AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Zero nine hundred. The time Laura Lee set for the meeting. It was the first available time on everyone’s calendars. And she figured she needed to do the meeting early and get it over with, as she would obsess over it all day if she didn’t.
Laura Lee waited on the sixth-floor landing in the stairwell until three minutes till. Then she descended the last flight of stairs and approached Shepherd’s open door. Madison and Cooper were already within, sitting with Shepherd at the conference table.
Shepherd’s eyes focused on her as she appeared in the door. “Come,” he summoned.
She carried her laptop and set it on the table at a vacant seat across from Madison. “Good morning,” she said pleasantly, her voice not letting on how nervous she felt. She noticed the large monitor on the wall displayed BT. He was onsite at a PGP Install, though was tuned in from what looked like a hotel room. She smiled at the monitor, knowing the camera would show him the table and everyone at it. “Good morning, BT. How is the install going?” She wasn’t even sure where they were working this week.
“It’s nearly done. We’re missing you, though. How do you feel?”
“I’m healing. Have less pain every day, thank you,” she answered.
Just then, Doctor Lassiter entered, closing the door behind himself. He took a seat beside her. “Hi Laura Lee. How are you doing?”
“Well, thank you, Doctor Lassiter. I was just saying that I’m healing and feel less pain every day.”
“Good,” Lassiter said, nodding.
Laura Lee drew in a deep breath of air and then began, just as she had practiced. Her gaze swept over the table, landing on Shepherd. “Thank you for this meeting. The reason will be clear momentarily. May I plug my laptop into the monitor?”
Shepherd nodded.
“I was placed on a disciplinary probation for not completing my FBI coursework.” She clicked the keys on her laptop, bringing up the screen in the self-paced program that showed her completed modules and the dates she completed them and submitted them. She glanced at the monitor to be sure it was displayed. It was. She watched Shepherd as his eyes scanned the list. His facial expression gave nothing away.
“I don’t understand,” Madison said. “Laura, you finished them all months ago.”
“That’s correct. I finished them but I couldn’t submit them after I saw the name of the official at the FBI in Quantico who completed the final review and approval of Michael Cooper’s coursework.” She clicked on her keyboard again. “That man is Harrison West.” His picture displayed. “He was also a professor at the university I attended, the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia. I’d like to claim that I was young and naïve, but the truth is, I was just stupid. He set me up to make it look like I cheated, and he used that to keep me from reporting to the college and the police that he raped me.”
Madison gasped in surprise. Cooper’s eyebrows shot up and his trademark smirk formed on his face. He looked pissed. Shepherd’s poker face remained, but Doctor Lassiter’s face showed concern.
“How’d he set you up?” Madison asked.
“During my senior year, I took his criminal justice class as an elective when I realized something with my schedule was screwed up and I needed one more elective to graduate. It was really the only class that fit with my schedule. I had obtained an over-ride to carry the extra class. My engineering classes were intense and, given it was my major, I wanted to be sure I maintained my four-point-zero average in those classes, so I slipped to a C in the criminal justice class. Harrison West offered me an extra credit assignment that would raise my grade back to an A. It was in a file that he gave me the ID and password to. I tried it and did not gain access. I emailed him at the email address he gave me, not realizing until later that it wasn’t the official college email address, so there was no official trail of it. He apologized that the password was last semester’s password, and he gave me a new one. I tried it. It also failed. Same routine two more times. The fifth password he gave me worked. I got in, downloaded the worksheet, and spent an entire weekend looking up all the answers. I turned it in to him and was surprised when three days later, that worksheet turned out to be the final exam. I approached him after class to point it out and he slipped me a piece of paper with an address on it and he told me to meet him later that evening. He said he’d made a mistake and we needed to discuss it but had to run to an appointment at that moment. I was stupid. I never thought anything would happen to me and certainly not at the hands of one of my professors, an FBI Agent, at that.” She could feel the emotions bubbling up from where she thought they were locked down.
“It’s okay, take your time,” Lassiter said.
Laura Lee felt angry with herself. She had to get through this as planned. She took another deep breath. “I met him. It was a storefront for a staffing organization. I thought it was odd, but I went in. He was there. No one else was. And that’s where he raped me. And when he was done, he told me I was not going to report it. He had the proof that I hacked into his test file and stole the test and that he would report me. It would be his word against mine. He knew I was in the ROTC and that I was using their scholarship money to attend the university. He threatened to ruin me and get me thrown out of the program. They would have demanded the money back at the very least. Since it was so close to graduation and I had already signed my commitment to active duty and had my date to report to OCS Fort Benning, there could be other ramifications. He knew. He targeted me and set me up. That’s why I couldn’t let him see my name come across his desk by submitting my coursework.”
“Did you have any contact with him after graduation?” Lassiter asked.
“I changed my phone number and email address after I left Mary Washington. He emailed me one time at my old email address, telling me I had better return the email and that he had plans for me. I didn’t. And I never checked that email account again.”
“Get Garcia that email address and password,” Shepherd ordered.
“Wouldn’t the abandoned account have been deleted by now?” she asked.
“Deleted but never completely gone and unretrievable,” Shepherd said.
She nodded. Was that all he was going to say about it?
“Why didn’t you talk with anyone about this before now?” Madison asked.
“Like when I was placed on the disciplinary probation?” Laura Lee posed.
“Yes, or any other time,” Madison said.
“I was trying to figure out what to do. I thought I’d have more time.” Laura Lee caught sight of Shepherd’s hard gaze. He wasn’t buying that answer. “And to be honest, a few months ago when I was in Ops, I accessed the FBI database without permission to verify that it was the same man. I knew it was against the rules, but I had to know for sure. Had I been wrong, I would have submitted the coursework.”
“But you knew his signature, and you knew you weren’t wrong,” Shepherd said.
