Major Karsh observed Docker’s reactions and smiled. “Sit down, lieutenant,” he said. “Have a cigarette, if you like. This is no longer the seat of First Army’s special board of inquiry.” The major glanced around and snapped his fingers. “Like that, the hearings are over and we have only a few last details to check out.”
Docker took off his overcoat, folded it on Sergeant Corey’s desk and sat down facing the major.
“You’re surprised, I’m sure,” Karsh said.
“In addition to that, I’m pretty damn curious.”
“That’s a normal reaction, but the explanation is simple. During our recess I telephoned Colonel Rankin. After we discussed the matter, he agreed with my recommendation to terminate the hearings.”
“Then you and the colonel agreed on a verdict?”
“No, we didn’t,” Karsh said. He took a leather cigarette case and a Zippo lighter from a pocket of his tunic and put them on the table. “There is no verdict, lieutenant. No conclusions or recommendations, not even any educated guesses.”
“Then can I ask you what the hell this charade was all about?”
“Of course, you can. But it was no charade. I can assure you this board of inquiry wasn’t convened for trivial or ulterior reasons. We hoped to get the truth, or a good piece of the truth in regard to Private Jackson Baird. I’ve now decided that isn’t possible. You and I could sit across this table exchanging questions and answers for” — Karsh paused to light a cigarette — “for another week or another month, but we still wouldn’t be any closer to agreeing on the truth of these issues. It’s like that black whiskey your gunner cooked up for Section Eight. Personally, I’d accept your version of what occurred at Utah Beach. But do you think you could convince Lieutenant Whitter of that?”
“I wouldn’t bother—”
“Then you see my point.”
“Yes, but I don’t think you see mine, major. I wouldn’t bother because it doesn’t make a damn bit of difference one way or the other, that whiskey is no more important than the sears we filed off our rifles, or the helmet of crap dumped over Korbick’s head. The important question from the start was whether or not Jackson Baird deserted his post under fire. And now you’ve called the hearings off because you say there’s no answer to it.”
Karsh frowned down at his Zippo lighter, which was decorated on each side with tiny replicas of the First Army shoulder patch — the letter A in black on a field of gray.
“It’s a difficult question, lieutenant.” He blew a fat smoke ring then, and broke its symmetry with a flick of his finger.
“However, I didn’t say I couldn’t answer it. What I suggested was that we probably couldn’t find an answer we could agree on. If you want my opinion, based on the boy’s bloodlines, I would say no to the question. The Baird family didn’t put its name in the history books and on grave markers across the country’s bloodiest battlefields by breeding cowards. But we’re not talking about something as uncomplicated as studs and mares and bloodlines—”
“No, I presume we are still talking about your gray areas,” Docker said.
“You can disparage that legal and moral no-man’s-land if you want, but in all warfare, and that includes business and politics and every other form of human competition I know about, there are very few blacks and whites. Docker. Which is why the world needs judges and juries who can hear both sides of an argument and establish some ground rules for compromise.”
Docker didn’t entirely disagree, but wasn’t sure he needed the lecture.
Major Karsh blew another smoke ring, seemed pleased by its completeness, and poked a finger through it. “Practically everything we touched on in these hearings had a couple of different shadings to it. We know the Baird youngster soldiered well in your section, and that he fought and died, not just honorably but even heroically. That’s a series of events we can call facts. As for the rest of it... who’s to say? Matter of fact, who’s to say about your friend Larkin?...”
Larkin? What the hell, Docker thought. He suspected Karsh had been talking, at least partly, to justify himself for the way he’d grilled him. It had been pretty clear to him, after a while, that the hearing was designed to reach one conclusion — the exoneration of Baird — regardless of what he or anybody else said, and Karsh seemed to need to make this right — for himself as well as Docker...
Karsh pointed the tip of his cigarette at Docker. “Yes, Larkin, lieutenant. He’s somebody else who told you something incriminating about himself — I’m accepting for the moment what you said Baird told you. But take it a few steps further. You also said Larkin had never been involved in anything like black-marketing. The Germans were on their way. You gave him a mission to take a little Jewish girl to a safe place. Who’s to say he didn’t change his mind about the black market goods, decide not to go through with it after, or maybe even before, he delivered that little girl? Are we supposed to take the word of Bonnard, a known dealer in contraband and probably a German collaborator? Maybe Larkin was no more guilty of what even you, his good friend, thought he was, than Baird. I’m willing to consider that possibility, are you? You wanted to know what this so-called charade was all about. A fair shake for a couple of good soldiers... that’s what it was about... at least for me...”
That last was said mostly under his breath, but Docker caught it. He didn’t buy any more than before that that was all there was behind it, but still, the underlying point was the same one that had occurred to him during the hearings, and it wouldn’t go away. He picked up Karsh’s cigarette lighter, watched the light gleaming on the square black A painted on its side. He put it down, looked at Karsh. “Major, could I have another look at the statement I gave to Captain Grant?” Docker suddenly felt very tired. “The one we decided to call File A, I believe.”
“Of course,” Karsh said. “I’ll call Brabant Park and have a copy sent over by courier. May I ask why?”
“I’m not really sure. Can you understand that?”
“I think so. You want to be very sure. Isn’t that it?”
Docker nodded slowly. “I remember the words Baird used, and how his voice sounded. I understood the words, but I’m not sure now that he did.”
Karsh looked at him. “Do you want to make what you’ve just told me a part of the record, lieutenant?”
“Yes,” Docker said. “If I can get it straight in my own mind.”
“But why rip at yourself this way? I believe I know what you’re thinking, and writing briefs is my line of country. Why not let me put your thoughts in an amendment to File A? And to adjust the transcript of the hearings? I could have both documents delivered to your hotel within a few hours. You just sign them and we’ll put an end to this business.” Karsh stood and came around the table. “Doesn’t that make sense, lieutenant?”
Docker nodded because it did make sense, he thought, standing and pulling on his overcoat.
The major walked across the room with Docker, a hand resting lightly on his shoulder in a gesture of support and encouragement.
“I’m hosting a little party here at the hotel tonight,” he said. “Some of General Adamson’s people and a few local bureaucrats. Would you care to stop by after supper?”
“Thanks, but I’d better get back to my unit.”