by Scott Blade
Dorothy cowered as she trotted over to it and picked it up. She turned it to face him and sat down.
“Good,” he said coldly, distantly.
Silence filled the air. Both of their sons were dead.
Suddenly, Dorothy’s flip phone started buzzing on the table. The noise was deafening in the silence.
“Answer it,” Attack Dog ordered.
Dorothy trembled and opened it and put it up to her ear.
“Hello?”
“Is my associate there?”
She moved it from her ear and offered the phone to Attack Dog.
“It’s for you.”
“Just tell him it’s all over now.”
She put the phone back to her ear and said, “It’s over.”
“Good. Ask him if he checked for any guns in the house.”
Dorothy looked up at Attack Dog.
“He wants you to check for guns in the house.”
Attack Dog nodded and asked, “Bill, where are the rest of your guns?”
Bill shook like a lone, wet leaf in the wind .
Attack Dog repeated the question, louder.
Bill said, “There’s a shotgun in the hall closet. I’m not sure about the boys’ rooms.”
“Are there more in there?”
Bill shrugged, said, “I imagine so.”
Attack Dog nodded and said, “Tell him I got them all.”
Dorothy talked into the phone again. She was meek and low.
The man on the phone hung up, and Dorothy hung up, putting the flip phone back on the tabletop.
Doing so, she accidentally stared at her younger son’s feet hanging awkwardly over the windowsill. Broken glass was all over the tabletop and the floor and his chair.
Tears ran down her face.
Fifteen minutes later, there was a hard knock at the door.
Attack Dog answered it.
Major walked in, and so did a couple of his other guys, including a man with a Barrett sniper rifle. The man who’d killed Dorothy’s younger son.
Major said, “Hello.”
Chapter 16
T HE NEXT MORNING, Widow woke up early because of the sounds of rattling pipes from someone running a shower in another unit. Slivers of sunlight beamed through the window across his face and chest.
He must’ve been dreaming because the covers had mostly fallen off the bed like he had tossed and turned through the night.
He got out of bed, leaving it unmade. He left the covers draped the way they were and went to the shower to check his clothes. They were dry. His shirt was a little stiff as if he had starched it, which he didn’t.
He left the clothes hanging for a moment and heard the faint noise of spray from the shower below him. It was Harvard. She was up and showering.
He couldn’t help but picture it in his mind.
She had said she was a married woman. What was she doing here?
Married or not, pregnant or not, she was an attractive woman, and he was a single man allowed to have his own thoughts. He felt no guilt for taking a moment to picture her naked and wet and in the shower.
He shook off the thought and stared at his reflection in the mirror.
Widow had natural muscle. He always had. Good genetics. It was also amplified because of the lifestyle he chose to live. A man who drifts from place to place, walking a lot, is a man who will naturally be very fit.
Tattoos covered large pieces of real estate on his torso, arms, and back. Each of them had a meaning to him. All of them from a life past.
He looked at himself for another moment. Then he went through the morning routine of a caveman, his morning routine. He took a whiff of his armpit, then his breath, then determined if his smell was acceptable to society. In this case, he had to scrutinize himself to a higher standard because something told him he would be spending breakfast with Star Harvard.
He passed all the smell tests. His breath was fine, but he realized that he no longer had a toothbrush. He had lost it somewhere between the last place he had it and now.
He’d have to buy a new one.
As he thought about the toothbrush, he saw this motel did not provide toothpaste, as did finer establishments. Which was unfortunate because he could put some paste on his index finger, use it as a temporary toothbrush. It was better than nothing.
The mirror on the wall was just a standard, circular mirror. No medicine cabinet hidden behind it. But under the sink was a two-door cabinet, small and tucked away. He popped it open and saw someone had left a travel-sized bottle of mouthwash. The factory plastic was still wrapped on it.
He opened it and used it.
At least now his breath would be good to go.
The shower below him had stopped. So, he got dressed and waited about ten minutes and left the room, took his key.
In the parking lot, he figured he’d walk down to the street and take a look around.
He misestimated how long Harvard would take to be ready. When he came back closer to their rooms, she was already outside and yelling up to his room.
He walked toward her and she stopped calling his name.
“I didn’t know you were already up.”
“I wasn’t up that long.”
She nodded.
“Go with me to breakfast?”
“Of course.”
They left the motel and walked back toward downtown.
“Let’s avoid a place called Mabel’s though,” Widow said.
“Why?”
“Just trust me.”
“Sure.”
They wound up at a small restaurant, part of a chain that Widow had seen a hundred times all over the world .
Harvard ordered pancakes and more pancakes with “loads of syrup,” her words. Widow ordered eggs, bacon, and coffee, with doubles on all of them.
The waitress left and returned with black coffee for him and only orange juice for Harvard.
He said, “You don’t drink coffee? I never met someone from the military who didn’t before.”
“I’m pregnant.”
“Are you not supposed to have coffee?”
“I read that caffeine isn’t good for the baby.”
He nodded and had no idea if that was true or not.
Harvard pulled a smartphone out of her pocket, set it on the tabletop.
“You left the bag in the room.”
Her face seemed to lose its morning glow.
“Yeah, I’m staying a few days, I think.”
Widow sipped the coffee.
“So what’s going on?”
Harvard was quiet for a long moment.
Widow thought back to her standing on the train platform. That look of being completely lost on her face. It returned. Same look. Same exact look. He reached out one hand and cupped it over hers. The bottom of his palm scraped the top of her wedding ring.
He said, “You can trust me, Star. What’s going on? Why did you want me to come to breakfast with you?”
She moved her face and stared down for a moment.
“You’ll think I’m crazy. ”
“I won’t.”
She was quiet.
He said, “You saved my life last night. Remember?”
She smiled.
“I’m here looking for my husband.”
“Where is he?”
She shrugged.
“Here someplace.”
“You came on your own? I saw you on the train platform yesterday.”
“I did.”
“Brave woman.”
“Not brave. I just care about my family.”
Widow drank the rest of his coffee and set the mug aside to signal to the waitress for a refill, which she picked up on because she was there faster than he’d seen Marines climb ropes.
He thanks her and she moved on to take the order for another table.
“I gotta ask you something, obvious. I don’t want you to be offended.”
“You wanna know if I considered that my husband ditc
hed me?”
He shrugged.
“Seems the most common thing to happen.”
She looked away briefly, as if she was considering how much to share with Widow.
“My husband’s name is Jackson Harvard. Captain Jackson Harvard. He’s a captain in the Air Force.”
Widow nodded .
“Captain or not, airmen do shameful things sometimes. He’s human like the rest of us.”
Without showing anger, she said, “No way. He’d never do that to me. Trust me. Something’s going on with him.”
“How do you know?”
“He’s my husband.”
Widow nodded.
“Yeah, but how do you know? Every man or woman who’s ever been cheated on or abandoned out of the blue, ever, has always had the same gut reaction of ‘not me. Never me.’”
Harvard bowed her head and moved her hand away from his. She touched her wedding ring and twirled it on her finger with her right hand.
“He wouldn’t do that. Trust me. There’s more to it than just being missing.”
“Like what?”
She was quiet.
“Tell me. Maybe I can help.”
She nodded.
“The last time I spoke to him was a week ago. He calls me every Saturday.”
“But?”
“This last one he didn’t call.”
“That’s why you’re worried?
“That’s part of it. Let me tell the story.”
Widow nodded.
“A month ago he started a new position. A new assignment. We live in North Dakota. He was stationed at Minot. It’s an Air Force base.”
Widow nodded .
“I’ve heard of it, but never been there.”
“We’ve been there for the past ten years.”
“Are you still in the Air Force?”
“No, I didn’t re-up. I had the chance a year ago, but I started a local business and things started to take off. So, I didn’t go back.”
“They would’ve taken care of you during the pregnancy.”
“I know. I was stupid, but we didn’t plan to get pregnant.”
“You didn’t plan it?”
She paused a beat.
“I know what you’re implying. That he didn’t plan it and now he’s ditched me because he doesn’t want it. But you’re wrong. Just trust me, okay?”
“Okay.”
“The thing is that I’m not supposed to have kids.”
Widow stayed quiet.
“When I got pregnant, I was doing my business, and it shocked us both. Jackson was ecstatic. He wanted the baby more than I did.”
“What’s your business?”
“I opened a gun store.”
Widow nodded and asked, “Minot’s got a population to support that?”
“Oh sure. There are forty-plus thousand people living there. Besides, people who live in places like North Dakota love guns.”
Harvard moved away from her ring finger and laid her palms flat on the tabletop. She had remained sitting up straight during the whole breakfast.
Her perfect posture reminded Widow of a time when his mother used to slap him in the back and order him to sit up straight.
Hunching over will stunt your growth, she’d claim. It was a total lie, but it worked. To this day, he found himself hunching over and then correcting it out of fear of shrinking.
“What does Jackson do on the base?”
“He was in the Ninety-First Missile Wing.”
Widow leaned back, thought for a moment.
“That’s Global Strike now?”
“Yes. Since we first got there back in 2009.”
“Global Strike is nuclear.”
“Yes.”
“Your husband is involved in the nuclear strike system?”
She nodded.
“What happened next?”
“Two months ago he got orders.”
“Transfer?”
“No. An overseas tour. He told me that since he hadn’t been shipped out in years, it was his time. There was no dodging it again. He already deferred a few times in the past. And that’s true. We tried to stay together. For me, it was easier because I’m a woman. I played that up and pulled strings to stay where he was.”
“That still work?”
“It does.”
“How about him? ”
“He used the fact that he was a captain and in nuclear strike. Not much use for him overseas. But everyone’s gotta do it. We all gotta go overseas sometimes. No getting around it forever.”
Widow nodded. He knew how it worked.
“Where did he go?”
“He had orders to go to Iraq.”
Widow said nothing.
“So, a month ago he packed his bags, and I drove him to the airport. And watched him get on a plane.”
“And?”
“Then I went home to be pregnant and run my store all at the same time. And it was hard. Now, he’s missing. He missed his call to me.”
“Did you call his recruiter?”
“I’m way past that now.”
“How so?”
“I hired a P.I. He was supposed to meet me here. Yesterday.”
“That’s why you were looking around on the train platform?”
“Yes.”
“What did he find? Where is he?”
“I don’t know where he is. He’s not answering his phone. But I bet it’s because he has better cases.”
“Better?”
“Higher paying. I didn’t pay him that much money. I think he was helping me more out of pity. ”
“Okay. So, what did he find? Why are you here?”
Just then Harvard swallowed, hard, and took a deep breath.
“I did call the recruiter. That’s when I hired a P.I. Because…”
She paused.
Widow waited.
“The thing is Jackson never went overseas. The Air Force says they have no record of him getting orders to go overseas. In fact, the P.I. did a lot of digging. He found that Jackson’s been discharged for two months.”
Chapter 17
W IDOW SAT BACK in silence until their food came. They both ate and said nothing. Widow finished first but sat there drinking his third cup of coffee.
Harvard ate her pancakes like Oliver Twist if given free rein over a casino buffet. She left no stone unturned. No syrupy pancake left. In the end, she licked the fork clean.
“Don’t judge me.”
“I’m not. Eat up. I can only imagine what you’re going through.”
She finished and wiped her face with the paper napkin that the silverware had been wrapped up in.
She crumbled it up into a ball and discarded it on top of her empty plate.
The waitress returned and said, “My goodness. Hon, you want dessert?”
“No. Thanks. Just the check.”
“Sir, you want dessert?”
Widow denied the offer and asked for the bill. They sat there in silence until the check was delivered .
The waitress waited as Widow showed her he was paying with cash and handed it to her, plus a five-dollar tip.
She thanked him and pocketed the wad of cash with the bill into an apron pocket. She took his dishes next, left the cup. He was still drinking coffee out of it.
As she turned, he stopped her and asked, “Can I ask you a question about the town?”
“Sure.”
“Don’t get offended.”
“I’ll try not to.”
“The other day I saw an unmarked grave on a street. It looked forgotten but was set there like some kind of historical marker. Know anything about it?”
The waitress paused and looked like she was searching her brain for the right answer.
“Sorry, I don’t know anything about it. Can’t say I’ve ever noticed it before.”
She was lying. He knew it.
“Never mind then. I was just curious.”
The waitress left.
; “What was that about? What grave?” Harvard asked.
Widow took a breath and explained it all to her. The grave. His ride in with a state trooper. The encounter with the local marshal. Then how he got into an argument with the lumberjacks and finally to her.
She said, “That’s strange.”
He shrugged .
“I guess it’s some sort of secret thing that the locals are ashamed of.”
She said, “The whole town?”
He shrugged.
“I was born in Mississippi. Plenty of towns down there are ashamed of their Confederate past.”
“I thought Mississippi was proud of all that. Don’t the people there sport the Rebel flag?”
“Some of them. But most of those who do don’t think it’s harmful. I think they don’t realize how hurtful it is to the black community.”
“Why don’t they just abandon it?”
“I don’t know. Some of them are just misguided. Others know exactly what it means and they embrace it.”
“Hard to imagine that sort of thing in this day and age.”
He shrugged.
“America’s a melting pot of people who both hate and love each other all at the same time.”
Harvard put both hands on her belly and rubbed it.
“Like a family.”
“Okay. Like a big family. Lots of families don’t get along that well, but they’re bonded forever.”
“Can’t change your family.”
“Guess not,” he said.
“What now?”
“I’m going to help you. I was a Navy SEAL. We don’t leave a man behind.”
She smiled.
“Let’s get out of here. ”
She nodded, and he downed the rest of his coffee in one big gulp.
They stepped out of the restaurant and onto the sidewalk.
“How did this P.I. find out that Jackson’s not in the Air Force?”
“I told you. They told him.”
“Yeah, but who told him? The recruiter?”
“No. I talked to the recruiter. Shiden talked to his sources in the Department of Defense.”
“His sources? Who is he?”
“His name is Matt Shiden. He used to be D.I.A. and was a cop before that. He’s good. He’s solid.”
“You trust him? A lot of these guys might see a desperate woman and a quick buck.”
“I trust him. Don’t worry.”
“You sure?”
