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unspoken.
Puller decided to simply say it. “So you’re saying he lied? Well, the records you uncovered could be wrong. If his name was on a flight manifest it doesn’t alone prove he was on the plane.”
“We need to dig deeper, certainly.”
Puller eyed both men. “But if that was all you had you wouldn’t be sitting here with me.”
Shorr said, “I nearly forgot what you do for a living. You’re well versed in how investigations operate.”
“So what else do you have, Colonel?”
Hull spoke up. “We can’t get into that, Chief. It’s an ongoing investigation.”
“So you’ve opened an investigation based on a letter from a terminally ill woman about events thirty years ago?”
“And the fact that your father was not out of the country as he said he was,” replied Hull defensively. “Look, if we hadn’t turned that up I don’t think we’d be having this conversation. It’s not like I woke up one morning looking to tear down an Army legend, Chief. But it’s a different time too. Back then maybe things got buried that shouldn’t have been. The Army’s taken some knocks over the years for not being transparent.” He stopped and looked at Shorr.
Shorr said, “An investigation file has been opened, Chief Puller, so it has to be followed through. But if no new evidence is turned up, I don’t see this going anywhere. The Army is not looking to destroy your father’s reputation based on a single letter from a dying woman.”
“What sort of new evidence?” asked Puller.
Shorr said firmly, “This was a courtesy meeting, Chief Puller. That’s all. CID will carry on now, but we wanted you to know how things stood and certainly about the letter. Your father being what he is, we thought it only proper to let you know of the status of things.”
Puller didn’t know what to say to this.
Hull said, “We will want to formally interview you later, Chief. And your brother. And your father, of course.”
“My father has dementia.”
“We understand that. And we also understand that he sometimes is coherent.”
“And who do you understand that from?”
Shorr rose and so did Hull. Shorr said, “Thank you for your time, Chief. Agent Hull will be in touch.”
“Have you spoken to Lynda Demirjian?” asked Puller. “And her husband?”
“Again, CID will be in touch,” Hull said. “Thanks for your time. And I’m sorry to have been the one to communicate something this upsetting.”
The two men left, while Puller sat there staring at the floor.
He pulled out his phone a few moments later and punched in the number.
Two rings later his brother answered.
“Hey, little bro, I’m tied up right now. And if you’re back in Virginia I’m eight hours ahead of you. So can I call—”
“Bobby, we have a big problem. It’s about Dad.”
Robert Puller instantly said, “What’s wrong?”
Puller told his older brother everything that had just occurred.
Robert Puller didn’t say anything for about thirty seconds. All Puller could hear was the other man’s breathing.
“What do you remember about that day?” Robert finally asked.
Puller leaned back in his seat and ran a hand over his forehead. “I was playing outside. I turned to the window and saw Mom there. She was in a robe with a towel around her hair. She had evidently just gotten out of the shower.”
“No, I mean later.”
“Later? That was the last time I saw her.”
“No it wasn’t. We had dinner that night and then she left and went out. The next-door neighbor’s daughter came over to stay with us.”
Puller sat up. “I don’t remember that.”
“Well, we never really talked about it, John.”
“Where did she go that night?”
“I don’t know. To a friend’s, I guess.”
“And she never came back?”
“Obviously not,” Robert said curtly. “And so Dad was back in the country. He told the police he wasn’t.”
“How do you know he told them he wasn’t?”
“CID agents came to the house, John. The next day. Dad was there. They talked to him. We were upstairs, but I could still hear.”
“Why don’t I remember any of this, Bobby?”
“You were eight years old. You didn’t understand any of it.”
“You weren’t even ten yet.”
“I was never much of a kid, John, you know that.” He added, “And it was a traumatic time for all of us. You’ve probably blocked a lot of it from your memories. A defense mechanism.”
“They’re going to want to interview us. And Dad too.”
“Well, they can interview us. But I don’t see them making much headway with the old man.”
“But he may understand what they’re saying. That they think he killed Mom.”
“I don’t see how we can prevent that, John. It’s an investigation. You know how that works better than most. You can’t get in the way of it.”
“I think I need to get Dad a lawyer.”
“Know anybody good?”
“Shireen Kirk. She just left JAG to go into private practice.”
“Then you should give her a call.”
“Do you remember Lynda Demirjian?”
“Yes. Nice lady. Baked cakes. She and Mom were close.”
“Could she have been visiting her that night?” asked Puller.
“I don’t know. She didn’t tell me where she was going.”
“Demirjian is convinced that Dad killed Mom.”
“I wonder why that is. I mean, CID may have found out he was back in the country when he said he wasn’t, but that was only after they got her letter and looked into it. She must have other reasons.”
“And I’m going to find out what they are.”
“You think they’re going to let you investigate this case? It’s Dad. Hell, they wouldn’t let you near my case, remember?”
“And you’ll remember that I did get near your case. Very near.”
“And it almost cost you your career. So my advice is to stay the hell away from this.”
“We can’t just walk away, Bobby.”
“Let me check some things out on my end and I’ll get back to you.”
“You…you don’t think he…” Puller couldn’t actually say the words.
“The truth is I don’t know for sure, and neither do you.”
