by Dale Mayer
The word police caught Tanner’s attention. He looked at her, but she shook her head to forestall any questions from him. He wasn’t sure what she was up to, but, as she gave instructions, he followed. She had two of her own gliders and then two prototypes she’d been working on. All four were packed into the trailer, taking little space when folded; then she went back and separated out harnesses.
At that, Charlie protested.
“Sure I’ll leave them here,” she said, “providing you pay the invoices, which you have not done. So cut me a check right now, or they go with me.”
That shut him up, and he glared at her. “But sixteen were on that invoice.”
“Exactly.”
Together Todd and Tanner separated them, taking her designs, leaving the outdated stuff, and loaded up all sixteen. Then she headed to the wings.
“Those wings are not yours.”
She spoke over her shoulder as she continued directly to the wings. “Same damn thing. Sixteen of these wings are mine. You were supposed to pay me because I brought them in special. But you did not.” She spun and glared at Charlie and Curtis, her hands on her hips. “Cut me a check right now—provided it won’t bounce—or they leave with me.”
The two co-owners looked at each other, had a hurried conversation and then spun back to face her. “They’re overpriced anyway. Take them with you.”
“They’re not overpriced. They’re cutting-edge technology. What do you expect in this business?” She shook her head.
Tanner helped her remove the hanging wings from the side beam. She stopped and looked around, then found several drums of rope she had marked as hers. He loaded up those and then the four boxes of parts that she handed him. He glanced over at Charlie and his partner, but neither said a word. So Tanner guessed they either realized this property was hers, or they couldn’t pay to keep them. Interesting that they stood here to make sure she took only what was hers. Then that was to be expected with these guys.
And then she walked along the shelving, looking to see what else of her personal property could be here. Tanner turned back to Todd and said, “That’s a lot of stuff she had here.”
He nodded. “We were cutting them a special deal on designing particular items for the school and trying out prototypes. So she ended up having a lot of overtime as the situation developed. We had deliveries of parts shipped right here. So she needs to make sure she’s got everything because, once we leave the property, there won’t be any going back.” He brought up his phone. “Here’s one of the invoices, Wynn. Come and take a look. See if you’ve got all this stuff too.”
She took a look at the image on his phone. “Right. Carabiners, all the stainless steel connections, straps, T-bars …” She walked over to the other hanger making up the warehouse, leaving them all by Todd’s truck and trailer.
Tanner glanced from the owners to Todd, asking quietly, “Do I stay here, or do I go help her?”
Todd whispered, “Better you go with her. A couple of the guys who work here in the warehouse are much less than friendly.”
He shot Todd a look. “Then your sister and I are going to have a second talk. I asked her specifically who she might not be terribly friendly with here, and she said she was friends with everyone.”
Todd snorted. “Several of the guys were pissed when she rebuffed them. A lot of the paragliding lifestyle is pretty free-swinging. She didn’t have eyes for anyone and has strict rules about not going out with anybody she works with. A couple of the revenge pranks got pretty ugly. I don’t know that they’d have had anything to do with this current level of sabotage, but I’m happy to have her a hell of a long way away from here,” he said quietly. “This isn’t the first thing that’s happened to her.”
Tanner nodded. “She said three previous odd events in just a few months. … Then this finale, as she called it.”
Todd shot him a surprised look. “Then she trusts you, if she told you that much. She doesn’t share much in her life.”
“No. She’s gotten used to sharing with you and nobody else,” Tanner said absentmindedly as he kept an eye on the direction Wynn had gone. He wanted to go after her and help, but he was more worried about the partners standing here on guard. He pulled out his phone, walked over to one side and started taking pictures.
Charlie yelled at him, “You have to have our permission to take images in here.”
He slowly lowered his camera. “Since I’m taking them in order to understand who had access to her gear and her equipment in order to sabotage her work, any protests on your part make you look mighty suspicious.”
Charlie’s mouth snapped shut.
Todd chuckled.
Charlie glared at him. “You don’t belong here either.”
Todd nodded. “Damn straight I don’t. Neither does my sister. And we’ll be happy to leave here shortly. You guys have been treating my sister like a piece of shit for long enough.”
Curtis protested. “That’s not true. She’s been a welcome addition to the paragliding school.”
“Yeah? Until you tried to blast her out of the sky, and then, when she survives that supposed accident, you fire her.” Todd shook his head. “One of your best workers ever.” He glanced around at everybody gathered here. “So who’s the next person who does so well that they’ll, you know, maybe have another accident and get fired. They don’t like success here. Just try it.”
The other employees stared at their feet.
Todd laughed. “Well, you know she’s busted her ass for you guys for the last two years, and yet, Charlie and Curtis still treated her that way, so anybody here who’s worried about their job, you should probably start looking for your next one now.”
Charlie sputtered, “We’re not firing anybody else.”
“Oh, so you do admit to firing her?” Tanner said. “Very interesting. I’m sure the labor board will have something to say about that.”
“We’re not part of any labor board.”
“Of course not. You wouldn’t pass muster, would you? Besides, you don’t need to be. There are laws governing companies who treat their employees like shit,” Tanner said smoothly. “I’m sure I won’t have any problem finding somebody to listen to her.”
Just then he heard a shout. He raced in the direction Wynn had gone. There, he saw her standing up against two big men. The two men he’d seen fighting earlier. With Todd’s words still echoing in his mind, he raised his chin and said, “Hey, what’s going on here?”
Wynn turned and looked at him. “They’re being asshats.”
“I thought I heard you cry out.” He pointed to the wrist she rubbed gently.
The two men backed up slightly.
She shrugged and said, “One of them disagreed with me about taking two of my boxes here.”
“That’s school equipment,” the man muttered. “She doesn’t take nothing with her.”
“That depends, I guess,” Tanner stated, “whether your bosses will pay her for that equipment.”
The men stared at her, then stared at him. “The bosses didn’t pay her for it?”
“No,” she snapped. “I tried to tell you that they owe me over ten grand.”
The second man whistled. “Well, that’s not cool. How long have they owed you that?”
“A couple months now,” she said wearily. She brushed her hair off her forehead. “Now would you mind? I need these at the trailer.”
They brought over a hand truck, stacked up the big boxes, and the four of them trooped to where Todd waited with the truck.
She glared at the owner. “So you didn’t even tell them that you haven’t paid me? They seemed to think I was stealing this stuff.” She turned to face the crowd gathered around. “Do you guys realize the owners owe me over ten grand?”
“It’s at least fifteen,” Todd snapped.
She nodded. “Yes, it could be that high. I’ve forgotten how much I brought here,” she confessed. “I do this because I love it. And I was willing to carry the
cost for a little while. But this has gotten ridiculous.”
At the muttering from the other employees, Charlie said, “We hit a bad patch. Obviously we were going to pay you.”
“Obviously,” Tanner drawled. “When was that, by the way?”
The men just crossed their arms over their chests and glared at him.
Tanner shook his head, bent down, grabbed a box and loaded it into the back of the pickup bed. By the time the latest boxes were loaded, he thought maybe they were finished, but, as he looked around, she’d already disappeared again. He sighed.
Todd chuckled. “Get used to it. Just when you think you understand what she’s doing, where she is, she’s gone.”
“Has she always been like that?” he asked Todd.
“Absolutely. Stick her in a corner and she’d be on the other side of the room in a way that you had no idea was even possible. She has never been one to be caged in. She always has to fly free.”
Tanner thought about that, thought about the work she did and understood. “So I guess she does this work because it’s a real passion for her. Not a job. Not a hobby.”
“A passion is the right word. Our father took her up when she was about eight years old. She’s been trying to get her feet off the ground ever since.”
Just then Wynn came back. “I think that’s it.” She looked around the warehouse, staring up, staring down, and then, as if she decided she had what she needed, she walked over to her ex-bosses, reached out a hand and said, “Thank you very much for the last two years.” She shook both their hands, then walked over to Todd and Tanner, standing by the truck, and said, “Todd, you’re free to go. Then I’m heading to my Jeep.”
Todd hopped in and disappeared toward the main road, taking the truck and trailer with him.
She lifted a hand in goodbye to the training team she’d worked with for two years. “All the best. Happy windy days ahead for all of you.”
There was a chorus of goodbyes as she turned and walked away.
Tanner followed her, then asked, “Do you have anything in the office building?”
She stopped and said, “Hell, yeah. There sure is. My locker, for one.” She walked into the office and smiled at Mindy. “Just about gone.”
Mindy looked startled. “You mean, for the day?”
Wynn laughed as she walked through to the back. “So not.”
Mindy hopped up from her chair and followed her anxiously. Tanner stood undecided in the front room. He’d like to have a good look around the place. With a quick glance to make sure nobody else was close by, he strode through to the back in the women’s wake.
The front office building wasn’t terribly big. There was a lunchroom, a change room, a set of showers, lockers and an open cubicle areas for offices. Also a separate boardroom. He poked his head into each of the spaces, took several photographs, caught sight of Wynn emptying her locker, took several photographs from there and then, on his way back, took photos of the overall layout. Once he was back in the front reception area, he stepped outside and stood beside his Jeep. He pulled out his phone and contacted Mason.
“Hey, what’s up?” Mason asked.
“I stopped by the paragliding center to speak with Wynn, to see if she’d managed to get back up in the air again and how it had gone.”
“And?”
“She’s been fired.”
He caught Mason’s sucked-in breath. “Really?”
“Yeah. Bad publicity and all that.”
“It was an accident, or at least they should be thinking it’s an accident, and bad accidents can happen to anybody. Are they holding her responsible?”
“It appears to be that way, yes. A little bit of strife when she packed up her stuff here. Her brother arrived with a big trailer and truck, and I’m here, so we managed to get hopefully all of her gear loaded. They haven’t paid her for over fifteen grand’s worth of inventory brought in for her to do some specialized product work for the school.”
“Interesting,” Mason said in a noncommittal tone. “How is everybody reacting to her leaving?”
“Well, the owners were half backtracking but now feel she needs to get off the property,” he said. He glanced around and added, “The others appear to be having mixed reactions.”
Just then Wynn came out from the back rooms into the front office, carrying a large duffel bag and a smaller backpack. She smiled at him, walked through the glass front doors toward him and tossed the rest of her belongings into her Jeep.
He told Mason, “She’s back now. I’ve got to go.” And he hung up, pocketing his phone.
She turned to look at him. “You didn’t have to get off the phone for me,” she declared. “I’m fine.”
“I can see that,” he said. “Are you ready to leave this place?”
Mindy followed them outside, standing there, not knowing what to say.
Wynn stood there for a moment, her hands on her hips as she surveyed the property. “Once I leave, I’m pretty damn sure I won’t be allowed back in again,” she said with a sigh. “Which is really too bad. I spent two years of my life here. I hate to leave under these circumstances.”
Mindy shook her head and walked up closer to them. “The problem is, I don’t really understand what the circumstances are,” Mindy said with a wail. “They said you had a terrible accident, but I don’t understand why you’re being fired for that, unless …” Her voice suddenly stopped.
Wynn looked at her. “No, I wasn’t negligent. No, I didn’t put anybody else in danger.”
A look of complete relief washed over Mindy’s face. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to suggest you were …” She stood nervously before them, shifting from foot to foot, as if realizing she had said the wrong thing.
Wynn gave her a quick hug. “It’s all good.” She glanced at Tanner. “Are you heading to your house now then?”
“No, I think I’ll be trailing you back to your place.”
“What if I’m not going home?” she challenged.
“Then I guess you’re not going home,” he said. “Considering the strange events over the last few days, I don’t think I’ll be leaving you alone at the moment.”
She narrowed her gaze at him, then, realizing Mindy watched their exchange with great curiosity, Wynn nodded. “I’m going to the shop. Todd will need help unloading all that stuff we packed up.”
“That’s another good reason for me to follow you.”
“Don’t you work today?”
“Nope. I’ve got two days off,” he said. “Besides, even if I didn’t, I’d take them off.”
She rolled her eyes at him, but she had a big grin on her face. She smacked the side of his cheek. “Then keep up if you can.” She gave him the address as she walked around, hopped into her Jeep, turned it on and reversed out of the lot.
With Mindy and now the rest of Wynn’s paragliding team watching, Tanner got into his Jeep and followed Wynn off the property. Hopefully Wynn had all her stuff because he highly doubted her ex-bosses would give up anything after this point.
Passing several marked police cars as the cops drove onto the school’s property, Tanner followed Wynn onto the frontage road. Tanner wondered if the saboteur had expected this to be the way for things to end. Or maybe that had been his plan. Right from the beginning.
Chapter 6
She drove steadily toward her home and the shop. Her mind was still consumed, going over everything she’d had at work, wondering if she’d left anything behind. She’d like to think one of the training guys would let her have her own equipment if she had missed something, but she knew the owners wouldn’t let her return to the property without an armed guard. Even though the police had arrived directly after her departure, it was a sad end to a very depressing day. And it wasn’t even eleven o’clock yet.
Thinking of which, she would have to get Todd some groceries soon. Now she bought groceries for her house-sitting locale and for Todd. She thought about stopping and picking up something now for Todd, b
ut that would involve detouring Tanner at the same time, since he was following her home. Her mind skated through all the items she had left at Todd’s place to determine if she could dredge up anything for a lunch for three.
And realized the old standby of sandwiches would work.
They were another good five minutes away when she looked in the rearview mirror and realized she’d lost Tanner. She frowned and went slower, hoping he would pick up her trail again. But, even as she turned into the parking lot for the shop, there was no sign of Tanner. She frowned and wondered if he got a work call and had to go. In his position, she knew it would happen sometimes.
She wondered how he liked that. She wouldn’t have a problem with it herself, as long as she remained busy in her life. As far as she was concerned, each person should do what they felt called to do. But it was hardly cool to become so immersed in a relationship where you couldn’t be alone and where you couldn’t let your partner do what he needed to do.
She’d had several relationships where the guys thought she would eventually stop paragliding, and she didn’t understand where that came from. It wasn’t like at any point she said, “Hi. I’m Wynn, and, if you love me, I’ll stop paragliding for you.” Because, of course, that was not who she was. She needed somebody like Tanner, who was off doing his own dangerous work until he was done and home again. He wouldn’t put up with a nagging wife wanting him to quit. She laughed at the thought.
Yet women were expected to quit their dangerous jobs when they married. She shook her head.
For all she knew, he was recently out of a relationship or looking for one a whole lot different than what he had had. Like she was. Last night they hadn’t gotten that far. Their “date” was an interrogation first, then just a couple friends at a car show second. But they’d had so much fun at the racetrack that she couldn’t wait to go out with him again. He was a lot of fun to be with. He wasn’t pushy; he wasn’t slimy. He was great to talk to, knew a hell of a lot about all kinds of different subjects and was willing to just go at a pace she was comfortable with. There was a lot to be said for that.