Chapter 14 - The Meeting

Back in Tennessee, 5 years later

        Stacy paced nervously in the living room “Travis, Kevin, are you guys ready yet? We are going to be late!” she hollered. 

             Kevin walked up behind her placed his hands on her shoulders and gently kissed her cheek. “We’re not going to be late, honey!” He said quietly “we’ve got plenty of time. Just try and relax.” 

                “Relax !? How am I supposed to relax when we are headed to Memphis to talk to the FBI agents who are looking for our daughter-in-law and our grandbaby?”  

                “Grandbaby?”  Travis queried as he joined them in the living room “Mom, you do realize that Jamie’s ‘baby’ would be five years old by now?” 

                “Yes, I know.” Stacy sighed, “I was speaking in motherly terms, like you will always be my ‘baby’ no matter how big you get!”  she smiled and kissed him on the cheek “You know, Travis, I’m really proud of the young man you’ve become!” 

                “Thanks Mom. I love you too. Now can we get going? Now we really are going to be late if we don’t hurry.”  He said with a teasing grin.

                As they all piled into the SUV Stacy thought about the changes that had happened over the last month since they had found Leslie’s picture and called the FBI.  They had make a short trip to Cookeville and supplied them with all of the information they had; the papers that had been sent by Commander Taylor, Jamie’s  laptop, coat, the pictures, everything had to be turned over to the FBI. They had all been questioned both together and separately on their knowledge of the situation how they came to have this information, anyone they knew who might have any knowledge of Leslie’s current whereabouts, etc. Stacy still couldn’t understand it all, it was almost as if the FBI thought they were some kind of criminals. They weren’t given any real information about the investigation and were sent home with a vague promise that they would be contacted should anything new develop.  That had been weeks ago and then yesterday they had received a call asking them to come to the FBI Office in Memphis as soon as possible. Their appointment was a 1 o’clock this afternoon and they were all a little nervous the agent had been as nice as he could be he just hadn’t given them any clear indication of why they needed to go all the way to Memphis. 

                “Well,” she thought to herself “in a few hours I guess we’ll know.”

They arrived in Memphis well ahead of their scheduled appointment time, so in an effort to help Stacy relax her men decided to treat her to some authentic Mexican food from Las Delicias Mexican Bar and Grill. It was a family owned and run Mexican restaurant in East Memphis. “It’s got great food, relaxed atmosphere, smiling faces and according to this blogger ‘the best’ margarita’s in town.” Travis teased as he read the direction from his iphone. Stacy just shook her head at his foolishness, she knew her son had never drank any alcoholic beverage of any kind, because that’s just not something they did in their family. The dinner was delicious and the service superb, all in all Stacy found the atmosphere to be just what the ratings had said relaxing and comfortable.  They started off with chips and salsa with a side of the restaurants famous guacamole. Then Travis ordered the Fajitas Alambre, which was; Grilled steak, green pepper, onion, bacon and cheese with 7 small corn tortillas.  And Stacy and Kevin decided to split a tamale platter that consisted of; a pork tamale, a chicken tamale, rice, and beans. They were both too nervous to really eat anything but tried to make a good show of it for Travis’ sake. Of course Travis wasn’t nervous at all and ate everything he could even offering to help finish theirs when it became evident that it was way more than the two of them could handle. 

At precisely 1 o’clock they were standing in the office of Agent Wilson, who then ushered them into a larger conference room where another agent was already seating another group, a family it looked like, another couple about the same age as Stacy and Kevin, and four young men, the oldest looked to be about 20 and the youngest about 14, a young girl was also with them, about 9 years old. 

“Good afternoon, Mr. and Mrs. Jamison, I’m Agent Nickelson, so glad you could make it. Please have a seat.” The agent indicated the other side of the table from the family already seated. As they sat down Agent Nickelson smiled and said “I know you are wondering what this is all about and we will get to that in a few minutes, but first. Please, allow me to make introductions, Mr. and Mrs. Kingston allow me to present your son-in-law’s parents Kevin and Stacy Jamison.”

“Son-in-law?  Son-in-law? What Son-in-law? I already told you fools my daughter was not married!” 

“Mr. Kingston, please sit down.” Agent Wilson said calmly in spite of the fact that Mr. Kingston and risen abruptly out of his seat his face flushed with rage and was angrily pacing around the room. 

“Steven, please…” Mrs. Kingston pleaded nervously. “I’m sorry” she said, looking back across the table “I don’t know who you folks are but my husband is right, our daughter isn’t married. We would have known if she was.”

Stacy leaned across the table, “I understand, Mrs. Kingston, I felt the same way about my Jamie, but …” 

“Jamie?  You’re Jamie’s mother?” Mrs. Kingston exclaimed excitedly “what happened to your daughter?  We looked all over for her after Leslie disappeared, but no one seemed to know anything about her.” 

Stacy drew a deep breath and exhaled shakily, “My SON, Jamie, was killed in a drunk-driving accident on December 10^th the same year your daughter, Leslie, went missing!” 

“But… Leslie’s friend Jamie was a girl…”Mrs. Kingston stammered.

“Did Leslie ever say Jamie was a girl?” Travis interjected.

“I’m sure she did at some point…”

“No, Mom, I think he’s is right,” the oldest Kingston boy, Todd, interjected “I don’t remember Leslie ever saying Jamie was a girl, she never used a personal pronoun for her either. We all just assumed when Leslie said she had made a new friend that it was a girl ‘cause we could never imagine her making friends with a boy!”

“So you’re saying, that my god-fearing, straight-laced, plain-Jane, Daughter, hooked up with this BOY Jamie, lied to her loving parents and then just disappeared into thin air after this BOY died!” Mr. Kingston shouted turning around and bringing his fist crashing down on the conference table with such force that everyone in the room jumped, and Lilly burst into tears. “Let me tell you something, my daughter would never lie to her mother and I, she knew what would happen to her if she did!” With that he turned and stormed out of the room letting the conference room door slam behind him.

“Mrs. Jamison, I’m sorry for your loss, but I must agree with my husband on this one, our daughter would never have lied to us, there just must have been another Jamie.” Mrs. Kingston said as she gathered her things and Lilly and headed for the door.

“Mrs. Kingston, I’m afraid that’s where you’re wrong,” interjected Agent Wilson again, “We have uncovered some evidence that indicates that your daughter, Leslie, was married to their son, Jamie and was pregnant at the time of her disappearance. So this actually could explain why we couldn’t find her since we were looking for her under her maiden name. Not to mention, we were looking for her in Germany, or the US it turns out that the kids were planning on taking their honeymoon in Spain, before they were going to surprise you all at Christmas!”

“Leslie was pregnant!! No! That’s impossible!”Mrs. Kingston stood up her face sowing the same indignation that had been on her husband’s before he stormed from the room. “I know my daughter and she was not pregnant! Come on Lilly, Boys I think we are done here!”  They all stood and left the room quickly. 

When they reached the elevator, Todd turned back; “Hold on Mom,  I left my jacket in the conference room.  I’ll meet you at the car.”  

“Well, I’m truly sorry ,” Agent Wilson was saying to the Jamisons as they watched the Kingston family leave , “I was hoping that perhaps they would remember something that would help us.” 

“That’s ok.”Kevin said standing to shake the agent’s hand “ you did what you could, it’s not …”  

Suddenly the conference room door burst open, and Todd burst in breathless, “Look I don’t know why my parents are acting all defensive about Leslie, they certainly have nothing nice to say about her in private, but I had noticed that Leslie was acting a little strange the last few months before she disappeared, and she had been gained a little weight. My dad had threatened to disown her several times if she were to do something stupid like get herself pregnant, so there is a good chance that if she was pregnant she just decided to stay away and not put the family through that!”

“Oh, really,” Stacy said somewhat worried now “had Leslie been heading for trouble before?”

Todd shook his head, “No,” He laughed, “actually, she hadn’t even had a boyfriend, to my knowledge.  She was always the dutiful daughter first, always cooking, cleaning, and helping mom. I mean, yeah, she and dad got into a lot of arguments especially after she moved in with the Hollands but I think that was more her trying to grow up than actual rebellion, anyway here’s my cell phone number. If you hear anything more would you mind giving me a call. I’ll see what I can do to get them to come around.”  

   

 “Thank you, Todd,” Agent Wilson said “as to the latest; we’ve contacted the American Embassy in Madrid and found out that Leslie’s passport was reported missing about a week after your son’s accident and that she applied for an emergency passport at that location, but that’s where the trail seems to end. We are alerting all the local agencies, to  the new developments in this case, but as it is merely a missing persons case and not of national importance I have no idea when we might actually be able to hear something. But I will notify each of you as soon as I hear something and if you think of anything else you will please let us know.”

With that he ushered them from the room and called another agent to escort them to the elevator. Where they said their good-byes, and separated, the Jamisons headed to Mt. Juliet  and the Kingstons to Little Rock.

Chapter 13 - The Accident

When they arrived back at the apartment Leslie was amazed at the way everything looked, Jamie had bought a small wedding cake and set it out on the table with a bouquet of flowers, he also had two crystal goblets set out and a bottle of sparkling white grape juice in a bucket of ice.

                “Oh, Jamie” she gushed “it’s beautiful”

                “Only the best for my wife” Jamie grinned “I love the sound of that …Mrs. Jamison, my wife.” He pulled her close and kissed her for the 100^th time since the chaplain had pronounced them man and wife.  “Wait till you see the bedroom! But first let’s have some cake and bubbly.” 

                After cutting the cake and drinking some of the sparkling juice Jamie excused himself for a minute came back and swept Leslie up into his arms and carried her back to the bedroom where he had lit some candles and covered the bed with rose petals. He sat her gently on the bed and kissed her “Welcome home Mrs. Jamison” he said with a really big grin.

                When Jamie came home early Monday morning, after working all night, and woke Leslie up so he could take her to work, she clung to him not wanting to leave, but unfortunately the weekend was over and they were forced to go back to the real world. 

                “It’s really not that bad,” Leslie told herself as she worked to clean up the kitchen on Wednesday  afternoon, “I get to see Jamie almost as much as I would if we were living together and this way I’m making a little extra money too.” Jamie still came by Burger King in the evening for supper, and called to talk to her at least once in the afternoon and once right before bed. “With us both working it’s not like we’d actually see much of each other anyway. And we’re half way to the weekend now.” More than half actually because Jamie was using their now familiar ruse to pick her up early on Friday even though he had to work that night so they could spend the afternoon together. 

The plan was that Leslie would tell her folks that she was picking up a Saturday shift at Burger King and wouldn’t be able to come home on the weekends, all the while letting the Hollands think that she had gone home to visit her parents as planned. One weekend a month Jamie had to go to Drills so on that weekend she would actually go home and visit her parents so they wouldn’t get suspicious. Then two weeks before Christmas Leslie and Jamie would take their honeymoon, a trip to Spain, letting her parents think she was still working and the Hollands think that she had gone home. Then after their trip they would surprise her parents by showing up at their house on Christmas Eve.  

Everything was going as planned Leslie stayed at the Hollands and worked her job during the week and then on the weekends she was Mrs. Jamison, Jamie’s wife. At the Holland’s she wore lose fitting shirts and skirts deftly camouflaging her slowly expanding belly. On the weekends she wore maternity clothes and was getting rather excited about the prospect of becoming a mother. She still hadn’t seen a doctor yet since they had decided to wait until right before their honeymoon to get Leslie’s name changed on all her documents so it wouldn’t affect job. On her trips to Jamie’s house on the weekends she would leave with a full suitcase of her things and come home with an empty one slowly moving all of her things from the Holland’s to Jamie’s apartment. She did the opposite when she went to visit her parents, she took an empty suitcase with her and brought a full one home. She figured that way if her Dad got mad and threw them out after they told him what they had done, at least she’d have most of her stuff.  

This was it she was returning from her last trip home, Leslie was a little surprised that no one had caught on to their little scheme, they had done it! They were home free, two weeks on the beach and then she would finally get to go home as a married woman. The thought of taking Jamie home to meet her parents made her positively giddy, she could hardly wait.  Leslie was humming as she pulled her cell phone from her purse and dialed Jamie’s number. She frowned when it went straight to voicemail “Jamie, honey, it’s me Leslie I’m about 30 minutes away from the station, see you in a bit.” “That’s odd,” she thought to herself, “he should be on his way to the station by now, oh well, maybe his phone is still off from Drills.”   

  

A half- hour later the train pulled into the station and Leslie stood on tiptoe scanning the crowd for a glimpse of her husband but he was nowhere to be found. Frustrated, Leslie lugged her heavy suitcase from the train and headed to the parking lot “I hope he’s just running late,” she muttered starting to feel a little worried when she reached the parking lot and Jamie’s white pickup was nowhere to be found. She pulled her phone from her purse and tried calling him again still no answer. She sighed, “I bet some bozo decided to break the rules again and so everyone is having to stay late at drills. Jamie warned me this might happen sometimes, I guess I’ll just get a taxi or take the trolley to the base or as close as I can get.” Leslie grabbed the handle on the suitcase and swung her back pack up on her shoulder, “at least this stupid thing has wheels”, she muttered as the suitcase bumped and jumped over the rough cobble stone street. As she neared the corner that lead to the main street heading into town she noticed flashing lights and billowing smoke ahead.  Her steps quickened and then she screeched to a halt as she realized that the flames were billowing from the remains of a white pickup truck. “JAMIEEEE!!!!”  Leslie shrieked dropping her bags and running toward the scene of the accident. She was stopped by a German policeman who explained to her that the soldier who had been driving the truck had been taken by ambulance to the local hospital. He called a cab for her and helped her load her suitcases before sending her on her way.  Leslie sat in the cab stunned, staring blankly at the scenery as they drove to the hospital. When they pulled up to the hospital she asked the cabbie to wait while she ran in and found out what to do next. 

Entering the lobby Leslie quickly walked to the nurse’s station and asked for Jamie Jamison. The nurse looked puzzled as if she didn’t know who she was talking about. Leslie explained she was looking for the American soldier who had been brought in by ambulance. The nurse nodded in understanding and motioned for her to follow her down the hall, as they walked she explained that they had called the base and that someone should be on their way from the base to get him. Leslie frowned wondering why they would consider moving him, the police officer had indicated that he was very badly injured. Then they walked around the corner and the nurse pushed back the curtain revealing a bed with the sheet pulled all the way up the nurse leaned over and pulled the sheet down revealing Jamie’s battered and burned face . Leslie shook from head to toe, tears filled her eyes as she sank to her knees beside the bed “no!no!no!NO!!!” she cried.  She reached out and touched his face but it was hard and cold, not her darling’s soft, warm skin. The room began to spin and her stomach began to churn, she tried to stand and lunged for the trash can but her legs were too weak she didn’t make it. The nurse helped her to the bathroom and assisted her as she cleaned herself up. When she returned she found that Jamie’s body had been picked up by the MP’s and taken to the base morgue where it would be prepared for the trip home to Tennessee. 

She hurried out to the taxi and had him take her to the morgue where she quickly found her lack of military ID to be a huge obstacle. Because the paperwork had not been completed she was not listed as his wife and therefore not awarded spousal privilege, she couldn’t get his things, she couldn’t even see his body one more time. She headed back to the apartment, alone and scared she didn’t know what to do. She searched the apartment for their wedding certificate and the paperwork to no avail. It was gone, the only things she had to prove her marriage were her wedding pictures and the ring that Jamie had given her, everything else, all the official paperwork was missing. The only thing she did find was $2,000.00 in cash and their train ticket and reservations for their honeymoon.  Tears ran down her face as she quickly packed her things, she knew that in two days they would be coming to pack his personal belongings and ship them to his parents, carefully she sorted making sure not to leave any of her things in the apartment. She didn’t know what she was going to do but it was obvious that she couldn’t stay here. She also couldn’t go home, not yet, not until she figured out a way to convince her dad that she had been married. He would never believe this story, never! The only logical conclusion was to go to Spain on her honeymoon alone, maybe they would exchange Jamie’s ticket that would give her some extra cash, maybe going away would buy her some time and she could figure out what to do. Weary from packing and crying she slept soundly, only to awaken to the horror of reality all over again the next morning. After a quick shower she called a cab while the cabbie loaded her suitcases in the car she had one more quick look around, snatching up Jamie’s T-shirt from the sofa where he had thrown it the day before she held it to her chest and with tears falling down her face locked the door and tucked her key under the mat. Then she had the cabbie drive her to the train station, as the cabbie unloaded her luggage for her, he smiled at her and said in broken English “he will come for you, yes? He will not let such a pretty girl get away” Leslie smiled and thanked him but shook her head as tears poured down her face. Then she turned walked away to the platform marked Madrid, Spain.