Chapter 6

Washington DC, 1863

Battles in Virginia had taken up everyone's attention, especially when word came that Stonewall Jackson had been wounded at Chancellorsville. The battle itself had been a disaster for the north, but from an intelligence standpoint, it was gold. Jackson out of action. They had to find out as much as they could about this, about how badly he was hurt, whether he would be back, who would replace him in the meantime.

Jarrod's relationship with Julia had cooled again, and he was beginning to plan a break with her. With the need to keep up with the information on Stonewall Jackson, he was working long days and worrying more about keeping his information to himself. Even with all the pillow talk, he had managed to keep quiet about his work, and he had to admit, Julia seldom asked anything even as simple as "How's life at the war department?" anymore. Before he could actually tell her they were over, though, something else happened.

"My gosh, Matt Parker!" Jarrod exclaimed when he saw his old school buddy from his Stockton boyhood days show up at the war department in a Union lieutenant's uniform. He extended a hand. "What in the world are you doing here, boy?"

"Transferred here a few weeks ago," Matt said. "I've been a field agent, checking out some places here and there that the men upstairs think are places our boys are getting pumped for information, clubs and restaurants and the like, but they pulled me in to a desk job starting this week, a couple floors up. I just found out you were here and thought I'd stop by and see how you were."

"I'm fine, just fine. Trying to stay out of the field myself, at least out of intelligence gathering, until I can get back into action. I've been trying for a commission with a colored cavalry unit. Still working on it."

"You always did want to be where the action was. Say, have a drink with me after work at the club down around the corner."

Where Julia worked. "I've been there a few times. I don't drink, but I'll be happy to meet you there, say about six?"

"Sounds good," Matt said. "I'll bet we've got a lot to talk about."

Jarrod didn't know how much until he met Matt at the club. They found a table not far from the piano – Matt's choice, making Jarrod a little nervous, but not as nervous as he was when Julia came in and toward the piano. She did smile for him, and she came up to him and put her arm around him. Matt Parker looked like he was going to fall over.

"Matt, this is Julia Saxon," Jarrod said. "Julia, Matt Parker – an old friend from Stockton."

"How do you do, Matt?" she asked. "Are you in town on furlough or are you stationed here too?"

Matt blubbered a bit but finally said, "No, I'm stationed here in the war department, too. You two know each other?"

Julia smiled at Jarrod, and he smiled back. "We do," she said, and then she headed for the piano.

"You and her?" Matt asked, stupefied.

Jarrod nodded. "For a while now."

"Serious?" Matt asked.

Jarrod hesitated. "Not exactly," Jarrod said. "It's hard to think seriously about a relationship in wartime."

Matt looked from Jarrod to Julia and then back again. "Maybe you're right about that. Live for the day, huh? There might not be any tomorrow."

"Something like that," Jarrod said. And he suddenly realized what it was that was making Julia more reserved. She was looking more at Matt now than she was looking at him. He thought with a shock that she was as interested in breaking up with him as he was in breaking up with her.

But at this point he didn't know the full truth yet, even though that warning bell in his head was beginning to clang more loudly than ever.

XXXXXXXXXX

Stockton CA, 1878

"Did you have any idea she was gonna go for Matt that night, Jarrod?" Heath asked.

"No, not really," Jarrod said. "Could you hand me some water, Nick?"

Nick fetched a glass of water for him, saying, "But you thought something was wrong."

"It had been for a while, ever since we said we loved each other," Jarrod said and drank some water. "After that night with Matt, things got even a cooler between me and Julia. I had the thought that she was looking for someone else. And I started to have the feeling that she was after more than love or even sex. We still saw each other. Still spent a few nights together, but in a month or so, we were really finished. And that's when I noticed Matt was pulling away, too. He didn't have much to say to me as time wore on, and then one night I went to the club alone, and I saw Matt and Julia together, and I got the picture."

"But you didn't know she was a spy looking for information," Heath said.

"No, but I suspected," Jarrod said. "Once she started seeing Matt, I started wondering if all that cooling off we'd been going through was because she was seeing other men, and I remembered some of the things she'd asked me when we were first seeing each other. I got worried, and I stopped seeing Julia completely, and then the fat hit the fire, and I knew."

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Washington DC, 1863

The Battle of Gettysburg had sent the entire city of Washington into a wild, happy frenzy. The magic of Robert E. Lee had been broken. He was retreating back into Virginia, and even though a lot of people in the war department thought General Meade and the Union Army were not pursuing him hard enough, everyone was still as happy as could be.

Except Jarrod. His relationship with Julia was over completely now, and she was always on Matt's arm. He saw them on the street a few times, as well as in the club, and he honestly felt completely betrayed – but also something else. He began to believe that Julia was using Matt for information. Then toward the beginning of August, it happened. Matt was arrested.

Jarrod was surprised – but then again, he wasn't, when he found out what the charges were. Matt was accused of passing on confidential intelligence to a Confederate operative – Julia.

It all made sense then. Julia had dropped him for Matt because she wasn't getting any information out of him, and Matt was more willing to talk. It may have made sense, but Jarrod was devastated, both because he had believed her when she said she loved him, and because she had destroyed his friend Matt. And she had disappeared. She no longer appeared at the club, and she no longer lived in the building where she and Jarrod had spent all those nights together, nights he treasured at the time. He didn't treasure them anymore.

They had Matt locked up in a cell in the war department basement, reserved for spies who had been caught at it. Jarrod didn't believe for a moment that Matt had been a willing spy for the Confederacy. He had just been taken in by Julia Saxon. Jarrod asked to see Matt as soon as he was arrested, telling his boss he wanted to check into defending him.

"Well, I know you have some legal training, Jarrod," his boss said, "but it might not be very good for your career if you defend him. He's in big trouble."

"I know," Jarrod said. "And you ought to know something – I also had a relationship with Julia Saxon."

His boss sat up straight. "You did what?"

"I didn't know she was a Confederate operative," Jarrod said. "I didn't know until now."

"But she did try to get information from you."

Jarrod nodded. "In retrospect, yes, it's clear she did, though I kept thinking she was just asking innocent questions."

"Or maybe that's what you were hoping they were."

"Maybe," Jarrod said. "But I never told her anything, and she actually dumped me for Matt."

"Jarrod, you know we're going to have to investigate this," his boss said.

"You won't have to investigate hard," Jarrod said. "We didn't make any secret of it. It was before the department had any interest in her. I know you can't take my word for it, but from what I hear, you caught Matt because some of the information he alone knew resulted in problems out in the field, am I right?"

"Yes."

"If you check into everything I've been working on over the past few months, you'll find nothing was compromised," Jarrod said. "I never told Julia Saxon a thing about my work, which is why she dumped me. I'll consider myself under arrest until you investigate this – "

"Let's leave that for the time being," his boss said. "If you're correct and nothing you've worked on has been compromised, then there's no reason to arrest you. You haven't done anything."

"May I represent Matt in the meantime?"

His boss took a deep breath. "You'd better let me look into things before we decide on that. We're still investigating everything Matt was involved in. It'll be a while before he's brought to court martial."

Jarrod nodded. "A long while back, before I ever met Julia Saxon, I put in for transfer to a colored cavalry unit. I'd like to rescind that until we get this all figured out."

His boss nodded. "For your sake, Jarrod, I hope you're as innocent in this as you think you are."

Jarrod nodded. "I'm confident I am, sir. I'll cooperate in every way. I understand Julia Saxon has disappeared."

"She has. Do you have any idea where she might have gone?"

Jarrod shook his head. "Not at all. She said she was an orphan. I assume now that she's been found out, she might have gone down to Richmond, but I don't know if that's true."

"If you hear from her at all, I expect you to tell me at once."

"Of course."

"In the meantime, you're suspended from any work in the war department. I'm transferring you to duty at Ft. Stevens for the time being."

Jarrod nodded. "If it's determined that I can represent Matt, will I be transferred back?"

"It'll take a while, but probably, yes."

"May I see Matt before I go?"

His boss nodded and began to write him out a pass. "Keep in mind, you won't be allowed to be alone with him just yet, and you don't represent him yet, either."

Jarrod nodded and took the pass. "I'll cooperate in every way, sir. Whenever you want to have me questioned, just give the word."

His boss nodded again. "Good luck, Jarrod. I hope you're cleared in all this."

"I should be," Jarrod said. And he saluted. His boss returned the salute, and Jarrod went out.