Chapter 2
CHAPTER 2
None of this information was in JT’s file. Lizzie was sure of that. If his mother and his father were both in the military, not only should there be money available for him, but there should be a whole list of next of kin. Tyler Malone should have family that might want to take care of their grandson or nephew.
Jeff’s gaze met Lizzie’s. “Should I go ahead and open it?” His gaze popped up to his mother.
“Technically, the state is his guardian, so you have legal say.” Mrs. Arwood stared down at her.
Lizzie caught Jeff’s gaze. “Yes. Please.”
He ripped off the end of the envelope and tapped out a piece of paper. A second smaller envelope fell out.
She watched Jeff as he silently read the letter.
“I can’t read this out loud,” he whispered and shifted his gaze to JT. “But I’ll paraphrase. Your daddy has asked me to help you and there’s a letter in here for Commander John Carson. You’re in luck. He’s my CO.”
“What’s a CO?” JT asked.
“Commanding officer. He is my boss. So, I can get this letter to him. Tell you what, I’ll do that for you.” The sad look on JT’s face almost brought Lizzie to tears. “I promise you, JT, that I’ll call him today.”
The bell rang.
Lizzie knew what that meant. “You need to get to your classroom and pack up. The buses will be here soon. Merry Christmas, JT.” She hated saying those words because she knew it wouldn’t be a merry Christmas for the child in front of her.
“Yes, ma’am.” He glanced toward the principal. “And Merry Christmas to you, too, Mrs. Arwood.” The young boy quick-stepped out of the gymnasium.
Lizzie and Jeff stood. “What did the letter really say?” she asked when she reached her full height. He held up the letter and read aloud:
If you are reading this letter, I’m dead. The little boy or young man in front of you is my son, Justin Tyler. Caroline legally gave him her last name of Chambers. Can you please help him? Obviously, my plan A and plan B have failed so you are plan C. Please see that the enclosed letter reaches Lieutenant Commander John Carson, U.S. Navy SEALs. If John has already joined me in hell, I give you permission to open the letter addressed to him. Obviously, my son is in trouble. I hope and pray you will be able to help him. Ty Malone
“Do you think there is anything you can do to help?” his mother asked.
“Can I borrow your phone in the office? I might also need the fax machine. We all know what crappy cell service we get here. I’ll try to get hold of Commander Carson now. He’s been promoted and is now commanding officer of Team 4.”
“There’s nothing you can do about JT.” Lizzie nodded at the other letter still held in his hand. “No matter what that says, I have to go to the Cantrells’ home, the only home he has known for the past two years and remove him. Since it’s the holidays, it’s impossible to place him in another foster home until after the first of the year. That means I have to drive him the two-and-a-half hours to the children’s home where he’ll stay until I find another home that will take him. I don’t want to put him with a family who sees him as nothing more than free farm labor they get paid to feed.”
“What’s JT’s story anyway?” Jeff asked as they headed back to the office. “His father was a fucking hero. He was a SEAL. What’s JT doing in the middle of nowhere here in Kansas?” He snapped the letter against his hand. “This letter is from Tyler Malone. Why has no one seen it before or done anything about it?”
“That letter makes no difference as to what’s going to happen to JT. Fact is, since his father is dead, it reinforces the state’s case,” Lizzie tried to explain.
“I have his school records. Let’s go look,” his mother offered.
Ten minutes later the three of them were gathered around JT’s file. “Tyler Malone is listed as his father on his birth certificate, but his mother was Caroline Chambers. She must have given him her last name.” There was paperwork showing a Gladys “Nellie” Chambers as guardian then more paperwork where he was turned over to the state at age five.
“Are you sure it’s the same Tyler Malone?” Lizzie quizzed Jeff.
“Positive. Every SEAL officer studies the case where Tyler Malone walked into an ambush in Afghanistan, and no one walked out alive. To this day, no one knows what happened or why events unfolded as they did. I actually wrote a paper on the operation and his decisions.”
“So, his father really was a hero?” Lizzie asked.
“Yes,” Jeff said with complete assurance.
“Honey, why don’t you come in here and call your CO?” His mother opened the door to the conference room.
Lizzie followed Jeff into the room and sat down in the seat next to him. He glanced at her over his shoulder. “You act like you don’t want to make this phone call,” she noted.
“I feel a little weird. I’ve only met Commander Carson once just over a week ago when he welcomed me to Team 4. I checked into my new team and immediately asked to go on leave since I hadn’t been home to see my mother in over a year. He granted my leave and then assigned me duty December twenty-sixth. I’m now going to call him with a letter from a dead man. This is going to be a problem. Being on the commander’s radar twice in your first two weeks is not a good thing.” But Jeff knew what he had to do. His heart already went out to that abandoned little boy.
It took him several times explaining the situation before he was finally put through to the commander’s office.
“What can I do for you, Lieutenant Junior Grade Arwood?” The way his commanding officer emphasized the words junior grade was not a good sign. “My executive officer tells me that you have a letter addressed to me and that time is of the essence. Please explain why.”
Jeff wasn’t sure if he was supposed to explain why he had a letter in his hand or why time was of the essence. As clearly and concisely as possible, he explained the situation to his commanding officer. “Yes, sir. I have in my hand a sealed letter written to you from Lieutenant Commander Tyler Malone.”
There was a long silence before his CO ordered, “Open the letter.” Jeff heard the hesitation in the commander’s voice. “Read it to me.”
Jeff ripped open the end of the letter and tapped it out of the pristine envelope. He unfolded the sheet and started to read aloud:
Well, Carson, old buddy, I’m dead but you probably know that already. If you’re reading this, my son needs your help. You of all people know my record with women, and you also know I’ve always loved Katlin. But there are so many beautiful women in the world and life is short. Ha ha. This letter is proof of that. There was a special woman while we were stationed at Norfolk working up for our next mission to Afghanistan. You may remember Lieutenant Caroline Chambers from the Academy. She was also stationed at Norfolk during her first rotation at Virginia Beach. The rumors were true. She and I had an on and off affair for years. When she discovered she was pregnant with my son and during the first sonogram, the Navy doctors discovered she had cancer. She refused to give up my son to take treatments while pregnant, so she was medically discharged and returned to her hometown in Kansas. She waited until after he was born before she started chemotherapy. Since you are reading this, that means the treatments failed. We both failed our son. I have to ask a big favor of you, as my Annapolis roommate and BUD/S training buddy. Will you please find Alejandro Lobo for me and give him the envelope in this package addressed to him. He’s been my best friend since high school. As I write this, he is a Marine Captain in MARSOG, the Marine Special Operations Group. He has a daughter and once told me that his child was the most important thing in the world to him. He is a great dad. The kind of father I want for my son. In the other letter I’m asking him to take JT and raise him. I know what you’re saying. It’s a lot to ask of a man to raise another man’s son, but I’m confident that Alejandro will do it. You are my Hail Mary plan and I hope you’ll do this one last thing for me.
“It’s signed Tyler Malone, sir. That’s the end of the letter, sir.” Jeff let out a long slow breath before he offered, “I have access to a fax machine if you’d like me to fax it to you.”
The commander was quiet for a long time, but Jeff could hear him breathing. He finally heard a deep sigh on the other end of the phone line.
“It’s just like Ty to do something like this,” his CO finally said.
“Sir?”
“Lieutenant, as you read, Tyler Malone was my Academy roommate and BUD/S buddy. We served together for years before his death, and he’s been gone for a long time. It’s just like him to reach out from the grave, especially as I was about to leave my office and go home early to my wife and kids for Christmas.” He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “So, what’s the deal with the kid?”
“JT has been in foster care for two years. His mother obviously passed away from the cancer and he was handed off to an aunt.” Jeff looked to Lizzie for confirmation.
She nodded then picked up the story. “Sir, I’m Elizabeth Hopewell, JT’s social worker. According to our records, he was living with his aunt Nellie when they were involved in a fatal car crash. The state couldn’t find any of the records on Justin Tyler Chambers, who hadn’t started kindergarten yet since he’d just turned five years old. At this time, his foster parents can no longer care for him and have asked for him to be removed from the house. Most likely, within the next twenty-four hours, I will be mandated by the state to remove him from his foster care home and transfer him to the state orphanage, which is located about two-and-a-half hours away.”
“This just gets fucking better and better,” the commander said just above a whisper.
“Sir, there’s nothing I can do about it. This is my job and sometimes it sucks, especially when I must take a child out of the place he’s considered home for the past two years.”
“Okay,” the commander cut her off. “Where’s the nearest military base?”
“Fort Riley Army post,” Jeff answered.
“We sure as hell don’t want him to go there.” Keys clicking were heard over the phone line. “Hold tight and give me a number where I can reach you.”
Jeff gave him the number at the school after reconfirming with his mother that she would have to be there for at least a short time. He also gave him his cell phone with the warning that service in this area was sketchy at best.
“Okay, fax me a copy of the letter to me, and a copy of the envelope,” Commander Carson ordered. “Is there another envelope in there for the Marine?”
Jeff tapped the envelope one more time and another pristine white envelope fell out. “Yes, sir.”
“I give you permission to open it and fax me both that letter and the envelope.” His CO hesitated. “Spell out the Marine’s name. I can get started hunting him down.” He hesitated once again. “I might know him. I think he might’ve been Ty’s best man. I seem to remember Ty apologizing to me for not asking me to be his best man because of this guy. He was wearing a Marine Corps uniform at the wedding.”
Carefully, Jeff spelled out Alejandro Lobo.
“Now, give me your home phone number,” the commanding officer ordered. “Go home and enjoy some time with your family. I’ll probably be bringing you back here before your leave is up.” Without saying goodbye, his CO hung up.
“So, Lizzie, what’s the process here?”
“You can’t take JT. He is a ward of the state. You can’t just take him and give him to someone else. What if these people are terrible parents? What if he’s no longer married? What if he has even more children? Is he going to want to take on custody of a child sired by a high school friend? A lot can happen in seven years. It’s my job as a representative of the state of Kansas to make sure these are good people. What do you know about them?” She leaned in closer to him with each question.
“I need caffeine,” Jeff announced as he stood. “There’s a pot of relatively fresh coffee at Mom’s house. I made it just before coming here. Why don’t you come with me, and we’ll talk about this while we wait for Commander Carson to call me back.”
“Fine.” She stuffed her phone into her bag and yanked her purse onto her shoulder. “We’ll get some coffee, but that’s not going to change the fact that you cannot take JT with you. Technically his parents are the state. They have legal guardianship over him.”
“But they’ve transferred that guardianship to the Cantrells, right?”
She hated that Jeff was correct. “Yes, but it’s a temporary guardianship.”
“Well, if the Cantrells tell me that I can take him, then I can, right?” Yes. Damn it. He was correct. Maybe. Even for the Cantrells to take him out of state, they needed her permission.
“I’ll be honest with you, I’m not sure of the legalities,” she admitted. “Especially since they’ve asked to have him removed from the home due to hardship.”
Jeff looked over his shoulder at her as he held open the front door. He must have caught the indecision written all over her face. She could never hide her emotions. “But you’re not sure they can’t do it? If they give me permission to take him to meet the people who his father wanted to raise him, then I can take him.”
“I’m going to have to check these people out. He is in my care and I’m responsible to the state for what happens to JT.” She tried to recall all the case studies that they’d reviewed while she was in college. She’d never heard of anything like this.
“You’re pretty possessive of this kid. Are you like this with all the children you oversee?” Jeff clicked the locks on his car door. “Want to ride with me or follow?”
Since her car was parked right beside his, she unlocked the driver’s door and opened it. “JT’s case got to me. I see cases every day with parents abandoning their children; they give them up willingly. I see other cases where we had to take the children away from an abusive home. JT was left with no one. According to his record, his mother died of cancer like the letter said. She was living with her aunt at the time because her own mother had died of cancer several years ago. I doubt his mother ever expected his aunt to be killed in a car accident. As soon as the state figured out he had no family that they could trace, he became a ward of state and I got assigned his case.” She shuddered.
How much could she really tell Jeff? She’d probably already told him too much. If, and that was a big if, everything worked out as his father had outlined, the beautiful boy who had stolen her heart might get the life he deserved. Lizzie inhaled deeply then let it out slowly before her eyes met Jeff’s. “JT was hospitalized for months with the injuries he sustained in the car accident that killed his aunt. He was all alone. Other than the nurses and doctors, I was the only person who saw him. He endured nearly a year of rehab, learning to walk again. At one point, the doctors weren’t sure he’d be able to walk without braces on his legs. He worked very hard on his physical therapy and now runs cross country on the new recreation league team. Knowing the pain he endured emotionally as well as physically made my heart break. Yet he maintained this beautiful positive attitude and kept smiling. He told anybody who would listen about his daddy, the war hero, who would want him to do his best. We all thought it was just a child’s pipedream, but we allowed him to live in that world because it pushed him and helped him cope. None of us thought that story about his father was real.” The chill on Lizzie’s cheeks made her realize she was crying. Using the back of her gloves, she wiped away the tears before they froze on her face.
“The Cantrells. Are they good people?”
“Yes. I would never have left JT with them if they weren’t. They’ve fostered other children, but those kids were all returned to their parents.” She stepped one foot into her car. “If Mr. Cantrell hadn’t been hurt on the job, they might have adopted him.”