Truth Avenged (Green Division Series Book 1) (16 page)

Chapter Ten

Tuck returned to work the following day.  Even the guys at work noticed the change in his attitude, but he didn’t explain its origin.  Chance was distracting.  Their planned afternoon of spending time together turned into more sex in one night than he’d had in the prior months combined.  If they were this good together while she was injured and they had to be cautious, his mind wandered to how good it would be when she was healed.

Work, Tuck, focus on work.
  He reminded himself.  Kerr had given him the cold shoulder when he asked about Jason Thomas.  He told him it wasn’t his case and to focus on his work.  If they needed his assistance, they would ask.  It drove Tuck up a wall being left on the outside.  Kerr wasn’t giving him any excuses to get close to this case. 

Tuck
’s phone rang.

“
Hello.”

“
I pulled all the strings I have and found what you were looking for.”  Claire said.  “The military records on John White.”

“
You’re shitting me?” 

“
I’ve never understood that expression, but no, I’m not shitting you.” 

“
What do the records say?”

“
Not much.  John White served during World War Two.  He was a training instructor at Brunswick Air Base and died in a car accident shortly before he was to be shipped overseas.”

“
He died in a car accident? Are you sure?”

“
He and two other airmen.”

“
Does it say where the accident happened?”

“
On base.  This John White and the two airmen left a bar off base highly intoxicated and were traveling at a high rate of speed when they hit a tree, according to the report. There are a few old black and white photos, the car was burned and I mean burned.  Their funerals would have been closed casket, if there were any bodies left for a casket.  I also have the files of the other men you asked for.”

They
’d died in a car accident on base shortly before they were to ship overseas.  It didn’t seem all that improbable they’d want to get smashed before they were to leave for war.

“
You are a miracle worker.  Thank you.”  The mystery was solved, as far as the files were concerned.  Tuck knew Chance wouldn’t believe it.  And deep down he didn’t either.

“
Do you want to meet me for lunch at our place?  My treat.  I’ll bring the files.”

Tuck delayed his answer.

“I’ve spent the past forty eight hours devoted to finding this information for you, no questions asked.  It wasn’t easy Tuck.  It was a long chain of ass kissing and digging.  I wouldn’t do it for anyone else but you.  It’s only dinner.  Please.”

Ass kissing.  Who was she kidding, she didn
’t only kiss ass, she would give it away freely if it would further her cause. 

*****

Night had fallen on the lake and bright hues of pink streaked across the sky.  Chance returned from her follow up appointment cheery.  She was healing better than expected and the d
octor was proud of her for not further injuring herself.  She was proud of herself too.  Small miracles.  But he did sternly warn her about taking it easy as he knew she hadn’t.  And reminded her it had been only a few weeks prior that she’d nearly died.  That was a reminder she didn’t need.  She had no intention of lounging around the house and sleeping as he prescribed though.  She hadn’t delved into researching the plane crash for a few days and itched to continue. 

Chance took notice of a vehicle pass
slowly in front of her house.  It had become a normality in her life, seeing the police patrol her street so frequently.  It did provide a measure of comfort. 

The newspaper was paying her salary without question until she was healed.  The reason she
’d been shot was due to their assignment in the willywags.  Paul hadn’t pulled through with any information on his end.  She knew he was a busy man and wouldn’t spend much of his time researching something that wasn’t related to the newspaper.  He’d become very driven in the past few months and she felt as though he was slipping away.  Once upon a time they spent all of their time together.  Now his time was divided and he didn’t have nearly as much to allot to his Chance.

KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK

Chance opened her door and the cold fall air greeted her.

“
You’re welcome.”  Tuck extended his hand and passed her a thick stack of documents.

“
What is this?”  Chance walked inside and put the files on the table. 

“
The answer to your mystery.”  The documents provided would only strengthen her resolve.

She opened it up and shuffled through the paperwork.

“You found their military records?”  She turned to him shocked and leapt into his arms.  “How?”

“
I have my connections.”  One he wasn’t fond of.  “It seems Squirrel, Mr. John White, died in a car accident on base.”

“
What?  That’s not possible.”   She didn’t believe it.

“
It’s all in the files.”

Chance sat down at the table and read the documents spellbound.

“I can’t stay, but I’ll drop by when I get off duty if you want some company.”

Chance heard the words, but the reaction was stunted. 

“Yeah, sure.”  She studied the picture of the charred remains of the vehicle.  She didn’t try to intentionally blow Tuck off, but she did so none-the-less.  She didn’t even hear the door shut when he left to return to duty.

John White had died in a car accident with two other occupants, Lonnie Brown and Abe Davis.  Adeline White was written in under the spouse line.  Adeline.  Samantha and Terry were written in as dependent children, aged eight
and ten.  His family lived in San Francisco at the time of the accident.

She flipped to the next file.  Lonnie Brown
emigrated as a boy with his family from London to New York and was drafted upon his eighteenth birthday. 

Onto the next file.  Abe Davis
hailed from Maryland and had zero family contact or background information beyond the high school he graduated from listed on the forms.

The next four files contained the other names listed beside John White
’s in the photograph Tim had given her.  Edward O’Neil, Mario Valencia, Hank Fitton and Joseph Hyde.   Edward fell victim to the war in an air raid.  Mario, Hank and Joseph showed their service ending a few years following the end of the war.  Mario had passed away in 1998 from lung cancer.  VA records showed Joseph lived in Clearwater, Florida at a nursing facility.  And nothing further for Hank Fitton.  Joseph and Hank, those two people were the key to solving her mystery. 

She spread the files out in front of her and leaned back.  They died in a car
accident only days prior to being deployed overseas?  No.  It wasn’t possible.  She didn’t know these men.  Had never heard their names.  There was no possibility she’d heard this story and concocted some kind of vision while she was lost in the woods.  These men were the ones in the woods: Squirrel, Lonnie, and Abe.  They didn’t die in a car accident and she didn’t buy what the files scattered in front of her contained.  But why?  Why would their plane have gone down in the North Woods if they’d supposedly died in a car accident?  Did the government cover up the crash by claiming they were in an “accident”?  Why would they cover it up?  What would they have done to necessitate a government cover up to such great lengths? 

She was tempted to
look for the plane again.  No, she would wait until she tracked down these two men and see what explanation they could provide.  It was going on 8 p.m. and since the men were in their upper eighties, she wouldn’t call them that late in the evening.

She scooped up the fil
es and retreated to the couch.  She would know everything about these men by the end of the evening.  Sleep wasn’t in the forecast.  She opened up her laptop and searched first for Joseph Hyde.  Since he was in a nursing facility, he didn’t have a phone number, but she was able to locate the number for the facility.  It didn’t list him as deceased anywhere on the internet, which was a plus.  There were two Hank Fittons in the United States alive in that age range according to a state by state search on White Pages she conducted.  One had an address and phone number out of Flagstaff, Arizona.  The second was listed in Albany, New York with a post office box and no phone number.  She hoped it would be the Fitton in Flaggstaff, but knew she wouldn’t be that lucky.

Chance dropped the files on the coffee table and stare
d blankly at the compass beside them.

“
I wonder…”  Chance picked up the compass.  When she’d found it by the plane its condition was like new.  The mysterious compass had led her out of the woods as she barely clung to life.  It was the sole reason she was alive.  No one would have found her the miles she’d wandered off trail.  And after a few days of sitting in the woods it had become a rusted heap of useless junk?  No.  She couldn’t explain its rapid deterioration any better than the rest of the mystery.

*****

Tuck signed off duty as he pulled into her driveway.  9 p.m. and every light in her house was on.  He knew she’d be awake all night processing the information and as she attempted to solve the new turn of events. 

“
So…”  Tuck dropped his coat in the recliner beside the couch then leaned down and kissed her.  “Mystery solved?”

She laughed.

“I know.”  He picked up the file on John White from the coffee table.

“
You don’t buy it either?”

“
It’s hard to wrap my mind around what you are telling me.  You say you saw ghosts of these men, correct?”

“
I didn’t say that.”

“
You haven’t said a lot.  But, I’ll fill in the gaps.  You saw the ghosts of these men and they are the same ones who supposedly died in a car accident.  If they died in a car accident, you wouldn’t have found the wreckage of a plane in the woods.  That simplifies the issue.”

Chance agreed.

“So now you are questioning why the government would cover up the plane crash.  What are the options to what would cause a plane to crash?”  He leaned forward.

“
Mechanical error, pilot error.  Or, it wasn’t an accident.  They intentionally brought the plane down because they didn’t want to go to war...suicide.  Or…”  She recited the options she could think of.

She looked over at Tuck. 

“A flock of geese.”  Tuck suggested.

“
Or someone shot them down.” 

“
The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, not Maine.”

“
That’s helpful, thanks.”  She mocked.  “Maybe it was a training accident.  Maybe they used live ammunition instead of dummy rounds.  Or someone fired upon them and shouldn’t have.”

“
You’re persistence is sexy as hell.”

“
I thought most men viewed that as a turnoff.”

“
You thought wrong.”  He smiled.  “How did your doctor’s appointment go?”

“
He said I was doing better than he expected.”  And also told her she needed to slow down.

“
Good.”  Tuck kissed her.  She returned the favor then eased back from him.

“
Do you think this could be fixed?”  She picked up the compass. 

“
I must not be very good if when I’m kissing you, you are thinking about a compass.”   

“
Stop it.  I’ve never had better.”  She stood up and eased down onto his lap, straddling him and gave him a quick kiss.  She held the compass with both hands.  “What do you think?”

“
I think I’ll buy you a new one.”

“
This compass led me out of the woods.  It stands to reason if it led me out, it could lead me back.”  She passed it to him.

“
I don’t think there is much reason in all of this.  You know how crazy this sounds?”

“
I don’t need you to remind me.  I’m well aware.”  She tried to take the compass, but he pulled his hand back so it was out of her reach.

“
I can fix it.”  He put it down on the stand next to the couch.  “If…” 

“
If what?”  She sat back. 

“
You didn’t tell me anything about this magical compass.  Or the ghosts.”

“
No.”  She said very evenly. 

“
Tell me.”

“
No.”

“
Listen, stubborn—”

“
No.”

She fully intended to break down and tell him.  She trusted him one hundred percent, more so than any person in her life.  He was the only one she
’d share her story with.