Murder in the Supreme Court (Capital Crimes Series Book 3) (24 page)

Susanna said, “My politics really haven’t any bearing on this, Mr. Brazier. What I’m wondering about is why you and Justice Childs would get together on a sham—?”

“That’s your word.”

She pulled out a chair from the desk, sat down and said as calmly as she could, “Mr. Brazier, I’m not here to make trouble. What happened in Korea between you and Justice Childs is no one’s business but your own, unless, of course, it bears on Clarence Sutherland’s murder. I’m not your antagonist. I’m doing my job, or trying to…”

“Then you should understand.”

“Understand what?”

“That we did what we had to do.”

“I’m sorry, I don’t follow you.”

“Korea needed a hero.
Before
Vietnam. Maybe if we’d been more successful there’d have been no Nam. Anyway, nobody quite understood what was going on. It was a United Nations action, mostly manned by the U.S. MacArthur got everybody confused about not being allowed to win the war—Harry Truman had to fire him for insubordination… for forgetting who was Commander in Chief. Harry was right. But the country badly needed something to be proud of, we made the most of a brave man… Childs… who was a natural for the hero’s role—a kind of rallying point for back home. Hell, the flag-raising photo on Iwo Jima that hit every front page in America during World War II was a phony too, a sham to use your word, staged by a military public relations guy to give the folks back home a sense of the glory and courage of their troops—which was no sham. So…”

“I think I understand,” she said, “but when something
is that calculated, it seems to me it loses its value. I mean, I can’t quite buy the end justifies the means—”

“
Okay
, Miss Pinscher, enough.”

“Mr. Brazier, again, I tell you I’m not trying to stir up trouble, but I’m sure you can understand that—”

He lit a cigarette and wheeled himself into the kitchen, returning with a bottle of gin. “Drink?” he asked.

“No, thank you.”

“We have wine,” Sheryl called from the bedroom, where she’d gone to dress.

“You look like a wine drinker,” Brazier said as he poured himself a tumbler full of gin.

“If that means what I think it means—”

“It means I’m tired of your judging me, or Childs, Miss Pinscher. All right, so you’ve discovered the deep dark secret of Korea and Morgan Childs. Where’d you get it, from that scum Sutherland?”

“Clarence, or his father?”

He cocked his head and closed one eye. “You’re pretty good, lady.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’ve got me talking too damn much.” He shook his head and drank down more of the gin. “Where
did
you get the story about Childs and me?”

She was relieved
he’d
mentioned Sutherland and decided to go with it. “Clarence Sutherland found out about it from his father’s files.” She remembered having seen Sutherland’s name in Brazier’s old appointment book. “I take it you were a patient, and you told Dr. Sutherland about Childs and Korea. The son picked up the information somehow from his father’s confidential files and used it to blackmail Childs…”

It was pretty much all supposition on her part, but Brazier’s expression seemed to confirm it. He again filled his glass and looked toward the window. Sheryl came from the
bedroom, dressed in slacks and sweater. “You’ve done a job, Susanna Pinscher. I toast you.” He raised his glass. “Here’s to Sherlock Holmes, Philip Marlowe, Travis McGee and Susanna Pinscher, sleuths of a feather, and so forth… so you know a deep, dark secret… what are you going to do with it?”

“Nothing, unless, as I said, it bears on the Sutherland case—”

“And if it does?”

“If it does, I’ll have to—”

“Look, what if Morgan Childs did kill the Sutherland kid, which of course I’m not saying he did… I mean, what did we lose except a cheap, venomous, blackmailing snake ready and willing to sell a national hero down the tubes for his own private gain? Think about it, lady, put them on a balancing scale. Sutherland was filth. Morgan Childs represents to millions of Americans the sort of man we hardly ever see anymore. Name someone these days who’s worth being called a hero, someone to look up to, to
stand
for something good in America. Athletes? That’s a laugh. The only thing they’ve left kids to look up to are the size of their contracts. Movie stars? Forget it. Politicians? Those that aren’t under indictment, or taping illegally, are busy getting rich in payoffs from the folks that financed their election campaigns…” He leaned forward in his chair. “Morgan and I have our problems, but they’re ours, not yours or anybody else’s. He means something to you, to me, to every person in America. He sits on the highest court in the land and votes his convictions about whether something is or isn’t constitutional. He hasn’t mortgaged himself to anybody. He stands for decency and honor, things we don’t have much of anymore. There’s a network of boys’ groups in America that goes by Morgan Childs’s name and that exists because he raises millions every year for them—”

“I understand all this, Mr. Brazier, and I happen to agree
with much of what you say. My father often talks the same way. I have three children of my own, and I worry about who they’ll be able to look up to. I’ve met Justice Childs, went flying with him, matter of fact. I liked him, he reminds me of my father…
but
if Clarence Sutherland threatened him enough to drive him to murder, that’s obviously overriding—”

“Leave it alone,” Brazier said.

“I can’t—”

“
Drop
it,” he said, not turning. “There’s a bigger picture to be considered—”

“Mr. Brazier, a person has been killed, and—”

He spun the chair around so fast that his glass flew from his hands and landed at Sheryl’s feet. She picked it up, scooping ice cubes into it with her hand. Brazier shouted, “Morgan Childs counts for something, damn it. He means something to America, and to me. He saved my life in Korea and—”

“I understand what you’re saying and I sympathize with it, but I’ve got to ask… did your good friend Morgan Childs murder Clarence Sutherland?”

His words came slowly, measured by the anger he was suppressing. “Just… get…
out. Before I do something violent
.”

She backed into the hall, followed by Sheryl, who closed the door behind her.

“I’m sorry, Miss Pinscher. Dan is… well, he’s very difficult at times, especially when it involves this country and Korea and Morgan Childs. He really cares so much, has such deep convictions that sometimes it gets the better of him.”

“I understand,” Susanna said. She touched her arm.

“I love him so much,” she said. “He’s been through a lot. He’s a decent, fine man in pain. I’ve had pain in my life, but nothing like what he’s suffered.”

“I respect him,” Susanna said. “Please believe that.”

“I do.” She wiped her eyes. “You know, he could have been an important man, Susanna.”

“He was. His by-line was in every magazine in America.”

“But he could have been even bigger.”

“Why didn’t it happen?”

“He became so bitter, so terribly negative. I tried to snap him out of it, tried to encourage him to write again but he refused.”

“He hasn’t written anything in how long?”

“Years. When we first met he was almost finished with a book, but he never finished it. It just sits under the bed collecting dust.”

“What sort of book?”

“It’s about how the CIA tested drugs on people years ago.” She partially swallowed the final words.

“I’d read newspaper reports about it when the CIA was forced to release its files. How did Dan get interested in it?”

“Oh, it doesn’t matter… he’ll never finish it… He’s so damned worried about protecting people and his country. Even the doctors that were involved in the experiments—”

“Doctors? Dr. Sutherland, for example?”

Sheryl quickly shook her head. “I don’t know,” she said. “Dan got involved in the project when he was at a clinic somewhere in Delaware, a place called Sunken Springs.”

“Was Dr. Sutherland mentioned in Dan’s manuscript, Sheryl? Is that why Dan had his name in his appointment book?”

“What book?”

“The one in your bedroom, the one he saw me looking at the last time I was at your apartment.”

“He didn’t tell me that.”

“Oh. I thought—”

“He just said he didn’t want anybody snooping around his life. He was so mad at me for letting you in…”

“I’m sorry I’ve caused you grief.”

“You haven’t. I accept what goes with being in love with someone like Dan. I know lots of men who wouldn’t cause such problems, but they also wouldn’t give me what Dan gives me.”

“Yes… well, thanks again, Sheryl, for taking me into your confidence. It’s been a real… experience meeting you, and Dan Brazier…”

Susanna and her son arrived back home in Washington at eight in the evening. She delivered him to his father’s house, drove to the Justice Department, went to her office and, by the light of a desk lamp, reviewed notes she’d made during the flight. She dialed Martin Teller’s home number. No answer. She tried MPD headquarters. An officer at the desk said he thought Detective Teller was still in the building. After a few minutes Teller came on the line.

“Martin, I’m back. I need to see you. Are you free?”

“Come on over. I’ll be in my office.”

It was close to eleven when she arrived. Teller was in shirt sleeves, wearing a dark five-o’clock shadow. He closed
the door, sat in his chair. She perched on the edge of the desk.

“Okay, let’s have it.”

She did, at first leaving out items that might link her two meetings with Brazier to the Sutherland murder.

“Brazier sounds a little
crazy
. How does it relate to the case?”

“Here’s how. First, Morgan Childs isn’t quite what he’s cracked up to be, although I don’t think any the less of him because of it, at least not from Brazier’s version of the whys. What matters, though, is that Childs was vulnerable because of charming Clarence Sutherland’s knowledge of his true Korean background. Dan Brazier laid it on a bit thick in his stories once they got back home and Childs went along. Was, I gather, persuaded to go along by Brazier, who felt the country deserved a hero out of that war and Childs was ideal material. He did apparently save Brazier’s life, but I didn’t get the details on that. Anyway, reluctant hero or not, Childs is open to a journalistic field day if what Brazier did and he went along with ever comes out. It could indeed be made to look like he’s been a fraud, he might well face impeachment by the Congress… it’s sure as hell a motive for murder and makes him a suspect. Even good guys panic when they see their life going up in smoke. Agreed?”

Teller nodded slowly. “How did Clarence get the information?”

“From his father’s psychiatric files. Brazier had been his father’s patient while he was in Washington.”

“Go on.”

“I found out from Brazier’s girl friend, Sheryl Figgs, that he’d been working on a book exposing the CIA’s mind-control experiments. Evidently he’d been institutionalized as Sutherland’s patient in a place called Sunken Springs, in
Delaware. I can’t prove this right now, Martin, but I know that—”

“That Dr. Sutherland was connected with the CIA experiments?”

“Yes… how did you know?”

“We’ve been working on Dr. Sutherland, some things broke while you were away.”

“What? You’ve nailed down Sutherland’s role with the CIA?”

“Yeah… I’ll tell you something else. Chief Justice Poulson was probably in that same Sunken Springs funny farm. At first Sunken Springs meant nothing to me. We were supposed to believe that Poulson had spent some time there writing a book. We did a little checking. Besides a drugstore, meat market, shopping center and a movie theater open on the weekends, Sunken Springs has a very private and protected facility where the rich and famous can get their heads together when they start to come unglued. And rumor has it that the CIA uses the place as a halfway house, a retreat for spooks who’ve come in from the cold and need a rest, not to mention it’s a research clinic for CIA experiments. I just got the report in late this afternoon. According to it there’s a—”

“Are you
sure
Justice Poulson was there? Was he a patient?”

“It’s a pretty reasonable assumption, wouldn’t you say?”

“Then busy busy Clarence would have had
that
to hold over his head. If it had come out that Poulson had been institutionalized, he never would have been confirmed as Chief Justice. Or kept the job if it came out afterward. Did the White House know?”

Teller shrugged. “If I were writing this script, I’d have them knowing it… Clarence Sutherland was offered a job on President Jorgens’s staff.”

“He was? Wow…”

Teller got up and walked to the wall chart, untaped the brown paper and stepped back.

“What’s that?” Susanna asked.

“My wall chart, obviously. Cost a hundred bucks. It’s sort of comforting to me. Makes me feel less confused than I really am. Now… you may ask why would Clarence be offered a job in the White House…”

“Not to be a wise guy, Mr. Detective, but I think it’s now fairly clear. Clarence used his knowledge of Poulson’s institutionalization to pressure the President and his men to give him a job. Poulson was and is Jorgens’s man.”

“Right, but maybe there’s more. If Clarence had the goods… you should forgive the expression… on Childs, he could have used that to swing weight inside the Court on the President’s behalf. I mean with Childs.”

She nodded.

“He was a nasty little bastard, wasn’t he?” Teller said.

“Worse… what else have you learned since I was away?”

“That’s about it.”

“You’re sure?”

“I’m sure. Now let’s get organized.”

She joined him in front of the chart. “There they are,” he said, “the suspects all laid out. Time to refine it.”

“Who are you ruling out?”

He folded his arms and squinted. “Let’s see. Laurie Rawls. Aside from her anger at Clarence for his fooling around, is there any other reason to suspect her?”

“That might be good enough reason to keep her on the list.”