“That’s not your business. Tell us exactly what happened.”
Miller rubbed his face with both hands. “I need a fucking drink.”
Taylor said, “You need to start telling the fucking truth, Sergeant. You are in deep shit. Start acting like it.”
Brodie looked at his partner. Magnolia Annabelle Taylor was pissed off—and packing a seventeen-round 9mm along with Appalachian belligerence.
Miller, maybe coming to realize the gravity of lying to CID warrant officers on a homicide case, straightened his posture as he said, “You’re right, ma’am, and I apologize. When you came to the barracks looking for Greer, I was surprised, because I couldn’t imagine what he had to do with Bucky killing the major. And I guess I still don’t understand what he’s got to do with it.”
“You don’t need to understand,” said Brodie. “You need to tell us what happened in that room.”
Miller nodded. “The battle was tougher than most because we were fighting at night. The tin men… the way they see the world, Idon’t think it makes a goddamn difference to them whether it’s night or day, so there’s another strike against humanity. Anyway, I’m firing grenades out a second-story window. My sensor beeps. I’m hit. I turn around and sit against the wall, and there’s Tom, standing over me. He’s got this look in his eyes, this crazed look, and he’s pointing his Beretta at me. I ask him what he’s doing. He says he knows what I really am. He knows I’m not real. I tell him to put the gun down. He asks me if I’ve got a knife on me. I do. He says if I want to live, I’ve got to cut my arm. He wants to see me bleed. I say I’m not doing that. I tell him we’re brothers. I tell him I love him. I tell him to put down the gun. He does. He starts sobbing and…” He trailed off and stared at the floor. “He tells me he doesn’t know what’s real anymore. He tells me he wants to go home.” He looked back up at them. “You’d asked me about his service weapon. The truth is I confiscated it that night, two weeks before he attacked Kowalski. And thank God for that.”
“It sounds to me,” said Brodie, “like you’ve given this guy way more chances than he deserved.”
Miller gave him an odd look. “Deserved? Getting him out of here would have been the kindest thing I could have done. Hedeservedto leave. Keeping him here was the punishment.”
Taylor asked, “Then why not get him reassigned?”
“I tried,” said Miller. “I went to the brass. I didn’t tell them—or anyone—about the incident during the exercise, that would have gotten Tom arrested. But everyone knew about Kowalski. And that Greer was cracking up in general.”
Taylor asked, “Who did you go to?”
“Captain Pickman. He sent it up the chain to Major Klasky. And the major…” He trailed off again. The sergeant seemed like he was navigating a minefield in his head and didn’t want to make a wrong move. “Major Klasky made it clear that PFC Greer would be a significant national security risk if he were to leave Camp Hayden.”
“Then what the hell was the plan?” asked Brodie. “Keep him here until he loses the rest of his mind?”
“You’re being sarcastic, but yeah. As far as I could tell, Klasky would have been happy to keep pushing him until he went the way of Justin Beal.”
“An overdose,” said Taylor.
Miller laughed bitterly. “Beal didn’t overdose. I mean, he was high as shit when it happened.”
“When what happened?” asked Brodie.
“Beal was in my squad that day. We get back to barracks, guys go to unwind in the rec room, but Beal goes to his own room, which is right across the hall.” Miller looked at Brodie. “Half the platoon heard the gunshot.”
CHAPTER 32
THEY ALL SAT IN SILENCE. Then Taylor said, “Jesus… They covered up a suicide.”
“No,” said Miller. “They covered up themannerof a suicide. He was spiraling. If he’d ODed it would have been functionally the same thing. But that story looked slightly better for the press.”
Brodie said, “You lied to us. Again.”
Miller said, “I was trying to fit the official narrative around here. When you do that enough, you start to believe it.”
“Bad excuse.”
Miller looked in his eyes. “It’s not an excuse at all, sir. Actually, it’s shameful.”
“I’d have you thrown in the brig if you weren’t already here.”
Miller did not respond.
“Anything else to share?”
“Yes,” said Miller. “Now that I’m thinking about it, I might have an idea where Greer is. A couple miles to the east of the camp is a low mesa. That could be where he went.”
