King and Maxwell (Sean King & Michelle Maxwell 6)

“The military’s not supposed to monitor personal emails but lots of people think they do. And I think it meant a lot to Tyler that he and his dad had this special code. I did something similar when my mom was over there.”

Sean said, “Did he tell you what the code was?”

“No.” Kathy drew a long breath. “I don’t understand why all this is happening to him but I know it’s not his fault.”

“No, it’s not,” agreed Michelle.

Kathy checked her watch. “I have to get going. My mom is expecting me.”

“Do you need a lift?” asked Michelle.

“No, the bus picks up right outside.”

“We can take you,” said Sean. Kathy looked at him warily and he added, “And you’re very smart not to accept rides from people you don’t really know.”

Kathy gave him a shy smile, collected her bag, and started to walk off.

“I hope you can help Tyler,” she said.

“We will help him,” replied Michelle.

After she left Sean turned to Michelle. He said, “Okay, we learned a lot, but not much that was actually helpful.”

“What’s bugging me is why leave the Army one year short of getting your full pension? I mean, who does that?”

“Well, whoever does it has to have an awfully good reason. And with Wingo it can’t be because of disciplinary problems,” observed Sean.

“Right. He was in the reserves and they sent him back over there so it wasn’t like he’d screwed up or gotten a bad-conduct discharge.”

She looked over at the doorway and stiffened.

“Okay, this is about to get a little dicey.”

Sean looked at the door.

Two men in military uniforms were standing there. They spotted Sean and Michelle and started walking toward them. And both men were armed.

CHAPTER

19

“WOULD YOU TWO LIKE SOME COFFEE?” asked Sean as the uniforms stopped in front of their table. “It’s cold out there. Almost as cold as it’s gotten in here.”

“Sean King and Michelle Maxwell?” asked one of them.

“The military knows all,” said Sean pleasantly.

“Could you please step outside?” said the same uniform. His stripes and insignia showed him to be a sergeant in the military police.

“I think we’re just fine right here, actually,” said Michelle.

“Could you step outside?” said the uniform again.

“Why?” asked Sean.

“We need to talk to you.”

“Which is something you can do right here.” He motioned to two empty seats at the table.