Stiffly, Delroy saluted. “Aye, Captain.” He turned a sharp aboutface and left the room. Confusion shook him. God, I thought I understood You. Why are You allowing this? He couldn’t help feeling that maybe he didn’t understand at all.
26
United States of America
Fort Benning, Georgia
Local Time 2:56 A.M.
“Would you say that you’ve had an adversarial relationship with Private Boyd Fletcher?”
Megan looked in disbelief at the young lieutenant who had been appointed her legal counsel. The silence after his question hung in the stark emptiness of the provost marshal’s interview room like an echo of her thoughts. Her mind still hadn’t gotten around the fact that the lieutenant believed she was going to be arraigned on charges of kidnapping Gerry Fletcher.
“You’ve read my files, Lieutenant Benbow,” Megan said. “What would you say about my contact with Boyd Fletcher?”
“Actually,” the lieutenant said, “I’ve only looked the files over a little. I didn’t want to invade the Fletchers’ privacy—or yours—unless it became necessary.”
“I see.” Megan remained calm with effort. She wanted out of the room and to be back home with Joey and Chris. She wanted to know her boys were all right—all of her boys. She wanted to know that Goose was all right despite everything that was going on in Turkey. That isn’t too much to ask, is it, God? Especially not after the night I’ve been through. “Even from a cursory view of those files, I’d think that you’d get a sense that Boyd Fletcher didn’t care much for my meddling in his family.”
Benbow looked at her, his pen poised over the yellow legal tablet. “Is that how you view what you were doing with the Fletchers? Meddling?”
The frustration inside Megan continued to build. “Lieutenant Benbow, how long have you been assigned to your present AOC?” She used military terminology for the area of concentration, basically a job description, to impress on him that she was familiar with army protocol.
“I finished law school last summer, Mrs. Gander,” Benbow said, “but I don’t see what that has to do with my question.”
“Not with your question,” Megan pointed out. “The question is all mine. Maybe you finished law school, Lieutenant, but you appear a little naïve.”
Benbow colored bright red on his cheeks and ears. He blinked rapidly.
“Let me sum it up for you,” Megan said. “Yes, I had an adversarial relationship with Private Fletcher regarding his abuse of his son.”
“Alleged abuse,” Benbow said.
“You’re talking like we’re in a court of law,” Megan said. “Private Fletcher was abusing his son. I knew it. He knew it. Gerry knew it. Helen Cordell at the base hospital knew it. And Dr. Carson was going to file a report with the provost marshal’s office tonight—this morning. It’s possible that Dr. Carson already did, given Boyd Fletcher’s arrest at the hospital. Maybe you should check with the MPs and get a copy of the report.”
Benbow scratched the back of his neck with his pencil. “Ma’am, I’m not the enemy here.”
“Then act like you’re on my side.”
After a brief hesitation, Benbow said, “I think we’ve gotten off on the wrong foot.”
“Yes,” Megan said. “In fact, I think there are two wrong feet involved here.” And neither one is mine.
Benbow deliberated a moment, then reached over and switched the tape recorder off. “Let’s start over again.” He stood and offered his hand. “I’m Lieutenant Doug Benbow, Mrs. Gander.”
Too surprised to speak, Megan shook the man’s hand again.
Taking his hand back, the young lieutenant said, “There’s an awful lot of confusion going on around the base tonight. I’m probably not at my best, and I want to apologize for that. I will get up to speed fairly quickly, but I am new to my AOC and the criminal justice court and to Fort Benning. I hope you don’t hold that against me for long and that I prove to be a competent representative for you in this matter.”
Megan’s head spun. “Lieutenant Benbow.”
“Ma’am?”
“Sit down.”
Lieutenant Benbow paused for a moment, then sat neatly, his knees together and his hands on either side of the legal pad. Megan began to wonder what the mother of this boy was like.
“You’ll have to excuse me, Lieutenant,” Megan said, offering no apology. “I’m afraid some of my husband’s take-charge tendencies have rubbed off on me.” That wasn’t quite the truth because she had been self-sufficient as a single mom long before Goose came into her life. “Goose is a first sergeant with C Company.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Benbow replied. “I knew that. I was also told you were a very competent woman. That’s why the allegations about you concerning the kidnapping of the Fletcher boy surprised me. Then again, when I thought about it, I wasn’t surprised at all.” He caught himself, realizing what he had said, and hurried on. “I mean, I could see how you would want to protect the Fletcher boy because everyone says you’re that kind of person. A caretaker. A giver. I suppose if you thought hiding Gerry from his father was the only way you could protect him you would do that.”
“Lieutenant,” Megan said.
Benbow looked acutely attentive. “Ma’am?”
“I did not kidnap Gerry Fletcher.”
Benbow turned his palms up. “Then where is Gerry?”
“I don’t know.”
“He was up there on the building with you?”
“Yes.” Megan settled into the familiar question-and-answer mode she had been in for the last hour. “Surely by now you’ve found witnesses who have corroborated that. There were a dozen or more people there.”
“Yes, ma’am, I have. And the provost marshal’s office has been very helpful in pointing me to them. I intend to interview them all before this investigation is finished.”
“But you haven’t found anyone who saw Gerry fall from the building?”
“No, ma’am. I had a few say they weren’t certain if the boy fell. In fact, several thought they did see the boy on the rooftop and thought he had fallen.”
“But now they say they didn’t see Gerry fall?”
Benbow nodded. “That’s right, ma’am. They said they knew the boy hadn’t fallen or jumped when his clothes hit
