Chapter 13 - RACHEL'S STATEMENT
The Navy cyber team found the answer quickly enough to make everyone feel worse.
Rachel's mailbox had not been hacked remotely.
Her workstation session remained open when she left for her father's hospital.
She had removed her CAC.
That should have locked it.
It didn't.
A badly configured local logistics plug-in prevented full session closure during active manifest uploads.
Her email remained accessible for eleven minutes.
Someone used it.
Sent the 28F photograph to Samuel Mercer.
Then deleted the sent message.
The sender knew Samuel was the systems person.
Why send it?
Maybe requesting correction.
Maybe making Samuel aware.
Maybe placing Rachel's name into another record.
No way to know yet.
Camera coverage of Rachel's old workstation row had been overwritten long ago.
Then NCIS reconstructed who was physically in the office during those eleven minutes.
Mason.
Ethan.
Brooke Hale.
Two clerks.
A civilian dock scheduler.
Rachel stared at the list.
Five people.
Mason said immediately:
“Not me.”
Pierce answered:
“We know you were on the phone for six of the eleven minutes. That isn't the same as not you.”
Mason accepted that.
Rachel's lawyer then asked for a break.
Outside, she said:
“This is the point where you decide how much truth you want in your own statement.”
Rachel frowned.
“I've told them everything.”
“No.”
Her lawyer opened the old 33A worksheet.
“You signed final inspection complete.”
Rachel looked down.
“Yes.”
“Before Pallet Six arrived.”
“Yes.”
“You have described that as leaving Mason to finish.”
“Yes.”
“That's not what the form says.”
Rachel knew.
The form said:
All listed cargo physically verified.
That was false when she signed it.
Not because she intended to steal.
Not because she knew Pallet Six would disappear.
Still false.
Her lawyer continued.
“You can say you believed arrival was imminent and delegated completion.”
“That's true.”
“You can also say you knowingly signed before final physical verification.”
Rachel stared.
“That could become a false official record issue.”
“Yes.”
“Security clearance.”
“Potentially.”
“Promotion.”
“Potentially.”
Rachel thought about the pier.
Mason's notebook.
Hale's orders.
Ethan's changed count.
Samuel's quiet transfer.
Every person using timing to soften the truth.
She hated how familiar the choice felt.
“Put it in.”
Her lawyer did not smile.
“Full sentence.”
Rachel dictated.
I signed the final physical verification block before Pallet Six was present because I believed Chief Reed would complete the inspection under my delegated authority. I knew the form represented the inspection as complete at the moment I signed it, and that representation was not accurate.
There.
No one could use her incomplete statement later.
NCIS did not arrest her.
Her command initiated an administrative review.
Likely outcome:
Formal letter of caution or nonjudicial administrative action depending on legal review.
Her upcoming chief-selection package was put on hold.
Real.
Then Mason asked to supplement his statement too.
He admitted he had used Rachel's custodian template after the original delegation ended.
Twice.
Admitted he told Ethan to make the 33A manifest show six.
Admitted he saw the first wrong Carter seal and failed to report it.
Admitted assaulting Rachel because he feared exposure.
His attorney looked exhausted.
Hale submitted her own addendum.
She admitted she repeatedly rewarded on-time metrics without auditing how they were achieved.
Admitted telling Mason to “make the line green.”
Denied ordering false records.
Evidence supported both.
Then one question remained before current responsibility could close.
Who used Rachel's workstation?
A former dock scheduler named Lewis Grant remembered something.
At about 17:00 that day, Brooke Hale walked into the office.
Used Rachel's terminal briefly.
Why?
Hale stared at him.
“I don't remember.”
Lewis did.
“She asked whether Carter had left the 28F photo up.”
Rachel stopped.
“How would she know about the photo?”
Hale looked genuinely confused.
Then Mason said:
“I told her.”
Silence.
He had forgotten.
Rachel texted Mason the 28F picture.
Mason walked into Hale's office.
Showed her his phone.
Hale went to Rachel's workstation.
Could have sent the email.
Could have simply viewed the picture.
No camera.
No proof.
Hale asked for counsel.
Good.
Nobody was going to solve this from memory in a hallway.
Then the cyber examiner found something better.
The deleted email to Samuel had a draft header.
It was not written from scratch.
Someone forwarded Rachel's open image attachment and typed only four words:
Can you explain this?
Hale stared at the phrase.
“That sounds like me.”
Rachel felt cold.
“Did you send it?”
Hale closed her eyes.
“I might have.”
No grand denial.
Then she remembered.
She had.
She saw the photo.
Did not understand the seal.
Forwarded it to Samuel.
Deleted the message afterward because she had used Rachel's open session and did not want Rachel's mailbox cluttered.
A terrible boundary.
Not a plot to frame her.
The email that looked like impersonation had begun as an unauthorized shortcut.
Again.
May you like
The current case was finally becoming less mysterious.
Which was exactly when the missing pallet itself resurfaced.
