“Good. Then I don’t have to tell you. Over a thousand incidents, and so far, not one leak and not one day of work lost. This isn’t going to be any different. You do your job right and the scientists aren’t even going to know you’re here. What’s the matter?” he said, catching the look on Connolly’s face.
“General, I’m just trying to figure out if I’m here because I don’t know anything or because you don’t want to. Are you trying to catch this guy or not?”
Groves raised his eyebrows. “That’s an interesting question,” he said finally. “I’m not sure. If somebody robbed Bruner and bopped him over the head, I hope the police catch him. But not if it means taking five minutes away from the project. It’s just not worth the time. Hate to put it like that, but it’s the truth. Do you have any idea how important this is, what we’re doing here? I know you keep it out of the papers, but do you know what it means? We could end the war.” He said this calmly, matter-of-factly, without the usual bond-drive fervor, so that Connolly took it as literal. “Right now you’ve got thousands of boys dying every week. You’ve got Curt LeMay running those B-29s over Japan like the wrath of God. We have no idea how many casualties. None. And the invasion will mean more and more. We can stop that if we finish the work here. So no, I don’t care if they catch one killer-we can catch millions. Unless it isn’t just a robbery. Unless it’s about the project. That’s what we’ve got to know.”
“Okay,” Connolly said, “so we want to find out if his being murdered had anything to do with the Hill, but we don’t want to bother anyone on the Hill finding out.”
Groves looked at him steadily. “Now you think you’re being funny. I allow one wisecrack, and now you’ve had yours.”
“Sorry. I just wonder if you’re giving the police a fair shake. Or me, for that matter.”
“Fair doesn’t apply to you,” he said evenly, “you’re working for me. The police? They took their own sweet time getting in touch, by which time the physical evidence-if there was physical evidence-didn’t amount to much and the papers already had the story. That’s the last thing we want. Luckily, it’s still a John Doe to them, no connection to the Hill at all. You make sure it stays that way.”
“So you put a lid on it.”
“Sealed. For good. The police will cooperate. Well, I guess they have to. They’re not even allowed up here.”
“And they still think it might have something to do with his being homosexual?”
“Now that’s just what I mean,” Groves said, louder suddenly. “Where do they get that? Says who? I do not want allegations like that going around. We’ve never had anything like that up here, and once that kind of rumor starts-” He trailed off, blushing, and Connolly realized that the subject was an embarrassment for him.
“General,” Connolly said calmly, “if he was homosexual, that would constitute a security risk all by itself. You know that.”
Groves looked at him and sat down, a kind of body sigh.
“Yes, I know that. But do you know what it means when you start a scare like that? I’ve seen it happen, down in Miami. The army goes on a queer hunt and there’s no end to it. You’ve got everybody looking over his shoulder and wondering, and that’s just the kind of mess I’m trying to avoid here.” He paused. “We don’t know anything except Bruner got caught with his pants down. Whatever that means. I want you to find out, but I don’t want you turning the place upside down to do it. There’s no need to smear this man’s reputation. For all we know, he didn’t do anything more than run into some drunk Mexican.”
“General, can I be frank? It’s unlikely the police are going to get anywhere-they aren’t even being told the man’s name. I take it you don’t want to call in the FBI-”
“Are you out of your mind? You do that and you’ve got Washington all over it and I’ll never get anything done. The FBI hasn’t been allowed near this project since 1943, and I intend to keep it that way. War Department intelligence takes care of the Manhattan District of the Army Corps of Engineers. That’s enough for me.”
“Except Bruner was intelligence.”
Groves peered at him. “That’s the rub, isn’t it? That’s what we can’t get past. He wasn’t just anybody. He was G-2. I don’t believe in coincidences. I’m paranoid, remember? I don’t know what’s involved here or who else is involved. I don’t know whether he was a fairy or not, but if he was we had no idea. Now that makes me worried.”
“So, an outsider,” Connolly said.
“McManus said you were like a dog with a bone with a story.”
“That’s reporting. I haven’t done that in a while. And that’s still not being a policeman.”
