La Fantome

"Her brother...was he in the ARVN?

"Yes, he was a Ranger.

"He runs a restaurant now, right?"

"Yes."

"If he's left handed, you've solved my case for me."

Ron dropped his cigarette and crushed it under his toe.

"Max, how long you have left before you retire?"

"A little over a year."

"I have two, and they seem to get longer every year. When the war ended, I left the Army and joined the FBI. I figured I'd left everything in Vietnam behind for good. Then, this task force was formed. Because I had some experience with the guy, I got assigned to it.

The rules keep changing on me, though. In Saigon, if a guy was dirty, he usually got dead. Right after the war, if a guy was dirty, you arrested him, and he went to jail. Now...well, it's a lot more complicated.

"It would be best for our efforts if Roux stayed missing but alive. His organization runs by itself for the most part, but if he turned up dead, it would probably dissolve into at least three. Three is harder to stop than one.

"What that means, Max, is that there's no case for you to solve. By now, the other guys on my team have served the warrants to your medical examiner and lab techs. Your dead body and all the lab work will soon be on it's way to somewhere you don't need or want to know about. I'll need all your files, including all your notes, too. Believe me, Max, I know how much it hurts to lose this, but there are people now who won't let cops do what cops do best anymore."

}{

Six months went by before I met Lien's brother. I just wanted to explain, but even though Lien had told him as much of the story as I'd told her, it took that long for him to believe I wasn't going to arrest him. Then, one night, we had dinner at his restaurant, and he came walking out to our table and sat down.

"I hear you're not looking for me anymore", he said in English with a funny French accent.

"I am actually, but not for the reason you think. I want to explain some things...and to thank you for saving Lien's life."

"Lien said you were in your Army, in Vietnam."

"Yes, at Ripcord in the A Shau."

"I know Ripcord. I heard the North wished they hadn't attacked it, because so many of them died there.

"You were a Ranger?"

"Yes."

"From what I heard, the Rangers were men the VC feared more than any other unit."

He smiled.

"The stories get better as we get older, don't they?"

I offered him my hand. As he shook it, I smiled back.

"Or maybe as we get older, we only remember the best parts of the stories."

At first, the people of the community didn't like me living there with Lien. Lien said it was because they didn't know me, and she was right. She taught me Vietnamese at night, and once I could communicate by myself a little, they started to warm up. After I retired, they seemed to accept me, and I have a few I can call true friends now.

Some people would say that Lien slept with me that night to divert my attention from her brother, and I thought the same until I asked her. She was honest and said at first, she thought about doing it for that reason. She said she changed her mind after working with me for a couple days, and that night was just her wanting to be with me.

After all the years of watching people lie, I pretty much know when they are. When Lien said she loved me, I believed her. I really didn't need much convincing. Lien is both a beautiful and intelligent woman, and we have something in common few if any couples ever have. We've both been challenged by life and come away a lot smarter, smart enough to understand how tenuous that life can be. We're going to make the best of the life we have left.

I never said anything more to Lien or her brother about what happened that night. They both know I've figured out what happened, so there's no need. Besides, Lien seems so happy now I don't want to do anything to screw that up. When Lien's happy, I'm happy and I haven't been this happy in a long, long time.

Her brother's a really great guy too, and I couldn't arrest him now if my life depended on it. I truly believe that faced with the same situation, I'd have made the same decision he made. About once a week, Lien and I have dinner at his restaurant. After we finish eating, he and I go to his office behind the kitchen for a drink or two and some conversation nobody but two men who've gone where we have would understand. We've found those nights do a lot for both of us.

Well, Lien just called me from the kitchen. She has dinner ready and she hates if it gets cold before we eat. She's a great cook and an even better friend who makes me feel like a prince most of the time. It's only at night, in our bed, that she's different. That's when she makes me feel like a king.