Beyond the Mirror
Copyright© 2012/2014
Chapter 9
The next several weeks were extremely hectic for Tom and Sandy. In fact, the last weeks of January were the beginning of a frenzied period which seemed to affect almost everyone they knew. Tom’s refusal to quietly accept the backstabbing actions of Sheridan Lister, or lay back and be screwed over by the Provincial Parks Branch, may have set off the initial frenzy. However, the actions of Frank Jamison and Jack Dunn quickly drew a multitude of others into the fray.
The Law Society built a case of impropriety, malfeasance, and criminal misconduct against Sheridan Lister. He was quickly censured by the Law Society; his license to practise was revoked, and only two days after Tom’s initial complaint, a judge quietly issued a warrant for his arrest. The first publicly visible action of Tom’s allegations happened right on Main Street in Bear Creek when the local RCMP arrested Lister as he walked out of a local coffee shop.
The following surprise search of Lister’s office building and his home for illegal activities and pertinent records led the RCMP to Fred Smithies, who worked at the local assayer’s office. Smithies confessed almost instantly, then implicated Lister in several legal irregularities, including the fact that Lister trafficked in drugs and stolen goods. That implication resulted in a much more thorough search of Lister’s properties, which led to the seizure of his residence, his car, and even his boat, but surprisingly, not his office building and warehouse. Actually, his business records showed several irregularities that tied him to various illegal activities, but not to the drug sales and smuggling operations. The records concerning the fencing of stolen goods and drug trafficking operations were found in his home instead of his office, so he had tried to hide his illegal activities to some extent, just not very successfully. Actually, the drug-sniffer dogs found traces of opiates throughout his house, in his car, and even in his boat, which is why they were instantly confiscated.
Lister’s arrest also led to a series of further legal actions, several arrests, and a surprising number of sudden disappearances from the local cadre of shady characters. The arrests included an insurance agent and a well-known real estate agent, both of whom had offices in Lister’s office building, but the arrests also included one of Bear Creek’s newest policemen. Those three arrests seemed to trigger the disappearance of several additional people, but most of those people seemed to have little visible means of support. The exceptions to that were a used car salesman, the owner of a small used goods store, and two beauty technicians who skipped out along with the owner of a local hair salon. Rumour ran rampant concerning those disappearances, and people began to refer to the group as the ‘Lister gang,’ and the consensus of opinion seemed to be ‘good-riddance to bad rubbish.’ Perhaps it was no surprise, but the number of petty thefts, muggings, fights, and other minor infringements of the law soon fell to the lowest rate the police had seen in years. Perhaps that was a good thing since Lister was disbarred, under arrest, and in custody, with most of his property under seizure, so he was unable to practise law. As a result, Bear Creek no longer had a functioning law office.
However, within a day of Lister’s arrest, a sign painter was working on the window of the office next door to Sandy’s. The sign he painted on that window proclaimed to the world that the legal firm of Preston and Jamison was opening an office at that address in the very near future. Within a week, Laura Preston and Charles Jamison were in town, being introduced to various influential people by Tom and Sandy. For a few days, all four of them were involved in setting up the law office, moving Laura into Sandy’s home, and searching for a house that would suit Charles and his wife, May. Then Sandy had to return to work at her tax office, and Tom became mired in the two legal actions which he’d instigated, but which his father and Frank Jamison had virtually taken over.
Tom was asked to testify before a political committee meeting in Ottawa, spending most of a day on a jet flying to Ottawa, then three more days listening to politicians’ boring speeches. His testimony actually only took less than two hours on the third afternoon. At least he had the satisfaction of hearing that the actions of the Provincial Parks Branch of British Columbia concerning his lease would be disallowed. Since that was all he really cared about, he was on a jet flying back to Victoria the next morning.
He scarcely had time for a light lunch, then he had to rush to a courtroom and testify before the final investigation into the actions of Sheridan Lister by the Law Society of British Columbia. Most of Tom’s time for the next two days involved him listening to long, involved speeches which he barely understood. However, he waited for the last day of the Lister investigation just so he could watch as the disbarred lawyer was led into the courtroom and officially reprimanded for his actions. Since Lister had been charged with various other crimes by then, he was in handcuffs and being escorted by an officer of the law, but Tom got no satisfaction out of that. Actually, all he felt was a trace of disgust and a feeling of regret that any man could waste his life the way Lister had.
In both cases where Tom had been asked to testify, he had been thoroughly bored, so he was quite happy to have those experiences behind him. That probably made the reading of Serge Potemchin’s will all the more interesting for him when it happened a week later. Serge Potemchin had been extremely well off in the later years of his life, but he had no living relatives. As a result, his will reflected his wish to reward those he’d felt were worthy.
For instance, the doctor who had kept Serge alive for the last few years was left a large house which sat on the hill overlooking a local lake near Bear Creek. Serge’s favourite nurse received a five-year-old Cadillac sedan which had barely been broken in before Serge had been hospitalized, and since then it had sat on blocks in a heated garage. He left the care home in which he had been living for his last few years almost half a million dollars worth of stocks and bonds, but stipulated that the funds had to be used for improvements, not expansion. His lawyer, his accountant, and the executer of his will each received a matching bequest of stocks and bonds, each worth almost a quarter of a million dollars. Serge must have really appreciated Muriel’s work though, because she received a series of savings bonds which at face value were worth over half a million dollars.
The next item mentioned in the will absolutely astonished Tom though. It seemed that Serge had owned a second company, ‘White Out Wilderness Services,’ a firm that specialized in delivering both people and supplies to areas with limited access. Although Tom hadn’t known who owned the company, he’d certainly heard of its reputation for getting supplies through to isolated areas, often while working under difficult or dangerous conditions. Tom was bequeathed 65% of its shares, with the other 35% being divided between the seven permanent employees of the firm.
When the announcement of that bequest was made, Tom gasped, but then he heard a minor disturbance as several people behind him made surprised and approving noises, so he turned to glance back. A group of seven people, three women and four men, were wearing smiles, but returned his glance and seemed curious about him. Tom smiled, waved a hand, and silently formed the words ’See you later!’ with his lips, before turning his attention back to the executer who was frowning as he read the final wording of the will.
“There is one final codicil to the will, which was added in the last year. It is to the effect that Thomas Dunn, now the principal owner of White Out Wilderness Services, shall be granted an additional bequest of the remains of the stock portfolio amassed by Serge Potemchin. A special note mentions that all Dunn-Redding Petroleum Explorations stocks within that portfolio shall be earmarked for Thomas Dunn, and not included in any previous bequest. However, to qualify for those stocks, Thomas Dunn must be willing to pay all inheritance fees, taxes, and duties owed on ALL shares of White Out Wilderness Services stock, including the stocks now held by the seven White Out Wilderness Services employees,” the executer lifted his eyes and stared at Tom, who had broken into laughter.
“Sorry, sir,” Tom managed to say, “but I am surprised and delighted by Serge’s sense of humour. You see, my father and I have never gotten along well from the time I was quite a young man, but my father is the man who started the Dunn-Redding company and still owns the major share of its stock. It seems rather fitting to use shares from my father’s company to guarantee that White Out Wilderness Services is on a solid footing. That action is Serge’s final wish for me to do things my way, and I will most assuredly accept his limitation of paying the taxes due on the inheritance of the people at White Out.”
“Young man, I’m unsure of the appraised value of White Out Wilderness Services, but since the Dunn-Redding stock values are not listed here, the inheritance fees and taxes for White Out Wilderness Services may well be more than the value of the stocks you are inheriting.”
“That’s okay, sir,” Tom chuckled. “I own a gold mine in a secluded area, and access is a major problem. I’m quite certain that the people at White Out will make my supply problems much easier to manage. In turn, that means I’ll be able to work the mine much more easily, and I’ll be able to mine enough gold to pay any outstanding taxes remaining after using the proceeds of the sale of those stocks.”
He briefly heard clapping from behind him and knew it was the people from White Out, but then the executer was winding up the reading of the will. Once everything had been straightened around and he was free to go, he wheeled Muriel to the back of the room where Laura sat. Laura was wearing a huge smile as he wheeled Muriel to her side.
“I don’t think Serge or the executor of his will were up to date on the tax situation,” Laura snickered. “Canada hasn’t had inheritance taxes since the 1970s. I think it was 1972 when that law was rescinded, but I’m not sure of that date, so don’t quote me. At any rate, there may be some form of transfer fee, but you won’t owe anywhere near as much money as inheritance taxes would have been.”
“It wouldn’t matter,” Tom laughed. “I’ll let you and Sandy worry about that. I think Serge was giving my dad a postmortem dig over his actions toward me when he refused to help me with university tuition. The idea that I can use the sale of a block of stocks in Dad’s company to keep one of my companies afloat tickles me pink. Now I should talk to the folks from White Out, so do you mind running your Mom home?”
“No problem, Boss!” Laura winked.
Then while Laura ran Muriel home, Tom met the seven people who worked for White Out Wilderness Services, and over a cup of coffee at a local restaurant, they learned a little about each other.
Tom started out by telling the seven White Out employees who he was, what he did, and how he had become involved with old Serge. He explained where he was living now, his relationship with Sandy, and his involvement with his mine, then went on to explain where the mine was and some of his adventures that had happened there. So effectively, he gave them a brief summary of the last two years of his life.
Jim Burke was the first to volunteer that he worked as the company manager for White Out, but he was also a pilot, fully licensed to fly both planes and helicopters. He was in his forties, wore a full beard, and dressed like a cowboy, so Tom wasn’t at all surprised to find that he had been a muleteer at one time. Now he spent his time managing the company and directing the employees who flew planes and helicopters or drove ATVs and snowmobiles, not mules and horses. Jim still kept a few mules though and even knew Sam and Will Dumont, so he grinned when Tom told him of using a mule-train to get supplies to his cabin and mine site.
“I can certainly understand why Serge thought so well of you,” Jim chuckled. “Hearing about the things you’ve been doing, he would have thought of you as a kindred soul, tackling the wilderness head-on and winning. Not only that, but you can see the humour in the situation, and you’re perservering against all odds. Your story about your family troubles must have tickled him too, because even I know your father’s reputation, and I know Serge and your father have met.”
“Well, Dad and I are a lot similar in some ways, but a lot different in others. Actually, I envy the fact that you and your son get along so well.”
“Oh, Dad and I do bicker at times,” Ron Burke laughed softly, “Usually though, we agree more times than we disagree.”
Ron Burke was a solidly built young man in his mid-twenties and suited his wife, Donna, who looked slightly younger, but was just as husky and looked just as tough. Ron’s specialty was helicopters, but both he and Donna had their licenses for both choppers and fixed-wing aircraft. In fact, they were rated to fly almost anything short of passenger jets and military planes. On top of that, Ron was a decent mechanic, but wrenching on equipment wasn’t what he preferred to do. He liked to fly and, in his own words, he preferred flying over rugged country, but he insisted on being safe and sane in what he did. Donna often flew with him, but she was also willing to fly on her own and preferred to fly either float or ski planes, saying she liked the challenges of flying into relatively uncharted areas.
Next, Tom met Travis Sanderson, who looked like a tall, burly Viking. Perhaps thirty years old, he admitted to being an outdoor nut, then surprised Tom by explaining that he was White Out’s head mechanic. He was licensed to work on all the planes, helicopters, snowmobiles, ATVs, pickups, trucks, and any other motorized equipment White Out owned, leased, or rented. Travis also doubled as a cross-country skier and experienced backpacker when those were the talents needed for the job.
Angela Martin was engaged to Travis and admitted that she preferred to work with him on mechanical maintenance, but for the last year, she had run the office for the company. Tom learned later that she had stepped into that job when Jim Burke’s wife had died of cancer. Angie was Jim’s niece and had lived in the Yukon when she was younger, so she’d used sled dogs, but hadn’t been dog sledding in years. She was another accomplished cross-country skier and backpacker, but was comfortable driving anything from semi-trailer trucks to snowmobiles or ATVs.
The sixth member of the White Out crew was Larry Thomas, who was barely out of his teens and was a small, very slim young man. He seemed exceptionally quiet, so it was Jim who explained that Larry was a whiz at operating ATVs and snowmobiles. It seemed he was also exceptionally skilled with any tracked machine, especially the small bulldozers they sometimes had to use. On top of that, he had a private pilot’s license for fixed-wing and was only a few flying hours short of his commercial pilot’s permit. Once he had his commercial ticket, he planned to go for his rotary permit and become a backup pilot for White Out’s choppers.
Sitting next to Larry was the final member of the crew, a tiny pixie who insisted on being called Franny, but didn’t mention her last name. She said she was the ‘water nut’ of the group and admitted that she could do lots of other things, but if there was a boat or a raft involved, she was in her element. They had been talking for almost an hour before Tom realized that Franny and Larry were married, and only seconds later, he began to suspect that she was pregnant, but didn’t feel it was his business to ask.
Instead, Tom steered the conversation toward discovering where the company was located and what equipment it owned. That was when he discovered that the company had a possible problem since Serge had been leasing an airfield in a community almost a hundred miles north of Bear Creek. Unfortunately, that lease might not be renewed since the property had recently changed hands, and within six months, they might have to find a new place to set up business. Tom’s immediate thought was Bear Creek airstrip, but he felt he should talk to his friend, Harry Guildford, before even suggesting the idea.
Instead, he changed the subject somewhat, asking what equipment the company owned.
“Well, we’ve got tons of stuff,” Jim shrugged his shoulders. “I suppose Angie could make up a list for you.”
“Look, I’m interested, but I’m not fanatical about detail, so why don’t you just give me a quick rundown about the whole company,” Tom smiled. “I suppose you could start at one end and list everything, but I’d rather have you just hit the high points and let me be surprised by the intimate details later. Since you do a lot of rescues and supply work, I think the various items of equipment you use the most often might be what I’d like to hear about.”
Jim smiled at that and nodded. “Okay then, let’s start with the oldest equipment. The company was started when Serge bought a pair of wrecked Bell UH-1s at an auction. In case you don’t know, UH-1s are the whirlybirds that the American army refers to as a Huey, and you’ve probably seen ‘em in the movies because the Yanks have used them since the war in Vietnam. Anyway, Serge hired a fellow who had been drummed out of the American army for some reason, but the guy was a great mechanic. He took those two old Hueys apart and built one good chopper out of the bits and pieces, then one day he quit over some argument he had with Serge. With him out of the picture, Serge needed a pilot to fly the bird and a mechanic to fix it, so he hired my Dad and another guy. At that time, Serge was mostly interested in having them fly supplies into one of the isolated mines he was developing. I don’t know exactly what else was happening at the time since I was going to flight school, but I know they were darn busy.”
“When I got out of school, I went to work for Serge too. At first, I was herding mule trains when supplies couldn’t be flown in because of the weather, but I wanted to fly, and Serge told me that as soon as I got my papers to fly commercial, he’d hire me. Hell, he not only hired me but bought a used DeHavilland DHC-3 Otter equipped with floats and skis, so I flew that a lot. At the same time, Dad was training me to fly the Huey, so when Dad retired, I sort of slipped into the chief pilot role for a while.”
“Over the years, we went through several pilots and various planes, but that old Huey and that Otter are still around, along with a couple of DeHavilland DHC-2 Beavers. That Otter and those Beavers may be old, but they’ve been rebuilt until they’re in top condition, and so has the Huey - in fact, those four birds have been the backbone of the business for years.
“Then a few years ago, there was a lumber company that was trying to selectively log some really rough country. They were using copters to do the job of getting men in to fall the trees and then getting the timber out to the sawmill, but it proved to be too expensive, and they went belly up. They had a Sikorsky S64 SkyCrane, a Sikorsky S-76, and another Otter, but damned if Serge didn’t get a deal on buying the whole lot. We didn’t really need the S-76, besides it looked a bit rough and was due for a major service, so Serge hired Travis to do a rebuild on it. Ron and I gave him a hand with it one winter, and when we got done, that S-76 looked almost brand new. Then, since we didn’t really have a use for a people hauler, Serge put it up for sale along with a bunch of other used equipment he had sitting around. He got enough out of the sale to recover his cost on everything he’d bought from the lumber company and bit over, so he treated all three of us to a bonus.”
“Now, before you get the wrong idea, Dad’s making it sound like we only fly supplies in for people, but we do a lot more than that,” Ron broke into the discussion. “We have tons of other equipment we use as well, so if something needs to be hauled, we can probably haul it, and that includes people. Heck, we had a job last year that was a real pain in the butt. We had to fly a bunch of archaeologists and their supplies to a remote lake, then ferry them up a river in a pair of jet boats, because we couldn’t even land a helicopter where they wanted to go. Then, four weeks later, we had to go back and bring them and all the equipment out again, including those dang boats.”
“Hey, I don’t think that’s as bad as the time we went racing up into the mountains in a blizzard. There were four of us crammed into the cab of a five-ton truck, loaded down with gear and supplies. After we went as far as we could go with the truck, we had to unload snowmobiles and toboggans, transfer a ton of supplies out of the truck, then go cross-country to a snowbound camp,” Larry piped up. “At least we didn’t freeze our butts off or get frost-bitten noses and fingers while we were on the jet boats.”
“And don’t let these guys give you the idea that we let the planes and choppers sit around between the unusual jobs they mentioned either,” Angela added. “We’ve always got at least one of the Beavers or one of the Otters out on lease, sometimes a couple of them, and BC Hydro often has the SkyCrane under lease for a month or more at a time. It’s my job to try to keep one fixed-wing and one chopper available for our own use at all times, but sometimes it just isn’t possible. There are lots of times I wish we had another Otter or something like it and other times when I wish Serge hadn’t sold the S-76.”
“So you lease out the planes?” Tom asked quietly.
“Yep, at times we do,” Angie nodded. “We’ve got a guy at Bear Creek who almost always has one of our fixed wings leased. You might know him, a bush pilot named Harry Guildford?”
“He’s the guy who flies me in and out of my lease,” Tom chuckled. “I was under the impression those two planes were his.”
“Nope, he owns a Beaver and often leases one of our two Otters from us, but we do the maintenance on all of them,” Travis smiled. “If you’ve flown in any of them, you know I do my job because I do any of his major maintenance work. In fact, I think I’ve seen you with a blonde lady at the Bear Creek airfield a time or two when I was working on the Beaver last fall.”
“That would be Sandy, my accountant and my fiancée, but like many women, her hair colour isn’t a constant,” Tom grinned.
“Isn’t she the lady who runs the tax office in Bear Creek?” Angela asked quietly.
“That’s her. As I said, she’s an accountant and a tax consultant.”
“Well, that’s one thing we won’t have to change,” she grinned at him. “She goes over our books and does the company taxes already. I’ve got an appointment to see her next week.”
“Well, that’s good,” Tom nodded. “I don’t know who the company lawyer has been until now, but I’d like you to switch over to Preston and Jamison, who just moved to Bear Creek this last month. We’ll be dealing with Laura Preston most of the time, but you might also run into Charles Jamison, her partner.”
“Yeah, I heard that shyster, Lister, ran into someone who didn’t like to get cheated, and he lost out when the other guy raised a little hell,” Jim grinned and winked.
“So I understand,” Tom winked back, then glanced at his watch, “and, thanks for reminding me. I’ll have to run in order to make it to an appointment I have with a local lawyer. However, now that I know where you folks are at, I’ll drop around to see you in a few days, if that’s okay?”
“Hey, you’re the boss, so you can drop around anytime you want.” Jim grinned at him.
“Whoa there, we’d better straighten that out right now!” Tom frowned. “I’m just another shareholder in the company, and while I may own more shares than you folks do, I know nothing about the business. I’m not going to be involved in the day-to-day operation any more than Serge was. In fact, since I have a mine to run most of the year, you may not see me as often as you did him. Since your business is all new to me, I’ll probably be asking you a fair number of questions at first, but Serge trusted you folks to handle normal operations, so I will too. I’ll only stick my nose in the business if you run into a major problem and need my input, but you’re still the boss, Jim, the same way you were when Serge owned the company.”
Then after a quick goodbye to the White Out crew, Tom was off to see Frank Jamison about the most recent developments in Lister’s criminal case. He followed that quick visit with a hurried trip out to see Brian and Linda Welch. After that, he raced back to town for a talk with Muriel before finally returning to his motel room for the evening. Following that, Tom spent a few days straightening out the details of his inheritance.
It soon became obvious that Serge had owned more shares than anyone had thought he did, but several of his investments weren’t directly mentioned in the will. The majority of Serge’s holdings had been managed by an investment firm whose only function had been the support and investment in various mining and oil exploration firms. From the time he had met Tom, Serge’s orders to the investment firm had been to sell off the shares in other oil companies and buy Dunn-Redding shares in their stead. It almost seemed as if Serge was giving Tom a way to hurt Dunn-Redding, because if Tom had dumped all his shares on the open market, the share price for Dunn-Redding would have plummeted.
That wasn’t Tom’s aim though. Instead, he cooperated when Dunn-Redding finally offered to buy all the shares he now held. The company could then ‘release’ the shares in small amounts, preventing a drop in the overall value of the company’s stock, yet Tom received most of the money quickly and could pay his debts. However, Serge’s investment tactics had amassed nearly 2% of Dunn-Redding’s common stock, so Tom had to agree to take some of the funds in the form of physical assets. He wasn’t interested in oil exploration, but now he was involved in a transportation firm, as well as a mining enterprise. Tom knew Dunn-Redding did almost as much work in support as they did in exploration, so he was certain he could find some of their surplus equipment that he could adapt to his needs. Besides, he wasn’t out to hurt his family’s company, although he still had to chuckle about the fact that Serge had been able to put his father in the position of owing Tom a favour.
It took Tom several days and a trip to Calgary in order to sell the shares he had inherited in Dunn-Redding. Of course, he had several arguments with his father over the sale of those shares, but Tom remained adamant that they had to go. In the first place, he needed that money to pay off the transfer fees on his inheritance and on the shares belonging to the White Out crew. Then, in the second place, Tom didn’t feel that investing in an oil exploration firm was safe in the economy of the time, so he stuck to his guns, insisting that he wanted to sell all his Dunn-Redding shares.
Sandy insisted that Tom had to be careful how the sale of stocks was handled though, because if he didn’t do it correctly, he would have to pay an excessive amount of tax on his funds. She flew down to Victoria for the last two days Tom was there and checked over everything involved in the share transfer as well as arranging a tax payment for the last year. After that was cleared away, she helped him to finish up all the other little jobs he was doing around town, which was a great relief for Tom because he’d been extremely busy. She was there for two days, but Tom had spent a whole week in Victoria or Calgary, and while he’d been rushed, he had accomplished a lot.
Brian and Linda Welch insisted that Sandy and Tom had to come out to visit before they went back to Bear Creek, so they spent their last evening in Victoria with them. Tom would have preferred to spend the evening in town, but the wood-burning stove and the wind-powered generator were important to him, so he took them up on the invitation. However, their visit turned out to be beneficial in a far different way than they had expected.
Brian had come up with an idea of how to supply running water to Tom’s cabin and had even made up a test version of what he was suggesting, just to prove it would work. It wasn’t that Tom would have any difficulty getting pressurized water to the cabin since he had a stream flowing not far away; the problem was frost in the winter. He could easily string pipes to supply water and even have water pressure just by taping into the stream some distance uphill of the cabin, but the water in any exposed pipes would quickly freeze solid in subzero weather.