35. Encouraging Voice
ENCOURAGING VOICE
“ W hat do you mean the water pressure is nonexistent?” Elias asked the following Monday.
He was barely dressed. Shit, he’d only fastened his pants and didn’t have a shirt on yet when his phone rang.
Early morning calls were never good.
“I’m sorry,” Kyle said. “I stayed last night to make sure everything was in great shape for Ben and Mason today. I know you’re coming in early.”
“Yeah,” he said, “And you thought nothing of the water?”
“We aren’t running much water at night,” Kyle argued. “We aren’t making anything then.”
He knew that and didn’t know why he was taking it out on Kyle other than he was pissed off.
He put his phone down and hit the speaker button and then grabbed his shirt to pull it over his head.
“The city isn’t even open yet for me to call the water department,” he said.
Of all the rotten luck.
“I don’t think it’s a city problem,” Kyle said. “The water is running fine in other parts of the plant but not in the brewery. The toilets are flushing and faucets are fine.”
Which meant someone was probably tampering with something.
Here he thought things were going great.
On Friday, Fierce Fifth Kid hit the markets with a bang and celebrations were all around.
Elias was flying high in his career and his personal life.
He was happy to report no problems at the plant, but on the day Mason and Ben were supposed to arrive, something happened.
The joke was going to be on them though because of the damn cameras that he paid an arm and a leg for.
“Did you find a leak anywhere?” he asked. He hoped to hell not. What a mess.
“No,” Kyle said. “I’m calling you first. I’m going to try to find what I can. I’ll grab a few guys to help look.”
“I’m on the way,” he said.
He hung up, grabbed his keys, sped out of the garage, and went to the brewery.
When he got there Kyle was waiting for him.
“It’s the tap to the plant. Just one of them. Looks like it was loosened.”
“So it’s fixed?” he asked.
“For now,” Kyle said. “I’m afraid it’s stripped and it’s leaking some, but we’ve got it covered. I’ll show you. No way this happened on its own.”
“No,” he said under his breath.
“Who the hell would do this?” Kyle asked.
“I’m going to find out,” he said. “I’ve got cameras everywhere now.”
“You do?” Kyle said. “When?”
He debated saying more, but Kyle’s face didn’t look like he was guilty, more like he was hurt something was kept from him.
“Walk with me and I’ll explain and why I kept it from you too.”
He told Kyle his suspicions. That too much was happening for him to think it was a coincidence and how it could have cost him the second collaboration.
“Shit,” Kyle said. “It’s like someone is trying to sabotage you, but I’m not sure why. I thought we had a great group of workers who have been here for a long time. At least those that have access back here.”
“I thought so too,” he said.
He swiped his card to the water gauges and it reminded him that he could have Foster look into who had been here in the past twenty-four hours.
If there had been water issues yesterday, he would have known about it even though he didn’t work, so that meant it happened after the first shift.
“It’s still dripping,” Kyle said. “It’s the best we can do until we get someone here.”
“I’ll call maintenance in a minute to come in early. No reason to get them out of bed just yet.” But he knew they’d have to order a part for this.
He looked over how Kyle repaired it and knew he couldn’t have done it any better.
“At least we are set for Mason to get here. Are you going to tell him?”
He felt as if he had to. “I’m going to text him now. No reason for him to drive if he decides not to.”
Which he was positive was going to be the case.
And an hour later when Foster called him, he was more than pissed.
“Sorry,” Foster said. “I could see who swiped the cards, but you can’t see any faces.”
“Doesn’t matter,” he said. “That is enough for me to sit people down. There shouldn’t be anyone other than maintenance back there anyway.”
“One person who didn’t add up was Skip Evans,” Foster said.
He ground his teeth. Skip was the one who was working with Kyle when the temperature gauge went. Also one of the guys that should have caught the change in barley.
Skip had been one of the first guys he hired years ago when he opened under the new name and he’d never had a problem with him before.
“Fuck,” he said. “Thanks. I’ll deal with it.”
“Do you think it’s him?”
“I’m not sure what to think,” he said, “other than the facts. And he’s been around when a lot of other issues happened too.”
“Sounds like you’ve got your answer then.”
“Yeah,” he said and hung up with his brother.
How the hell could he have been so wrong and missed this?
Skip was off today since he worked yesterday and clocked out at five. At four, the card was swiped.
“Well?” Kyle asked.
“Mason and Ben rescheduled,” he said.
“Shit,” Kyle said. “I’m sorry.”
“I don’t blame them. I’d do the same. But it looks like Skip’s card was swiped around four yesterday. An hour before his shift ended.”
“He’s off today,” Kyle said.
“I’m going to call him in around ten,” he said.
“Are you going to fire him?” Kyle asked.
“I have to,” he said. “You can leave. Thanks for sticking around.”
“Are you sure?” Kyle asked.
“Yeah, I’ve got shit to do and get in order first.”
He was going to have to talk to HR to make sure everything was taken care of, but decided to text Phoebe first.
Maybe he needed a nice encouraging voice.
If he ever reached out to West or Braylon they’d start to tell him what to do rather than ask. Rather than walk him through things to figure out on his own.
Maybe that was why he fought so hard to prove he could do it.
Phoebe would understand and he could trust her.
“You’re calling early,” she said when she answered. “Is everything okay?”
“No,” he said. He told her what happened and what was discovered.
“I’m sorry it happened again, but at least you know who did it.”
“Yeah,” he said. “Didn’t even need a camera for it. The cards let me see it all.”
“Back up,” she said. “You don’t have him on camera doing it? Even going into the room?”
He sighed. “You’re going to get all lawyer on me, aren’t you?”
“Sorry,” she said. “It’s my job. All you’ve got is his card being swiped. Nothing more. That proves it was used to access the room but not that he was the one to do it.”
“So I’m back to square one?” he asked, running his hands through his hair. “I’d rather think one of my most loyal employees stabbed me in the back and tried to make trouble than I still don’t know what is going on.”
“Your best bet is to talk to him,” she said. “Let him try to explain why his card was swiped. Maybe ask what he was doing back there before you say what happened.”
“I’ll do that,” he said. “I was going to talk to HR first to have his paperwork done.”
“You don’t have to do that,” she said. “Just send him home on administrative paid leave while you investigate and then make a decision. If he admits it, you can terminate him right there and have HR come in at that moment or security escort him out. I know I don’t need to tell you these things.
But if he’s trying to make trouble for you now, there could be more if you don’t follow things properly. ”
“I didn’t know your voice got lighter, Braylon.”
She laughed. “I’ll take that as a compliment. I like your brother a lot.”
“He likes you too,” he said.
He hung up with Phoebe and tried to gather his thoughts, then sent a text to Skip and asked if he could come in.
He didn’t give him a lot of time to find out what was going on and if Skip took it as he was being asked to work an extra shift, he didn’t bother to explain further.
“Is everything okay?” Skip asked when he knocked on Elias’s door at ten. “I came in to work and they told me to come see you first.”
“Have a seat,” he said. He shut the door for privacy. He probably should have a witness, but there was part of him that wanted to hear what Skip had to say.
“Okay,” Skip said. “Am I being fired or something?”
He wasn’t going to answer that.
“Is there a reason you were in the maintenance rooms by the water gauges yesterday?”
“What?” Skip asked. He truly looked confused. “I wasn’t. Why would you say that? Did someone say they saw me there?”
There didn’t seem to be an act here. Skip was one of those good old boys who loved his mama more than anything else in the world. The dude wouldn’t even kill a bug but rather trapped it to let it out.
How the hell could the guy be the one to do this?
“No,” he said. “Your key card was swiped there at four yesterday.”
Skip’s face flushed. It was almost an admission of guilt and his heart sank at what a poor judge of character he was.
“I couldn’t find my card yesterday,” he said.
“I had it when I came in. That’s how I got in the building and all.
But when I went to leave at five, I realized I didn’t have it on me.
You can ask Marc and Scott. They were helping me look for it.
I finally went back to my locker and it was there. I’m not sure why or how it got there.”
“You’re supposed to have it on you at all times,” he said. “That is a fireable offense right there.”
“I know,” Skip said nervously. “And I’m sorry. That’s why I didn’t say anything. But I came back from lunch with a bunch of the guys and someone just swiped their card first and held the door open or I would have realized I didn’t have it then. I’m not even sure when I didn’t have it.”
All he could hear in his head was Phoebe saying that Skip wasn’t on camera.
“Can others vouch for your whereabouts at the time the card was used?”
“Yes,” Skip said quickly. “I was on the floor the whole time until it was time to leave. Lots of people could.”
“We’re going to look into it,” he said. “But I need you to hand me your card right now while we do and you’ll have to be on leave.”
“Did something happen?” Skip asked. He pulled his key off the chain he kept it clipped to. It made him think anyone could easily undo it when Skip wasn’t paying attention as it hung off his waist.
“Nothing I can talk about,” he said. He was keeping it as quiet as possible for now. “I’d like no one to know what is going on. You’re not scheduled to work until Wednesday and should be fine by then.”
“I hope so,” Skip said, his eyes glassy. “I need my job. I didn’t do anything. I swear I didn’t.”
He believed the guy but couldn’t say that.
“I’ll walk out with you,” he said. “We’ll just play it off as we are talking. Got it?”
“Yeah,” Skip said. “Sure.”
The guy looked close to tears and he told him to take a minute.
No way Skip did it, but who the hell did?