Chapter 13

The following Wednesday, while Matti was in the kitchen waiting for Dawn to have a shower before they left to go out for dinner, his satellite phone rang. It was Ernie Stewart, calling to let Matti know that he had an urgent need for a hydraulic fitting. When Matti reached to his pocket to get his pen and note pad, he realized he had left them in his apartment.

“Just hang on a minute, Ernie. I need to find a pen and paper.” There was a drawer by Dawn’s phone that Matti knew should contain what he needed, so he reached in and grabbed a pen and an old envelope to write on. Within a couple of minutes he had written down the pertinent information about the necessary fitting, and ended his call.

Moments later, Matti realized there was a piece of paper in the envelope, and he turned it over to look at the front of the envelope, wondering if he should have found something more appropriate to write on. The return address showed that it was sent from a clothing store that Matti was unfamiliar with, but the thing that really caught his eye was that it was addressed to ‘Dawn Westenhover’, although the address was the apartment he was presently sitting in. His immediate thought was that Dawn had been married at some point.

He was still trying to get his mind around this unexpected development when Dawn joined him in the kitchen. Matti immediately said, “I ... I was looking for some paper to write down a part number, and I grabbed this old envelope from your drawer. I didn’t think there was anything in it, but I can tell now that there’s at least one sheet of paper inside.” Dawn didn’t seem at all concerned, and was about to say something when Matti continued, “This envelope is addressed to Dawn Westenhover, but it’s your address. Is that you? Were you married before?”

Dawn was obviously flustered, and was a bit red in the face as she answered, “No, Matti. No, I’ve never been married. I ... I changed my name. It was for ... my work ... to ... to give me a simpler sounding surname on the air.” She began returning to her normal color, and her voice settled down as she continued, “The instructor in one of our classes at Ryerson, where I took Journalism, mentioned that having a simple, melodic, surname could help when we applied for a job. That’s why I did it.”

Matti relaxed and said, “I wasn’t meaning to pry, Dawn. I just needed something to write on in a hurry, and this was the first thing I saw. I’ll find something else to write on and just put the envelope back.”

Dawn told him not to worry, and to just tear off the section he needed. She checked the envelope, and it was simply a statement showing the account she had once held with the store was fully paid off. After Matti had used a pair of scissors to cut out the section of the envelope that he needed, Dawn tore up what was left and tossed it in the garbage. A minute later they were going out the door on their way to dinner.

It was the next day, after Matti had returned home from his night spent with Dawn, that a revelation came to him. When he had tried to search for Dawn’s family, he had searched under her new surname. He quickly decided that he would make the search again, but this time he would search for the surname Westenhover.

Matti was confident that he was going to find Dawn’s family in this search. He had quickly decided that his careless use of the envelope would pay a big dividend if he could somehow arrange for reconciliation between Dawn and her family. It was with a great degree of confidence that he sat down at his computer to make the search.

He was quickly deflated when he got no returns for the surname when he searched under the town of Uxbridge. It was when he did a province-wide search that things finally looked up. There were less than a dozen listings for the surname Westenhover. He found one listing for Richard Westenhover with an address in Goodwood, Ontario. An online map quickly showed him that it was a small town only a short distance from Uxbridge. It was with very high hopes that he dialed the number. A minute later he hung up the phone in defeat, as there was no answer. When prompted to leave a message, Matti decided not to. He felt it was better to speak to the party at the other end in person; a voicemail message just didn’t seem appropriate.

Likewise, Matti knew that he couldn’t say anything yet to Dawn. Maybe things were as bad as Dawn had indicated, and he would be cursed at and hung up on when he got through. It was even possible that Dawn would be upset with him for getting involved. He decided he had to think about this a little bit more.

It was Monday of the following week when Matti finally did get through to a person at the number in Goodwood. It was with trepidation and a bit of excitement that he began the conversation to explain why he was calling.

“I’m calling to find out if I’ve reached the family of Dawn Westenhover.”

After a couple of seconds delay the person on the other end answered tentatively, “I’m Richard Westenhover, and I have a sister named Dawn. Is ... Is Dawn dead? Is this the police?”

Matti was quite surprised by the questions he was asked, and quickly replied, “No, Dawn’s fine. Just to confirm I have the right person, can you tell me your parents’ names?”

There was some relief in the voice of Richard Westenhover when he quickly answered, “Thank God! Our parents are Richard and Betty Westenhover. Please tell me this is my sister we’re talking about.”

“Yes, this definitely is your sister we’re talking about. She told me she was estranged from her family, and I just wanted to confirm if that is true, or if she’s possibly mistaken.”

Dawn’s brother’s sigh was audible as he answered, “Yes, there were problems between Dawn and my parents, but that was long ago. Dawn stopped calling them at about the same time as they realized they had been too harsh with her. We ... We were beginning to believe she was dead. Every time there’s been a report of a body, or the remains of a woman are found, we expected it to be her. Every time we hear of one of these cases, we give the police a call, and give them her description. They’ve always ruled her out immediately. There was always something that didn’t match their case.”

“Are your parents still alive, or have they moved away? Only one Richard Westenhover showed up in the online directory.”

“Our parents are doing fine, but they were getting a lot of crank calls, so they changed their phone to an unlisted number. They still live in Uxbridge at the family home. I got married a year ago, and we bought this house when we found out we were going to have a family. Dawn has a sister-in-law Rachel, and a two-month-old nephew named Andrew. Can you give me her number, so that I can call her? Mom and dad will be absolutely thrilled to hear that she’s alive and well. They’ve regretted the whole situation for years: especially how they reacted.”

Matti thought about it for a second, and realized he hadn’t considered the entire situation. He replied, “I probably should let her know that I’ve reached you, and that everything has been ... forgiven. I’m sure she’ll be happy to get the news, but I realize now that maybe I’ve gone about this in the wrong way. You can tell your parents that she’s fine, but maybe it would be better if I have you wait for her to call. I’ll go over and talk to her this evening, and get her to call you. Is that okay?”

Her brother was obviously a little disappointed with Matti’s suggestion, but he finally agreed it made some sense. As Matti hung up the phone he was nervous, wondering if he had perhaps opened a door that should have been left closed. After a few moments of thought he shook his head, and decided that he had done the right thing.

It must have been fate that played a part in the next thing that happened. Matti was doing a search for a particular brand of drilling equipment that he was interested in learning more about. He soon noticed that one of the search results was for an upcoming equipment auction. It was to take place the following weekend at an industrial park near the town of Stouffville. Matti knew that Stouffville was somewhere in southern Ontario, but when he looked it up on a map he discovered it was not really very far from Goodwood or Uxbridge.

A quick study of the auction information showed that there were two diamond drilling rigs, described as complete, but in used, as is, condition. They were going to go on the block on Saturday afternoon. A thorough search of the list of equipment up for auction showed Matti that the rest of the items were much more related to the construction and warehousing industries. There were a lot of graders, compressors, gravel trucks and forklifts, but only those two drilling rigs that would be of much more interest to the mining industry. It made him wonder if there would be very many other bidders interested in them.

The germ of an idea had come to Matti. He spent the rest of the afternoon researching the particular brand and model number of the two rigs up for auction. He got some information from further online searches, but he also made phone calls to distributors and suppliers of drilling equipment. He was trying to nail down a reasonable value for the equipment that was up for auction, as there was no reserve price on it to give him a starting point. Eventually he had an approximate range of values for what the used equipment should be worth.

The next step of his evolving plan would take place that evening when he dropped in to see Dawn. She wouldn’t be expecting him, but there was a little bit of information he needed to get from her.

It was just after 7 PM when Dawn met Matti at the door to her apartment. “Matti! What brings you by this evening? I wasn’t expecting you tonight.” She smiled and added, “Mind you, you’re welcome to drop in any time.”

“I was just in the area, and I thought it might be nice to drop in for a cup of coffee with you.”

Dawn quickly agreed that the idea of a cup of coffee sounded good, and they were soon seated at the kitchen table with hot mugs of coffee in front of them. After a bit of general conversation Matti decided to get to the point of his visit.

“It was sure nice to get to spend some time with my sister. I speak to her quite often on the phone, but it’s always nice to see her in person.”

Dawn smiled and said, “Yes, I’m sure you really enjoy her visits. They’re such a nice family.”

Matti hesitated before getting right to the point. “I’m surprised you haven’t tried to get in touch with your family. You must find it pretty hard, not being able to get past your differences with them.”

Dawn immediately became very serious in her appearance, and it seemed to Matti that her eyes were shinier as she blinked rapidly several times. “It is hard, Matti. I really wish things would’ve worked out differently, but my mom and dad made things pretty clear to me. Maybe ... my brother ... maybe I could try to reach out to him some day. He’d be old enough now that he might be able to make up his own mind about things, I suppose.”

Matti smiled and said, “It sounds like you’d be willing to try, if they were.”

Dawn sighed and shook her head before she answered, “It would be too much to wish for, I’m sure.”

Matti changed the subject and let Dawn recover from her melancholy before he broached the next subject that was part of his overall plan. It was another five minutes before he turned the conversation to the area he wanted to get to.