Chapter 5 - The Complaint
The complaint was only four pages, but it accomplished what the general's shouting had not: it made Nora look dangerous on paper.
Nell Dorsey alleged that Nora had pressed her for restricted vendor details, made unfounded comments about ValorBridge, and attempted to use personal connections in the military chain of command to influence an acquisition decision. She mentioned the parade-ground confrontation without mentioning the message on Nora's phone.
Nora sat across from her assigned legal assistance attorney and tried not to read the page aloud in anger.
"I can respond to the allegations," she said.
"Yes," the attorney replied. "But don't contact Dorsey and don't try to collect evidence from systems you're no longer authorized to use. Give me names, dates and the records you already lawfully have."
"And if the contract gets approved tomorrow?"
"You can't fix that by creating a second problem."
Nora hated how reasonable the answer was.
Meanwhile, at Fort Mercer, Ruiz had sent the report to an inspector general outside Hale's immediate supervisory chain. She had also requested that the contracting activity decide whether its procurement needed a temporary pause. The civilian contracting officer still had to make that decision.
That afternoon Nora called Major Mercer with his lawyer's permission. His voice sounded tired.
"I wasn't disappearing," he told her. "My chest locked up after Sarah's call. They kept me for observation. I asked the office to pack my things because I was changing assignments. Somebody moved faster than I expected."
"Did anyone tell you to destroy your phone?"
"Nobody used those words. They asked for it without a receipt. I said no."
"You did the right thing."
"I don't know about that. I waited four months before doing it."
He told Nora that Sarah had begun keeping records when ValorBridge's invoices stopped resembling the training schedules she saw during a temporary bookkeeping job for her son. The elder Hale had known she was worried. He had insisted that Evan deserved a chance to explain before anyone outside the family learned of it.
"The message wasn't an accusation against the general alone," Mercer said. "It was a warning about what he was willing to overlook."
Nora looked at Dorsey's complaint again. The motive to silence her might be larger than one man's pride.
Just before their call ended, Mercer added, "Sarah wants to speak with you. She says she has the original spreadsheet."
May you like
"When?"
"Tomorrow. In person. And she wants no one from her husband's office anywhere near it."
