As she turned toward the meadows, she could barely make out several figures at the forest’s edge. Clearly, something was amiss. At this point, she should be hearing the Doppler mumble of Jodie calls carrying over the bright morning air, and preparing to dodge a couple of hundred running feet bearing down in banana-yellow glory. She squinted, and as she drew close enough to make out faces she broke into a run.

“Marul! Jeri! Sheila! What’s wrong!”

Legrange stood abruptly; frantically waved her back; alternately stabbing toward the ground with one finger, then pointing up into the tree. “Lindy, stay back!”

But with Legrange’s attention occupied, Marul, too, jumped to her feet, and in one motion bolted into Linda’s arms, as Linda’s touch screen bounced across the path into the grass. Linda’s feet froze in place as the girl’s arms enveloped her; gripped her, and her own body shook with the force of Marul’s sobs.

“He kill me! He kill me! He say it is stain on his honor! Lindy!, Lindy! You have to help! Please, you have to help! Please, help me get to Uncle Ollie!”

“Jeri?”

Legrange hesitated only a fraction. Two hundred troops had already seen what happened. “The run came down through here, and plowed into this poor kid just as she slipped and fell in the—” she looked down at Marul, “in his—” and looked again, “as she slipped and fell. There.” Legrange pointed to the skid marks in Hugo’s blood. “She says his name is Hugo? I got the call, and came around. The XO had already released the troops.”

Linda nodded. “Can I—can we—it’s hard shouting like this.”

Legrange nodded and pointed to a safe path around, through the trampled mess made by the troops, where any clue was well-buried now. Linda gently peeled Marul’s arms apart and tried to take her hand, but the girl clung to her side like a toddler as they made their way to Legrange.

“So she was alone here, with about a million soldiers. Male soldiers?”

“Well, yes. I mean, not all male. You know, it’s about sixty-forty on a Brigade run.”

“And the front rank was?”

“Command staff, of course.”

“Then why weren’t you—”

“DO. I was duty officer. So Sergeant….” She trailed off, as Linda groaned.

“Did anyone touch her?”

Legrange turned. “Sergeant Thompson?”

Sheila was staring at the ground. “Yes Ma’am. Me.” But she did not look up.

“Anyone else?”

“Not really.”

“What do you mean, not really? Did they, or didn’t they?”

“Ma’am. It happened pretty fast. I mean, the guys just wanted to help, you know? They didn’t do nuthin.’ Just put their jackets on her, helped her sit down.”

But Linda was already shaking her head. “Oh, Sheila.”

“I know ma’am. I know. I’m so sorry. It happened so fast. I was at the back and it took me a minute to get up there. And we was kind of—well, even me. You know.”

Linda followed her eyes up into the tree, nodded, sighed.

 “She’s right. He’ll kill her.”

“Who?”

“Her father.”

“Oh, surely that’s ridiculous.”

Gently, Linda cupped Marul’s chin and turned her face toward Legrange. The sun was higher now, reaching beneath the bonnet’s cowl. One eye was black; the cheek below mottled purple and green. “He did this to her because she waved when they ran past. She wasn’t even on the path. She wasn’t within thirty paces of them. Imagine what he’ll do if he finds out that she was manhandled by a bunch of unrelated, healthy, young men, without a chaperone.”

 “But it’s ridiculous! I mean, it’s utterly irrational. Nothing happened. Nothing could have happened. There’s a hundred witnesses.”

Linda sighed. “Jeri, you are missing the point. This isn’t rational. It’s not about whether or not ‘anything’ happened. In his twisted view, something did happen. An honor violation, plain and simple. So somebody has to pay. And since he’s an MP TCM fundy himself, it’ll be the girl who pays, not his troopy buddies.”

“But how does it ‘defend his honor’ to kill his own child?”

“If it makes you feel any better, he’ll probably cry when he does it. But he’ll do it. They talk a lot about defending church and family, but in the end, it’s really all about themselves.”

“But that’s—illegal. He’ll get himself court-martialed.”

“Nevertheless.” She smiled thinly. “And maybe he won’t do it himself. Or maybe he’ll do it, but somebody who owes his family a favor will confess to it and serve the time. In any case, it’ll get done.”

The police sirens, wailing in the distance, suddenly lurched closer. The morning traffic was breaking up.

“So what do we do? We need to do it fast. The civvies will be here any minute.”

“I’ll take her to her Uncle.”

“Her Uncle? But won’t he just hand her over to her father?”

Linda was already shaking her head, but Legrange suddenly blanched and interrupted whatever she might have said. “Oh God. The MPs. I brought two with me.”

“Did they see her with anyone?”

“Yes. No. Wait.” Legrange struggled with fatigue, trying to remember who had seen exactly what, exactly when. “Sheila?”

“No, ma’am. When you got here, I was sittin’ with her on that log. And the jackets was already on. And her face was all hid anyway. She was lookin’ down at the groun’.”

“What about the rest of the troops?”

“Ma’am, I bin sittin’ here thinkin’ on it. It happened so fast, but see, when she fell, she got up lookin’ away from anyone. An she’s wearin’ that big ole’ bonnet. An’ then I was with her on that log, an she was mostly lookin’ down. An’ those boys with the jackets, they was our boys. They weren’t none of that MP shit. Sorry ma’am. I jus’ don’t like them boys. They make me a lot of trouble over nuthin.’”

Legrange merely nodded. Thompson went on. “So, I don’t think anybody could say for certain it was her. I mean, some of ‘em might know there’s a girl walks this way every mornin,’ but mos’ of the regulars, like me, was way at the back and didn’t see nuthin.’”

“Are you sure? She told you her name, didn’t she? Didn’t they hear that?”

“No ma’am. I don’t think so. Even Major Trippe was all, like, do this, do that, come here, go there. He ran off with that detail, and sent Theo to get you, but nobody really talked to her ‘cept me, an,’ an’—Honey, did you even tell me your name?”

Sharply, emphatically, Marul shook her head no.

Legrange thought a moment. “Did you tell anyone your cousin’s name? Before I got here, I mean?”

No, again.

Legrange turned to Thompson. “So the banana boys with the jackets know that she recognized the body, but that’s all?”

“Ma’am I think that’s pretty much it. I mean, I think a bunch of people might know that she recognized him, but only those boys with the jackets, and me, and you even heard his name. And nobody knows her name but us.”

But Marul started shivering again, uncontrollably, and new tears welled. “Wayan! Wayan knows!”

Linda was already in motion, grabbing Marul’s hand, towing the girl behind her. “That’s it. That sniveling little shit will tell. He’s a typical, pampered, spoiled brat of an eldest son, and he’ll delight in telling. Her Uncle’s her only chance.”

Legrange jogged after her, shouting, “But how can he help?”

Linda stopped abruptly, incredulous. “Jeri, haven’t you put this together? That’s Hugo Azhad in that tree. Ollie Azhad’s son. Marul’s cousin.” And when the penny still did not drop, “Jeri, Ollie Azhad. Chief of TCM Contract Security. His youngest sister married the piece of crap that did this to her. You see how that boy was murdered. It’s nothing to do with Marul. This isn’t personal. It’s professional.”

“But they’ll want a witness statement!”

“I’m getting this girl out of here. They don’t need her. She witnessed nothing. You could get anybody in Saint George to identify that boy. Anybody local.” And with that, they sprinted for the bridge.