Collins, Max Allan - Nathan Heller 11 (18 page)

“Deputy … what’s your first name, anyway?”

“Tommy.”

“Tommy, call me Nate. Listen, were you there from the beginning?”

“From when Mac Brazel stumbled inta the office, just a cowboy in faded jeans and scuffed boots and a week’s worth of dirt and dust caked on him, yes I was.”

“Then you saw the saucer debris?”

“Yes—but not the bodies.”

“Bodies?”

“I’m gettin’ ahead of myself. Look, I saw that thin metal you’d crumple that’d then uncrumple itself; and I saw some little I-beams with hieroglyphics. Saw samples of all that stuff. Sheriff sent me and Pete Crawford out to the ranch—”

“Wait a minute … this was
before
Major Marcel went out there?”

“Yes, sir. We didn’t see the debris, but we saw this patch of blackened ground; it looked like somethin’ big and round and hot had sat itself down. We come back and reported in to the sheriff, and he called the air base, and there was no new news, and then things settled down for a bit.”

The next morning, Tuesday, things got unsettled, and unsettling, in a hurry. Deputies Reynolds and Crawford drove back out to the ranch and found it had been cordoned off by the Army; they were not allowed passage, lawmen or not. Armed sentries and Army vehicles were stationed at ranch roads, crossroads, everywhere. Annoyed and frustrated, the deputies returned to the sheriff’s office, where Wilcox was fielding phone calls from all over the world.

“We still had a little box of that strange debris,” Reynolds said, “off in our side room. Day or so later, just when things had kinda gone back to normal—the weather balloon story had calmed things down—the military landed on us like fuckin’ D day, excuse my French.”

“Landed, how?”

“Two MP trucks showed up and they came in and demanded the box of wreckage, and the sheriff handed it over, with no protest. But they were belligerent as hell, anyway. These MPs gathered all of us, deputies and Sheriff Wilcox, and told us to keep quiet about recent events and direct all inquiries to the base. The sheriff said, well, that’s what he’d been doing. And the MP, a colored sergeant, real menacin’ fella, said, well, if any of us had any other ideas, there’d be ‘grave consequences,’ was what he said. I didn’t take kindly to that, and said something to the effect, what do you guys think you’re doing, threatening officers of the law like that? And this black bastard, he says, cold as ice, he says, ‘We’ll kill you all, and your families, and your goddamn dogs, too.’”

“Sounds like you’re taking a hell of a chance, telling me this.”

“I don’t like being threatened. And … look, there’s something I haven’t told you.”

“What’s that, Tommy?”

“I kinda got a personal stake in this. I date the sheriff’s daughter, have been, off and on, for a couple years. Threatening me is one thing; threatening my girl’s life, well those guys can go fuck themselves!”

We listened to a staticky Hank Williams singing about a cheating heart, then I asked, “You said something about bodies?”

“I didn’t see anything, but I think the sheriff did. I think it’s part of why he’s so shook up, why his health has failed and everything else. My girl, her father wouldn’t answer any of her questions, and her mother told her to stop asking him … but that night she heard him talking to her mom, heard the sheriff say that three little bodies had been found, little guys with big heads in silver suits. Found ’em in a burned area with metallic debris and the crashed saucer.”

“When was this supposed to’ve happened?”

“I don’t know. Hell, maybe my girl imagined all this, or heard snippets of conversation and wove ’em into somethin’. But I know the military got to Sheriff Wilcox, browbeat him, threatened him, maybe even took him for a stay in that same ‘guesthouse’ where they held Brazel.”

“What do you mean, ‘guesthouse’?”

“Some kind of place where they hold unofficial prisoners for questioning, out at the base. Brazel was there for a week, I hear. I don’t know, maybe you could ask him yourself. Maybe he’s ready to talk, after all this time has passed.”

“Yeah, I was thinking of driving out to his place, later today.”

“Hell, don’t bother—he’s in town!”

“What?”

“Yeah, Brazel comes in every now and then to sell some wool.”

“Where can I find him?”

“My guess is, if you park yourself at the bar next door, your man’ll come to you, before too very long.”

The bartender at the Trading Post Saloon knew Mac Brazel and—for the assurance I wasn’t a process server, and a consideration of one dollar—agreed to point him out to me, should the rancher decide to stop by for a drink.

On a bar stool, I nursed a beer and went over my notes, trying to decide what I made of all this; I wasn’t convinced that a flying saucer had really crashed, but the military’s misbehavior in these here parts seemed undeniable. My back was starting to hurt, and I was about to move to a booth, when the door opened, sunlight slashed in, and in strode a tall character in a beat-up Stetson, dirty faded jeans and an equally dirty, even more faded denim shirt.

The bartender gave me a barely perceptible nod, but I think I could have saved myself a dollar: who else could this long, tall New Mexican be but Mac Brazel? His face was spade-shaped, his eyes wary slits, mouth a wider slit, skin as dark and leathery as a saddle.

He settled onto a stool two over from me, and in a low voice requested a Blatz.

“Mr. Brazel?”

He glanced at me; his face was like something an Indian had carved out of wood. “Do I know you?”

“I’m a friend of Major Marcel.”

He turned away, but I caught him looking at me in the mirror behind the bar; I looked back at him in it, and said, “I’d like to talk to you about what happened out at your ranch July before last.”

His bottle of beer arrived, with a glass. “I don’t talk about that.”

“You know, you’re an American citizen, Mr. Brazel. The military can’t tell you what to do and what to say, or what not to say.”

Brazel was pouring the beer. “I’m not so sure about that.”

“What did you find, Mr. Brazel, out in that field?”

He sipped the beer, savored it, then—speaking so slowly it would have irritated Gary Cooper—said, “I’ll tell you one thing, mister. It sure as hell wasn’t a weather balloon.”

“What was it?”

Several swallows of beer later, he responded—sort of. “If I ever find anything else, it better be a bomb, or they’re gonna have a hard time gettin’ me to say anything about it.”

“Even if you find more little green men?”

He took a last swallow of his beer, and then that leather face split into a strange grin. “They wasn’t green.”

And he tossed a fifty-cent piece on the bar, climbed off his stool and ambled out.

I’d been running a tab, and had to take the time to pay for two beers before I could follow him, and by the time I got back out to Main Street, the rancher was climbing into a recent-model Ford pickup truck, across the way. I might have made it to him, before he pulled out, if that hand hadn’t settled on my shoulder.

“Mr. Heller,” a crisp young voice said in my ear. “Would you come with us, please? Colonel Blanchard would like to see you.”

Then a white-helmeted MP was at my side, a wide-shouldered kid of twenty or so, no bigger than your typical starting college fullback; he took me by an elbow and walked me to an open-topped jeep at the curb, where a second MP—a big colored sergeant—was behind the wheel.

I saw Brazel’s new pickup heading north, out of town, as we headed south.

Toward the air base.

Rustic Roswell slipped away and scrubby desolation took over, the two-lane ribbon of well-worn concrete stretching endlessly ahead. In the open-air jeep, jostling along, I held on to my hat, figuratively and literally. I didn’t ask any questions, because getting my ass hauled out to the former Roswell Army Air Field was about the only way I might hope to actually talk to Colonel William H. Blanchard. And the two white-helmeted MPs, both of whom sat in front, had nothing to say to each other, let alone me.

Five minutes outside of town, the base was signaled by a sign with the words
WALKER AFB
in a proud deco mushroom cloud that rose above its horizontal base, smaller letters spelling
OUT HOME OF
just below, with 509
TH BOMB GROUP
and 1
ST AIR TRANS UNIT
boldly emblazoned left and right, respectively. The field had been renamed after the Air Force had broken off from the Army into its own entity, something which Jim Forrestal had initially opposed, incidentally.

Then through heat shimmer, like a desert mirage, the sprawl of the air base revealed itself: first the tower, then hangars, one- and two- and three-story barracks and other buildings, fenced-off areas, far-flung tarmacs where planes were taxiing, taking off and landing, even green landscaped grounds complete with trees. The main gate wasn’t terribly impressive, however, sitting like a brick tollbooth in a vast, unfenced paved area, the words
WALKER AIR FORCE BASE
curving above, black letters on white. For all the talk of security, Walker seemed fairly accessible; I mean, hell—they let me in, without a pass, merely on the word of the two armed MPs who’d kidnapped me.

We pulled up to a two-story white clapboard building and, over the rumble of airplane engines and churning propellers, I was told to follow the colored MP while the white one trailed behind me. We trooped through a bustling bullpen where aides and secretaries were at work at desks, typewriters clattering, new notices getting pinned up on bulletin boards while old ones came down, maps taking up most of the wall space. At a modest glass-and-wood walled-off office, the MP in the lead knocked at a glass-and-wood door stenciled
COLONEL W. BLANCHARD
.

Pearson’s file had filled me in a little on Blanchard—nick-name “Butch”—who had a reputation as a “swashbuckling” pilot, rumored to have once returned from a Mexican jaunt in a trainer jet so loaded down with whiskey, the plane crashed to a fiery stop; legend had it he’d fled the scene, then returned to indignantly demand the mysterious pilot be tracked down and court-martialed. Blanchard had been next in line to drop “Fat Man” on Hiroshima, but history had seemed to pass him by—unless, of course, there was something to these flying saucer stories I’d been hearing all day.

Blanchard—husky, dark-haired, dashingly handsome, the “Old Man” as Haut had referred to him—was barely past thirty; he looked up from a desk cluttered with work, framed family photos, humidor, pipe rack and trio of telephones. He waved the MP inside.

“Leave Mr. Heller with me, Sergeant,” Blanchard said, in a crisp baritone, “and don’t wait around.”

“Yes, sir,” the colored MP said, and held the door open, nodding curtly for me to enter.

I did. Blanchard gave me half a smile, didn’t rise, gesturing to the waiting hardwood chair across from him. I sat, just as the MP was shutting, almost slamming, the door; it startled me, but I’m sure my reaction was no more obvious than Shemp Howard’s would have been.

The colonel had the casual look of a man who’d seen combat and didn’t suffer bullshit—no tie, sleeves rolled up, but with the authoritative touch of the pipe he was smoking. On the wall behind him were framed photos from the war, Blanchard posing with his plane, with his crew, at the front of a group shot of the 509th; and centrally displayed was an elaborate, and impressive, collection of medals. Also on exhibit, just behind him, was a Japanese ceremonial sword, sitting on a pedestal atop a low-slung bookcase. To his right stood an American flag.

Blanchard said, “Welcome to Walker, Mr. Heller.”

“Thanks for inviting me. How is it you know my name?”

Leaning back, he took a couple of puffs at the pipe, then said, “I know a lot about you, Mr. Heller—your war record, including your Silver Star. Honor to have you in my office.”

“That’s kind of you, Colonel. But
why
am I in your office?”

Now he sat forward. “I understand you’ve been asking questions around town, about that …” He chuckled. “… flying saucer flap we had around here, while back.”

“It didn’t take you long to find that out,” I said. “I’ve only been in town since this morning.”

“Well, we pride ourselves on our intelligence here at Walker.”

“You talking smarts, Colonel, or spies?”

“Both.” Blanchard grinned a winning grin; he had the look of the most popular guy at the frat house. “If you have any questions about that incident, perhaps I can answer them for you.”

I blinked a couple times. “You’re willing to be interviewed?”

He gestured expansively with pipe in hand. “Certainly. By the way, who is this interview for, Mr. Heller? My understanding is you’re working for a well-known journalist.”

“I’ve been asked to keep his name confidential.”

Half a grin, now. “Why, does he have a bad reputation?”

“Let’s just say he has a reputation, Colonel. You, uh, mind if I take notes?”

“No, no … not at all.” His pipe had gone out; he used a kitchen match to get it going again—the smoke was fragrant, sweet. Maybe too sweet—like Blanchard’s attitude.

Notepad out, pen ready, I asked, “What can you tell me about the incident, Colonel?”

“A local rancher found some debris out on a pasture; with all this saucer hoopla in the air, I’m afraid we jumped the gun.” Blanchard shrugged gently, smiled the same way. “Turns out it was just a weather balloon, trailing a Rawin radar target.”

“Who authorized the press release?”

“I did.”

“On whose authority, Colonel?”

“Mine.”

“… I guess you didn’t anticipate the public’s reaction.”

He laughed through teeth that clenched the pipe. “I sure as hell didn’t. Phones were bombarded; I couldn’t even get an open line to make my own outgoing calls.”

I kept my tone light as I asked, “Were you reprimanded, Colonel, for ‘jumping the gun’ with that press release?”

The grin disappeared. “No. It wasn’t a big deal, Mr. Heller. We all had a good laugh.”

“Who, you and General Ramey? Did Major Marcel find it funny? He was the one who looked like a sap.”

“We all thought it was funny,” he said tightly. “Is there anything else, Mr. Heller?”

“What about accusations of the military threatening citizens into silence? Cordoning off the Brazel place? Calling the local mortician, asking for small caskets?”

Blanchard leaned back, took a long draw on the pipe, released a cloud of smoke. “Mr. Heller, Roswell’s a small town, and this base has a big responsibility. Sometimes the simple people of a farm community can make something out of nothing.”

“Mountain out of a molehill?”

“Exactly. This is ancient country, a land of myth, of superstition … add to that the kind of gossip that makes any small town go ’round, and you can come up with some really wild tall tales.”

I beamed at him, sitting forward. “Well, then, if you don’t mind … I’ll get back to town and see if I can find some more whoppers for this article. I mean, my boss is trying to do something fun, after all, about the saucer fad.”

The handsome face went blank; the pipe was in his teeth, but he wasn’t drawing on it. “The Air Force would appreciate it if you didn’t.”

“Didn’t what? Stick around, or give my boss the makings of a story?”

“Either. Both.”

“If there’s nothing to this, Colonel, what’s the harm of me staying around, and seeking out some more tall tales?”

Blanchard rose slowly, placed his pipe in an ashtray, and quite dramatically rested both his palms on the desk and leaned across, almost whispering, “You have a distinguished war record, Mr. Heller. You served your country faithfully and well. I’m asking you, as one patriot to another, to leave this be. To pack your bag and leave the Roswell area.”

There’s a stage out of town at noon
….

I shook my head, grinned at him—not as winning a grin as his, I’m sure, but it was all I had. “First of all, Colonel, my war record isn’t all that distinguished—not unless you consider a Section Eight something worth framing and putting on the wall. Second, I get real nervous when people talk patriotism. It’s like when somebody says they expect you to do the ‘Christian’ thing.”

Blanchard stood erect. “That was not a threat, Mr. Heller. This was an embarrassing incident, and we’d prefer not to have it dredged up again.”

“Even if you could have another good laugh over it?”

He sighed, shook his head, wearily. “I had hoped you’d cooperate.”

“You mean, go home, and quash this story?”

“Yes.” He pointed at me with the pipe stem, emphasizing certain words. “Let me say off the record … hypothetically … that if the Air Force were presenting a story to the public that did not represent the true facts, in this or any instance, there would be a good reason for it. Having to do with security considerations, and the public good. And I would hope a loyal American would respect the wishes of his government. Loose lips, as we used to say, sink ships.”

“Including flying saucers?”

“Mr. Heller, you disappoint me.”

I leaned back in my chair and folded my arms. “Say, Butch—did they ever find that pilot who crashed that plane loaded down with whiskey?”

Blanchard blanched. “How did you …”

“I pride myself on my intelligence, too, Colonel.” I stood. “Can you have somebody give me a lift back to Roswell? Or maybe have your men take me out in the desert and shoot me?”

“I don’t find you very amusing, Mr. Heller.”

“Sorry—I’m fresh out of weather balloons.”

Blanchard picked a receiver off one of his phones, said, “Send Kaufmann over here.” Then he hung up, and said, “No MPs, Mr. Heller—a civilian will take you back to town. Now, would you mind stepping out of my office? Step outside the building, in fact. I think I’ve seen quite enough of you.”

The colonel kept his word: no MPs waited to accompany me off the base. My driver was a rather grizzled-looking, brown-haired, square-headed, broad-shouldered civilian in his thirties, in a short-sleeved plaid shirt and chinos. He’d already been behind the wheel, waiting outside, when I’d climbed in the front seat; and we were outside the gate and tooling toward town before he took one blunt-fingered hand off the wheel to offer it in a handshake.

“Frank Kaufmann,” he said, in a low-pitched, slightly graveled voice.

His handshake was firm. My straw fedora was at my feet; traveling in the open-air jeep was making my hair stand up, if what I’d been hearing today hadn’t already done that.

“Nate Heller,” I said, adjusting my sunglasses.

Kaufmann glanced over at me, raising eyebrows that were as brown and wild as the brush streaking by us; his eyes were a light, clear brown and he had a sly smile going.

“Jesse Marcel’s friend,” he said.

“Now how do you know that?”

There seemed to be a twinkle in those amber eyes. “Maybe it’s ’cause I’m in charge of security out at the base.”

“A civilian in charge of security?”

He shrugged, still smiling, a private smile. “Well, I wasn’t always a civilian. Used to be a master sergeant. During the war I was the NCOIC under General Scanlon.”

Noncommissioned officer in charge.

“You must’ve had a pretty high clearance,” I said, “considering the 509th was the only air squadron flying atomic bombs.”

“I knew what I was doin’. When I left the service in ’45, I was offered my old duties at RAAF, in a civilian capacity, this time. It’s delicate, maintaining friendly relations with a nearby community, like Roswell, when you’ve got top-secret stuff goin’ on. The press makes requests, the mayor wants to take dignitaries on tours, and sometimes you gotta say no. Me bein’ out of uniform helped smooth that kinda thing over.”

“Did it.” This guy was striking me as a blowhard and a bore.

Kaufmann chuckled, then lifted a hand from the wheel to gesture toward the desolation around us. “You know, looking out at all this tranquillity, you’d never guess such earth-shakin’ events could take place out in these wide open spaces…. First atom bomb went off not far from here, at the Trinity test site. Manhattan Project, that was over at Los Alamos. Did you know that when they set that bomb off, a bunch of the scientists thought there was a real chance it’d spark a chain reaction that’d lead to the end of the world?”

“No.” I was listening closer now.

“Well, they thought that, all right, and went ahead and set it off, anyway. What does that tell you about scientists? Not to mention ol’ Uncle Sam.”

“It is a sobering thought,” I said, and wasn’t kidding.

Kaufmann glanced at me and his eyes had turned as sly as his smile. “You know what they’re doin’ over at White Sands?”

“No.”

“You remember the V-2s, don’t you? Them big firecrackers that leveled London?”

The V-2—the fabled buzz bomb—was a rocket, the world’s first large-scale one, at that.

“Well,” Kaufmann was saying, “over at White Sands, the Air Force is playin’ with captured V-2s, and you know who’s helping them? You know who’s in charge?”

“No.”

“Bunch of goddamn Nazis.”

“Nazis. Are running the White Sands Proving Ground.”

He nodded emphatically. “I’ve seen it with my own eyes. Smooth son of a bitch named von Braun is runnin’ things—he’s a ‘technical adviser.’ He’s not the only one, either—more Nazi scientists runnin’ around over there than you can shake a stick at. Gettin’ kowtowed to, when they oughta be lined up and shot, or maybe hung with piano wire.”

My first impulse was to laugh at this nonsense, but then Teddy Kollek’s words flashed through my brain:
You can’t imagine how many scientists fresh from factories run by concentration-camp labor are on Uncle Sam’s payroll, now.