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Barbara Winters answered the door with Thomas H. Winters IV in her arms.
“What’s happened to Tom, Jim?”
“Aside from being hungover, Mrs. Winters, Lieutenant Winters is fine.”
“Then what are you doing here?”
“They call it ‘the counseling of the wives under one’s command,’ Mrs. Winters. May I come in?”
“Frankly, Jim, you’re not welcome here.”
“Nevertheless, Mrs. Winters, your husband’s commanding officer is at your door. May I come in?”
She stepped aside and gestured with her head for him to enter.
“The reason Lieutenant Winters had too much to drink last night, Mrs. Winters, is because you asked him to do something he finds it difficult to do.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Forgive me, Mrs. Winters, but I think you do. And what you asked him to do does not, speaking frankly, reflect well on you.”
“If you mean my asking him to go back to the Constabulary—”
“I mean your asking him to go to General White to ask for that. Surely you know he doesn’t want to do that.”
“You tell me why he doesn’t, Captain Cronley.”
“Surely, as the daughter of a general officer . . . your father is a general officer, correct, Mrs. Winters?”
“My father is . . . He’s deputy commander of Fort Knox. What’s that got to do with anything?”
“I presume he’s a friend of General White?”
“He commanded the 175th Armored Field Artillery of Hell on Wheels. Until he was wounded in Normandy.”
“Then I presume he’s also a friend, at least an acquaintance, of General Harmon?”
“Yes, he is. A friend, more than an acquaintance.”
“That makes you an Army brat, doesn’t it?”
“I don’t like that term, frankly.”
“Like it or not, Mrs. Winters, that’s what you are. And as such, if you haven’t considered what would happen if Lieutenant Winters went to General White asking for a transfer back to relatively safer duties in the Constabulary, I suggest you should.”
“What I’m trying to do, Captain Cronley, is keep my husband alive.”
“At what price?”
“Excuse me?”
“Have you considered what would happen to your husband’s career if he goes to General White?”
“What I have been considering, Captain Cronley, is what’s very likely to happen to him, I mean losing his life, if he stays in the DCI. Doing God only knows what incredibly dangerous things.”
“If Lieutenant Winters goes to General White, the general will do one of several things. In my judgment, he’ll tell Lieutenant Winters that when a good officer is given an order, he salutes and says, ‘Yes, sir,’ and carries out that order to the best of his ability. Not tries to get out of it because his wife wants him to. And he was ordered to the DCI.”
“Because you asked for him. And for Bonehead. And we know what happened to Bonehead, don’t we, Captain Cronley?”
