Puller turned to something that was deeply troubling him.

 

What his brother had said to him had been nearly as astonishing as what Hull and

Shorr had told him.

 

How could he have misremembered the last day he had seen his mother?

 

His mother had been at that window. She had a towel wrapped around her head.

Then she was gone.

 

But now Bobby had told him they’d had dinner together. And his mother had gone

out. That the neighbor’s daughter had come over to watch the boys. Puller didn’t

recall any of that.

 

He remembered that he had woken the next morning and his mother was not there.

He remembered the MPs coming to the house. Then his father charging into the

officers’ quarters where they lived at Fort Monroe, bellowing at and bullying

all those within striking distance.

 

And his father had lied to the police?

 

He stared over at the sleeping man.

 

Why would he have done that?