The Enemy

Reed.”
    “Good,” he said. “That’s good.” Then he paused. “From the beginning, OK?”
    “He was wearing XII Corps patches,” I said. “Means he was based in Germany. He flew into Dulles yesterday. From Frankfurt, probably. Civilian flight, for sure, because he was wearing Class As, hoping for an upgrade. He would have worn BDUs on a military flight. He rented a cheap car and drove two hundred ninety-eight miles and checked into a fifteen-dollar motel room and picked up a twenty-dollar hooker.”
    “I know about the flight,” Garber said. “I called XII Corps and spoke with his staff. I told them he was dead.”
    “When?”
    “After I got off the phone with the dispatcher.”
    “You tell them how or where he was dead?”
    “I said a probable heart attack, nothing more, no details, no location, which is starting to look like a very good decision now.”
    “What about the flight?” I said.
    “American Airlines, yesterday, Frankfurt to Dulles, arrived thirteen hundred hours, with an onward connection nine hundred hours today, Washington National to LAX. He was going to an Armored Branch conference at Fort Irwin. He was an Armored commander in Europe. An important one. Outside chance of making Vice-Chief of Staff in a couple of years. It’s Armored’s turn next, for Vice-Chief. Current guy is infantry, and they like to rotate. So he stood a chance. But it ain’t going to happen for him now, is it?”
    “Probably not,” I said. “Being dead and all.”
    Garber didn’t answer that.
    “How long was he over here for?” I said.
    “He was due back in Germany inside a week.”
    “What’s his full name?”
    “Kenneth Robert Kramer.”
    “I bet you know his date of birth,” I said. “And where he was born.”
    “So?”
    “And his flight numbers and his seat assignments. And what the government paid for the tickets. And whether or not he requested a vegetarian meal. And what exact room Irwin VOQ was planning on putting him in.”
    “What’s your point?”
    “My point is, why don’t I know all that stuff too?”
    “Why would you?” Garber said. “I’ve been working the phones and you’ve been poking around in a motel.”
    “You know what?” I said. “Every time I go anywhere I’ve got a wad of airplane tickets and travel warrants and reservations and if I’m flying in from overseas I’ve got a passport. And if I’m going to a conference I’ve got a briefcase full of all kinds of other crap to carry them in.”
    “What are you saying?”
    “I’m saying there were things missing from the motel room. Tickets, reservations, passport, itinerary. Collectively, the kind of things a person would carry in a briefcase.”
    Garber didn’t respond.
    “He had a suit carrier,” I said. “Green canvas, brown leather bindings. A buck gets ten he had a briefcase to match. His wife probably chose them both. Probably got them mail-order from L.L.Bean. Maybe for Christmas, ten years ago.”
    “And the briefcase wasn’t there?”
    “He probably kept his wallet in it too, when he was wearing Class As. As many medal ribbons as this guy had, it makes the inside pocket tight.”
    “So?”
    “I think the hooker saw where he put his wallet after he paid her. Then they got down to business, and he croaked, and she saw a little extra profit for herself. I think she stole his briefcase.”
    Garber was quiet for a moment.
    “Is this going to be a problem?” he asked.
    “Depends what else was in the briefcase,” I said.

two
    I put the phone down and saw a note my sergeant had left me:
Your brother called. No message.
I folded the note once and dropped it in the trash. Then I headed back to my quarters and got three hours’ sleep. Got up again fifty minutes before first light. I was back at the motel just as dawn was breaking. Morning didn’t make the neighborhood look any better. It was depressed and abandoned for miles around. And quiet. Nothing was stirring. Dawn on New Year’s Day is as close as any inhabited place gets to absolute stillness. The highway was deserted. There was no traffic. None at all.
    The diner at the truck stop was open but empty. The motel office was empty. I walked down the row to the last-but-one room. Kramer’s room. The door was locked. I stood with my back to it and pretended I was a hooker whose client had just died. I had pushed his weight off me and dressed fast and grabbed his briefcase and I was running away with it. What would I do? I wasn’t