Chapter 1 #2
“A drowning,” Jeremy noted, “but he survived, though he was underwater long enough that some brain damage is a foregone conclusion. However, the real interesting part of that story is that apparently the drowning occurred in the pub’s own basement.”
Riley stared at him and asked, “Are you talking about the Shanghai tunnels?”
“Yeah, that’s exactly what I’m talking about.” He glanced at him. “Still lots of tours are had around there, even though most of that area is blocked off. However, you and I both know that a lot of those tunnels are still accessible if you know where to go.”
“It’s not supposed to be accessible to the random public,” Riley pointed out.
“Right, but not supposed to be and not accessible are two very different things. I’m not sure what any of it has to do with you,” he noted, “but, if it does, go quietly because old man Derek Beltran is pretty pissed apparently.”
“How do you know this?” Riley asked.
“Remember my old school friend Tyler?” Riley nodded.
“Yeah, he’s pretty close to the Beltran family, and, since Timmy’s accident, things have been pretty ugly.
The family—well, his father, Derek, for sure—even stated that Timmy’s accident potentially wasn’t an accident at all.
” Riley twisted in his seat to stare at his brother, and Jeremy nodded.
“I’m just giving you the gossip at this point. Who knows what’s really true.”
“Right. Gossip’s important though, particularly when it comes to shit like this.”
“Maybe.”
“So, why is anybody thinking it wasn’t an accident?”
“Because Grandpa Beltran changed his will, giving control of the family pub to his youngest grandson, Timmy, the very same young man in the drowning accident,” Jeremy replied.
“I suppose Timmy mouthed off and told everybody, didn’t he?”
“Yeah, he sure did. So, Derek’s definitely of the opinion that this was not exactly an accident.”
Riley just stared at him and shook his head.
“Why the hell would anybody mouth off about something like that?” he asked.
“Everybody knows that’s got to be the worst thing you can do when there’s a change in a will like that, especially with all the Beltrans working in the pub—or so they were years ago. ”
Jeremy shrugged and suggested, “I guess Timmy thought it would stop other people from bugging him about who was next in line. Instead, it seemed to have increased some interest in it. Anyway … I don’t know the full story. All I’m telling you is what I heard from Tyler.”
“I may have to talk to Tyler because a lost War Dog is involved. It’s gone missing, and I think the Beltran family reported that too,” he added, frowning.
Jeremy looked at him, clearly confused. “So, what’s that got to do with you?”
He smiled. “That’s why I’m here. I’ve been tasked to track down that dog.”
His brother laughed. “Yeah, right.”
Riley raised one brow at his brother. “Seriously. This is a legit War Dog, highly trained, specialized, that gave many years of his life in service, due to all the activities he was involved in that saved American soldiers. So, yeah, that’s exactly why I’m here.
If I can locate that War Dog and can say a proper goodbye to Gail, then I’m happy to do both,” he declared.
“Well, I sure as hell hope you mean that, but I can’t imagine that the dog is still around.”
“Why?”
“The accident was like two weeks ago.”
Riley nodded, adding, “Any of these War Dogs would be self-sufficient for a couple weeks, even in an urban setting, even in the tunnels. Actually, more so in that case because they are trained to handle ops in water. I’ll track him down.
So, I’ll need to get into the tunnels, if that’s where the drowning was. ”
Jeremy tilted his head. “The family has it blocked off right now because, as far as they’re concerned, it wasn’t an accident. They’re hounding the police, trying to get some action on it being looked at as an attempted murder.”
“Interesting,” Riley murmured. “And the dog disappeared at the same time?”
“I don’t know that for sure,” his brother admitted. “I don’t know anything about that. I just remember some talk about a dog disappearing. For all I know, that could have happened weeks earlier.”
“Good enough. I’ll figure it out.”
“You’re serious though? That’s why you’re here?”
“I’m serious,” he confirmed, frowning at his brother. “And, yes, I’ll also try to come to terms with everything I lost the last time I was here,” he added, and he immediately noticed that Jeremy looked off.
His brother smacked him hard on the shoulder. “Jesus, you could have come home when you were recovering. You know we would have looked after you.”
“Sure, but I think that sometimes recovery may be better done without family around to enable you.”
“Enable?” he scoffed. Then he sighed and added, “You better not tell Mom that because she’ll take it really hard. She’s not the same.”
“But she also would have made it way too easy for me to not get back on my feet.”
Jeremy checked Riley’s facial expression, and moments later he slowly nodded. “You’re right, and I hadn’t considered that, but it’s still a pretty hard-ass attitude. You know we all love you, and we were petrified when we found out about the accident.”
“I’m glad to hear that,” he stated, “but I was also in a very difficult mental space after that. So, recovering on my own, although it was harder because I didn’t have people there to bring me fresh chicken noodle soup all the time, it did force me to get back up and to start doing something with my life again. ”
“Well, you do look decent,” Jeremy shared, glancing at him. “I mean, you walk normally. When you came out of the airport, I wasn’t even sure it was you at first because you hadn’t given us any updates. I wondered if you might need a wheelchair.”
Riley snorted. “I don’t need a wheelchair, but I can understand how you guys didn’t know that,” he acknowledged. “I haven’t been very forthcoming, but I’m here now, and you can see for yourselves how healed I am.”
Jeremy checked over his brother again, then added, “I’ve got to say it. Damn, you look good.”
He laughed, then shrugged. “Thank you. … It was a long time coming.”
“Oh, man, I can’t even imagine. Sounds like a brutal recovery.”
“It sure was, and that’s okay too,” he shared. “Sometimes we learn more about who we are through that kind of hardship, more than we ever wanted to.”
“You’re not kidding,” he muttered, staring at him. “I still can hardly even believe that you’re moving after everything they did to you.”
“Mom did come down for one of the surgeries. She must have told you something.”
“Yeah, that you looked like hell and that you kicked her out,” Jeremy shared.
“Yeah, I sure did because you know her as well as I do. All she wanted to do was coddle me. She immediately told the staff that they were being too tough on me and that I wasn’t capable of doing everything, and I got sucked right into it,” he admitted, hating the memory.
“For that first day, I lapped that right up, until one of the nurses told me something I couldn’t ignore.
She was concerned about how Mom was enabling me instead of showing me the tough love I needed to get my life back.
I took a good hard look at that,” he stated.
His brother winced. “Shit.”
“And the nurse was right. That rehab was my special training, just like any other special ops training I went through in the navy. And Mom wasn’t there for any of that before the accident.
So I did the hard thing, and I sent Mom home and basically cut ties for a bit while I got my mental and physical shit together. ”
His brother whistled. “That’s interesting. I didn’t know any of that.”
“Yeah, it was big part of it all right,” he declared. “And, of course, Mom didn’t understand.”
Jeremy nodded. “Right, but she’s also a bit of a hardhead herself.”
“Sure is. I hear she still has her partner.”
“Yeah, and he’s a good guy, seems to handle Mom okay.” Jeremy shrugged. “As long as they’re happy, I don’t really care. Plus, it keeps her from butting into my life too much,” he shared, with a laugh.
“Exactly.”
“They’re leaving for a trip here in a few days, and she was pretty upset when she found out you were coming right now because she wanted to spend time with you. She is looking at canceling her trip because of it, but Gary isn’t too thrilled with the idea.”
“They shouldn’t cancel. I’ll be here for a while,” Riley shared. “I don’t even know what tracking down the War Dog will look like, so I’m not too bothered about getting involved in Mom’s life. Plus having a bit of space and time, that’s always good.”
When they finally pulled up to Mom’s house, Riley asked Jeremy, “You’re not still living here at Mom’s, are you?”
“Nope, we moved out a while back, thank God, but she told me that she would have my hide if I didn’t bring you straight home.”
Riley sighed. “Of course she did.” He looked over at his brother and added, “Just so you know, if things get tough, I won’t stay here.”
Jeremy winced. “Maybe you should tell her that.”
“I’m hoping, if she has somebody else to babysit right now, like her partner, she won’t make things as difficult for me as the last time.”
“I can’t guarantee that will happen,” Jeremy conceded, “but I think you need to be honest with her and also give her a chance.”
“I will,” he stated. “I absolutely will, but you and I both know how fast that can go downhill.”
“Yeah, it doesn’t go over very easy with her,” Jeremy stated. “Still, she’s doing this out of love, and, hard as it is sometimes, we have to remember that.”
“I absolutely understand that, but it still won’t go well if she tries to take over and to stop me from living my life.”
“The fact that you look and sound as well as you do will help,” Jeremy stated. “I’m pretty sure her idea is that you’re in a wheelchair and finally looking for the mothering care she didn’t have a chance to give you before. She’s also still angry that you had her kicked out of the hospital.”