Chapter 24

September 30, 1999

Diamond Wash, Flagstaff

As always it was a little sad and hectic getting the passengers onto the crew bus and heading up the hill, but the important piece of news was Karin's presence in the first place; that told them that things had gone well for her.

They got more details as the crew bus was taking the passengers up the hill. As planned, Karin had driven back from Lee's Ferry the day they started the trip, helped Michelle with a couple of reports that needed to be dealt with, and explained how to pull together information that would be needed for a couple more. The next morning, Jeff had driven her to the airport in Phoenix. Just about the first thing she did when she got off the plane at O'Hare was find her Buick and drive to a divorce attorney's office; she'd made an appointment with him long-distance on Monday.

"There are advantages and disadvantages to doing the divorce in Illinois, out here in Arizona, or in Nevada," she reported. "Nevada would be the quickest, but I'd have to establish residency, and I'd probably have a very unfavorable settlement, so we ruled that out. To make a long story short, we worked up a proposed settlement for an Illinois divorce, and told Pete he had the option of accepting it. It's really very fair to him. If he refused, I'd wait three months and file out here in Arizona, where he'd get a much worse deal on the community property settlement."

"Plus, he'd have to travel out here to fight it, and he'd hate that," Crystal laughed.

"I hadn't overlooked that," Karin grinned. "It'd mean he'd have to travel outside of Chicago, and he hates going any farther than the grocery store for a bottle of milk."

"So, how'd he take it?"

"He threw a monumental fit, even for him," Karin laughed. "However, I'd expected that. My attorney was present, of course, but I'm sure you remember Thelma, from my office. I asked her husband to be present."

"He's a cop, isn't he?" Crystal giggled.

"Yes, and a rather large one at that." Karin laughed. "To be honest, I think he was less upset about my leaving him rather than having to deal with the changes it will mean for him. In any case, he apparently consulted his own attorney and accepted the offer. It'll probably take a year, perhaps longer, to get everything settled, and I may have to go back to Chicago once or twice. For example, it isn't clear yet whether he'll buy up my share of the house, or whether it'll be sold and the money divided. If it's the latter, there might be paperwork I would have to deal with there. In any case, it's under way, and it's a huge relief."

"It is for me, too," Crystal nodded. "You should have done it years ago."

"Perhaps, but there were reasons to not do it then, too," Karin shrugged. "Of course, things have changed considerably in the last few weeks. I said nothing to anyone about Al, of course. In fact, Pete doesn't even know I'll be in Flagstaff. The only address he has is a post office box I set up in Sedona on the way to the airport."

"Any word on Nanci?"

"Absolutely nothing," Karin shrugged. "Pete commented at one point that he hasn't heard from her since I left. I spent some time talking with the families of some of the friends she used to have, and they haven't heard from her, either, but have promised to write if they hear something. I told Thelma that I would be with you in Flagstaff. Nanci knows that Thelma and I are good enough friends that if she finds me gone from Heller-Aller and wants to contact me, she might get a hold of her. There's where I had to leave it." She let out a sigh and glanced up to see that no one else was in earshot, then continued, "Al, you and I are still going to have to keep things absolutely above board, although as time goes on we'll be able to appear closer. However, the connection with Crystal probably should remain a secret until the divorce is final."

"You're thinking that if Pete finds out, he'll fly into a rage and upset the applecart?" Crystal frowned.

"Yes," Karin smiled. "As it is, I think he'll accept the reality. Grudgingly, of course, that's his way. But there's no point in rubbing his nose in it. Anyway, I arranged my retirement at Heller-Aller. I had to actually work a few days to turn my job over to Thelma. There were a few other details that needed to be settled, but I started back Saturday morning and arrived Monday. That was just in time, as it turned out."

"Trouble?" Al frowned.

"It would have been. As it is, you're going to have less than a hundred dollars in tax penalties. Another few days and it would have gone up steeply. Michelle and I closed the third-quarter books and reports yesterday; most of it will be in the mail tomorrow, since it'll be after the first of the month. There's one report that we're waiting for a form on, but she knows the numbers that have to go on it, so that'll be done. It's just as well; we'd still be on the river when it's due."

"Good deal," Al nodded. "I was concerned about that. I never thought about taxes until Michelle brought 'em to my attention on the last trip."

"She is a jewel," Karin grinned, "Even though every time I look at her I have to add ten years to her age mentally." She smiled again. "The weird thing is that she reminds me so much of Nanci when she was about fourteen, I had trouble avoiding calling her that."

"Yeah," Crystal nodded. "You're right about that, although I'd never quite seen it that way. But I saw her in action on the river about as soon as I met her; that gives me a little different perspective."

"She's been very helpful in a number of ways," Karin said. "Like I said, she's a remarkable young woman. She arranged for a small house for Crystal and Scooter and me. It's unfurnished, but she was able to come up with enough to live with, although it's rather Spartan, and some of it is old. However, the price was right, and she even had it set up when I arrived. Al, I think you'd better plan on keeping that girl."

"I knew that years ago," he grinned. "So, did she have Mike find your son?"

"Yes, she did," Karin confirmed. "It has been a real struggle every day to not drive down to Phoenix to check it out. He was able to find several pieces of information, including the fact that he's working at a place called Lambdatron Corporation, get this, with his wife!"

"Bingo!" Crystal laughed. "I thought that might be the case, even though it's hard to imagine Jon getting far enough away from his computer to find a woman to marry. Did Mike get her name?"

"Yes," Karen smiled. "You were right. Tanisha."

"Two and two make four after all," Crystal smiled. "I only met her the one time, but she seemed like a nice kid."

"Mike told me the people at Lambdatron were not very helpful, but he was able to confirm that much. He has some other leads to follow if necessary, but he's pretty sure we have all we need."

"If they're at Lambdatron, it shouldn't be a problem," Al smiled. "I've had half a dozen people from there run with us, including the company president. It shouldn't be any trick to call in a favor. I suppose we'd better think about going down there tomorrow."

"It seems like it," Karin nodded, "But there's no point in leaving early if we want to catch them at home after work."

"I'd like to make it a quick down and back if we could," Crystal said. "No more than overnight. Scooter did a good job pulling the loading together for this trip, but I felt guilty about it."

"Oh, hell," Scooter smiled, "This is more important. Take the time you need. But maybe we'd better get started on the loading here or we're not going to get back at all."

As always, it was late when they got back, and with the shorter days it got dark sooner. Michelle was waiting for them, of course, and Jerry was there again. Michelle had also called Norma and Barbie over from Northern Arizona University, and this time had flushed out a couple of the high school kids who had run on tryouts with Team 1 or 2 over the summer -- Crystal being new, Team 3 had avoided that chore for all but one trip. Michelle had hinted to them that someone who volunteered to dump the groovers had a better chance of getting put on as a swamper in the summer; that simplified the problem of figuring out who was going to deal with that stinky chore.

But before they even got seriously started, Michelle had some business for them: "I went ahead and scheduled a sailboat out of Abaco," she told them. "The dates aren't quite what we talked about, but that doesn't matter a lot. Since I scheduled four weeks, they're going to extend the low rate for the last week. That's a twenty-eight footer; I could have gotten the dates we talked about on a thirty-two footer, but that would have cost more."

"Should work," Scooter nodded. "What's the dates?"

"January ninth through February fifth," Michelle said. "I think I can manage January in the Bahamas. I'm thinking of getting a bikini that's really daring."

"Christ knows what that's gonna be like," Crystal snickered. "Considering you think a string bikini is conservative. But I think I can handle January in the Bahamas too, especially when the alternative is freezing my ass cleaning up dog shit in Spearfish Lake."

"Doesn't take much deciding, does it?" Michelle laughed. "Oh, by the way, Crystal, speaking of Spearfish Lake: Randy wants you to call him while you're on break. He said you knew the number."

Crystal got a grin on her face. "I will give anyone just one guess as to what that means," she laughed. "If we're going to Phoenix tomorrow, I guess I'd better head in and call now."