Suddenly he felt sick. Her trauma was not such a mystery to him.
He knew a man who abused his power.
“Audrey,” he whispered as he rocked back and forth, a guttural moan escaping his lips. Tears spilled down his cheeks, and his stomach churned with bile and revulsion.
Leo wasn’t sure how long he’d sat there, huddled on the floor next to a puddle of vomit, when suddenly the lights in Dr. Ina’s office flipped on. Leo looked up, his vision blurry, unsure what was happening.
Then he heard her voice. “What the hell are you doing in my office?”
Leo flinched, turning his unfocused eyes toward her.
Ina came around the desk and inhaled sharply. “Did you read my files?”
He seemed to wake from his daze, and his face crumpled. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he cried, rocking back and forth again. “I’m so sorry, ma’am.”
“Did you break in here? Did you read my files?”
“Yes ma’am.” He nodded, scooting away from the mess on the floor.
“Why?” she shouted.
Leo couldn’t remember how to put words together.
She became even more incensed at his refusal to answer.
The drone of the vacuum cleaner stopped, and the janitor, no longer whistling, poked his head into the office. “Everything okay, ma’am?”
Ina spun around, then turned back to stare at Leo. “Call the MPs,” she said, smoothly and coldly. “We’ve had a break-in.” Leo nodded, accepting his fate. He wiped his nose.
“Don’t move, Leo,” she ordered.
“Yes, ma’am. Don’t worry, I won’t run.” He stared straight ahead.
“There’s nowhere to run. I think my life might be over.”
66. Arresting Developments
Leo did his best to avoid Dr. Ina’s wounded eyes.
Each refusal to answer her questions pained him a little more.
He felt cruel and ungrateful. Dr. Ina had done so much for him, and it kil ed him to hurt her this way. But he couldn’t tel anyone. That way nobody could interfere with the plan he was piecing together — his plan to make things right. He’d put the real murderer behind bars, no matter what it took.
He actually felt relieved when the MPs showed up to arrest him.
“On your feet,” one ordered.
“Yes, sir.” Leo hopped up, stepping over the mess he’d made.
The other MP turned to Ina. “What happened here, ma’am?”
“I was dealing with a crisis in the infirmary, and I had to retrieve a chart from my office. When I arrived, I found Mr. Scott here — unauthorized.”
Leo winced. Mr. Scott? She was all business now.
“Apparently he got in because the cleaning crew had unlocked the office. When I arrived my file drawer was unlocked and ajar, and when I asked him if he’d read my charts, he said yes.” The MP turned to Leo. “You read her charts?”
“Yes, sir.”
“And is that your vomit on the floor, Mr. Scott?” Leo grimaced. “Yes, sir.”
“Why’d you do this? What made you throw up?” Leo remained silent.
“Answer me now!” the MP threatened.
Leo still said nothing.
“It won’t do any good. I’ve tried to get the story out of him already,” Ina said.
“Ma’am, would you like us to call Annapolis PD?” the MP asked.
“We can involve local authorities or we can handle this internally.” Ina paused. “What will happen to him, in both scenarios?” The MP stroked his chin. “We’ll return him to his quarters and post a guard outside while the commandant’s apprised of the situation. Captain Tracker will likely order a Brigade Honor Committee investigation and hearing, which will determine his punishment. I’d say it doesn’t look good for this one to stay in the Navy.” Leo couldn’t believe it, but he felt relief at that news.
“If we call the local authorities, I’m not sure what’d happen,” the MP continued. “They’d send some officers, who’d likely arrest him, and then it would go through the courts.”
“Don’t call Annapolis PD — I don’t want them rifling through my charts,” Ina said. “I want to find out what’s going on with Mr. Scott first. I may involve local authorities later, but right now I want this handled internally.”
“Yes, ma’am,” the MP said.
“Ma’am, you can have the mess on the floor cleaned up, but we’d like you to avoid touching your desk for now, until tomorrow morning,” added the other MP. “We’ll set up a meeting in the commandant’s office, and we’d like you to be there. We’ll call you when we have the meeting time. Is that satisfactory to you, ma’am?”
“Yes, but I still need the chart for my client in the infirmary.”
“Hmm…I guess we’ll have to inspect the drawer now. Ma’am, I want you to slide your desk drawer open and take a look.” Ina complied.
“Does anything look out of place, ma’am?” Leo held his breath. Al he could see was Lt. Keaton’s chart, shining like a beacon, but apparently Dr. Ina saw nothing.
“No, it looks fine.”
“Try to remove the chart you need without disrupting the others, ma’am.”
Ina lifted out a chart, hiding the name with her thumb, and nodded to the MP before closing the drawer. “One other caveat: I’m locking this office, and I forbid anyone from investigating the contents of my desk unless I’m present,” she added. “There’s confidential client information here.”
“Understood, ma’am.”
Leo listened quietly. It was almost like the officers and psychologist had forgotten about him.
But they hadn’t. Nodding at him, the MP ordered, “Let’s go, plebe.”
Leo gulped and exited, flanked by the MPs, without meeting Dr. Ina’s eyes. They marched him away from the therapy room, the place of secrets and hidden motivations. Now Leo possessed some of those secrets, and there was only one person he’d share them with — only one person he’d confront.
“You’re sure this is her room?” Leo glanced at the MP and nodded.
The officer again knocked on Ms. Nevington’s door. After a moment came a faint “Just a minute!” from within.
The door swung open to reveal his tall, wiry company commander in a black T-shirt and shorts. Her hair sprang out in all directions, and her sleepy eyes widened upon seeing him.
“Midshipman Nevington, you’re the commander for Second Company?”
“Yes, sir. Would you like to come inside to avoid waking the entire passageway?”
The MP shook his head. “This’ll be quick. We need to advise you that Mr. Scott’s being investigated for a crime and will be restricted to quarters for the near future. He’s not to be out of his room other than trips to the head escorted by an MP.”
Trapped at attention, Leo was unable to hang his head and avoid her disappointed glare.
“What’d he do?” she inquired.
“He broke into an office and read confidential information,” the MP said. “We’ll know more tomorrow — nothing will be sorted out at this late hour. We’ll contact you after the commandant reviews the situation.”
“You’re telling me I’m not allowed to talk to a member of my own company until you allow it, sir?”
“That’s precisely what I’m saying. Good night, Midshipman Nevington.”
“Good night, sir.” As she closed the door, she added, “The drama continues, Mr. Scott.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Leo closed his eyes.
When they reached his room, the MPs shoved him inside and closed the door behind him. Leo stumbled into the darkness and crashed into the garbage can.
“¡Hijole!” Benito bolted upright. “Are we late?” Leo crossed the room to turn on the lights. “No, idiota, it’s zero-one-hundred hours.”
“What’re you doing wearing a uniform at one a.m.?”
“Screwing up my life,” he reported, collapsing on the bed.
“Well, can you turn off the stupid lights? We have to wake up in, lik
e, four hours for PT.”
“I’m not going to PT,” Leo countered.
“What?” Benito looked confused. “What’re you talking about, hombre?”
“There’s an MP guarding the door, and I’m under arrest.”
“Is this some sort of prank?”
“I wish. Listen, the less you know about this, the better. They’ll interrogate me about what went down tonight, and when I don’t tell them, they’ll start asking you. Just go back to sleep.”
“My roommate tells me he’s under arrest, and he wants me just to fall asleep? I got your back, dude. You have to tell me what happened.”
Leo stared at the ceiling. He was so tired and, to be honest, so terrified of what lay ahead. Feeling tears threaten again, he did what Benito had asked and went to turn off the lights.
Returning to his rack, he said softly, “You’ve been a good roommate to me, Ben. The best. You’ll make an awesome naval officer.” Benito’s voice rose. “Why does it sound like you’re saying goodbye?”
“Please,” Leo begged, feeling a lump in his throat. “Please don’t ask me any more questions.” His voice cracked. “I just can’t talk about it right now. I’ll explain things when I can, but I have to get some sleep. If you value our friendship, just let it go for now, okay?” There was silence from the other side of the room, and Leo knew his roommate was trying to figure out his next move.
“I just want to help you,” Benito finally said.
Leo’s voice trembled. “I know. But you can help me by dropping it and going back to sleep. Please, hombre.” This time Benito stayed quiet, but Leo knew he wasn’t happy about it. Leo wasn’t happy either.
The MPs had assembled a small work group in the commandant’s office to discuss the future of Leo Scott.
Captain Tracker sat at the head of his conference table. Next to Ina was the MP not guarding Leo’s room at the moment, and across the table were Viva Nevington and Tom Sour.
“So let’s review the facts,” the captain began. “Midshipman Sour, I’d like you to take notes.”
“Yes, sir.” Sour pulled a notebook from his backpack, and the commandant nodded to the MP.
“Sir, we were called to Counseling Services by a member of the cleaning crew at just past zero-hundred hours this morning. We arrived at Dr. Hansen’s office to find her inside with Midshipman Scott, who was sitting on the floor behind her desk. He appeared distraught and had gotten sick on the floor. He admitted to us, and to her, that he’d broken into her desk and read confidential charts.”
The commandant shook his head. “You found him in your office, Dr. Hansen?”
“Yes, sir. I was dealing with a crisis in the infirmary, and I needed to retrieve one of my charts.”
He gave her a knowing look. “Dr. Adams apprised me of that situation. Sounds like you had a long night.” She glanced at the MP. “I think we’ve all had a long night, sir. I came to my office and Leo, uh, Mr. Scott, was on the floor. I started yelling at him, asking him what he was doing there. Then I saw my desk drawer unlocked and open, and he admitted to reading my charts.”
“This makes no sense,” Captain Tracker said. “Do you have any idea whose charts Mr. Scott would be after?”
“I thought about this all night, sir. Sometimes counseling clients worry about what their psychologists write about them, so he might’ve wanted to see his own chart. He hasn’t been entirely forthcoming with me, and maybe he wanted to see if I’d figured out something about him. Or perhaps he was after another chart. He does know a couple of my other clients.” She glanced nervously at the midshipmen.
“I’d like everyone to leave the room except for Dr. Hansen,” the captain announced.
The midshipmen and MP immediately stood and headed for the antechamber.
“We’re talking about Lt. Keaton?” he asked once they’d gone.
“Yes, sir, and I’ve also been seeing two other midshipmen in Second Company.” Ina paused. “I noticed Lt. Keaton isn’t here this morning?”
“I’ve chosen not to include her at this point. There’s a strange dynamic between her and Mr. Scott, and I believe it’s unwise to involve her. What do you think of that, Dr. Hansen?”
“It is odd that she’s punished him quite severely on two occasions.
But Darnell seems very remorseful for striking Leo, sir. I have a sense she wasn’t entirely in control of herself when she did that.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well…Her symptoms do seem to relate to her fitness for duty, so I can tell you Darnell appears to have a traumatic history. She’s already dissociated twice in my presence, likely re-experiencing the trauma. She hasn’t disclosed to me what happened to her. However, I believe she may have been dissociating when she hit Leo.” He nodded. “Well, then, it sounds like for the safety of both of them, let’s keep her in the dark about this. I’m sure you’re not too excited about telling Darnell her privacy may have been compromised.”
“I’ve been considering how to handle the confidentiality issue, and I’ll consult the state board today.” Ina sighed. “This is my worst nightmare. Since I don’t know whose charts were read, I think I’ll delay disclosing the breach to clients for now, sir.”
“Okay. Anything else we need to discuss before we bring the rest of the crew back in?”
Ina paused. “Leo seemed like such a good young man, sir.” She looked down. “I feel so betrayed.”
“I can imagine. This midshipman appears to be hiding many secrets. I’d like you to keep trying to get some information out of him.”
“Yes, sir.”
The captain called the rest of the group back in. “Okay, from what I’m hearing, we need to call an Honor Committee hearing ASAP.
Given we have a breach of confidentiality involving therapy patients’ rights, I want to move quickly on this to try to get to the bottom of things. Midshipman Sour, I’d like you to set up the hearing.”
“Yes, sir.”
Turning to Nevington and the MP, he instructed, “I want you two to interrogate Mr. Scott. If he’s tight-lipped, see if his roommate can be useful. Dr. Hansen will also visit his quarters for questioning when her schedule allows. And there better not be any violence involved with the interrogation, or there’ll be hell to pay.”
“Understood, sir,” Nevington said.
The commandant stood, followed by the others. He nodded to dismiss them. “Good luck. I’m afraid we might be too late to save this sailor, but at least let’s minimize the damage.”
67. Saving Audrey
His careful handwriting swam before his eyes, blurred by tears.
They’d taken his laptop, forcing him to resort to snail mail.
Leo tried to get the wording right, but there was no suitable way to break it to Audrey. He was paralyzed by writer’s block — or, actually, heart block. He cursed his weakness.
It was almost nine o’clock, and he knew they’d be coming for him soon. Benito had already slogged through PT, breakfast, and his first class by now, and Leo had done nothing but shower and stare at the unfinished letter. Studying for classes he’d likely never attend again seemed a pointless venture, and his concentration was hardly at its peak anyway.
He wasn’t exactly sure of the how and why of Lt. Commander Walsh’s murder, but he was relatively sure knew the who — he felt it in his gut. There was a reason Lt. Keaton hated men with the last name Scott.
Finally his company commander and an MP burst into the room, and Leo stuffed the pen and paper under his rack and sprang to attention.
“It sounds like you had a busy night, Midshipman Scott. Do you know why we’re here this morning?”
“Yes, ma’am. You want to know why I broke into Dr. Hansen’s office.”
“Very perceptive. Let’s hear it.”
He said nothing.
She barely let five seconds of silence tick by before she ordered,
“Drop and give me seventy-five.”
He completed the pushups and sn
apped back up to attention, breathing hard and sweating.
“How can one plebe perform so brilliantly yet screw up so royally?” Nevington mused.
It was a good rhetorical question, and Leo kept his mouth shut.
Her next question was not so rhetorical. “Why’d you break curfew to go to Dr. Hansen’s office?”
“No excuse, ma’am.”
“Don’t get cute with me, Mr. Scott. I want an answer to my question. Now.”
Leo sighed. He hated to displease a superior. But he couldn’t risk it. Zipping his lips was the only way.
“Get in the plank position,” Nevington ordered.
“Yes, ma’am.” Leo dropped and held his body parallel to the floor, his weight perched on his elbows and toes. It wasn’t long before the trembling began. His body quivered as he supported the bulk of his weight with his core muscles.
She kneeled next to him. “You can stop at any time, Midshipman Scott. Just tell me whose chart you were after, and this will all be over. Otherwise we’re in for a long day.” His only response was a grunt. More time elapsed, and the shuddering intensified.
“Why’d you break in to Dr. Hansen’s office?” Sweat poured down his neck. He wouldn’t be able to hold himself up much longer.
Her voice sharpened. “You will talk to me before this is over!” He finally collapsed.
“On your feet!”
Leo peeled his body off the floor, still trembling from the effort.
She put her face inches from his. “Are you ready to talk yet?”
“No, ma’am,” he panted.
“Give me one hundred burpees then.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Leo began the up-and-down exercise: squatting with his hands on the floor, kicking his feet back to a pushup position, returning to the squat position, and finally leaping up in an explosive jump before repeating the movement. Just the first ten had him breathing hard, and he still had ninety left. Perspiration ringed his collar, spreading and sticking his uniform to his chest.
He made his mind blank and heard only his steady, labored breathing.
Exercises completed, Leo stood at attention once again. His throat was parched.
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