The Last Hour (Thompson Sisters) by Sheehan-Miles, Charles (reading well .txt) 📕

though that doesn’t really make sense. Or because he was planning on finishing college in Washington, DC instead of New York so he could be close. Or maybe just because they’d only gotten their son back from the war, and they felt like I was taking him away.

I didn’t know the answer. I’d wanted to have a good relationship with them, but right from the start his mother seemed hostile, and his father indifferent.

Which made it a very tough visit on New Year’s Day, when the Army called him back up to active duty.

After Major Smalls had left with him, I had sent him a couple text messages, but received no response. I then tried to call, but it went straight to voicemail. Either his battery was dead or his phone was off. Someone needed to tell his parents. Dylan had been pacing around my hotel room like a caged leopard, while Alexandra sat, dismay on her face, when I said, “I’m going to drive out to Glen Cove to let his parents know. Will you come with me, Dylan?”

He nodded. No hesitation.

“I’ll come with you,” Alexandra said.

Dylan shook his head. “I’d love for you too, Hun, but I think it’s better if it’s just the two of us. It’s going to be overwhelming enough for them.”

Alexandra didn’t look happy. But she could see the sense in what he was saying, so she agreed. “Okay. We’ll still have dinner with Julia tonight?”

He nodded, and I said, “I’ll drop him off on the way back, then I’m driving to Washington.”

Both of them went silent. Dylan looked troubled and said, “There’s not anything you’ll be able to do.”

I shrugged. “I can be there for him. I have to drive down day after tomorrow anyway, this is just moving it up a couple days.”

I still had the rental car, so I checked out of the hotel. We dropped Alexandra off at her dorm and then made the drive out to Glen Cove. It was still early, and New Year’s Day, so traffic wasn’t bad at all. The minute Alexandra was out of the car, I said to Dylan, “I’ve got questions.”

“Go for it,” he replied.

I took a breath, trying to gather my thoughts as we came to a stop at yet another red light. Then I said, “First ... is Major Smalls serious about Ray potentially being in danger?”

Dylan grunted. “I don’t know. A year ago I would have said no way would Colton ever shoot a civilian. That’s ... inconceivable to me. But he did. War does funny things to people’s heads.”

I took a deep breath. “What about Ray? Is he likely to end up on charges of some kind? I mean ... he reported it.”

Dylan shrugged. “No idea. Could be. From what I understand, the shooting happened in March, and he didn’t report it until November.”

“Damn it, why not?”

I couldn’t see his expression because the light turned green, and I had to stomp on the gas to get ahead of a cab so I could change lanes and then get on the ramp. But his voice cracked a little, and he said, “You don’t know what it’s like out there.”

“Tell me what it’s like out there. I can’t help Ray if I don’t have the information I need.”

“You can’t help Ray anyway. Not with this.”

“I refuse to accept that.”

He sighed. Then he said, “Any moment ... any second ... your life is in the hands of the guys in your platoon. You may not like all of them. In fact, you may hate some. But you love them all the same. Take Kowalski ... he was a complete fucking asshole. But he also watched out for all of us. He backed up Ray. He called us turds and fuckheads and dogshit, but then he took time out to make sure we were squared away, that we had everything we needed to eat, that we never went into the field unprepared.”

“Ray hasn’t really talked about him.”

“He threw himself on a grenade to save a little girl in Dega Payan,” Dylan said. “That was a fucking mess. Me and Ray had to bag up what was left of the body.”

My throat caught, and I couldn’t breathe. I literally couldn’t breathe. I tried to imagine that. What was happening in Ray’s head, what kind of emotions must run in him? It made me feel like I didn’t know him at all. Finally I gasped, and said, “Don’t they have ... people ... for that?”

He snorted. “Yeah. They do. They call those people the infantry.”

“I’m so sorry you guys had to go through all that.”

He waved a hand dismissively. “Forget it. This is now, and we’ve got to help Ray. So ask your questions.”

“All right. What happens next? They’re doing an investigation, and it sounds like they’re arresting people.”

He shrugged. “Not a clue. My only brush with military justice was what they call an Article 15. That’s nonjudicial punishment. Basically the company commander assigns extra duty, or takes away a stripe or something. Investigations and court-martials? Far beyond my experience. I’ll check it out and let you know what I learn. But I’m guessing they’ve got to question people, conduct their investigation. Activating Ray wasn’t really to protect him, it was convenient, and since he still has a reserve commitment, they could do it.”

“So what’s the worst case scenario?”

“Absolute worst? They decide Ray was an accessory and charge him, and he goes away for a bunch of years. I guess technically they could go for the death penalty, but I don’t think the Army’s done that in decades.”

I swallowed. That was worst case. It wasn’t likely.

“Seriously, though,” Dylan said, “I don’t think much of that is likely. They’ve got to recognize that he did the right thing, even if belatedly. It’s not like the civilian court system. You’re operating in a completely different world here.”

“So if we find him an attorney, it’s going to have to be someone who knows military law.”

“That’s right.”

“I wouldn’t know