Chapter 42

Mac had called Harm that morning telling him that she needed a ride because her car was in the shop. He gave her the ride, but took the chance to once again give her a hard time about losing the Navakolf case the day before. Giving a resigned sigh, she figured it was the price for the ride and said nothing.

Her mechanic called as she was reading through her morning messages. Mac was informed that he had checked her brakes like she asked and found there was a weak place in one of the lines that could have ruptured at any time. She sat there stunned that Judge Love had been right, but there was something fishy about it all. There was no way she could have 'heard' a weak spot in the brake line, this gave Mac something to think about on her way to the staff meeting.

However that thought was driven from her mind when the Admiral told them that Ensign Navakolf had raped a fellow student the night before and was trying to kill her when he was seen and interrupted. Mac threw a quick glance at Harm and saw he was sitting across the table with a blank look on his face. "So our emailer was right once again," Mac stated.

"It would seem so, Colonel," AJ agreed.

Harm finally spoke in a stunned voice, "I really believed that he was innocent after his roommates swore he was with them."

AJ sat there remembering the two conversations that he'd had with Miranda about the case and how her feelings had been right, just like their emailer had been. He was going to have to see what her reaction was to learn that she had been right about this young man. His attention was brought back to the room when he heard Mac ask, "Could it be that the roommates are some how involved. Or did he pay them off?"

Bud chimed in with, "Might it be that he has some kind of hold over them? Something that was big enough to get them to lie on his behalf?"

"It's hard to say, but we have him dead to rights on this one. Both with the witness that rescued Cadet Lowman and once Abby Lowman regained consciousness she easily picked him out of a photo line-up," AJ told them.

The meeting returned to the normal proceedings after that announcement and it was soon dismissed as everything was covered. On the way out, Mac was reminded of her thoughts about Miranda and how she had 'known' about her brakes being faulty. She wondered if the Judge had feelings about this case too….could Miranda Love be their anonymous emailer? Mac was going to call her as soon as she got to her office and see if Miranda would have lunch with her so they could talk about that very thing. She thought about mentioning her suspicions to the Admiral first, but then thought that it would be better to come to him with facts rather than feelings.

After the staff meeting AJ returned to his office and stood at his long windows with his hands clasped behind his back. This was his thinking place. He was not conscious of it, but when he had something important or puzzling on his mind he just seemed to gravitate to the window. Today he was considering the 'feeling' Miranda had about Ensign Navakolf. As he stood there thinking, his mind went over everything he knew about Miranda and in doing so Clayton Webb came to mind.

AJ remembered seeing Clay leaving Miranda's office and that after finding out AJ knew her, Clay had told him to listen to everything she said. It didn't take long after that thought had entered his head before AJ was sitting at his desk and dialing Webb's number. A short time later AJ hung up frustrated as usual after trying to get information out of the annoying spy. Webb would tell him nothing about Miranda other than, 'if you're dating the woman why are you asking me about her?'. AJ could hear the smirk in Webb's voice and hung up on him without even saying good-bye.

To Be Continued….