The Bomber

By: AliasCWN

Chapter 9

Captain Boggs read the report on the recent bombing on the base. The bomber had finally been caught but there were still a lot of unanswered questions. The MPs were still investigating and they hadn't sent their final report to the captain's office yet but several disturbing things had already been uncovered.

The bomber, an MP with a clean service record, hadn't even been a suspect. They had been looking everywhere but in the right direction. If Sergeant Troy hadn't regained his memory they may have never caught the culprit. Well, that wasn't exactly true; after the bomber had kidnapped Private Hitchcock both privates had gotten a good look at him. Either one of them would have identified him if Troy hadn't already done so.

The bomber's motives were still unclear though. That was the question that kept Captain Boggs awake at night. If one of his men could turn against his fellow soldiers then it could happen again. What had caused an average soldier to turn bomber? Perhaps the stresses of being an MP on a combat base had gotten to him. No one who knew him had noticed any drastic change in his behavior. There were unsubstantiated reports that he had found a girlfriend, but that was still under investigation.

The captain sighed and picked up the next report on his desk. This one brought a smile to his face. Sergeant Troy and Sergeant Moffitt had both been released from the hospital. It was a relief to know that both men were recovering and would soon be back on duty. Private Hitchcock and Private Pettigrew were still working in the motor pool, taking up the slack resulting from the original bombing. Headquarters was sending more mechanics to replace the ones killed in the explosion but they hadn't arrived yet. The younger 'rats' were a welcomed addition to the crew. Captain Boggs smiled, wondering if the trucks pouring into the motor pool received the same meticulous care that their two jeeps received. At least the work made good use of their talents while keeping them too busy to get into trouble.

A knock on his door interrupted his line of thought. "Come in." He called as he set the report aside.

Sergeant Moffitt walked slowly into the office. "Good morning Captain."

"Morning Sergeant." Boggs nodded. "Is there something I can help you with?" Boggs paused. "Those two privates haven't gotten into any trouble have they?"

"No, nothing like that." Moffitt assured him. "They seem to be enjoying the work in the motor pool."

"Good." The captain nodded. "We can sure use their help."

"I am here on another matter actually." Moffitt continued.

The captain leaned back in his chair and nodded at the seat in front of his desk. "Have a seat Sergeant." He noticed that the sergeant still looked a bit pale.

"Thank you sir."

"How are you doing Sergeant?"

"Fine sir." Moffitt answered. "I've been resting a lot. But I still had time to help investigate the circumstances surrounding the bomber."

"I see, and did you find out anything that would shed some light on the motive?"

"Actually, I did." Moffitt replied. The captain suddenly took a keener in interest in the conversation.

"Go on."

"I was talking to my contacts." The Brit explained. "It seems that the MP in question got mixed up with a local woman. According to his closest friends he was convinced that he was in love with her. I checked into the woman and her connections. She has some rather suspicious friends. I was able to connect her to some local German sympathizers. It looks like she talked him into planting the bombs as a means of showing his devotion. Men will do strange things for a woman and this one took full advantage of it. She played him like a fiddle." Moffitt announced. "She threatened to withhold her affections unless he did as she asked. I suppose he thought that he would lose her if he didn't do as she asked. Unfortunately, he never really had her in the first place. She was just using him. He was just another pawn in her desire to please her real lover, a German officer from one of the nearby bases." Moffitt smiled. "Unless I am reading this wrong I think he is just using her too. She can't see that of course but that's the way it looks to me."

"So this woman is the source of our problem?"

"Yes sir. We can't do much to her; she hasn't committed any crimes that we can prove. Our bomber isn't even available to confirm or deny our deductions."

Boggs considered the information. "So we can't touch her and she gets to pick another sucker to do her bidding again?"

Moffitt bit his lip and nodded. "That's about the size of it."

"So what can we do?"

"We can keep an eye on her until she does do something we can prosecute." Moffitt saw Captain Boggs flinch at the suggestion. "Or we can ask her to leave the base."

"Would she?" Boggs asked eagerly.

"I doubt it." Moffitt admitted.

The captain looked discouraged. "That's our only option?"

"No." Moffitt admitted. "There is one more thing we can try."

"Will it work?"

"I don't know. It would mean asking some of my friends to step in and remove her from the base. I'm not sure they would be willing to do so just because I ask."

"I hate to ask the Arabs to step in but she has to be dealt with, one way or another."

Moffitt nodded. "I'll ask them. The most they can do is say no."

The final report on the bomber was on his desk and the MPs had come to the same conclusion as Sergeant Moffitt. Captain Boggs was still waiting to hear back from Moffitt on what his friends had told him. There had been no more incidents and things had returned to normal, much to the captain's relief.

Sergeant Moffitt knocked on the door and entered at a call from the captain. "I heard back from my Arab friends."

"And?"

"The woman will be leaving the base with her entire family by the end of today. Her friends have been warned that they are being watched and they have decided to leave too. I think that we can say our problem has been resolved."

"Good." The captain nodded. "Be sure to thank your friends for their help in this matter."

"It turns out they were glad to help." Moffitt smiled. "The woman has been causing trouble for them too. She won't be returning to the base any time in the near future."

"Then I will consider this matter closed."

"If you will excuse me then, I promised to meet the others in our quarters for a game of matchstick poker. I'm feeling lucky today." Moffitt saluted and left the office.

Captain Boggs watched him walk down the street, feeling lucky himself.