Chapter 8 - THE INSIDE MAN
Rebecca hated the photograph.
Not because it was weak.
Because it fit.
Someone had repeatedly alerted Halcyon before audit requests.
Records disappeared hours before inspections.
Invoices were corrected immediately before review.
We had assumed incompetence.
Then luck.
Now leakage.
JAG and the Inspector General expanded the inquiry.
I was removed from the case.
Correct procedure.
My name appeared in fraudulent records.
My wife worked for a connected freight company.
I could not investigate objectively.
Being sidelined was infuriating.
It was also right.
I spent more time at home.
Alone.
Amelia called most evenings.
We talked about ordinary things.
The mortgage.
Her sister’s leaking dishwasher.
Whether the maple tree needed trimming.
Marriage reduced to manageable topics.
Maybe that was how rebuilding started.
Then Rebecca came to my house.
Not officially.
“Can I come in?”
“Sure.”
She carried a folder.
“I shouldn’t be discussing details.”
“So don’t.”
She sat.
“Someone accessed your personnel file.”
“When?”
“Before the fake LLC was created.”
“Who?”
“I can’t tell you yet.”
“Then why are you here?”
“Because I need you to think.”
“About?”
“Who knew your reserve schedule before you joined the Halcyon review?”
I considered it.
My unit.
Amelia.
A few friends.
Then one person stood out.
Colonel Peter Lawson.
My former commanding officer.
Mentor.
The man who recommended me for the Inspector General liaison assignment.
I didn’t say the name.
Rebecca saw it anyway.
“Don’t contact him.”
My stomach dropped.
“Peter?”
“Logan.”
“Peter Lawson?”
“Do not contact him.”
That was confirmation enough.
Lawson had known my schedule.
My security background.
My marriage.
He had even met Amelia.
He could create a plausible consultant profile using my credentials.
But why?
Money was the obvious answer.
It was also incomplete.
Lawson had twenty-seven years of service.
Pension.
Reputation.
A son at West Point.
People risk extraordinary things for ordinary greed every day.
Still, I wanted more.
I got it two weeks later.
Lawson had received consulting payments from a Halcyon subsidiary after announcing his planned retirement.
Legal on paper.
Except the payments started before retirement.
And some coincided with leaked audit information.
He hadn’t invented the local scheme.
He had protected the federal side.
Vance protected county records.
Gordon handled freight.
Kane handled Halcyon.
Lawson handled military access.
Four men.
One system.
Then investigators discovered Lawson had personally selected me for the review.
That confused everyone.
Why put me near a scheme he wanted hidden?
The answer was buried in an email to Kane.
Mercer is clean enough to make the review credible and predictable enough to manage.
I read that sentence when it became available to me later.
Predictable.
He thought he knew me.
Just like Vance thought he knew Amelia.
Just like Gordon thought fear would keep employees quiet.
Every controlling person in this story made the same mistake.
They confused knowing someone’s habits with owning their choices.
Lawson expected me to review what he placed in front of me.
Sign.
Move on.
Instead, I noticed duplicate serial numbers.
One small discrepancy.
That started everything.
Then Rebecca showed me another email.
Kane to Lawson.
If Mercer keeps digging, Vance says he has leverage through the wife.
Lawson replied:
Use it.
Two words.
From the man who had once pinned my lieutenant colonel insignia onto my uniform.
The betrayal should have shocked me.
Instead, I felt strangely calm.
Then Rebecca said:
“There’s something you should know before this becomes public.”
“What?”
“Lawson says the plan to frame you wasn’t his.”
“Whose?”
“He says Amelia suggested your name.”
I stared at her.
“No.”
“He claims she contacted Vance first.”
“When?”
“Six months ago.”
Exactly when Amelia said she discovered the false invoices.
May you like
Either Lawson was lying to save himself.
Or my wife had hidden one final thing from me.
