Service Dress Blues by Michael Bowen Read Free Book Online Page B

his secretary’s voice-mail. “Excuse me for a second. I’ve gotta leave word for the Polish Della Street to check CCAP as soon as she gets her computer turned on and pull the actual charge against Lena off the net.”
    Rep waited while Kuchinski left the message.
    â€œI hope you’re right about Ole and Lena being love-birds,” Kuchinski said then, “and you very well could be. But that doesn’t mean she didn’t knock him into the middle of next week.”
    â€œI know.”
    â€œThe hardest punches I ever took came from my first wife—and I spent two years in the Marines. She loved the hell out of me, at least until the last few months before she moved out. But that didn’t keep her from cracking a plate over my head once when we mixed it up. And I didn’t even hit her first. I hit her
back
, you understand, which I know means I’ll never be president of the Thoughtful and Sensitive Males Club, but I didn’t provoke her the way they’re saying Ole did Lena. It’s bad enough to smack your wife in the kitchen. When you hit a woman in public, in front of her friends and neighbors, you really do something to her. You better be sleeping with one eye open for awhile after you pull that.”
    â€œI’ll make it a point to avoid that,” Rep said as they reached the parking ramp and prepared to part company. “Do you think you’ll be able to do anything for their plebe? Or did Lena talk to you about that?”
    â€œThat one is not a trial lawyer’s dream. More like a trial lawyer’s nightmare. I’ll need some help on that.”
    â€œWell, if I’m reading Melissa right, you might get some.”
    ***
    â€œThe kid is in serious trouble,” Frank Seton told Melissa around nine that evening. “I checked with a couple of buddies who are still at the Academy. He could be expelled.”
    â€œFor drinking and wenching?”
    â€œNo. If we expelled midshipmen for that, the fleet would become seriously undermanned.”
    â€œThen what’s the problem?”
    â€œProblems, plural. Two. First, he managed to get himself relieved of his uniform and his military i.d. in the course of his little escapade. That caused a mini-uproar because it was the night before the Army-Navy game and the people in charge of security had to wonder if whoever took the stuff was thinking about taking a shot at the President during the game. The retired gunnery sergeant who found him and probably saved the kid’s life was on that right from the get-go. Led to a lot of headaches that nobody needed.”
    â€œBut that wasn’t the kid’s fault,” Melissa protested.
    â€œIt sure wasn’t the fault of the four-thousand midshipmen who
didn’t
get their uniforms and i.d.’s stolen that night. But that’s just background. The big issue is what looks like an honor code violation.”
    â€œMeaning he lied?”
    â€œMeaning that the story he’s told so far is the equivalent of ‘the dog ate my homework.’”
    â€œFor crying out loud, Frank, he’s an eighteen-year-old kid and from what Rep told me he’s been through a life-threatening trauma.”
    â€œThe honor code is non-negotiable, sis. The country is at war. You can handle a professor’s lies in a footnote, but an officer’s get sent home in a government-issue metal box wrapped in the flag.”
    Melissa fiercely bit her lip. She picked up a small rubber ball with her right hand and squeezed it tightly. Noticing this, Rep prepared to duck in case Melissa threw the ball against the nearest wall and he had to avoid the ricochet.
    â€œSorry,” Frank said after the brief pause that ensued during Melissa’s anger-management exercises. “That probably came off as sententious. But that’s the way the folks at the Academy will look at it.”
    â€œSo, bottom line, he needs a lawyer for sure,