Brattan arrived in Norfolk early in the afternoon and negotiated a week-to-week lease at a motel frequented by Navy personnel between assignments. He told the landlady he was TDY while waiting for reassignment to a ship. It was a story she’d heard many times before. She took his money, jotted down the name he gave her, and handed him his key. She didn’t bother to ask where he was assigned TDY. She didn’t care. As far as she was concerned, if you’ve seen one beached sailor, you’ve seen them all and he paid cash. Brattan thanked her and made his way to his room.
The motel had been built decades before and clearly on the cheap. He liked that. His unit stood well to the rear of the second story. He liked that, too. Ten minutes inside convinced him that the non-support walls had been built with twenty-four inches between the studs. Cheap and convenient. He went into the bathroom and removed the medicine cabinet by backing out the two screws that held it in place on one side only and wrestling it free from its inset in the bathroom wall. As he suspected, the hole created by the builders to accept the cabinet had been cut along one stud and the opposite side contained only insulation. Even that came as a mild surprise. Truly cheap would have left out the insulation. He had his place to hide the cash and weapons he’d brought with him. After a half an hour and with the judicious use of Velcro and some flat Tupperware, he’d concealed everything that might get him into trouble. If someone, well anyone but an expert that is, were to search his room they’d find nothing. All the cash, guns, ammunition, and miscellaneous papers had been safely stowed between the walls in the space conveniently provided by a builder maximizing his profit. Battan thought that Pangborn would have been impressed. The medicine cabinet he replaced snug back in the wall, but with Velcro to hold it in place, not screws. Next he turned his attention to his car. He’d need a new set of tags.
The parking lot two blocks away had several vehicles covered with dust. He guessed their owners would be deployed at sea, maybe for a good while yet. He switched his tags again, but only after searching for a Pennsylvania car on the assumption that this owner, like the housewife in Philly, would not notice the switch right away. That done, he drove to the local Goodwill store and purchased more appropriate clothing. Then he used his old Navy ID to enter the Naval base and the PX. One hour after that he had uniforms, a new name plate with his ex-brother-in-law’s name engraved on it. He could comfortably use the credit card now. He dug out his old ribbons, remembered that SEALS and sailors with combat experience usually wore only the “top three.” That evening he was in uniform and having a beer at the CPO Club. During his shopping, he’d realized that more than a few years had gone by since he last wore the uniform and a chief petty officer his obvious age might raise an eyebrow or two. He decided he had better give himself a promotion to senior chief. That wouldn’t earn him much in the club, but around town, it might produce a little deference.
One of the advantages he’d enjoyed while still in Martin Pangborn’s good graces was that the latter did not like to get his hands dirty. What that meant, in practical terms, was Pangborn did not want to know where “the bodies were buried,” as he’d put it. As importantly, he didn’t want to know where things used in transacting his business came from, like, who supplied what, or how things got done. “Deniability,” he’d said. “I want results, Jack, just results. I don’t need to know the details. What I don’t know can’t hurt me, right?”
Certain it would be safe, Brattan called on one of his contacts to make him fake IDs and a set of phony orders indicating when and where he was to report for duty. A phone call, a cash transfer and an address and the job was done. So, because Pangborn had scruples, he knew that Pangborn would never be able to trace him. It might be true that what Pangborn didn’t know could not hurt him, but in this case what he didn’t know couldn’t help him either.
He intended to settle into an ersatz Navy life for a long time. Well, as long as it took for the heat to be off and he could make his way to South America and visit some of Pangborn’s money he had stashed away over the years. What kind of idiot trusts numbered accounts with their employees?
***
Frank had Brattan’s file copied and distributed to the five men he thought would have the best insight respecting its contents. Since he also believed the new kid would benefit from observing the process, he included him in the distribution. He called them into his office.
“Read this through. Take your time. We need to find Jack Brattan before anyone else. See if you can come up with any ideas where he might have gone to ground from the report.”
After they’d had a chance to read and think about it he cleared his throat. “Okay, what do we have?”
“All I see is a guy who needs to be tuned up,” Billy said. “We need to bust this guy’s balls.”
“Yes, we know that, Billy, but that is not what I’m asking. What do you see that might make finding him easier?”
“I got nothing.”
Charlie Picket cleared his throat and gave him an “Um-er-ah.”
“Charlie, what are you thinking?”
“Okay, I don’t know if this is what you were asking for or not, but if it was me looking to disappear, I would naturally head off to someplace where I would, you know, blend. See, if I needed to drop off the map, I would get on down to Atlanta or maybe head out to the southside of Chicago and get me a cheap room in the ghetto. Okay, we don’t call it that no more, but you know what I mean. There is bound to be a brother in a place like that who could set me up with a job and cover. It might not last too long. Man on the run usually have a price on his head and probably somebody’d want to cash in on that, but maybe not. Anyway, that was what I was thinking.”
“I’d head to some big college town,” the kid said. “I have a cousin out in Arizona. He goes to Arizona State and that town out there where it’s at has so many kids my age, I would never be found. I’d grow a beard and—”
“Not this year you wouldn’t, Peach.” Billy said.
“Okay, so anyway I could sit around a coffee shop with a laptop all day and nobody would notice.”
“How’d you live?”
“Pizza places don’t ask for ID or if they do, don’t look too hard. You just need a car and a driver’s license. Work a full shift in the right neighborhood, like the suburbs, and you can get by on the tips plus what they pay for part time.”
Billy raised an eyebrow. “Sounds like you done that a time or two. I don’t see none of them options open to me, though. I been a cop all my life. I don’t reckon hiding out with other cops is much of a choice.”
“Not quite, Billy. You did a hitch in the Army, too. Now, this guy was Navy once,” Frank said. “With apologies to Charlie, here, but that’s a little like being a minority. You know, you put on a uniform and who’s going to question you?”
“Hey, that’s right, Frank. I mean, look at all the ‘stolen valor’ postings. Wannabes working the malls for dates, meals, drinks, and other shit. People don’t ask questions, whether the uniform is real or not. They just assume you are what you seem to be.”
“Okay, so, if he thinks like Picket or the kid—”
“You all know I have a name,” the kid said and then realized he may have pushed too soon.
“Of course you do. Sorry, kid. Where was I? Oh, right. So, where would he go? This report says his last location was somewhere in Philadelphia. I’m guessing he’s headed to a Navy yard.”
“For God’s sake. Frank, there’s, like, one of them in every port on both coasts, the Gulf, and most lakes—big ones, at least.”
“Yeah, yeah, but where is there one that’s really big and full of sailors coming and going?”
“Wait a minute. We got no evidence he’s done any of this. He’s a crook, too. So why wouldn’t he just dive into the underworld? That’d be a whole lot easier that playing sailor.”
“First, he wouldn’t be playing at it. He’s ex-Navy. He knows the drill. Second, because, like Charlie, here, said, he’d have a price on his head. He can’t risk some snitch hoping for an AG to reduce a charge or go easy on him, or a payoff from one of his playmates afraid he’ll sing. He’d never know if someone would maybe rat him out. Hey, I grant that this is a long shot, but here’s the thing, we got nothing else. Every police department in the country has the BOLO. If he’s in plain sight, if he’s in the expected places, they will grab him. So, what do we do? See, I’ve been trying to think like Ike. Ike would play a hunch, wouldn’t he?”
“Ike’s hunches are on the money. I seen you play poker, brother, and yours suck.”
“Okay, they do, but trust me on this. We can sit back and hope this dirt bag happens to drive through Picketsville and we pick him up running a stop sign, or we try something. I am open to any other suggestions, but for my money, this is our shot. I’m saying he headed straight to the nearest, for him, version of the ‘ghetto’ and I’m guessing that will be Norfolk Naval Station or thereabouts. Billy, how about you drive over there and have a look? You could bunk in with Danny over at Little Creek and check out the whole area. I’ll notify all the other bases just in case. Hell, it’s worth a try.”
“Who’s Danny?” The kid asked.
“Our brother. He’s in the SEALs and stationed at Little Creek, Virginia, kid. Sorry, um…Ken.”
“Oh.”
“This is crazy.”
“What else have we got?”
“Okay, I’ll call Danny. You’re going to owe me big-time, Frank.”
“Only if I’m wrong.”