SILENT GUNS Read Online Free PDF Page B

drive.”
    “ If you had their money, you’d do
the same thing.”
    “ Flaunt it! Ha! Not me,” Madden
cursed as he pulled up to the curb. “You’re home.”
    “ Welcome home, Mr. Trent.” Ed, the
doorman, grabbed his bags and carried them to the apartment
elevator.
    Trent said, “Peter, you need some cheering up. Take
tomorrow off and go over to the Navy Yard with me?”
    Madden tossed Trent a quizzical look, “You haven’t
been aboard a ship – not even a rowboat – since you know -
resigned. Is this some sort of a gag? You have to take a ferryboat
to get there, you know,” Madden guffawed softly. “What’s the
deal?”
    “ Getting soft,” Trent
replied.
    “ That’s new. One mention of the
Navy and you screw up tight,” Madden said, eyeing Trent
suspiciously.
    “ Newby has arranged to get us
aboard the Missouri .”
    “ And, that’s going to make
everything better?”
    “ It can’t get any
worse.”
    “ The pain is still there down
deep, ain’t it?”
    “ It burns and tears and won’t go
away.”
    “ Maybe, going aboard will only
make it worse,” Madden said.
    “ Can you make it?”
    “ You got a booking,” Madden
replied as he sped off.
    The elevator doors slid open. Trent stepped in, the
doors closed, and the elevator rose, stopping with a start at the
twelfth floor. Unlocking the door to his apartment, he stepped in.
The aroma of mustiness, stale cigarette smoke and a leftover TV
dinner bowled him over. He chided himself for neglecting to have
the cleaning lady stop by, but was too tired to really care. He
tossed his bags on his bed and bee-lined it for the shower. After
toweling and a change of clothes, he slipped into the large easy
chair by the window. Frustrated and fatigued, his thoughts quickly
turned to Myrna. Myrna divorced him after the court-martial. Their
friends avoided them. Trent understood, her coming from a Navy
family. Ostracized. Banished. It was all too much for her to
handle.
    He grabbed a bottle of Jim Beam, swallowed a
mouthful and allowed the smooth fluid to send a shiver coursing
through his body. The liquid was the prelude to a comforting, warm
glow that would radiate from deep down. He had hardly eaten
anything on the flight and that booze on an empty stomach was a
straight road to a hangover. But he could care less. He settled
back, and more than made up for the lack of calories on the flight
by re-filling his glass until he didn’t remember dropping off.
Morning guaranteed a splitting headache, a thick dry tongue and a
mouth full of cotton. And, an ornery disposition, but he slept a
deep sleep.
     
    * * *
     
    Sam Simons stood up and tossed another log into the
stove then said, “You had a new career in Seattle, a good job. All
your transgressions were forgotten. Why not accept your new life
and move on? You had been given a second chance,” Simons
interjected. Trent sat thoughtfully. “As hard as I tried, I
couldn’t resolve my deep-seated hatred of the Navy.”
    “ I don’t buy that one damn bit,
hatred is personal,” Simons observed. “The Navy is inanimate. It
didn’t do anything to you. You make everything sound personal. You
made it personal.”
    “ You’re wrong. Kindler, Denton,
Burns, and Proust made it personal. I wanted them to admit their
culpability and clear my name. The Navy hid their crime. The Navy
is just as guilty.”
    “ Tit for tat,” Simons
mused.
    “ I had lost everything that meant
anything to me. I reached a point where I was prepared to risk
everything. I had nothing to lose. Time was my enemy. I needed
money. The city of Seattle would pay to be spared.”
     
    ~ * * * ~
     
     

CHAPTER 5
     
     
    The Puget Sound Naval Shipyard reeked of overnight
abandonment. When the War ended, the active Navy simply packed up
and left. No longer a beehive of activity, but an expanse of
abandoned gray Navy sheds, barracks, warehouses, cranes and deep
water dry-docks. All lay stilled. Graving docks stood empty save
floating debris.