Everyone looked at her. The usual Patti surprised everyone by her knowledge. Karen laughed. “That is why I insisted she be on the show. She knows everything. I bet if I asked her the name of the destroyer he was on she knows that.”

Patti dropped her head. “Actually there were only two destroyers that made that many runs and one that was sunk on its fourth. I don’t know the names of the two that made the three runs but the Hamme was sunk in the harbor on its fourth trip.”

“My dad was on the Hamme. He took a bullet in his leg on the way back from Malta on the third trip. He was taken off at England along with about fifteen others of the crew. They went out the fourth time without him. His leg was bad enough they sent him back to the states. He trained other men till the end of the war. He often said he felt bad about not being there on the fourth trip. It was like he would have made a difference.”

“I know that most of the crew of the Hamme died in the harbor. A Stuka hit her and she blew up.”

“Yes. He found three of the crewmen that survived. They have met several times and still write and phone each other.”

Darin was next. “My grandfather was an airplane mechanic in North Africa. He often talked about the Navy guys who got the supplies to them. He talked about how they never had enough of what they needed but then would get almost teary eyed when he talked about seeing the ships the made it through, some of them shot up, dead and wounded on them, some of them half sinking and knowing that about half of them didn’t make it and they had to run the gauntlet on the way back. He would simply say that they got as much through as they could. I never thought of the other side of it that way till now.”

They talked till about ten, Darin had an early meeting and had to leave. Patti headed home too.

Bree’s phone rang at six fifty. It was the Today show information screener. She identified herself. Bree laughed. “I said after seven.”

“We discussed that. How is the weather there?”

“Good. But you didn’t call me to talk about the weather.”

“I know there is something you can’t talk about till seven. So I am not going to ask till then. I checked you. You have only one phone line, not a big sales force. So if I call at seven and someone else called a minute early, I miss it. I decided to call you ten minutes early and discuss the weather. I don’t want you to break any confidence or agreement.  I have a clock here that is accurate within a second. I will not ask anything about what you have till it hits one second after seven.”

Bree laughed. “You are good.”

“So are you. Just tell my boss I deserve a raise. I think I know what you have or at least what it is about. But let’s not discuss that now.”

The two chatted like old friends till the clock passed seven.

“Now, it is 07:00:03. What do you have?”

“I have pictures. Good ones of Karen Harris.”

Karen: Chapter One – The Attack

Karen Chapter 25: Karen Appears on TV

Karen Chapter 27 – Morning TV Covers Karen