terrace and began strutting between the lounge chairs, maybe looking for food, like those trash scavengers they’d seen yesterday. He said, “What’s the difference between a tropical paradise and hell on earth?”
“Not much, apparently.”
“Right. Every society comes to a Y in the road… the road to hell is downhill and looks easier than the uphill road. Until you get to the end.”
She looked at him. “Is that you talking? Or the beer?”
“It’s me talking to the beer.”
“Old bad joke.”
They exchanged smiles and she looked at the blue heron, giving Brodie an opportunity to look at her, sitting a few feet from him, nearly naked—and maybe still pissed off at him for excluding her from the two Dombroski calls.
He now noticed pockmarked shrapnel scars running along the right side of her waist and hip and down the length of her right quad. Taylor, he reminded himself, was more than his subordinate officer in the CID. They shared the bond of surviving combat. And of having friends who didn’t.
So he—or the beer—decided to share some information with her. Not the info about her being involved with a CIA guy, but the info about Crenshaw. He said, “Do you remember the murder of Robert Crenshaw in Peshawar?”
She looked at him. “I do. Why?”
“Well, in my first phone call to Dombroski, he told me that Crenshaw was not a diplomat—he was actually a CIA officer—and that he had been stationed in Kabul before Peshawar.”
Taylor kept looking at him, but didn’t respond.
Brodie related his conversation with Dombroski regarding the timeline and geographic connection between Captain Mercer’s escape from the Taliban and Crenshaw’s torture and murder.
Taylor listened, then said, “That’s a stretch. But even if it were true, we don’t know why Mercer would want to torture and murder a CIA officer. Or what that has to do with why Mercer deserted. Or why he came to Caracas.”
“Correct. But now we also know that Colonel Worley was in Kabul.”
“We don’t know when he was there.”
“Correct. But maybe we’ll ask him later.”
“Okay… but Afghanistan is a seventeen-year-old war, and thousands of Intel officers have served there.”
“Right. But it would be interesting if Worley was there at the same time as Mercer and Crenshaw.” He reminded her, “Ted was there at the same time Worley was.”
“We don’t know who Ted is.” She chided, “You’re getting off base, Scott. We’re here to find and apprehend Kyle Mercer, not to develop conspiracy theories. Focus on the mission.”
She was right, of course, but her disinterest in all of this seemed somewhat out of character for Maggie Taylor, who was so diligent, manic, and detail-oriented. He said, “We are CID Special Agents, not a couple of MPs sent to go out and fetch.”
“We are investigators—cops—not Intel officers.”
“Okay… but also consider this: Robert Crenshaw’s murder was big news at the time, so Worley knew about it, and Worley—who’s an Intel officer—must have heard that Crenshaw was actually a CIA officer. And if Brendan Worley is half as smart as he thinks he is, then he’s pondered the possible connection between Robert Crenshaw’s murder and Kyle Mercer’s geographic proximity to Peshawar at that time—just as Colonel Dombroski thought about that connection.”
“Talk about making assumptions.”
“All right. But we do know that Worley was in Afghanistan and he never mentioned it to us—and when someone withholds information, you have to wonder why, and also wonder what else he’s withholding.”
“Scott, he may not have mentioned it because of security issues.” She added, “CIA officers, for instance, don’t tell you where they’ve been.”
And she would know about that.
She said, “If you ask Worley if he was in Afghanistan, do it in a friendly way.”
“I always ask questions as though I don’t already know the answer.” He added, “It will be interesting to see if he lies.”
She nodded.
“Stick with me, Maggie. You’ll learn something.”
“I already have.”
Brodie changed the subject. “Did you look up Tomás de Heres?”
“I did. He was an officer in Bolívar’s army and he helped lead the liberation of Peru. He was assassinated when someone set off a bomb in his house. The killer was never found.”
“An Army cold case. Let’s look into it after we find Mercer.”
“Wrong army.” She asked, “Did you mention Tomás de Heres to Dombroski?”
“I didn’t. But I did mention Flagstaff.”
“And?”
“Didn’t ring a bell with him.”
“Did you mention that Worley didn’t tell us he was in Afghanistan?”