P Deutermann - Darkside

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.”