Dead Watch

at the farm, and she told me.”
    “Was he . . .” Jake hesitated. “Look, I’m trying to ask if he had any gay friends that you may know about, who were passionately involved with him. I’m trying to figure out if this could have been a relationship thing.”
    “Gay murder.” Barber settled back, shaking his head.
    “Yeah.”
    Barber exhaled, said, “Shit,” looked at the ceiling, then said, “I can’t tell you for sure. He was not, mmm, monogamous. But I don’t think . . . I think if he was involved in something really hot, really difficult, he would have told me. The sex cooled off for him the last few years. Gays get older, too, you know.”
    “Never thought about it,” Jake said.
    “Well, it’s true. Anyway, I could call a couple of people and ask.”
    Jake smiled. “I’d really prefer to do it myself.”
    Barber shook his head. “Linc moved in political circles. Political gay circles. Some of the people are already out, but some absolutely couldn’t afford to be outed. You’re doing staff work for some Bible-thumper from Alabama, you get outed, you lose your job.”
    “I wouldn’t out them.”
    “I might believe you, except . . . what would you do if it became expedient to out them? If it helped the cause?” Barber asked. “I don’t know you well enough to trust you on it.”
    “Okay. But you’ll ask around.”
    “I’ll ask, and I’ll get back to you.”
    “I’ll take it, if that’s the best I can do,” Jake said. “But if it’s a relationship thing . . .”
    “Then I’ll call the FBI. I’m not going to let somebody walk on Linc’s murder.”

    Jake: “So who do you think did it?”
    “The Watchmen,” Barber said, without hesitation. “One way or another. Linc had a lot of influence, both through his family and through his political contacts, and he couldn’t keep himself from going after Goodman. Couldn’t help himself. Looked at Goodman’s combat records, made some comments he shouldn’t have.”
    Jake broke in: “There’s a question about Goodman’s records?”
    Barber shook his head again. “No. That was one of the problems. Linc thought there was, and couldn’t keep himself from saying so. He believed there were problems with his Silver Star and with the Purple Heart. But there were twenty guys there when Goodman got hit, and several of them actually saw it happen. They were down in a road cut, some Iraqis were lobbing RPGs at them. Goodman was directing traffic, running on his feet, and whack! He gets it in the hand. A couple of guys actually got sprayed by his blood. And Goodman stayed on his feet and kept directing traffic until his guys got on top of it.”
    “So there was no doubt.”
    “None. Not only that, the guys in his unit say he was a pretty good officer. Took care of them. But you know how it is when a politician has a medal and a war wound—there are always people ready to piss on them. Linc bought into the stories, repeated them. Goodman proved they weren’t true, but Linc wouldn’t shut up.”
    “Really bad blood, then.”
    “They hated each other,” Barber said. “Goodman took Linc’s Senate seat away in a dirty campaign. Linc went out of his way to smear Goodman every chance he got, and with his family connections and old Virginia loyalties, he’s caused Goodman some problems. Social problems. Not getting the old-boy invitations he should get, not playing golf with the old money.”
    “Status.”
    “Yup. Status. Goodman thinks he’s terrifically important, and he wants to be treated that way.”
    “When Senator Bowe vanished, did you think he’d been kidnapped?” Jake asked. “Or did you think something else was going on?”
    “At first, I thought something else might be going on,” Barber said. “Then two, three days went by—that wasn’t Linc’s style. A week out, I thought he was probably dead.”
    So there it was: Barber had thought Bowe was dead, as Madison suspected . . . but the way Barber put it, the feeling was purely rational. Nothing to lie about.
    “So, shoot. I go back to my boss and tell him it’s a straight kidnapping case,” Jake said.
    “That’s what it looks like to me,” Barber said.
    Jake laced his fingers, rubbed his palms together, thinking, then, “What do you think of the Watchmen? Could somebody say that you’ve got a reason for pointing us in their direction? Is there something personal . . . ?”
    “I think two things. First, when we—the Bowes and