As it turned out, it was possible for Amanda to go out with Adam the next day. She proved to be a good teacher, letting him handle the Pixie as much as possible under her supervision. She only had to help out when he said he was stumped about something, but she added a lot of good knowledge to the day.

It was getting to be late in the afternoon when the two of them tied the Pixie back to the dock, put everything away and headed back to the Channel Stop. “So how did it go?” Jake asked.

“We had a great time,” Adam reported honestly. “And Amanda is a great teacher. I’m glad you let her go out with me. I wish I could stay around longer, but with the situation at the office I’m squeezing it to be able to get away for this long. I should really get on the road tonight.”

“I suppose,” Jake sighted. “Well, don’t be a stranger. If you get a chance to break free over the summer, I can’t promise we’ll be able to go out with you, and Greg and Lisa will be using the boat some, too. Just check in before you come up. If we can’t go sailing, maybe I can take you out on one of the charter boats, and if all else fails maybe we can have you working the fuel dock.”

“Don’t think I’d mind doing it. That made for a nice break.”

They had dinner in the snack bar – the Lewises often did that this time of year – and soon after that Adam was on the road again in the tinny rental car.

As always, driving gave him a good chance to think, and this time he was thinking about his experiences of the long weekend. The sailing was fun, it was something new to learn, and learning something new would be enjoyable. His experience with Amanda and Jake had made it clear that handling a boat as big as the Pixie would be a handful by himself. The Pixie had been set up so one person could handle it as much as possible, but he could see there would be times that an extra set of hands would be invaluable. But that was a problem that could possibly be dealt with; who was to say that he might not find someone who would like to go sailing with him sometime?

Things were a little fuzzier in the longer range. While the thought of living simply and quietly on a boat was appealing, at least for part of the year, there were obvious problems. There were a lot of places to explore, and while the thought of sailing appealed to him, perhaps a power boat of about that size, or maybe a little smaller, might be a better way to go. In any case, it wasn’t worth trying to think about too hard right now; a lot could happen in a year or so that might make the whole idea a lot more appealing – or a lot more impractical. There was nothing to do but to wait and see what happened.

Of course, the whole Brittany and Mary and Matty situation was at the head of the list of problems that had to be considered; there was no way of telling how that was going to come out. And right behind it was his connection to Caldwell-Deerfield; there was no question that was going to keep him tied down pretty tightly for the foreseeable future. But say it lasted another five or ten years, which wasn’t beyond imagining – in that time he ought to be able to get enough boating and sailing in to be fairly experienced at it, even if he couldn’t get out as much as he wanted. The whole thing needed some thought, but there was no rush.

As the evening turned to darkness, Adam realized he needed to put some more thought into the Brittany situation. Perhaps he was being paranoid about it, but considering Brittany’s mental state he wouldn’t put a literal kidnapping attempt past her. The best possible way an attempt like that could come out would be messy, and it didn’t take much imagination to think of worse things that could happen. From the information he had, and knowing Brittany, it didn’t seem all that unlikely – she had always been obsessive to one degree or another, but from what he’d picked up since Matt’s death she was now a lot worse, especially with her fixation on Matty. Much though he didn’t want to have anything more to do with her, he didn’t like the idea of having her in jail as the result such an attempt.

Realistically, the best thing that could happen to Brittany in the short run would be to have her back in Brookview for a while. Dr. Preble had been able to help her through some of the pain of Matt’s death, although there had been a great deal of denial involved. Maybe Adam stood a better chance of solving things by going direct to the source. The problem with that, of course, was that since the divorce he didn’t really have a mechanism to force her to go back into treatment, even though it stood a chance of being the best thing that could happen to her. In fact, it was pretty clear that she saw him as an enemy, and wouldn’t listen to a thing he had to say, anyway.

Perhaps, he thought, he could call Dr. Preble and have him suggest a follow-up check, without hinting at pushing for a further committal; if he had to bet, he’d bet that Dr. Preble would see the need on his own, and might be able to convince her of that. It seemed like a long shot, though. Adam could think of a few other ways to go about removing Brittany as a threat to Matty and Mary, but none of them as effective as getting her back into Brookview for a while.

Adam didn’t manage to come to any firmer conclusions on his trip back, but realized that he was going to have to talk to Deke again, and as soon as possible.

It was a pain in the neck to have to go by the airport and shuffle things around to get into his own car, but at least it would give a false lead to whoever had put the tracker there. That thing was already a pain in the neck, and he could see how it could very easily get worse.

The next morning, Adam had good intentions of calling Deke right away, but the stack of paper on his desk slid it to the side for a while. It wasn’t until Deke called in the middle of the morning that Adam was reminded of the issue, but Deke also had something he wanted to pass along: “I thought you might like to know that the conservatorship got approved,” he said. “Brittany bit on it without any hesitation, or so at least Blue tells me. The conservator is named Charles Talbot. He’s a retired attorney who handles this kind of thing to stay busy. He’s pretty sharp. Anyway, he’d like you to get in touch with him to get some information from you.”

“Sure, I’ll give him a call and we can set something up for a meeting if it’s needed. But I have another concern. While I was gone this weekend, I got to thinking that it’s not impossible that if Brittany gets too frustrated with her efforts to get custody of Matty, she might try to take direct action.”

“She’d be stupid to try that. I mean, really stupid. But then, she’s not exactly playing with a full deck, is she?”

“Not in my book.”

“Then it’s good that she doesn’t know where the kid is, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, and that’s why I’m working to keep it that way. The hell of it is that if Brittany had actually paid attention, or at least more attention than I thought she was paying, either of the times she met Mary, she might be able to put two and two together. It isn’t that hard anymore to find someone on the Internet, especially if they’re not going out of their way to avoid being found. I mean, all she’s got to do is to remember ‘Blanche Tickle’ and figure out what that means. I can’t remember if the words were used in her presence, or what.”

“I don’t know how we’re going to deal with that one, short of going to a detective ourselves. But you might sort of keep your ears open around Talbot. He might spill something.”

“Well, I can do that. I’ll give him a call and see what I can get set up.”

It was a couple of days before Adam could meet with Talbot, in a home office in a well-to-do neighborhood. After a few formalities, they got down to business. “From what I could see, you did a pretty simple and straightforward job of setting things up for her to administer her finances,” Talbot said. “It’s just that she didn’t bother to do it. She’s very obsessed with finding her grandson.”

“I know that,” Adam agreed. “From what I could find out, she dumped a lot of money into detectives to try to locate the child, but hasn’t had much success.”

“That was her main complaint,” Talbot agreed. “She said she’d spent a lot of money on it and hadn’t seen anything in return. I had to tell her that first things have to come first, like meeting her regular payments. She didn’t like that very much.”

“I can imagine. I mean, a classic case of been there, done that, got the T-shirt. You realize she’s not very stable. That got slowly worse over the years, but it got really bad after our son, Matt, bought a boat and went out sailing across the Atlantic with it. Along the way he met the girl he eventually married, and Brittany didn’t like any of that at all. She went downhill more rapidly after that. Then when Matt died last summer she had to be institutionalized. Please realize I’m giving you the thumbnail version of it all.”

“She mentioned some of that but it was so disjointed it was hard to figure it out. I agree she’s not very stable, but it was hard to tell how much of a danger to herself she is. Perhaps she might improve if she were able to find the child.”

Adam recognized that for what it was – a sly attempt to get Mary and Matty’s location. He’d seen that fishhook, thank you. “I doubt it would help very much. I have the definite impression what Brittany wants to do is to brush the child’s mother aside and take custody of the child herself, by fair means or foul. If she knew where the child was, I wouldn’t put a kidnapping attempt past her.”

“Do you actually think it’s that serious?”

“I do. Remember, she’s not very stable. She’s obsessive/compulsive, and when people with that disorder get a fixation on something, they don’t let it go easily. It might not be quite so bad if she liked the boy’s mother, or the other way around. But on every occasion Brittany met the boy’s mother, she was incredibly rude to her. I doubt that would change either, and the girl has been through enough stress in the last year that she doesn’t need that whole issue added to the list.”

“I see. What do you think ought to be done?”

“I’d be happy if she could be back in Brookview, where she was a resident for four months,” Adam sighed. “I think there’s a good chance it could help her. She’s still under my insurance, and it would cover most of the cost. But I don’t feel I’m in a position where I ought to try to enforce a commitment, considering the divorce action under way. “

“Yes, I can see how that would be a problem,” the retired attorney agreed. “Let me think about this. Perhaps you would be so kind as to give me the name of her attending physician. He might have some thoughts on the matter, too.”

“Sure, his name is Dr. Preble. I don’t remember the first name. I never called him by it when I was in joint sessions with him and Brittany last fall. Perhaps the two of you working together could convince her to admit herself voluntarily. Like I said, I don’t think I should be a part of that directly.”

“I think not, as well. But I’m glad you told me this, and I’ll get in touch with him.”

“I realize it’s probably not your duty as a conservator, but if you could keep me informed of progress, I’d appreciate it.”

“If something along that line happens, I’ll see that you know. Thank you for your assistance in this. Perhaps you can help again sometime.”

“I’m willing to help where it’s appropriate. I would hope that Brittany will be healthy and happy again someday, but I just don’t want to be a part of it anymore.”

Adam drove back to his apartment thinking that the session had gone well enough, but somehow he doubted that anything would come of his suggestion. He made a mental note to call Dr. Preble sometime soon and plant the seed – he hadn’t gotten around to it yet – but it seemed unlikely that would do any good, either.

In any case, he felt like he was a little ahead of the game. Brittany might still have some money to pay her detectives, but with Talbot in control of her basic finances, she might not have much. While it didn’t remove the threat, it couldn’t help but reduce it.

He wanted to talk to Deke about it, and maybe Reuben James – but it seemed like it would be a good idea to let a month or so go by, then remove the tracker. After a few weeks, he could have James come by again to test out the car. If a new one hadn’t appeared, then maybe she didn’t have enough money to pay the detective.

Several weeks went by; Memorial Day weekend came and went. Adam didn’t hear anything from Brittany, either directly or indirectly, so he allowed himself to hope that maybe the threat was easing off a little. It seemed like things were slowly slipping back to normal. Maybe the conservatorship was working, and perhaps the danger might be reduced for a little while.

Now that the holiday was past, Adam thought that things up at Winchester Harbor might be a little slower, or at least slow enough that someone could go out with him in the Pixie a time or two. One Tuesday, he was just getting set to give Jake a call to see if it was a good time to come up when Marcia buzzed him: “Mike Kearny for you on line one.”

“Mike? I haven’t talked to him in a couple years,” he said, remembering that Mike was a General Motors purchasing expediter. “I wonder what he wants.”

“One way to find out,” Marcia snickered.

“You’re right,” he replied, and punched the button for line one. “Mike, long time no see. What are you up to these days?”

“Trying to keep from pulling out what hair I have left,” came from the other end of the line. “Would you guys be up for another job?”

“It depends. You know, what it is, how soon, how big it’s going to be.”

“It’s a fairly simple part, but next Monday wouldn’t be soon enough. If this works, we can probably talk long-term contract, because it’s something we’re going to be using for years.”

“We can talk about it, but what’s the hurry?”

“We’re currently getting this part from a plant in China,” the expediter explained. “They gave us a hell of a price. But when you factor in that we’re having to inspect every piece and reject about twenty percent of them, the cost issue swings the other way real quick. We want to dump those jokers for obvious reasons, but time is an issue.”

“That’s not the first time I’ve heard that story,” Adam agreed, realizing that this was an even bigger deal than he’d expected. “But to get right down to the bottom line, not knowing the specs on the part, if it’s something we have the machinery to do and we get the information on it very quickly, well, Monday is not out of the question. A long shot, maybe, but not out of the question.”

“I know you have the machinery to do it, and a little bird told me that it’s the same thing as a part you make for Ford.” He named off the Ford part number; Adam recognized it.

“If that’s the case,” Adam told him, “and we’ll need the specs to be sure, Monday is not out of the question in an emergency situation.”

“I’ll get them right over to you, prints and specs by e-mail, hard copy as soon as I can get someone to run it over to you.”

“Good. Glad I can help. I’ll get right with my people and see how we can work this around.”

“Thanks, Adam. You guys are going to save my butt on this one.”

Adam hung the phone up in considerable excitement. This could be a big job as far as Caldwell-Deerfield was concerned, and it was especially rewarding to know it was a job coming back from China. Between the recession and jobs being sent overseas, things had gotten a little tight around the company in the last few years. Maybe this was a sign that things were changing and that some of the expediters thought the bargain they were getting wasn’t much of a bargain at all. Chinese quality control was crap and from the stories he heard it was getting worse. That offered hope for the future.

He punched the intercom button. “Marcia, I need Bob, George from Engineering, and Fred from Production in here right now.”

“Good news?”

“Very good news,” he told her. “But we’ve got to move fast.”

The next few hours were hectic, and involved several conferences and conference calls. It was going to take some severe juggling, but it could be done. The job was in Meridian, and the existing line could be used, but it was going to involve overtime and second-shift work. If a long-term contract could be worked out, a second line would have to be built, but even with the new Ford job there would be enough space at Meridian for it.

Toward the end of the day Adam was able to call Mike back. “Monday you wanted, Monday is what you get,” he told him. “I’m prepared to offer you the same deal we have with Ford. It’s probably more than you’re paying up front now, but cheaper in the long run when you consider the quality control issues. We can handle this on an emergency basis, but we want to have a long-term commitment before we add on machinery to do it for an extended period.”

“Sounds fair to me. At least I know you guys can handle it. We need to set up a meeting as quick as we can to iron out those details. Go ahead and get rolling on it.”

All of that did a pretty good job of killing any idea of heading up to Winchester Harbor for the weekend. He might have been able to get away if he limited it to two days, but there was no way he could dare to be gone any time in the work week. In fact, there was a good chance he’d have to put in some time on the weekend.

As it turned out the Meridian plant was a little ahead of schedule on the part they were building for Ford, so they were in position to get a partial order out on Monday morning. Mike was appreciative of the fast response, and after some of the normal procedure and hoops to jump through, they were in fact able to offer a long-term contract. The end result was that new machinery needed to be ordered, and a new line set up in the Meridian plant, all of which took time and more of his attention than Adam really wanted to spend – but for the company, every minute was worth it.

It was early July before things were back under control enough that he felt like he dared get away for a weekend that might slop a couple days into the next week. Finally, with some degree of relief, he called Jake.

“I don’t know how it’d work,” Jake told him. “We’re still pretty busy up here, and besides, Greg and Lisa are going to be up here using the Pixie for a few days. I don’t think they’re planning on going anywhere, just day sailing and hanging out. I could give them a call and see if they’d be willing to take you out once or twice.”

“I’d appreciate it. Things have been so hectic around here I just need to get away, even if it’s nothing more than coming up and working the fuel dock for you.”

Jake couldn’t call back until the next day. “I had to wait till evening to talk to Greg,” he reported. “But he said sure, they’d be glad to go out with you for a day or two.”

“Have you got room in the motel?”

“I do at the moment. I’ll reserve a room for you.”

“Good. I’m going to blow out of here after work on Friday, unless something comes up.”

“We’ll be looking for you.”

It wasn’t until later that Adam realized the tracking device was still on his car – if it was still working; somehow it didn’t seem as if the battery could hold out that long. If it still was, there was the chance someone could have replaced it. Or, for that matter, it might not be there at all; someone might have picked it up. He gave some thought to just getting it out and giving it a little of the “hammer maintenance” James had suggested, but in the end he decided not to; right at the moment it seemed best to not let on that he knew about it. He needed to talk to Deke, and maybe to James, to figure out what to do about it, but he knew Deke was gone for a few days.

It wouldn’t hurt anything to do the car shuffle trick he’d pulled back in May; it would cost money but not all that much. Not long after he left the office on Friday afternoon, he was headed north in a rental car again – this one a little more solid than the tinny foreign econobox he’d driven north the last time.

Once again, the long drive gave him a chance to think. More and more, it seemed like he was just going through the motions at the company. When things like the GM deal with Mike came up, it could be interesting and rewarding, but most of the time it was the same old thing, just a different day. He still had a long time to go before he could even think about retiring, but it was nice to look forward to the idea of having something new and different to do. The idea of sailing, even going somewhere on a boat, seemed like it could have an awful lot of potential – but somehow it seemed as if it was beyond his grasp, at least anytime soon.

At least, he thought, he didn’t have Brittany to contend with on a day-to-day basis. That ought to help, at least a little.

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