Silken Prey

whether or not it is, I’m going to hurt you. I got the records from the investigation into the shootings in Afghanistan, and I’ve got a guy who can put them on the political agenda. I think I can get the army to pull you back in—they can do that, for crimes committed under their jurisdiction—and I think I can get you sent to Leavenworth. I’m not sure I can do all that, but I think I can. And I will, unless you talk to me.”
    “There’s nothing to talk about,” Carver said. “The army cleared me. Those people were killed by Taliban firing through the windows, blind firing—”
    “The report says there are witnesses who say otherwise. We’ve got video shot from an Apache . . . is that right? An Apache? A helicopter gunship? They have night-camera video from every angle on that house you raided, and nobody’s shooting into it, not in a way that would hit people lying on the floor.”
    “It’s that fuckin’ Rodriguez, isn’t it?” Carver said. “Listen, I gave him a down-check on an evaluation, stalled him out at E-6, and he never got over it. Said he was going to get me. Now he’s talking to you, right?”
    Lucas spoke right past him: “I can offer you a deal. You give me anything that points at Dannon, or Grant, for that matter, and we’ll let sleeping dogs lie. Nobody will mention the word ‘Afghanistan.’ I can’t offer you immunity for anything you’ve done here in Minnesota, only a prosecutor can set that up, but I can offer to testify in your behalf, in any court case that comes up, to say that you cooperated and aided the investigation.”
    Carver looked at Lucas over the coffee, which he hadn’t touched, and finally said, “That’s it? That’s all you got?”
    “I can’t tell you what else we have—but one reason we came to you, is that we can hang the child porn thing on Dannon, and the two killings that follow the child porn. All by itself, the porn will get him twenty years. We need one more little thing to get him for the whole works—we’re still processing the Roman scene, and we’ve got quite a bit of DNA. That takes a while to come back. If it comes back Dannon, he’s done. If it comes back Carver, and you’ve been stonewalling us . . . then that’s done. No deal. No way.”
    Carver shook his head: “First of all, as a suck-ass small-town cop, you got no idea of what you’re getting into with the army. They cleared me, and if you try to prove otherwise, they’ll hand you your ass. And I don’t give a shit about any governor. The army’s bigger than any governor, and they’ll hand him
his
ass, too. Not because they’re protecting me. Because those generals, they’ll be protecting themselves.”
    “I’m willing to find out,” Lucas said.
    “Then you’re gonna have to,” Carver said. “Second of all, even if I knew something, I wouldn’t tell you, because you can’t even give me immunity. The best I could hope for, if I knew about these killings, would be what? Life with parole? Twenty years? Say I keep my mouth shut, and you’re right about the governor and all that, and the army pulls me back . . . nothing they do could be worse than what you’re talking about. To tell you the truth, given what happened that whole night . . .
heroes in a firefight
 . . . I don’t see any way they convict me of anything.”
    “So.”
    “So, you can take your deal and stick it up your ass,” Carver said. He leaned back in his chair, as though satisfied with his decision.
    “From what the army investigators say about what happened in Afghanistan, I don’t suppose the murders of a couple more people would bother you—nothing for me to work with, there,” Lucas said.
    Carver rolled his eyes up and sideways, as if to say,
Please,
the way New Yorkers say it. As if to say,
Now you’re wasting our time.
    “That’s like asking me if I feel bad when somebody gets killed in a car accident. I mean, I gotta tell you, if I don’t know them, I don’t feel bad. It’s like that with this Tubbs guy. Don’t know him, never saw him. If I could snap my fingers and he’d come walking through the door, I’d do it. But feel bad, if he’s dead? No. Sorry.”
    “All right. I got nothing more,” Lucas said.
    Carver looked at him for a moment, then pushed his chair back and stood up. As he turned, Lucas said, “I might have a deal for Dannon, too. If he takes it, I’ll put you away forever. Thirty years, no parole. You’ll be an old man when you get