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"OK," I said.
"OK what?"
"Those were your first impressions. Do you have an opinion based on them?"
"Do you?" she asked.
"Yes," I said.
"You first. "
"I think it's bogus. "
"Why?"
"Too much going on," I said. "There were six things there. The nudity, the missing tags, the genitals, the tree branch, the yogurt, and the belt. Any two would have done it. Maybe three. It's like they were trying to make a point, instead of just going ahead and making one. Maybe trying too hard. "
Norton said nothing.
"Too much," I said again. "Like shooting someone, then strangling him, then stabbing him, then drowning him, then suffocating him, then beating him to death. It's like they were decorating a damn Christmas tree with clues. "
She stayed quiet. She was watching me, deep inside her pool of light. Maybe assessing me.
"I have my doubts about the belt," she said. "Autoeroticism isn't exclusively homosexual. All men have the same orgasms physiologically, gay or not. "
"The whole thing was faked," I said.
She nodded, finally.
"I agree with you," she said. "You're a smart guy. "
"For a cop?"
She didn't smile. "But we know as officers that to permit homosexuals to serve is illegal. So we better be sure we're not letting a defense of the army cloud our judgment. "
"It's my job to protect the army," I said.
"Exactly," Norton said.
I shrugged. "But I'm not taking a position. I'm not saying this guy definitely wasn't gay. Maybe he was. I really don't care. And maybe his attackers knew, maybe they didn't. I'm saying either way, that's not why they killed him. They wanted it to look like the reason. But they weren't really feeling it. They were feeling something else. So they larded on the clues, in a rather self-conscious way. "
Then I paused.
"In a rather academic way," I said.
She stiffened.
"An academic way?" she said.
"Do you guys teach anything about this kind of stuff in class?"
"We don't teach people how to kill," she said.
"That's not what I asked. "
She nodded. "We talk about it. We have to. Cutting off your enemy's dick is as basic as it gets. It's happened all through history. Happened all through Vietnam. Afghan women have been doing it to captured Soviet soldiers for the last ten years. We talk about what it symbolizes, what it communicates, and the fear it creates. There are whole books about the fear of grotesque wounds. It's always a message to the target population. We talk about violation
with foreign objects. We talk about the deliberate display of violated bodies. The trail of abandoned clothing is a classic touch. "
"Do you talk about yogurt?"
She shook her head. "But that's a very old joke. "
"And the asphyxiation thing?"
"Not on the Psy-Ops courses. But most of the people here can read magazines. Or they can watch porn on videotape. "
"Do you talk about questioning an enemy's sexuality?"
"Of course we do. Impugning an enemy's sexuality is the whole point of our course. His sexual orientation, his virility, his capability, his capacity. It's a core tactic. It always has been, everywhere, throughout history. It's designed to work both ways. It diminishes him, and it builds us up by comparison. "
I said nothing.
She looked right at me. "Are you asking me if I recognized the fruits of our lessons, out there in the woods?"
"I guess I am," I said.
"You didn't really want my opinion, did you?" she asked. "That was all preamble. You already knew what you were seeing. "
I nodded. "I'm a smart guy, for a cop. "
"The answer is no," she said. "I did not recognize the fruits of our lessons, out there in the woods. Not specifically. "
"But possibly?"
"Anything's possible. "
"Did you meet General Kramer when you were at Fort Irwin?" I asked.
"Once or twice," she said. "Why?"
"When did you last see him?"
"I don't remember. "
"Not recently?"
"No. Not recently. Why?"
"How did you meet him?"
"Professionally," she said.
"You teach your stuff to Armored Branch?"
"Irwin isn't exclusively Armored Branch. It's the National Training Center too, don't forget. People used to come to us there. Now we go to them. "
I said nothing.
"Does it surprise you we taught Armored people?"
I shrugged again. "A little, I guess. If I was riding around in a seventy-ton tank, I don't suppose I'd feel a need for any more of a psychological edge. "
She still didn't smile. "We taught them. As I recall General Kramer didn't like it if the infantry was getting things his people weren't. It was an intense rivalry. "
"Who do you teach now?"
"Delta Force," she said. "Exclusively. "
"Thank you for your help," I said.
"I didn't recognize anything tonight that we would take responsibility for. "
"Not specifically. "
"It was psychologically generic," she said.
"OK," I said.
"And I resent being asked. "
"OK," I said again. "Good night, ma'am. "
I got up out of the chair and headed for the door.
"What was the real reason?" she asked. "If the display we saw was bogus?"
"I don't know," I said. "I'm not that smart. "
I stopped in my outer office and the sergeant with the baby son gave me coffee. Then I went into my inner office and found Summer waiting for me there. She had come to collect her lists, because the Kramer case was closed.
"Did you check the other women?" I asked her. "Apart from Norton?"
She nodded. "They all have alibis. It's the best night of the year for alibis. Nobody spends New Year's Eve alone. "
"I did," I said.
She said nothing back. I butted the papers into a neat stack and put them back inside their folder and unclipped the note off the front. Hope your mom was OK. I dropped the note in my drawer and handed the file to her.
"What did Norton tell you?" she asked.
"She agreed with me that it was homicide dressed up to look like gay-bashing. I asked her if any of the symbols came from Psy-Ops classes and she didn't really say yes or no. She said they were psychologically generic. She resented being asked. "
"So what now?"
I yawned. I was tired. "We'll work it like we work any of them. We don't even know who the victim is yet. I guess we'll find out tomorrow. On deck at seven, OK?"
"OK," she said, and headed for my door, carrying her file.
"I called Rock Creek," I said. "Asked a clerk to find their copy of the order bringing me here from Panama. "
"And?"
"He said it's got Garber's signature on it. "
"But?"
"That's not possible. Garber got me on the phone on New Year's Eve and was surprised I was here. "
"Why would a clerk lie?"
"I don't think a clerk would. I think the signature is a forgery. "
"Is that conceivable?"
"It's the only explanation. Garber couldn't have forgotten he'd transferred me here forty-eight hours previously. "
"So what's this all about?"
"I have no idea. Someone somewhere is playing chess. My brother told me I should find out who wants me here bad enough to pull me out of Panama and replace me with an asshole. So I tried to find out. And now I'm thinking maybe we should be asking the same question about Garber. Who wants him out of Rock Creek bad enough to replace him with an asshole?"
"But Korea has to be a genuine merit promotion, doesn't it?"
"Garber deserves it, no question," I said. "Except it's too early. It's a one-star job. DoD has to bring it to the Senate. That process happens in the fall, not in January. This was a panic move, spur of the moment. "
"But that would be pointless chess," Summer said. "Why bring you in and pull him out? The two moves neutralize each other. "
"So maybe there are two people playing. Like a tug-of-war. Good guy, bad guy. Win one, lose one. "
"But the bad guy could have won both, easily. He could have discharged you. Or sent you to prison. He's got the civilian complaint to work with. "
I said nothing.
"It doesn't add up," Summer said. "Whoever's playing on your side is willing to let Garber go but is powerful enough to keep you here, even with the civilian complaint on the table. Powerful enough that Willard knew he couldn't proceed against you, even though he probably wanted to. You know what that means?"
"Yes," I said. "I do. "
She looked straight at me.
"It means you're seen as more important than Garber," she said. "Garber's gone, and you're still here. "
Then she looked away and went quiet.
"Permission to speak freely, Lieutenant," I said.
She looked back at me.
"You're not more important than Garber," she said. "You can't be. "
I yawned again.
"No argument from me," I said. "Not on that particular subject. This is not about a choice between me and Garber. "
She paused. Then she nodded.
"No," she said. "It isn't. This is about a choice between Fort Bird and Rock Creek. Fort Bird is seen as more important. What's happening here on the post is seen as more sensitive than what's happening at special unit headquarters. "
"Agreed," I said. "But what the hell is happening here?"
