it was Fighting John Puller. You didn’t want to face that man with no answers.

Intimidating doesn’t come close to describing your father.” “But you never

reached any sort of resolution?” DiRenzo shook his head. “We never even had one

solid lead.” “I’ve looked at the case notes. You were thorough. Followed all the

right procedures.” “But as you well know, some of it, maybe the most important

parts of it, are what you feel in the gut. Probably eighty percent of the cases

I solved were like that. You get a feel for the situation and then your

instincts tell you when something doesn’t smell right. But with that case I

never got a feel for anything. I hit a total wall at the end. It was the most

frustrating point of my career. I almost quit CID because of it. I felt like a

failure. And it wasn’t just me. They had other agents on the case. Again, it was

Fighting John Puller. They were going scorched earth.” “Did you personally speak

to General Puller?” asked Knox. “Several times. As you know, he was out of the

country when his wife disappeared.” Puller and Knox exchanged a subtle look that

DiRenzo failed to notice. “There was never any motive,” continued DiRenzo.

“That’s what always bugged the hell out of me. There usually is. Random crimes,

particularly on a military installation, aren’t all that common. The people

usually know each other.” “At the time my mother disappeared there was a series

of murders in Williamsburg?” He paused and studied DiRenzo for his reaction to

this.

 

The older man finished wiping off his hands and took up his socket wrench once

more. But he didn’t start loosening bolts. He just held it in his hand, tapping

it against his other palm. “We knew about that, of course. But your mother

didn’t fit that pattern, as I recall.” “She wasn’t exactly the right age, but