“No,” Tonya said in a choked voice. “That’s not true.”
Megan took a deep breath. “I know it’s not true, Tonya. I know what happened to Gerry. Now I need to know where he is.”
“I don’t know, Mrs. Gander. I really don’t know.” Tonya started sobbing again. “Help me. I don’t know what to do.”
“It’s okay.” Megan hated the guilt that she felt. While dealing with Gerry and his problems, it was easy to lose sight of the fact that there were two victims in the Fletcher household. “I’ll tell you what you can do, Tonya.”
“What?”
“Check the house,” Megan instructed. “Maybe Gerry came back but he’s not in his room. Maybe he’s hiding there somewhere. Some secret place he has. Check outside the house. With everything that happened here tonight, he might be too scared to come in.”
“He wouldn’t be afraid of coming into his own house.”
“He was pretty scared tonight, Tonya. I don’t know for sure, but I think Boyd had been drinking.”
“Maybe I should come down there and try to bail Boyd out.”
“After what he did tonight,” Megan said, “they’re not going to let him out for a while. Trust me. You’ll do more good there.”
“Okay.” Tonya sounded completely defeated.
“If you find Gerry,” Megan told her, “call me immediately.” She waited till Tonya found a pen and paper, then gave her the cell phone number. “If I find Gerry first, I’ll call you.” She punched the cell phone’s End button.
The young black man stood nearby, giving the easy appearance of waiting patiently.
Megan looked at him, then turned and started to walk back to the hospital building.
“Ma’am,” the young man called.
Calmly, Megan turned, punching 911 into the phone and slipping her thumb over the Talk button. If things went badly, she was a thumb twitch away from immediate help—theoretically. “Yes.”
The young man crossed his arms over his chest and made no attempt to come closer. “I don’t mean to alarm you, ma’am. Got a good friend inside about to have his first baby. I’m Private Trevor Newman. I’m with the 75th.”
“Private,” Megan said, “my husband is Sergeant Gander.”
“Yes, ma’am. That’s what I thought. I know Goose. I shoot hoops with him and Joey now and again at the gym. I’ve seen you there a couple times. You and your baby.”
Those times hadn’t been very often of late. “How can I help you, Private?”
“Actually, I thought it might be me was able to help you, ma’am. Didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but I couldn’t help hearing you talk about a little boy you’re looking for.”
“Do you know where he went?”
“Yes, ma’am. I believe so.” Newman nodded toward the nearest on-base apartment complex. “He went up there.”
Megan looked at the squat, four-story building. Several of the lights were still on in the apartments. She guessed that several of the military guys still on base were watching the Lakers game as Gerry had been trying to do or were screening movies.
“He went to one of those apartments?” Megan asked. She sorted through the names of the people Gerry had mentioned but knew of none of them that were in the immediate area.
“No, ma’am,” Newman said. “I mean, he went up there. There’s fire escapes on that building, ma’am. That boy hauled himself up one of them to the rooftop.”
Megan stared at the building. For the life of her, she couldn’t imagine why Gerry would do such a thing. “Are you certain?” she asked the young private.
“Yes, ma’am. I do a lot of recon work for my unit. I see what I see, and I’m telling you what I saw.” Newman turned. “Hey, Pete.”
“Yeah.” A slim Hispanic man stepped away from the muscle car.
“Use that spotlight on your Jeep, bro. Light up the roof of the res building over there.” Newman pointed.
“You’re going to make a lot of people very unhappy,” Pete warned, but he crossed to the Jeep Wrangler decked out for off-road driving that occupied the slot next to the muscle car.
“Gotta check something out,” Newman said. “Mrs. Gander here is looking for a kid. I saw him go up on that building.”
“I didn’t see anything, man.”
“That’s why they got you lugging that M-60, grunt,” Newman replied with a grin, “and why I run point or wing.”
“Anybody comes to me with a beef over the light,” Pete promised, “I’m sending them to you.” He flipped on the spotlight.
Megan shielded her eyes, blinking against the sudden pain, then followed the white tunnel the beam cut through the night. At first, she believed the young soldiers were only earning themselves a world of trouble that would lead to a severe dressing-down by the base commander, maybe a few visits from other Rangers, and possibly even demerits entered in their files.
Then her doubts disappeared, becoming an arctic cold spear that pierced her heart when she saw Gerry Fletcher standing at the edge of the building’s roof four stories above the ground.
14
Turkey
30 Klicks South of Sanliurfa
Local Time 0759 Hours
The explosions that had ripped the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter from the sky had scattered the machine over two hundred yards of desert sand. Flames still clung to some of the bigger pieces, and turgid black smoke curled up from them.
Goose was amazed that anyone had survived the destruction and the tumble from the sky, let alone four of the crew. He stood in the passenger seat of the other RSOV as Tanaka parked the vehicle fifty feet away from the one Hardin and the two Rangers with him had used to get to the site. Tanaka pointed their RSOV in the other direction, giving the Ranger teams overlapping fields of fire as well as a perimeter.
“Phoenix Leader,” Remington called over the headset.
Goose assigned men to perimeter watch. Cusack stayed in the RSOV to finish tending Bill Townsend, who had taken a round through his upper thigh. Luckily, the 7.62mm bullet had cored through the outside of the leg.
