Page 54 of Be With Me
Chapter 27
Mooney was steaming. Erikson was missing. He hadn’t shown up this morning for PT or shift. No one had heard from him since Friday. Mooney was still dealing with the paperwork that had accumulated while he was in North Carolina with Debbie and the twins for her mom’s funeral. What the hell Lieutenant Carls had done while Mooney was on leave was a mystery for him to deal with another day; right now, where the fuck was Erikson?
He marched through the patrol room to report to the first sergeant. What a way to start the day. “Hey Top, we’ve got a missing soldier.” It was never good to have a missing soldier but when the soldier was also an MP? Totally not something he wanted to deal with.
“First Sergeant Mendes, got a minute?” Mooney asked as he knocked on the door frame.
Top looked up from whatever he was doing and stared at Mooney for a second before he smiled. “Come on in, Luna. How are your wife and boys doing?” He motioned for Mooney to sit. One thing that Mooney had learned from all his first sergeants was to keep up with what your soldiers had going on in their lives.
“Debbie and the boys are okay, Top. It’ll take some time for Debbie, and the boys are still a little young to realize what’s going on. They’re turning three in a month. They know that Debbie’s sad but can’t figure out exactly why. Thank you for asking.”
“So I know that you’re not in my office so I can ask about your family. What’s up?” Top sat back in his chair and waited.
“I never wanted to have to report something like this but, Erikson’s missing,” Mooney said, bluntly. “Any chance you’ve got a report from the ER that he’s been admitted to the hospital?” He wasn’t hopeful but he had to ask.
Mooney watched the confusion go across Top’s face. Oh yeah, this wasn’t good. He finally shook his head. “I don’t think I heard you correctly. Did you—”
“Oh no, you heard me correctly, Top. Erikson is AWOL unless you have something on your desk that I’m not aware of. I wouldn’t be surprised if you did have paperwork in a random pile somewhere because I’m not impressed with how Lieutenant Carls handled the platoon while I was on leave.” Rip the bandage off. Don’t pull punches. Now wasn’t the time to be politically correct and since it was just him and the first sergeant, Mooney knew he could speak freely.
Mendes looked away for a minute and nodded before speaking. “I had a feeling that you’d be talking to me about him at some point. I’ll speak to the captain about him. As for Erikson, is he in the barracks or off post?”
“He lives over in the barracks, Top. Got your keys?”
“I do. Let’s go,” Top said as he stood.
They headed out of the station and hopped into a cruiser to get to the barracks. It wasn’t that far but the traffic crossing the main road was a bitch on foot. Top parked the car and they stepped out. Pulling their berets on, Mooney also checked his side arm. Sucked that they had to think of those things stateside.
Mooney looked around the barracks as they moved to Erikson’s door. He’d heard about the conditions but had thought they were getting better. Why couldn’t soldiers and their families come higher on the priority list in Washington? Mooney let out a sigh and stepped to the side of Top as he knocked on Erikson’s door.
“Specialist Erikson, First Sergeant Mendes and Sergeant First Class Luna. Please open your door,” he ordered in a loud voice. They waited a minute before Top repeated himself. When there was no answer he turned to Mooney. “With no answer from the specialist and no contact, I’m entering the barracks room. Do you concur?”
“Yes, first sergeant,” Mooney replied. Never too careful when entering a barracks room. Top unlocked the door and pushed it open. They didn’t need to go any further inside than a step. One look had them both shaking their heads and stepping back out. Erikson had taken his life by hanging himself right in the main room of his quarters.
“Son of a bitch,” Top cursed as he met Mooney’s eyes; Top’s going hard.
Mooney’s emotions shut down as if he was in combat. Now wasn’t the time or the place to indulge in emotion or self-incrimination. Things needed to be done. He stood there waiting for Top’s orders.
“Secure this location. Contact the medical command to send mortuary affairs. I’m going to contact the captain and CID so the investigation can be initiated. Son of a bitch.” Top growled as he moved away from the door.
Mooney stood outside the barracks room, hands fisted at his side and started questioning himself. What had he missed? What could he have done different? He couldn’t remember Erikson showing any signs of depression. Erikson was always on time; uniform to regulation; joked with the others. He’d missed something, some clue. Mooney needed to figure out what he should’ve seen so this didn’t happen again.
§ § §
Flour covered every surface of the kitchen. Debbie thought it would be a good idea to let the twins help her bake cookies. Everything had been going well. They’d poured the ingredients into the bowl but then, before Debbie could tell them to step back, Cam hit the button on the stand mixer andpoof! Flour everywhere. Thank goodness the wet ingredients hadn’t been added. She took one look at Cal and Cam, also covered in flour, and started laughing.
She watched the boys look around, blinking, and then at her. Debbie wasn’t yelling at the mess so they laughed too. Took Debbie a few minutes to stop laughing because the laughter of her boys was so joyous and carefree.
“Okay boys, let’s clean this up a bit. We’ll measure out the dry ingredients again then mix with the eggs. Hands up,” she said, sending them dancing on their stools. The shaking of their butts made the flour float off them like a light snowfall.
Second time around, they got it right. Cam was really good at rolling the dough into balls when she showed them how to make them. Cal squatted down, fascinated as he watched the cookies form through the window in the oven. He’d been concerned at first when they started flattening out. Once she explained that it was okay and they were doing what they were supposed to, Cal was fine.
She sat them at the table with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and milk for lunch while the cookies cooled. Debbie was sweeping up the flour when she heard Luny’s voice behind her.
“Wow, do I want to know what happened?” he asked.
Debbie checked the clock on the stove as the boys tried to get out of their booster seats. No, it wasn’t later than she thought. Her husband was home early.
“Papa, we—” Cal said.
