Full Dress Gray

by Lucian K. Truscott

  The best thing to do, Major Vernon said, was to get back to the normal rhythms of life while keeping a quiet watch on Jacey. So Sam jumped back into the swing of Academy life. She and Ry had a reception planned for the Academic Board. The entire staff and faculty would be invited to Quarters 100 for cocktails. It was the biggest party they had planned to give yet, and it took quite a bit of organizing to get everything lined up.

  It was the middle of the afternoon and she was in her study, sketching the way she wanted the buffet table arranged in the dining room, when she heard a knock at the back door. Standing outside on the back porch was Helen Messick. The strange thing was, it was a mild, cloudy day, but Helen was wearing dark glasses and a long winter overcoat, and she had a scarf wrapped around her head. Sam opened the door.

  “Can I come in?”

  “Sure, Helen.”

  She walked into the breakfast room. “I hope I’m not interrupting anything.”

  “Don’t worry. I was just puttering around here. There’s always something I’ve got to catch up on.”

  “I have to talk to you, Sam. Is there someplace we can go? Someplace private?”

  “Of course.” Sam led the way to her office and closed the door behind her. “This is my little sanctuary.”

  Helen looked around. “It’s nice, Sam. It feels like you.”

  “Have a seat.”

  Helen sat down on the love seat and removed her glasses and scarf. Sam sat down in the wing-backed chair across from her.

  “I’m leaving for my mother’s today. I’ll be gone for a while, Sam. I may not be coming back.”

  Sam knew she was building up to something, so she sat there listening and let her take her time.

  She unbuttoned the long winter overcoat. She was wearing a simple blouse and a pair of black pants. “I wanted you to know, Sam. I felt like I had to tell you.” She was holding the scarf in her lap. She folded it in half and then unfolded it, and then folded it again. “I’ve got to get out of here. Does this place get to you, Sam?”

  “Sure it does. West Point can seem like a beautiful prison at times.”

  “I heard about your daughter. I’m so sorry for her. It must have been terrifying.”

  “It was, but she seems to be doing better every day.”

  “I’ve got something to tell you. I should have told you before, but I was afraid. It’s so stupid, the way I was acting.” She paused, looking beyond Sam out the window. Her lower lip quivered. She started to say something and stopped. Then it burst out of her. “I know who did that to your daughter.” She started to sob, covering her face with the scarf.

  Sam sat forward and reached for her hand. Helen’s sobs came faster, and her hands began to shake. Sam moved next to her on the love seat and held her as she shook, crying uncontrollably. “Can I get you some water?”

  “N-n-no.” Her shoulders stopped shaking, and she dropped her hands to her lap. Her face was red, and only now did Sam notice that she wasn’t wearing makeup. “I am so, so sorry. I don’t know how to tell you how ashamed of myself I am.”

  “It’s okay.”

  A couple of little sobs escaped from her, and she paused, taking deep breaths. “This is so hard.”

  “Helen, take your time.”

  “Ry probably told you that I have been seeing Jack Gibson. It was a couple of nights ago. He went to some kind of conference in Albany and called me and I drove up there. I was going to tell him it was over, that I didn’t want to see him anymore, and then I was going to drive back. That was my plan.”

  She wiped her eyes with the scarf. “Can I get that glass of water, Sam?”

  “Sure.” She poured a glass of water, and Helen took small sips. It seemed to settle her.

  “I told him what I came to tell him, and he flew into a rage. He was insane. He started threatening me, threatening my husband. He said he’d destroy his career. I got mad, and I told him I didn’t care about my husband’s damn career. That was when he started screaming about your daughter.” Her eyes filled with tears and Sam reached for the Kleenex. She handed her some tissues, and Helen blew her nose. Her eyes were bloodshot, and she looked at Sam pleadingly.

  “I’ve been such a fool.”

  “Helen, there is nothing you could tell me that would make me feel worse than how I felt when I saw Jacey. It’s over. Both of us have healed. I know that people make mistakes. I’ve made my fair share over the years.”

  Helen reached for her hand. “It was so awful. He asked me if I wanted what Jacey got. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. He said your daughter was no better than a cur, and then he laughed, and he said Rose hog-tied her and whipped her like a bitch dog.”

  Sam gasped in horror. “Oh my god. Oh my god. What kind of a man is he?”

  “He’s not a man, don’t you see? That’s why I had to come here and tell you!”

  Sam stood. “I’m afraid Ry is going to kill him.”

  “There’s more, Sam.”

  “More? More?”

  “He’s laying some kind of trap for Ry. He was down in Washington, meeting with Congressman Thrunstone. He bragged that he had given Thrunstone the dirt on Slaight. He said the committee is going to put him under oath and expose West Point’s weakness. They’re going to call for his resignation. He said it will be all over the television news, and Meuller won’t have any choice but to force him out.” She looked up at Sam, tears running down her cheeks. “I was with him in Washington, Sam. I did this to myself. I walked into it with my eyes open, and I’m going to end up paying the price for my recklessness. But you have suffered enough. Jacey, that poor child . . .” She started sobbing again. Sam let her cry. Finally Helen looked up. “I have destroyed everything that was dear to me. He’s going to hurt you and your family. You’ve got to stop him.”

  “I want you to talk to Ry. Tell him what you’ve told me. I’ll talk to him first. I promise he won’t get mad. You’re a victim, Helen. He will see that. Will you do it?”

  Helen nodded yes.

  Sam picked up the phone and dialed the Superintendent’s private line. “Ry, I want you to drop everything and come home at once. I’ve found out who attacked Jacey.”

  CHAPTER 47

  * * *

  SLAIGHT SAT next to her as Helen Messick told him everything she had just told Sam. He listened with an icy calm that made words gush out of her in a torrent. When she was finished, he left the room silently. Helen looked desperate. She was still fidgeting nervously when he returned carrying a tray with three glasses. He handed one to her and said a single word: “Vodka.” He handed the other glass to Sam and the three of them sat in her study sipping the chilled vodka for several moments before he spoke again.

  “You said you are going to your mother’s. Where does she live?”

  “Alabama.”

  “You may have to come back, Helen. We may need you.”

  “I don’t know if I could do it.”

  “Helen, this is an Army post. This is federal land. Any crime committed on this land is a federal crime. You can be subpoenaed across state and national boundaries to testify in a federal criminal proceeding, which is what’s going to come out of this.”

  “I’m scared of him, Ry! You should be, too! He’s out to destroy you!”

  “Do you want him to harm anyone else?”

  “N-no.”

  “You’ll be protected. I’ll see to that personally.”

  “He’s a dangerous man. You have no idea how evil he is.”

  “It’s over, Helen. He’s going to bring himself down. All I’m going to do is make it easy for him.”

  “What will she have to do, Ry?” asked Sam.

  “She’ll have to give a statement to the Agent in Charge, Chief Warrant Officer Kerry. She’ll probably be subpoenaed to appear at an Article Thirty-two hearing.”

  “You can do that, Helen,” Sam said encouragingly.

  “I’ll try.”

  “What about Dick? Does he know you’re here?”

/>   “No.”

  “Are you going to tell him?”

  “There isn’t much left of our relationship. It’s probably better if I do what I have to do and leave for my mother’s, and you have someone else tell him.”

  “It’s going to turn into a huge scandal, isn’t it, Ry?” asked Sam.

  “I don’t know yet. I don’t know if we’re going to get enough on Gibson to charge him with anything. He’ll deny he ever said anything about Rose. It’s Helen’s word against his, and I’m not positive about the law, but I’m fairly certain anything he said to Helen is hearsay. If it’s hearsay, it’s not admissible in a trial.”

  “What about this monster, Rose?” Sam pronounced his name like it hurt to say it.

  “Kerry hasn’t got much. This is going to help, though. There may be some way Kerry can turn the other cadet against him. We’ll have to see.”

  “Even if he does, Jacey said the other one left before Rose started in on her. There was no witness.”

  “You’re right about that. I’m going to talk with Bassett when I leave here. I’m thinking about taking the whole thing away from Lombardi and Percival and letting Bassett handle it. If there’s a clean way to get that kid, Bassett will find it.”

  Sam touched Helen lightly on the arm. “Where are you going when you leave here?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t feel like I can go home. What there is left between Dick and me is complicated, but I have betrayed him, and I don’t think I can face him right now.”

  “I’ll have Melissa, my secretary, drive you down to Westchester County for a few days,” said Slaight. “We’ll put you up in a hotel in Tarrytown or Dobbs Ferry until you’ve completed what you have to do here. We’ll arrange for your airfare to your mother’s.”

  “I hope you can forgive me, Ry. I can’t tell you how badly I feel about Jacey.”

  “What happened to Jacey is not your fault. Both Sam and I understand what you’ve gone through. Life can be tough on you, Helen. You get to be our age, and you think the world should have somehow turned into a softer place. Then you wake up one morning and you see that the years haven’t worn any of the edges off. It’s still a big, bad world out there, but we’ve all got to live in it. The thing about Jacey that just amazes me is that somehow, she knows it already, and still she’s hanging in there. She’s a piece of work, just like her mother.”

  Helen drank the last of her vodka and put her glass down. “I appreciate what you’re doing for me, Ry. You didn’t have to, and I wouldn’t have blamed you if you just threw me to the wolves.”

  “The first job I have is to protect my people, and I haven’t been doing it too well so far. I don’t want anyone else hurt on this Army post.” He stood up and shook her hand. “I’ve got some calls to make. You stay put. Melissa will be over here shortly, and she’ll take you where you’ve got to go.”

  “Thank you, Ry.”

  Sam followed him into the kitchen. He was standing at the sink, washing his glass. “What do you think our chances are with Gibson?”

  “Fair.”

  “What about the hearing?”

  “I can’t worry about that. It’s the other stuff that troubles me. Gibson is not going to make any more mistakes. When he finds out Helen is missing in action, he’ll go into deep-bunker mode and batten down the hatches. He’ll call in every IOU he’s got. This is going to be like a Mafia war, his family against our family.”

  “Well, at least we’re in the right.”

  “That and a token will get you a subway ride.”

  Sam didn’t laugh. “I’m nervous, Ry. How is this going to affect Jacey?”

  “It’s already affecting her. The goddamned cadets are picking sides and I’ve heard Rose is winning that battle. Jacey is going to be smack in the middle of this whirlwind no matter what we do. She’ll just have to ride it out, Sam. We can help her. We can love her, and we can pray for her, and we can give her all of the things that parents can give a daughter. But she’s not a child anymore. At the end of the day, she is out there on her own.”

  “That’s what scares me. Look what happened to her, being on her own.”

  “Gibson’s not the only one who isn’t going to make any more mistakes, Sam. That’s one of the things about growing up. You learn to watch your back. A little paranoia will serve her well.”

  “I love her so much, Ry. I wish I could take her place. It’s so sad to watch her innocence stripped away.”

  He hugged his wife close and whispered in her ear, “Our daughter was never innocent. She’s a Slaight.”

  CHAPTER 48

  * * *

  THERE WERE two things holding Jacey together. One was the support she got from other female cadets, but the support she got from Ash was far more important. Patterson told him he was facing ten years in the Fort Leavenworth Disciplinary Barracks for his assault on Rose and Favro. Beating the shit out of Rose was the lesser of his worries. Using the steering-wheel lock on Favro had gotten him charged with assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. His prints were on the red plastic cover of the lock, and Favro had signed a statement identifying him as the person who assaulted him.

  Ash seemed unconcerned about the charges. Even though he was supposed to be confined to his room when not going to class or attending to official duties, Ash spent every moment he could with Jacey and insisted on sleeping on a pallet at the foot of her bed every night, which also broke the rules. Patterson warned him that violating his confinement could send him back to a holding cell, but Ash ignored his entreaties.

  Jacey had been back in the barracks for only a few days. Her wounds still ached, and the painkiller she was taking made her sleepy. It was an hour past taps. Jacey was asleep in her bed. Belle was studying at her desk, and Ash was reclining on Belle’s bed, reading by the light from Belle’s desk lamp. There was a knock at the door. Ash jumped from the bed and ran to the door.

  “Who’s there?”

  “You don’t know me,” came a young woman’s voice. “My name is Debbie Edwards. Can I come in, please? It’s important that I speak with Jacey Slaight.”

  Ash unlocked her door. She was thin and dark-haired, wearing a hooded sweat jacket. “Come in,” he said, checking up and down the hall. He saw no one. “Jacey’s asleep. What’s this about?”

  She stood nervously in the semidarkness. “I’m in Company E-Four, over in the Fourth Regiment.”

  Belle walked over to get a better look at her. “Aren’t you on the women’s pistol team?”

  “Yes, I am.”

  “I watched you shoot a match last year. You’re good.”

  “Thanks.”

  “What’s the story?” Ash asked her. “You’re not out for a stroll at this hour.”

  “No, I’m not.” She glanced nervously around the room before she spoke. “Can you wake up Jacey? I want her to hear what I’ve got to say.”

  “This had better not be a load of bullshit,” said Ash. “She’s not feeling too well.”

  “It’s important. Really.”

  Ash gently shook Jacey’s shoulder. She blinked, rubbing her eyes. “What’s going on?”

  “There’s someone here to see you,” Ash whispered.

  “Who is it?”

  “I don’t know her.”

  Jacey got out of bed, and Belle helped her into her bathrobe. “I’m Jacey,” she said, introducing herself to the stranger.

  “I’m Debbie Edwards. Everybody’s talking about what happened. I want you to know that women in the Fourth Regiment are behind you all the way. The guys who did it . . . they’re shit.”

  “Thanks,” said Jacey.

  “I heard one of them was Favro.”

  “We can’t prove it yet.”

  “What do you know about Favro?” Ash asked.

  “I . . . I . . .”

  “If you know something, spit it out.”

  “Give her a chance,” said Jacey.

  “I went out with him a few times. Then one night he dosed m
e with this.” She took a small vial from her pocket and handed it to Jacey. “They call it fX, Cherry Bomb, Liquid Rush. It knocks you out if you take too much. That’s what he did to me.”

  “Wait. Back up. You’d better tell me how this happened.”

  There was sadness in her eyes. “Favro is like this gorgeous creature. Every girl in the Fourth Regiment would die to get him. So one day after class, I’m walking back to the barracks and he falls in next to me and he asks me out. Just like that.”

  “What happened next?”

  “We went out a few times. You know, a movie here on the Post, down to Highland Falls for lunch on a Sunday. I started seeing him around. He’d stop by my table in the mess hall and walk me back from dinner.”

  “When was this?”

  “Last May.”

  “Did you go out with him again?”

  “That’s what I’m getting to. One night we’re walking back from dinner and he tells me there’s going to be this party, and he wants me to go. It was going to be up near Kingston. They were taking rooms in this motel and it was going to be, like, an open house. I said yes. That’s where he dosed me.”

  “Was Rose there?” asked Ash.

  “Yes. It was him and Favro and some other guys I didn’t know. They all had dates.”

  Jacey held the vial under the desk lamp and opened it. “It looks like water.”

  “They sell it at a disco up in Newburgh right out in the open, ‘cause it’s legal. It’s got no odor, no taste. It is just like water.”

  “How did he do it to you?”

  “I wasn’t drinking. I think he put it in a bottle of Evian. The next thing I knew, I was like, out there. It makes you lose your mind.” Her voice turned to a whisper. “I mean, you’ll do stuff you would never think of doing . . .” She was zipping and unzipping her jacket, up and down, up and down.

  Jacey gave the vial another sniff and put the cap back on. “I’ll bet this is what they gave Dorothy.”

  “That’s why I had to see you. They think it’s funny. They dose a girl and then they fool around with her. It’s a big yuk. You’ve got to stop them.”