Right then, he discovered that he did need it.
ALL TOO SOON, the day began. Cat awoke shortly after Duke, and the two of them headed straight to Community Memorial Hospital, Cat carrying the shattered photo of Larry and Ben.
Cat wore her uniform, and that got them past any gatekeepers.
“Ben needs some family here,” Cat said under her breath.
“Yeah,” Duke agreed. “I think they all disowned him, though.”
“Damn.”
“Larry used to laugh it off, without mentioning Ben by name, saying he’d never have an in-law problem. Honestly, I don’t think either of them was able to really laugh it off.”
“I couldn’t.”
Ben sat up in bed, eating from a tray of food that looked more appetizing than it probably was. He offered a weary smile. “Cooked prunes, anyone? Oatmeal? I’ve always hated oatmeal.”
“Me, too,” Cat answered. “Sticks in my mouth.” She held out the photo. “I thought you might want this. Careful of the broken glass.”
Ben took it and looked down at it. “That shattered glass feels like my heart.”
She was sure it did.
“How are you doing?” Duke asked him.
“Nicked the brachial artery. Tourniquet saved me.” He gave a snort. “Military training can be good for something.”
“It appears,” Duke agreed.
Ben continued to stare down at the photo. Then he ran his hand over the backing, as if stroking it. He’d probably have stroked the photo if it had been safe to do so.
Then his hand froze. “I’ve held this a million times in the past,” he said slowly.
Duke leaned forward. “What’s wrong?”
“There’s something behind the backing. Something that wasn’t there when I first put it in the house.” He looked up, his eyes wide. “Duke?”
Duke looked at Cat. “Maybe you should take it.”
She nodded. Evidence of some kind? Or just damage from the firefight last night? Only one way to find out.
She placed the photo facedown on the table, then felt the backing carefully. It rocked slightly. Picture backing, no matter how thick, didn’t usually do that.
Carefully, she bent back the tabs that held it in place. “I’ll remove the glass once I can get the photo out.”
“Sure,” Ben said.
She could feel both men watching intently. Her heart was climbing into her throat. At last she was able to lift the backing off—and what she saw caused her breath to catch.
“What?” both men asked.
She slowly lifted out three discs in their paper sleeves and held them up. “Could these be it? Larry’s secret?”
Chapter Twelve
Four days later they stood in Good Shepherd Church for Larry’s memorial. Cat hadn’t expected much of a turnout, given that Larry had barely arrived in town and Ben was still only slightly known.
But the church was packed.
She smiled faintly, glad to see it. Ben needed to feel community support right now. Support even from relative strangers.
The last few days had been tough for both Ben and Duke. Enough details of the autopsy had been shared to give both men a crystal clear awareness of what had been done to Larry. The minimum, but still too much. At least neither of them had pressed for more information, although they could have.
Rocked by that, Duke had nonetheless forged ahead, working with Ben on a service for his brother while keeping his finger on the pulse of the interrogation of the two men who had survived their assault on Ben’s house.
It seemed someone had hired the men to come out here to remove any evidence Larry might have of misdeeds among higher-ups in the Army relating to the murder-for-hire plot. The information was on those discs—lots of it. Names, dates, places, witnesses. It would indeed have filled a book.
Duke planned to turn it over to military authorities for investigation, but not before he asked the sheriff to make copies for safekeeping. A chain of evidence.
In addition, they’d found out that the dead man, Jason Lewis, had a burr under his saddle about Duke.
“When he heard you were in town,” one of the killers said, “he started to go kinda nuts. I don’t know why.”
The other man did. “Just before we began that attack, he told me that Major Duke had interfered with an operation of his in Afghanistan.”
Questions answered, Cat thought as she waited for Reverend Carson to make her appearance. It wasn’t often that all the questions got answered.
Ben had decided he wanted Larry buried nearby. He also wanted to give the eulogy. Duke seemed content to be guided.
When Ben rose, his arm in a sling, his eyes were visibly wet. “I planned to say a whole lot, but somehow I can’t. Larry was one of the good guys, always a warrior for justice, unafraid in the teeth of death threats. A hard-driving reporter who always wanted the truth and wouldn’t settle for less.”
Ben’s voice broke, and he dashed at his eyes, wiping away tears.
Cat’s throat tightened, and she had to blink herself.
“Anyway, maybe Larry’s brother can do a better job of this than I can. But I just wanted to say, I love Larry. I loved him since the first time we met. And I was hoping when he came out here, we’d start a real life together. We weren’t granted the time, but...”
His voice broke again as he stuffed his hand into his pocket. When he drew it out, he held a gold ring.
“I was going to ask Larry to marry me.” He laid the ring atop Larry’s casket and walked down the steps toward the aisle.
Then the most beautiful thing happened. People rose from the pews and surrounded him, offering hugs and kind words. Offering him a sense of belonging, a sense that his grief was shared.
Cat couldn’t hold back the tears any longer.
MUCH LATER, CAT, Ben and Duke gathered in her living room. It had been a wrenching day for all of them, especially the men. First the service, then the trip to the cemetery. Then a funeral supper back at the church, where a whole lot of
