Notataxi.Thetaxi. One for the whole town. There were probably six taxis to the block at home. “Back to the apartment.”
“I know where that is.” He leaned forward, checking his mirrors, then slowly pulled away from the curb and drovedown Main Street. From the backseat, she watched townsfolk walk out of the auditorium. No smiles. No joy. Some had their heads down, and some looked ready for a fight.
She checked her phone. Still no response from Edward. It wasn’t like him to not respond at all. Anna had texted her, though.
Vanessa raised her phone in the air, checking for a better signal.
She texted Anna back.Spotty connection. I’ll call as soon as I get to the apartment.
Vanessa had no idea what her driver’s affiliation was with Porter’s, but there was no sense in taking a risk by talking business in the car about things that no one else needed to know right now.
Jimmy pulled his car in front of the warehouse. “Will you need me to take you anywhere else tonight?”
“No, thank you.”
He handed her a card. “Here’s my number you can contact me directly. Lilene already has the payment handled.”
“Great.” She slung the car door shut and dialed Edward again as she ran inside. His phone went straight to voice mail again. This time she left him a detailed message, and asked for clarification on how to proceed.
She’d closed down companies before, but never when locals had such confidence that nothing would change. As if they’d been made promises. Usually, the locals knew it was coming and why. This seemed sketchy, and she didn’t like that feeling at all. Knowing it had been Micky’s account, and that he wasn’t above that kind of deal, worried her most of all.
She walked into the apartment and hung her coat next to the door. She was too tired to deal with cleaning it tonight.
Kicking off her shoes, she lay across the couch and used the remote to turn on the gas log fireplace. One quick whoosh and the flames danced to life, flickering between the logs. She scooched from the couch to the floor, enjoying the soothing sound of the fire as she lay there thinking about the situation and thawing out.
She dialed Anna. “Hi, Anna. It’s me.”
“How’d it go tonight? It was your meeting with the employees, right?”
“I’m glad it’s over. At least for now. Things have become complicated.”
“How so?” Anna asked. “You handle this kind of business all the time.”
“I know. I do. I have. It’s different this time, though. Several of the people in town seem to think there was a promise that things wouldn’t change. I don’t know if it’s hearsay, a handshake deal, or something that was in the contract, but my boss isn’t returning my calls, and frankly, there’s nothing in the papers I was given to prove or disprove it. Edward has always taken my calls in the past, but he’s gone radio silent.”
“I hope he’s okay.” That was Anna. Always caring and concerned for others.
“I hope he’s not hiding something from me. You should have seen their faces, etched with worry, hoping I’d tell them everything was going to be all right. I couldn’t lie to them.”
“So, what did you tell them?”
“The truth. I mentioned reallocation of the unused warehouse space. I promised I’d work quickly to assess the site, and that I needed their help to make those decisions.”
“Well. That’s a promise you can keep, isn’t it?”
Kind of.Bottom line was Edward wanted this cleared outand ready for January first and the clock was ticking. “Yes, except I’m sure it’s still going to result in a lot of unhappy people. Some of them will be able to transition into the warehouse positions that will come with the new business, but there are employees that have been with the company for over twenty years. They aren’t young enough for the kind of physical labor required for those positions.”
“That’s not good. It’s hard for older people to get work, no matter what all the equal-opportunity people want to say.”
“I know. I can usually reskill and reallocate across projects, but there’s a big difference between skills needed on this one.”
“You’ll find a way. You’re always fair.”
“I pride myself in that, but right now I feel like I may as well be green and stealing presents in this little Whoville town.”
“You’ll get it straightened out.”
“I’m just the one executing the project. I didn’t recommend shutting Porter’s down. That was Edward. I honestly think they can do both from my first look at things…”
