Chapter 6: What JAG Found
I called Major Renata Osei from the hospital room while Eve slept and Patricia stepped out to make calls of her own.
Renata had been my XO for two years.
She was precise, unflappable, and constitutionally incapable of softening information she thought you needed to hear directly.
"Talk to me," I said.
"Congratulations first," she said.
"Marcus told me.
Girl?"
"Eve.
She's perfect."
"Good.
Okay." A pause — the kind that meant she was deciding where to start.
"JAG contacted us yesterday evening.
Routine security review flagged something on the contract renewal for Holloway Meridian Group."
Grant's firm.
"What kind of something?"
"Procurement irregularities going back eighteen months.
Someone inside the firm has been submitting amended invoices after contract milestones are signed off.
The amendments are small enough individually to stay under automatic review thresholds, but JAG ran a cumulative analysis and the total is significant."
"How significant?"
"Four hundred and twelve thousand dollars."
I was quiet.
"There's more," Renata said.
"The amendments all carry an internal authorization code.
JAG traced it to a specific user account within the firm's billing system."
"Whose account?"
"Grant Holloway's."
The monitor beside Eve beeped softly.
She stirred, made a small sound, settled again.
"He used his own credentials," I said.
"Either that or someone with access to his credentials used them and he didn't notice for eighteen months.
JAG is treating both possibilities as open."
"What does JAG want from me?"
"They want to know if you have any knowledge of the irregularities.
Standard question given your oversight role.
They're not suggesting you were involved — the flag actually came from your division's own review process, which is part of why they're being careful about how they approach it."
"My division flagged his firm."
"Yes."
The irony was almost too clean to be accidental.
Grant had spent months calculating how to use my inheritance as his exit ramp.
He had not considered that my actual job — the one he had never bothered to understand — had been quietly watching his firm's government work for a year and a half.
"Tell JAG I'll meet with them Monday," I said.
"I have no prior knowledge of the irregularities.
I want that on record."
"Already noted.
Colonel — one more thing."
"Go ahead."
"The woman.
Diane Rourke.
She works in the firm's D.C.
billing office."
I sat with that for a moment.
"She has access to the billing system," I said.
"She processes the milestone sign-offs.
Her name isn't on the amendments, but her workflow touches every account that was altered."
"So either she helped him, or she knows who did, or—"
"Or she's been watching it happen and didn't know what to do about it," Renata said.
"Which might be why she contacted you."
I thought about the message.
*There are things Grant hasn't told you.* She had led with the affair, with the divorce attorney, with the things that would hurt me personally.
She had not mentioned the billing irregularities.
Either she didn't know they had been found.
Or she was waiting to see if I already knew.
"I need you to do something for me," I said.
"Name it."
"Find out if Diane Rourke has spoken to anyone at JAG yet."
A brief pause.
"You think she's going to try to get ahead of this."
"I think she contacted me last night for a reason, and I'm not certain the reason was entirely about my feelings."
"I'll find out," Renata said.
"Take care of yourself.
Take care of Eve."
"I will.
Thank you, Renata."
I ended the call and set the phone on the tray.
Eve was awake now, eyes open, doing the slow focused blinking of a person taking inventory of a new world.
I leaned over the bassinet and she turned her head toward me with the absolute confidence of someone who already knew exactly who I was.
"Your father," I told her quietly, "is in a great deal of trouble that has nothing to do with me."
She blinked.
"But I'm going to make sure none of it lands on you."
Patricia came back through the door, phone in hand, expression neutral in the way that meant something had happened.
"Grant's attorney called already," she said.
"That was fast."
"He's not contesting the divorce." She paused.
"But he's asking for a delay in the asset division proceedings.
Thirty days."
I looked at her.
"He needs thirty days to move something."
"That's my read."
"Tell his attorney twenty," I said.
"And Patricia — make sure our filing is airtight before Monday.
I have a feeling things are about to move faster than Grant is planning for."
She wrote something in her portfolio.
"One more thing," I said.
"Can you find out who introduced Grant to Diane Rourke?"
Patricia looked up.
"I want to know if this started as a personal relationship," I said, "or if it started as something else."
She held my gaze for a moment.
May you like
Then she wrote something else down.
"I'll have an answer by Sunday," she said.
