different.”
“How about Jerome Cassidy?”
“Nope. Haven’t heard from him since we left the Army.”
“He lives in the area. Not that far from here.”
“Didn’t know that.”
“How about Elizabeth Van Beuren? That’s her married name. Her maiden name was—”
“Elizabeth Claire. I know.”
“It was unusual having a woman in the ranks back then, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah. Things are different now, of course. But I always thought the combat exclusion rule for women was crap. They can fight just as good as men. And in a unit they really let their strengths shine. Guys are more macho. Women build a team perspective. And I gotta tell you, even though women were deployed in combat support positions, but technically weren’t supposed to shoot back, they sure as hell did. At least in Gulf One. And Lizzie was one of the best. She was a better soldier than I was, I can tell you that.”
“But she’s no longer in the Army,” said Robie.
“Well, there’s a good reason for that,” replied Siegel.
“You’ve been in touch with her?”
“I have.”
“So what’s the reason she’s no longer in the Army?”
“Cancer. Started in her breasts and then it spread. It’s in her brain, lungs, liver now. She’s terminal, of course. Once that stuff metastasizes, it’s over. They don’t have any magic bullets for that. She’s at a hospice center in Gainesville.”
“You’ve seen her?”
“Went regularly until about a month ago. She was in and out of it. Mostly out. Morphine. I’m not even sure if she’s still alive. I should have kept up, but I guess it was just too hard to see her like that.”
“What’s the name of the place?”
“Central Hospice Care. It’s off of Route 29.”
“Okay.”
Siegel exclaimed, “I’m telling you, it’s all the crap we breathed in over there. Depleted uranium, toxic cocktails from all the artillery blasts. Fires burning all over the damn place, painting the sky black, burning crap we didn’t know what the hell it was. And there we all were, just sucking it in. That could just as easily be me in that bed waiting for the end.”
Robie handed Siegel a card. “Anything else occurs to you, give me a call.”
“What is this really all about? How can somebody from my old squad be involved in all this stuff?”
“That’s what we’re trying to find out.” Robie paused. “Did your wife give you a heads-up we were coming?”
“She did,” admitted Siegel.
“She worried about something?”
“She’s worried I might lose my job.”
Robie thought back to Julie’s theory of money laundering for terrorists. “Why? Problems here?”
“I haven’t done anything wrong, if that’s what you’re implying. But who comes into banks anymore to do stuff? It’s all online. I’ll be here for about eight hours today and I’ll see maybe two people. How much longer do you think they’re going to pay me to do that? There’s a reason banks have all the money. They’re cheap as hell. Writing’s on the wall. World has changed. And I guess I haven’t changed fast enough. Maybe I will end up carrying a rifle in the desert. What else is there for a guy my age? I can be a fat mercenary. But I’ll die the first day out there.”
“Well, thanks for your help.”
“Yeah,” Siegel said absently.
Robie left him there looking like he’d already received a death sentence.
CHAPTER
83
THEY PULLED INTO the parking lot of Central Hospice Care twenty minutes later. There were about fifteen cars in the parking lot. As they drove through the lot, Robie examined each one to see if they were occupied.
He pulled into a space and looked at Vance. “You want to do this one or should I?”
“I’m really not at liberty to say. Those matters are private. And I can’t see what this would have to do with any military inquiry,” she added with some annoyance.
Julie had wandered over to the windowsill and had picked up a photo. “Is this her family?”
The nurse looked curiously at Julie and then at Robie. “You said you were with DOD. But why is she with you?”
“I’m really not at liberty to say,” answered Robie, causing the nurse to purse her lips.
Julie brought the photo around to show Robie. She said to the nurse, “My dad was in the same Army squad as Mrs. Van Beuren. I was hoping to find out some things about his past from her.”