had at least an hour’s jump on him. He hoped there was time.
CHAPTER 41
* * *
ASH WAS about fifty miles ahead of Kerry. He knew the CID agent was resourceful and would have Ash’s car license nailed in two minutes, so he had stopped in Jacey’s room to pick up the keys to her Miata. A white sports car in the middle of the night on a nearly empty interstate . . . he was doing five miles over the speed limit, all he thought he could afford.
Rose had done it. He was certain of that. He had tried to put himself in Rose’s place. What would he do? He would stick to his routine, that’s what. He’d pretend he was going to the Rutgers game, check into his motel, drive back to West Point and commit the crime, and get straight back to the motel. He would claim he’d been there the whole time, and he’d have Favro and a couple of others to back him up. Hell, Favro was probably the other guy who had grabbed her. If Jacey never saw them, they would claim they’d been together the whole time, sitting around the motel watching TV and drinking beer.
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