Chapter 3 - Thirteen Missing Pages
Before going to the conference room, Emily had stopped beside the hall's display case. Beneath glass lay faded photographs of young soldiers boarding helicopters, shaking hands, lifting children above rising floodwater. She saw a photograph of Mercer receiving an award for leadership during the same deployment in which her father died. Someone had placed a polished brass label underneath it. Emily knew the date by heart. It was the week after the funeral. She remembered Ruth standing in their kitchen with a plate in her hands, unable to remember where plates belonged. Now Emily understood why a room filled with honorable objects could still feel like a place built to hide something.
The ceremony ended without speeches. Soldiers filed into the courtyard as if leaving a funeral. Emily and her mother were led to a conference room with a pot of burnt coffee and blinds that would not close all the way.
Vance spread three documents across the table. One was the familiar investigation summary. Another was a movement log with handwritten corrections. The third was a photograph taken before the convoy left the gate.
"Your father was the convoy's senior enlisted leader," Vance said. "Mercer was responsible for the route decision. The official report says Daniel ignored orders and chose the eastern road."
Emily knew that sentence by heart. She had heard it in whispers at school, then in interviews, then in the silence that followed every request for an explanation.
Vance tapped a time entry. "This log records Mercer changing the route at 05:42. Daniel objected at 05:45. At 05:51, communications failed."
"Who signed this?" Ruth asked.
"A specialist named Aaron Bell."
Emily blinked. "Bell died during the attack."
"That's what the report says."
Vance turned the photograph around. Mercer stood beside Daniel and three soldiers. Behind them, a slim young specialist held a clipboard. A wristwatch gleamed on his left hand.
"His personnel file says he was evacuated alive," Vance said. "Three days later, the entry was replaced. Somebody made a living man disappear on paper."
Emily stared at the young face. "Where is he?"
"We don't know. An investigator tracked a government benefits claim to a small town in Arizona. The claimant used Bell's date of birth but another name."
There was a knock. A military police captain leaned in. "General, Colonel Mercer has requested emergency leave. His driver is at the south gate."
"Do not detain him without lawful grounds," Vance said. "Document the departure and notify the investigators."
May you like
Emily almost smiled. Even now, Vance refused to skip the rules. Her father would have liked that.
Then Ruth turned over the old photograph. On the back, in Daniel's handwriting, were six words: IF ANYTHING HAPPENS, FIND THE WATCH.
