Chapter 4 - THE COLONEL’S OFFICE
Colonel Marcus Hale was not what Lena expected.
No shouting.
No speeches.
No dramatic promises.
He simply listened.
Lena sat across from his desk at 8:17 that evening and placed her green notebook in front of him.
Hale read every page.
When he finished, he looked at her acknowledgment slip.
“You retained this?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good.”
“My second complaint has never been answered.”
“I checked.”
Lena sat straighter.
“And?”
“There is no second complaint in the battalion system.”
Her stomach sank.
“But I have Ramsey’s signature.”
“I know.”
“Then where is it?”
“That’s what I’d like to know.”
Lena looked at the colonel.
“Sir, Vaughn knew things I never told him.”
Hale nodded.
“That concerns me more than his behavior.”
“Why?”
“Because harassment is one problem.”
He pushed her notebook back.
“A compromised reporting system is another.”
Lena swallowed.
“What happens now?”
“You do nothing different.”
She frowned.
“Sir?”
“You go to work. Follow orders. Document everything. Do not provoke him.”
“I never have.”
“I believe you.”
That surprised her.
Hale continued.
“But if someone is feeding Vaughn information, the moment they realize I’m investigating, they’ll start cleaning up.”
“So we don’t tell them.”
“Exactly.”
Lena leaned forward.
“What if he does something again?”
Hale’s expression hardened.
“Then we deal with it.”
She hesitated.
“He will.”
“You’re certain?”
“Yes.”
Hale looked at her for several seconds.
Then he opened a drawer and removed a blank complaint form.
He placed it on the desk.
“Prepare another.”
“For something that hasn’t happened?”
“Prepare the identifying information. Leave the incident section blank.”
Lena stared at him.
Hale added, “Not because I want something to happen.”
He slid the form toward her.
“Because you know his pattern better than I do.”
Lena took it.
The next morning, she filled in Vaughn’s name.
Two days later, Vaughn entered the mess hall.
He saw Lena sitting at a table near the center.
Alone.
Then he looked around.
Keller was sitting twenty feet away.
First Sergeant Ramsey was nowhere in sight.
And Colonel Hale was at the coffee station with his back turned.
Vaughn smiled.
Lena saw the smile.
Her fingers closed around the folded complaint form inside her pocket.
And she knew.
May you like
Today was the day he would make his mistake.
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