He looked at the screen, which said it was two minutes after eleven o’clock, and “Caller Unknown.” “Hello?” “Don’t say anything. This is a wrong number. Look at your e-mail. Don’t call me back before tomorrow night.” Click. Kidd was gone; the call had lasted six seconds. • • • LUCAS GOT OFF the couch and padded back to his study, sat down at the computer, and brought up his e-mail. He had incoming mail from the military records depository. He clicked on it, and found two PDF documents. He clicked on the first and found a thirty-page document on Ronald L. Carver, Sgt. E-8 U.S. Army, marked “Secret.” Lucas had never been in the army, and thought E-8 was a rank, but wasn’t sure. He went out on Google to check: E-8 was a master sergeant. The document was a mass of acronyms and it took him an hour to work through the thirty pages, going back and forth to Google, searching for definitions, making notes on a yellow legal pad.
