by J. D. German
Chapter 13 – Flashpoint!
When Lynn got to her desk the next morning inventory sheets for the day’s shipments were on her desk. As she paged through them she realized that there were twice as many trucks scheduled to go out than on the previous day. She didn’t see how she and Jake would have time to check all the cargos before the scheduled departure times. She thought Why so many trucks? What’s going on. Then it came to her. Jake wants me to get behind schedule so I’ll have to skip some of the inspections. Those are the trucks he will hold back crates from to divert to his own customers. Lynn grabbed the inventory sheets and headed for the loading dock.
When she got there she went straight over to Big Jake waving the papers in her hand. “You have eleven trucks scheduled for departure today. How do you plan to get them all loaded and inspected in eight hours?”
Jake gave her a self-satisfied grin. “Oh, my boys will get them loaded. I had a talk with them and they agreed to step up their efforts to make sure we finish. My question is how do you plan to get them all inspected? If you hold them up, the drivers get overtime pay and management won’t be happy about that. I suppose we’ll just have to spot check some of them and you can just sign off on the others so they get out of here on time.”
Lynn glared at him, then climbed on a crate and called the men together in front of her. “Listen up! We have to load and inspect eleven trucks today. I understand that Mr. Dillon has asked you to work hard enough to get it done and you have graciously agreed. But to avoid a bottleneck with inspections, we will have to change the loading procedure. I want each truck’s load to be stacked on the loading dock behind the truck, with the shipping labels all facing to the right. When the crates are ready to be put in the truck, let me know and Mr. Dillon and I will rush over, complete the inventory, and sign off on it. As soon as that’s done, I want a double crew available to load it immediately while I watch. Any questions?”
She looked over at Jake and saw him glowering at her. She gave him her own smile of satisfaction and asked, “How about you, Mr. Dillon? Any questions?” He shouted to the men, “You heard the lady - get to work!” Jake held Lynn in his threatening gaze for a few seconds, then turned and strode off.
Things went slowly at first as the men got used to the new procedure, but after that it picked up. By lunchtime they had the shipments for four trucks ready to load with several others underway. When they called her over for the first inspection she pulled Jake from the busywork he was doing and headed for the stacked crates. On the way over she turned to Jake and said, “You might have to roll up your sleeves and do some actual loading work to stay on schedule, Mr. Dillon.”
He answered in a low voice so no one else could hear, “This isn’t over, missy. I’ll have a union representative in here tomorrow to see how you order my men around. By union rules, I’m the only one who can do that.”
“Then maybe I’ll have to join your union myself so I can play by your rules.”
By quarter to five the last truck pulled away from the dock. Lynn was bone tired, but satisfied with herself for beating Big Jake at his own game. I wonder what he will come up with tomorrow, Lynn thought as she stepped onto the freight elevator and started to close the gate. At the last second, Jake ducked under the gate to join her. She started to move to the opposite corner of the elevator box, but then stopped and stood her ground. I can’t show any of the cowering weakness that Nancy did. It will encourage him to make a move on me. She thought for a second, then said, “That was a good day’s work, Mr. Dillon. Who would have thought your crew could get eleven trucks out in a single day.”
“They can do that any day, missy – at least until some of them start calling in sick.”
Lynn casually hooked her thumb in her belt and switched on the special cell phone Tom gave her. Everything Jake said and did from here on would be transmitted back to the communications room at CSIC for Dave’s people to watch and record. If she needed help they would call Tom to help her, but here in the factory that would take some time. So Lynn started mentally rehearsing the moves she would use to incapacitate the big man if she needed to. It didn’t take long before she had to go into action.
O’Malley was leaning back in his chair keeping watch on several computer screens that were monitoring various cameras CSIC had in place. Typically only two or three CSIC cases at a time required hidden video cameras to gather evidence or monitor clients under their protection. But now, with Lynn’s cell phone camera, he had an extra screen to watch. His attention was currently focused on a camera showing a well-known political figure about to climb into bed with a woman twenty years younger. His wife knew he was having an affair and she wanted some proof to go to court with. From the way this scenario was unfolding she would have all she wanted by tomorrow. He was watching good, clear video as the two of them engaged in some preliminary foreplay. O’Malley regretfully blanked out the computer screen before it got too explicit and let the action go into the computer memory. He wasn’t into that sort of thing and company policy required that he record it without watching. The DVD video would be shown to the politician’s wife and her lawyer, and they would decide what to do with it. When the motion-activated camera sensed no more movement by the two it would stop collecting the video, automatically record it on a DVD with a secure access code, and erase it from the computer memory. Only someone with the access code would be able to view the DVD.
The problem right now was that he had spent too much time watching the couple warm each other up that he missed the screen from Lynn’s cell phone when it came to life. When he sat back to survey the rest of the screens he caught it, but it had been running for almost five minutes. “Shoot! What did I miss! Uh oh. That’s bad. Really bad. I need to call Tom and Dave right away.”
Dave had just arrived home after a grueling day and couldn’t wait to sit down with a drink in his hand, Margaret at his side, and Fox News catching him up on the day’s events. After several minutes of watching the talking heads argue with each other about subjects they had no expertise in, he switched it to a soft music channel and pulled his wife close to him.
“This is the absolute best time of my day, Margaret. It’s why I can put up with all the oversized egos, anger, and demands of my clients. Sometimes I wish it was still just you and me running the smallest detective agency in Philly. We worked long hours, but the clientele we dealt with were everyday folks who needed a little help with simple problems. Now I have to deal with corporate CEOs who think they know everything and never miss a chance to blow their own horns. And the staff members they bring along to witness their greatness – most of these know their boss is a buffoon – but they have to agree with him on everything or they’re fired. My staff members know to question everything – to let me know when I’m like the King With New Clothes from Hans Christian Anderson’s tales.”
“That’s called the Emperor’s New Clothes dear.”
Dave laughed. “Just like I said. I surround myself with people who aren’t afraid to correct me.”
He gave her another hug and held it longer, hoping to communicate to her the hopes he had for after supper. She turned her mouth up for a kiss, letting him know that the message was received. Just then Dave’s cell phone rang. “Damn! Just when it was getting interesting. Hello, Dave here. This better be important.”
“It’s O’Malley, Dave. There’s a problem with Lynn’s assignment.”
“I’m headed for the car. Fill me in on the way.”
He looked down at his wife. “Can you give me a rain check on that, sweetheart? I shouldn’t be too long.” He knew it wasn’t true when he said it, but he always felt guilty when work got in the way of his family life.
“I’ll be ready and waiting whenever you get home, dear. I’ll wear that black satin negligee. Maybe it will entice you to get home sooner.”
Dave groaned. “Torture me, why don’t you. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” He gave her a long, passionate kiss and said “I hope that will k
eep you warm until I get back.”
As Dave headed for the office to see what O’Malley had to show him, Tom called and redirected him to Lynn’s undercover apartment. Dave thought, Well, at least it wasn’t the hospital. She and Tom were waiting for him, with O’Malley on the computer screen.
“Tell me what happened” Dave said as soon as he entered the apartment. O’Malley replied “It’s best if you see it yourself, Dave. I’ll play the video for you.”
When the video cut in, the cell phone in Lynn’s belt holster showed a large man with tattoos facing her. Lynn was telling him “If you call a sickout won’t that limit the number of trucks that can be loaded and released for departure?”
“It sure will, missy, but I’ll tell management – and the union – that it was your fault because you increased the workload today. The union contract says we don’t have to load more than seven trucks a day, but you told us we had to do eleven trucks – eleven trucks in an eight-hour day. If the crew had worked at it’s usual pace, they’d have got time and a half for the extra time it would’a took.”
“If you go to management, they will ask why your men can’t do eleven trucks every day. The fact that they did eleven today is proof that they’re slacking off most of the time – purposely working slowly so they can have time to B.S. with each other – and for moving some of the crates to your hiding place for off-the-books shipping to other customers.”
Dave spoke up. “You shouldn’t have said that, Lynn. You just gave away your cover.”
Tom added, “But only to Jake. If we can get him out of the picture we still might be able to see how the shipments are getting out.”
“I may have solved that problem, at least in the short term. Watch the rest of the video.”
O’Malley started it back up, ready to stop the action at critical points in the video.
It picked up with Jake’s response. “What do you know about that! Are you a cop? I’ll show you how we handle cops around here – especially woman cops.”
The camera showed Jake moving in on Lynn, but before he got close, a foot shot out and kicked him between the legs. He doubled over in pain, but Lynn hadn’t pressed her advantage. He recovered enough to growl at her and renew his attack. This time he moved in close to avoid her kicks and was too close to the camera to see what he was doing. But the audio came through clearly:
Jake grunted “I’ll make you wish you never heard of me.” That was followed by the sound of cloth ripping. The next second Big Jake flew backwards away from the camera with a piece of Lynn’s shirt in his hand and blood pouring from his nose. At this point the camera was knocked from Lynn’s belt and landed in a corner. It couldn’t have landed in a better position - they watched the rest of the action from a ringside seat in the corner of the elevator.
As Jake recovered his feet and moved in again, Lynn hit him in the chin with the heel of her hand. Pieces of Jake’s teeth flew out of the scene. Lynn’s next move caught Jake in the Adam’s apple followed by a blow to the solar plexus – the place just below the center of the ribs that paralyzes the diaphragm, making breathing all but impossible. Jake crumpled into a corner gasping for breath. Then they saw her walking toward the camera, picking it up, and pointing it at Jake’s face to record the mess that was left. Then they watched her take a selfie pumping her right arm up and down and saying “YES!”
They all sat for a few minutes, then O’Malley said “We can edit out that last part – it wouldn’t play well in front of a jury.”
Dave looked around the room. “Our goal here was to uncover a link to the RPG munitions smuggling, not to get payback on a Neanderthal dock loading chief. I see that you had to defend yourself, Lynn, but it’s almost like you wanted him to attack you just so you could unleash your anger on him. You revealed your undercover mission with your comment about off-the-books shipping. Now he thinks you are a cop. If that information gets back to the dock workers or the union, you’ll be lucky to get out alive. I think we have to terminate the operation for your protection, Lynn.”
Lynn started to protest when Tom cut in. “So far, Jake is the only one who suspects Lynn, and he’s in the hospital with his jaw wired shut and drugged to the gills. If Lynn can get back in there tomorrow and figure out how the illegal shipments are getting out, before Jake has a chance to communicate what he knows, it might work out. But tomorrow will have to be her last day. If she can’t crack the case by close of business we have to pull her out.”
Lynn added her input to Tom’s. “Let me do this Dave. I’ve figured out how Jake was short-loading some of the trucks. Now I just have to find where he stashes the stolen crates and gets them out of the factory. . . . Please, Dave, let me finish this.”
“Well, it’s against my better judgment, but I’ll give you one more day. Tom, you park your car at the diner across the street from the employees’ gate in case you have to get to her quickly. And I’ll post a couple of my guys staking out her apartment in case Jake gets the word out somehow.” With that, Dave got up and said “I’m going home. I have something special waiting for me there.”
Lynn was drifting in and out of sleep, with snippets of her memories of Jack running through her mind. Nothing scary this time – just pleasant times together. Then, in her dream, Jack reached out and shook her shoulder – hard. “Wake up. There’s someone in your apartment!”
Lynn’s eyes popped open as she focused her hearing on the sounds around her. The air conditioning, the refrigerator, the creaking of . . . of what! The front door opening? Lynn closed her hand around the Glock handgun on the night stand and quietly slid out from under the covers and over the side of the bed onto the floor, leaving her pillows under the blanket. The space beneath the bed was high enough for her to slide under. She lay there with her gun aimed at anyone whose feet showed up in her bedroom doorway.
Two pairs of feet appeared, both men in black sneakers. One pair moved closer to the bed and paused. Lynn heard two muffled gun shots from a silenced weapon, followed by the scrambling of feet as the men ran for the front door and closed it behind them. Thirty-seconds later the front door burst open again. Lynn tensed, ready to shoot at the next pair of feet she saw.
“Lynn! Lynn? Are you all right?” Tom shouted.
As Lynn picked herself up from the floor, she answered, “I’m in here, Tom. I’m okay. Where were you? Sleeping in your car?”
“I had to step into the alley to take a leak. I didn’t know they were here until I saw them running out your door. I was too far away to stop them, but I got a license number. What did they do in here?”
“I slid under the bed with my gun and listened while one of them put two shots from a silenced hand gun into my pillow.”
“Did they see you?”
“No. I resisted the urge to cripple them both by blowing away their ankles.”
They both stood there silently until Tom reached out and pulled her to him. She was trembling so he held her until she was calm, then sat her down on the couch.
“What do we do now, Tom?”
“Well, if they think they killed you, they won’t expect you to show up at work tomorrow. Maybe you could go in late, after they have pulled some crates from a shipment or two and hidden them away. Then you show up and announce an inventory of the trucks. They’ll have to send someone to sneak the diverted crates back to the loading dock. Meanwhile I’ll be wandering around as a janitor to see where they go to recover the hidden shipping containers.”
“I like that plan, Tom. And by looking to see who is the most surprised at my re-appearance, I might figure out who came over for the midnight visit.”
At ten o’clock the next morning Lynn showed up at the loading docks and immediately climbed up on some crates. No one noticed her until she yelled “Listen up, everybody.” Lynn paused as she scanned the workers faces, but none of them seemed surprised to see her. “Is this everyone? Where is Mr. Dillon this morning?”
One of Jake’s friends looked up at her. “He di
dn’t show up today. He must be sick or something.”
“Aren’t we missing two forklift drivers? Where are they?” No one answered, but as if on cue, two fork lifts rounded the corner and headed for a stack of crates behind one of the trucks. Neither of them saw her until she yelled “Hey. Over here. We’re having a meeting.” They turned to look at her and slammed on their brakes. For a second or two Lynn saw looks of surprise, then fear cross both faces. She smiled because she knew O’Malley back at CSIC was watching on her cell phone link and recording it all.
“I said we’re having a meeting. Now get off your vehicles and join the rest of us.” After they timidly approached the group Lynn continued speaking. “I got held up in traffic today so I got here late. I see you have already started loading the trucks without my inspection, so I want no more crates loaded until I have time to inspect what’s on the trucks already. You can continue to stack the crates behind each truck like you did yesterday until I can get to them. Who is going to sign the shipping documents – who is Mr. Dillon’s replacement when he’s absent?” One of the crew raised his hand.
“Okay, I have to go upstairs and print out the inventory list for today’s shipments. I’ll be back in thirty minutes, then you join me for the inspections.” Lynn hopped down from her makeshift podium and took the freight elevator up to her office. When she got there she hacked into the company personnel files looked up the two forklift drivers. She emailed their files and photos to O’Malley with instructions to forward the photos immediately to Tom’s smart phone.
Tom had shown up at U. S. Munitions before Lynn got there, had a meeting with their chief of security, and left his office in a pair of dirty coveralls, a company badge, and a wide broom. He had studied the floor plan last night and marked some areas where the stolen crates might be hidden, so while Lynn was speaking to the crew, he stumbled along behind his broom looking for evidence. When his phone vibrated he went to a dark corner and answered it. O’Malley had sent him photos of two forklift drivers who were probably involved in Jake Dillon’s theft ring.
Tom thought for a minute then mentally kicked himself for missing the obvious. Of course, there had to be forklifts involved to move the heavy crates. He hurried towards the loading docks just as Lynn told the crew she would be back in half an hour. Tom smiled. Lynn gave him the perfect setup. With her getting there late some of the crates would have been hidden already. When she announced a full inspection of the inventory, the looters would have to rush back to the crates they had already diverted and bring them back to be inventoried. He would just lurk in the shadows and see where they go to get the stolen crates.
Tom didn’t have to wait long. Two forklifts lumbered past him headed toward the far end of the shipping and receiving area. He hurried in that direction, went through some double doors, and quickly froze. The two men were busy unloading four crates from a delivery van parked at the receiving dock. Fortunately they hadn’t seen him yet, so Tom slowly backed out through the doors and hid behind some shelves. After the forklifts passed him on their way to returning the crates he went back to the receiving area and got the license number of the van. He sent it to O’Malley with a text describing what was going on. Once Dave tells the Army investigators who the van belongs to, they can follow up from there.
Tom texted Lynn “All done here. Good work! You should leave now, but don’t go back to the undercover apartment. I’ll meet you back at CSIC.”
Lynn looked at Tom’s message, then headed for Nancy’s desk.
“Hi Cindy. I hear you’re doing a great job down in shipping.”
“That’s what I want to talk to you about. I’ll be leaving the factory in a few minutes and you will get a call telling you to take over for me.”
“Are you going home sick or something?”
“Yeah, or something. But I won’t be back, so the job will be yours if you want it.”
“I can’t do the job right as long a Big Jake is around.”
“He won’t be a problem, Nancy, not today – not ever.”
“Seriously! What did you do, get him fired?”
“No, but it won’t be long before you know the story. I have really enjoyed our friendship. If you ever need any help – with abusive men I mean, call me.”
“So this is goodbye, huh.” Nancy got up from her chair and hugged Lynn with tears in her eyes and a whispered “Thank you.”