“If you have any doubts about the guy, tell him you’re booked.”
“Oh, I’m probably being paranoid. I can’t go around thinking everybody’s a crook and be in the security business.”
Matt didn’t look convinced. “Seems to me that a little paranoia would be a requirement for a security agent. Don’t doubt your intuition. Every time I do that, I regret it.”
Jade nodded her head and wrote herself a note to contact Drumm with some blunt questions. If he thought she was being silly, it might be a sign she was trying to enter the wrong business for her.
The next day, Jade left a message for Drumm about the phone call and then decided to forget him for a week. If Drumm found an Otto Herman with an office in San Francisco, it was probably okay. If not, she could make up some excuse and call it off.
The next week was full of calls from people who were looking for work. Some were experienced guards or armored car drivers or small businesses wanting to deliver shipments for her. She wrote their names and details down and promised to contact businesses she knew that might be looking for workers like them. “Well, I guess those new business cards of mine made their way around that conference better than I thought they did.” Jade found herself staring at an empty corner of her office. “What was it that Dr. Eastley used to say to us? If you feel something nagging at the back of your mind, write it down. It might be the beginning of a truly sensational idea.” As she began to write down everything that was floating around in her head, a feeling of heady excitement began to tingle in her middle. She put headings on a blank sheet of paper and then divided the paper into four columns.
Jade labeled the first column – “What I want to provide in the way of a service.” Number two was for “Who do I need to hire?” The third one said, “Describe the perfect client,” and the last one was labeled “What will make me feel satisfied about all this?” The morning slipped away while she filled out her analysis and she didn’t look up until Tilly called her for lunch.
Tilly’s lunch was as delicious as ever but Jade had to keep reminding herself to eat. Finally, she realized how silent the kitchen was and looked up at the others. “What?”
Tilly and Cedric looked as if they were ready to dig a hole in their plates of food with their eyes. Matt gave Jade a stern but sympathetic look. “That’s what we want to know. You look angry or disappointed. Which is it?”
“Neither one, actually. Well, maybe you’re right. Only I think I’m scared, confused. I don’t know. I was so excited about this security business but, lately, I feel kind of small and dumb when I think of all the stuff I have to learn. More than that, I feel like we both should be wearing guns under our shirts.”
“Are you worried about bad guys holding up your people or that you won’t make a profit? Says here in the finance stuff that making a profit in any kind of business is pretty tough now days. Maybe you want to just coast along on what you got and try that adventure stuff a couple years from now.” Cedric folded his newspaper and laid it aside to start on his slice of pie.
“I see you’re doing some kind of analysis. Mind if I look at it?” Matt turned his head to the side to glance at the columns on her paper.
Jade handed him the paper and leaned back to stretch her arms over her head. “I’ve written this stuff down three ways to Christmas but I still feel pretty ignorant about what I’m trying to accomplish. I guess I have information overload.”
Matt studied it for a moment. “Whoa, you’re a great analyst, love. I think I’ll have you help me with my plans. It looks to me like you’re more interested in connecting wealthy individuals to small businesses which would provide each of the steps of transporting valuable goods. You could charge a small fee for each connection and see where it goes from there. This way you wouldn’t have to handle the goods themselves or do the hiring and government paperwork to get the job done. This is brilliant!”
“Thank you. I think you’ve answered the question I didn’t know how to ask. So now I need to create computer files for each need, one for shippers and one for agents who could schedule the shipments and handle the legal paperwork. Then there would need to be an agency that would provide the workers. I wonder if there are any of those around here.”
“I’d figure some slick outfit like that one that calls itself Road Warriors would do all that stuff already.” Cedric gave Jade a sad look. “I’m afraid you’re too late to the party.”
“In that case, I’ll find all that out while I focus my research on what I’ve written here. Thanks so much, love. You are a great consultant.” She gave Matt a warm kiss and was rewarded with a handsome smile.
“Hey, what about me.” Cedric looked disgruntled.
“Oh, fiddlesticks! People don’t get prizes for throwing cold water on other people’s ideas.” Tilly waved him away and began to wipe the counters.
When Jade got back to her office she began to take the papers out of her accordion file and put them into specially marked files in the file drawer. She glanced down and saw a note on the floor. When she picked it up, she realized she had written the note while they were in California. It said, “Face my fears of having a dossier on me for Drumm to hand out to clients.”
“Why does that bother me so much after I told him to have it made up?” While she thought about this, a memory came back to her from when she was in college. A roommate she had trusted had found one of her letters from a boyfriend and passed it around to two of her friends. When the boyfriend called her and accused her of being a childish little gossip who shared everything between them with her friends, she told him she didn’t know how anyone got that information but that she would find out. Being betrayed by a friend left her afraid to trust another woman again with anything personal. “Okay. I get it. Even if I trust Rex, I don’t know the people who might call him and ask about me. This isn’t going to work for me.”
She decided to e-mail Drumm and explain her fears. Jade asked him to gather any data he had on her and send it to her by registered mail and she would pay him for his time. After she did that, she felt a bit better. “But what does this say about me working in this business? Maybe this is a message from God inside me which is telling me I’m going down the wrong path.”
That night, while they walked around the yard in the lovely starlight, Matt was so silent the tree frogs sounded too loud. “You helped me this noon so talk to me. What’s on your mind?”
“I’ve been thinking all afternoon about what you said at lunch. I think I’ve got to do what you’re trying to do. I need to ask me all those questions, too. I’m too scattered. I’m happy about the orders I’ve got to do but I feel like I’ve lost control of my professional life and I’m jealous of you. You’re way ahead of me when it comes to knowing what I really want and how I’m going to get there.” He took her hand and kissed the palm. “I’ve been hiding in my pile of work so I don’t have to take charge of me. I don’t want to live that way anymore. My father let the glass run his life. That’s not good enough for me.”
They agreed to focus on those questions for the next couple of days and set everything else aside while they planned their professional futures. On the following Saturday, Drumm’s package arrived with everything he had gathered on Jade. There was also a separate letter from him. Jade assumed it was his bill. It wasn’t. It was his report on Otto Herman Pulau. Jade felt her stomach curl up into a cold ball of lead.
“Matt, that guy who called me was Pulau. I am so grateful we have Rex investigating him. Who knows what he was up to?”
“I’m sure it wasn’t anything good.”
“I usually shut my mind to news that scares me because it makes me feel so insecure, like a little kid who can’t take care of herself. I hate that feeling more than I do feeling scared. This time I’m going to finish this business plan before I do anything else.”
Matt nodded and stopped to stare up into the starry scene overhead. “I think I see what you’re getting at. We refuse to consider any negatives w
hen we come to a decision. That’s probably not totally realistic. I’m going to write down everything that has happened in the last year, underlining the names of the most powerful people I’ve met.”
They went back to their offices to summarize the events that had happened since they had met. It was late when they collapsed into bed after leaving a note for Tilly that they would make their own breakfasts in the morning.
Breakfast was late the next morning but Jade felt a gentle glow when she thought of how tender and gentle Matt had been. He seemed more relaxed and in the moment that morning than he had ever been before.
When Jade came into the kitchen, Matt was putting toast onto their plates and had laid two handwritten pages beside her chair. She laid a typed page beside his plate and poured the coffee. When their food was ready, Matt sat down and gestured for Jade to go first with a grand sweep of his hand. “Ladies first.”
“Okay, I love the idea of helping young people find a decent paying job they have experience in, or at least a deep desire to learn. I’ve always preferred to deal with local small businesses instead of national companies based out of our state. The third important goal I have is to promote your safety designs for physical arts like ceramics, glass blowing, and any other artwork that carries a chance of serious hazard. If somebody comes to me and wants me to promote their safety equipment then I’ll have you look at it and we decide, together, whether we want to deal with that company and its products, or not.”
Matt looked as happy as a well-fed cat. “How will you feel if we don’t use any of that security stuff you spent weeks gathering?”
“I’ve been thinking about that and I realize I was so focused on keeping you from carrying valuable gems around that I got carried away with it. Do you really get a kick out of carrying that stuff around and having to look over your shoulder all the time?”
He chuckled quietly and shook his head. “I got started in the gem trade because Lee told me how I would always have plenty of money to fall back on because he always paid up front. I realized last night that I dreaded every one of those trips and after you took a trip with me and we almost got mugged I swore I would never do it again. You trying to set up a security company took all that off my shoulders but I would feel better if you had nothing to do with any of it. There are people out there who follow people like us around and I don’t want any more of it in our lives.”
Jade caressed his hand and kissed him. “What a relief that is! Will you miss the traveling?”
Matt slowly shook his head. “Remember when I told you about all the traveling I did in the military? If we want to go look at a special art gallery, there are plenty of them here in the Northwest.”
“So what are your goals?” Suddenly, Jade’s coffee tasted perfect and her beans seemed elegant. The morning sun that was coming in the kitchen window seemed brand new.
“I don’t plan to ever do any glass blowing again. My father’s death left a deep pit of anger in me. In fact, I’m going to tell Rafael that I do not want to run his hot shop. I’ll sell him my hot shop equipment and I’ll even sell him exclusive rights to sell the stuff but I won’t design any more of it. My designs will be for safety equipment for other types of art shops and I’ll add safety designs for most anything that does not involve glass. Does that sound crazy?”
“Not if it makes you happy.” Jade felt a huge weight lift off her shoulders. It was as if gravity had let go of her. She would not have been surprised to find herself able to fly.
Matt jumped up and pulled her out of her chair and led her into the living room. He hit a button on the CD player and twirled her around to a romantic ballad. She felt dizzy by the time they stopped but she wanted it to go on and on.
Jade was startled back to earth when someone cleared his throat and Tilly’s birdlike whisper made Matt turn to stare where she was looking. Cedric jerked his arm away from Tilly and crossed his arms across his chest. “Is something on your mind, Uncle?”
“Well, since you two been hiding in your offices until dark and then going off for those walks of yours for a week, I think we have a right to know what all this is about.”
“Don’t include me in your nosiness, Cedric! I was perfectly willing to wait until they were good and ready to tell us what they pleased. Silly man never could wait for stuff to take its course. I’ll bet you peeked at all the presents before Christmas when you were a kid.”
“So? Well?” Cedric gave Jade a scolding look.
Jade’s laughter burst out of her like water out of a broken pipe. “We just finished our plans for our businesses and it feels so good to stop letting other people control us or sidetrack us.”
“Why I never did any such thing. I just got opinions, that’s all.”
“Don’t you just. I’ve got to get the stew cooking or lunch will never happen.” Tilly started rattling pans and pulling dishes out of the refrigerator.
“She’s not talking about you, Uncle. She’s referring to Rafael and his habit of getting everybody to work for him exclusively.” Matt’s smile seemed to calm Cedric down.
“Well, I always said he was kind of bossy but he paid pretty good, didn’t he?”
“We’re going to sit down with him and let him in on our plans. Then he can decide whether he wants to deal with us or not. Regardless, we’ll go on with our plans.”
Matt immersed himself in catching up on his design orders while Jade stored her old files in the attic and began to create new files of details on local businesses which answered her website ad offering to find suitable employees for small local companies. She returned calls from those seeking employment and decided to set up a local meeting to explain what she offered young people looking for jobs. At the end of the following week she and Matt scheduled the design projects he had accepted and Jade created a system which allowed her to notify all their customers where they fit into the company’s schedule. The final step was to create a business name they both liked. They chose Dixon Safety Designs.
They received a registered letter from Rex Drumm that the sting operation in San Francisco which was created to catch Otto Pulau breaking the law had worked but, despite the efforts of the police involved, he had escaped when the officers rushed into the old warehouse where he had planned to meet with Jade and Matt.
They discussed the letter while they drove into town to put it into the safety deposit box at the bank. “How do you suppose that old snake got away? You think he has a spy in the police department?”
Matt gave a heavy sigh. “I don’t know about that but I remember staying in a rundown loft for a couple of months and you can’t believe the escape hatches in the place. It gave me the creeps. I wondered how many people knew about those places and used them to burglarize the places they were renting out.”
“Rex didn’t say anything about how Rafael reacted to all this. I wonder if he’s going to move away and forget the ranch, just in case Pulau knows he’s been staying out here.” Jade hated the thought that they might be stuck with Winks for another winter.
“Not from the way he talked after our last meeting. He said there’s no use running away anymore. At least the police here want Pulau in prison or out of the country.”
Jade could see that Cedric was itching to read the letter but she was reading from a copy and shredded it as soon as she finished reading it. She planned to tell Drumm to let her know when she could destroy the copy at the bank, too.. “It’s not that I don’t trust you, Uncle, but I don’t even want a copy on the premises in case someone burglarized the place.”
“Who’s going to get past Glory and me with my shotgun?”
“Do you want to be able to go to town to buy something once in a while?”
“Well, sure, but who would bust in here in broad daylight? Usually there’s one of us around here.”
“People act differently when they have something to hide or keep safe. Now that we don’t have anything like that around here, we’ll act normal and there’ll be no problem.”
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Cedric grumbled but seemed to forget about it and Jade stopped worrying.
Jade was thrilled when she saw how many job seekers e-mailed her about attending her meeting she had scheduled at the town hall. She hired Tessie to help her set up the coffee and pastries about half an hour before the event was scheduled to begin. “That centerpiece is perfect Tessie. Did you make that yourself?” The arrangement contained little pine cones, a few fir boughs, some colorful gourds, acorns sporting gold glitter, and a silky gold ribbon. It echoed the colors of November and smelled like cinnamon and apples.
Tessie looked a little shy, for the first time, but her pleasure at the compliment sparkled out of her eyes. “Thanks. I used to do that stuff for my mom. I still get a kick out of it. I may do something like that for a side business someday but I doubt there are enough ladies who actually entertain around here to make that kind of business pay.”
“With so many online courses these days you could probably get hired to teach a course on making centerpieces. By the way, how is your computer tutoring business doing? Have you gone online with it yet?” Jade laid a pamphlet beside each place at the long table.
“Not yet. I’m trying to take things slow for now. I don’t want to go into debt on this thing until I’m sure I can count on a certain number of students and know exactly how I want to run the course. At least my teacher, Prof. Mendelbaum, says I’ll ace the test he uses to determine who goes on to the next level in the programming course. That makes me feel so good. He’s a tough teacher.”
The ten young people who showed up made Jade realize there were more young people in the area looking for jobs than she had estimated. They seemed to hang on every word and several of them volunteered their goals and hopes.
“I think this first session was a huge success.” Tessie gave her a bright smile and helped Jade to get her paperwork to the car.
“I’m very pleased and you made a big difference. I noticed the students enjoyed talking to you about the courses you’re taking and what your plans are. I really appreciated you joining in.”
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