Chapter 9
T he pilot met them at the helicopter.
“Hi, Cole.” The pilot was as tall as Cole, and slender, with light brown hair. He kept his hair short and did not wear any kind of hat, but he was in uniform. “Let me take your bags and put them in back.”
He grabbed Regan’s bag first. “I’m John Ferring. I’ll be your pilot today.”
“Regan Phillips. I’m looking forward to the trip. I haven’t been in a helo for a while now.”
“When did you last fly?” John took Cole’s bag.
“About a year ago.” She turned to board the helicopter.
Cole followed.
They sat in the seats behind the pilot.
The helicopter was a Hill HX50 and the most beautiful ‘copter she’d ever seen. It certainly wasn’t a Huey, that’s for sure. The seats were all soft leather. Each passenger, and it held six, had their own headphones so they could communicate over the sounds of the blades whirling.
They arrived at the platform around three o’clock in the afternoon. The trip to the oil platform took about forty-five minutes. This helicopter was fast, especially once it was out of Houston’s airspace.
Before they exited the aircraft, Cole told John to pick them up tomorrow at noon. Then he grabbed their luggage from the back.
The helicopter took off and left them on the landing pad.
She looked around at the platform and was surprised that she didn’t feel it moving.
But then she remembered that it was anchored to the seabed by giant concrete columns.
She would have to see the rest of the accommodation to decide what she needed to keep Cole safe.
Being up on the landing pad didn’t tell her much.
The wind was gentle, at least for now, though she’d seen some film on the news that showed the wind blowing hard and the ocean crashing against the pilons. The air smelled of the ocean. Regan loved it, somehow she felt the scent was clean.
“We’re leaving so soon. I thought you planned on staying a few days.”
“I changed my mind. I probably could have gotten the answers I want with a phone call, but this is better. It keeps them on their toes.”
So this was a surprise inspection.
A shorter than average man, built like a fireplug, with dark brown hair cut military style with white sidewalls, greeted them.
“I hadn’t expected you, Cole. This is the first time you’ve been on this platform.”
“That’s true.” Cole shook the man’s hand. “Regan Phillips, this is Dave Chapman. He’s the supervisor for this platform. Everything that happens here goes through him.”
She extended her hand. “Nice to meet you, Dave.”
“You, too.” He turned toward Cole. “We only have one room open, unless you want to bunk with me.”
“No offense, Dave, but I’ve heard rumors that you could give a train a run for its money with your snoring. I’ll bunk with Regan. We’ll make it work.
Regan had no problem sharing a room with Cole. She was his employee. Nothing untoward would happen. She’d make sure of that. Besides, they had handled this arrangement before and it had worked fine.
“Dave, I want you to show us around the platform. I want to talk to you about the accident. A militant environmental group has taken a particular interest in it, and I want to know why and how it happened. We’re supposed to have backup systems that ensure something like this spill doesn’t happen.”
“That’s the thing, Cole.” Dave ran his hand around the back of his neck.
“We have backup systems upon backup systems, and several of those failed at once. I believe it was sabotage, but I haven’t been able to prove it…
yet. Some of the systems held, or the damage to the ecosystem would have been catastrophic. ”
Cole placed a hand on Dave’s shoulder. “Let’s go to the conference room and talk. I want to know everyone who was working when it happened and how you finally got it shut down.”
Dave escorted them through a door and down a long hallway that ended at another door. He opened it and held it with one hand, letting her and Cole pass by him into the room.
This conference room had a standard layout. A huge oval table with about twenty chairs around it took up most of the room. At the far end was a whiteboard on the wall. Above the whiteboard was a pull down movie screen. Across the room was a projector on a two shelf rolling tray.
“Have a seat.” Dave shut the door behind him.
Cole sat at the head of the table.
Dave took the chair to his right.
Regan sat on Cole’s left.
“So, Dave, have you been able to trace the cause of the systems-wide failure?” asked Cole.
“As I said, I believe it was sabotage, but I haven’t found the culprit yet. I’ve denied all leaves until this gets cleared up to my satisfaction.”
“Good. That’s good,” said Cole. “Where are you in the investigation?”
Dave rested his forearms on the table. “First, let me assure you that we have things back to normal. The oil well has been capped, as originally planned. Everyone scheduled to leave is on hold, waiting to be released.” He leaned back in his chair.
“I have seventeen workers, sixteen men and one woman that were on duty at the time the well leak was discovered. Let me tell you up front, Cole, this disaster could have been so much worse had they not done their jobs, shut the rig down, and sealed it. Nothing exploded and no life was lost on this platform.”
Cole leaned back. “For that I am grateful, but if one or more of these workers is guilty of sabotage, I will have them prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, regardless of them doing their jobs in the end.”
Dave nodded. “Understood. What now?”
“I want you to question them. I and Ms. Phillips will be present. I want someone to make recordings and written documentation of their statements.”
“Can’t Ms. Phillips do the written statements?”
Cole lifted a brow. “Ms. Phillips is my executive Assistant, not an administrative assistant. Get yours in here now.”
“Yes, sir.”
A few minutes later, a tall, buxom blonde entered the conference room. “Yes, Mr. Chapman. What do you need?”
The way she walked toward and talked to Dave told Regan they were much more than just boss and employee. They had a sexual relationship, if nothing else.
She watched Cole as the woman realized who was in the room.
The woman turned toward Cole and pasted on a big smile. “Mr. Kincaid. It’s good to see you again.”
How do they know each other if Cole has never been to the platform before?
“Ms. Folsom. This is my executive assistant, Regan Phillips. Regan, this is Dave’s assistant, Varia Folsom.”
Regan smiled at the woman. “Nice to meet you, Varia. That’s quite the unusual name you have. Very pretty, though.”
Varia lifted her chin, just enough for Regan to notice. “My mother wanted something different, but easy to remember, and Varia is what she came up with. And it seems to have worked.” She looked over at Cole and a sly grin spread across her face. “I’m very easy to remember.”
Lifting one brow, Regan maintained her smile. “I just bet you are.” With that sentence, Regan had thrown the gauntlet, so to speak.
“Oh, I am. Just ask Cole.” She slid him a sideways look. “I mean Mr. Kincaid. I’m sure he remembers me from Houston.”
Regan narrowed her eyes and glanced at Cole.
“Oh, I’m sure he does. He never forgets anything.
I often wonder why he needs an assistant, but I do have my uses.
” Take that, you witch. Don’t go messing with Cole, you won’t like my claws.
Wait! What am I thinking? Well, I’m not taking it back.
Cole can think what he wants, and if he wants to spend the night with that…
woman, he’s more than welcome to. She let out a deep breath.
What is the matter with me? I’ve got no claim on Cole.
Once these threats against him stop, he won’t need me anymore, and I’ll move on to the next job.
Why does that thought make me so incredibly sad?
Cole turned his gaze on her. “That you do, Ms. Phillips. That you do.” He looked back to Dave. “What are you doing to mitigate the damage done by the spill?”
“We’ve put out booms to collect the oil on top of the water, which is most of it. Some stayed on the bottom but from what we can tell, the greatest amount floated up.”
“How big was the spill?”
“It was actually relatively small. We figure about 10,000 to 20,000 barrels for the entire spill. Compared to the 4.9 million barrels of the Deepwater Horizon accident, it’s almost nothing.”
Cole cut Dave a glare. “Let’s not compare to anyone else.
I want to know what and who caused this spill.
I don’t care whether it’s small or that the booms appear to be working.
I want to know why this happened at all.
” He turned his gaze to Varia. “Who took leave before it happened and hasn’t returned yet? ”
“Jerry Sykes is the only person. But I doubt he would have done this. I mean, yes, he had the knowledge to know what systems to sabotage, because he was a subsea engineer, but why would he?” asked Varia. “What would he hope to gain?”
Cole and Regan looked at each other.
Cole answered, “Because he’s also a member of a radical environmental group, but mostly because he wants a reason to kill me.”
Dave’s eyes widened. “What? That makes no sense. If he wanted to kill you, why not just do it? I mean, no offense, but why join an environmental group and then cause an oil spill? That goes against everything they stand for.”
Cole nodded. “It does, unless he really doesn’t care and it’s just a cover to give him justification for the deed.”
Regan smiled. Cole understood. Finally, they had a concrete reason for Jerry’s behavior.
Cole turned to Dave. “I want all the files you have on Sykes.” Then he shifted to Regan. “Get in touch with Mason and have him do a deep dive into Jerry. Somewhere in his background is a reason for this.”
“I’ll get right on that. I’ll also have your luggage delivered to the guest room. I’m sorry there is only one. You can ask anyone. and they can give you directions.” Dave turned and left.