Chapter 14
"As I told Harm earlier, your eye witness needs glasses! Nothing happened!"
"You've talked to Commander Rabb about this?"
"He called me into his office and asked why I hadn't come to him with it. I told him, like I have been telling everyone all day that this didn't really happen. I don't know why someone would drum up charges like this, but I would sure like to talk to this person!"
"Well, what do you think would make Ensign Yancy file a report like this, if it wasn't true?" Bud asked truly puzzled.
"Eloise Yancy?" Mac questioned.
"Yes," Bud answered.
"My guess would be 'a woman scorned'!" Mac mumbled.
"Colonel, what do you mean scorned? Do you know something we don't?" Sturgis asked.
"Only that she's been throwing herself at the Admiral since she replaced Harriett and he has never even noticed her doing it," she sighed.
"Why would that make her file charges such as these? If she's interested in him, why do something that would hurt and humiliate, and damage his career?" Bud asked frowning.
"Maybe she was feeling hurt and humiliated," Mac offered with a thoughtful look.
"But you said that he never even noticed that she was flirting with him. I could understand if she were feeling ignored," Sturgis offered.
"If she wanted him to notice her, why not say that he was harassing her, instead of Mac?" Bud questioned.
"Because, if she said that he could easily deny it and it would be her word against a two star Admiral's. The way she has done this puts him in a vicious circle. The more I denied that the events happened, the more you thought I was just afraid of what he would do to my career. Instead of believing me, my denial perpetuated the circle!" Mac reasoned.
"And if this went to an Admiral's mast there would be a permanent black mark on his record, even if the charges were found false," Sturgis chimed in.
"So now that you both do believe me, what can we do to get this cleared up and the Admiral back behind his desk where he belongs?!" Mac wanted to know.
"We need to come up with a plan to make her recant the charges," Sturgis suggested.
"Or trap her into admitting that they're false!" Bud exclaimed.
After some thought, Mac said, "The only way to do something like that would be to make her mad enough to lose control and then let the truth spill out."
"Well I know how to make Harriett that mad, but how do you do it with someone you don't know?" Bud asked.
"How could you make sweet little Harriett that mad?" Sturgis wondered.
"All I have to do is accidentally remind her of how I tricked her into Jimmy's name," sighed Bud.
"Okay that's all well and good, but we need to come up with something to make Ensign Yancy that mad…" Mac paused, thinking hard at what might do that. Then in a flash it came to her! "Hey how about this?" she asked. "She seems to want to publicly humiliate him, what if we were to let it leak out that he was going to retire instead of allowing the charges to go public!?"
"That just might work!" Bud cheered.
"Bud and I could have that conversation within her hearing, her reaction to that might give us something to go on and we could adlib it from there," was Sturgis' suggestion.
"That sounds like it might be our only option," Bud replied.
"And if that doesn't work, I could hold her down and beat the truth out of her!" Mac muttered.
"I'm going to pretend that I didn't hear that, Colonel," Sturgis sighed.
"You do that," she smirked.
Once the plan was made, the three of them agreed that the best time to put it into action the next morning right after the staff meeting.
As they were coming out of the conference room, Harm saw them and called out to Bud to join him in his office so they could talk. Behind closed doors, Harm asked him, "So where are you with the Admiral's case?"
"Well, Sir, I've interviewed both the Admiral and the Colonel and they both tell the same story. Now I'm going to set up a meeting with the witness and see if I can get some more details."
"Just who is this witness?" Harm wanted to know.
"I promised the SECNAV that I would protect her anonymity until we get to the preliminary hearing, Sir," Bud replied.
Harm was about to try and pry the information out of Bud when the phone rang and because of the importance of the call, he had to dismiss Bud.
To Be Continued….