Tea and Secrets-Part Four
1104 Agnew Dr
Friday, December 26, 2003
3:30 PM
"So Ramstein houses both the 86th and the 786th support squadrons—that is what you said, correct?" Mrs. Murphy sat facing him, tape recorder in hand.
"Correct," the colonel took another sip of tea—his voice slightly slurry. "They're divided –because of the missions they undertake."
"And are they housed separately?"
A nod. "One in building 2108 –that's the 86th—and the other in building 2118—I was con-consulted on it, y'know."
"Yes, I do know," Mrs. Murphy replied. "And what exactly is their mission? Colonel? Colonel?" No reply—he slumped in the chair, eyes closed. A shame, she thought. They had gotten so far today—but it couldn't be helped.
"Goodbye then, colonel." Mrs. Murphy rose from her chair, leaning over the semi-conscious man. "I hope to see you again very soon. Thank you so much for the lovely time. " A soft murmur issued from the colonel's mouth in response—his eyelids fluttering slightly—looking at her but she wasn't sure that he actually saw her at this point. No matter—the most useful side-effect of this little cocktail was that the victim retained no memory of what had been said or done.
"A few more sessions, eh?" she whispered to him—her lips barely brushed his cheek. "Just a few more and then we'll be done." She straightened, shouldering her bag as she headed out the door.
SMK SMK SMK SMK
Seated in her car across the street, Dotty watched as the colonel's door opened and Mrs. Murphy left, walking briskly down the sidewalk towards her car. Strange, she thought. The colonel, always the gentleman, would normally walk a lady to their car or at least to the door—but he was nowhere to be seen.
Something was definitely wrong here.
Despite her rising anxiety Dotty forced herself to sit very still, waiting quietly while Mrs. Murphy got into her car. There was a slight screech of tires as the car pulled away from the curb and disappeared down the block.
'Now,' she thought. Getting out of the car she made her way across the street.
The front door was closed —Dotty rang the bell and waited—no reply.
"Colonel?" She tapped lightly on the door. Still nothing. The doorknob turned in her hands and she pushed it open.
"Colonel?" The light in the family room was dim but Dotty could see him, seated on the sofa, head drooped forward. Oh gosh—he wasn't—but drawing closer she realized that he was still breathing—his chest rising and falling.
'Thank God.' She switched on the overhead lamp and bent over the colonel's still form, giving him a brief examination. No injuries—at least not that she could see. A teacup lay nearby, tilted onto its side—some of the liquid had trickled out but a small amount was still nestled inside. Picking it up Dotty sniffed it. Just like before, the same bitter smell assaulted her nostrils, causing her eyes to water slightly. Some kind of drug—it had to be. The liquid on the bottom looked dried—grainy. Sugar, no doubt—to hide the taste of the drug. Dotty placed the cup back on the table. She touched the colonel's cheek and the he groaned—his eyes opening slightly.
"Hang on," Dotty told him—not sure if he could actually hear her at this point. "I'll just get you a glass of water." Going to the kitchen she grabbed a small glass from the cabinet and filled it straight from the tap. The colonel was sitting a bit straighter as she came back into the family room—his head turned, noticing her.
"Dotty?" His voice sounded like a tape recording with the batteries running down. "How—how did—"
"Never mind right now." Dotty put the glass of water to his lips. "You'll be fine, just drink some of this."
"'kay," he replied blearily.
The water did seem to help, Dotty noted with relief—some of the coloring began to come back into his face and his eyes looked a bit more alert. After a few more sips he pushed the glass away from him.
"Fine—I'm fine now—thanks."
"Do you have any idea what happened?" she asked him.
"Happened?" The colonel repeated. "I—ahh—" he ran a hand over his face. "I remember fixing lunch—soup and a sandwich—I was watching a game on TV, and then I—" his voice trailed off, confusion filling his eyes.
"Try to remember," Dotty prompted gently. "What happened next?"
He shook his head. "Sorry—I can't quite—Alice—that's it! She came over—like she said she would. Is she still here?"
"No," Dotty said. "She left. Do you remember anything after that?"
"Some," the colonel replied. "We had some pie—some of the apple pie—and then we had some tea."
"And is that all you can remember? The tea and nothing else?"
"Afraid so." Again the colonel shook his head, as if trying to clear it. "I don't understand what's going on."
Dotty drew in a deep breath, her eyes looking into his. This was going to be hard for him to hear, she thought—but she had to tell him straight out. "I think you were drugged," she told him finally. "And I think—I think it was Mrs. Murphy."
"Mrs. Murphy? No," the colonel said. "No she would never do that to me."
"Are you really sure?" she asked him gently. "Just think—how well do you really know her?" He said nothing in response but she could tell she'd hit a nerve. "And I'm betting this isn't the first time that you've had a memory lapse after one of her visits." More silence. "Is it?"
"No," he admitted finally. "It's not the first time—it's been a few times, as a matter of fact. I just thought Alice was a friend—I don't understand why she would do this."
"Neither do I," Dotty said. She could see the pain in his eyes— the betrayal—she could only guess how he must be feeling at this point. "But I do think we need to get your blood tested—to find out what she gave you and what she was using it for." She paused. "I also think we need to call Lee and Amanda—get the Agency in on this."
For one moment she thought the colonel was going to argue with her; instead he nodded. "You're right," he told her. "I have a top secret security clearance—if I've been compromised in any way they would be ones to deal with it."
Dotty patted his arm as she stood. "I'll make the call. Why don't you drink a little more water—it might help to clear your head."
"Yeah," he took the glass from her, sipping the water slowly. His hands trembled slightly but he managed to hold it steady. Picking up the cordless from the table, Dotty dialed a familiar number.
"Lee?" she said when her son-in law answered. "I'm at the colonel's house—there's been an incident."
SMK SMK SMK SMK
The Agency
7:30 PM
"What have you got?" Lee asked Dr. McJohn.
"It's kind of hard to say," McJohn replied slowly. "We're running a more detailed chemical analysis—the results of that will take some time. I can tell you that it's nothing we've seen before."
"That's all you have?" Lee's tone was incredulous. "It's nothing you've seen before? Nothing else?"
"I didn't say that," McJohn said. "What I can tell you is that it seems to share certain chemical similarities with sodium thiopental—more commonly known as sodium pentothal."
"Some sort of truth serum?" Amanda asked.
Dr. McJohn nodded. "That would be my guess, though I can't say for certain. But I imagine it would work the same way as that drug, making its victims more compliant to pressure. It also appears to share some elements of the drug Rohypnol—which would explain the short-term memory loss."
A truth drug coupled with loss of memory, Lee thought—meaning that the victim would give away secrets and not even be aware of what they had done. His uncle never would've willingly given away secrets—he was certain of that—but under this drug he wouldn't have stood a chance. Lee wondered how many other soldiers Mrs. Murphy had done this to. "Would there be any way to retrieve the memory of what was said under the influence of this drug?" .
McJohn sighed. "Well I won't know anything for certain until the complete analysis comes back, but in my experience I'd call it unlikely."
"Are there any side effects?" Amanda wanted to know.
"Apart from the memory loss, I don't see anything else that poses that kind of danger," McJohn replied. "We should be able to create an antidote for this, however."
"Antidote?" Lee repeated.
"Not an antidote in the strict sense of the word," Mcjohn said. "But something taken beforehand that can neutralize the drug's effects. It'll take time, but I think we can do it."
"An antidote sounds good, McJohn—I'd get to work on that as soon as possible." Billy's voice—Lee and Amanda turned to see the Agency Head standing there, folder in hand.
"Thought I'd find you down here," he said "I thought you'd like to know what we've found out about the Veteran's Aid Society."
"What do you have?" Lee asked.
Billy let out a sigh as he opened the folder, adjusting his glasses. "Not a whole lot, I'm afraid. I can tell you that it's a fairly recent organization—they registered as a non-profit this last September and in October they became part of the Faith Based Initiative."
"So they wouldn't have been vetted by the Agency during this last Spring Cleaning." Amanda said. "But surely they would've been checked out before joining the initiative, right?"
"Not as thoroughly as you might think," Billy replied. "Homeland Security runs a cursory check on the organization and the leaders—if nothing on the preliminary sends up a red flag no further checks are done. Since the Initiative was created thousands of non-profits have applied for grants—the government has tried to streamline the process."
Meaning that lots of potentially shady organizations could've gotten through—Lee knew from experience that these groups did their damndest to appear outwardly respectable—though often the 'official' leaders were little more than a front. "Do we have anything on the leader of this group?" he asked.
"His name is Charles Edward Rendell," Billy leafed through the folder as he spoke. "No criminal record—he graduated from Brown in '86 and was with the Peace Corps until 1989, after which he settled in Alexandria. His experience with non-profits goes back about thirteen years. We're trying to get a deeper background now—we'll let you know when we have any more news."
"And Mrs. Murphy?" Amanda asked. "Did you find anything about her?"
Billy nodded. "There's not much, however. Alice Josephine Murphy, born in 1930— wife of Gerald Murphy, now deceased. No criminal records—until about a year ago she worked for the US Postal Service. No children or living relatives—the only address we can find so far is a PO Box. But we'll get more." He paused. "We really have to thank Mrs. West for bringing this to our attention."
"Yes," Amanda agreed. "Mother's instincts were right on target with this one."
"That they were." Lee said. It ran in the family— he could remember all the times that Amanda's instincts and intuition had come in very handy. "We really need to get moving on this one, Billy—this could be big." An understatement, he knew—at this point there was no telling how many other volunteers there were or how many had been compromised.
Big was the wrong word—this could be huge.
"That's why this case is now Priority One, Scarecrow," Billy replied. "And I think the first person to speak to is the colonel. How is he doing, by the way?"
"Fine," Lee said. Physically, at least—since being brought in the colonel hadn't had much to say—he'd barely even made eye contact. Some of that could be the lingering affects of the drug—but Lee could only guess what his uncle must be feeling at this point. "He's down in medical with Dotty. We'll go speak to him now."
"Give him my regards," Billy told them. "Any help that he can give us now would be greatly appreciated."
SMK SMK SMK SMK
The colonel was seated in the examining room with Dotty beside him; he looked up as Lee and Amanda entered.
"So?" he asked. "What's the verdict?"
This wasn't going to be easy—not at all. Lee drew in a deep breath and let it out. "You were definitely drugged, sir—the tea was laced with a substance—it's some sort of truth serum combined with something that would affect your memory."
"Is there any way to retrieve the memory?" the colonel asked. "Of what I said—what I told her?"
"No, not really," Lee replied.
"Not really," the colonel repeated. Lee could hear the bitterness in his uncle's tone. "I suppose that was too much to expect, huh?"
"Can you remember anything of what she said to you before you drank the tea?" Lee asked. "I know she was asking questions about the bases you visited."
"She was just interested in the bases themselves," the colonel said. "How big they were—things like that. Sure I thought I was strange at first—but she seemed pretty harmless—I thought maybe she was just making small talk."
The same thing he'd said to Dotty when she'd originally told him, Lee recalled—wincing inwardly at the memory. "Did she give you a phone number where you could reach her—or maybe an address?"
"No," the colonel shook his head. "She always contacted me. And there was the time that she 'bumped' into me in Best Buy—though I'm guessing that was all arranged—even down to the tires." He laughed shortly. "I've really been a prize fool, you know."
"No," Dotty said. "Don't think that."
"What the hell else am I supposed to think?" he snapped. "I mean, I trusted her—I believed her—even thought we were friends and it all turned out to be a lie. You tell me what else I'm supposed to feel!" The colonel let out a noisy sigh, running his hand back through his hair. "I'm sorry, Dotty—I didn't mean to take this out on you, it's just—"
"It's all right," Dotty placed her hand on his. "Believe me, I do understand."
"If it makes you feel any better, it really wasn't your fault, sir." Amanda told him. "This was a very powerful drug—you really didn't have any control."
"No disrespect, Amanda," the colonel said. "But that really doesn't help me at the moment. The fact is I still let myself trust her even when my instincts were telling me that something was wrong. And I'm sure that some of that was the drug, but I let myself believe that she really wanted to help me."
Lee could hear the pain in his uncle's voice. That was the worst part of this, he thought—the way that Mrs. Murphy took advantage of these men—retired, wounded—many who were still trying to navigate civilian life after a career in the service. She used and betrayed them. He wished he could think of the right words to say—Amanda had always been better at that stuff, but even she had fallen silent.
Maybe there were no words in this case.
"Is there anything else you can tell us about Mrs. Murphy?" he asked the colonel. "Think back—even something small could be an important clue."
"You think I haven't been doing that, Skip?" The colonel replied. "I've been racking my brain but there isn't anything else—we're sunk—I'm sunk. Lord only knows what she'll do with the information she has, and once this gets out my security clearance will be gone—no consulting firm will ever hire me now."
"We still have a chance of catching Mrs. Murphy," Dotty said. "We could set a trap for her. It's not over yet."
"What?" the colonel laughed disbelievingly. "How could we set a trap? Once I take that drug from her again, it's over."
"Not necessarily," Lee told him. "McJohn is working on an antidote—something that you could take beforehand that would neutralize the effects of the drug."
"That's right," Amanda added. "And we could wire the house and be nearby—catch her in the act."
The colonel fell silent for a few moments, staring down at his hands.
"I don't know," he said finally, looking back up at them. "Something could go wrong, and I—I've already compromised myself enough. I just don't know."
Lee could see the uncertainty in the colonel's eyes—in the space of a few hours it almost seemed as though the man had shrunk. It worried him—he'd seen him upset, but never quite like this before. Amanda took his hand—she knew what he was feeling. Dotty 's voice broke the silence.
"You can't think like that," she said. "This woman used you—she lied to you. You don't want her to get away with what she did—and you don't want any more secrets to fall into the wrong hands. Right?"
The colonel sighed again. "Of course not."
"Listen to me," Dotty's eyes looked into the colonel's own. "If this works, it could shut Mrs. Murphy and her organization down. Don't you want that? Isn't it worth the risk?"
Another pause—Lee held his breath, hoping that she had gotten through.
"Yeah," the colonel replied. He straightened, his voice growing louder "Yeah, I'd like to do that. Lee—let me know when that antidote comes through. I'm with you on this all the way."
Lee felt a smile spreading across his face. "I will do that, sir. Thank you."
SMK SMK SMK
1104 Agnew Dr
Friday, December 26, 2003
9:30 PM
"Here we are," Dotty said as she pulled up into the driveway of the colonel's house. "Sure you don't want me to come in with you? We could talk a little, if you like."
No reply at first; he just stared straight ahead. For a moment Dotty worried that she'd offended him somehow. Finally he spoke.
"No," he said. "It's not that I don't appreciate the offer, Dotty—it's just been a really long day—I think I might just hit the sack."
"I understand," Dotty replied. "I know it hasn't been easy for you."
"No it hasn't—but I've dealt with tougher things in my life. Believe me, I'll survive."
"I know you will." Dotty tried to think of what else she could say—something that would help—but nothing came. "You take care of yourself—have a good night."
"You too." He touched her shoulder briefly. "And Dotty—thank you for your help with this. Believe me, I really do appreciate it."
"You're welcome," she said. "Don't worry—we will get her."
A smile—small, but even so it made her feel better to see it. "Yes, we will."
SMK SMK SMK SMK
A long day, the colonel thought as he unlocked and opened his front door—he hadn't been kidding when he'd told Dotty that. His head throbbed dully and his arm—rolling up his right sleeve he looked down at the band-aid in the crook of his elbow—the place that marked where they'd taken his blood for testing. Looking around the edges of the bandage he could already see where a bruise was beginning to form. The mark was a reminder, though—a sign of what Alice Murphy had done to him. The way she'd used him, gotten past his defenses— made him trust her. He looked down at a teacup, still lying on the coffee table.
"A nice cup of tea is what you need," she'd told him. "Things will look much better after that."
Much better, indeed. Bending over the colonel plucked the object from the table. For a few moments he just stared down at it—his fingers clutching the handle tightly. Briefly he considered throwing the object to the floor just to watch it break, the porcelain shattering into hundreds of pieces—
"No," he said quietly. "She's not worth it." He knew now what he wanted to do. Walking into the kitchen he opened the trashcan lid and tossed the cup inside.
At that moment the phone rang. Who could it be at this hour? Lee or Amanda, perhaps—checking on him? Going into the living room he picked up the extension,
"Hello?"
"Hello, Robert—I hope I haven't called you too late."
Alice. He'd known she'd call, of course, but hearing her voice felt like a bucket of ice water being dumped on his head:
"Act natural," Lee had told him back at the Agency. "Don't give her any reason to suspect that something's up. Just arrange a meet and that's when we'll move in."
"I'm hardly a novice, Skip," he'd told his nephew. "Believe me; I know what I need to do."
Knowing and actually doing were two different things, though—he had to admit that Lee actually did have a point—despite everything that had happened, part of him still felt like he wanted, needed to talk to her again. Some side effect of the drug, no doubt—it helped to explain how he'd grown so close to her so quickly.
"Robert?" Alice's voice—for one moment he'd almost forgotten she was on the line. "Are you all right?"
"Fine," he managed to say. "Just fine, Alice—though I guess I'm a little tired."
"Oh dear, I didn't mean to call so late," she said.
"Trust me," he told her. "It's not a bad time. What did you need?"
"I just wondered if we could see one another on Sunday—I have family matters on Saturday but I thought Sunday would be nice—I could even bring dinner."
'Dinner laced with more drugs, perhaps?' he thought to himself. And as for the 'family matter', Lee had informed him that she had no living family. Out loud he said. "Dinner sounds just fine—what time should I expect you?"
"Between four and five PM," she told him. "I'll see you then. Have a good night, Robert—sleep well."
"You too, Alice—goodnight." Quickly the colonel hung up the phone and replaced it on its charger, not trusting himself to say any more. He closed his eyes for a moment, breathing deeply as he fought to regain his composure.
Picking up the phone again, he dialed Lee's number.
TBC