Josh let the subject die. Murphy wasn’t going to see sense right now.
“What do you say to their report that you left the oil cooler hoses loose and tail section bolts without split pins?” Josh noticed Murphy was unaware he
now doodled on an invoice on his desk and not the blotter.
“I don’t believe it.” Murphy threw the pencil down.
It went skittering across the desk and onto the floor. “I always do a wrench check after servicing. I even do an engine run to make sure everything is sealing. The oil cooler hoses shouldn’t have been loose in the first place, because I had no reason to take them off. What they found are fundamental errors that no mechanic would make. If I were that bad I wouldn’t have been surprised if the prop fell off.”
“So did you undo, then tighten the hose connections?”
“No. I didn’t need to. The same goes for the elevator and rudder controls. I had no need to touch the split pins. The pins were in good shape. I only tighten them when there is movement.”
“How do you know whether there’s movement?”
Josh asked.
“I paint a white line across the nut and bolt. If the white lines aren’t matched up then the bolt has moved, but they were all lined up. I swear to you that aircraft left me in better condition than it did the day it left the factory.”
Murphy’s explanation disturbed Josh. Murphy was
an honest man and a good mechanic. Josh believed his story. He was sure he’d done everything correctly and hadn’t touched the parts of the aircraft that had caused the crash. Josh’s paranoia antenna twitched. Why was he getting the feeling that Mark Keegan’s death wasn’t an accident?
“The thing is, in the twenty-five years I’ve been involved with aircraft, I’ve never known the bolts or the
hose connection to come undone before.” Murphy
spoke as if he were in the witness box. With the way things were going, he would have to be before long.
An uncomfortable silence wedged itself between the two men.
Josh knew no more could be learned. He stood up
and offered his hand to the distraught mechanic.
“Thanks for talking to me, Jack. I really appreciate it.
For what it’s worth, I don’t blame you for what happened to Mark.”
Murphy shrugged.
Josh left Murphy’s office and headed out of the
shade of the hangar for the harsh brightness of day. He was only halfway to the hangar doors when Murphy
called to his back. He stopped and turned to face him.
“If I didn’t know better…” He paused. “I would
say that someone wanted that plane to go down.” Ominously, Murphy’s words echoed throughout the hangar,
ricocheting off the walls like bullets, each one burying itself in Josh.
Josh opened the front door to let Abby and Wiener into the house. He unclasped the dog’s leash from his collar and hung it on a coat hook. The dachshund shook himself and trotted over to his water bowl. The dog was
tired after his walk to the park and thirty minutes of chasing a ball around.
Abby rolled a squeaky ball after the dog. “We’re
home,” she called.
Kate came halfway down the stairs. “You’re just in time. I’m running a bath for my little girl.”
“Oh. Do I have to?” Abby whined.
“Yes. If you don’t, I don’t think we can let you stay up this late on vacation.” Kate kept her tone firm, but not unkind. She was just negotiating her position with her daughter. It was a regular occurrence for Abby to take Wiener for an evening walk with one of them, but because Abby was on spring break Josh had taken
them late, after nine o’clock.
“Dad.” Abby turned to Josh for support.
“I think your mother’s right. A bath before bed.” He paused. “Or you could go to bed now. Your choice?”
The child thought for a moment. “I’ll have a bath.”
“Good girl,” Josh said.
Turning on her heel, Abby ran up the stairs, following her mother.
Josh sat in the living room reading a book and could hear the noise of splashing and giggling coming from the upstairs bathroom. Wiener sat on the floor in front of Josh washing his tufted feet. The phone rang and Josh picked up the cordless handset from the coffee table.
“Hello,” he said.
“Josh, it’s Bob. Have you got the television on?”
Bob’s tone was urgent.
“No, I was reading. Is everything okay? You
sound—”
Bob cut him off. “Turn on Channel Three. Look at
the news. It’s on the TV.”
Whatever it was, it was bound to be bad news. Josh looked at the remote control on the coffee table and hesitated. If he didn’t turn the television on he would be ignorant. Ignorance sounded nice.
“Hold on, Bob. Let me turn the TV on.”
Channel Three was in the middle of a commercial
break.
“Bob, what am I meant to be watching?”
“It was on the headlines. It’s the next story up.”
“Can’t you just tell me?”
“Here it comes.”
The commercials ended and the cameras went to the news anchor, a sharp-looking black man in his thirties with a pencil moustache and glasses.
“We have a breaking story of corruption in the building industry. An anonymous source contacted the station this evening and made the allegation that the
Mountain Vista Apartments in Dixon were built to unsafe construction standards. We don’t have exact details, as yet, but Channel Three will be investigating all angles of this claim when we receive more information.
We now go live to Howard Decker outside Mountain
Vista Apartments in Dixon,” the anchor said.
The television image switched from inside the studio to the reporter, illuminated by television and security lights. He stood outside the apartments, kept out by security gates. The reporter looked serious and concerned
at the same time. He was conservatively dressed in a blue suit and white shirt.
“Thanks, Doug. Howard Decker reporting live from
the Mountain Vista Apartments in Dixon. The apartments behind me were built eight years ago. The development consists of over three hundred apartments and
condos. The anonymous informant alleges the apartments were built to inferior standards to save money.
“Our informant, who wishes to remain nameless,
says they have information detailing the major players involved and the shortcuts made.
“We’ve spoken to some concerned occupants who
didn’t want to be filmed tonight but expressed their concern at the revelation. We, of course, will be pressing for an investigation by the apartment management
company to establish the validity of the claim made exclusively to Channel Three. This is Howard Decker
