Zero Day (John Puller, #1)(75)

“I’m sure she was.”

“Matt commuted there on Friday and came back on Sunday to go back to work on Monday. He did that most weeks.”

“I know that. I talked to his commanding officer, General Carson.”

Strickland’s face flushed at this comment, but she hurried on. “He called me up about two weeks ago and said that he’d come across something in West Virginia that was really puzzling him.”

“In what way?”

“He wouldn’t go into detail, but from what he said he had stumbled onto something that was really serious.”

“Like maybe a drug operation?”

Puller didn’t normally like to interject anything into the conversation when questioning a witness, but his gut had told him to do it this time.

She looked at him strangely. “No, I don’t think it had anything to do with drugs.”

“What, then?”

“Something bigger than that. That involved other people. I could tell that he was a little scared, uncertain of what to do.”

“How did he stumble on this, as you said?”

“I think he learned about it from someone else.”

“And that person had stumbled onto it?”

“I’m not sure. It might have been that the person was already looking into it.”

Puller’s pen hovered over his notebook. “You mean like the police?”

“No, it wasn’t anyone in authority. I’m pretty sure of that. At least Matt never mentioned it.”

“Who, then?”

“Well, I think it was like someone working undercover.”

“But you just said it wasn’t the police.”

“Well, don’t the police sometimes use civilians in undercover operations, particularly if they have some inside connection to a target?”

“I guess they do. But then you’re talking drugs or maybe gunrunning.”

“I don’t think it was that, because I don’t think that would have scared Matt so much.”

“He had his family out there. He might have been nervous for them.”

“Maybe,” she said uncertainly.

“He ever tell you a name or give a description of this ‘undercover’ person?”

“No.”

“Did he say how he met the person?”

“Ran into them one day.”

“Why would they confide in him?”

“Because he was in uniform, I believe.”

“But if the person were working undercover they presumably would have already been working with the police. So why go to some guy in an Army uniform?”

“I don’t know,” admitted Strickland. “But I do know that Matt was involved somehow and he was really worried.”

“Where are you assigned?” he asked.

“I’m an analyst at DoD.”

“What do you analyze?”

“The Middle East, with an emphasis on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.”

“Ever been there?”

She shook her head. “No. I know you have. Many times.”

“It’s okay, Barbara. Some people make good analysts and some don’t.”

“And some people are good in combat. Like you.”

“Would you like to analyze a situation for me?”

She looked surprised but nodded gamely.

“When I was assigned this case I was told that it was unusual. Four bodies in another state, one of them a DIA colonel. Normally, we’d bring the heavy artillery on something like that. Multiple CID agents, tech support, even bring folks up from USACIL. But they sent just me because it was termed unusual. You got any idea why that would be the case?”

“DIA involvement?”

“But General Carson said nothing Reynolds was involved in would have been connected with his murder, so they couldn’t have been concerned about that. But the SecArm’s office even called down to the lab in Atlanta about the case. They seemed to think it was some hot stuff going on, and more than just the DIA angle. Why would they have thought that?”

“Because someone from DIA told them it was hot stuff and wanted to keep a close lid on it?” suggested Strickland.

“I was thinking the same thing. When I earlier mentioned General Carson your face changed color.”

Now Strickland turned pale.

Puller said, “It’s just stuff I tend to notice. Don’t take it personally. So tell me about the lady.”

“I don’t know her all that well.”

“I think you know her a lot better than I do. Tell me, would Reynolds have confided in her the same concerns he did to you?”

“Matt was a soldier’s soldier.”

“Meaning he followed chain of command. So he would have told her. And maybe she saw an opportunity to score a victory. An unexpected one that might get her the second star, especially if what Reynolds had stumbled onto had to do with national security matters. Is that plausible? Or am I barking up the wrong tree?”

Strickland bristled. “I think Julie Carson would crawl over the body of her dead mother to make major general.”

“So she’s that ambitious?”

“My experience in the military is that everyone who gets at least one star is that ambitious.”