Chapter 2 - THE SCAR
Michael Bennett answered Daniel on the fourth ring.
He sounded irritated until Daniel asked about the man who came home in 1982.
Then the irritation vanished.
"What is this about?"
"Just answer me, Dad."
Michael remembered a scar along Thomas's left jaw.
Walter, standing under the restaurant awning, whispered that Thomas had never had one.
Michael remembered his father becoming left-handed after returning.
Thomas had been right-handed.
He remembered nightmares, missing memories, and a strange habit of locking the bedroom door before sleeping.
Walter asked whether the man ever sang.
Michael laughed bitterly.
"My father couldn't carry a tune."
Walter looked at Daniel.
"Tommy sang constantly. Badly."
Michael heard him.
"Who is that?"
Daniel hesitated.
"Walter Hayes."
The phone went silent.
Then Michael said, "Do not bring that man to my house."
Walter's face tightened.
"You know me?"
Michael's voice came through the speaker.
"I know what my father called you."
"What?"
"The man who left him behind."
The call ended.
Daniel turned on Walter.
"Explain."
Walter could not.
Not because he was hiding an elegant secret.
Because the accusation touched something he had spent decades refusing to examine.
He remembered signing casualty papers from a hospital bed.
He remembered being told Thomas was dead.
He remembered wanting the questions to stop.
Daniel demanded the letter.
Walter refused.
"That belongs to my father."
"It belonged to Tommy first."
"He's my grandfather."
"And he trusted it to me."
Their first alliance almost ended before it began.
Then Emily came outside carrying a plastic evidence sleeve.
A burned scrap from Richard's envelope had survived.
Three words were visible beneath Walter's name.
VOSS IS ALIVE.
Walter sat down on the wet curb.
Daniel asked who Voss was.
Walter stared at traffic.
"Captain Robert Voss died the same morning Thomas did."
Daniel waited.
May you like
Walter added, "At least that's what I signed."
