Free Magnolia Gods (River Sunday Romance Mysteries Book 2) by Thomas Hollyday Page B

explosion in the Naval Research Factory laboratory:
    a. Any results from further investigation of the activities of Captain Edward Lawson will be presented to this Court as discovered in the future.
    b. Nothing has been presented to this court to link him definitely to the explosions.
    c. Mary Lawson, the wife of Captain Edward Lawson, is not linked by any information presented to this court to any explosions at the lab.
    2. That until the seaplane is retrieved from its crash site in the Atlantic Ocean, no further information can be gained concerning the destination of its pilot.
    3. That Captain Edward Lawson remains a prime suspect for traitorous activities with regard to the theft of the seaplane.
    4. That security should be improved at the seaplane facility at the Naval Aircraft Factory.
    5. That Mary Lawson can not be tied definitely to the theft of the seaplane or to any planning for its delivery to any destination which might endanger the national security of the United States.
    6. That Mary Lawson should be free to go to her home pending any further proof of her guilt.
    7. That until the investigation of the theft of the airplane and the destruction of the lab finally proves Mary Lawson innocent, that she is to have no survivors benefits from her deceased husband’s naval career.
    The record of proceedings was read and approved and the court finished the inquiry at 1:30 PM.
    A.F. Jinson
    Captain, US Navy
    President
     
    Charles Buck
    Lieutenant Commander, US Navy
    Judge Advocate”
     
    “Of course,” said Drexel, “The newspapers had a fit. I wasn’t too popular for getting her freed. Eventually, though, it all died down. Life went on. She went back to her farm.”
    “Those military judges still around?”
    “Dead and gone. They were pretty old at the time of the hearing.”
    “Nothing more came of it?”
    “Nothing.”
    “We couldn’t find any records of the hearing. This is the first official document I’ve seen,” said Mike.
    Drexel smiled. “That doesn’t surprise me.”
    “What did Wall do?”
    Drexel looked at Mike. “Bernard Wall was about as angry as anyone I have ever seen. He was swearing at her. He would have punched her if the security had not restrained him. He just kept talking about the millions he had lost. Yelling, all kinds of things. I remember he swore at her and asked where she and her rotten husband had put all the valve designs he had paid for.”
    “What about coworkers?”
    Drexel had one folder left. He handed it to Mike.
    “In this folder, you’ll read the testimony of the only witness the Navy could find to speak of what went on at the lab. You see, towards the end of the war, most of that lab had been reassigned. The ones who knew Lawson during the earlier years were shipped to the Pacific and killed, most of them, in Okinawa. The place had been almost shut down after the war contracts stopped. I gathered that Lawson was trying to keep the research going forward without much funding from the Navy.
    He laughed. “They tried another witness too. Lawson’s secretary. She didn’t testify.
    “What happened with the secretary?”
    “Rebecca Scott.” Drexel smiled, “She was crazy, that woman.”
    “What do you mean, crazy?”
    “She'd carry on screaming and cursing all of us. Not only me. The Navy too. Nobody could get a simple clear sentence out of her among all the swear words. After a day or so of trying to get her talk, she was committed to a hospital near Philadelphia.”
    He went on. “Then came the questioning of the other prospect, Hiram Jones, another Navy man, who had been assigned to the lab and who had just reported in a few weeks before the explosion.”
    “What about Hiram Jones?”
    “He didn’t say much.”
    Drexel reached into the folder and produced another piece of thin typewritten paper.
    “Hiram Jones,” he said as he handed the paper to Mike.
     
    Question: “When were you assigned to the Naval Research Laboratory, Lieutenant