Chapter 6 - The Walls Close In
Three weeks later, the snow was falling heavily over Ohio.
Victoria sat shivering on a cracked vinyl chair inside the bleak waiting room of the county jail. Beside her, Eleanor and Harrison looked ten years older. Their designer clothes were wrinkled and stained.
Raymond was led into the visitation room behind the glass partition. He was wearing an orange jumpsuit, his hair greasy and disheveled. He picked up the phone. Victoria picked up hers, her hands shaking.
"Did you get the bail money?" Raymond asked, his voice raw with desperation.
Victoria burst into tears. "There is no money, Raymond! The feds froze everything! The bank accounts, the investments, even my personal checking account! They said it's all tied to your fraud!"
"What about your parents?" he begged, pressing his face against the glass. "Harrison! Use your retirement fund!"
Harrison snatched the phone from Victoria. "My retirement fund is gone, you idiot! We co-signed on your fake business loans, remember? The bank seized our assets yesterday. We're getting evicted from our apartment next week."
"Then call Evelyn!" Raymond shrieked, banging his fist against the glass, drawing the attention of a guard. "She's a Colonel! She's loaded! Apologize to her! Beg her! Tell her we made a mistake!"
Eleanor leaned toward the glass, crying softly. "We tried. We called the military base. They won't put us through. They said Colonel Hayes has restricted all civilian contact from us. We don't even know where she is."
The truth hung heavily in the dreary room. They had alienated the only person who could have saved them. They had treated Marcus's sacrifice with disdain, and they had tried to throw a pregnant widow into the freezing cold.
Now, the cold was all they had left.
"It's over, Raymond," Harrison said quietly, hanging up the phone. He turned to his wife and daughter. "We have nothing."
They walked out of the jail and into the freezing winter air. They had to take the bus home; the leased Audi had been repossessed the day Raymond was arrested. As they stood shivering at the bus stop, Victoria looked up at a giant digital billboard broadcasting the local news.
The headline read: LOCAL HERO HONORED AT WHITE HOUSE. WIDOW RECEIVES POSTHUMOUS MEDAL OF HONOR.
Victoria gasped, pointing a trembling finger at the screen.
There, standing in the Oval Office, was Evelyn.
I was wearing my full dress uniform, heavily decorated, my pregnant belly prominent and proud. The President of the United States was standing beside me, pinning the Medal of Honor into a velvet case I held in my hands. The news anchor's voice drifted down from the billboard.
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"Colonel Evelyn Hayes accepted the highest military honor today on behalf of her late husband, Major General Marcus Hayes, who single-handedly thwarted a major international arms conspiracy. Colonel Hayes, a decorated hero in her own right, stated she plans to establish a foundation for military families..."
Eleanor fell to her knees in the snow, sobbing uncontrollably. Victoria couldn't look away from the screen, realizing the magnitude of the sister she had thrown away.
