Chasing a Blond Moon(85)
“Woods cop. I had a feeling. Just like your old man. What the hell do you want after all these years?”
“This may seem a little off the wall.”
“That keeps it in character.”
“I’ve got a strange old bird up here. He claims to have been a POW in Korea.”
“Do I detect skepticism?”
“I got some of his records and used them to find his high school. The picture we found there, well—I know people age and change, but this can’t be a photo of the man.”
“Wouldn’t be the first counterfeit POW,” Gates said. “You want, I can poke around and see if anybody has anything. I’ve got writing utensil in hand, Sarn’t. Fire for effect.”
Service related Oliver Toogood’s record. “The thing is, I can’t find a place where he’d be getting a disability check.”
“Maybe he’s not. There have been a few men who turned them down. Or maybe your man’s checks go to a bank somewhere else to accumulate and he draws against it. Money’s like clay nowadays, you can knead it into just about any shape that suits you.”
Service hadn’t considered this. How did he get bank information? “There’s one other thing. I got your number from a woman named Augusta Rivitz.”
“Poor thing is totally bonkers.”
“How did she get invited to testify?”
“Her organization sent her. They figured that the august senators should get a firsthand look at the personal cost to POW/MIA families, but politicians are reptiles. The only time they’re warm, they’ve got their pampered fat asses plopped on hot rocks beside a donor volcano erupting cash.”
“Her testimony seemed coherent.” It had been the phone call that was at odds with what he had read on the Senate Select Committee’s site.
“No doubt you saw her written testimony. The actual transcript is too fucked up to publish. You can’t even dig it out of the Web site. Anybody wants it, they have to go the FOIA route, and you know how long that shit takes.”
“Was her father a POW?”
“Technically, yes. Did she tell you about her father’s wingman?”
“She told me.”
“I checked it out at some length. The wingman saw Rivitz in his chute, but reported Rivitz wasn’t moving or showing any signs of life, and when he hit the ground, he just lay there sprawled out. The Pentagon had no choice but to declare Rivitz MIA. In all likelihood, the enemy found him dead right where he hit the ground.”
“She knows this?”
“Her mother was informed, and later Augusta was told on more than one occasion. She just can’t seem to wrap her head around it. Can’t or won’t. That’s a fine line.”
“She said you send her a Christmas card every year.”
“I do, and every one of them says the same thing: ‘Happy Holidays. I am sorry for your terrible loss. Here’s the name of a psychiatrist who can help you.’ She’s what the Pentagoonies call IUDCD—invisible unintended domestic collateral damage.”
There was no love lost between Gates and the military. “When did you hang it up?”
“Ninety-two, the month after I testified. I’d already submitted my papers and I figured I went off the reservation a bit too far. They weren’t sorry to see me go and I didn’t let the door hit me in the ass on the way out.”
“Rivitz said you lost a brother in Korea.”
“She’s dotty. What I said was that all the men and women dead and missing in Korea and Vietnam were my brothers and sisters. Did she tell you about her active listening training? Oh yes, Ms. Rivitz hears only what she wants to hear, which makes her like the rest of us who haven’t been trained.”
They both laughed.
“I do feel bad for her,” Gates said, “but the living have to keep on keeping on. I’ll get what I can for you on Toogood. If he’s a fake, we’ll nail his sorry ass. If he’s getting a check, I’ll find that out, too.”
“Thanks, general.”
“To you and that big black smiling sonuvabitch you call a pal, it’s Teddy. Give that big bastard a kiss for me and watch your back, Sarn’t Service.”
“Yessir.”
“Semper Fi, Sarn’t. If I’d had a division of Services and Treebones we could have hiked up there to Hanoi and shot Uncle Ho and the rest of those red motherfuckers.”
“You had a unit in the Gulf War.”
“Not with the likes of you two. I’ll get back at you.”
It had been good to hear Teddy’s voice.
He was ready to follow his second lead when Simon del Olmo called.
“Get this,” del Olmo said. “That cable we found at Kitella’s—it’s a perfect match to the cable Elza found. In fact, it’s off the same spool.”