Chapter 3 - The Empty
BackpackEli searched the backpack again.
Then a third time.
His hands shook harder with every empty pocket.
“They were here.”
William leaned closer.
“What else was in the bag?”
“A blue folder.”
“Did you take it out at the checkpoint?”
“No.”
“Did anyone touch your backpack?”
Eli’s eyes moved toward Dennis.
“The woman near the metal detector.”
Dennis gripped the steering wheel.
“What woman?”
“She said my zipper was open.”
“When?”
“Before you came outside.”
Dennis spoke into his radio.
“Pull all lobby surveillance from the last thirty minutes.”
William looked at Eli.
“What did the letters say?”
“I didn’t read all of them.”
“What did you read?”
Eli swallowed.
“One said you were coming back by Christmas.”
William turned toward the window.
Kansas City blurred past them.
Snow began striking the glass.
“I intended to.”
Eli’s voice hardened.
“But you didn’t.”
“No.”
“Why?”
William looked at the boy.
The question had waited more than twenty years.
It deserved more than a politician’s answer.
“Because I was told your mother had chosen someone else.”
Eli stared at him.
“She never married.”
William looked stunned.
“She never even dated anyone.”
“That isn’t what I was told.”
“Who told you?”
William’s silence answered before his mouth did.
“My father.”
Eli frowned.
“Your father?”
“General Charles Harlan.”
Dennis glanced into the mirror.
Even he knew that name.
General Harlan had been a decorated commander.
A national hero.
A man whose funeral had been attended by presidents.
William continued.
“He told me Mara had left Missouri.”
“He said she returned every letter unopened.”
Eli shook his head.
“She kept all of them.”
William’s face tightened.
“Then someone intercepted our mail.”
The cruiser pulled into the hospital entrance.
An ambulance was parked near the emergency doors.
Its engine was running.
Two men in medical uniforms pushed a covered stretcher toward it.
Eli suddenly leaned forward.
“That’s her blanket.”
William followed his stare.
A faded green blanket covered the patient.
One corner had a hand-sewn patch shaped like a sunflower.
Eli threw open the cruiser door before it fully stopped.
“Mom!”
Dennis shouted.
“Eli, wait!”
The boy ran into the snow.
One of the medical workers turned.
He did not look surprised.
He reached inside his jacket.
Dennis saw the movement.
“Gun!”
William grabbed Eli and pulled him behind a concrete pillar.
The man drew a black pistol.
Dennis fired once.
The bullet struck the ambulance door beside the attacker.
The second medical worker abandoned the stretcher and ran.
Hospital security scattered.
The armed man climbed into the ambulance.
The driver accelerated.
The stretcher remained behind.
Eli broke free from William.
He rushed toward it.
“Mom!”
He pulled back the blanket.
The stretcher was empty.
Only an old photograph lay in the center.
William picked it up.
The picture showed him as a young Army captain.
Mara stood beside him.
She was smiling.
May you like
Someone had written a message across her face in red ink.
You should have stayed gone.
