No Return

Wes relaxed a bit. Of course Lars would have gone to Commander Forman. Wes himself had asked his friend to check things out.

“As you can imagine, I was also concerned,” Forman continued. “Even more so once Lars explained the information was coming from you, the last man to see the pilot alive. So trust me when I say I’ve made it my personal mission to make sure there’s been no mistake. I ordered my team to go above and beyond in IDing the body. Interviews with the ground crew, DNA testing, triple-checking identifying marks, talking to the search-and- rescue teams.” The commander switched his attention to Lars. “Were you able to connect with Lieutenant Truax?”

“Yes, sir,” Lars said.

“Good.” His gaze returned to Wes. “Then you know that Lieutenant Truax was one of the responders who removed the body, and that he also positively ID’d Lieutenant Adair.”

“Yes, sir,” Wes said.

“Then you must believe me when I say there were no mistakes here.”

Wes said, “I understand a lot of care was taken.”

After a few more seconds, Forman said, “Yet you still have doubts.” It wasn’t a question.

Wes lowered his head for a moment, uncomfortable. He was unsure what to say, because, quite honestly, he was unsure what he thought. He’d seen what he’d seen at the crash site, but he’d also seen the body Lieutenant Truax had identified as Adair. He chose to remain silent.

The commander leaned back in his chair, a contemplative look on his face. From somewhere outside came the distant squeal of a child playing.

As the silence in the office lengthened, there was a second squeal, this one followed by laughter.

The commander suddenly pushed his chair back and stood up. “Wes, if you have a moment, I’d like to introduce you to my wife.”

“Uh, sure,” Wes said, surprised by the change of topic.

Forman came around his desk. “She’s out back. Lars, please join us.”

“Yes, sir.”

Forman led them to a sliding glass door off a family room at the back of the house. Outside, Wes saw a woman, maybe a few years younger than the commander, sitting on a patio chair, shielded from the sun by a large umbrella stuck through the center of a patio table. She was looking toward a part of the yard Wes couldn’t see.

As the commander pulled the door open, a child’s voice yelled out, “My turn!”

The commander motioned for Wes and Lars to go first, then he followed.

A rectangle of cement served as a patio, but the rest of the yard, like the front, was lush and green. In the area Wes hadn’t been able to see from inside was a wooden play set complete with slide, swings, and monkey bars. There were two girls standing at the bottom of the ladder to the slide, pushing each other.

“Darla, let your little sister go first this time,” the woman in the chair said.

“But she went first last time!” the taller of the two girls complained.

“And you went first the two times before that,” the woman reminded her.

Reluctantly the taller girl stood to the side and let her sister go up the ladder.

“Sweetheart,” Commander Forman said, “I want you to meet someone.”

With a smile, Mrs. Forman stood up, but was careful to remain in the shade.

“You know Lieutenant Commander Andersen, I believe,” Forman said.

“Of course. It’s good to see you again.” She held out her hand. “We met at the Everts’ party, if I’m not mistaken.”

Lars took the offered hand and gave it a gentle shake. “Yes, ma’am. That’s correct.”

“And this is Wesley Stewart,” the commander said. “Mr. Stewart, this is my wife.”

“Glad to meet you, Mrs. Forman,” Wes said.

She laughed as they shook. “Please, call me Shelly.”

“Wes grew up here,” the commander said. “He and Lars went to high school together.”

“You grew up here, too?” she said, looking at Lars.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“And now you’re stationed here. You must be a glutton for punishment.”

“Shelly’s not the biggest fan of the desert,” the commander explained.

“When you think Navy, you think oceans and beaches, not tumbleweeds and rattlesnakes,” she said.

One of the children screamed, and all the adults turned to see what had happened. The older girl was sitting on the ground at the base of the slide, tears in her eyes.

“Excuse me.” Shelly headed toward the play set. “What happened, sweetie?”

“Two daughters,” Wes said. “That’s going to be fun when they’re old enough to date.”

“They’re not ours,” the commander said. “We also have two kids, a boy and a girl. But they’re both in college.”

Shelly returned, the older girl in her arms and the younger one tagging along behind them.

“Came down too hard on her backside,” Shelly explained, rubbing the girl’s hip. “Lieutenant Commander, Wes, this is Darla and her sister, Rachel.”

Wes bent down so he was at Rachel’s height. “Nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you, too,” Rachel said.

Darla tucked her head into Shelly’s shoulder and said nothing.

“Who wants a juice box?” Shelly asked.

“Oh, me!” Rachel said.

“Darla?” Shelly asked.

The older girl nodded.

“Come on, then. Into the kitchen.”

Rachel ran ahead and made a valiant yet unsuccessful attempt to open the door. As soon as Shelly got there, she applied the extra help needed, and then they all went inside.

“Cute girls,” Wes said. “But if there’s nothing else, Commander, maybe we should go.”

“They’re Lieutenant Adair’s.”

Wes blinked. “I’m sorry?”

“Darla and Rachel. They’re Lieutenant Adair’s children.”

Wes looked toward the sliding door the girls had just disappeared behind.

“No matter what you think you saw,” the commander said, “those girls lost their father. It’s bad enough he made an error that caused the crash. Don’t you see? If you start raising these questions, giving them false hope, the ones you’ll hurt most in the end will be them. Their father was on that plane, Wes. Whatever you think you saw, you were wrong.”

36

“Do you believe me now?”Lars asked.

They were parked in his truck next to Wes’s rented Escape outside Tommy T’s Sports Bar. Wes was staring out the window at nothing.

“It was a mistake,” Lars said. “Understandable, given the circumstances, but still a mistake.”

Wes reached for the door handle, but he stopped and turned to look at his high school friend. “You know, for a little bit there I was starting to think that maybe I had been wrong. Maybe the face I remembered wasn’t the one I really saw.”

“But you don’t believe it now? You just met his children, for God’s sakes.”

Wes let out a snort and shook his head. Perhaps if Lars had taken him home after seeing the body, he would have been convinced enough to drop it. But then Forman and the kids coupled with everything else? Lars had tried a little too hard to convince him. And that just pissed him off.

“Goodbye, Lars,” he said, then opened the door and climbed out.