“I am telling you not to become audience for humiliation.”
Mrs. Kelley lowered phone.
Walter looked back at Hale.
The officer removed weapon.
Magazine.
Radio.
Handed equipment according instructions.
His hands shook slightly.
Walter noticed.
So did Dana.
Sergeant Park said:
“You’ll ride with me.”
Hale nodded.
Before leaving, he looked at Walter.
“Mr. Brooks.”
Walter waited.
“I’m sorry.”
Walter studied him.
The apology came too fast.
Not necessarily false.
Just incomplete.
“For what?”
Hale blinked.
Walter continued.
“What exactly are you sorry for?”
The officer opened mouth.
Nothing.
Walter nodded.
“That’s what I thought.”
Hale’s face reddened.
Walter was not trying to punish him.
He was trying to locate whether the man understood.
Apparently not yet.
Walter said:
“You have time.”
“Figure out whether you’re sorry because you were wrong or because wrong man had three-star daughter.”
Alicia glanced at her father.
That sentence would follow Hale longer than anything else.
The officer lowered eyes.
Then got into supervisor’s cruiser.
Walter watched it leave.
Only then did his knees begin shaking.
Evelyn noticed first.
“Sit.”
“I’m fine.”
“Walter.”
He sat on porch.
Alicia crouched despite uniform.
“Dad?”
“I’m all right.”
“You’re shaking.”
“Adrenaline.”
“You know that from experience?”
He gave her look.
She almost laughed.
Then stopped because tears arrived unexpectedly.
Walter saw.
“Oh, no.”
Alicia wiped quickly.
“Don’t.”
“You’re crying in three stars.”
“I can demote you.”
“I’m retired.”
“I’ll find way.”
Evelyn sat beside Walter.
Took his hand.
Alicia remained crouched.
For several seconds, general disappeared.
Daughter remained.
She looked at her father’s cardigan.
Grass stain.
Dirt near elbow.
Something in her face broke.
“I should’ve been here earlier.”
Walter frowned.
“You were not supposed to be here at all until eleven.”
“We came early.”
“That is not your fault.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
She looked.
Walter continued.
“You command forty thousand people.”
“You still think you can personally intercept every bad thing before it reaches family?”
Alicia smiled sadly.
“You taught me.”
“I taught opposite.”
“No.”
“You taught responsibility.”
“Responsibility is not omniscience.”
He touched her shoulder.
“You came.”
“That is enough.”
Evelyn said:
“And crushed petunia.”
Alicia laughed through tears.
“Mom.”
“I’m just preserving evidence.”
Walter smiled.
That afternoon, Walter Brooks did not go directly to Washington.
He went to the emergency department.