Chapter 4 - Briggs Thought I Had Come To Destroy His Career
Vale closed the door.
“Mason.”
Briggs stood near the wall.
Not the same man who had shoved me onto the mat.
No audience.
No trainees.
No control.
“Have you seen these?”
Vale asked.
Briggs looked at the complaints.
“Yes.”
“How?”
Briggs hesitated.
“Captain Sloan showed me one.”
Sloan wasn't in the room.
Convenient.
“Which one?”
“The first.”
“When?”
“Last week.”
I looked at him.
“You read a complaint signed by me before I arrived.”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“I was told the date might be wrong.”
“By Sloan?”
“Yes.”
Vale said nothing.
Briggs continued.
“She said you could've submitted it from your previous installation.”
I stared.
“About a course I'd never attended.”
“She said you might've gotten statements from someone.”
“And you believed that?”
“I believed someone was coming in looking for a fight.”
He looked at me.
“And then you showed up.”
That angered me more than the shove.
“You decided what I was before we met.”
“Yes.”
“Then staged three men around me.”
His jaw tightened.
“It was an evaluation.”
Vale asked:
“Authorized?”
Briggs didn't answer.
“Authorized?”
“No.”
Vale’s face barely changed.
That was worse.
I asked:
“You wanted me to quit.”
Briggs looked at me.
“I wanted to know if you were here to train or collect material.”
“So you humiliated me.”
“I pushed you.”
“You threw three people at me.”
“They're trainees.”
“So am I.”
He stopped.
Vale asked:
“Who wrote ‘problem child’?”
Briggs looked at the roster.
“Not me.”
“Who gave you that copy?”
“Sloan.”
Of course.
Vale called her.
She returned looking irritated.
He held up the roster.
“Did you give Briggs this?”
“Yes.”
“Where did you get it?”
“Admin binder.”
“Did you write the note?”
“No.”
“Did you know the complaint predates Carter’s arrival?”
“Yes.”
That changed the room.
Briggs turned.
“What?”
Sloan looked at him.
“You knew?”
Vale asked.
“Four days ago.”
“And yet you told Briggs Carter might have submitted it remotely.”
Sloan’s jaw tightened.
“I told him it was possible.”
“No,” Briggs said.
Everyone looked at him.
“You said she was probably trying to build a case before she got here.”
Sloan’s eyes hardened.
“You heard what you wanted.”
Briggs stepped forward.
“Don't.”
Vale put one hand up.
Neither moved closer.
I looked at Sloan.
“Why?”
She answered me.
“Because somebody was manipulating the complaint system.”
“So you used me to test whether Briggs had a reason to fear the name.”
“No.”
“Then what did you think would happen when you showed him a complaint with my name?”
Sloan didn't answer.
That was enough.
Vale said:
“Captain, you're relieved from course operations pending review.”
Her face changed.
“You can’t—”
“I can remove you from this office while we establish facts.”
She stared at him.
Then at me.
Not hatred.
Something more complicated.
“You think I created those?”
“I think you knowingly exposed a supposed complainant to the instructor named in the complaint.”
Vale opened the door.
“Go.”
Sloan left.
Briggs stayed.
Vale looked at him.
“You too.”
Briggs’s jaw worked.
Then he asked me:
“How did you know how to handle three people like that?”
I stared.
“Not relevant.”
“It is to me.”
Vale said:
“Get out.”
Briggs left.
The door closed.
I looked at Vale.
“He's still asking who I am.”
“So am I.”
“I told you.”
Vale tapped the four complaints.
“Someone had your name before you got here.”
Then he slid the third complaint toward me.
At the bottom, below the typed signature, was a handwritten notation I hadn't noticed.
CARTER WON’T FILE ON HER OWN.
My stomach tightened.
May you like
That wasn't a guess.
Someone knew exactly how I handled trouble.
