here,’ DeMarco said, gesturing toward Mulherin and Norton, ‘are making a lot more money than they made when they worked in the shipyard.’
Carmody shrugged. ‘So what?’ he said. Before DeMarco could respond, he said, ‘Look, I submitted a bid to get this job, the navy accepted my bid, and I’m paying these guys the going rate. It’s not my problem that some yardbird thinks they should be paid less.’
‘Who awarded you the contract?’ Emma asked.
Carmody hesitated, but just for a second. ‘NAVSEA,’ he said.
‘Who?’ DeMarco said.
‘It’s not a person,’ Emma said. ‘NAVSEA is the Naval Sea Systems Command. A navy headquarters outfit back in D.C.’
‘Right,’ Carmody said. ‘You people could have saved yourself the trip out here. Somebody at NAVSEA could have given you the same information I just did.’
DeMarco wished he had known that before he flew out to Bremerton.
‘But who specifically at NAVSEA?’ Emma said. ‘Who’s the individual that awarded you the contract?’
‘I don’t know,’ Carmody said. ‘Whoever handles this sort of thing back in Washington, I guess.’
Carmody’s response had been casual but DeMarco had been looking at his arms when he spoke. Carmody was holding a coffee cup in both hands and when he answered the last question, he squeezed the cup hard enough that the muscles in his forearms jumped. DeMarco would hate to have to arm wrestle this guy.
Emma stared at Carmody for a moment but before she could say anything else, Carmody stood up. ‘Hey, it’s been great talking to you but I have a meeting I have to get to. All I can tell you is that the review we’re doing is needed, our billing rates are not out of line, and I was low bidder on the job. If you have any more questions you need to talk to the people back in D.C. who awarded me the contract.’
As they walked back toward Emma’s rental car, she said, ‘What do you think?’
DeMarco shrugged. ‘I don’t know. Norton and Mulherin didn’t exactly strike me as rocket scientists but the study sounds legit, and as for Carmody, he seems pretty sharp.’
‘Yes, he does,’ Emma said. She paused before she added, ‘He reminds me of mercenaries I’ve known.’
Carmody watched through the window as DeMarco and Emma walked away, then turned and stared at Mulherin. Mulherin looked like a dog waiting to be kicked, and Carmody definitely felt like kicking him. Goddamnit, what an idiot. But he’d deal with Mulherin later.
He went into his office and closed the door and took a seat at his desk. He put his right hand on the phone but he didn’t pick it up. He wasn’t worried about the questions they had asked. There was nothing wrong with his contract or what he was charging the government or anything else. No, it wasn’t the questions that worried him – it was the people asking the questions.
First, if somebody had really written their congressman to complain about his contract, the congressman would have handed off the complaint to the GAO or the Naval Inspector General. He wouldn’t have sent congressional staffers out here to deal with it.
And then there was DeMarco. There was something about him, a toughness to him, that didn’t match his mission. Carmody had been exposed to House staff people in the past and they were usually eager young kids, not some hard case like DeMarco. DeMarco’s ID had looked legit so he might be some kind of political operator – but he sure as hell wasn’t a guy you sent out to check on a nickel-and-dime navy contract.
But the woman was the real problem. Carmody had met her once before, ten or twelve years ago. She was someone you didn’t forget. He didn’t remember her name though – and that little game she’d played with the library card had kept him from finding it out – but he knew what she was even if he didn’t know who she was. Fortunately, she hadn’t recognized him, which wasn’t surprising considering the conditions under which they’d met. But whether she recognized him or not, the fact that she was here could mean real trouble.
His hand was still resting on the phone. He knew he should make the call. The problem was that he could never predict how she was going to react. Or overreact. He finally took his hand off the phone. He’d wait. If they came back again and if they asked different questions, then he’d call her.
Goddamnit. He felt like killing Mulherin.
DeMarco and Emma were having lunch, Emma picking at a tuna salad while DeMarco consumed a cheeseburger the size of a catcher’s mitt.
The navy dominated the city of Bremerton and the county in which it was located. In addition to the shipyard in Bremerton, which employed about ten thousand people, there was the Naval Submarine Base located in Bangor, Washington, and the Undersea Warfare Center in Keyport, Washington. The place where they were dining reflected the community’s support – and financial dependence – on the navy. The walls were covered with photographs of submarines bursting from the water and fighters taking off from the decks of aircraft carriers. Two tables away from Emma and DeMarco sat a gentleman who wore a dark blue baseball cap emblazoned with the words U.S. NAVY RETIRED – a totally redundant statement as the man looked old enough to have sailed with John Paul Jones.
‘Why would Carmody lie about not knowing the person who had awarded his contract?’ DeMarco said.
‘So you thought so too,’ Emma said.
‘Yeah. But why’s he lying?’
‘I’m not sure.’
They sat there chewing in silence for a minute before DeMarco said, ‘Maybe he wasn’t really the low bidder and he gave a kickback to the guy who awarded him the contract. So maybe Whitfield’s right.’
‘I don’t know,’ Emma said. ‘I suppose that’s possible, but the bidding process is usually pretty transparent.’
‘Or maybe Carmody’s just being a prick,’ DeMarco said. ‘Since he didn’t give us a name, he knows that’s going to cause us to waste time tracking down the contract guy, and that’ll be time we don’t spend looking at him.’
‘Yeah, but he could be doing that,’ Emma said, ‘even if everything’s on the up-and-up, just to get us out of his hair.’ Emma pushed aside her salad, only half of it gone. No wonder the woman never gained an ounce. ‘At any rate,’ she said, ‘we – meaning you – need to find out who awarded Carmody’s contract. I’d suggest you start by—’
Emma was interrupted by the ringing of DeMarco’s cell phone.
‘Hello,’ DeMarco said.
‘Hey,’ Mahoney said, sounding abnormally cheerful. ‘I’m flyin’ out there. In fact I’m on the plane right now.’
Thanks to space-age technology,
