Simple Genius

She came back a minute later, white-faced and wiping her mouth. She slowly climbed back on the bike.

“Skies a little unfriendly to you?” he asked.

She said slowly, “No, just chalk it up to pilot error. So what are you doing on Horatio’s precious Harley?”

“Just went for a stroll.”

“And just happened to arrive at the air terminal as we landed?”

He turned and said angrily, “You call that a friggin’ landing? You guys were coming straight down. I thought you’d lost the damn engine. I almost killed myself getting to the runway even if it was just to spatula you off the tarmac! What the hell happened up there?”

“Some kind of engine trouble. Champ corrected it.” She felt terrible lying to him, but would have felt even worse telling him the truth. And what was the truth? That she had frozen, nearly killing herself and an innocent person?

“I thought you said it was pilot error?”

“Just forget it,” she said. “Any landing you walk away from is a great one.”

“Excuse me for caring.”

“So you’ve been riding this bike all over the countryside watching us fly around?”

“I told you I didn’t want you to go up there with the guy.”

“You don’t think I can handle myself?”

“Oh hell, don’t pull that crap with me. I was just-”

She smacked his helmet. “Sean?”

“What?”

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

They rode on.

Michelle clung tightly to Sean’s jacket. She didn’t want to let go, for any reason. She had never been more terrified in her life. And this time the reason for the fear was not some external enemy. It was herself.

CHAPTER 73

SEAN DROVE THEM TO THE B amp;B where Horatio had originally been staying. “Joan is faxing me some info,” he explained.

They got the documents and drove to a nearby restaurant. Michelle’s stomach had settled down enough that they ordered sandwiches and coffee. She told Sean about Monk going up in the plane.

As they ate, they went over the pages Joan had faxed. Sean said, “Monk Turing did visit Wiesbaden.”

“How’d they find that out so quickly?”

“Joan’s firm has an affiliate in Frankfurt. They were able to track him via his credit card receipts. He bought that beer stein he gave Champ there among other things.” He next looked at several sheets of paper. “This is the list of German POWs held at Camp Peary during World War II that I asked for.”

“Okay, how the hell did Joan get that so fast?”

“One of their top executives is a former rear admiral and once headed the NSA. He was able to cut through the red tape. And it’s not like this stuff is classified anymore. Just gathering mold in some office in the Pentagon.”

They went down the list of Germans. Each name had the man’s date of capture, rank and what had happened to him.

Sean said, “You can see that most of them were released at the end of the war or else died in captivity. But I don’t see a Henry Fox listed.”

“Wait a minute. Look at this guy.” Michelle’s finger pointed at a blank space. “There’s nothing here that says what happened to him.” She scanned the pages. “And he’s the only one.”

Sean looked at the man’s name. “Heinrich Fuchs.”

“Heinrich Fuchs,” Michelle repeated slowly. “Anglicized, that might be Henry Fox.”

Sean stared at her. “I think you’re right, and for a very good reason.”

“What’s that?”

“Because I’m betting everything I have, little though it is, that Heinrich Fuchs was a German naval radio operator and that he was also the only man to escape from the naval stockade that is now the CIA’s Camp Peary. That’s why there’s a blank in the space as to what happened to him. The Navy wasn’t going to admit anyone escaped.”

Michelle drew in a sharp breath. “Escaped and changed his name to Henry Fox?”

“And moved to New York, set up another life, grew old and ended up living in the same apartment building as Monk and Viggie Turing.” He jumped up. “Come on. We need to see Viggie.”

“Why?”

“Horatio says she was programmed. Well, the name Heinrich Fuchs may be the key she needs to tell us more. Maybe everything.”

They drove to Babbage Town and hustled to the schoolroom where Viggie and the other children were. Only Viggie wasn’t there.

“She said she was sick,” the teacher said.

“She told you in person?” Sean asked.

“No, she sent in a note. It was on my desk this morning when I got in.”

A few minutes later Sean and Michelle were rushing up the steps to Alicia’s cottage. They burst through the door and Michelle called out, “Viggie? Viggie!”

She hurtled up the stairs and threw open Viggie’s bedroom door. The room was empty and she clattered back downstairs. She and Sean searched the rest of the cottage.

“No sign of her,” he said, his voice panicky.

“Where the hell is her guard?” Michelle demanded.