Chapter 5 - THE WOMAN WHO WAS DEAD
The cassette disappeared that night.
A neighbor's camera caught the thief.
An elderly woman in a blue Buick.
Walter recognized Margaret Shaw.
According to his signed report, Margaret had been dead for forty-four years.
They found her volunteering at a church pantry.
She looked at Walter and said, "You got old."
Walter replied, "You got dead."
It was the first time Daniel heard him make a joke without trying.
Margaret admitted stealing the tape.
She did not trust Michael with it.
Michael exploded.
"Everybody keeps deciding what I can survive."
Margaret looked ashamed.
Then she told them Thomas survived the attack.
She treated him.
Voss survived too.
The operation had uncovered a list of civilians promised evacuation.
Someone was selling those names.
Families disappeared before American teams reached them.
Thomas suspected Voss.
Walter had confronted Voss hours before the attack.
That was why Thomas stopped calling him Captain.
But Margaret refused to say who returned to Indiana.
She said memory was not evidence.
Walter hated her caution.
Daniel respected it.
They began verifying.
Hospital logs proved an unidentified wounded American matching Thomas's blood type was treated after the date of his reported death.
Travel records showed June Bennett received a government-funded relocation payment in 1983.
A signature on the paperwork did not match Thomas's.
Michael stared at it.
"Mom knew something."
Margaret finally admitted Thomas had lived.
Michael asked how long.
Margaret looked at Walter before answering.
"Long enough to know his son grew up without him."
She still would not give a number.
That night, someone broke into Margaret's apartment.
Nothing valuable was taken.
Only a cardboard box containing Thomas Bennett's letters.
The intruder left one behind.
It was addressed to Walter.
May you like
Walter had never seen it.
