“You knew he wrote to me?”
“I knew there was a letter with Mercer. I did not read it.”
“And you let him keep it.”
“I asked the casualty officer not to give you anything outside the official notification until the investigation ended. Then the legal order covered everyone anyway.”
“You kept my brother’s last words from me for eight months.”
Her mother started to say her name.
Olivia ended the call.
Her hand shook so hard the screen blurred.
Collins stepped toward her. “Hayes, you don’t have to do anything else right now.”
Olivia laughed once without humor. “Apparently everyone has been deciding what I don’t have to do.”
He stopped.
That was the right choice.
Mercer held out the envelope.
Olivia did not take it immediately.
“What happened to Luke?”
Mercer’s jaw tightened.
The training accident had occurred during a night convoy exercise through mountainous terrain. Heavy rain had begun hours earlier. Luke, responsible for part of the route-control team, reported that one section of road had become unstable and recommended the convoy be delayed or rerouted.
The exercise commander, Colonel Adrian Vance, rejected the recommendation. The unit was behind schedule. A visiting evaluation team was already in place. Vance ordered the convoy to continue.
Luke submitted a written safety objection.
So did another noncommissioned officer.
The objection never reached the evaluation team before the movement began.
A retaining section gave way beneath one of the vehicles. The rollover triggered a chain collision involving several vehicles behind it.
Twelve service members died.
Luke was one of them.
Olivia felt the air leave her chest.
“Was it an accident?” she asked.
Mercer took a long time before answering.
“Yes. But it was an accident people had a chance to prevent.”
That distinction hurt more than Olivia expected.
She looked at the envelope again.
