I pressed the elevator button, boarded and went down to the lower level. Several profilers were in their offices, and they nodded at me as I walked by. Wesley's secretary was on vacation, and I passed her desk and knocked on the shut door. I heard Wesley's voice. A chair moved and he walked to the door and pulled it open.
'Hello,' he said, surprised.
'These are the printouts you wanted from Lucy.' I handed them over.
'Thank you. Please come in.' He slipped on reading glasses, reviewing the message Gault had sent.
His jacket was off, a white shirt wrinkled around woven leather suspenders. Wesley had been perspiring and he needed to shave.
'Have you lost more weight?' I asked.
'I never weigh myself.' He glanced at me over the top of his glasses as he seated himself behind his desk.
'You don't look healthy.'
'He's decompensating more,' he said. 'You can see that from this message. He's getting more reckless, more brazen. I would predict that by the end of the weekend, we will nail his location.'
'Then what?' I was not convinced.
'We deploy HRT.'
'I see,' I said dryly. 'They will rappel from helicopters and blow up the building.'
Wesley glanced at me again. He placed the paperwork on the desk. 'You're angry,' he said.
'No, Benton. I'm angry with you, versus being angry in general.'
'Why?'
'I asked you not to involve Lucy.'
'We have no choice,' he said.
'There are always choices. I don't care what anybody says.'
'In terms of locating Gault, she's really our only hope right now.' He paused, looking directly at me. 'She has a mind of her own.'
'Yes, she does. That's my point. Lucy doesn't have an off button. She doesn't always understand limits.'
'We won't let her do anything that might place her at risk,' he said.
'She's already been placed at risk.'
'You've got to let her grow up, Kay.'
I stared at him.
'She's going to graduate from the university this spring. She's a grown woman.'
'I don't want her coming back here,' I said.
He smiled a little, but his eyes were exhausted and sad. 'I hope she'll be back here. We need agents like her and Janet. We need all we can get.'
'She keeps many secrets from me. It seems the two of you conspire against me and I'm left in the dark. It's bad enough that…' I caught myself.
Wesley looked into my eyes. 'Kay, this has nothing to do with my relationship with you.'
'I would certainly hope not.'
'You want to know everything Lucy is doing,' he said.
'Of course.'
'Do you tell her everything you're doing when you're working a case?'
'Absolutely not.'
'I see.'
'Why did you hang up on me?'
'You got me at a bad time,' he answered.
'You've never hung up on me before, no matter how bad the time.'
He took his glasses off and carefully folded them. He reached for his coffee mug, looked inside and saw it was empty. He held it in both hands.
'I had someone in my office, and I didn't want this individual to know you were on the line,' he said.
'Who was it?' I said.
'Someone from the Pentagon. I won't tell you his name.'
'The Pentagon?' I said, mystified.
He was quiet.
'Why would you be concerned that someone from the Pentagon might know I was calling you?' I then asked.
'It seems you've created a problem,' Wesley simply said, setting the coffee mug down. 'I wish you hadn't started poking around Ft. Lee.'
I was astonished,
'Your friend Dr. Gruber may be fired. I would advise you to refrain from contacting him further.'
'This is about Luther Gault?' I asked.
'Yes, General Gault.'
They can't do anything to Dr. Gruber,' I protested.
'I'm afraid they can,' Wesley said. 'Dr. Gruber conducted an unauthorized search in a military database. He got you classified information.'
'Classified?' I said. 'That's absurd. It's one page of routine information that you can pay twenty dollars to see while you're visiting the Quartermaster Museum. It's not like I asked for a damn Pentagon file.'
'You can't pay the twenty dollars unless you are the individual or have power of attorney to access that individual's file.'
'Benton, we're talking about a serial killer. Has everybody lost their minds? Who the hell cares about a generic computer file?'
The army does.'
'Are we dealing with national security?'
Wesley did not answer me.
When he offered nothing more, I said, 'Fine. You guys can have your little secret. I'm sick and tired of your little secrets. My only agenda is to prevent more deaths. I'm no longer certain what your agenda is.' My stare was unforgiving and hurt.
'Please,' Wesley snapped. 'You know, some days I wish I smoked like Marino does.' He blew out in exasperation. 'General Gault is not important in this investigation. He does not need to be dragged into it.'