by Dale Mayer
Silence.
But when he thought he heard raised voices, he walked toward the back. As he got closer, both voices were definitely male, though Tanner called out again, “Wynn?”
Two men stepped forward and frowned at him.
Tanner held up his hands. “Hey, I’m not trespassing or anything. The receptionist told me that I’d find Wynn back here. Have you seen her?”
Both men shook their heads, one of them saying. “No, she’s gone for the day.”
Tanner pointed over his shoulder with his thumb. “But her Jeep is still here.”
The guy who had spoken shrugged. “Don’t know anything about that.”
The second man shot the first one a hard look. “She’s around here somewhere. I saw her about a half hour ago.”
Sensing the tension and not liking it, Tanner nodded. “Well, either I can look around or you guys can point me in the direction where I’ll find her.” He said it coolly but with a tone that declared he fully intended to find her, and he’d go looking himself and, if they didn’t want him to find something, too damn bad.
The first man gave a sound of disgust. “She’s probably over in the other hanger. Just go through that door there.”
He pointed to a door Tanner hadn’t seen at first glance. He nodded and walked toward it. It was unlocked. He pushed it open, checked behind him and found the two guys were again in a heated argument, but this time their voices were muted, as if they didn’t want him to hear. People argued. That didn’t mean every dispute was nefarious or had to be broadcast for everyone to hear. It could be about who made the coffee that day. Too often it was something silly like that.
The next room was full of hanging silks, framework, parts and pieces, like a repair shop. He called out, “Hey, Wynn, are you in here?” From the far back corner he heard a muffled sound. He walked toward it to see her straightening up parachutes. “Hey, glad to see you’re still here.”
She turned, startled.
Her face lit up when she saw him, making him feel good.
“Hey, what are you doing here?”
He shrugged self-consciously. “I guess I wanted to make sure you’re still alive.”
She held out her arms. “As you can see, I am.”
He nodded. “You didn’t teach today?”
Her arms dropped to her sides, and she turned back to the parachutes. “No,” she said. “The bosses thought I should have the day off.”
“Was it the bosses’ decision or yours?”
“Theirs.” She shot Tanner a quick glance. “I wanted to go up. The faster I go up, the easier it is.”
He nodded. “My sentiments exactly. Were they really upset?”
“One of them is,” she said. “Maybe with good reason. I don’t know.”
“If it’s sabotage, then they should be upset.” His voice was hard. “But, if it was an accident, well, accidents happen.”
“Sure they do, but nobody wants it to happen on their watch,” she said drily. “Bad press isn’t good for anyone, remember?” She turned back again to the parachute on a table.
“Did you ever find your chute or the main harness?” he asked.
She shook her head. “No. I asked around, but everyone’s assuming it ended up in the bottom of the river.”
He swore. “I’m sorry. I should have checked with Kanen about that.” He pulled out his phone and dialed Kanen. “Hey, you were part of pulling those two paragliders out of the river. Did you happen to see her harness with her chute?”
“We pulled the one out,” his buddy said. “Not sure I ever saw a second one. It was a mess of cut lines.”
“Right. I just wanted to check. Thanks.” He shook his head. “Kanen only remembers seeing one.”
“With all the lines tangled and cutting the parts to lift them out of the water,” she said, “it’s quite feasible it dropped deeper into the river,” she said calmly. “But my brother wants me to bring it home, so he can inspect it.”
“Your brother?”
“Todd,” she said by way of explanation, “he’s an engineer. We designed the harnesses and the new framework. Patents are in progress,” she confessed with a small smile.
“Wow. Good for you.” And then he thought about that. “Who else knows?”
She stopped and stared at him. “It’s not something we’ve hidden.”
He crossed his arms over his chest. “Maybe you should though. Especially considering recent events.”
“The first one was pretty minor,” she said. “Somebody tried to run me off the road. As it was, the ground was fairly flat, so I don’t know what he expected to happen. Todd and I were in my Jeep, so I just off-roaded for a while, watched the guy disappear and came back on the road again.”
“Where was that?”
“I was driving back roads that weekend. Sometimes, when I want to get away from everything, I like to go for drives. I think he was just being an asshole.”
“If that was the only thing to happen recently, then maybe,” he said. “But what about the second one?”
She frowned, looked around, didn’t say anything for a long moment. “One of the crossbeams in here, part of the struts that hold all the framing pieces up there in the warehouse …” She pointed to a loft. “One of the corner crossbeams came down, and everything dumped where I had been standing just seconds earlier.”
He studied it for a long moment, his heart stalled at the thought of all those sharp aluminum parts coming down at an angle. “That could have killed you.”
“I try not to think about it,” she said with dry humor. “But you’re right, it could have. I didn’t let people know I was directly in the line of fire.”
“You didn’t say anything?”
She shook her head. “No. There is a catwalk up there, where we load stuff. It’s certainly possible something might have, you know, happened when I wasn’t looking. But I can’t say for sure, and all the evidence is gone.”
“Gone where?”
She shrugged. “The guys fixed it, built a new strut, new support. For all I know, the old pieces went into the garbage. They didn’t say anything about it at the time.”
“Well, if they’d set it up to look like an accident, they wouldn’t tell you otherwise, now would they?”
“It’s hard to imagine anybody I work with here would have done something like that,” she said.
“I don’t think we ever want to consider our friends as having those kinds of thoughts,” he said quietly. “That doesn’t mean they don’t.”
She turned, fisted her hands on her hips and stared at him. “What is it that you want from me?” she cried out. “I didn’t even really consider it an issue until yesterday. Then it was pretty hard not to.”
“Of course, but the fact is, now it’s a little too late to see that evidence, isn’t it?”
“Maybe not. The crossbeams were probably tossed out back.” She walked toward the back of the building, stepping behind hanging silks. He followed her, admiring the quality of the cloth. Then she pushed open a door and walked to the back of the property. The weeds had gathered here, and definitely some odd pieces of wood were tossed out and stacked up against the building. She looked at the pile and said, “It was probably one of these.”
“What did it look like?”
“Like one of those big eight-by-eight beams used as a pillar.” She walked over, studying the debris. “But it doesn’t appear to be here.”
“So the crossbeams were just like the pillars extending from the floor up to the loft area?”
She nodded. “I think it was twelve foot long, maybe ten.” She pointed back at the warehouse. “The same as the new one in there now.”
“So they only replaced the one beam that fell?”
“Correct.”
“What about the others? Did they check them out too?”
“I really don’t know about that.”
“They should have. If the one crossbeam fatigued due to nothing other than age, then t
he others should have been checked out too. If any beam or crossbeam is deemed structurally defective, it should be replaced,” he said.
She nodded. “I agree with that theory. But I still have no idea if they checked all the pillars, all the crossbeams. However, I think they did something else to the new one, like attached more crossbeams. Someone said too much weight was on top of it. That’s why something had come down. Maybe even loose plywood was across it originally, as some kinda flooring. It was pretty thin, as I recall.”
“So again an accident that looked like an accident and was viable in terms of it being an accident, ready to happen at any time. But how convenient that you happened to be the person standing there when it did give way.”
“I’ve already thought of all that.” Her voice was low. “It still doesn’t tell me anything about who though.”
“You didn’t see anybody on the catwalk earlier?”
“Quite a few people had been up there,” she said. “They were unloading and moving materials around. The hangers have been kind of a mess, so we’ve been on this big kick to clean them up and to make better use of the space.”
He nodded and turned to look around. “I don’t see a beam that size here. From what you said, maybe the beam was fine. Maybe just one of the crossbeams failed. So it’s possible that they used the same pillar.”
“I didn’t look at it that closely,” she confessed.
And that made sense too. If she wasn’t involved in doing any of the structural work on the building, then why would she? Out of curiosity, sure, but maybe it was more painful to watch something like that being fixed after her near-miss. He didn’t know. He would have been in there, helping to fix it. But he understood her point.
He walked back inside and took a look around the hanger. Two storage areas were definitely up on top. He could see the one crossbeam had been replaced versus the old one, because the old one sagged. Definitely an accident waiting to happen. “I’m surprised they didn’t fix both at the same time.”
She glanced up at the other one. “I guess they figured it didn’t need it.”
“So another accident that could be planned,” he said.
“It’s possible,” she said. “I’ll have to remember not to stand anywhere close to that one.”
“Do that,” he said. He looked around again. “When are you done here for the day?”
She checked her watch. “Now,” she said. “Why?”
He flashed her a big grin. “I was going to suggest dinner.” The surprise in her gaze was almost insulting. And then he realized he had made an assumption he had no right to. “If you’re not in a relationship,” he said hurriedly. “I never even thought to ask. Sorry.”
She laughed. “No, that’s fine. I’m not in one, and I would love to have dinner. As long as it’s not Chinese.”
He laughed out loud. “You don’t like Chinese food? You’ve got to be the first person who I’ve heard say that.”
“My brother is addicted to it,” she said with a laugh. “So we have it multiple times in a week.”
“There’s a special showing at the racetrack tonight. I don’t know if that appeals.” He studied her face, watching it light up. Inside he felt something settle. She really was into more unusual stuff. And that was cool with him.
“The auto show—I was going to see that,” she said. “I love looking at the latest vehicles. Of course nothing quite compares to my Jeep.”
He walked out of the warehouse, waited for her to lock up and said, “So what would you like for dinner then?”
“There’s a barbecue place near the racetrack,” she said. “If we go now, even with the twenty-mile drive, it would be a bit early though.”
“I don’t think that’s an issue,” he said quietly. “The thing is, we would have to take two vehicles.”
She nodded and considered the problem. “I’m staying just a few miles from here. Where do you live?”
“About a thirty-minute drive away.”
“In that case I guess we’ll drive to my place, leave a vehicle and go together.” She stopped and turned to look at him. “If that works for you.”
He gave her a big beautiful smile. “It works perfectly.”
They walked to the front of the parking lot, and she stopped again at the two vehicles. “Of course you drive a Jeep, don’t you?” There was a sort of resignation in her voice.
He frowned. “Is that a problem?”
She shook her head. “No, not really a problem.”
Something in her tone he didn’t quite understand.
Then she brushed off whatever it was and said, “I suggest you follow me home. That’s probably the easiest way to get there.” She hopped in her Jeep and turned on the engine. “I’m on the 4200 block of Sunset Boulevard. In case you get lost.”
“I won’t get lost,” he called back.
“I meant, in case you lose me,” she said with a laugh. She raised her eyebrows, pulled the Jeep out of the parking lot and took off.
And that’s when he realized she liked speed—just like he did.
Chapter 4
Of course he drove a Jeep. There was just something about men who drove Jeeps. Lots drove them for fun; lots drove them for show. But he drove it like he knew exactly what it could do. And that was attractive.
She’d always been an outdoor kind of gal. All the men in her life had driven trucks or Jeeps; almost all of them had been outdoorsy guys. She understood she had been training SEALs with Tanner’s particular group and realized it was an unusual circumstance in that they were all navy personnel getting specialized training from civilians. But they’d been that badass can-do-anything-in-the-world macho group that she had expected of SEALs.
They’d been a little intimidating at the beginning. Her assistant instructor, Trish, had wondered just what the school was up against training a classful of SEALs. But it had been a long time since Wynn had been intimidated by anybody. Yet she’d stepped forward to lead the class with a total sense of confidence. The fact that she’d gone down in flames, as witnessed by all those SEALs, had not been a good way to end the day.
But Tanner was right when he had said they shared a connection now. Not the connection she’d have preferred, but, considering how damn sexy and attractive he was, it wasn’t a bad way to start a relationship. She’d been surprised to see him when he had walked into the hanger today, and, yet, on the inside, she had had a sense of waiting for him.
Maybe knowing that, because of the way they’d come together, it couldn’t be over quite so quickly. So he’d come to check on her, to make sure she was okay after a day of teaching, which showed how much of a caring person he was. Yet, when he’d suggested dinner, she’d been hesitant.
It had been two years since her last serious relationship, enough time to be looking again. But why bother? She was so busy with her own life—working as a trainer during the day, working on her designs at night and taking care of her brother—that she hadn’t bothered. Literally she’d fallen on top of Tanner, so that gave them a combustible beginning.
After stopping by her house-sitting location, they’d decided to take his Jeep for the evening. She walked into the barbecue restaurant with him just several steps behind. This was one of her favorite places to eat. The food was hot, plentiful and reasonably priced.
Dani, the waitress, looked up, caught sight of her and waved. Within minutes they were led to a nice table by the window. As they sat down, Dani said in a joking tone, “Glad to see you. It’s been at least a week.”
Wynn chuckled. “It has been. At least this time I’m sitting in the dining room and not picking up takeout.”
“Tell that brother of yours to get out of the design shop and to get back over here.” Dani chuckled. “And who are you?” She turned to study Tanner.
He stood again, reached over and shook her hand.
Surprised, Dani gave him a second glance. “Wow, Wynn, your taste has moved up in the world.”
Wynn could feel t
he heat rising up her cheeks. She leaned toward Tanner and pseudo-whispered, “Don’t worry about Dani. She just lets anything trip off her lips.”
Dani laughed a big booming laugh that echoed through the room. “Now that’s true enough. You two take a look at those menus, and I’ll be back in a jiff.” And she took off.
With Dani gone, Tanner smirked. “I gather you come here a lot.”
She chuckled. “One of my favorite places to eat. But then, it’s also my brother’s, so that makes this a nice solution for dinner.”
“Your brother? The one who likes Chinese?”
She smiled, welcoming Tanner’s natural curiosity that came out in an easy way. “Yeah. He does all the meticulous detailed work. He was a professional, like me, until he had a bad crash. That sent him delving into research to improve safety.”
“How badly hurt was he?”
“Bad enough that we didn’t think he’d ever walk again. He doesn’t walk well, but he does walk. He has a wheelchair for when he gets tired, but he’s getting stronger.”
“How long ago was his accident?”
“Two years ago,” she said with a sad smile. “He spent six months in the hospital, followed by physio. Now he works at home, where his design shop is. I’m staying temporarily where we left my Jeep, house-sitting at a friend’s apartment while she’s away. But I still go home to help him out all the time.”
“That must be hard.”
“You have no idea. I deliver food or cook, do laundry, … the whole works. I might as well be his mother.” She gave a light laugh. “But losing him would be way worse than taking care of him.”
“Are your parents no longer living?”
She shook her head. “We were raised by our grandparents. After we headed off into professional sports, there wasn’t a whole lot for my grandparents to do. We were both very young, and they guided our careers as much as they could, but we had agents and lived abroad for a lot of our late teenage years to early adulthood. They live in Arizona, at one of those retirement communities, and they’re pretty happy there.”