Chapter 35

Sturgis left the Admiral's office and stopped at Mac's office, knocking on the door jamb to get her attention, he asked, "Do you have a few minutes Colonel?"

"Sure Sturgis, come on in and take a seat."

Walking in, he closed the door behind him before sitting down.

"What is it Sturgis, is something wrong?"

"I don't know if wrong is the right word, but something has come up and I wanted to run it by you."

Putting her pencil down, she looked at his serious face and said, "It's about Harm, isn't it?"

"In a way," he replied. "The Admiral offered me Harm's office and I just wanted to know if you'd be okay with that."

"Why wouldn't I be? He was your friend too. You bypassed a larger office when Bud came back and you deserve one now."

"Alright Mac, I'll tell the Admiral I'll take it."

Just after Sturgis left, Mac had another visitor. This time it was Bud. "Come on in Bud, what can I do for you?"

"Actually Ma'am, I have something for you," he replied, indicating the file folder in his hand. "I have the research on Ms. Frazier that you wanted."

"Wonderful! What did you find out?" Mac asked eagerly.

"Well she got six months probation when she was twenty, for the accidental of death of her mother's boyfriend."

"What?"

"It seems that the boyfriend, a Bob Logan, was drunk and beat Vicky's mother unconscious, then came after Vicky. She pushed him away and Mr. Logan stumbled back, tripped and hit his head on the fireplace hearth when he fell. He was killed instantly. Vicky and her mother both swore that he'd been threatening Louise's life so the judge gave her probation. I did find something interesting when I dug a little deeper into her family background after that," Bud paused to draw a rare breath.

"Like what Bud?"

"Well Vicky's mother started out as Louise Tate, and both she and a certain AJ Chegwidden were in Austin Central High School, class of '67. Because their fortieth class reunion is coming up next year, I was able to get a hold of a few people on the reunion committee and get some very interesting information," he paused again clearly pleased with himself.

Giving him an encouraging smile, Mac urged him to continue. "It seems that Louise and AJ…ummm I mean the Admiral…" he stuttered to an embarrassed stop.

"Bud you're talking about his high school days, and he isn't here, so I won't tell him you called him AJ."

"Thanks Ma'am!" Bud exclaimed clearly relieved.

"Now what was it you found out about Louise and AJ?"

"Well they were high school sweethearts and voted most likely to get married and have a dozen kids."

"Wow! I wonder what happened?"

"So did I, so I asked the head of the reunion committee Mrs. Theresa Mason and she said that the Admiral…AJ had proposed to Louise and asked her to wait for him to come back from Viet Nam. They had a big fight at the graduation party about that. It seemed Louise didn't want to wait; she wanted to get married before he shipped out, but AJ wanted to wait in case he didn't come back. He didn't want to leave her a widow."

"How sad," Mac sighed.

"I'm not so sure of that, Ma'am," Bud replied.

"Why do you say that?"

"Because Louise married Bubba Rollins, the star of the football team, just a month after AJ left for basic training."

"Wow! She didn't waste any time did she?"

"It doesn't seem so. She was pregnant with Vicky a year later when Bubba broke his neck playing college football. Vicky was four months old when Louise married Jake Frazier and he adopted her. Jake was killed in a drunken bar room brawl when Vicky was five."

"Was there anything else Bud?"

"Yes Ma'am I've saved the best for last…"

"What Bud?" Mac asked just a bit impatiently.

"Just before she moved here to Virginia, Vicky served nine months in a minimum security women's prison for stabbing her mother's lover."

"WHAT!?" Mac gasped.

To be continued…..