Chapter 4 - A Medal with No Ribbon

I wanted to hit Mercer. Instead I gripped the key until its teeth cut my skin.

"You don't get to use Jonah's widow as a threat," I said.

"It's not a threat. It's a warning against selective memory."

General Haskett emerged from the gym, took one look at us, and told Mercer to leave the installation. The retired colonel made a show of straightening his cuffs before walking away. I knew that walk. Men who think the rules are only for other people always leave slowly.

Haskett studied the key. "Where does it lead?"

"I don't know."

"Then we should find out with someone you trust."

Inside the gym, the audience was waiting. I could have asked to end the ceremony. I almost did. But Dwayne stood in the second row, his stiff right leg planted beneath him, and Private Castillo, no longer a private, watched me with a face full of hope.

The general read the rest of the citation. It listed three lives saved, four entries into a flooded channel, and injuries sustained while attempting to recover a fourth soldier. It did not call me perfect. It called me willing to risk everything.

When he pinned the medal on my coat, the applause broke over me like another wave. I kept looking at the empty chair where Brody had sat. Charlene was gone. So was Mercer.

At the reception, Dwayne approached with two cups of terrible coffee.

"You okay, ma'am?"

"No."

"Good. I would've worried if you said yes."

He handed me a folded paper. It was a copy of the original map of the creek crossing, stained and crooked. A red X marked the gatehouse upstream.

"I kept this because the road closure times never made sense," he said. "Gate Three was supposed to be locked. Somebody opened it."

"How do you know?"

Dwayne looked toward the parking lot. "Because I saw the gate lights change while we were in the water."

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Before I could ask more, my phone buzzed with an unknown number. A picture arrived. It showed my father's grave, fresh flowers crushed into the dirt. Beneath it were six words:

Some doors should stay shut, Major.