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“I hope not,” Barrett says. “We got the Russians in less than a half year. I can’t see our efforts lasting eight years. That’s too much time, but we’ll still do it, no matter what.”
“Only if your efforts are kept … confidential.”
Barrett says, “Talking about Liam, I suppose.”
“Yes, sir.”
A knock at the door.
Their coffee has arrived, he thinks.
“You know what has to be done,” Barrett says.
“Sir.”
“So do it.”
CHAPTER 59
LIAM GREY SAYS, “Murdered? Oh, my God, Miriam.”
He walks forward, bends over to hug her, and with her face buried in his chest, she starts weeping, her arms around him. Little Lincoln and Elizabeth, seeing Mommy crying, start weeping as well.
He continues the hug, turns to the DC police detective and says, “What the hell happened?”
The male detective looks like he’s been wearing his tan suit for a week. In a tired voice, he says, “Apparent robbery followed by a shooting. Like it or not, the damn crime rate in DC is climbing again. No matter what the mayor says, the stupid fool.”
“But …”
“I’m Detective Joe Mazzaglia, and who are you?”
“Liam Grey,” he says, still holding tight to Miriam. “I served with Spencer in the Army. We were in the same platoon in Afghanistan. Been good friends ever since.”
“I see,” the detective says, looking to a worn notebook. “This is what it looks like. Captain Webster was exiting a CVS pharmacy on Georgia Avenue Northwest. He had picked up a prescription, and it looks like he was robbed and shot just as he was getting to his Volvo.”
Liam slowly pulls back. Miriam’s face is pale, and her arms are now back around the twins.
Liam says, “Witnesses?”
“None so far.”
“Surveillance videos?”
“The store has them, but only for the interior and the door leading in. Nothing for the parking lot.”
Liam thinks of what he’s just heard.
Captain Spencer Webster.
Doctor Webster, ambushed in a CVS parking lot, after surviving three tours in the ’stan.
He remembers.
Up in the Korengal Valley in eastern Afghanistan, one very cold night at FOB Eversmann. He was with Gus Lumberg and Doc was treating Gus’s feet by a red-lens flashlight that Liam held, so their night vision wouldn’t be spoiled. Doc was trimming away dead skin from the pale feet, and then powdering it up.
“There,” the doc said. “Got a pair of clean socks?”
“Nope,” Gus said.