Part 11
“I have.”
“You called two foundation grant recipients yesterday.”
“They called me.”
“And you promised to find out whether their benefits would continue.”
“I said I would ask.”
“Ask as Daniel Mercer, not Captain Mercer.”
He looked down at the dark blue uniform shirt he wore on duty. “There isn’t always a clean line.”
“No. There isn’t. That is why you need to draw one.”
She put her glasses on.
“How is your father?”
“Improving.”
“How are you?”
Daniel considered giving the expected answer.
“Tired,” he said.
“Take two shifts off.”
“I don’t need leave.”
“That wasn’t a medical opinion.”
“I would rather work.”
“I know.”
He looked at her.
Chief Hollis leaned back. “You perform very well when other people’s emergencies give you instructions. Family emergencies do not.”
“Is that in my evaluation?”
“It may be this year.”
Despite himself, Daniel smiled.
The smile disappeared when she added, “The firefighter from the textile fire called. Mason.”
Daniel’s attention sharpened.
“He wants to see you,” she said.
“Why?”
“He said he needs to discuss the medal.”
Daniel had not visited Lieutenant Owen Mason since the rehabilitation hospital discharged him. He had sent messages. Mason answered some, ignored others, and declined department visits. His right leg had healed badly after a beam struck him on the warehouse roof. Nerve damage left him using a cane, and he had not been cleared for operational duty.
Daniel went to Mason’s apartment on a Sunday afternoon.
Mason opened the door wearing sweatpants and a faded academy shirt. His cane leaned against the wall within reach. He looked older than he had six months earlier, though they were the same age.
“You wore it,” Mason said.
Daniel knew he meant the medal.
“To the ceremony.”
“To the mansion.”
Daniel stepped inside. “Apparently everyone has seen a photograph except me.”
Mason moved toward the kitchen with a stiff uneven gait. “You look impressive.”
“It wasn’t intentional.”
“It usually isn’t.”
Mason offered coffee, then forgot to make it. They sat in a living room crowded with physical-therapy equipment and unopened mail.
“My wife says your family foundation may stop paying for the pool sessions,” Mason said.
Daniel felt something sink in his chest.
“I’m trying to find out.”
“You shouldn’t have to.”
“No.”
“Your sister called last month.”
“What did she say?”
“She asked whether I would speak at the opening of the rehabilitation center.”
Daniel looked at him. “She knew the project might fail.”
“She said funding was secure.”
“Did you agree?”
“I said I’d think about it.”
Mason rubbed his right knee.
“You received the medal for ordering the roof crossing,” he said. “That’s the official language.”
“Yes.”
“You know why I was hit?”
Daniel’s breathing slowed.
“The beam failed.”
“I was still on the roof because you sent me back for the thermal camera.”
Daniel stared at him.
Mason continued. “You don’t remember.”
“I remember telling you to retrieve it from the staging point.”
“The staging point had shifted.”
“No one told me.”
“I told you over the radio.”
“There was heavy traffic.”
“You acknowledged.”
Daniel heard the warehouse again—alarms, saws, radio overlap, wind forcing smoke across the roof. He remembered saying, Copy, retrieve the camera. He had assumed Mason was twenty feet from safety. Mason had been farther.
“I didn’t know your position,” Daniel said.
“You didn’t ask.”
The room remained quiet except for a refrigerator motor cycling on in the kitchen.
Mason leaned back carefully. “I’m not saying you caused the beam to fail. I’m not saying you didn’t get the civilians out. I’m saying the medal tells a clean version.”
Daniel looked at the unopened mail stacked on the table.
“Why didn’t you tell the review board?”
“I did.”
Daniel looked up.
“It’s in the supplemental report,” Mason said. “The committee said the order was reasonable based on the information available.”
“I never saw the supplement.”
“You didn’t ask.”
The words were not cruel. That made them worse.
Mason reached for his cane, then left it where it was. “Your sister offered to have the foundation cover anything workers’ comp didn’t.”
“Did you accept?”
“I accepted the pool sessions.”
“Why tell me now?”
“Because you came into that dinner looking like the answer to a question. People love that picture. The decorated captain finds the old man in the hidden room. It makes everyone else easy to sort.”
Daniel felt the medal even though he was not wearing it.
Mason continued. “Maybe your sister did exactly what they say. Maybe worse. But don’t turn yourself into the clean part of the story. You’ll miss something.”
Daniel sat there until the refrigerator stopped humming.
On his way home, he parked outside his apartment building and remained in the car for twenty minutes. Rain moved across the windshield. He opened the state review report on his phone and found the supplemental statement buried after the commendation recommendation.
Mason had reported that he transmitted his position before Daniel ordered him to retrieve the thermal camera. Audio quality was poor, but the acknowledgment was clear. The committee concluded that Daniel reasonably believed Mason was at the safer staging point.
Reasonably.
The word protected careers. It did not repair nerves.
Daniel called Chief Hollis and asked for a meeting with the safety committee. She told him not to make decisions while exhausted.
“I’m not resigning,” he said.
“I did not think you were.”
“I want the commendation record amended.”
“That will not change the incident finding.”
“It may change the ceremony version.”
She was quiet.
“Come in tomorrow,” she said.
Daniel went upstairs. The music box sat on his kitchen table, where he had placed it after leaving the rehabilitation residence. He wound it once.
The melody sounded smaller in the apartment than it had at the estate.
He stopped it with his thumb.
May you like
The foundation board scheduled an emergency meeting. Margaret Shaw asked Thomas to attend remotely from the rehabilitation residence. His attorney advised against it. Thomas attended anyway.
Daniel sat beside him but did not appear on camera.
