Final Turn: A story of adventure, intrigue and suspense. (13 page)

Roger decided that he was going to confront Jack directly. He would probably not see him again until the National Soaring Contest to be held at the Cu-Nim Gliding Club. It was coming up soon and would be a good time and place. He asked Sam if he could use her computer to look at what his program had captured from Jack's computer disk. She was tired and decided to go off to bed. She left him with an invitation to join her. Roger sat in front of the Sam's computer. He started up a program to read the disk and display any information it had found on Jack's computer. The way in which the program read the disk told him that there was something there. Roger sat up with anticipation. It had found either the missing records from the eStorage transactions or something about Ming Sing Estates. He watched for a while, finishing his drink. The program seemed slow, like a watched pot. Up until tonight he had not been prepared to approach Jack with his suspicions about the accident. What had bothered Roger was that he could not come up with even a remotely plausible reason why Jack would try to kill him. Now it was different; all that money in Jack's account, a Hong Kong bank account. Roger remembered that Jack had sold his farm to a Hong Kong firm. Did that have something to do with this? What was Ming Sing Estates?

He was tired. He thought of the ridge coming up at him and the awful crash when the wings were torn from the aircraft. He remembered the unexplainable cold, the thirst and the pain. It was difficult to forget it. Every time he moved himself, the reminders stabbed him in the arms and chest. For a moment it made him angry. He suppressed the anger. He had to remain cool and think it through logically. Especially when dealing with Jack, he would have to be composed and sure of himself. False accusations could have serious repercussions. Jack had been his friend, a good friend, for a long time. It was not easy to accept the idea that he had been involved in an armored car robbery, furthermore, the thought that Jack had tried to kill him was incomprehensible. Perhaps it had only been meant as a warning. One thing Roger did know, money made people do strange things.

Something began to appear on the screen. What he saw was not what he had expected. There was no indication of any transactions from the eStorage's system. The program had found a match only on 'Ming Sing Estates'. There was an email from Jack to Ming Sing Estates. The email contained instructions to purchase Jack's farm property. It gave all the necessary legal information and the price. It also gave banking information showing where the funds were to be transferred. The account holder was Jack Fischer. That made sense. But there was more than that. There was another email.
This one was a similar message giving instructions to purchase another track of land. Again, it gave legal information and the price. It described a parcel of land of about 100 acres on the west coast. This time the account holder was not Jack Fischer, it was Robert Lindquist.

Trudy felt unsettled in the house, she always had. Ever since she had agreed to move in with Jack, the house had puzzled her. It was beautiful, prestigious and comfortable; physically comfortable. Yet, whenever she tried to piece together how Jack handled his finances and how he had come to do so well, the house felt uncomfortable. They had always kept their financial affairs separate. That had been the arrangement. They would live together for three years and then make a decision on where to go from there. There was one year left and Trudy was not sure if she was any wiser than when they started.

Her job with the finance company kept her mind only partially occupied; she expected no more from that type of work. Ever since Sam had come to visit her at home, Trudy had felt uneasy. Sam was becoming a good friend. Yet it had been the first time Sam had come to see her just for a visit, and she had come with a purpose. Trudy had a sense that Sam had been directing the conversation to a purpose and had left with what she wanted. She also had a sense that Sam had left knowing something that Trudy needed to know herself. They had talked mostly about her father but she knew Sam had been more interested in something about Jack. She had only sensed that after Sam had already left.

The second time Sam had come to see her was just after Roger's airplane accident. That had been very frightening. It was the first time that Trudy had really understood how Sam felt about Roger. All kidding and heckling aside, Sam had received the scare of her life. She understood how close it had been for Roger. Sam had worn a look as if she'd thrown away a winning lotto ticket. Still, through the display of emotions, Trudy could see that Sam had come to do more than vent her feelings. There was something she had wanted to talk about but could not get to. She had again come with a purpose. This time she had left without meeting it. Trudy had been left wondering what is was about Roger's accident that seemed familiar to her and what it was about Jack that brought Sam to her door.

Trudy sat in Jack's study, fearful that she held the answer in her hand. She tried to think if she had been naive about Jack. She was holding a small bankbook for a Hong Kong bank. The bankbook was difficult to understand. The amounts shown in the deposit column were impossible to explain. Trudy knew Jack had sold his farm to a Hong Kong firm and the name Ming Sing Estates, which she saw scrawled on a piece of paper from the same envelop as the bank book, seemed to ring a faint bell but the numbers confused her. The farm wasn't worth nearly that much. Why was Jack so damned secretive about it all?

She resolved to approach Jack for an explanation. As important as that could be, there was something more compelling on Trudy's mind. She began to recognize the familiarity of Roger's airplane accident. Her second conversation with Sam seemed like a replay of the first one with the roles reversed. Sam had been describing Roger's accident to Trudy with undertones of malice. The details of her own father's crash kept getting mixed up in her mind with Roger's accident. Both had run out of fuel over the mountains. Both were experienced and careful pilots. Roger had survived but her father had not. An awful realization began to seep into her. For all these years she had harbored bitterness rooted in her attitude towards her father's crash. It was bitterness towards something unknown, towards something unexplained. She had just never accepted the possibility that it had been an accident. A mistake made by her father with drastic consequences for himself. She had been told hundreds of times that 'these things happen', people who knew a lot about flying had told her that. She had never listened. Roger's accident had shown her that indeed these things could happen. Roger was also experienced, he was also careful and he also made a mistake. He had lived and could tell a lot more about it than her father had been able to. She had spent so much time searching for another explanation. Her father's death had been an accident; she knew that now.

Trudy decided that she owed it to Sam to explain it to her. She thought that Sam should know how she felt now. Sam should also know that Roger was involved in a dangerous sport. She should know that and think about it before it was too late. Just like it had taken Trudy's own father from her, it could take Roger from Sam. It almost had already.

Roger was waiting for the others to go so he could talk to Jack privately. Some people were going home, most were settling into their campers which were parked down a small slope next to the hanger. Tomorrow was a big day for many of them. The Cu-Nim club had not hosted the Nationals for many years. The local pilots would want to put on a good show amidst the fierce competition. There were competitors from across the country and the Cu-Nim members were not about to let someone else outdo them in their own conditions. Southern Alberta was known for the best soaring conditions in the country, but only they could prove it to the ‘Easterners’.

Jack was still fussing with things in his trailer where it was parked opposite the hanger. This was the best place to confront him, out in the open with no one around. The weekend started tomorrow so they wouldn't have to face each other in the confines of the office. Tomorrow the flying would begin and they would both be here, but they would have some space. Jack might even leave once he found out what Roger knew. Roger thought he had himself under control but he was not certain what he would do if Jack denied everything or became abusive. Jack was capable of that. Roger was controlling a lot of anger about the accident. He was not sure if he was prepared to tell Jack that he had broken into his house. Still, he had to be careful not to tell Jack anything that he could not have known any other way. Jack was clever. He thought back to what Sam had said when she had dropped him off after leaving the hospital. Sam was to be listened to; she had the perception of a palmist.

He hated to do this but there was no way to avoid it. Had it not been for the tow plane crash, he might have been able to walk away from it. He didn't feel safe around the airplanes anymore and the accident still made him furious. What a stupid thing to do, it wasn't even a reliable way to do someone in. It was almost inconceivable that Jack would do this. Jack was not a killer. If he were, surely he would be a more effective one. In the cold light of day it had to be absurd to think that Jack had robbed an armored car. It was even more absurd to think that he had tried to kill his friend. How could he rob an armored car by himself? Maybe that obnoxious Craig from the storage compound and Jack had colluded in the robbery. Craig certainly seemed the type and he had taken a very aggressive attitude towards the information about that truck leaving the compound. There never had been a proper accounting for those records from eStorage. Maybe it was time to go back and visit this young man again. Maybe.

Still, he knew there was another reason that he had to deal with it now. There was no way he was going to get in another airplane with Jack around the field unless he had checked it thoroughly. He couldn't keep doing that forever. It was an awful admission but he didn't trust Jack. He had to deal with that. Nervous or not, now was the time. Tomorrow would be too late.

Roger took a few deep breaths to calm him. It was with a feeling of foreboding that he walked over to the far end of Jack's trailer. He found Jack seated on a box and huddled over the task of cleaning and polishing his glider canopy. It had been removed from the glider and was lying in front of him on the grass.

"Jack." He began, already knowing there was apprehension in his voice.

"What's up Roger?"

"Jack. We have to talk about something."

"Yeah, what's that?"

"There are some things I find difficult to explain. I told you what I thought about that armored car robbery and the use of the truck from eStorage's compound. Since then I found other things which disturb me a lot." Roger knew that was an awkward way to start. Still, he thought he would try to draw Jack into asking questions. That might help.

"And what did you find?" Jack stayed with his task as he spoke.

"I'm sure that the armored car was taken to your old farm during the robbery."

Jack kept up his activity without missing a beat. "My old farm? How do you know that? Why would they go out there? I thought the armored car was found abandoned near the city somewhere."

"I matched the mileage on the truck with the location of the storage compound, the farm, the bank and the spot where the armored car was found. The numbers go around well enough." He watched Jack intently. There was a slowing in the movement of his hands as he polished the surface of the Plexiglas. He didn't respond.

"I also found out that there was an intense thunderstorm centered exactly on your farm that morning. The guards in the truck reported hearing a storm. There was only one thunderstorm that morning within a hundred miles of the city." Jack stopped his work. He looked up, but not at Roger.

"What in hell have you been doing? How do you know all that?" His voice had a note of laughter in it, perhaps it was to release tension. It was just enough to mask any note of concern. It occurred to Roger that he might be able to get Jack to step into a snare. He thought it was time to bluff about one of the items.

"I also found out that while the truck was at the farm, just as it was coming out of the machine garage, a man saw it. Someone who was out there working. A land assessor evaluating your property for Loretta's company. She thought she was going to be listing the place. The assessor saw a moving van in the yard." He said that and just let it lie there. He waited. Jack resumed his polishing task but with an aimless motion of his hands. Roger knew he was thinking fast.

"Yeah? And what else?" Jack finally asked. That was not the effect for which Roger had hoped, but it was something. Jack wasn't defending what was being said, he wasn't asking Roger to clarify what was being said. He did want to know that else there was. Jack was cool, he had plenty of nerve and was not about to tip his hand. Roger studied Jack and remembered that this was a very intelligent, strong willed man. If he had pulled off a solo armored car robbery with armed guards inside, he was someone with whom to reckon. Roger still had a few cards to play. Yet, he didn't want to let out that he had broken into Jack's house. He didn't want to say anything about the passport dates. If he could force Jack to use his Hong Kong trip as an alibi; that would clinch it.

"Whoever did it used one of the test ID cards to get into the compound and to operate the truck. There were only three cards. All were identical. You had one of them." That was the first thing he'd said which was close to a direct accusation. Roger suddenly realized that was the only way to deal with it. He would have to directly accuse Jack and take it from there. If he kept throwing out things, Jack would just keep deflecting them.

"There is a lot that points to your involvement in that robbery Jack. Maybe it’s none of my business but I've come across information that could make me guilty of withholding information or being an accomplice or some damned thing like that if I don't do something. If you don't want to talk about it then damn you, I'll take what I know to the police and let them deal with it."

Jack suddenly came to his feet. He stepped towards Roger aggressively and looked squarely at him. His face was flushed with anger and his fists were clenched by his side.

"What in the hell do you think you're doing? Are you accusing me of robbery? You had better think that through very carefully. Very carefully! I wasn't even around when that damned robbery took place, however it was done. I was on my way out of the country. Now you better get off this kick or get on with whatever the hell you have in mind." Jack was furious. He took another step towards Roger that put his steaming face within inches of Roger's. Roger stuck with it.

"You've known for some time that I've been digging into this. Those computer records, the farm, the assessor at the farm and all that. And what happened to all those records on two different computers all of a sudden? Someone removed them. Someone who thought they might work against him. And I don't think that airplane accident of mine was any accident. I don't run out of fuel, not in this business. I've been at it too long for that. Somebody rigged the damned gauges. And I think it was you."

"You better be damned careful there!" Jack's aggression was heating. "That's absolutely crazy. What in hell has led you to imagine such a thing?" Jack's face was getting puffed up with veins sticking out on his neck. He stood clenching his polishing cloths. His eyes drilled Roger with a menacing glare. He was mad as hell, but he didn't seem surprised at what Roger was saying. And he wasn't disputing the information much. He was just mad. There was a nervous tremor running through Jack that made Roger very uneasy. He thought Jack might strike at him any time. Roger was almost going to tell Jack about breaking into his house and that he had seen the stamps on his passport. He was going to tell him about Ming Sing estates and the Faxes. Then he realized there was no point.

"You deal with it then. I'll protect myself." Roger said with Jack still inches away from him. "I'll just be damned sure that I don't take any airplanes up this weekend that you've been around." With that Roger turned around and walked away. He felt certain that Jack would challenge or approach him. He walked out between the glider trailers and headed for his own camper. His back felt exposed and he felt flushed and defeated. Once Roger got to his trailer door he knew Jack must have decided to leave it alone. He glanced back towards Jack's trailer but saw no one.

Roger lay on his bunk exhausted. The whole thing had been a disaster. He felt like shit. At the least he had ruined a great friendship. At the worst he had slandered and defamed an innocent man. What had ever made him think that he should try to deal with this thing on his own? It was not his business. All the time he had wasted on the whole issue had done nothing expect put his life at risk. Maybe. He wasn't even one hundred percent sure of that. Then an awful thought occurred to Roger. He had mentioned the man at the farm to Jack. In fact he had told Jack that the man had seen him. If Jack had actually done it and had believed what Roger had said, then he would reason that Hamilton was far more dangerous to him then Roger was. Jack would believe that the assessor had indisputable evidence, evidence that would begin a chain of investigation leading directly to him. And it wasn't even true, Hamilton had seen nothing. Jack could find out who he was in exactly the same way that Roger had and that hadn't taken long. The only other people who knew who it was were Sam and Loretta. Suddenly Roger wondered what Jack would do. He might think that Sam was also a threat to him. He would have to call her, tell her what he had done. He had created a complicated, dangerous mess. He was tired, damned tired of it all.

** ** **

Roger thought he woke because of the hunger. He was hungry and maybe that had broken his sleep but he also felt uneasy, nervous, clammy and hot. He'd been having one of his recurring abstract dreams, concepts of large smooth forms rolling over him, suffocating, oppressive but not life threatening. They were foreboding, yet somehow protective. They would split open and leave sharp, dangerous edges. His skin crawled when he thought of the edges, like being cut on the edge of a broken rock. He shivered at the thought; then realized that he had been grinding his teeth together in his sleep. That freed him from the anguish of the dream and he got up and went out for fresh air. It was late, dark and star-lit. The air was warm and the wind was asleep at last. In the city there was never darkness like this, here it was deep and black, abandoned by light but for the silver pinpricks overhead. To the west he could just see the mountains silhouetted against the night sky. Roger thought darkness was good for the soul; it caused him to look into himself. There was nothing here for his senses to work with, only his thoughts.

He walked across the grassy area in front of the hanger. He saw or imagined shifting shadows against the indistinct forms of the glider trailers and the hanger. He glanced towards Jack's trailer as he went but he could barely make out the form of the parked glider trailers. They stood together like half visible outlines of cattle in the night. Roger went towards to the hanger where the small side door was partially open. He entered and left it open hoping to give himself enough light to find the telephone. He didn't want to switch on the big overhead mercury vapor light because they took forever to heat up and come on. His hand patted the wall and he found the phone. He dialed Sam's number. After eleven rings he hung up. He closed the door as he left and began to return to his camper. Then he heard something metallic strike something else metallic. It came as a 'clank' from across the grassy area. He looked across to Jack's trailer. It was too far to see anything, too dark. As he walked in that direction a form moved in the darkness between two trailers. He saw it again between the next two trailers. He called out, "Someone there?' but got no answer expect from coyotes howling in the bushes surrounding the airfield. The darkness was causing things to shift in his vision making it impossible to focus on anything. He went up to his glider trailer and checked the door. It was closed but not locked so he snapped the pad lock in place. There was not much he could do in this darkness.