his secretaryâs voice-mail. âExcuse me for a second. Iâve 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.â
Rep waited while Kuchinski left the message.
âI hope youâre right about Ole and Lena being love-birds,â Kuchinski said then, âand you very well could be. But that doesnât mean she didnât knock him into the middle of next week.â
âI know.â
âThe hardest punches I ever took came from my first wifeâand 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 didnât keep her from cracking a plate over my head once when we mixed it up. And I didnât even hit her first. I hit her
back
, you understand, which I know means Iâll never be president of the Thoughtful and Sensitive Males Club, but I didnât provoke her the way theyâre saying Ole did Lena. Itâs 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
âIâll make it a point to avoid that,â Rep said as they reached the parking ramp and prepared to part company. âDo you think youâll be able to do anything for their plebe? Or did Lena talk to you about that?â
âThat one is not a trial lawyerâs dream. More like a trial lawyerâs nightmare. Iâll need some help on that.â
âWell, if Iâm reading Melissa right, you might get some.â
***
âThe kid is in serious trouble,â Frank Seton told Melissa around nine that evening. âI checked with a couple of buddies who are still at the Academy. He could be expelled.â
âFor drinking and wenching?â
âNo. If we expelled midshipmen for that, the fleet would become seriously undermanned.â
âThen whatâs the problem?â
âProblems, 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 kidâs life was on that right from the get-go. Led to a lot of headaches that nobody needed.â
âBut that wasnât the kidâs fault,â Melissa protested.
âIt sure wasnât the fault of the four-thousand midshipmen who
didnât
get their uniforms and i.d.âs stolen that night. But thatâs just background. The big issue is what looks like an honor code violation.â
âMeaning he lied?â
âMeaning that the story heâs told so far is the equivalent of âthe dog ate my homework.ââ
âFor crying out loud, Frank, heâs an eighteen-year-old kid and from what Rep told me heâs been through a life-threatening trauma.â
âThe honor code is non-negotiable, sis. The country is at war. You can handle a professorâs lies in a footnote, but an officerâs get sent home in a government-issue metal box wrapped in the flag.â
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.
âSorry,â Frank said after the brief pause that ensued during Melissaâs anger-management exercises. âThat probably came off as sententious. But thatâs the way the folks at the Academy will look at it.â
âSo, bottom line, he needs a lawyer for sure,