Hard Landing by Lynne Heitman Page B

Dickie?"
    "His wife left him, took the kids, he lost all his money. Same things that happen to a lot of people in life, only he couldn't handle it. Started hitting the bottle."
    "No, I meant why did he leave the company."
    "Poor bastard got stomach cancer and died about six months ago."
    "That's sad."
    "A goddamned waste is what it was. I never met a better operations man than Dickie Flynn when he was sober. What I know about the operations function I learned from Dickie."
    "Was he as good as Kevin?"
    "Better. Dickie started out as an operations agent, then he went to the ramp and then freight. I think he also did a stint on the passenger side." He shook his head. "What a waste. The guy was a mess right up until the day he died."
    "What about Lenny? Did you ever work for him?"
    "Not directly."
    "Why did you say the other night that he doesn't like you?"
    "Because he doesn't. What do you want to do about Angelo?"
    I laughed. "If you don't want to tell me, why don't you just say so?"
    "It's not that. It's a long and boring story and not all that important and I'm tired."
    "All right, let's talk about Angelo. He's sixty-three years old with a sick wife and forty-one years of service to the company. With a story like that, no arbitration panel is going to let a termination stand. Lenny wants me to bring him back, so I should do it before the panel does it and takes the credit. I score points with my boss and the union."
    "You're probably right."
    "Then why don't I want to do it?"
    "Because you're stubborn."
    "Are you sure he's harmless?" I asked.
    "He's harmless."
    "And you don't have a problem with it?"
    "Not me, boss."
    "All right."
    "So you want me to bring him back?"
    "All right means I'll think about it some more."
    Dan laughed at me, then segued into a big yawn, which made me yawn and reminded me of just how long this day had been. I stood up to stretch. "Let me ask you something else. If Ellen did find something out about Little Pete, does it stand to reason Big Pete would be involved?"
    "Little Pete wouldn't know what shirt to put on in the morning if it wasn't for his old man."
    "That's what I thought. I was speculating on how things might be different around here if we could blow both Petes out the door. Victor is incredibly annoying, but I'd still prefer dealing with him over Big Pete. And I can't think of one good reason to have Little Pete around. He's scary."
    "I told you."
    I went over to the window and shifted the angle of the blinds so that it would be harder to see inside the office, if anyone had been so inclined. It was already dark again. I hadn't left the airport once in daylight. Come to think of it, it was dark in the morning when I came in. I was beginning to feel like a vampire. "Do you have any idea what Ellen may have had on father and son?"
    "Drugs."
    "Really?"
    "I was thinking last night after I got home how out of the blue one day, for no reason, she starts asking me a bunch of questions about the Beeches."
    "The Beechcraft? The commuter?"
    "Yeah. Those little mosquitoes we fly down to D.C. three times a day. Our last flight of the day connects to the Caribbean."
    "Southbound is the wrong way for drug trafficking."
    "It connects on the inbound, too. Her questions were all about the cargo compartments, capacity, loading procedures. I think she was trying to figure how much extra weight they could take. Maybe where you could hide a package. She also asked me for a copy of the operating procedures for the ramp."
    "Wait a second…" I went to the overhead cabinet of my credenza and opened it. "She had her own procedures manual. It's right here. Why would she want yours?"
    Dan came around the desk and pointed at the logo emblazoned across the manual. "Those are Majestic's procedures."
    "Not surprising, considering we are Majestic Airlines."
    "We weren't always, not here in Boston, anyway. She wanted my old Nor'easter manual. I gave it to her and now it's gone."
    "That's very odd." I slid the manual back