Chapter 18
Monday, June 6, 2005
0900 EST
JAG Headquarters
Falls Church, Virginia
At the Monday morning staff meeting AJ was welcomed back and then they got down to the business of the day. Harm gave an update on what had taken place in AJ's absence and then turned the meeting over to him. AJ in turn asked Commander Rabb if he would be willing to take on Ensign Yancy's defense, since he'd had the least involvement in the case.
Harm said he would and asked who would be prosecuting. AJ looked around the table and then shocked them all by saying, "Since Ensign Yancy filed the false reports in Colonel Mackenzie's name, I think she should have the chance of prosecuting the case if she wishes. Colonel?"
At Mac's nod that she wanted the case, the Admiral added, "I want you to have either Sturgis or Bud as co-counsel on this one, just so there is not hint of impropriety."
Mac agreed to this as well and since she knew that Bud was still feeling the sting of being assigned to prosecute the Admiral, she asked if he would like the job. Everyone seemed pleased when he accepted. She then asked if she could have a moment before they continued. At AJ's nod, she reported the last email she had gotten that had led her to the picture of AJ in Ensign Yancy's desk.
That report led AJ right into what he had been planning on covering next. "Bud had managed to track the emails back to our very own bullpen computers. Since it is an open computer that everyone has access to we have ruled out being able to use fingerprints from the computer keys. Because of this, I'm having a guard posted in the bullpen at night for the time being. We believe whomever our emailer is, sends them after hours."
"What if it's one of us, Sir?" Jen asked. "By telling us that there will be a guard posted whoever it is would be foolish to post again."
"I'm pretty sure that we can trust everyone here, plus the information contained in the different emails makes it almost impossible for it to have been any one of you. Almost all of us have gotten at least one email. The only ones that haven't, are Harm, Jen, and as far as we know, Ensign Yancy. Now I'm pretty sure since all of them have been about cases we are involved in, Jen has no reason to receive any, and because at least two were detrimental to Ensign Yancy, we can rule her out. So unless you'd like to confess here and now Commander…" AJ waited for Harm's startled look and the laughter from the others to die down before continuing, "Then barring that, I think we need to look elsewhere for our anonymous helper. I do believe that it is an 'in house' culprit though, because with security being what it is it's unlikely it could be a visitor. This is also suggested by the frequency of the emails. However, just to be on the safe side, I want Bud to check out the visitor lists and see if any one person has been here each time these correspondences were sent."
"Yes, Sir!" Bud responded.
"I think it also should go without saying that anyone who receives another of these emails report it immediately and refrain from acting on it," AJ told them.
"But Sir they have been so helpful!" Mac protested.
"Yes, but we have no idea who is sending them and to what their motive is for doing it."
"Obviously they have all been to help us in cases we are working on," she responded.
"That may be, up until now anyway, but we have no idea if that could change at any time. So until further notice, no one acts on anonymous emails and they are reported at once!" AJ insisted.
After the new cases were passed out and updates on current ones given, AJ dismissed the meeting. He would usually grab a cup of coffee from the break room and head to his office right after the meeting, but today he headed for the elevator and rode it up to the third floor. Before the meeting he had checked Judge Love's court docket and found that her first case wouldn't be until 1030 EST, so he hoped to catch her in her chambers before that.
To Be Continued….