CHAPTER 3: SO WHAT NOW?
Charlie had walked into the house, tired. The lawyers were talking to him about the upcoming court martial of Kevin. While he knew how important it was, he was hoping it would be done sooner than later. Pat and Sally were in the living room watching TV. He sat down in his chair and slouched. Both ladies looked at their fiancée and brother, knowing how he was feeling.
"Charlie, you and Pat should go somewhere on vacation after this thing with Kevin is done," suggested Sally.
"She's right, Chuck," agreed Pat. "This is wearing you down. We need somewhere peaceful to go."
"You have the baby coming, Pat," Charlie protested. "We can at least wait until you had him or her."
"We don't have to go anywhere tropical, or somewhere where it's active," suggested Pat. "It can be somewhere where we can just take in some museums or an aquarium. Sally and Marcie already offered to look after Scotty, so we'll be straight to go somewhere. Besides that, I've already talked to Colonel Clarke myself, and he's agreed to give you some time off soon after the court martial is done."
"I guess I have no choice in the matter, huh?" said Charlie.
"None what-so-ever, bro!" said Sally, smirking.
"Next question is, where we going on this excursion?" asked Charlie.
"How does this sound?" said Pat. She handed him a brochure of St. Paul, Minnesota. Charlie looked it over and smiled.
"Well, we can book this as soon as the court martial is over," said Charlie.
Later that evening, Charlie and Pat were in bed asleep. All of the sudden, is cell phone started ringing. He woke up and looked at who was calling. He saw it was the brig where they were holding Kevin. He knew it had to be important, so he answered it.
"Hello, Staff Sergeant Brown speaking?"
"Sergeant," said the voice on the other end, "sorry to wake you at this hour, but we have a situation here at the brig! We need you to come over right away!"
"Okay, give me a few minutes, I'll be leaving soon." And Charlie hung up his phone. Pat woke up, seeing her fiancée getting up in the middle of the night.
"Everything okay, Chuck?" she asked, concerned.
"There's a situation at the brig," Charlie answered. "I need to go there. I'll be back as soon as I can. We still have an appointment in the morning."
"Hurry back soon, baby," said Pat, kissing her man. Charlie stroke her face, and then left for the brig.
Once he arrived, Charlie saw that Colonel Clarke had already arrived. He went to greet his superior. "Colonel, any idea what's going on?" he asked.
"I just got the call myself, sergeant," the colonel answered. "We better see what's happening." And they both entered the brig. A petty officer from the navy came to greet them.
"Sergeant Brown? Colonel Clarke?" he asked. Both men nodded. "My name is Petty Officer Banks of the US Navy. I was in charge of guarding the prisoners, but I didn't expect this to happen! It just came to my surprise when I was doing the rounds."
"Excuse me, petty officer, but what incident are you talking about?" asked Charlie.
"This way, sir," said Banks. And they led them to where Kevin was locked up at. What they saw shook them to the core.
"Goddammit, Kevin!" cursed Charlie.
Kevin had grabbed some sheets and made a noose out of it. He managed to strangle himself by tying one end of the sheet to his cell door, and the other to his neck, then leaning down to do the job. Kevin had committed suicide. He left one note on his desk. It simply read:
"I'm sorry."
"Do you guys want me to contact the family?" asked Banks.
"I'll do it," offered Charlie, looking at the grim scene. "Just get him to the morgue, petty officer."
"Yes, sir." After a salute to the marine officers, Petty Officer Banks left to get someone to pick up Kevin's corpse.
"What a waste, sergeant," sighed Clarke.
"Pat told me she talked to you," Charlie began. "About some time off?"
"Yeah, after we deal with Private Ray and notifying his family, you can take a couple of weeks off," said the colonel. "Master Sergeant Donaldson already has a substitute coming in."
"Thank you, sir," said Charlie. "I need to call Pat and tell her what's going on. She was worried when I left."
"Of course, sergeant." And Charlie called Pat and notified her about Kevin's suicide. Eventually, after talking to the military authorities, Charlie went back home. He didn't sleep a wink that night.
NEXT CHAPTER: RECOVERY, AND THE NEXT STEP