by Dale Mayer
Tanner didn’t say anything to that, and she knew her family probably sounded strange, but professional athletes often lived like that. Maybe if she had parents still alive, they’d have had a heavier role in her life, but it wasn’t to be, and she barely remembered her parents as they’d died when she was barely nine. It was hardly an issue for her. Hard to miss someone you never knew.
She turned the tables on him. “What about your family?”
“My dad is an accountant. My mom took early retirement and does a lot of volunteer work. They live back East, on the north end of Florida.”
“That would be nice,” she said. “What brought you west?” He gave her half a look, and she remembered the group he was in. “Of course. You work with Mason, right?”
He nodded. “That’s right. Been in the navy eight years now.”
She smiled. “That means you like it, if you’ve been in that long. Isn’t it physically demanding?”
“I could say the same about your occupation.” He laughed. “Not too many professional athletes out there.”
“Actually there are,” she said, leaning forward. “But most people don’t recognize one in their own neighborhood.”
“Lots of people might want to be a professional athlete, but it takes a ton of dedication to achieve that status.”
“You make a lot of sacrifices along the way,” she said with a smile. “But I’ve never regretted it.”
“So tell me what incident number three was.”
She laughed. “And I had hoped you had forgotten about that.” When he remained focused on her, she sighed. “A break-in at the house. We came in to see a figure fleeing out the back. Todd had been sleeping. I was only gone an hour or two. I figured it was someone looking for easy items to pick up. But he left empty-handed. After that we started locking the doors.”
“So who do you think is trying to kill you?”
His words came out of the blue. She stared at him. “You don’t pull any punches, do you?”
“I was there, remember?”
She nodded. “I don’t know anybody who’s trying to kill me.”
“You do. You just don’t want to see who it could be.”
“How do you look at your coworkers and friends and consider that one of them wants to knock you off?”
“You start with those you have disputes with. You look at those you don’t get along with. People who have complained about you. People who would benefit from your death.”
“The only person who benefits from my death is my brother. But he would never harm me. Plus, he needs me alive on so many levels,” she admitted. “So that doesn’t wash.”
“Is he the beneficiary of a life insurance policy if you die in an accident?”
She nodded. “Yes. And the patents we hold jointly would become his then too.”
“That makes him a prime suspect.”
“If he was able-bodied and out there hating me, maybe. You’d have to meet him to realize killing me is the last thing on his mind.”
She watched as Tanner leaned closer. “Does he have a girlfriend? Somebody who wants to get married? A business partner?”
She thought about it for a long moment. “No, not any longer. Not since his accident. His girlfriend took the easy way out and ditched him while he was in the hospital.”
A whisper of sadness crossed Tanner’s face.
She nodded. “It was way worse for him, believe me.”
“I hate it when people do that,” he whispered.
“I hated her for a long while, but, at the same time, she also gave him a gift. If she wasn’t long-term-girlfriend material, she sure as hell didn’t need to be here for the short-term.” Her tone was curt. “And beyond that, I can’t think of anybody else who would benefit from my death.”
“What about the school you work for?”
She raised her shoulders. “I can’t see any way they would. An accidental death would be a black mark on the school.”
He strummed his fingers on the table.
She watched with fascination. Well-manicured nails, strong and capable hands. She presumed the tempo of his strumming also matched the speed of his thoughts.
Finally he spoke up. “There are very few motives for murder, but the most common are power, sex and money.”
“I’d add revenge to that.”
His gaze lit up. “That’s a good one too. So who would want revenge on you?”
“I haven’t a clue.”
Just then Dani returned with large plates of ribs.
Wynn felt her mouth water. “I hadn’t realized how hungry I was until I saw this.”
Dani chuckled, came back shortly and refilled their water. “Enjoy your dinner.” And she left them once more.
“Back to that whole revenge thing,” Tanner said as he picked up his knife and fork, tackling the ribs on his plate, “how about somebody you might have beaten out in a competition?”
At that, she laughed. “I haven’t done serious competitions for a couple years. Surely they wouldn’t wait this long.”
“The timing is their issue. Maybe they just found you again. Maybe they were injured, and they’re back on their feet now. Who knows why somebody is doing what they’re doing?”
She cut into her rib and took a big bite. As soon as the mouthwatering juicy taste filled her senses, she almost moaned in delight. When she swallowed the bite, she gave a happy sigh. “I swear I could eat these seven days a week.”
“They are good,” he said.
They ate in companionable silence while she thought about what he’d said. “I was at the top of my field until I retired. Lots of people were coming up behind me. But we’re talking a lot of names. And there’s no reason for anybody to want to take revenge now.”
“Were there any close calls? Were there any rulings where you might have won out over somebody else due to a technicality? Did you ever experience this kind of nastiness when you were competing?”
“Not really. It’s not cutthroat. So I don’t imagine doping being a factor or, you know, government backing or anything huge like that coming into play. Sure, I had sports sponsors, and that was always nice.”
“Did you take any sponsors away from anybody? Or, after you left, was somebody expecting to get the same backing and didn’t?”
She didn’t even want to think about that, not when she was eating such a great dinner. But he wasn’t likely to let her off the hook. “I can’t think of anything like that. Are you enjoying your dinner?”
“I am, but I can talk and eat at the same time, so stop changing the subject.”
With a heavy sigh she put down her fork and picked up her water glass, taking a sip.
As soon as she set down her glass, he asked, “What about lovers, ex-husbands or ex-girlfriends?”
“God, I hope not. No, I’m not married, have never been married, so no ex-husbands. Yes, I’ve had relationships that ended a little abruptly, but more because I wasn’t interested in quitting my competition circuit. The last one was more of a mutual ‘Hey, we’re not going forward in our life. Let’s split up and go find other people’ kind of a breakup.”
“So … no big fights with anybody, no big blowups. So you never had an affair with a married man, and his wife is trying to kill you?”
She stared at him, fascinated. “Is that how your mind runs?”
His big shoulders rippled with laughter. He calmed quickly and said, “Not necessarily but I’ve seen an awful lot, mostly the negative side of life …”
“Well, if there’s no money involved, and I can’t see that it’s related to any sex issue, that only leaves power and revenge, and I don’t think revenge plays into this at all.”
“There’s always a reason,” he said calmly as he started back in on his ribs. “You just have to dig deep enough.”
“Do these kinds of things ever happen between strangers?”
“Absolutely. But, in this case, it would have to be somebody trying to get away with tampering f
or fun, or because he didn’t like the color of your hair or something else equally stupid.”
“The color of my hair?” she asked in a dazed tone.
He waved his fork around. “Meaning, he selected you for an arbitrary reason. I can’t imagine that because this guy knows the layout of the school’s warehouse. He also has access to the loft in the warehouse as well as your gear …”
“I was considering that problem because having access is huge. As you saw today, the two hangars—or the warehouse—regardless of what you call that building, it is not locked down during normal working hours. Even afterward if someone is staying late. So it is not illogical to consider a stranger did come through.”
“And parked where?”
She frowned. She was almost done with her ribs, and she was slowly losing her appetite as the conversation about possible sabotage refused to abate. She’d hoped for an evening out, away from her troubles, but this was just more inquiries into something that he felt responsible for. “Normally they would park in the front, and Mindy would see whoever is there.”
“Would it be completely normal for somebody to park out front, then walk around to the warehouse and look for you guys?”
“That would be totally normal,” she said. “And that’s what I mean. Almost anybody could get into the back building without raising red flags.”
“How long would it be before anybody noticed if one of the riggings was being tampered with?”
“I’d like to think immediately, but, of course, that’s not quite true.”
“No. Not only is it not true but I was in one hangar for a few seconds while two men were fighting in the back. And it didn’t sound very pleasant. Even then I had to call out to them several times to get their attention so I could ask where you were.”
“Who were you talking to?”
“The names on their shirts read Kirk and Tom.”
She nodded. “Those two fight all the time.”
“It doesn’t help me though, does it?”
“And then they probably pointed in the direction where you should go, right?”
He nodded.
“See? That’s part of the problem with the lack of security there. It is way too possible for somebody to have come in the warehouse and damaged my equipment.”
“But it’s way more likely it’s one of the people who works there,” he reminded her. “Having access is one thing, but knowing which gear was yours, which you were going to use, and making it look like they weren’t doing anything when actually they were doing something wrong, that takes talent. And it’s a whole lot easier if the bad guy works there and if he gets to pick his timing for his acts of sabotage.”
She stayed silent, not wanting to consider that concept.
Dani returned then and took away their plates. “Do you want any dessert?”
Wynn shook her head. “But I’d love a cup of coffee.”
Tanner agreed to a cup of coffee himself and before long they were left alone again. “How many people work for the school?”
She frowned and pinched her nose. “I think close to twenty now. But not everybody is there all the time.”
“That’s more than I thought,” he said in surprise.
“We’re one of the largest paragliding schools in all of North America,” she explained. “So, there are not only office workers and trainers needed but also warehouse workers. There’s delivery, transportation … all these other secondary issues as well.”
Tanner nodded thoughtfully but didn’t say anything. And yet, his fingers rapped on the table again, mirroring his anxious thoughts.
“What are you thinking?” she asked curiously.
“Trying to figure out how this works together,” he said.
Dani returned with coffees for both of them.
Wynn waited until their waitress was gone and said, “We could talk about something more pleasant.”
Tanner stretched out his long legs so they kicked out to the side of the table. As he leaned against the chair, he picked up his cup of coffee and stared at her over the rim. “We could, but the chances of us doing that are slim.”
“Why is that?” she asked lightly.
“Because the next attempt could kill you.”
*
Tanner studied her over the table. The setting sun made a long shadow that caught her face ever-so-slightly. But even that couldn’t dim the life force that shone brightly from her eyes. He leaned forward and said, “I really don’t want to see anything bad happen to you.”
He watched the surprise light her gaze, and then she almost slumped forward.
He leaned across, clasped one of her hands in his and whispered, “And I mean that. No, I’m not making a move on you. Unless you want me to,” he said with a lethal grin. “But you’re a beautiful woman who’s talented and capable, and I’d hate to see that snuffed out early.”
She winced. “You don’t leave a girl much chance to ignore this, do you?”
He shook his head. “No. If it had been one incident, then maybe. Two incidences, no. Three, now four? Hell no.”
She groaned. “So what am I supposed to do? They weren’t all paragliding accidents. It’s not like I can stop driving my Jeep, so why stop paragliding? That’s been my life for a long time.”
“I can imagine. I’d really like to see you go back up as soon as possible, but I am a little worried about you taking your rigs up.”
“I thought that would be the safest.”
“Anything that identifies the equipment you use will be the equipment that’s tampered with,” Tanner said. “So, if you are teaching one morning, it’ll be obvious which is your gear. If you take two, one as a decoy, chosen at the last minute, then chances are good that the second one will be just fine.”
“I can do that for my next class. And I see your point. The logical thing to think is that the tampering likely happened in the warehouse,” she said.
“But you don’t know that, do you?” Tanner asked. “And that’s causing you to doubt what your gut says otherwise?”
“No, of course I don’t know. I have no proof. Plus, I know these people. And my emotions don’t believe anyone there would do something like this. My God, Dave drove the truck with the gear to the training spot that day.”
“And what’s your relationship like with Dave?”
“It’s fantastic. He’s like a second father to me. He’s got a wife and three kids. I’ve been to their place for barbecues lots of times. He was pretty upset when he found out what happened,” she admitted.
“That’s all fine and dandy, but would Dave have any reason to tamper with your gear?”
The shake of her head was emphatic.
It made him wonder. “And did you consider something else?”
She raised her gaze until she stared at him.
“What about one of your students? Would any of them have had any reason to tamper with your gear?”
At that, her gaze narrowed. “Maybe you should look at yourself or at Mason because that’s who I was teaching that day.”
He sat back and thought about it. Indeed, it had been two of their units. Sixteen SEALs in all. “What about the other instructor working with you?”
“Trish has worked with me for the two years I’ve been here. So why now?”
“Would she take over your spot if you failed to do your job or if you died?”
“It’s possible,” she said cautiously. “But she doesn’t have the experience for something like that yet.”
“But it’s hard to get the experience she needs if you’re always ahead of her.”
Wynn nodded her head silently.
They finished their coffee, and he took care of the bill, then walked her out into the evening air. “I guess at this point we’ve hashed it out as much as we can. Let’s head off to the racetrack and enjoy ourselves.”
She laughed, a bright freeing sound. “Now that’s the best thing you’ve said so far tonight.”
He grin
ned. “It’s not all sad news all the time.”
“I’m really glad to hear that because I thought this was a date. Instead, it became an interrogation.”
He stopped, turned and looked at her. “Now that doesn’t sound very good. It was intended as a date. I’m sorry. I’m just very concerned about your welfare.”
The smile fell off her face as she nodded. “I understand that. I appreciate it. So thank you. You’re the only one who asked any questions.”
Instantly, his suspicions rose. “What about the paragliding school?”
She shook her head. “It was all about accidents being bad for publicity and the monetary loss of equipment. I don’t think they gave a damn about what happened to me.”
“Then I suggest we check out the new models at tonight’s car show and have a good time. We’ll forget about the rest for now. Tomorrow’s a new day, and the investigation can pick up then,” he said smoothly.
She nodded and smiled. “That sounds good to me.”
Chapter 5
The next morning Wynn walked into the main hangar to find a meeting already ongoing. She rushed over to the circle, frowning. She checked her watch, but she was in at her usual time. She glanced at Bob, one of the other instructors, and softly asked, “When did the meeting start?”
He leaned in closer and whispered, “About ten minutes ago.”
She crossed her arms and tuned into the discussion, trying to figure out why she hadn’t been included. Maybe they thought she wasn’t coming in today—or maybe they’d hoped she wasn’t coming in today. When the meeting finally broke up, she walked to Charlie and asked, “Why in such a rush to have the meeting that you couldn’t wait for me today?”
He looked at her in surprise. “I figured you wouldn’t be here.”
Unnerved, she slipped her hands into the pockets of her windbreaker. “Why wouldn’t I be here? I’m due to go out this morning. I come in every morning at this time, particularly if I’m teaching.”
He patted her shoulder. “Yeah, I want to talk to you about that. Let’s go into my office.”
She thought about her options, thought about what Todd had done earlier this morning; then she nodded her head. “Fine. By the way, the police should be by soon for their investigation.”