Chapter 2 - The Man in the Stairwell
General Thomas Bell moved in front of Kate automatically.
“Stay behind me.”
Kate almost laughed.
“I outrank you.”
“This is not a rank situation.”
The stairwell door opened wider.
A man appeared.
Not Halbrook.
A young Army captain emerged with both hands raised.
“General Reed?”
Bell stepped aside.
The officer’s nameplate read MORENO.
Kate recognized the name immediately.
One of the people circled in red.
Captain Lisa Moreno looked exhausted.
“What happened downstairs?” Kate asked.
Moreno glanced behind her.
“Security officer went after Colonel Halbrook.”
“Why are you here?”
“I was looking for you.”
Kate studied her.
“Why?”
Moreno reached slowly inside her dress uniform jacket.
Bell tensed.
She removed a folded piece of paper.
“My invitation.”
Kate took it.
Someone had written across the back in black marker.
SHE DOESN’T BELONG HERE.
Kate stared at the words.
“Who wrote this?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why didn’t you report it?”
Moreno’s jaw tightened.
“Because I’ve reported things before.”
“And?”
“Nothing happened.”
That answer was familiar.
Too familiar.
Bell asked, “Halbrook?”
Moreno nodded.
“Two years ago, when I was assigned to the transition program, Colonel Halbrook told me I was a diversity decoration.”
Kate’s eyes narrowed.
“He said that directly?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Witnesses?”
“Three.”
“Complaint?”
“Filed.”
“What happened?”
“Nothing.”
Moreno looked at the marble floor.
“Six months later I was reassigned.”
Kate felt the story assembling itself around her.
Halbrook’s behavior at the doorway had not been an isolated insult.
It was a habit protected by something.
Someone.
Bell held up the guest list.
“You knew these other people?”
Moreno read the names.
“Commander Lin, yes. Jasmine Brooks, only by reputation. Maria Alvarez…”
She stopped.
“What?”
Moreno looked up.
“Her husband served under Halbrook.”
Kate’s grip tightened around her clutch.
“What happened to him?”
“Master Sergeant Daniel Alvarez died by suicide three years ago.”
Silence filled the stairwell.
Moreno continued reluctantly.
“He had accused administrators in Halbrook’s veteran program of stealing transition grants.”
Bell and Kate exchanged a look.
The financial statement in Kate’s clutch suddenly felt heavier.
“Did anyone investigate?”
“Officially? Yes.”
“And?”
“Insufficient evidence.”
Kate asked, “Who signed the closure?”
Moreno hesitated.
“I don’t remember.”
Kate did.
She had seen enough bureaucratic closures to know whose office would have reviewed it.
Lieutenant General Samuel Warren.
Her superior.
Her mentor.
The man whose signature sat beside Halbrook’s on the transfer documents.
Bell looked downstairs.
“Let’s find Halbrook.”
Kate turned to Moreno.
“You’re coming with us.”
Moreno blinked.
“General?”
“You said your complaint disappeared.”
“Yes.”
“Then tonight we find out where.”
They descended.
The lower level of the building had none of the ceremony of the ballroom.
Fluorescent lighting.
Gray walls.
Locked administrative doors.
A security guard stood near the records office, pressing a handkerchief against his forehead.
Bell hurried forward.
“What happened?”
“He shoved past me.”
“Halbrook?”
The guard nodded.
“Then the lights inside went out.”
Kate looked at the door.
Open.
“Is he still there?”
“I don’t know.”
Bell reached inside and switched on the lights.
Rows of file cabinets appeared.
One drawer had been pulled completely out.
Documents covered the floor.
Moreno whispered, “My God.”
Kate stepped inside.
“Colonel Halbrook?”
Nothing.
Bell moved between the cabinets.
Kate noticed a service door at the back.
It stood slightly open.
“He left through there.”
Moreno crouched near the scattered documents.
“General.”
Kate turned.
Moreno was holding a folder.
Her own name was printed on the tab.
CAPTAIN LISA MORENO — PERSONNEL.
She opened it.
Inside was a copy of her complaint.
Across the top someone had stamped:
NO ACTION.
Below that was a handwritten instruction.
TRANSFER WITHIN 90 DAYS.
Moreno stared at it.
“I was told my reassignment was routine.”
Kate took the folder.
At the bottom was a signature.
Richard Halbrook.
But beside it was another set of initials.
S.W.
Bell saw them.
“Samuel Warren.”
Kate did not answer.
Her mentor’s name was appearing too often.
She remembered Warren calling three weeks earlier.
Kate, congratulations on the appointment.
He had sounded genuinely proud.
She had known him for nearly twenty years.
He had recommended her for command.
He had defended her promotion when others called her too blunt.
He had once sat beside her hospital bed after an explosion in Kandahar.
Could the same man have protected Halbrook?
Kate refused to decide before seeing evidence.
“Photograph everything,” she told Bell.
Moreno looked deeper into the cabinet.
“There are more.”
She pulled out folders.
Commander David Lin.
Jasmine Brooks.
Daniel Alvarez.
Maria Alvarez.
Kate opened Daniel’s.
There were copies of emails.
Daniel Alvarez had written repeatedly about irregular veteran grant payments.
One sentence appeared several times.
Money intended for soldiers is being redirected before disbursement.
Another email named Halbrook.
Another named a company.
Patriot Strategic Consulting.
The same company shown on the financial statement Maria had sent Kate.
Then Kate found Daniel’s final report.
The last page was missing.
Bell searched the floor.
“Gone.”
“Halbrook took it.”
Kate walked to the service door.
Beyond it was a loading corridor leading toward the parking structure.
Bell called security.
“Lock the garage.”
A voice answered immediately.
“Too late, sir. Vehicle exited thirty seconds ago.”
“What vehicle?”
“Black Mercedes.”
Kate knew Halbrook had escaped.
But now he had given them proof that he was afraid.
That mattered.
Upstairs, the reception was still underway.
Kate had a choice.
Disappear into an investigation and create rumors.
Or go back upstairs and finish the evening as if nothing had happened.
She chose the second.
“General?” Moreno asked.
Kate handed her back the folder.
“Tonight, you walk into that ballroom with me.”
Moreno looked stunned.
“Why?”
“Because whoever tried to make you feel like you didn’t belong is going to watch you return.”
Bell smiled.
“That sounds unpleasantly symbolic.”
Kate looked at him.
“You say that like it’s a bad thing.”
They returned upstairs.
When Kate entered the ballroom with Captain Moreno beside her, several people noticed.
One of them was Lieutenant General Samuel Warren.
He stood near the stage.
Tall.
Silver-haired.
Perfectly composed.
Warren raised his glass.
Kate did not return the gesture.
He approached.
“Katherine. Excellent speech.”
“Thank you.”
His gaze moved toward Moreno.
“Captain.”
“Sir.”
Something changed in Warren’s expression.
So fast Kate might have missed it.
Recognition.
Then it vanished.
Warren returned his attention to Kate.
“I heard there was an unfortunate incident at the entrance.”
“With Halbrook?”
“Yes. Embarrassing.”
“You know him well?”
Warren smiled.
“Everyone knows Richard.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Bell remained silent.
Warren studied Kate.
“You’re investigating?”
“I’m asking.”
Warren lowered his voice.
“Kate, this is your first week in a new command. Be careful about chasing every unpleasant man who crosses your path.”
Moreno stiffened.
Kate noticed.
“So you consider what happened unpleasant?”
“What would you call it?”
“Interesting.”
Warren’s smile disappeared.
“Why?”
“Because Halbrook broke into a records office five minutes after being publicly embarrassed.”
For the first time, Warren looked genuinely surprised.
“He did what?”
Kate watched him carefully.
If it was an act, it was excellent.
“He removed documents.”
Warren looked toward Bell.
“Have you called authorities?”
“Security is handling it,” Bell said.
Warren turned back to Kate.
“You should go home.”
“No.”
“Katherine.”
“Samuel.”
Their eyes locked.
He sighed.
“You never learned how to leave a problem until morning.”
“Neither did you.”
For a moment, he almost smiled.
Then his phone vibrated.
He checked it.
His face changed.
Kate saw it.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“That didn’t look like nothing.”
Warren locked the screen.
“Personal.”
He started to move away.
Kate caught his arm.
“Samuel.”
He stopped.
She lowered her voice.
“Did you sign off on Halbrook’s transition fund?”
Warren became perfectly still.
Behind them, music played.
Guests laughed.
A waiter moved past with champagne.
Warren looked at her hand on his sleeve.
Then at her face.
“Where did you get that information?”
Kate felt the answer before he gave it.
“You did.”
Warren stepped closer.
“Not here.”
“Then where?”
“My office. Tomorrow morning.”
“That’s too late.”
“No. It isn’t.”
His voice had changed.
Now there was fear in it.
Not for himself.
For her.
“Katherine, listen to me. Do not call anyone about those records tonight.”
“Why?”
Warren glanced toward the crowded ballroom.
“Because you don’t know who was involved.”
“Do you?”
Warren didn’t answer.
Then Kate’s phone buzzed inside her clutch.
Unknown number.
She opened the message.
A photograph loaded.
It showed Kate entering the reception earlier that evening.
Taken from across the street.
Beneath it was one sentence.
GENERAL REED, YOU SHOULD HAVE EATEN WITH THE STAFF.
Kate raised her eyes.
Across the ballroom, Lieutenant General Warren was staring at the same message on his own phone.
Then another arrived.
A photograph of Maria Alvarez.
May you like
She was sitting inside a parked car.
Someone was standing behind her.
