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It was pretty much unthinkable.
And yet Puller had seen enough in his career at CID to know that people were capable of just about anything.
He thought back to his early years with his parents. They had argued, but not to an excessive degree. The old man was harder on his sons than on his wife.
And Jacqueline Puller, known to all as Jackie, did not possess a submissive personality. If anything she was more than a match for her husband. The old man would be away and then he’d come home and try to change the rules of their lives that Jackie Puller had carefully constructed. As the boss of men rushing into combat, Puller Sr. evidently thought he was qualified and entitled to run everything. His wife had not been in agreement on that point.
So there had been arguments, words spoken in anger. But didn’t most if not all marriages have that?
Puller didn’t know for sure, never having been married. But he had conducted many investigations involving married couples. And he glumly recalled that more than a few involved one spouse murdering the other.
He left and went to his car. He got in and punched in the number.
“Shireen?”
“Puller? How’s it going?”
Shireen Kirk had formerly been a JAG, or Judge Advocate General’s, lawyer representing those in uniform. She had recently left the military and gone into private practice in northern Virginia. She had the rep of being a scorched-earth lawyer. And that’s exactly what Puller required.
“I need a lawyer.”
“Okay, so I guess it’s not going too well.”
“Well, my father needs one.”
“I thought he was in a care facility with Alzheimer’s?”
“Dementia, but yes, he is.”
“If he did something that someone found out of bounds I think he’d have a pretty solid diminished capacity defense.”
“It’s not like that. This is from about thirty years ago when he was still in the military.”
“Okay, what happened?”
Puller filled her in on the situation and the letter that Demirjian had sent to CID.
“That really sucks. You say they want to interview your father?”
“Yes.”
“If he’s been diagnosed with dementia he should have counsel there with him. I could even make a case that they can’t question him because of his condition. He’s liable to say anything and we don’t want him to inadvertently incriminate himself.”
“No, we don’t.”
“I can take the case.”
“That’s great, Shireen. But can they even charge him if he’s not competent?”
“They can charge anybody, Puller. Competency is a matter for a court to determine. And even if he’s not competent to stand trial they can hold the prosecution in abeyance until he becomes competent, if that ever happens. But that may be worse than him being tried for the crime.”
“How do you mean?”
“At least if he’s tried he can defend himself and maybe be acquitted.”
Puller slowly nodded. “But if he’s not tried because he’s incompetent, people may assume he’s guilty and is just getting off because he has dementia.”
“Exactly. Being tried in the court of public opinion is often far worse than having your day in court. At least in the latter you get a judgment one way or the other. What’s the name of the CID agent on the case?”
“Ted Hull out of the Twelfth MPs, JBLE.”
He could hear her writing this down. “I’ll contact him and tell him of my representation. I’ll need you to sign a retainer agreement if your father can’t. And I’ll need to meet with your father at some point.”
“I’m not sure how helpful that will be.”
“I still need to do it. I can’t rep someone without meeting them.”
“Okay, I’ll arrange that.”
“Are you his guardian, Puller? Do you have a power of attorney?”
“Yes. We did that when my dad came to the VA hospital.”
“Good, that simplifies matters. I’ll have to request the CID file from the investigation they did back then. They must have talked to people, and I can get those statements, plus information on any theories or leads they might have been trying to run down.”
“I want a copy of it when you do.”
“Why?”
“Why do you think?”
“You shouldn’t go there.”
“Yeah, I’ve heard that before.”
Her next statement surprised him.
“Did you ever look at any of the case files when you got to CID?” she asked.
“I tried to, but they wouldn’t let me access them. Because of my personal connection to the case.”
Puller had just told the woman a lie. He had never tried to access the case files. And right now he didn’t really know why.
Shireen interrupted these thoughts. “What does your brother think of all this?”
“He’s more analytical about these things than I am.”
“Meaning he doesn’t necessarily believe your father didn’t do it?”
Puller had no response to that.
“I have some forms I need you to fill out so I can get going on this,” she said. “I’ll email them to you and you can sign and email or fax them back, okay?”
