“Why?”
“That’s confidential.”
“I understand that you’re a private investigator?”
“Again, if you say so. But if I am and if I was meeting with him, you can understand why I can’t reveal confidences.”
“Wingo is a minor. He can’t be your client.”
“On the contrary, yes he can,” replied Michelle.
“Why would he need a PI?”
“Could be lots of reasons. Why does it matter to you?”
“He just lost his father.”
“I’m well aware of that.”
“He’s vulnerable and scared and the Army does not want to see him taken advantage of. Did you ask for money from him?”
“So you think I’m shaking down a grieving teenager for cash?”
“Are you?”
“Yeah, that’s how I make my living. I look up dead soldiers in the newspaper and then arrange to meet with their crushed kids so I can get rich one dollar bill at a time.” She paused. “How likely does that sound?”
“We know that you were formerly with the Secret Service but were asked to leave.”
“Actually, I was offered full reinstatement but chose to voluntarily resign instead. And that’s ancient history.”
“You and your partner have been involved in some high-level cases. Serial killers, CIA, national security.”
“Stop, you’ll make me blush.”
Jones drew closer and leaned in so that his head and shoulders nearly filled the window. “We are politely asking that you stay away from the Wingos. They’re going through a lot right now. They don’t need this sort of distraction.”
“So how were you made aware of our involvement?” asked Michelle.
“The Army has lots of resources.”
“Do you do this for all the families that have lost service members?”
“No, just for the ones who have people like you trying to mess with their lives at a particularly tragic point. Fortunately, not that many stoop so low.”
“That’s your opinion, and for the record it’s the wrong one,” Michelle said firmly.
“His father was KIA. He was notified of that fact. I don’t know what he asked you to do, but whatever it was, you shouldn’t have accepted. In my book you’re just taking advantage of a heartbroken boy. Maybe you’re doing it to make a few bucks, or scoring some points somehow with someone. Maybe you’re doing it because you feel sorry for him. I don’t know and I don’t really care. But what I do care about is that you leave this family alone so they can grieve properly and get through this in one piece.” He paused and said, “Did I deliver the message clearly, Ms. Maxwell?”
“Crystal clear, Captain Jones.”
He spun on his heel and walked back to his sedan. Ten seconds later he was gone.
Michelle sat in her truck tapping the steering wheel with her fingers as she thought this through. Military police watching. Military police delivering a message. Stay away from the Wingos. They must have already talked to Tyler. Perhaps they were monitoring his phone, saw the meeting set up, and went directly to him. That could explain his sudden decision to have her and Sean stand down.
She called Sean and told him what had just happened.
“What do you think?” he said.
“Jones sounded legit, but maybe all they told him was what he needed to know to deliver the message loud and clear.”
“Well, coupled with the stone wall I got at the Pentagon I’m coming down on the side of this starting to look really suspicious. The question now is what do we do about it?”
“We still have the German Mauser to take back.”
“Michelle, they’ll be watching the Wingos’ house. They see us pull up, the next visit we get will not be from an MP delivering a polite if tough message.”
“It’s not like they’re going to waterboard us, Sean.”
“There are worse things than waterboarding.”
“Name one.”
“Maiming? Death?”
“Come on, this is our government we’re talking about. And I can’t leave it like this. And I don’t think you can either. Tyler is holding something back. I really believe he needs our help, but he’s been warned off too. I doubt even the Army can afford to have its personnel wait in snowy parking lots to dress down somebody they think might be taking advantage of a slain service member’s family.”
“I know. Something is off, way off.”
“But you’re right about the Army fence around the Wingos now. We go there, it won’t be pleasant. So what other angle can we attack this thing from?”
“Well, if we can’t get to Tyler right now, we can dig into his dad’s background. Tyler said he worked at a company called DTI in Reston. We can start there.”
“But if we go there, the Army will probably find out.”
“We don’t have to go there. There’s this thing called the Internet. It has lots of information you can access from a computer. Maybe you’ve heard of it?”
“Okay, you go tap your little keys. I’m going to do some real detective work.”
Michelle was staring back up at the Panera.
He said, “Like what? I don’t want you to go off half-cocked. Finesse is needed here. Not the Charge of the Light Brigade. And didn’t they get wiped out to a man?”
“Man being the operative word. If they had been led by a woman, that slaughter never would have happened.”
“So what are you going to do?”
“Talk to one teenager about another teenager. Female-to-female.”
Michelle clicked off, climbed back out into the snow, and headed into the Panera once more. She was going to find out how much Kathy Burnett really cared about Tyler Wingo.
CHAPTER
11
“HI, KATHY.”
Kathy Burnett looked up from her computer to find Michelle staring down at her. She was holding a cup of coffee and a tray on which sat a bowl of soup and a roll.
“Oh, hi.”
“Mind if I join you?”
Kathy glanced around. “I thought you and Tyler had gone.”
“He did. To swim practice. And I was thinking of leaving but I thought I’d see what the snow was going to do. And then I decided a cup of coffee and a bowl of soup were calling my name.”
Michelle sat down across from her and took a few seconds to situate her coffee and her soup while Kathy pulled her laptop and backpack out of the way.
“Thanks,” said Michelle. She took a spoonful of soup and smiled. “Not many things better than soup on a cold, snowy day.”
“I guess not,” said Kathy, smiling awkwardly.
Michelle looked at her computer. “I hope I’m not interrupting homework.”
“No, it’s okay. This stuff isn’t due for another week. I’m just trying to get a jump on it.” She closed her laptop and looked questioningly at Michelle. “So you were meeting with Tyler about his dad?”
Michelle dipped a chunk of bread into the soup and took a bite. She nodded, swallowed, and said, “It’s really tragic. Nothing worse for a kid than losing a parent, especially like that.”
“Are you with the Army?”
“No. I wasn’t helping Tyler with that. Just some other things. He said you two were in a few classes together. He also said you were really smart and had skipped a grade.”
“He said that?” Kathy asked as a smile spread across her face.
Michelle took a sip of coffee and nodded slowly. “Yes he did.”
“He’s a straight-A student too, really smart. But he doesn’t brag about it like some of the other people do. He’s, well, he’s just sort of quiet.”
“I take it you two are good friends?”
“We’ve known each other since elementary school.”
“Friends are important right now for Tyler. I’m sure you can see that.”
“Yeah, I guess so,” she said somberly.
“Did you know his dad?”
“He and Tyler have been
to our house for dinner quite a few times. And he picked me and Tyler up from school a few times. He was always really nice. I knew he’d been deployed overseas. My mom was over there two years ago. She’s back now and I hope she never has to leave again.”
“Your mom in the Army too?”
“Air Force. She’s a pilot.”
“That’s pretty cool, Kathy.”
“I’m really proud of her. She can fly anything. I’ve been up with her in a Cessna. She did some things that made my stomach do flip-flops but it never fazed her.”
“I’m sure.” Michelle took another swallow of soup. “I guess everyone at school knows about Tyler’s dad?”
“They made an announcement today. Everybody was so sad. But I think Tyler was really embarrassed by it.”
“So if you’ve known Tyler since elementary school, I guess you knew his mom?”
Kathy nodded. “I did. That was tragic too.”
“Yeah. Considering how old Tyler was when she died, she must’ve been very young.”
“She was.”
“Did she die of cancer?”
Kathy looked startled. “Is that what Tyler told you?”
“No, he didn’t say. But judging by your look, I’m guessing that’s not what she died of.”
“Look, if Tyler didn’t tell you I don’t think I should. He must have had a reason.”
“Well, frankly, I don’t think Tyler is thinking all that clearly right now. So she didn’t die from an illness?”
“Well, I guess you could call it an illness.”
“I’m not following,” said Michelle.
“Mental illness. Depression.” Kathy paused. “Mrs. Wingo killed herself.”
Michelle took another spoonful of soup. She wasn’t particularly hungry, but she also wanted a few beats of time to digest this and decide how best to proceed.
“My God,” she finally said. “His mom killed herself and now his dad dies in combat.”
“I know,” said Kathy, her voice starting to tremble. “I feel so bad for him.”
“But at least he has his stepmom,” Michelle threw out.
Kathy frowned. “I’m not sure how good that is for Tyler.”
Michelle nodded thoughtfully. “He never came out and said, but I could tell he doesn’t really get along with her.”
“Why should he?” Kathy said, her voice rising. “I mean, Mr. Wingo goes off and gets married to a woman a lot younger than he was and they hadn’t even known each other that long. Tyler didn’t know her at all really. And did he tell you they got married by a judge? There wasn’t even a wedding. They just showed up at the house one day and they were married. Tyler was so upset.”
“And his dad never explained to him why he did that?”
“Not that Tyler ever told me.” Kathy stopped and stared at Michelle. “You never said what you were helping Tyler with.”
Michelle took out a business card and slid it across to Kathy. She looked down at it and her eyes widened.
“What does Tyler need with a detective?”
“Answers. That’s why most people hire detectives.”
“Answers to what?”
“I’m not sure he knows yet, Kathy. Tyler told me that his dad was in the reserves now but he’d been in the regular Army as well.”
“I remember when I was in second grade Mr. Wingo came to our class and spoke about serving our country. He was in uniform then. He told my mom about it and she came in and spoke to us too.”
“So your parents knew him well?”
“My mom knew him pretty well because of the military connection. And like I said, they came over for dinner quite a few times after Tyler’s mom died. And we’d bring care packages over. And Tyler sometimes stayed with us. He’s a good cook. He even taught my mom a few dishes to make.”
“You live near each other?”
“Not in the same neighborhood. But it’s only about five minutes by car.” She brightened. “Tyler has his permit but he gets his real license soon. He was talking about us driving to school together sometimes.”
“He’s a year older than you?”
“That’s right. I’ll be sixteen next month. He turns seventeen in May.”
“He ever talk to you about something troubling him?”
“I haven’t really spoken to him since his dad died, if that’s what you mean.”
“Before that, was everything okay with him?”
“Seemed to be. I mean, he and his stepmom didn’t get along.”
“How about his dad? Anger still there over his dad getting remarried?”
“There was. But I think Tyler had finally just accepted it. He loved his dad. He wouldn’t stay mad at him long.”
“But now with him gone?”
“Yeah, now it’s just him and his stepmom. Not good.”
“He have any other relatives in the area?”
“Not that he ever talked about.”
“Would you mind giving me a call if anything occurs to you that might help me help Tyler?”
“Like what?”
“Hard to say at this point. But you might know it when you see it.”
“He’s not in any trouble, is he?”
“Any reason why he should be?” asked Michelle.
“No. He’s a really good person.”
“That’s what I think too. And that’s why I want to help him, if I can.”
Kathy slipped the card into her coat pocket. “Maybe you’ll hear from me.”
Michelle said, “Fair enough.”
CHAPTER
12
MICHELLE MET SEAN LATER THAT EVENING at a bar in Georgetown. They sat at a table near the window and over beers tried to reconcile what they each had learned about the Wingo case.
“Any blowback from the Pentagon?” asked Michelle.
“Nothing like you got,” he answered. “But that’s not to say tomorrow won’t bring something. Suffice it to say I don’t think any of my other contacts there will be returning my calls anytime soon.”
Michelle took a sip of her beer and leaned back in her chair. The snow had stopped falling and the temperature had risen to a level sufficient to melt what had already accumulated. “So if we can’t go to see Tyler or his stepmother and the Pentagon is a stone wall, that leaves