"Not bad?" "For an old man." "I don't know why you keep saying that." "You're not old." "The Army thinks I'm old." "They're the ones who count." "Well, the Army's crazy." "Yeah." "Vietnam, Desert Storm, Afghanistan." "Thirty-four years of service to his country." "I was 22 years old and fresh out of West Point... when they dropped me in Vietnam." "And if not for you, Bull... many of the men who are here to help you celebrate tonight... would not have made it out of those battlefields alive." "Myself among them." "That is a tribute to your courage, your leadership... that transcends military honor." "You have our love." "And our undying loyalty." "Welcome home, soldier." " Hear, hear!" " Go, Bull!" " Kind words, Congressman." " Every one of them is true." "Congratulations." "It's my first night of civilian life...." "Hold on." "Been looking for you, Bull." "Everything all right?" "Yeah, it's fine." "I'm just finishing up here." "Just give me a minute, okay?" "Aybar, order me another drink." "Lt. Col. Bull Carver." "Drove down here to attend a retirement dinner in his honor." "At some point, he excused himself to make a phone call, and disappeared." " Any idea who he was calling?" " No, I'm still working on it." " Who called it in?" " His daughter." "Name was Tess Balken." "Married, lives in Yonkers." "He was supposed to spend some time with them." "He never showed." "What do we have from the Army?" "They've turned it over to CID but they're passing the buck." "Why aren't they taking care of their own?" "I know." "Thirty-four years in the service, already they've forgotten about him." "There's something you need to see." "It's over here." "Distinguished Service Medal, Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Silver Star..." "Vietnam Service Medal, Liberation of Kuwait." " Are they in order of importance?" " No." "If they were it would be Silver Star first, then Bronze Star." "It appears that they're in chronological order." "Maybe the timeline of his career." "Then I think I know how his career ends." "His service pistol's missing." "Figured he'd join us after he got off the phone." "That's the last I saw of him." "Do you have any idea who he was talking to?" "At 1:30 in the morning?" "Lady friend, maybe." "Like I said, I hadn't seen the man in 30 years." "I don't know a lot about his personal life." "I understand that you were the one that organized the weekend." "I called some of the fellas." "Things sort of snowballed." " How was Bull Saturday night?" " Like old times." "Happy to see everybody." "Any idea why he was retiring?" "Some incident in the Philippines." "I don't know the whole story." "But I know he was disappointed about the way the Army treated him in the end." " Jack." " Excuse me for a second." "I did a quick rundown of the attendees at the banquet." "Most are accounted for, except Congressman Whitehurst... who left around 10:30 that night... and a former platoon mate named Wallace Sykes... who checked out unexpectedly around 6:00 a.m. yesterday morning." "He drove back to South Carolina." " Let's find out why he left so fast." " Okay." "I just had a conversation with the bartender." "He said that Bull Carver and a buddy... got into a shoving match on Saturday night." "I understand that you and Lt. Col. Carver... got into some kind of altercation that night." "That was nothing." "We had a couple of drinks, we lost our cool." "It was nothing." "So how does it feel, Bull, to finally be a free man?" "It's a great unknown, Aybar." "What've you got to worry about?" "Coast on your big fat officer's pension." "Be down in Florida hitting golf balls." " How about another round, fellas?" "On me." " Seven and Seven, double shot." "Sykesie always doubles up." "Especially when somebody else is picking up the check." "Honest to God, Sykesie, have you ever picked up a bar tab... in your whole miserable life?" "Lay off, Plesac." " Lighten up, Bull." "He knows I'm kidding." " I said, lay off." "Who the hell are you to complain, anyway?" "You're the one who was always riding his mangy little ass." "You know, Plesac, what I'm trying to figure out?" "How somebody like you made it back from the war... when we lost all those other good men." "Good men?" "Like who, Bull?" "Tommy Lewis?" " You son of a bitch." " Get your hands off me." "That's enough!" "Damn it, Plesac." "What are you doing?" "I'm all right!" "Move down." "Move!" "Who's Tommy Lewis?" "S. Sgt. Tommy Lewis." "He was killed at Kam Li." "He was the best of them." "And that was the end of the fight between you and Bull?" "Nothing more?" "I got drunk and stupid, and he put me back in my place... which he should have." "Twenty minutes later, it was over." "We're laughing, swapping stories." "He was showing me pictures of his grandkids." "It was like it never happened." "I love that man." "We all do." " Thanks for coming in." " Of course." "God." "The whole drive over here all I could think about was the last time I saw my father." "When was that?" "I hadn't seen him in almost a year." "And then, all of a sudden, he shows up at my office while I'm having lunch." "Tess." "Dad?" "What are you doing here?" "Is that any way to greet your father?" "I stopped by your law firm." "Your secretary said I could find you down here." "I didn't even know you were back in the country." "I sent you that postcard from Manila." "I got that." "Thank you." "So what's going on?" "Everything's fine." "It's okay." " Have a seat." " Thanks." "I'm not used to seeing you out of uniform." "I'm retired, Tess." "They forced me out." " I'm sorry." " They were some good years." "I mean, they were some great years for me." "So what are you gonna do now?" "I got some irons in the fire." "The reason I wanted to talk to you is..." " I think I want to rework my will." " Okay." "You and the girls, I want you to have everything." "You can draw up the papers for that, right?" "Not if I'm gonna be the beneficiary." "No." " But I can have an associate do it for you." " Great." " I'd like to do that as soon as possible." " You're not sick, are you?" "No, you kidding me?" "You ever known me to be sick for a day in my life?" "How are the girls?" "They're good." "Growing up." "So... give him a call tomorrow." "He can help you with whatever you need." "Thanks." "I'd never seen him so... vulnerable." "And..." "I didn't reach out to him at all." "Even when he called from Atlantic City... and said he'd like to come to church with the girls..." "I doubt I sounded very enthusiastic." "My father was in the Army." "I know how hard that life can be." "He didn't want you to follow in his footsteps?" "He did." "But I guess it just didn't stick." "Well, it's not like you became a sculptor." "No, not exactly." "Did your father ever talk to you about his experiences in Vietnam?" "No." "Did he ever talk about a grudge between he and some of his buddies?" "Honestly, I'd be the last to know." "What do you got?" "Security video from the hotel casino next door." "This is about 10 hours before he went bye-bye." "He's doing well." "Yeah, about $25,000." "Sure doesn't look like a guy on the verge of killing himself." "Unless it's one last blowout." "Live for today, because tomorrow never comes." " We gotta find that girl." " Yes." "I was supposed to be a present from the guys." "They said he had a thing for Asian girls." " Who made the arrangements?" " Talk to the agency." "I don't know." "All they told me was I was supposed to meet him at the hotel bar... and then be available as long as he wanted me." "How were his spirits that night?" "I gave him the whole subservient, sex kitten thing and he was in heaven." "So you've been in the Army your whole life?" "Yeah." "Since I was 19." "You got drafted for the war?" "No." "I was at West Point." "I didn't know much about Vietnam... but I couldn't wait to go and fight for my country." "A real cowboy." "Yeah, something like that." "So, cowboy, where's your wife?" "She couldn't much take the life." "You know, all the moving." "It must be good to see your friends." "Yeah." "It's been a long time." " You okay?" " Yeah." "Just a lot of memories." "I gotta get ready to go." "The casino that he was playing at said he made a bundle that afternoon." "Didn't notice." "That was a wad of cash in his pocket. $25,000." "What's your point?" "Maybe you arranged to have his wallet lightened for him." "Get real." "I'm working on a graduate degree in women's studies from Rutgers." "You wanna find out what happened to this guy..." " ask one of his Army buddies." " What are you talking about?" "Bull contacted me again that night around 1:30." "It's a tough transition, you know." "It's my first night of civilian life...." "Hold on." "Been looking for you, Bull." "Everything all right?" "Yeah, I'm fine." "I'm just finishing up here." "Give me a minute, okay?" "I said I could be free if he could wait a couple of hours." "That's when you agreed to meet him in his room?" "That's right." "Except I got there a little early..." " and there was somebody else there." " Who?" "I met him earlier at the card tables." "A little man with a beard." "Sykes, I think his name is." "Remote spot." "Wally likes it that way." "Given what a place like this does for property value... most of the townspeople prefer it that way, too." "That's his car." "He should be home." "Mr. Sykes." "You home?" "Mr. Sykes, open up!" "State police." "Mr. Sykes?" "Special Agent Spade, FBI." "Can we come in a second, Wally?" "After you." "Cleaning lady's day off?" "Excuse the mess." "I wasn't expecting company." "Mr. Sykes, I need to ask you some questions about Lt. Col. John Carver." "What about him?" "He disappeared sometime after 1:30 a.m. on Sunday." "No one's seen or heard from him since." "Can you give us your account of the weekend?" " Anything you may remember." " It won't take long." "We'll take you to the station, take a statement, we'll drive you back." "Sure." "Okay." "Just let me put my boots on." "Place could use a woman's touch, huh?" "Oh, my God." "Your friend Wally went on a hell of a bender." "I found drug paraphernalia in his bedside table." "So what do you think?" "He and that guy from Atlantic City had some kind of suicide pact?" "Whatever went down in Atlantic City, he would've rather killed himself... than face the music." " Gosh." " From the way it looks..." "Sykes has been killing himself for a long time." "Yeah." "This whole thing about Sykes, I just can't believe it." "Sykes was seen leaving Bull's hotel about 4:15 in the morning on Sunday." "We think Sykes staged it to make it look like Bull took his own life." "I guess it's possible." "Bull used to ride Sykesie pretty hard." "According to witnesses at the bar, Bull spent the whole night..." " defending Sykes against Plesac." " I don't know what to tell you." "Tensions were running pretty high, don't you think?" "None of us had seen each other for 30 years." "For Sykes to kill Bull over something so long ago, he must've been crazy." "He stole one of Carver's service medals." "I just found it on his dresser." "So Sykes kills Bull, takes his room key, slips into Bull's hotel room... and tries to make it look like a suicide." "Remember what the hooker said." "When she knocked, Sykes answered... which he would only have done for an accomplice." " Are we sure that it's Bull's medal?" "Yeah." "It says it right here." ""Lt. John Carver for valorous conduct at Kam Li."" "What's the significance of Kam Li?" "That's where Sgt. Thomas Lewis was killed." "I think I got a bit more on it here." "Bull, Plesac, Sykes, Aybar... and Congressman Whitehurst." "They were all there." "I want you to contact the Department of Defense." "Get everything you can on Kam Li." "Martin, grab your coat." "We're going to Washington." "You know, we've been waiting for the Congressman for over an hour." " You got a bathroom?" " Yes, sir." "Down the hall." "Mind if I use it?" " Hey there, Jack." " Hey, Victor." "What brings you to this branch of the government?" "Hey, Sue." "Thought I might ask you the same thing." "Why do I have the feeling you already know?" "I'm just here to make sure everything goes smoothly." " Martin." " Hey, Dad." "All right." "How's my boy doing?" "Giving him a hard time because of his old man?" " I don't know." "Are we?" " Constantly." " Congressman Whitehurst." " Mr. Deputy Director." "Do you know my colleague, Special Agent Malone from New York?" " Congressman." " How are you?" "And of course, this young man is my son, Martin Fitzgerald." "I see the apple doesn't fall far from the tree." "It is so hard to process... the fact that I saw these men as recently as Saturday night." "How was Wallace Sykes?" "Now that I think about it, a little on edge." "I knew that he had problems with substance abuse." "Alcohol." "What about Bull?" " What were his problems?" " I don't know." "He and I lost touch over the years." " Any idea why he was retiring?" " No." "I assumed it was because of his age." "We found this medal in Sykes' bedroom." "We believe he took it from Bull's hotel room Sunday morning." "Kam Li." "I haven't thought about Kam Li for a long time." "You wanna talk about it now?" "I don't know everything, but I can tell you my part in it." "We'd received reports that a VC commander... was using the village as a staging area." "Bull Carver led the recon team... while the rest of us waited at a rally point across the river." "We heard gunfire from the village." "I had no idea what had gone down until Bull and the team came back." "Bull, there's the captain." "Aybar coming in." " What the hell happened up there, Aybar?" "Beaucoup bad, Cap." " What did you find?" " They got Tommy." " What?" " Snipers, Cap." "Everything was quiet." "We walked right into an ambush!" " How many were there?" " Hard to know exactly." "Sykesie and I saw a weapons cache big enough to take out half the division." "It's true, sir." "Don't freeze on us, Cappy!" "You gotta make the hard choices!" "We clear the people out." "We gotta blow up that weapons cache." " Davis." " Yes, Capt. Whitehurst." "Get Command on the horn." "All right, let's do this." "The village was evacuated... and I called in the air strike." "Based on information that Bull Carver had provided." "Correct." "Did you go back to the village after the air strike?" "Of course." "We couldn't leave Tommy's body there." "Did you see any of the weapons Bull had talked about?" "They had exploded during the bombing." "Tommy Lewis was dead." "Bull and Sykes said they saw a cache of weapons." "I had no reason not to take them at their word." "Do you now?" "Nothing's changed between now and then." "No, nothing except the fact that one man is missing and another is dead." "You know what, Congressman..." "I think we've taken enough of your time for today." "Thank you." " What the hell was that?" " An interview." "That was an interrogation and a hostile one" "We both know he's hiding something." "Based on what?" "'Cause I found him very forthcoming." "It's based on my instinct." "You better have more than instinct." "You better have hard evidence." "And if you plan on interviewing him again, you let me know." "He didn't even wait for me to say, "Yes, sir."" "He never does." "Thanks." "You, too." "You got something?" "Turns out we're not the only ones looking into Kam Li." "About a month ago, the Department of Defense... received a request under the Freedom of Information Act." "Guess who filed it." "New York Times?" " Thomas Lewis." "What?" "Thomas Lewis as in the Thomas Lewis who was killed by snipers at Kam Li." "Thomas Lewis, Jr., his son." "I got a letter two months ago." "It was unsigned, but it was obviously someone who had served with my father." "He said that my father didn't die the way the Army reported it." "There was a cover-up to protect one of their own." "Anything else?" "That he loved my father, wanted to honor his memory... and wanted me to know what a hero he was." "Were Bull and your father very close?" "After my father died, Bull was like a surrogate father to me." "He was always sending us money, souvenirs from all around the world." "You think Bull's the one who sent the letter?" " I've certainly suspected as much." " Do you have the letter with you?" "Yes." " It's a copy." "I have the original at home." " We're gonna have to have that, as well." "Has anyone else seen this?" " Just my wife and the Congressman." " Congressman Whitehurst?" "I contacted his office." "He said he'd look into it for me." "You sure you don't wanna wait for my father?" "I left word at his office." "It's a shame we missed him." "Morning, Susie." "Gentlemen, you camped out here all night?" "I have a few more questions I need to ask you." "You've got 10 minutes." "I may have seen a copy of this." "I'm not certain." "A letter about an incident you were directly involved in... and you don't remember?" "Charges are vague and unsubstantiated." "I don't trust unsigned letters." "I serve on the Intelligence Subcommittee." "I see way too many of them." "Assuming the letter's true, what do you think it alludes to?" "I couldn't even speculate." "Nor would I." "Then allow me to." "I believe this was a case of friendly fire." "There was no evidence of weapons and you called in the air strike." "I called in the air strike based on what my men reported to me." "One of those men is dead and the other one is missing." "I believe the missing man wrote this letter." " What are you accusing me of?" " Nothing." "I'm asking you questions, and I'm not getting any answers." "I think your 10 minutes are up." " Agent?" " What?" " We found a service pistol." " Where?" "Near the pier, just up the beach from Bally's." "Surfcasters called it in." " What are you doing?" " It's all about Verizon, Sprint and ATT." "Okay, have a look." "Orange for Plesac." "Blue for Aybar." "Yellow for Sykes." " No Whitehurst?" " No." "His record was a little bit harder to come by." "There were a lot of phone calls between them leading up to the reunion." "I'm trying to figure out if there's some kind of a pattern to it." "I like all the colors." " How was Washington?" " DC, as in "didn't cooperate."" "I did get a free pen out of Whitehurst's office, though." " Jack, wanna take a look at this?" " Sure." "These are the location photos of where the local cops found Bull's service pistol." "It's a Russian Tokarev." " Jack knows his guns." " Yeah." "My father had one." "Spoils of war." "They used to confiscate them from the Vietcong." "You got a minute?" "He definitely does, because I have to run." "Thanks, Jack." "Fitzgerald looks like he's twisting in the wind." " His old man is a giant pain in the ass." " Okay." "What'd you get from the Department of Defense." "Nothing yet on why Bull was booted out." "But I do have something on Sykes." "The day that anonymous letter was sent to Thomas Lewis, Jr..." "Sykes was in the VA Hospital in the Bronx." "Same postmark with the same ZIP code." "And his prints were all over the original letter." " Let's bring in Aybar and Plesac." " Okay." "Are you saying Sykes sent this to Tommy's son?" " You've never seen this letter?" " Hell no." "Any possibility that it's true?" "Only two people in the world can tell you for sure." "And that's Sykes and Bull." "You wanna tell me about Kam Li?" "I was part of the advance unit." "Bull sent us." "Had us move all the villagers out onto the road..." " so we could conduct a thorough search." " What did you uncover?" "Nothing." "At first." "On the ground, Papa-san!" "Bull, what're you doing?" "Bull, there's nothing here!" "Let's pull out!" "Move it." "Get back and finish your job." "Get out of here, Tommy." "I mean it!" "He sent him back in to keep looking." " What did he expect to find?" " Weapons." "Evidence they were stockpiling." "That was the trouble with that damn country." "Everyone you met was a potential enemy." "Leave us alone!" "We know nothing!" "We know that you have guns." "We know that!" " Keep them here!" " Stop it!" "Got it?" "Stay down!" "Bull was convinced the girl was a VC sympathizer... and that she could show us where the weapons were." "Sykes confirmed seeing the weapons stockpile." "From what you just told me, Sykes was standing watch on the road." "He was, until Tommy came back." " Sykes, where's Bull?" " He's not here." "What do you mean he's not here?" "Where'd he go?" "Bull ordered us to stay put." "These people ain't VC." "Just some damn peasants." " Take me to him." " Can't do that." "I'm your superior officer and I'm ordering you, Private." "Show me where he went!" "And that was it." "That was the last time I saw Tommy alive." "And how long were they gone?" "A couple of minutes, maybe." "And then we heard gunshots." "The girl had walked them into an ambush." "And they got Tommy." "Did you or anyone else see these weapons that Bull and Sykes said they found?" "Sykes saw." "He backed it up." "And Sykes' word is good enough for me." "We reported back to Whitehurst." "I told him what had happened." "He called the air strike." "It was over in five minutes." "The whole jungle shook from that bombing." "They wanted us to wait until the next morning to reenter the village... but we went back in." "To get Sgt. Lewis' body from under the rubble." "You gotta understand how we felt about Tommy Lewis." "He was the finest individual I've ever known." "It was only right and fitting that we should... at least get his body and send it home so he could have a decent burial." "I just don't buy it." "I think they're covering up for Whitehurst." "I think somehow Lewis was left behind in the village... and was killed by friendly fire." "When they went back there, they just found rubble." "So Whitehurst makes up this story about some kind of ambush." "Lewis becomes a martyr and they all walk out of there with medals." "And now he's in Congress." "That makes sense." "Hey, I just checked with the Army to see... if they had a copy of Tommy Lewis' autopsy report." "They never did one, but his widow did, way back in'71." "According to the report, Lewis died from a single gunshot wound to the head." " What was the weapon?" " Russian Tokarev." "That's Bull's gun." "You're accusing Bull Carver of killing my father?" "Forensics on his gun match the bullet found at your father's autopsy." " You're sure?" " You never suspected that?" "How do you explain the way Bull was to me all those years?" "I don't know." "Guilt?" "Yeah." "He's so guilty, he sends me that letter?" "That was Wallace Sykes." "Sykes?" "Where were you the night of the retirement dinner?" "Hey, if I knew what you're telling me now, maybe I would've killed him!" "But I didn't know." "And I was nowhere near Atlantic City." "Will you take a polygraph?" "Let's go." "Okay, let's start here." "The first phone call on the third of last month:" "Manny Aybar in Michigan calls Wallace Sykes in South Carolina." "Wondering why Sykes hasn't RSVP'd for the retirement dinner." "According to Ma Bell, they talk on the phone for over three-and-a-half hours." "Two men, who by Aybar's own account are not particularly close..." " and haven't spoken since the war." " A lot of catching up to do." "No." "I think this is when Sykes first confesses... that he lied about seeing weapons at Kam Li." "Because, look." "Aybar, on that Friday... gets on a plane and flies to South Carolina." "He just drops everything and flies halfway across the country?" "For what?" "To hang out at Sykes' hellhole of a cabin?" "I don't think so." "He's gotta be talking about Lewis' murder." "Because the minute Aybar gets back to Michigan that Sunday, he calls Plesac." "Five phone calls in 24 hours." "They're talking about more than the buffet menu." "And they conveniently manage to leave Lewis, Jr. out of the loop." "And then you got Plesac calling Sykes." "To confirm what Aybar was telling him... and to try and figure out what Sykes is gonna do with it." " Can you tie Whitehurst to any of this?" " Not directly." "But the following Wednesday Aybar makes another call... to the Congressional switchboard in Washington, DC." "Whitehurst has the most to lose." "They'll do anything to protect him." "That's why he leaves before anything went down." "His alibi is safe." "They were all in on it." " Sykes, Aybar, Plesac." " And Whitehurst." "I got this from the Department of Defense." "Bull Carver was accused of sexual assault in the Philippines last year." "Charges were never filed." "The parents hushed it up because the girl was underage." "Bull agreed to pay full restitution to the family... but the Army had had enough and they forced him out." "Because, apparently, this was not the first time." "We know he had a thing for Asian girls." "The key to this is the girl at Kam Li." "There were no weapons." "Bull took her to the village to rape her." "Lewis went after him." "They argued." "Bull shot him." "And that's what Sykes has been hiding all these years." " What happened in Atlantic City?" " And how are we gonna prove it?" " Oh, great." " What?" "Hold on to your hat." " You wanna explain this?" " It explains itself." "I need you to authorize a polygraph." "For Congressman Whitehurst?" "Are you out of your mind?" "You came from Washington to tell me that?" "I came from Washington because you got a bug up your ass with this guy." "This is a conspiracy." "These guys are stonewalling... and Whitehurst is at the center." "Based on a series of phone calls?" "The man left the hotel at 10.30." "Just because he didn't participate doesn't mean he's not involved." " The answer's no." " I'm not covering this up." "I'm not asking you to." "No polygraph." "You want Whitehurst, find another way." "Hey, Lee." "Good to see you." "I heard they moved you to New York." "Bet you miss Colorado, though, huh?" "You take care." " You heading right back?" " No, I've got some business upstairs." "Look, before you go, I'd like a chance to weigh in here." "First, you come down to interrogate a United States Congressman... and you don't even have the courtesy to check in with the DC office." "And then you go back a second time against my direct order." "You can't expect me to be okay with that." "I think a lot of this has to do with personalities right now." "Meaning what?" "Meaning Jack didn't take some wild flier here." "We're following up on a legitimate lead." "Why do you think he brought you to Washington in the first place?" "It was to run interference with me." "No, I don't buy that for a second." "Jack Malone is a very talented agent... and I understand why you respect him." "But he's a free swinger." "Sometimes free swingers hit it out of the park." "But a lot of the time, they miss the ball completely." "So what are you telling me?" "Let's just say Jack has made some mistakes lately... and it hasn't gone unnoticed." "I just want you to have my perspective on it." "And I want you to be careful, Martin." "I'll tell your mother that you're looking well." "We've pieced together this whole thing." "The phone calls." "The weekend you spent with Sykes." "I believe that you are the catalyst for all of this." "This is gonna come out sooner or later." "It can happen in here... or it can happen in front of a grand jury." "Believe me, I understand this." "I understand military justice." "What the hell do you understand?" "I was in the 82nd Airborne, 1st Battalion, in the 504 in'79." " Red Devils?" " Yeah." "Baggy pants." " Where did you do basic?" " Benning." "Hot as hell down there." "So what happened?" "How did you end up here?" "Busted up a leg in a PLF training mission." "Desk job just wasn't an option." "There were a lot of things that I didn't like about the Army." "But the one thing that I respected... was that you knew the guy next to you would kill or die for you." "I believe Bull broke that trust." "I understand why you had to do what you did." "And I understand why you had to do it together." "Now, you've got to help me." "I don't want this to go public, but I cannot let it slide." "Okay." "It was me and Sykes." "The others weren't involved." "Tell me exactly how it went down." "Tommy was like a brother to me." "And when he didn't come back from Kam Li..." "I got this feeling in the pit of my stomach that something wasn't right." "But Sykes swore by Bull." "He idolized Bull." "Did Sykes actually see Bull kill Tommy?" "No, it wasn't until Bull lied about the weapons cache... that Sykes realized what had happened." "Sykesie and I saw a weapons cache big enough to take out half the division." "It's true, sir." "But he got caught up in the moment... and he lied." "And so Sykes tells you about it 32 years later and you believe him?" "Not at first." "That's why I had to fly down to his place." "I needed to talk to him man-to-man." "But when I got there, and I saw the way he was living... how he had tortured himself his entire life... what the secret had done to him... what Bull had done to him..." "I knew what we had to do." "I want you to tell me exactly what happened in Atlantic City." "We lured Bull back to his room." "Told him we had a bottle of Scotch... we'd keep the party rolling." "Where's that Scotch you were talking about?" "No more alcohol, Bull." "You're gonna wanna be sober for this." "What's going on?" "You guys act like this is some kind of funeral or something." "Don't turn your back on me, you son of a bitch!" " I wanna hear you say it." " Say it?" " Say what?" " You killed Tommy and I covered for you." "I'm not covering for you anymore." "All of a sudden, Sykesie, you grew a pair." "All of a sudden, you're the hero now." "You knew all those years." "You accepted that medal they hung on your chest." "You go ahead and do what you gotta do." "You'll get no argument from me." " And that was it." " And he went willingly?" "Yeah." "I guess he figured his time was up." " What did you do with the body?" " We put it in the back of Sykes' car." "He was on his own after that." "I think you're lying." "I think you've taken the bullet for Plesac and Whitehurst." "That's what happened." "Bull's daughter came in." "She got a package from him... sent from Atlantic City before the retirement dinner." "It's his last will and testament... and a suicide note." " Is it his handwriting?" " She says it is." " What did he tell you?" " Name, rank, and serial number." "It's a suicide." "Police had been searching the area since Mr. Sykes' suicide." "The body of Lt. Col. John Carver was found in a gravel quarry... near the town of Ashville, South Carolina... where it had apparently been transported in the trunk of Mr. Sykes' car... sometime during the early morning hours." "There are still more questions than answers here." "But authorities maintain that it was a suicide pact between the two soldiers." "Lt. Col. Carver, a two-time winner of the Army's Silver Star... will be buried by his daughter in a private ceremony." " Hey, Jack?" " Yeah." "You got a second?" "I heard you're catching all the hell... for the way this Whitehurst thing was handled." "Yeah, it's a little messy right now, but it'll blow over." "For what it's worth, if anything does go down..." "I thought it was handled just fine." "Thank you."