Off The Grid (32 page)

Chapter 73

With Evans forced to stay at the house for at least a little longer, Luke could finally get some answers. He explained how he’d created a mathematical model that showed StuTech’s process was intentionally under-powering the wireless system, limiting its reach. Reconstruction wouldn’t work unless the system could reach greater distances.

“Of course it’s underpowered,” Evans said. “We could have turned up the maximum power input and output, extending the distance of the towers and stubs, but it would shorten their usable life by more than half. We’d burn through a 20-year tower in five years. Stubs would have to be replaced every six months. It would make our internal costs skyrocket. It
's not worth it.”

“So then it was always possible to reach the off-the-grid areas
, like right here in Mill Creek?” Luke asked.

“Possible in the short term, but not practical.”

“Even today?”

“Our system may be able to absorb the infrastructure costs to bring some of the off-the-grid towns back online, but what’s the point? We’ll never make a profit here.”

“I can find a way to make the numbers work,” Rachel said. “Trust me.”

“Since you’re laying everything on the table,” Luke said to Evans. “Tell us about Blaine
Kirkhorn. I know you met at Pueblo Bluff.”

Warren’s chin rose and he took a deep breath, as if he was trying to recall a memory from long ago. He picked up the cup of tea, this time taking a small sip, but curling his lips after doing so.

“I assumed you’d want to know about Blaine. I did meet him at the Pueblo Bluff archeological dig in the mid-1990s. He was working on the same plot of land as my team from Cornell. And to anticipate your next question, yes, he did introduce me to the rare earth element we use for wireless. But he wasn’t interested in commercializing it, which was to his detriment in my opinion. He had the chance. I wouldn’t have known it existed or how to find it if he hadn’t willingly shown me that summer. He had the first crack at it, but wanted to study it and that was it. He was fascinated by its attributes and possibilities.”

“He never contacted you after you successfully commercialized the material to go wireless?” Rachel asked.

Luke couldn’t tell if Evans expression showed guilt, remorse or maybe both. Evans told them how Kirkhorn had made an appointment with him after Loretta got hurt. He asked for money to do research on spinal injuries. 

“I told him no.”

“Why?” Rachel asked.

“Because I did all the work on that material and I owned it,” Evans said. “It was mine. I wasn’t about to give it away. If the properties of that material were made public through medical journals or papers, we would lose our monopoly on wireless. It’s why we pushed the WES Act. Even if the material specifications were released somehow, we’d still have control of the market by owning the radio spectrum the wireless signals transmitted on.”

“You didn’t stop Kirkhorn’s work,” Luke said. “He did the medical research anyway, we just don’t have the results.”

“You don’t have the results, because I have them,” Evans said. “I had a team retrieve his papers and laptop after he died.”

“So you wouldn’t help him when he was alive and then you stole his work when he died?” Rachel asked.

“That’s the cost of doing business. I don’t regret it. I was right to take it. Had it been left lying around you would have found it in his possessions, put a bow on it and gave it to some medical journal or pharmaceutical company. Where would that leave us? I was protecting my company.”

Rachel stared at her father in disbelief. His greed knew no bounds.

“I did review
Kirkhorn’s work though,” Evans said. “It was genius.”

“I’d like to see the research,” Luke said. “We can put it to good use right away.”

“Not a chance,” Evans said, shaking his head. “I’m not giving it up. Especially not to you. Oh, and how is Gina’s neighbor doing? Elliot, wasn’t that his name?”

Evans didn’t know Luke had come clean to Rachel about Elliot Cosgrove’s death. They’d already moved on.

“Elliot is fine,
dad
,” Rachel said, emphasizing the last word. “He moved out of town years ago. Everyone knows that.”

“But I thought that he-“

“There’s a lot you don’t know,
dad
. Like how to be a father for starters. And also how you’re about to hand me the keys to the kingdom.”

Epilogue

Tucson, Arizona

Six months later

Loretta Kirkhorn’s good friend Elvin Walker wheeled her chair into the community room at Sunset Ridge. Luke was planning on visiting today and he was bringing a friend. She had a system in place for visitors now that she received guests three or four days a week. Reporters and medical researchers came from all over the world to pick her brain about her husband who became an instant celebrity after word of his paralysis research was released. She had very little to share with her visitors about his work, but made sure they knew about the man himself, not just his research.

She wasn’t entirely surprised when Luke told her months earlier the real reason her husband had divorced her so suddenly after her accident.

“He knew that the only way he could fix you was to dedicate all of his time to finding a cure. Something that would help you regain some movement or maybe even walk again,” Luke had told her. “He never wanted to leave your side. The only way he could justify his actions was because of his research.”

Her great regret, she told him, was that if Blaine would have just talked to her first, she could have told him that she would rather they spend their final days together, paralyzed or not. Suffering alone was unbearable. She would have understood his desire to “fix” her. He was just that kind of man. That’s why she loved him so much even after all these years.

Loretta didn’t want Blaine’s last years to be a waste, so she had been quite pleased when Rachel and Kathryn had asked her to sign over documents authorizing MassEnergy to work on Blaine’s research. No legal paperwork had ever been filed on any refinement process of the raw viberock material. They beat Warren Evans to the punch by filing a patent application first. Blaine’s work was now useless to Evans, who regretfully gave up the boxes when Rachel showed up with a handcart to collect them.

Kathryn decided to return to
MassEnergy to lead a research team, utilizing her years of experience in pharmaceuticals. James Beckman had fled the country when Steve Lunsford was arrested, fearing his involvement in their scheme to steal from StuTech would get him jailed too. With him out of the picture, Kathryn was given his old job as VP of Development. She was focusing on the company’s new medical division and had already hired a familiar face. 

***

Loretta and Elvin were anxious to hear how the new research was coming. Luke met them in the community room, followed by another man with dark skin who Loretta didn’t recognize.

“I’ve seen you on the news quite a bit lately,” Loretta said to Luke. “You’ve become a very famous man in many small towns.”

“We’re trying to bring as many towns back online as fast as we can,” Luke said. “I’m the project lead at StuTech and we’re putting up four or five new towers everyday. It’s a tremendous amount of work.”

“Your boss must have you working night and day.”

“She’s not so bad,” he said. “Being married to the CEO has its advantages.”

Luke and Rachel had gotten married in a tiny ceremony in Seattle just days after Warren Evans stepped down from management of
StuTech and appointed Rachel to take over. He sited health concerns, but in reality he feared what Rachel would do to the company if he had remained at the top. She had demanded control, or she would dismantle the company bit by bit. It was easier to put her in charge than to fight her. At least then his legacy would live on, he told her.

“So what news do you have for us today,” Elvin asked Luke.

“As you know, all of Professor Kirkhorn’s work has been turned over to the medical research lab at MassEnergy, along with a hefty cash infusion to keep them afloat,” he said. StuTech now owned a majority share of MassEnergy, courtesy of StuTech’s generous new CEO.

“It’s very early on,” Luke said, “but they seem to be making progress, now that
StuTech has provided them an unlimited supply of the ARC rare earth element to work with.”

Loretta smiled, “I have no expectations about the work benefiting me, but I’m glad to hear its going well. There are many more people, younger people, who need help first.”

“MassEnergy has hired a new lead researcher who is experienced in the field,” Luke turned to the man on his left. “I’d like to introduce you to Dr. Estevan Rigau.”

For the rest of the morning Luke and
Estevan told Loretta stories about Blaine, helping her piece together parts of his life she never knew about. When it was time to leave, Estevan promised to keep Loretta current on the research.

Luke had to go too. If he hurried he could get to Mill Creek by morning. New breathing treatments and access to reliable power meant better medical care for Tilly. This year she might actually have enough breath to blow out the candles on her birthday cake. He wouldn’t miss it for the world.

Acknowledgements

There were many people who helped me complete this novel. First and foremost, I want to thank Katie, who above everyone else, never once wavered in her support of this project. There were several times when I doubted my script, my determination or myself – she never did. Thanks, Katie for helping me find my way to the end.

I got lucky when my first choices for beta readers said yes. Jessie
Wuerst, Latisha Hill and Dan Absalonson provided welcome feedback and very often stopped me from looking silly. I hope you understand how much your thoughts were taken to heart in the finished product. Kudos also to Karen Caton for her copyediting.

Thank you to my friends, family and co-workers who supported and encouraged me during this process. Your kind words meant the world to me.

To you, the reader, I hope you enjoyed this book as much as I enjoyed creating it. I appreciate you spending some time with my words. I’d love to hear from you too, good or bad – just visit
www.facebook.com/DanKolbetBooks
and drop me a line. You can catch me at
[email protected]
, too.

Finally, to Allison and Felicity, this book is proof that you can make your dreams come true.

Excerpt from Don’t Wait For Me

Available for
Kindle or in print through Amazon Published
Oct. 2012

Book Description

Edwin Klein’s iconic downtown toy store is hanging by a thread. The end is near, but he won’t accept it. The store is all he has left of his wife and he can’t let it go. Failure and loss have led him to a dark place.

After a chance encounter with a shoplifter, he stumbles upon the help of Amelia Cook, who is struggling with her own loss. Through one holiday season the two of them hatch a plan to save the store and in turn touch the lives of everyone they know.

What follows is a wonderful, but tragic tale of love, loss and new beginnings.

“Don’t Wait For Me”

Chapter One

Black Friday: 30 days until Christmas Eve

Edwin sat behind his desk in the windowless back room of his toy store, Mr. Z’s. His antique wooden chair squeaked with his every movement. A bare bulb illuminated the jumbled room. His coffee cup, a red mug with a snowman painted on it, sat before him. He took gentle sips and let the burn of the bourbon sting his throat. He’d ditched the coffee at noon and it was now well past seven o’clock.

The store’s daily receipts were in four neat piles on the desktop. Small piles.
Very small piles. Today was not his Black Friday and he resented the common notion that this one blasted day was the one that would bring his store out of the red and back into the black. Back into the black?
The store was losing money hand over fist.

But today’s terrible showing wasn’t a surprise. Not a surprise to Edwin or for the handful of customers who came into the store today. The regulars knew it shouldn’t have been him behind the glass display case, ringing up their precious purchases.

One exceedingly talkative customer happened to ask the question he dreaded, but expected every day.

“
Where’s Mary and Mr. Z?”

His reply gave no satisfaction to the customer buying an electric train set. But of course, the answer gave Edwin no satisfaction either, so it all balanced out in his mind. He’d been asking the same question for 10 months and two days. Where’s Mary?

Of Mr. Z, he was more certain—he’d been dead for years, but people still asked.

But the receipts and the annoying customer questions weren’t dominating his disdain at this exact moment. It was the shoplifter sitting in the folding chair directly across from the desk.

“When can I go home?” the boy asked for the third time in the last five minutes.

“I told you,” Edwin said. “The police should be here any minute. Now keep quiet I’m trying to count.”

“You’ve got a lot of crap back here. You should really clean up,” the boy said.

“That’s quite a recommendation from a thief,” Edwin said.

“I told you I would pay for it.”

“It’s customary to pay for something at the time it leaves the store, not halfway down the block.”

The boy had entered the store about 5:30 p.m. The bell above the door gave a ring as he walked right by Edwin, who was straightening a shelf of puzzles near the register. The boy’s green canvas jacket, with large pockets, immediately drew Edwin’s attention away from the puzzles and toward the boy, who was probably no older than 10. With his dark cap, covered in fresh snow, Edwin couldn’t judge his age very well at all.

Big pockets. No parents. Shifty eyes. Did he have shifty eyes? Of course he did. They all do. If it wasn’t the damn economy, big box stores or websites stealing his customers—it was shoplifters who would certainly be the end of this business. And he caught one—finally.

But the joy of catching the little thief in the act was spoiled by the long wait for the police to show up. No doubt there were bigger crimes that needed investigating, but he had the criminal in the back room. Caught him red-handed. If the cops would just show up and arrest him already, Edwin could go home or to the Satellite Diner for a late dinner.

It wasn’t lost on Edwin that this little boy was the only person he’d had an actual conversation with in months. Excluding his few customers, he couldn’t recall the last time he had spent so much time together with another person inside the store since Mary had gone.
A sad state of affairs, indeed. Edwin desperately wanted this day just to be over.

If he hadn’t turned the corner just in time to see the boy drop a Barbie swimsuit and surfboard combo pack into his coat pocket, he wouldn’t still be sitting at his desk right now.

“What do you want with a Barbie anyway?” Edwin asked the boy.

“None of your business,” the boy said.

“Actually it is my business. All 2,100 square feet of it.”

“And what a great job you’ve done with the place,” the boy deadpanned.

Great, even this little punk knows I’m a failure, Edwin thought.

* * *

After several more calls to the police department it became apparent they weren’t coming to haul the kid to the slammer. He didn’t even know if they did that anymore. Probably they would just give him a stern talking to and take him to his parents.

Edwin figured he could be just as imposing as a police officer – especially one who never showed up. He could scare this kid straight. So he decided he’d get the boy to his parents and let them decide his punishment. He could imagine the embarrassment on their
faces, finding out their sweet little boy was a future master criminal. He was actually looking forward to it. He didn’t really like kids, at least not recently.

“Put on your coat, you’re going home.”

“Hold on there, man, you can’t take me to my apartment.”

“So, it’s an apartment? That’s a good start. What’s the address?”

“No really. I’ll do anything. Please don’t take me home.”

The kid, with his pleading, seemed to grow younger the more he begged Edwin to not return him home. For a split second Edwin thought he had detected fear in the boy’s eyes. Good, I’m still intimidating, he thought
.

“It’s either the police station or your parents, kid,” Edwin said, in his best authoritative tone. “There are no other options. Besides, I couldn’t just kick you out onto the street now anyway, it’s dark and snowing and you’re a little kid.”

“Hey, I’ll be 11 in January,” the boy replied, as if his age was the deciding factor.

“Eleven-year-olds are still little kids.”

“It beats being a hundred like you,” the boy said.

“Good one, kid. Now put your coat on. I’m taking you home.”

Find
Don’t Wait For Me
by Dan Kolbet at
http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Wait-For-Me-ebook/dp/B009XHO66U