The Escape (John Puller, #3)(66)

Puller pulled out his phone. The man answered on the second ring. James Schindler from the National Security Council said, “Hello?”

“Mr. Schindler, John Puller. I need your help, sir. And I really need it right now.”





CHAPTER





34



PULLER AND KNOX were parked outside of Susan Reynolds’s home in Springfield, Virginia.

Knox checked her watch. “She got off work about thirty-five minutes ago. She might’ve stopped along the way. Fort Belvoir isn’t that far from here.”

Pulled nodded but said nothing, keeping his gaze swiveling between Reynolds’s two-story home in a newer, very upscale neighborhood of Springfield and the entrance to the subdivision.

“What’s her position at Fort Belvoir?” Puller asked.

“She works in the Center for Combating Weapons of Mass Destruction.”

“Don’t they work closely with DTRA?” said Puller, referring to the Defense Threat Reduction Agency.

“There’s a partnership there, yes,” replied Knox. “In fact the center is located at DTRA’s headquarters and a lot of DTRA’S mission supports the center’s work.”

“And their mission is to wipe out WMDs?”

“At least the bad guys’ WMDs.”

“Anything jump out in her personnel file?” he asked.

“No. She joined another STRATCOM component at Bolling Air Force Base about the time of your brother’s court-martial. And from there she went to the center. But there must be something if she lied about your brother’s actions.”

“Well, we’re about to find out because there she is.”

A late-model Lexus four-door pulled into the driveway of Reynolds’s house. A tall, fit, good-looking woman in her early fifties with a thick mane of bleached-blonde hair climbed out of the sedan carrying a briefcase and a plastic bag full of groceries.

Puller knew from her file that she had two grown children who no longer lived with her.

She walked up to the front steps, and by the time she got there Puller and Knox had caught up to her.

“What is this about?” she asked when they flashed their creds.

“Robert Puller,” Puller said bluntly and then watched Reynolds closely for any type of reaction. However, she simply stared up at him. In her younger days she must’ve been truly a beauty, thought Puller. She still had head-turning looks and her tall, lean figure was impressive. The woman clearly stayed in shape.

“I heard that he had escaped from the DB. Are you worried that he might come after me because I testified against him?”

Puller gave her another appraising look and his opinion of the woman changed. She was not going to simply crack and confess. She must have anticipated someone might show up on her doorstep after his brother had gotten out of the DB. And she was prepared.

“Can we go inside and discuss this?” said Puller.

“All right.” Reynolds glanced at Knox. “INSCOM? So you’re at Fort Belvoir too.”

“Yes, but I don’t work from there. And I hardly have any engagement with the center or DTRA.”

Reynolds nodded. “Well, it’s not like I would ever see you anyway. The place is massive.”

She unlocked the front door. The house was alarmed and she blocked their view of the control panel while she keyed in the disarming code.

“I need to put the groceries away in the fridge. Can you give me a couple minutes?”

“I can do better than that,” said Puller. “I can help you while my partner goes over her notes.” He inclined his head at Knox and then nodded toward the living room.

She took up a seat there and hauled out her notepad while Puller followed Reynolds down a short hallway to the large kitchen.

“CID?” she said. “I suppose you’re investigating the escape. But Puller was Air Force.”

“DB is an Army prison.”

“I saw you had the same last name.”

“Lots of Pullers around,” said Puller, quite truthfully.

He slowly emptied the bag of groceries and handed them to her one by one, taking his time.

“So, you like the work at the center?” he asked.

“It’s challenging. And what goal could be more important? Getting WMDs out of the hands of terrorists.”

“Or stop them from getting WMDs in the first place.”

“Even better.”

“So how well did you know Robert Puller?”

“Not well. I mean we worked together at the facility in Kansas City when that was open. They’ve consolidated everything back at Offutt now.”

“What did you think of him?”

“He was incredibly smart and diligent. Everyone knew he was going to end up running the place some day. Made it all the more unbelievable that he did what he did.”

“Gambling debts online.”

Reynolds put the last of the groceries away and closed the fridge door. “That’s what came out in the trial. I guess if you get addicted to something it can end up ruining you. It did him. All very sad. He was a tough one to replace.”

“You testified that you saw him copy something onto a DVD.”

“That’s right, I did.”

“Which is prohibited at STRATCOM?”