“Seth,” Dale’s voice came in a loud whisper.
Seth opened his eyes a second before Dale shook his shoulder.
“Seth.”
“What’s going on?” Seth said in a low tone.
“There’s a guy here,” Dale said. “Maresol found him on the porch and wouldn’t let him in the house.”
“Where is he?” Seth asked.
“Back patio,” Dale said. “Smoking like a chimney. Maresol is fuming.”
Seth got up and followed Dale out of the room. He gently closed the door so as not to wake Ava.
“Who is it?” Seth asked as they walked to the basement stairs.
“No idea,” Dale said.
“What’s he look like?” Seth asked.
“Old guy,” Dale said. “Lot older than you. Maybe eighty? Maybe older. Crew cut. Fit. Looks mean. I’ve never seen Maresol so pissed off.”
Seth nodded.
“I told her she should leave the kitchen so she doesn’t have to see him,” Dale said. “She said something weird.”
“What?” Seth stopped at the bottom of the stairs.
“She said if there was killing to be done, she wanted to do the honors,” Dale said.
“Shit.” Seth ran up the stairs. Maresol started yelling the moment his feet hit the first floor. “Okay. Okay. I’ll get rid of him.”
“You’ll need this.” Maresol pulled out Seth’s handgun from under the counter. “Don’t make a big mess, and we’ll bury him in the front yard. Dale, go dig a hole.”
Dale’s green eyes went wide with panic. Maresol nodded with all sincerity. Seth gave her a partial smile and put his hand over the weapon.
“How ’bout if I go out and talk to him?” Seth asked. “See if he needs killing.”
“He needs killing,” Maresol nodded.
“Yes, but prison would be so uncomfortable,” he said. “You look horrible in jumpsuits.”
“What are you saying?” She squinted at him.
“I’ll take care of it,” he said.
She lifted her chin in a kind of nod, and he took the handgun from her. He made sure the safety was on before he put it into the pocket of his sweatpants. He was halfway across the den when he turned.
“I’d love some coffee,” Seth said.
She threw a kitchen towel at him. At the sliding glass window to the backyard, he looked at Dale.
“Get her out of here,” Seth said.
“Come on, Maresol,” Dale said. “Let’s go get some donuts.”
Maresol gave Seth a soulful look and let Dale guide her out of the kitchen. Seth nodded. He stood at the door for a moment, trying to gather himself. On the other side of the glass sat Seth and Mitch’s commanding officer, Major Lark Cotton. He was the man who’d approved their transfer to the tunnel rats despite the fact that they were just barely seventeen years old. He’d dragged them out of underground firefights and shoved them into brothels. He’d served as their pastor, their hero, and their demon on the long days and nights in the tunnels of Vietnam.
He was also the man who denied Mitch’s Agent Orange disability claim by stating they were in the tunnels, not in the jungle. Despite the photos and written testimony that the tunnels were full of the stuff, Major Cotton made sure Mitch was without medical insurance and penniless in the last months of his life. When Mitch’s wife got wind of the nearly one million dollars they needed to repay the VA, she kicked him and their two children out of their home. Maresol and Seth had scoured Denver for days until Maresol found them in a rundown hotel in Lakewood. Mitch had died eight months later.
“Major Cotton,” Seth said. “Non gratum anus rodentum.”
“O’Malley!” The major stood from his seat with effort. Once on his feet, he shook Seth’s extended hand with the hand that held his cigarette. “Good to see you, son.”
“Sir,” Seth gestured to the rocking chair the major had been sitting in.
“I see you still have the maid,” the major said.
“Maresol, yes,” Seth said.
“She . . .” The major glanced at Seth. Noting the look on Seth’s face, he shrugged, “Can’t teach an old dog new tricks. You always sucked with women, O’Malley.”
“I suppose so, sir,” Seth said. “What can I do for you, sir?”
“You had to know that I’d show up,” Major Cotton said.
“Why’s that, sir?”
“You placed a request for information on my asset.” Major Cotton gave Seth a hard look.
“Your asset, sir?” Seth asked.
“Oh, good Lord,” Major Cotton said. “I forgot how you Jew boys ‘yes, sir’ me to death.”
“Jew boys, sir?”
Major Cotton gave Seth an irritated look.
“Keep away from Liễu Chiến.” The major pointed at Seth. “You got no right to hassle a good man just because that re-tard Delgado thought he saw something.”
The major stuck a fresh cigarette in his mouth. His lip went up in a sneer while his fingers lit another cigarette.
“You done?” Seth asked.
“Not quite,” the major said. “Liễu Chiến is a good man who, because of your prejudice, has never been able to live comfortably in the country he risked his life to help. You and Delgado have always had it out for him.”
“Liễu Chiến is a murderer, an aberration of nature who chops up good people in their sleep.”
“That was war, O’Malley,” the major said. “War makes people do terrible things. You weren’t exactly the tux-and-tails-guy-who-plays-for-the-Queen then either.”
“Terrible people do terrible things, sir,” Seth said. “Only a truly horrible creature would do what Liễu Chiến did to those Rangers. They were US soldiers who were stolen from their families by Liễu Chiến.”
“US soldiers,” the major snorted and then hacked and coughed. It was a few minutes before he was able to speak again. “You know how many US soldiers Liễu Chiến saved?”
“Exactly one,” Seth said. “Liễu Chiến. He saved himself, and you saved him from everything else. What’s he got on you that’s made you protect him all this time?”
“What’s that supposed to imply?” the major asked. “I’m no faggot like you and Delgado.”
“What do you know about Brent Davies?” Seth asked.
The major swallowed hard. For a moment, Seth thought the man might be having a stroke.
“Who?” The major raised a cocky eyebrow in a defiant bluff.
“I’ve heard what you came to say.” Seth stood up from his seat. “You can go.”
“Leave Liễu Chiến out of your paranoid wet dreams.” The major attempted to jump to his feet, but old age and what looked like an injured hip slowed him down. He struggled to standing. “Liễu Chiến’s a good man who gave a lot to this country.”
“And the platoon of Rangers he killed? Mitch? Myself?” Seth asked. “What were we?”
“Cannon fodder,” the major sneered.
He stalked to the garden gate.
“Just so we’re clear,” Seth said. The major turned to look at him. “If I find out that he’s still carving up people, I’ll come for you first.”
“Bring it,” the major said and limped out of the backyard.
Angry, Seth sat down in his chair and tried to calm down. He glanced at the pool and wondered if he would be better off going for a swim. When the sliding glass door opened, he turned to see who was there.
“Seth?” Ava asked.
Seth smiled. She was holding the quilt tight around her naked body. Her face was scrubbed clean of makeup, and her hair was tousled by sleep. Her alert eyes scanned his face. She gave him a soft smile. In this moment, he was sure he’d never seen anything as lovely.
“There’s a guy here,” Ava said. “One of those ‘gabacho veijos’ that drives Maresol crazy. I know I should know his name, but for the life of me . . .”
“He just left,” Seth said.
“Who?”
“Major Cotton,” Seth said.
“Oh,” Ava looked confused. “There’s a guy at the front door . . . He knows my name, but I don’t remember meeting him before.”
Seth popped to his feet and jogged through the house. Prepared for another fight, Seth wrenched open the door. A grey-haired man wearing a fatigue jacket and a crew cut was standing with his back to the door. On the street, a young man from either Mossad or US Special Forces, with a machine gun, leaned up against a small idling limousine.
“What . . .?” Seth started.
The man turned around. He’d retired from the US Air Force with the rank of Major General to help build a paramilitary unit inside the US clandestine intelligence service. He held out a thick folder. Seth was so surprised that he could only gawk at the folder.
“Cotton still here?” the man asked.
“Just left,” Seth said.
“You kill him?” the man asked. Seth shook his head. “Did Maresol?”
“Got her out of the house,” Seth said.
“You’re a good man,” the man said. “For a ‘faggot Jew boy.’”
Seth grinned. The man nodded toward the folder.
“My personal file. Take it,” the man said. “Has everything you need, including some interesting tidbits about Major Cotton. I’ll come get it when you’re done.”
Seth took the folder from him, and the man started down the walkway.
“I was never here,” the man said.
Seth watched as the driver opened the door for the man. Before the man got in the vehicle, he turned to look at Seth.
“Catch this guy, O’Malley,” the man said. “Do what we couldn’t.”
The man slipped into the back of the limousine, and the driver closed the door. The driver gave Seth a long look as he went around the car. The limousine pulled away from the curb, and Seth closed the front door.
“How are you and Mitch ‘faggot Jew boys?’” Ava asked.
“Circumcised,” Seth said.
“Are you okay?” Ava asked.
“I’m angry,” Seth said. “Feel like I was pushed into a mud pit I’ve been skirting the edges of for forty years.”
She let go of the quilt and held out her arms. He held her tight and kissed her bare neck.
“Did you listen to the piece you played last night?” Ava asked.
Seth shook his head and shifted back to look at her naked body.
“Did you hear the symphony you played last night?” Ava asked.
Seth shook his head.
“Gorgeous,” Ava said. “It sounded like the stages of love—intense and exciting, gentle and loving, remorse-filled and melancholy. Schmidty’s going to like this one.”
Seth gave her a soft smile.
“I’ve got to get to work,” Ava said.
She turned and started up the stairs. He looked at the folder in his hand and back at her.
“Last night was fun,” she said and gave him a saucy look. He looked back at the folder.
He went to the hall closet, unlocked the small gun safe, and set his handgun there. He was about to put the file in the safe but decided against it. Maresol had the combination to this safe. He heard the water for the shower start and jogged up the stairs. He slipped the folder into a hidden pocket behind the headboard and pushed the bed back into place.
“O’Malley!” Ava’s singsong voice called from the shower. “I have to get to work.”
He joined her in the shower.
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