Broken Road (38 page)

 
When he finally got back to the motel he took a moment to think about what he had to do and he didn’t hesitate. He took a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket and laid it out next to the telephone. He smoothed out the scrap of paper with his hands so he could clearly see the name and number printed on it. Then, he slowly dialed the number and waited for an answer.

“Hello?”
 

“Is this Meagan McGuinnis?”

“Who is this?”

“It’s Riley Favreau. I’m ready to talk.”

When Brenda returned with Taylor she found no one in the family room or the kitchen or anywhere else in the house. Riley was gone and so was Callan. She ran outside with Taylor following closely behind and found Callan standing in the middle of the driveway staring down the street.

“Cal, what happened? Where’s Riley?”

“He’s gone.”

“Gone? Why? What did he say?”

“It was my fault.” Callan was crying.

“What do you mean?” She put her arms around her eldest son. “Callan, what do you mean?”

“I just wanted to know, Mom.”

“Know what, honey?”

“What really happened to Dad.”

“Oh, Cal.”

“I wanted to know so bad and then the guy who was there shows up?”

“So you asked him?”

“Yeah, but he got all weird about it. He wouldn’t talk about it.”

“Sometimes people can’t.”

“But he was
there
!” Callan yelled angrily. “He was the one who tried to save Dad. Why won’t he talk about it?”

“He got hurt, Cal.”

“He wouldn’t tell me how he got hurt. He said he didn’t remember anything. I don’t get it.” He cried.

“Is that when he left?” Brenda asked pushing a lock of hair out of his face.

“No, he left after I showed him the picture.”

“What picture, honey?” she asked and he held up his phone. Brenda felt the sadness and helplessness of it sweep over her again. “Sweetheart, why do have this on your phone?”

“It’s the last picture of Dad.” He sobbed and Brenda was crying too.
 

“But it’s not the way you want to remember him, Cal. That’s not what your Dad would want.” She said pulling him closer. Callan let himself be held and comforted. Taylor stood next to them quietly.

“Did Riley say where he was going?”

“No.”

“Ok, Cal. It’s going to be okay. Why don’t we all go in and eat something.”

“I’m not hungry.”

“Well, at least let’s go in. Taylor doesn’t have his coat on.” She said and Callan seemed to notice his little brother for the first time since they came back outside.

“Ok.” He agreed and the three of them walked back inside.

Once she had them both convinced that they had to eat something she went about getting them settled in for the night. Callan didn’t go to sleep but put on his headphones and laid in bed staring at the ceiling. She was willing to let it go and make sure that Taylor was ready for bed. As she tucked him in he yawned. She stroked his head and placed a little stuffed dog next to him on the pillow. He reached up and grabbed it pulling it under the covers with him.

“Mommy.” He whispered.

“Yes?”

“When’s Daddy coming back?” His eyes were heavy with sleep and Brenda tried to keep the tears from coming. It had been a while since he had asked the question but seeing Riley and mistaking him for Shane must have given him hope that his daddy would come home after all.

“We won’t see
 
him for a while, baby. He’s in heaven, remember?”

“Up with the angels?”

“Yes.”

“And the stars?”

“Sure.”

“Who was the man?”

“The man here today?”

“He wasn’t Daddy.”

“No. He was Daddy’s friend.”

“You hugged him.” Brenda bit her lip. How much had her children seen of what had happened between her and Riley tonight?

“Sometimes you hug your friends.”

“He was your friend?”

“Yes.”

“Okay.” Taylor murmured as he fell asleep. Brenda stroked his
 
hair again and sighed. It had been a long evening. She needed to think. She wished she had asked Riley what motel he was staying at. He’d left without his coat. Without saying goodbye. She stood up turned off the lamp next to Taylor’s bed and turned on the nightlight. Walking out of his room to her own she felt the weight of the past few months pile on top of her again. Brenda had promised herself after being away from the boys that she would do her best not to disrupt their lives again. But here they were in the middle of a major disruption. How long could she let it go on before she brought an end to it? She hated what it was doing to them and she hated what it was doing to Riley. There had been too many secrets, too many lies. Maybe it was time to come clean, not just with herself but with everyone. She sat down on the bed. Brenda was tired but she knew she wouldn’t be able to sleep so she went downstairs to the kitchen to make herself some tea. She was boiling the water in the kettle when she heard a knock at the door. Could it be Riley? She went to door and opened it wide but instead of Riley she found Jon Procter standing on her porch.

Riley paid for the taxi and stood in front of the TV station wondering whether to go in or not. It was not the first place he’d gone after leaving Brenda’s house. Almost two hours had passed since he called Meagan McGuinnis and told her that he was ready to give her the interview she wanted. In the meantime, he’d taken the time to make another stop after asking the taxi driver a few pointed questions. The man hesitantly told him he what he wanted to know and then drove him to a 24-hour pawn shop located in a seedier part of town. Making his purchase he got back in the taxi and directed the driver to take him to the tv station. He was nervous. So much was riding on this and he wasn’t even sure that he was ready to do what needed to be done. But every time he thought about Shane Jenner’s boys standing in that driveway, the little one with his arms wrapped around Riley calling him
Daddy
and the oldest one asking him for the truth about how his father died, something inside him snapped. He had to make things right at least for those two boys.

He pulled on the door to the building and stepped inside. There was a woman at the front desk. She looked up expectantly when he came in.

“I’m here to see Meagan McGuinnis.”

“Sign in.” She said pointing to a clipboard and pen. “I’ll let her know that you’re here. His hands were shaking as he struggled to sign his name in the designated box. After he was done the woman behind the desk motioned for him to sit down on one of the couches in the small dimly lit lobby.

“She’ll be up in a moment.” The woman said and she returned to whatever she’d been doing prior to him walking in. There was a tv on the wall behind the front desk
 
and one sitting on a stand near the couches. The station’s programming was playing on both as he sat down. He fidgeted nervously as he waited what seemed like an eternity for the reporter to come out to the lobby.

“Specialist Favreau.” The attractive blonde said as she held out a hand to him. He took it reluctantly and shook hands with her.
 

“It’s so nice to have you here.” She smiled motioning for him to follow her down a narrow hallway toward a group of offices.

“I wish I could say the same about being here.”
 

She raised an eyebrow.
 

“Well,
you’re
the one who called
me
, remember?”

“Yeah. I know.” He admitted somewhat ashamed of himself. “I just want to get it over with.”

“Then we should probably get started. Let’s go into my office and do some preliminaries.”

“Preliminaries?”

“Some prep questions before we do the real thing.”

“I thought we were doing the interview.”

“We are but first we need to prep. You want to do this right don’t you?”

“Of course.”

“Then let me do my job.”

“Okay. What do you need from me?”he asked as they went into a small office. She sat behind the desk and opened a small pink laptop.

“First, close that door behind you. I’d hate for anyone to interrupt us.” She smiled and he closed the door. She began typing away for a few minutes and he sat there unsure as to what would happen next. She kept typing.

“So, what questions do you have?” he asked impatiently.

“No. No questions. I prefer to do some preliminary discussion.”

“Discussion?”

“Mostly it’s where you talk and I listen.”

“Talk about what?”

“You came to me. There must be something on your mind. So, you tell me what that is and then I formulate the right questions around it.”

“I don’t understand. How is that an interview?”

“It isn’t. . .yet.” She began typing again. Riley was confused he was beginning to think he’d made a big mistake. The reporter looked up as if sensing his discomfort and indecision.

“Don’t worry. I just believe that a good journalist should never ask a question she doesn’t already know the answer to.”

“I thought that only applied to lawyers.” He said and she chuckled.

“Look, this is only going to work out well for the both of us if there aren’t any surprises. I don’t want to ambush you anymore than you want to be ambushed.”

“I don’t get it.”

“You will once it’s over.”

“I thought. . .”

“That I was out to get you? To ruin your life?”

“That makes for a headline not a career. I want the career.”

“But you went after Brenda. . .” He said through his teeth, it still made his blood boil. She looked surprised.

“So you know who she really is. And you’re not upset?” He shrugged his shoulders. “I’m impressed that she told you the truth.”

“She didn’t. I found out on my own.” He winced at the memory. It still hurt.

“Good. This makes it easier for all of us. As for your question, I did go after her -of course I did. I’m not sure how much she’s told you but there were rumors and it was
 
my job to verify what was fact and what was fiction. I’ll assume that you already know what the rumors were”

“I do. There’s no need to include any of that now that I’m talking to you, right?”

“No,I guess not. There was a story, there still is- but I admit trying to get that story after all this time has made me think that I went about it the wrong way.”

“I’ll say you did. You threatened her family.”

“Okay. Not my finest moment but compared to what Sandra Simmons was planning to do to her, I did her a favor.”

“I’m not so sure about that.”

“You have a right to your opinion. But, we’re not here to talk about Brenda Jenner are we? We’re here to talk about her husband, Captain Shane Jenner, and what happened to him that day on a road outside of Baghdad.” She was good. Nice way to transition and get him back to why he’d hauled himself there.

“Yeah. About that. . .” He hesitated. Was he actually going to go through with this?

“I know there’s more to the story than what the big cable news networks reported, Riley. More than what the DoD is willing to disclose.You know that too.” Her tone was soft and sympathetic.

“Maybe.” He whispered more to himself than to her.
 

“Riley, whatever’s eating at you is taking its toll. It’s gotten really bad hasn’t it?” He nodded. There was no use lying about it.

“All right, I want to help.” It was his turn to raise an eyebrow. Meagan McGuinnis rolled her eyes.

“I know how it sounds. Corny. . .” She began.
 

“Fake.” He interjected and she grinned.

“Maybe I deserved that, but I mean it. Whatever you think of me or my methods, there it is. I want to help.”

“I just want to tell the truth.”

“Fine. So, tell me what that is.” She said leaning back in her chair. Taking a deep breath Riley leaned forward and picked up a tiny snow globe off of the reporter’s desk. It contained a miniature grouping of snowmen-a mother and two tiny snow kids looking up in wonder at the plastic dome covering them. He shook it and watched the fabricated snow flakes fall over the little family. Then, glancing up at Meagan McGuinnis, he began to unravel the truth from the lies.

“May I come in?” Jon asked as she peered at him from the screen door. Brenda didn’t say anything for a moment. Two major surprises in one night was a bit much.

“Well?” he asked again. “It’s cold out
 
here.”

“Sure.” She said opening the door and letting him in. Dear God, what did he want? She was extremely nervous and tired. All she wanted was to be left alone. To think. Having Jon here wasn’t going to make that any easier. He took off his coat and draped it over his arm. He was wearing his uniform. He stood in the entryway in close proximity. There were barely a few feet between them. Finally, she moved into the family room and sat down. He followed her and sat on the opposite couch. They sat quietly for a while before she managed to speak.

“Why are you here?”

“I heard you were back in town.”
 

“From who?”

“Does it matter?”

“Maybe, I don’t want the reporters to come back around.”

“How are you?” he asked. His voice was full of the same concern and emotion that she’d heard him use so many times with the families and children in their group on the base.

“Is that why you’re here? To see how I am?”

“Yes, how else am I supposed to know? You won’t talk to me. You won’t see me.”

“We had an agreement.”

“I never agreed to it.” So they were back to that.

“My kids are asleep. If they see you here. . .if Callan sees you here.”

“That’s why I waited until it was late. His light is off by the way. He’s probably asleep by now.” She prayed that he was.

“I can’t believe you would take that chance after what happened the last time.”

“I had to see you. I had to see that you were all right. After you disappeared, I went crazy not knowing what happened to you. The boys were pulled out of school and you were gone. Don’t you see why I was concerned?”