Beyond the Mirror
Copyright© 2012/2014
Chapter 26
Even though Tom had slept almost eight hours, he was wide awake by six-thirty the next morning and, after a trip to the bathroom, he dressed, then went down to the kitchen. After making coffee, he headed to the basement and his new office, but sighed heavily as he looked at the flashing light on his answering machine. For the time being, he ignored that flashing light since he suspected most of those calls would be from news reporters or snoopy people of one sort or another. Instead, he picked up his briefcase and sorted through the notes he had made during the trip to Victoria, then opened his computer and made a few entries to several of his spreadsheets. He actually smiled at the fact that he hadn’t bought a single thing for himself during his trip, but he’d bought several things for either Sandy or the cabin.
Next, he wrote a long e-mail to Ann, listing off the people he had hired in the last few days, what they had been hired to do, and how much they were to be paid each month. Included in that was the fact that he’d be allotting a certain amount each month to Linda for child support, but that he hadn’t reached an agreement with her for the amount as yet. Tacked onto the end of the e-mail was the fact that he was negotiating with Rachel to buy a house and acreage, but that they hadn’t agreed on a price for that either. He sent that e-mail to Ann’s office account with a copy to Sandy’s office account, that way both of them could keep track of those expenses on his business accounts.
Finally, he tackled the calls on the answering machine. There were seven different calls from six different TV and radio personnel. One news anchor had called twice, but all of them asked for an interview. He just sighed and deleted the whole lot for the time being, but he did make note of their names and numbers. For the time being, he planned to be elusive and hard to find, but if he wasn’t happy with the developments by Friday morning, he’d made plans to shake things up a lot more by speaking out publicly.
With that plan clear in his mind, he checked the weather forecast and smiled because the recent snow flurries were breaking up, and the forecast was for several days of decent weather. As far as he was concerned, that was great news, and just then, his cellphone rang.
“Morning,” he answered in a gruff voice, not recognising the number shown on his call display.
“Good morning, Boss. It’s Liz, even if you don’t recognise the number. Sami had a brainwave yesterday, and the guys bought a half-dozen cellphones using their company cards, all with consecutive numbers, but they forgot to mention it to either you or me. I knew you got up early, so I thought I’d call to tell you that and ask you what was going on today.”
“Now, those phones are a bloody good idea,” Tom grinned. “You guys are getting smart on me, so I’ll definitely have to thank all of you, especially Sami.”
“Yeah, she’s a thinker alright. Anyway, just so you know the numbers; Sami’s number ends in 01, mine is 02, Russ is 03, Alvin is 04, Arnie is 05, and 06 is a spare. We thought that last one could either be for you or maybe for Art.”
“I think we’ll leave it for a spare for now because it’s given me a few ideas. I think I’ll set up Josie, Art, Linda, and Ben with another series of phones, but along the same idea,” Tom frowned slightly. “Now, to change the subject, the weather looks good, so are you up to flying that whirlybird today?”
“Hell yeah!” she laughed happily. “If we’re taking the Chinook out to the lease, we’ll need to load it though, but Alvin and Arnie need to know if you want to send another load or two out to Misery Flats with the trucks?”
“Well, we really need more storage space out at the lease before we take too much more out there. I have to work that out before going much further. What I’d like to do is get the dozer out there, but besides that, we need to see if Sandy’s stove and fridge have come in yet. If they have, we need to get them shipped to the lease as soon as possible, but then we’ll need propane tanks and whatever else we need for plumbing supplies to hook them up.”
“Boss, I think you need to talk to Harry and Jim at the airstrip. Don’t forget, we’ve been out of town for a few days, so you might want to talk to them, then call me back. If you get tied up for long though, we’ll see you out at the airstrip. “ Liz chuckled, then she hung up.
Tom frowned at that, but he started to dial the phone at the airstrip right away.
“Good morning, White Out Wilderness Services at Bear Creek airfield. Harry here, and how can I help you?”
“Good morning Harry. It’s Tom, and since when have you started answering your phone that way?”
“Since JJ got here and we had a chance to talk to everyone involved. “ Harry chuckled. “He asked us what the final plans were, and once he found out, he decided it was time to get moving. As he said, at this time of year, we’re not really all that busy, so why not do a lot of the prep work for the move? Between Ann and JJ going over your notes, along with what we already knew, we’ve been shifting and shuffling things around like mad for the last few days. Actually, your dad and Jim Burke started the whole thing rolling just after you got taken to the hospital. That’s when your dad convinced Charlie to slap the Beacon brothers with a lawsuit for breaking the lease.”
“What?” Tom barked. “How the hell did that happen?”
“Well, the Beacon brothers finally got around to sending out notification of the future changes to the lease for the airstrip White Out has been using. It was just a handwritten note, so it wasn’t in legal format, but since it arrived just before the crew flew out that morning, Jim brought it along. Your dad, Jim, and I had a talk about it, then went to see Charlie, who had a copy of the original lease. An hour later, Charlie was talking to a local judge in order to have him check out the whole legal issue and get some additional advice. Charlie and the judge sent the Beacon brothers a fax, telling them that they were effectively breaking the lease by not following the established procedure dictated in the lease itself. Then an hour later, after Charlie talked to his dad, he hit them with a lawsuit which is meant to force the Beacon brothers to cover all the costs of the move. An hour after that, he hit them with a second lawsuit for defamation of character, slander, and liability because he’d heard about some of the things they’ve been telling White Out’s customers, “ Harry chuckled. “We’ve heard a rumour that they’re trying to find a lawyer to countersue, but from what we understand, most of the lawyers they talk to advise them to just pay up, because it’ll be cheaper. Of course, I expect they’ll eventually find some shyster or other who will be willing to take on the case, but according to Charlie, they don’t have a leg to stand on.”
“Holy Crow!” Tom snorted. “I suppose you guys have started moving the whole operation down here then, have you?”
“Well, actually, we’ve been doing a lot of prep work, but a lot of that is getting Sunrise Minerals stuff out of here and doing some preliminary work in order to set up a landing strip at Lonesome Lake. Ron and Donna have been busy as beavers with the SkyCrane too. First off, they hauled your little dozer out to your lease, then once they had a spot dozed flat, they moved in the two containers that had been hauled to Misery Flats, parking them at the mine site. “ Harry paused for a moment, then continued. “We’ve hired a couple of truck drivers yesterday and sent your tractor-trailer rigs up to the old White Out airstrip to pick up another pair of loaded containers and bring them here. For now, they’ll be working along with White Out’s rigs to haul loads down here, at least until you need those rigs again. Since Liz and Russ are back in town, Ron and Donna are planning to head back to the old White Out airstrip this afternoon with the SkyCrane. That way, we’ll have heavy-haul choppers and bush planes at both airstrips just in case an emergency crops up and they’re needed.”
“Wow, I have some catching up to do,” Tom chuckled. “It sounds like you guys are handling the whole deal quite well though. Just how is JJ working out?”
“JJ has really impressed us!” Harry crowed. “Once he had a handle on what we wanted to do, he just rolled up his sleeves, dug in his heels, and got busy. He may not be qualified as a bush pilot, but he knows how to manage a move, that’s for sure. Not only that, but he asks smart questions if he isn’t clear on anything, then makes up his mind fairly quickly, so he’s a damn good manager. Don’t tell anybody, but even Jim backs off and admits he’s wrong once in a while. In other words, JJ is a lot like you, just not quite as knowledgeable about airfield operations or flying a bush plane.”
“Okay, let’s leave that for now, because if you think JJ can handle the job, I’m going to back off and let him do it. So what do I and Sunrise Mineral have left here that’s in your way, besides those things that I need to have repaired and modified?”
“Not very much, “ Harry chuckled. “Maybe one load for the Chinook, but a small one at that. There might be half a load at Misery Flats though, and you should know that Alvin’s Mom and Arnie’s dad are chomping on the bit to move up to your lease. By the way, you have fuel for the choppers at Misery Flats now, because your brother Don sent out a couple of rigs and a cube van loaded with hoses, pumps, and fuel handling gear. They got there yesterday and Harvey Bartlett called to say that one of the rigs was a tanker truck, a second was a flatdeck full of fuel tanks and stands, and the third was a reefer. I’m not sure what you need that reefer for, but it’s there.”
“I think I need to get out of here and see things for myself,” Tom sighed. “It sounds as if you guys have jumped way ahead of me, and I’ll need to get my arse in gear to catch up. I’ll see you in an hour or two.”
“Okay Tom, see you then, “ Harry said and hung up his phone.
Tom had just stood to head for the kitchen when his cellphone rang, so he paused to answer it.
“Hi, who dat?” he asked, not wanting to give away his name in case it was a reporter.
“Hi little brother, it’s Don.”
“Hi Don, what’s up?”
“I just called to let you know that you should have the first of our old Atco trailers arriving in Misery Flats by noon today, and we’d like to have it offloaded as soon as possible. We need that heavy haul rig back in Kamloops by Friday.”
“Oh, okay? I’ll get someone working on that as soon as I can. Thanks for getting the tanker truck and reefer here so soon. By the way, what do I owe ya?”
“Just for tax purposes, use twelve hundred bucks for the cube van, fifteen grand for the reefer, and twenty-one for the tanker truck, but those are still coming out of your junk fund. But, you will be getting a bill from our fuel supplier in Kamloops for three and a half grand, which is for the fuel they loaded in the tanker. JJ said you wouldn’t need either diesel or Avgas for the time being, so we just sent jet fuel for now. I’ve let Ann know about all of the costs though, and she said she’d have you okay it and pay the bills right away.”
“Wait a minute, back up to that cube van, tanker, and reefer, why are those out of some sort of junk fund?”
“That’s from your original deal of trading stock for some of the recyclable junk out of our yearly disposal sale. Uncle Tom reamed my ass over that one because since it’s being recycled for use, we have to list it out at ten percent, not thirty, which is what JJ had given you on it. If you want to argue about that, take it up with Uncle Tom and Mom.”
“Oh crap, Sandy is going to be all over my butt on that one because she’s going to have to redo my books for my taxes. At least it’s for this year, not last year. What about the Atco trailer, what’s that worth, and why is it here so soon? I’m not really ready for the trailers yet.”
“Unh, let’s see ... I think about twenty-eight grand will cover our cost, including delivery. The reason for the rush on that unit is a request by Dad, forwarded from someone called the ‘A’ team. I know you asked for a later delivery, but Dad was quite insistent that they needed a single unit now, not later. “ Don paused a second, then continued. “By the way, Dad and I both want to say thanks for the heads up about security. Our guys caught a couple of thugs trying to break into our offices last night, but I’m supposed to warn you to keep your head down. BP is already screaming for mercy, but if you have a look at the stock market today you’ll see why. They’re getting the shit kicked out of them already and I understand heads are rolling at the head office in Toronto and even more in BC. There’s a rumour going around that the guy who laughed at Dad yesterday was fired this morning, then was arrested by the police as soon as he stepped foot out of the office building.”
“Wow. I guess Dad’s happy, huh?”
“Yes and no. I think he’s still pissed, because he’s been on the phone ever since he came into the office today. I think he’s trying to get a couple of politicians involved or something. To be honest I’ll be keeping my nose out of that mess, just as much as I can.”
“Want me to call him and ask him to calm down?”
“Nope, right now he’s been talking to Frank Jamison for about half an hour and that seems to be settling him down some. I think your friend Frank is one hell of a lawyer, because from what I can understand after translating the legalise he uses into English, he has those beggars sewn up tight. As a result I think there may be one helluva lawsuit pending on the whole deal.”
“I hope not,” Tom grumbled. “I just want all the shit to stop so I can get on with my life and not have to worry about protecting everyone from crooks and thugs. Lawsuits are a pain in the ass.”
“Oh, this won’t last long, not since the cops are already making arrests and laying criminal charges, but keep your head down and pass that on to Ann and JJ as well. Not only that, but I want you to let me know what time you’ll be landing here on Friday, so I can have security standing by at the airport, just in case.”
“Thanks, Don, I’ll let you know when I have a better idea myself. We’ll see you then,” he sighed as he closed the cellphone.
When he walked into the kitchen, both Sandy and Rachel were there and greeted him quietly.
“Good morning. You two are up early,” he greeted them.
“Morning, Tom. We decided to head in early so we could stop at the Mallard house, which is the semiofficial name of the house where the daycare centre will be. If you follow us in, you can stop there and see what it looks like now. Then I thought you’d probably like to drive by the little house on the acreage too,” Rachel said as Tom was giving Sandy a hug.
“That sounds good,” Tom smiled as he poured himself another cup of coffee. “Sandy, we’ve been warned that we should all keep a low profile today, so perhaps you’d like to come with me. I’m going to head off to the airstrip this morning, then fly out to the cabin. I understand heads are rolling at BP and arrests are being made, so their stock has taken a tumble, but Don called and warned me that they had an attempted break-in last night.”
“Have you called Lance to ask him what he thinks?” she asked. “I would like to drop into the office if we could, at least for a few minutes.”
“No, I’ve been on the phone with Liz, then Harry, and finally with Don. I’ve got to call Liz back, and then I need to call JJ, but I’m really not too happy about tying up any of the police in any way. Not only that, but I don’t like the idea of you going into work today, since it might be risky. If you feel it’s absolutely essential though, why don’t you call Ann and see what she thinks about it? After all, she may well have talked to Lance since she implied that they were somewhat involved. I don’t know if it means anything or not, but I noticed she didn’t follow us back here last night.”
“You know you’re right. She didn’t come back here with us, and that’s not like your big sister,” Sandy frowned and grabbed her phone.
While she was on the phone with Ann, Tom called Liz, then told her he’d see her and the guys at the airfield in an hour. Before he let her go, he suggested that she should check at the warehouse and see if their packages from Victoria had been delivered yet. Then he dialed JJ.
“Morning, Tom, “ JJ said sleepily. “What’s up?/”
“Nothing much. I just phoned to pat you on the back for taking charge out at the airfield. Good job!”
“Well, we’re just setting up for a move, which is something I know how to do, well, mostly anyway, but there is a difference or two. The biggest difference is that I’m dealing with planes, trucks, and hangars, not drill rigs, bulldozers, and housing. Word has already gotten out around town, so I have contractors coming out to see me, asking what we’ll be doing and how soon they can bid on any jobs we might have for them. By the way, where is that engineer you told me you’d hired? I need her and your warehouse guy to look over our rough plans and check that they’ll work out for us before we have final drawings done and we start staking out building sites.”
“She’ll be here sometime on Thursday, so will the guy who is going to set up my warehouse and train my staff there, but once that’s done I plan to use him as my local mechanic. Both Sami and Art are going to end up working for me at Sunrise Mineral most of the time. I may lend them to you once in a while, if you’re desperate and if you ask nicely, but I found them and hired them to work for me.”
“Game on, Bro!” JJ chuckled. “By the way, I just hired two of the local guys away from you on Saturday and I have them driving your trucks for me. How’s that for a double whammy?”
“That’s not what I heard,” Tom laughed. “I heard you’d leased my trucks and hired a couple of unemployed drivers to wheel them. By the way, which of my friends did you hire?”
“Which ones? I hired Sammy Bowman and his buddy, Jimmy Proudfoot. Come to think of it, they did say they knew you quite well, “ JJ laughed. “Shit, I should know better than to try to beat you at your own game, especially in this town because the deck is stacked in your favour.”
“Well, there’s no way you could have known that Sandy and I celebrated New Year’s Eve by going to a party at Sammy’s house,” Tom chuckled. “Anyway, in about an hour or so I’m heading down to the airfield on my way out to the lease, will you be around or not?”
“Yep, I’ll still be here then, now I have another contractor coming by, so I’ve gotta go. I’ll see you later.”
Since JJ had hung up, Tom closed his phone, but it rang almost instantly.
“Morning,” he growled once more, because he didn’t recognise the number displayed on his phone.
“Tom? This is Art, Art Reynolds.”
“Oh! Hi Art,” Tom answered more civilly. “Sorry to sound grouchy when I answered, but the news hounds are baying at my ankles and I’m trying to avoid them if I can.”
“Yeah, Sami told us about it last night and we saw your dad and a lawyer on TV, “ Art chuckled. “We’ve had a couple of changes down here. First off, we’ll be there a little earlier than we planned. We’ll be leaving sometime today, so we might have to spend one night at a motel, but we’ll definitely be there before noon on Thursday, maybe even by noon tomorrow. Secondly, I’m bringing along that young guy I was talking about before, Bobby Boyer, the young fellow I was training at my old job. It turns out he didn’t have a job after all, but he’s willing to drive up and talk to you on the chance of getting a job with your outfit. I like him; he’s honest, really smart, and he works hard, so I was hoping you’d give him a chance. He’s twenty years old, graduated from high school, and has muscles like a bull, probably because he was a hockey player at one time.”
“Art, I don’t know what to say,” Tom sighed. “I’m glad you folks are coming earlier than you had planned, but I can’t promise your friend a job without getting to know more about him.”
“He knows that and he’s willing to take the chance. He does have references you can check, and he doesn’t expect to travel on your dime, so he’s using his car and he’ll be paying his own way. I’ll be honest, he’s in a tough position right now. Without any real training after high school, he’s classed as a labourer by anyone who is hiring, and labourers are a dime a dozen. In fact, even a guy with training is having a rough time finding a job in the Victoria area, so he wants out. He was saying that if he didn’t get a job with you, he’d head out to Alberta and see if he couldn’t get into construction again.””
“So you’re saying he’s worked construction before?”
“Yeah, he was trying to get an apprenticeship as a carpenter, so he’s done a few years of rough carpentry - framing, roofing, and things like that. Why?”
“Well, we will be hiring contractors, labourers, and various trades out at the airfield for a short time once the weather breaks,” Tom sighed softly. “Aw hell, bring him along, and we’ll give him a try. For now, he’ll either be working in the warehouse or out at the airstrip. If that doesn’t work out, I might even take him out to the lease and use him as a labourer out there, but for now, he’ll be under trial. Just warn him that I’m not guaranteeing him a job, but I’ll give him a chance to earn one.”
“I’ll pass that on and thanks, Tom. We’ll probably see you tomorrow.”
“Yeah, thanks for the heads up,” Tom sighed heavily as he hung up the phone, then turned to Rachel. “I sure hope that daycare house is going to be move-in ready soon, because you’re going to have tenants here by tomorrow.”
“It will be,” she nodded. “The appliances will be installed by noon today.”
“Well, breakfast is ready, so let’s eat and get going,” Sandy said shortly. “I’m just as interested in that house as Tom is, but we’ve got several other things to do today as well.”
“No problem, Sandy,” Rachel answered. “I’m interested as well because the contractor promised me the house would be completely finished today, but it was almost done yesterday. All that was left was painting touch-up and appliances.”
Actually, by the time Rachel led the way there in her car, followed by Sandy and Tom in his truck, the painters were doing the final touch-up, and the appliance people were unloading their truck. Tom and Sandy were both impressed with the place from the moment they parked in the driveway.
It was a two-story home with four bedrooms, three bathrooms, and a full-height basement. The basement had a door at ground level and toward the rear of the house, but opening off the driveway. The roof had new shingles, and the exterior had recently been painted. The interior had been completely redone and was neat and tidy, but not overdone, so while it wouldn’t be considered a show home, it was still very nice. The kitchen was quite large and opened onto a large dining room, with a separate living or family room on the opposite side of the house. There was even what Rachel called a powder room on the main floor, basically a half-bath with a toilet and hand basin. Upstairs, there were three decent-sized bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a master suite with a walk-in closet and an ensuite - basically another full bathroom that opened onto the master bedroom.
Tom was more interested in the basement than anything, but what he found was a pleasant surprise. The main plumbing stack was off to one side, and the heating and electrical services were all toward the front of the house where the outside ground level rose, so the exterior windows in that area were tiny. The rest of the basement was wide open and had several large exterior windows, so the main area was relatively well lit. Since there was an exterior door and a full-height ceiling, he thought that the area could easily be converted into a small daycare.
The walk-through had only taken a few minutes, then Rachel led the way to the second house and acreage that she was willing to sell. It was definitely not in anything near as good condition as the larger home, but it was on a two-acre lot which was fully fenced. It was much nearer town and she explained that it could be serviced by both gas and sewer in the spring. Even at first glance, Tom was concerned about the condition of the house though. He noticed that the shingles on the roof were curling and nearing the end of their life. Then too, although the house was stuccoed, the trim needed painting and as well, both the windows and doors were in bad shape. After they went inside, he could see that it desperately needed cleaning, painting, and a full upgrade. At least the heat was still on and it had been lived in recently, so the basic structure probably hadn’t deteriorated too badly.
“I think this is a complete gut and a full renovation,” Tom said quietly, “and that’s without even looking in the attic or basement to see what damage might be there. The roof is about gone and probably starting to leak. There isn’t any visible venting on the roof, so there may be mould in the attic and the trim on the outside of the house needs to be painted or maybe even replaced. The windows are wood-framed, single-pane units, so the insulation is probably substandard as well. I’m sorry to say it, but it might be simpler to demolish this place and start from scratch, so I’m not thrilled with what I see here. I’d need to talk to a contractor to see what he thinks the house is worth, if anything. Does it have a basement or is it on a crawlspace?”
“There is a basement, but it’s not full height, maybe six feet at the most,” Rachel sighed. “I’ll tell you what, I bought this place for the value of the land because it can be subdivided down to half-acre lots. I’ve thought about it and it’s costing me money just sitting here, so pay me what the land is worth and it’s yours, then you can do what you want with the house and the acreage.”
“Done, let’s go see our realtor and lawyer,” Tom offered her his hand, and they shook on the deal. “I’ll get a contractor in here as soon as possible to see if he recommends tear-down or renovation, but either way, this little house is going to cost me a bundle before it’ll be livable.”
“My gosh, but I love being around a man who can make up his mind,” Rachel grinned and winked as she headed for her car. “Let’s go to town and make Adam Horowitz’s and my day. He’ll get a commission, and my bank account will stop haemorrhaging money.”
JJ was just dropping off Ann as they pulled up to Sandy’s office, so they all went inside together, then Rachel and Tom went next door to talk to Charlie and Laura. Inside of half an hour, they had Adam there as well, and in short order, they had hammered out a deal for Tom to buy the acreage, completely disregarding the house. Rachel heaved a sigh of relief when Tom handed her a cheque as soon as they’d both signed the paperwork.
“The next time I think about buying a house that needs renovation so I can resell it, kick my ass, please!” she said to Adam with a wry grin on her face. “I’m going to have the other house fixed up to suit me, and that’s it! Absolutely no more renovations unless I plan to live in the house afterward.”
“Well, I’ll try,” Adam rolled his eyes. “The problem is you buy things and then tell me about them, usually after you’ve stretched your finances so thin they sing like the strings of a harp. You didn’t lose money on that deal, and you won’t lose money on the Mallard property either. In fact, you’ll have a nice rental income on that place, especially if they put the daycare in the basement.”
“Actually, I was wondering if you’d consider offering Art and Josie a rent-to-own opportunity on that house?” Tom suggested quietly. “Or if you want to sell it outright, I’m willing to back them for the down payment? If you did that, I’ll buy out your mortgage, and they’ll be buying the house from me. That way, you’ll have the cash available to invest in something else, and I’ll be the one taking any risk, even though I think that risk will be minimal.”
“You trust them that much?” Rachel stared at him in surprise. “You just met them last weekend, for crying out loud.”
“Yeah, but I also met their family and saw their home, so I saw what they do and how they act when they’re around friends and family. Those two are salt of the earth and trustworthy as I am, so I have no problem backing them for a deal like that. Besides, both of them will be working for me in one way or another. That means I’m positive that any mortgage they take out will be as secure as their jobs, and I wouldn’t have hired them if I didn’t expect them to work out in the long run.”
“He’s got you there, Rachel,” Adam grinned and winked at Tom. “Besides, the property is worth a lot more now that the house has been renovated, and if you sell to him, you won’t have to go through the hassle of renovating the basement to turn it into a daycare.”
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