Chapter 6

“Then we go over it one more time,” Norm said with an angry voice.

Amy shivered every time he talked like that. She blurted out, “I’ve already told you. I don’t know the guys name! OK? They all look the same to me Norm! God you‘re worse than they are. At least they didn‘t yell at me.”

Cal sat easily by his computer and listened to the conversation. He had his feet propped up on his desk and his arms crossed. He told Norm, who was sitting over at one of the commissary tables across from Amy, “I think it’s a dead end anyway. It’s over.”

Kent came strolling in from the back hall on the heels of Cal’s statement. He went to the fridge and opened it as he commented, “I take it that we’re still doing a debriefing here.” He closed the door after he had his bottle of fruit juice and he said, “has Miss Hiller provided us with any more useful information? I’d certainly be interested in knowing how many bricks there are in the Reichstag.”

Cal snickered at that until he got an evil look from Norm. Then Norm gave Kent a very no non-sense statement of fact, “we need to know who interrogated her. It’s important.”

“I told you,” Amy blasted out in frustration, “they didn’t interrogate me, ok? Nobody asked me any questions. Nobody used any rubber hoses. I just sat in the lock up with a bunch of drunks.”

“Amy,” Norm told her in a cross manner but much more subdued, “do you think I told Danni not to go down there just cause I like making that girl’s life miserable?”

She crossed her arms, snorted, looked away, and then Amy mumbled in a pout, “why not. You do it to everybody else.”

Norm remained dead serious as he leaned forward and told her, “Amy, that’s a major drug distribution center. I know old Pierre who runs that place and he snorts up half his profits in powder. It was only a matter of time before he couldn’t pay the German’s his rent. You know what happens when you short change the Wehrmacht. The only real question here is why they detained you and let all them other people go.”

Amy stomped her foot, “they didn’t let everybody go! I already told you that.”

Kent broke in at that point. He casually strolled up to the table and in an easy manner he told Norm, “I know what Jake thought. He told me on the way down to the airport. Since our Miss Hiller here is supposed to be getting a medal today, he thought that Herr Oberst Horst might think it some kind of leverage to hold her.”

Norm looked at Kent and asked, “Jake thought that up?”

Kent only shrugged, “it’s what he said.”

“Which was a damn good reason to ignore it,” Norm replied. He then looked back to Amy, “was Horst even there?”

She was still looking away and half mumbling, “I don’t know. I didn’t see him.”

Kent waived the entire thing off and then told Norm, “if all you’re wanting to know is who was running the operation, why didn’t you ask me?”

Norm’s head snapped around to look at Kent, “how do you know?”

“Cause Mister Barton and I were dealing with him half the bloody night,” Kent replied. “Nasty little bugger with big burly arms.”

That description, given the circumstances, could only fit one guy and Norm knew him, “Hochstetter?”

“That would be the very man Mister Scoggins,” Kent replied. He then crossed his arms and rocked on his feet as he asked, “and exactly why would that be so important? It’s not like we haven’t had run ins with the Germans before.”

Norm gave some information, “Hochstetter is Abwer. He isn’t even with the three twenty-first Kamgruppe.”

Kent just shrugged, “well he’s still only a Major. Surely he falls under Horst’s authority.”

Amy meekly raised a finger, “excuse me but, what’s Abwer?”

Kent told her, “German National Intelligence.”

Norm filled in, “sort of. It’s actually a branch of the Kriegsmarine but, they pretty much operate outside the chain of command.” Norm’s eyes narrowed and he fixed his gaze on Amy, “and for some reason their super spook has taken an interest in you, young lady.”

Amy even looked frightened now but, it seemed to be more of Norm than any German Major. She squeaked out, “they did let me go.”

Kent waved the whole thing off, “he was just being a German, Mister Scoggins. There’s no sense in hashing this over any more.”

If things could not get worse, Tony came strolling in from outside. He had his new friend with him too. They were both still wet and Cal pointed that out, “haven’t you guys ever heard of towels?”

Norm was more interested in the little blond that was following Tony in, “excuse me Miss, but who are you?”

Cal answered, “it’s ok Norm. She’s here to see Barbara.”

“For what,” Norm replied, unconvinced.

It was the girl who replied for herself. She was quite perky as she walked up and shook Norm’s hand. He only took it reluctantly but, Leslie seemed to be holding back her name as the price to be paid for a shake. After that she told him who she was, “well after you guys pulled me out of the drink, I kind of found myself, well, what do you call it? Unemployed?”

Amy’s spine stiffened and she looked back at this girl, “you’re coming to work here?”

If Amy’s hostility was apparent to Leslie, the girl did not show it. She even acted happy to see Amy and called her, “my hero.” Then Leslie patted Amy on the back as she walked off and joined Tony in raiding the fridge. Leslie’s back was turned to Amy so she did not see the sneer. It was not lost on Norm however, “Amy, go home.”

Now the meek little thing was gone and the red faced monster rose when Amy snapped, “I can’t Norm. I don’t have my car.”

Before any pending solutions or disasters could arise, Barbara came walking in from the back hall with Shannon in tow. When Cal saw Barbara or, more to the point, the way she was dressed, his feet fell off his desk. Cal’s jaw dropped and he said, “you’re wearing a dress.”

Barbara stopped in the middle of the floor, straightened her black skirt with a wave of the hand and said, “yes Cal. I do believe that is what it is called.”

Shannon was similarly dressed but not very happy about it. Her sneer and rather nasty response was simply, “unfortunately.”

Tony, still standing by the open fridge, just kept looking up and down in shock. Then he had to ask, “are you wearing that to the ceremony today? You know that’s not till this afternoon.”

“No Tony,” Barbara said with a certain amount of poise that left everyone in dismay, “we have some personal Family Day things to do. I will be wearing my uniform to the palace. If anyone else attends, and I do hope you all decide too, it would certainly be nice if you wore a uniform as well.”

Amy slowly raised her hand and, with a most unconvincing smile, she asked, “does that include me?”

Barbara took a deep breath and told her, “no Amy. For you it’s mandatory.”

Norm was not really concerned about any of that, “Barbara we still got a situation here.”

“You look like you’re handling it just fine Norm,” Barbara replied. As she walked by him she whispered loudly but with firm authority, “see, you should have gone home.” When she reached the screen door Barbara turned and said, “now if you will all excuse us.”

Norm spoke up again, “we can’t find Danni or Jake.”

Barbara rolled her eyes and then told him, “they’re both adults Norm. Barton doesn’t have any requirements to keep us informed of his whereabouts and Danni is off. It’s Family Day. How do you know they aren’t with family?”

Norm remained calm despite Barbara’s irate attitude. He told her, “they don’t have any family here.”

Amy snorted out in a quiet mumble, “if you’d just given Danni’s gun and badge back she wouldn’t be acting so loopy.”

Whether or not Amy had intended for anyone to hear that was moot. Everyone did and that included Barbara. She just forced a smile and said, “fine! I’ll tell you what. Norm, after you find her, and when you are done killing her, then you can give Danni her stuff back. Does that make everybody happy?”

“Barbara,” Norm said. He was trying to sound respectful, “I don’t think…”

“That’s right Norm,” Barbara came back with, “you don’t. You’ve been hanging out with Barton too much. You see conspiracies and assassins in every shadow and corner. Well I’ve got news for you, that’s not life. If Danni wants to run out and get herself killed so fast, then let her. I’m done babysitting. I’ve got enough to worry about without taking on everybody else’s problems.”

Cal was even more stunned now. He sheepishly asked, “isn’t that kind of what family does?”

“Well we’re not Calvin,” Barbara lashed out. “I hate to say it but, it’s the truth. This isn’t a family. This is a job. Oh yeah, and I might add that it’s one that we’ve all let go to hell. Course don’t any of you worry about that. I’ll take responsibility for that because it really is my fault.”

Norm still remained calm and respectful, “Barbara, if this is about you leaving…”

Calvin literally jumped out of his seat, “you’re leaving?”

“Thanks a lot Norm,” she was definitely pissed now. Barbara took a deep breath and tried to moderate herself, “yes. I was going to tell all of you when everybody was here and I knew exactly when it would be but, yes, the truth of it is, that, I’ve decided to resign. I wish you all the best but, I have to do what is best for my family.”

No one was more stunned than Shannon. Her eyes were big and red and she could not take them off her mother. After a few false starts she said, “Mom? You want to leave home?”

“Go to the car Shannon,” Barbara commanded.

It was something of a surprise to Barbara that Shannon did exactly what she was told. The part that Barbara hadn’t really anticipated was that the girl ran. Barbara could hear her crying the whole way. She gave Norm one last ‘eat shit’ look and then left by the same door.

Finally Tony mumbled to himself, “this is why I hate the holidays.”