Comeuppance Pt. 05-06

Law enforcement officers know a story this big will result in insistent questioning of their efforts and findings, or lack of findings, by the media, and the families of the rich and famous will be fighting them tooth and toenail with all their resources - and they have a lot of resources! No one in the FBI or the DOJ wanted this assignment, but someone would.

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The evening news had a brief story about a private jet crashing into the sea just west of Negril, Jamaica. The plane, which was registered to a member of one of the seven royal families of the Emirates, had fallen in relatively shallow waters a few miles off the coast, and efforts were underway to find survivors or identify victims. Nothing more was known at this time.

Jack and Carl had remained stalwart through the afternoon, but their pain was obvious. In fact, every man there felt the pain. They tried to cover it and distract themselves by drinking beer and watching the unfolding drama around the journal, now dubbed "The Heroic Journey of April and Janice" by the media.

Once again, they were heroes. But this time the accolades and the medals under discussion would be presented posthumously.

At dark, they moved chairs to the dock, drank beer, and told stories about the girls growing up and as young adults, before they were enslaved. They watched lights come on around the bay and on the barrier island to the east as they talked.

"Janice was a star gazer practically from birth," Jack said quietly while looking up at the stars now illuminating the night. "I bought her an expensive telescope for her quinceañera, and our friends fussed at me for encouraging her obsession. She loved it, and it helped her grieve our parents. She even paid for two stars to be named for them, and she would try to show me where they were.

"She quickly enticed her best friend to join her star watching parties. By her sixteenth birthday, they could identify every constellation and bunches of stars I'd never heard of, so I bought her an even bigger and better telescope. She still has it in the attic.. or did, before an artillery shell blew it up.

"I honestly didn't see what was so clear to them among the stars, no matter how well they coached me and I tried, but it did bring April and I together a lot, and led to our romance.

"I guess I'll pony up the bucks and name a couple after them, somewhere in the Pleiades Cluster in the Taurus Constellation, if you can do that."

"That was their favorite cluster and constellation," Carl added quietly. "Can I pitch in, Brother?"

Jack kept his glaze on the heavens, nodded, and a tear ran down his cheek.

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