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I licked my dry mouth.
“They didn’t agree with how I ran my team. There was a lot of disrespect.” I tried to speed the story along. “Then we had an altercation with more Taliban, and we met back up with Captain Flex, and that’s when we discovered the kid on the back of the horse.”
“I see.” He went back to writing. “What made you decide to take Halim with you when I understand everyone else was against the idea?” he asked and put down the pen. He gave me his full attention again.
“He’s a child.” I shrugged. “If we left him, he’d most likely be dead.”
“He brought you a lot of extra attention with the Taliban. Did that cause more tension with the team?”
“Some, yes, but my gut told me to take the kid. I knew he had to be someone important, but I’d have taken him with us anyway. I made the call the way I saw it.” I took a deep breath. “The kid just added some extra pressure. The men were already a problem.”
“He was lucky you were the one in charge.” He gave me a small smile.
“I guess, but maybe if I hadn’t taken the kid, Anderson and Gail would still be here.”
“You don’t know that for sure, so don’t carry that on your shoulders. They weren’t under your command at the time.” He shifted as he thought. “Let’s jump forward, to Brown’s death. For full disclosure, Hill had just given his version before, ah, the unfortunate incident outside.” I stilled. My breath caught in my chest, and I tried to play it cool, but inside anger instantly bloomed. “Hill said that when he came up on you, Brown had a gun to the head of a little girl. He said Brown held her in his arms and screamed he was going to kill her because they’d let the Taliban know you were all there.” The fuck? When I didn’t respond he swiped the screen.
“I see.” I choked back my rage to idle. I knew I couldn’t let it take over if I was to get through this.
“I take it that’s not how it was from your perspective?”
“No, that’s nothing like how it was.”
“So, Hill didn’t try to distract Brown so you could disengage him?” When my eyes widened at the blatant lie, he went on. “He said that you then ordered him to leave, he obeyed, and a moment later he heard a gunshot.”
I couldn’t help my reaction to the utter bullshit that was being said. My head shot back at what he said, but I played it off as just a shift in movement to relieve stress in my neck.
“Again, with all due respect, Doctor, that wasn’t even close to how his death happened.”
“Why don’t you tell me what happened?”
I kept calm as I retold the story of my buddy’s murder. I needed to show I had gained control of Brown and had never lost control of the situation. Every word twisted my insides because I knew there was a very good chance Hill could get away with this. A lot of things slipped under the radar while we were over there. We had our own law and order.
“That’s very interesting, Beckett.” The doc nodded slowly. “I’ll be sure to pass your story of what happened along to Colonel Frank.” He checked the time on his watch. “I do have one last question for you.” I nodded for him to go ahead. “What now?” He cocked his head to one side as he asked.
I loathed that question.
“I’m going to try to find my way back to the only thing I know.” He gave a small smile at my words, and I wondered what he was thinking.
Once outside the office, I was directed to a different room and told to wait. Before I stepped inside, I heard a voice.
“Hey, Beckett.” My buddy Rowe stopped and leaned his shoulder against the wall. “Heard you punched Hill.”
“Yeah.” I shook off the fact that everyone knew what I’d done.
“I’m sure he deserved it.”
He deserved a bullet in the head, but I’d keep that to myself for now.
“When’d you get back?” I tried to smile as I spoke but knew it probably was more of a grimace.
“A few weeks ago.” Rowe followed me inside the room as the cleaners went by with their cart. “Trying to figure out what’s next.”
“You going to reenlist?”
“Nah,” he shook his head, “I got three weeks left before I’m out.”
“How’s your sister?”
