Down in Whisper

by Bonnie Elizabeth

  “Mike Taylor from Taylor and Sons Machine Shop.”

  “How can I help you?” I asked again, wondering what was up.

  “Well, I thought we had an appointment yesterday afternoon.”

  I took in a breath. The voice was not the man I’d talked to in his office. “And I was there,” I said.

  “I saw the card,” Mike said. “But I didn’t see you. Damnest thing. But you can see how I might need security?”

  “Yeah,” I said. “I talked to someone who said he was you and that we didn’t have an appointment.”

  There was silence on the other end.

  “I don’t suppose you can describe him?” Mike said.

  “He was short, not much taller than I am and I’m only about five foot. And very slender.”

  Mike chuckled. “I’m not a tall guy by any means but slender is not what most people describe me as. Think you could call the local police and tell them what you saw?”

  “I can do that,” I said. “And did you want to reschedule the appointment?”

  “I guess I better. Can someone come out about the same time? Normally that’s a quiet time and I’m in my office,” Mike said.

  “What happened yesterday?” I was curious to know how this man had gotten in.

  Again there was that silence, almost pregnant with meaning. “Well, honestly you’ll think I’m crazy.”

  “Try me,” I said. I was after all a trained social worker, not to mention I lived in Whisper. Crazy was my thing.

  “I could have sworn I was working there the entire time.”

  “And I could have sworn I was at the right place. And there was someone who claimed to be you, but clearly wasn’t. I’ll call the police and either I or one of my workers will be out there, okay?”

  “Great,” Mike said. “And this time, hopefully I’ll actually be here.”

  If he seemed a little nervous I guess that could be expected. After all, there was clearly something out of the ordinary.

  I picked up the phone and called Sheri. Hopefully she could take the report, but if not I could feel safe telling her about the odd parts of my meeting.

  “Sheri Wyman,” she said on the phone, although she had to know it was our office.

  “Hi Sheri. Rain.” I paused waiting for her to acknowledge me.

  “So what’s up? Not that blasted plane?” She said.

  “No. I was up in North Bend for a meeting with a machine shop about security. Strangest thing. A guy with the same name was in the office telling me we had no meeting. I just got a call with the person who set up the meeting and he swears he was in his office but I never showed up.”

  “That is weird. Is there a legal problem?”

  “Well, he does want me to call the police about the man I saw in the office. I guess they’ve been having break ins. When I said it was a short, thin man, the potential client laughed and said it clearly wasn’t him, so someone else was there.”

  “Or something,” Sheri said slowly.

  “Or something. Is that a report you can take or do I have to call North Bend?”

  “Call North Bend,” Sheri said. “But leave out the part about the person you were supposed to meet swearing he was in his office all afternoon. They’ll never look into it and think you two just missed each other.”

  “I wasn’t planning on it, but I thought, well, if you hear something, could you let me know? Or maybe push the investigation where it needs to go?”

  “I only do that for Whisper, but if something is going on outside Whisper, I’ll keep you and Meg posted.”

  “Great,” I was starting to think about ending the call.

  “Tell her you might have a related case,” Zari said.

  I raised an eyebrow wondering what she was talking about.

  “Machinists work on planes,” Zari said.

  “Sheri, have you heard the rumors about the plane? These were machinists that are having an issue. I’m wondering if it could be related.”

  Sheri was from an Old Whisper Family which meant she knew exactly what Peter was. And like everyone from the Old Families, she had a talent. She could see patterns in things that happened. Maybe she would have some insight.

  “Definitely possible. I mean everything I’ve heard about the plane is weird. Peter tends to let things play out and he’s getting involved in this.”

  “It may be related to a case we worked on down by Mt Rainier,” I said, not wanting to have to explain. I hoped that she’d take the shorthand. I could only hope that any talking she’d done with Kyle had included details of the metal.

  “I’ll keep my ear to the ground,” Sheri told me. “And let you guys know if there’s any reason to worry or stay on the mountain.”

  I thanked her before hanging up the phone. I hadn’t thought about being worried, but perhaps there was more to this pattern than I could see. Now I had something else to worry about. Zari A jumped up on the desk while I started to worry. She didn’t say anything, just demanded an ear rub, but it seemed to help, calming down.

  Meg

  Meg wandered out of her office shortly after Rain left. She wanted to be sure that Kaitlyn hadn’t forgotten to give her any messages. She also felt a need to stretch as well. She saw Rain sitting at the front desk, the phone to her ear. She felt her shoulders tensing just looking at her. What was Rain doing on that phone for heaven’s sake? That phone was for Kaitlyn, who naturally wasn’t there, but couldn’t Rain make calls in her office?

  Meg turned to say something but was cut off by Colleen entering the office. “Morning,” she said, a bit louder than she needed to.

  Colleen was dressed in black jeans and a dark blue and gray pullover with a fine black print on the front. There was something formal about the way she wore her casual clothes that Meg wished she could pull off. Hers always looked a little like she had slept in them no matter how careful she was.

  “Morning,” Meg said, glancing back at Rain who was hanging up the phone.

  “Prompt as always,” Rain added, standing behind the desk.

  Colleen looked at her watch, a simple black band and dark colored face, which Meg thought was probably water resistant.

  “Meg, I was going to have us all meet in the conference room. It seems like Colleen might have some knowledge about various government agencies that could point us in the right direction.”

  Meg looked at Rain for a long time, trying to decide what to say. It had taken her aback when Rain just came in talking about a meeting so that everyone was on the same page, as if she were the organizer not Meg. Why was she just expected to jump when everyone kept doing her work? Meg considered bowing out and refusing to take part in Rain’s meeting, when it seemed as if she were invited only as an afterthought, but her curiosity got the better of her.

  “I’ll get my things,” Meg said.

  Rain gave her a tight smile before adding, “Kyle should be here soon.”

  Meg turned without acknowledging the other woman’s comment. She walked quickly, purposefully, to her office. She gathered her laptop, dropping a cord, offended at the loudness of the sound. It sounded the way her mother did when she was frantically vacuuming after being angry at Meg’s father.

  By the time Meg made it back out to the conference room, Kyle was setting his tablet down on the table, his coffee next to him. Meg went in and sat down, claiming the end chair for herself. Rain took one of the side chairs, seemingly un-bothered by Meg’s claim to the head chair. Tension worked its way up Meg’s neck.

  RaeLynn slipped in with her own notepad, and a computer. She was clearly prepared for anything. Meg wondered where Zari was but just as she did so, the cat sat up in a chair and looked at everyone over the table, a tiny person waiting for the meeting. Meg wondered if Rain would bring her a booster seat.

  “So,” Rain started, “Let’s get started. I guess you all know about the plane that went down on the mountain?”

  Meg saw nods. Clearly Colleen had been filled in. Kyle was aware as well. Me
g knew there was plenty of gossip that he’d be privy to. Helen had probably tried getting information out of him, but Kyle could be surprisingly good at avoiding his mother’s quest for juicy gossip.

  “RaeLynn has been searching databases with Zari A to see if there was a government contract for this plane,” Rain continued. “But last I checked, you weren’t having any luck?” She nodded at RaeLynn to respond.

  RaeLynn sat up a little straighter as she began her summary. “Zari and I pulled a ton of information from the DOD, NSA, FSA, Homeland, the Air Force and Navy. I picked up nothing. I also pulled what information we could from the largest of the defense contractors but I didn’t find anything that seemed to be related to our plane.”

  “How did you search?” Colleen asked.

  “I did some searching and cross-referencing for any company that might make planes. I looked at budgets for the various government departments. I examined Congressional budget allocation for defense and anything mentioning planes, in case I missed a department.”

  “I’m under the impression this is a fighter plane?” Colleen looked at Rain when she said that.

  Rain nodded at Meg. Finally, Meg thought, jumping in with her information.

  “My father and a friend of his, a former navy pilot, hiked up there yesterday. John says that it doesn’t look quite right for a fighter or a stealth plane. He’s not sure what the purpose is because it has such an unusual layout.”

  “Weapons?” Colleen asked.

  “John thought there were weapons.”

  Colleen nodded slowly. Her fingers pressed together while her eyes gazed off into a corner of the room. Finally she said, “It doesn’t sound like anything that would be blacked out but it’s not impossible. It almost sounds like it has a purpose other than government defense. What about a private military contractor rather than a defense contractor? Their budgets would be general and they wouldn’t work directly for the government. If they found Zari’s metal, that kind of technology would be real enticing for them.”

  “And Blayn G was much more likely to have hired men who had contacts with just such a company,” Meg said thinking about it. The men they had met while searching for Blayn G had been tough but they seemed more like thug than military elite. Some of the men weren’t even aware of what was going on, having been easily fooled by Blayn G’s cover story. He had preyed on men who wanted to be tough but weren’t.

  “I could see that,” Kyle said. “They knew guns and had some good strategy but Blayn G was the one in charge.”

  Meg nodded in agreement. Blayn G had hired men. That meant they were no longer military. Given their youth, chances were they didn’t have the contacts to be seen as someone the military should talk to. A private contractor would be more willing to listen. Especially one that was hungry. The scientists working for Blayn might have had more contacts, but even they may have found it more lucrative to offer the metal to a private contractor. They may also have had more freedom to continue the studies that Blayn-G had started.

  “Do we know what happened to those guys?” Meg asked. “I know that they were told to get lost but clearly someone had some of the metal—does it have a name?--and probably took it long before Peter and Zari were cleaning up. My understanding is that Zari was pretty certain she got it all?”

  Rain nodded at her. “Zari says that she and Peter are fairly certain your guess is likely correct. Kuan Yin and Pele helped make sure that all the metal left behind was destroyed. That means the most likely scenario is that someone took it before we ever became involved. Oh and Zari calls the metal alpha33678gamma 943992alpha8336, which means calling it Zari’s metal is probably easier.”

  Meg could sense Peter’s agreement. He knew he’d have noticed any traces of the non-worldly substance. Someone had been stealing from Blayn G. That seemed like a risky venture given Blayn’s telepathic abilities. Meg wished she’ seen the last of the criminal from Zari’s world. So far as she knew she had, but this substance he’d left behind was almost worse than he was.

  “I think we need to find out if Blayn G actually formed any type of corporation that these guys might still be working at. We should also look at other security contractors,” Meg said.

  Colleen leaned back in her chair before speaking. “What does Dillon say?”

  “He won’t be in for a bit,” Rain said. “He got in fairly late last night.”

  Meg wondered what Dillon had to say about the plane and if he noticed the same oddities John had. She looked forward to talking with him. He could point out details in the photos that she wasn’t clear on.

  “Send him to my office when he gets in,” Meg ordered, knowing she was ordering Rain around, “I want to know what’s going on with that plane.” There. She’d asserted her authority. Of course she didn’t feel any better. What she really wanted to do was go hiking on the mountain and see the plane for herself.

  Rain

  It would have been nice if Meg had asked me in private to have Dillon talk to her when he got back. I mean, she wasn’t the only one who had questions. No, she’d just ordered. And what could I say or do?

  “You did not even try to say anything,” Zari observed. She was still sitting up at the table, as if she were getting ready to eat.

  “Thanks for support,” I told her as I stood up to go. Meg had left the room. Kyle was slowly packing things up.

  I really wanted to go back with Colleen and RaeLynn and bounce ideas off of them but I had no doubt that Meg would find that more than a little irritating. Well, maybe that’s what made the idea so appealing. It wasn’t like I didn’t have a ton of other things to do.

  I made it back to my office when I heard something in the front. I thought it might be Kaitlyn as she was supposed to be there by nine and it was now about nine forty five. However, I heard Kyle greet Dillon.

  “Hey,” I said walking back into the reception area. Dillon carried a briefcase and wore a jacket. No doubt he was planning to head back to his office to stow the items before talking with any of us. RaeLynn was still there, putting something on the front desk.

  “Hey yourself.” He looked a little tired but freshly showered.

  “When you put your stuff away Meg would like to talk to you about the plane, in her office,” I told him. Wasn’t I a good messenger?

  “I’ll be there in a minute.”

  RaeLynn raised an eyebrow at me and tried not to smile. I shrugged.

  “Umm humm.” She could have been talking to herself but I supposed there was some meaning I should attach to that sound.

  I walked back to my office once more, but didn’t really settle. I fully intended to crash Meg’s meeting with Dillon. I gestured to RaeLynn so that she’d go down there with her paper and electronic notepads. After all, if there was something to look up, she’d be the one doing it. That way Meg wouldn’t think I was crashing her meeting alone. Okay so I’m a little nervous around the woman.

  “A little doesn’t cut it,” Zari said. She was already in my office, making biscuits with her paws around the cat tree, preparing to settle in.

  “You aren’t going to the meeting?” I asked.

  She looked over at me, ears flat. “I can hear perfectly fine from here.”

  “And you call me chicken,” I said. RaeLynn passed the office, closely trailed by Dillon. I decided I’d end the procession, except of course that Kyle must have seen all the little ducklings heading to Meg’s and followed as well.

  “I wasn’t expecting everyone,” Meg said, looking annoyed as we piled into her office. She was at her work table. Dillon sat there with her. RaeLynn took a chair from in front of Meg’s desk and I sat in the other one. Kyle sauntered over and took the desk chair. Meg flinched more when I sat in the visitor’s chair than she did when Kyle sat in her office chair.

  I watched him lean back and get comfortable. I wondered how much he was just being nosey. He’d been pretty involved with his own case yesterday.

  “Don’t you have a case you need to work
on?” Meg asked, looking over her shoulder at him.

  “I’m doing some thinking. I keep hitting a wall and I’m stewing about what it means,” he said easily.

  Meg didn’t respond to that but turned back to Dillon.

  “So tell us about the pilot,” she said.

  “He’s out under a bush about an hour from the edge of where Peter can go. Marcus says that it’s not that far as the crow flies, but he couldn’t see any way to make it through as a human. While I was following the trail, I noticed the man moved as if he thought he’d be tracked. At the plane he did such a good job covering his movements that I wouldn’t have picked up a trail at all if I didn’t have Peter giving me an assist.”

  Dillon looked down at his tablet computer for more notes. “I started to see blood. I don’t know if he’d been bleeding and just started dripping when I found it or if he’d cleaned away all traces earlier on. If it was the latter, he was thorough because I didn’t find any blood and I was searching for it. I didn’t look at the plane that closely as the priority was to find him. Tracking became easier and towards the end of the trail. I think he was crawling rather than walking or running. I think he was hurt worse than he had first thought.”

  “But why hide?” Meg asked.

  Dillon pursed his lips and shook his head.

  “Was there someone after him when he crashed?” I asked.

  “What do you mean?” Meg asked. She almost managed not to snap.

  “What if this guy thought someone was following him. Maybe he stole the plane and wanted to get away before they caught him?”

  Meg raised an eyebrow. I could see her thinking about that, running it through her sense of whether that was something true.

  “Anything else about the plane?” Meg asked Dillon. No one had any comments on my comment. At least I knew RaeLynn would file that away if other evidence pointed in that direction.

  “As will I, which means Peter will too,” Zari purred from the other room.

  “It seemed kind of odd. At first I thought you guys had the wrong plane but Peter was there with me and he said it was. It looked like your average recreational plane, until you see the nose, which looks more like nose on the stealth bomber. Even then, I have to admit I’m not a plane guy so I didn’t think that much of it. It wasn’t until I came back and looked closer that I saw it was outfitted with some sort of gun or something under the wings. I was also wrong about it being a two-seater. There were places for two extra seats behind the front. One was knocked over and one had fallen backwards so I didn’t see them at first. There was blood on the back of the pilot’s seat, like someone leaned against it. It’s possible there were other people there. This man may not have been the pilot.”