Case of the Fake Badges Ch. 05

"Well, here's the badge!" sputtered the old woman. Just then a very tall redhead came up, the oak leaves of his rank on soft shoulderboards on his uniform, red and purple rectangles over his nametag on his right pocket.

"Hello Mrs. Boddiker." I said to the old lady. "How can I help you today?"

"Ah, Commander!" said Mrs. Boddiker. "I was telling your young officers here that I have found this badge and I wanted to return it." She handed the badge to me, and I examined it. As with all County badges, it looked like mine: a gold badge, five-pointed star with a circle wreath around it, and the title 'Intendent' was inscribed in black where my title of 'Commander' was inscribed in blue.

But the seal was not like the Public Safety Department; instead, it was the Great Seal of the Town & County, which the Council had on their badges. And instead of "Town & County Public Safety Department" in blue (for Police; the Fire Department was in red lettering), this said "Town & County Mayor & Council" in black.

"Mrs. Boddiker," I said, as I guided her to sit down in the waiting room, "Can you tell me where you found this badge?"

"Yes, Commander." said Mrs. Boddiker, as I applied my RFID reader, downloaded after seeing Cindy use hers so much. "My friend the Widow Athena Jones and I were in Courthouse Square, under the statue of President Jefferson, feeding the pigeons like we do on many mornings. Mrs. Jones noticed this gold badge on the base of the statue, between President Jefferson's feet. She said it looked like a police badge, and she asked me to bring it here."

"I certainly appreciate you doing so, Mrs. Boddiker." I said. "In fact, why don't you come to my office, where my assistant will take your statement." I had the Duty Desk Officer affix a visitor badge to her sweater, then led her to my office suite and asked Helena to take her statement in my office, thus affording Mrs. Boddiker the opportunity to tell her friends how she had been inside the office of the Iron Crowbar himself.

As I held the badge, an insight came to me... that this was a clue. A huge clue to my mission. Whoever and wherever you are, Widow Athena Jones, I thought to myself, thank you and bless you!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The dream came again to the old man. He was back in Viet Nam, early 1970s, reliving those hellish times...

He was a Navy Corpsman, and had gone out with this recon squad from the 173d Airborne Brigade. The ambush against them had left men screaming, wounded and dying. The helicopters had roared in, evacuating the Paratroopers in the midst of a fierce firefight.

He tried desperately to save the man who was lying on the stretcher inside the chopper. He placed a piece of plastic on the sucking chest wound, hearing the man try to breathe in ragged gasps. Then he realized the man had stopped breathing. He applied CPR, desperately trying to re-start the man's heart and get him breathing.

"It's okay, son." the Captain, the leader of the squad, said to him, pulling him off the soldier. "He's gone, son. Let it go. Let it go."

The corpsman sat back, tears rolling down his cheeks. "I'm sorry, sir... I tried..."

"Son, you did everything you could, and then some. You gave everything you had. But he gave all he had, too. Does he have any pictures of family on him?"

The corpsman checked. "No sir."

"Well, I'll be writing a letter to someone." the Captain said. He took out a picture from his pocket. He showed the corpsman the photo of the pretty woman.

"My wife." the Captain said. "After this war is over, I'm going home to her. We're going to have kids, start a new life."

"I'm just ready for this political war to be over sir, and for this meat grinder to stop chewing up these men." said the corpsman. The Captain nodded as he gazed at the picture of his wife.

"You married, Corpsman?"

"No sir."

"How old are you?"

"Nineteen, sir."

"And a damn good medic already." said the Captain. "What are you going to do when you go home?"

"I'm applying to medical school, sir." said the Corpsman. "Maybe I can save more of these men, like him," he pointed to the body of the deceased soldier he could not save, "if I know what to do."

"Kid, I need a guy like you taking care of my guys when they get shot up. I'm having you attached to my company."

"Sir, I'm not Airborne..." said the Corpsman, knowing that it was required of the 173d Brigade's troops.

"You will be," said the Captain, "after your first combat jump with us. What's your name, kid?"

"Cordell." said the corpsman. "Leonard Cordell."

Finis