Chapter 4 - The Witness in a Raincoat
Henderson was waiting in the clinic hallway with his raincoat folded over one arm. Without the stars on his shoulders, he looked older than I remembered. His eyes hadn't changed.
"You pulled me through three hundred meters of gunfire," he said. "I can't manage thirty feet of hallway without someone trying to stop me."
I tried to stand. He shook his head. "Please don't make me feel like a fool by getting up on that knee."
Doc met us in her office. Henderson told her exactly what he'd seen: Rusk moving the chock, Miller giving the order, Lowell stepping away. He had a timestamped recording of the second attempt but not the first strike. He offered the original file to the installation investigators, not a cropped version to me.
"I came to Fort Liberty for a different reason," he said.
I studied him. "The governor's parade?"
"Sergeant Anita Bell wrote to me. She said a lieutenant had forced her to train on an injured ankle, then buried her complaint. She stopped answering messages three weeks ago."
"Miller?"
"She didn't identify him by name. She said the officer's father was a retired general. I wanted to see the pattern for myself before I accused anybody."
Jax leaned against the doorway. "Sir, there's something else. Someone changed Clara's medical clearance."
Henderson's expression darkened, but he didn't claim to know who had done it. "We'll take it to Colonel Shaw. She's the current commander. The process has to belong to her."
My stomach tightened. "If Bell was punished for reporting, why would this be different?"
"Because we're going to give every witness a way to speak without standing alone."
A knock interrupted us. A soldier from headquarters handed Doc a sealed envelope. On the front was my name. Inside was an order to report at dawn for emergency administrative removal from ceremonial duty.
May you like
The signature at the bottom appeared to be Colonel Shaw's.
She was out of state.
