Truth Avenged (Green Division Series Book 1) (19 page)

“
Not seeing her won’t be a problem.”

“
You said you were in love?”

“
Was.”  He cleared his throat.  “She has a boyfriend.  Apparently two is better than one.”

The Colonel took his time in responding. 

“You have a big heart, Tuck.  That’s why you have more commendations and write-ups in your file than any other career warden.”  He smiled.  “You wear your heart on your sleeve, which is a double edged sword.  I believe according to your file, you’ve put yourself in a situation where you could have been killed in at least a dozen situations.  You are a liability and should have been fired years ago.”

“
Good to know.”  Tuck shook his head.

“
And also the man who has saved several people from certain death.  Breaking the rules isn’t encouraged, but lucky for them you did.  I may not agree with your methods, but you’re one of the best men we have and the one I want on my flank when the shit hits the fan.”

Tuck furrowed his brow surprised at that development.

“Don’t let this discourage you.  Your folder will be a little thicker, but we all make mistakes.”

He couldn
’t believe the Colonel was saying all this to him.

“
Take the rest of your shift off.  Relax and I expect you to be the good ol’ Tuck when you sign 10-8 tomorrow.”

“
Thank you, Terry.”

“
This discussion stays between the two of us.”

“
Of course.”  Terry stood and shook Tuck’s hand, elation overwhelmed him.

Chapter Thirteen

Chance closed the door behind her and looked ahead at the senior citizen housing.  It must be hard to leave one’s home when they grow old and are no longer able to care for it.

“
Miss Phillips.  You aren’t what I pictured.”  Mr. Fitton stood aside.  He referenced her dark hair with a stripe of pink.

“
Ah, okay.”  She followed him into his living room.  He lowered himself into an old overstuffed recliner. 

“
Take a seat.”  He pointed to a worn out couch.  “I’ll tell you my story, when you tell me yours.  I don’t believe you found Squirrel’s plane.  It’s impossible.”

“
Why is it impossible?”

He leaned forward.  “
Because, honey, they burned it.”

She looked at him perplexed.  “
But, I saw it, I saw the plane.  It had a picture on the side of it with the name Squirrel.  And I found it in the North Woods.  That’s where it went down, isn’t it?

Mr. Fitton nodded his head.

“Would you mind if I?”  She held up a recording device.

Mr. Fitton
’s lip pursed.  “Why do you need that?”

“
Proof.”  She said quickly.

“
Fine.”  He leaned back.  “Now try again.  How did you know about the plane?”

“
I swear to you, Mr. Fitton.  I found it. My story is beyond implausible, but I did.” 

Fitton lit a cigar.

“How did the plane burn?”

“
That’s a bright question.”  He puffed off his cigar.  “Fire.  That’s how it burned.”

This was going to be fun.

“You tell me your side honey and I’ll tell you mine.”  He sat back and chewed on the cigar.

“
You promise.”

“
You have my word.  That’s the only thing I have left of value these days, so rest assured, I’m good for it.”

Chance had little choice.

“Do you know where Helter Ridge is?”

“
I’m familiar.” 

Chance went back to that day and relived it in her memory.

The noise. The walk.  The tree.  The fall…ugh, the fall.  She lay on the ground, her head pounded from its violent impact with the ground.  Blood ran down her temple.  What a conveniently placed rock.  Perfect for where she landed.

“
Who are you?”  Chance asked the shadowy figured looking down upon her, cigarette in hand.  He put the cigarette out with his heel and offered her his hand.  Never had she touched anything so cold. She got her bearings taking in the stern man in front of her.  The uniform he wore was military, retro military. And his hair was slicked back in a style worn by no man in modern times.

“
You were in that plane, weren’t you?  Are you okay?  Is anyone else hurt?  What happened?”  She leaned back against the tree and held her head.

The man stared at her and did not say a word.

“Are you okay?”  Nothing.  Was he mute?  “Hello?  Are you alright?”

The man turned and looked behind him.  Two more uniformed men appeared from behind the plane.

“How many of you are there?”  She asked the man in front of her.  “Can any of you speak?”  She said louder.  Two other men, both young in age, stood behind the mute man. 

“
This must be a dream sequence.  Wake up.”  She closed her eyes and shook her head.  She squinted one eye open and the three men stared at her emotionless.

“
DO YOU NEED HELP?”  She walked toward them and her body shivered inexplicably.  “I ah, I can lead you back to the road.  Someone must be looking for you.  You don’t crash a plane without the world coming to look for you.” 

Glacial.  That was their stance. 

“This is crazy.”  Chance whispered to herself. 

The man with the slicked back hair pointed in the direction behind Chance.  Chance wasn
’t playing any games.

“
I’m going this way.”  She pointed behind them then realized she had absolutely no idea where she was, or what direction the trail was.  “Shit.”

The man pointed behind her
again.

“
What?”  She turned.  Nothing was where he pointed.  She turned and looked back to where the three men stood, but they were no longer there.

What the fuck
?  She turned back in the direction they had pointed and she saw the three men about twenty yards in front of her, arms crossed.  The leader of the group, slick guy, motioned with his head to follow him. 

Why not follow the delusion further?
She followed in the distance.  They didn’t wait for her. 

“
Can you slow down?”  She hollered.  They didn’t.  She tried to jog, but they inexplicably seemed to go faster.  She looked to the ground to hop over a tree and when she drew her eyes level to the horizon.  The men were gone and a fog had settled where they once stood.

You hit your head hard, Chance
.

She walked forward to where she last saw them standing and found a canvas rucksack with the name Squirrel embroidered on it.  She rummaged through the bag finding a few useless items other than a retro compas
s.  Squirrel took old school to a new level. 

“
Helllllllllo!”  She yelled out.  The light fog disappeared and the forest was clear in all directions.  “I have your bag!  And you have mine!”

She
’d left her bag with the plane.  “I’m done playing this game.”  She said to herself.  She surveyed the land around her and turned in the direction she believed the plane was.  What time was it?  No watch, no phone, no nothing but an old rucksack.  Wonderful.

Chance slung the bag over her shoulder and tried to follow
her footsteps back.  She couldn’t find the plane, she couldn’t find the bag, and she couldn’t find the trail.  Fucking awesome. 

The compass.  She pulled the compass out of the pack.  It didn
’t work like a normal compass though.  It darted and jumped around without cause, or reason.  Even more wonderful, a broken compass. 

“
Follow the compass.”  A whisper blew by in the wind.  Chance spun around looking for the origin of the eerie voice.  “Follow the compass, it will lead you back.”

Chance picked up the b
ag and sprinted through the brush.  She was losing it.  She ran until she was out of breath and dropped to her knees.  She was going to miss her deadline.  Paul was going to kick her ass.  And she was going to be the subject of a major search.  The day became better and better.

She got to her feet and looked around.  Nothing looked familiar.  And with the skies overhead blocked by clouds, she coul
dn’t use the sun for navigation.  And that whole moss growing on the north side of a tree—that only worked when you could locate moss.  What the hell did she have to lose?

“
Lead the way.”  She said to the compass.

Chance came back from her storytelling.  She
’d told Mr. Fitton the story, but relived it as she did so.

“
That’s some story.”  Mr. Fitton remarked.

“
Is that code for you think I’m crazy too?”

“
No.”  He lit his second cigar.

“
What happened to them?”

“
Squirrel was a good man, but he made a mistake.  One he paid for with his life.”  Mr. Fitton put the cigar out.  She saw the war he waged within himself.

“
I was in the air training with two other crews.  Squirrel was supposed to be packing and getting ready for briefing before their deployment.  Unfortunately, Squirrel had his own plan.  While his unit was in assembly, him and Abe, and Lonnie decided they weren’t goin’ to war.  They’d rather take their chances on going AWOL.  It didn’t work out so well for them.”  He was still butting out the extinguished cigar.

“
And…” 

“
Squirrel had access to every facility on the base.  He readied his plane and they took off.  It didn’t go unnoticed.  You don’t steal a plane at a military base and expect to fly off into the sunset.  He did though.  I got word shortly after and myself and the other two crews were sent to deal with Squirrel.  Get him to return to base since we weren’t far away.  We could see ‘em from where we were in the air.”

“
He wouldn’t turn around?” 

“
We’d been in the air training, our fuel was low.  I was the ranking officer.  It was my call.  I warned him three times to turn around and told him the consequences, but he didn’t answer.  We didn’t have much time to negotiate.  He was turning though, I saw it. He started to bank left.  But one of the other crews acted hastily and took the shot without orders.”

Mr. Fitton
’s voice caught.  “Squirrel was a hell of a pilot, but there was no pilot who could have saved them.”

Chance starred down at the photo.

“He confided in me days before he was to ship out.  He said he knew he wouldn’t survive this tour and he wanted to see his children grow up.  I thought he’d get past it, like we all had to, but he didn’t.”

“
When we got back to base, the kid who took the shot—I don’t remember it, but when we were done, he was unrecognizable.”

Chance waited for him to continue. 

“I regret that.  That kid, he was all of eighteen.  He thought he’d done the right thing.”

“
Did he live?”

He shifted in his chair.  “
We never heard anything about him again.”

“
So the plane caught fire on impact?”  She moved the conversation along.

“
It didn’t burn when it crashed.  It burned when they decided they didn’t want to take the time and resources to send in a crew to recover it.  The easiest and quickest cover up would be to dispose of the evidence.  They dropped accelerant on it from the air.”

“
And then they set up the accident?  But why go to such great lengths?  Why not tell the truth?”

“
Americans don’t want to hear about their government shooting down one of their own.  Not the kind of news that brings the country’s spirits up in a time of war.” 

Chance
’s phone buzzed. 

“
Sorry.”  She apologized to Mr. Fitton.  It was a private number.  She hit the ignore button and put it on silent. 

“
Everyone who was involved in the incident was silenced.  If we went public, we wouldn’t have seen the light of day again.  It wasn’t an idle threat.  We weren’t giving up our families for a decision John and his crew made.”  He took a deep breath. 

“
There hasn’t been a day gone by when I haven’t thought about them at least once.”  He looked at her with pain in his eyes.  “He made a mistake, but he didn’t deserve to die that way.  It wasn’t right.”

“
No.”  Chance was speechless.

“
I don’t know what’s better.  For the world to think they’d gotten drunk and died in an accident or that the crew defected and an itchy fingered gunner brought them down.”

“
Their families deserve to know the truth.  I think that’s what Squirrel, and Lonnie, and Abe want too.  Closure.”

“
Nearly seventy years late.”

“
Better late than never, Mr. Fitton.”

He passed the bag back to her. 

“It doesn’t change anything in the long run.  You’ve seen the military records.  Those aren’t going to change.  And whatever ghostly image you saw out there, what happens when you can’t find it again?”

Chance shrugged her shoulders.  She picked up the bag and the compass rolled out.  She picked it up.

“This led me out of the woods to safety.  I have a feeling it will lead me back to them.”

“
Be careful what you wish for.”

Chance slung the bag over her shoulder.

“Thank you for talking to me.”  She hugged him.  He hugged her back.

“
My shoulders feel lighter already.  It was a heavy weight to carry all those years.”  He stood a little straighter.

“
I’m sure it was.”  She could only imagine the guilt he felt. 

“
Good luck.”  He opened the door for her.

“
Thank you.”  He nodded and shut the door.

She smiled to herself and at th
e same token her stomach churned.  Squirrel, Abe, and Lonnie had been a dark secret for seven decades and she was going to be the one to uncover it.  The airport maintenance man might not have been too far off the mark with his comment about going to prison for her digging.  She headed for home on a new mission.  She had her answer, now it was time to find the plane.

*****