Page 34 of Good Friends
“Sunbay Aviation. We’re—”
“I’m sorry, hon. I don’t know any of the companies around here. My daughter had to take her son to the doctor this morning. He woke up with a bad sore throat. They think probably strep, because several kids in his class have it. She asked me to come in and answer the phones for her this morning.”
Porter fixed his smile firmly in place as he took another deep breath and tried again. “I’m the head mechanic over at Sunbay Aviation. We’re located over on the other side of the airport, off 41. And—”
“Oh, I absolutelyhatedriving on 41 this time of year, don’t you?”
“Yes, ma’am. But I—”
“All these snowbirds. It’s worse this year than ever. You’d think they would’ve waited until summer to do that construction. Like I told my daughter—”
“Ma’am.” He smiled and pointed at the pile of boxes. “I’m pretty sure FedEx accidentally delivered a part to you that should’ve been delivered to us, and wereallyneed it. We have a very cranky customer who needs their plane ready today.”
“Oh, they did?” She finally pushed her chair back. “I’m sorry. I didn’t even look at the boxes. I just signed that little electronic thingy where the driver told me to.” She moved slowly, stiffly, like she might fall over if she leaned too far to one side or the other.
He stepped out of her way as she walked over to the boxes. “Now, let’s see.” She picked up a box off the top of the pile and studied it.
It took every ounce of self-control he possessed not to snatch it from her hand and look at it himself.
This would be funny if he wasn’t in a hurry.
Or if it wasn’t a helicopter company.
Why’d it have to befuckinghelicopters?
Couldn’t be an avionics company, or a flight school, or any-fucking-thing else, could it?
As he started looking, however, he realized all these boxes bore UPS labels and stickers.
“Ma’am,” he said nearly five minutes later while she was still on the third package. “These are all UPS. Where did your FedEx shipment end up?”
“What?”
“FedEx. Guy in a big brown truck brought you these. Where are the others?”
“Oh, maybe one of the mechanics grabbed those. Come to think of it, there were some smaller ones out here before, and one of the mechanics came out and took all of them out back.”
Fake smile. Faaaaake smile.“Okay, ma’am. Could you please go ask them for me? Wereallyneed to track down that part.”
She pointed at a door over her shoulder. “They’re out that way. You can go ask them.” She smiled. “You can probably make it out there faster than I can, anyway. I’m sorry.” She pointed at his badge. “They all have badges like that. I’m sure it’s okay if you go out there. They won’t mind.”
Normally, unless he knew the people at a place, or was escorted by someone, he wouldn’t do that.
Today, however, he’d make an exception.
“Thanks. I appreciate it.” He scooted past her and through the door, which led to a short hallway. The last door was the magic one and opened into their hangar bay. An older guy was working on something on a workbench, and Porter aimed for him, holding out his hand as he walked up.
“Hi, I’m Porter Hutchinson from Sunbay Aviation. FedEx apparently delivered something of ours to you by accident, and wereallyneed it. The very nice lady out in the lobby showed me the UPS boxes and said she thought someone brought the FedEx shipment out here.”
The older man looked up, chuckling as he shook with him. “Morris Travis. Nice to meet you. You new? Haven’t met you before.”
Porter didn’t want to be rude. “It’s only my second day. I’m their new head mechanic.”
“Ah, and you still drew the short straw?” He smiled.
“Well, both our administrative assistant and our GM are out of the office with family emergencies today, so yeah, I drew the short straw.”
“We’ll be seeing a lot of each other, then.” Morris scratched his head. “I didn’t snag the pile, and I think all our guys are at lunch right now.” Morris glanced around then turned toward the open hangar door where, out on the apron, a guy’s legs were visible outside what looked like a Bell 412. He had a small work cart next to the helicopter, and on it, Porter spotted some small boxes and padded mailers.
