Breacher (Tom Keeler Book 2) by Jack Lively (reading well TXT) 📕

I grunted affirmative. Noticed the backpack containing George Abram’s laptop resting on a chair inside the door.

Ellie continued. “The proper name for it was the Naval Surface Warfare Center. I don’t know much about what they did out on the island, but I have heard that it was all about the way they can hear things underwater, detection and stealth.”

I said, “Submarines.”

Ellie said, “Bingo. It wasn’t a sub base, the big one is up north. It was a research outfit looking at ways to hide our submarines, and to find theirs. Maybe that has to do with acoustics.”

I had seen several submarines during the salmon season, along with pods of humpback whales. The big boats were nuclear powered, Ohio class submarines. They were about five hundred and fifty feet long and looked awesome in the sunset. The stealth material sucked in the sound, but also the light. Kind of like a black hole in the ocean. You would see them suddenly sliding up out of the depths. Flat black forms, almost two football fields in length, slipping across the horizon.

I said, “But that’s all closed now, you said.”

“Yes. Closed for some years. I doubt this George kid would have been a researcher for the Navy. But it is a coincidence, don’t you think?”

I grunted.

She said, “What does that mean, that sound you just made?”

I said, “No such thing as a coincidence.”

Ellie tipped her head to one side and smiled. “I’m curious. How did the Jane Abrams people find you?”

I said, “One of their guys was a computer geek. They got a photograph of me and ran it. Found me in the Southeast Alaska Seiners Association database. Then they found my military record somewhere.”

Ellie thought for a moment. She said, “The military record. Is that something that the Abrams people would find attractive, a reason to approach you?”

“I served in an Air Force special tactics unit, pararescue.”

“How did they think to get a picture of you?”

I told her the story about Chapman and the bearded giant in the Porterhouse Bar.

Ellie said, “Makes some sense. No offense, but if they needed muscle, there you were. Efficient thinking, really. Membership in the SEAS is required for anyone working on a fishing boat. Your name would be in the data base with a picture. Standard operating procedures. Have you seen their offices?”

I said, “Yes, and often. Me and June go way back, all the way to July.”

“So you know they wouldn’t actually need a computer geek to gain access to the SEAS files. You could probably pay for it by feeding June donuts, or ice cream. But not the military record. So how did they find that?”

I said, “There are exactly a dozen ways to get authorized access to military records from outside. Each of those requires paperwork and time. So I figure that’s the computer geek part. They must have hacked into a government database.”

“I guess.” She lifted her eyebrows. “That’s quite impressive don’t you think?”

“Yeah. It isn’t bad.”

Ellie was done eating and done drinking coffee. She had cleaned up her plate and was sitting with her legs crossed beneath her on the chair. It looked like a terribly uncomfortable position, like some kind of torture. But Ellie was serene, like someone had given her the secret to a happy life.

She said, “Okay, so it’s about George, as far as you’re concerned. And it’s a missing persons case. According to what you know from the dead mother, Jane. But what about the people who you found following them?”

I said, “Deckart and Willets.”

“Right. Deckart and Willets were actively harassing the mother. You like them for the murders?”

I said, “Possible but not probable, far as I can make out. I took a good look at the bodies. The hits were clean and precise. The shooter used a .22. Triple shots for each victim. I don’t take Deckart and Willets for professionals. I think that they are more likely a lower species of hired freelance muscle.”

Ellie said, “Then there is the Mister Lawrence link.”

I said, “Deckart and Willets were convinced that I was one of Mister Lawrence’s guys. I don’t know exactly what that is supposed to mean, but I do know that they expressed that sentiment only after a tussle.”

“A tussle?”

“A display of controlled violence.”

Ellie said, “On your part. The display. Meaning it would make sense for Mister Lawrence to have a guy like you working for him.”

“Something like that, yes.”

I brought the plates to the sink and started cleaning the dishes. The sink was strategically located in front of a window, with a view. On the left side was the driveway, sloping down. On the right side, the hill continued into the forest, probably going endlessly out into wilderness. When I was finished, I turned and leaned back against the counter. Ellie was still in her complicated pose on the chair.

I said, “So what about all this interests the Chilkat Tribal Authority?”

She unfolded her legs and turned on the chair to face me. “The Tribal Authority is really just an office building in town with a vague jurisdiction. I’ve got two guys in one room working for me, two days out of five. What we mostly get involved with are disputed claims to tribal blood, hunting and fishing rights. The other areas of jurisdiction are tribal lands, largely wilderness, but there are some populated areas, small villages, and there are some business establishments here and there. We are tuned into the Port Morris Police Department radio frequencies. I heard your name over the radio, before the bodies were found. Actually, I heard your name about an hour after I saw you. Then there were the bodies found. I called Jim Smithson on the phone. He called me back when they had an estimated time of death. So, I knew for a fact that you had not been at Beaver Falls at that time.”

“Smithson the detective.”

“Yes.”

I said, “When did they have a time of death?”

“Not until early this morning. Otherwise I would have