Chapter Twenty-Two: Part Three
The burnt-out car made Page 2 headlines and generated many theories. The complete destruction of the car and the fire department’s enthusiastic efforts to extinguish the remaining flames severely hampered the efforts of the police. The inferno’s intensity, and the Fire Department’s response, had reduced both the car and its contents to bare twisted metal and a few dirty puddles of watery ash. Spread by the grenade’s initial and destructive explosion, the burning fuel of the bomb, and the immolation of the hybrid's own batteries and fuel load combined to leave almost nothing behind. Even the alloy wheels of the wreck had deformed from the heat.
The investigating detectives soon discovered that the car had been rented under a false name, paid for in cash, and guaranteed with a cloned credit card. The rental clerk’s vague description was useless and their security camera had stopped working years before. A liquor store nearby had some grainy CCTV footage of the man in question, but it was as useless as the clerk’s description. The detective’s day old case was already running cold. The forensic identification of the grenade’s fragmentation pattern and the discovery of its lever and pin generated a second wave of attention, but again it led nowhere. Silvio’s name remained unmentioned and had no reason to come up.
Investigators canvassed the local businesses with little enthusiasm. Alberto explained that until reading about it the next day, he hadn’t known that anything had happened. The police officers walked away still clueless at the end of their third fruitless day. The press lost interest when a ‘name’ banker was caught red-handed, stealing from his own bank, and the futile investigation of Silvio’s demise went into a bottomless drawer, filed under ‘One-of-Those-Things’. Police ultimately assumed it to have been a shady deal gone wrong. In an ironic way, they were right.
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The next three months saw a natural and easy progression in their lives. Dee and Carrie’s business was booming. They now had eight permanent staff and were booked out nearly twenty-four months ahead.
Tears had flowed when Kate moved into Rick’s apartment. When the three were unable to stop saying goodbye, Rick ended up insisting that Dee and Carrie stay in the guest bedroom for a few nights.
Ironwood Engineering Solutions was also thriving. The first mass produced humidity-traps were already in the field and working well. Douglas McDonough’s eco-resort had broken ground and was ahead of schedule. They had picked up another five significant contracts and had nearly fifty staff working in two shifts. Rick had extended their building to include a ten twin-room dormitory so those working late had somewhere to bed down for a few hours. The people of the IES team were the sort to walk outside at 2:00am and be surprised that the sun was not still up. The dormitories were regularly used and universally appreciated. Kate and Rick inevitably spent a couple of nights a week there in their own private suite as well.
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Like everyone from Alegria, the amigas had become increasingly distracted during the week. In only a few days, they were all heading back to participate in the New Day celebrations, and the final days seemed to crawl by.
Kate and Rick had decided to stay on the island for the two weeks following New Day. Releasing them from much of the day-to-day running, Eric and Tyson had everything under tight control as Rick and Kate’s deputies. Their projects were at the stage where the gears were turning and things were happening without requiring their input. Philippa, a youthful, ex-military logistics specialist known to both the Myers and Dom, was their new operations manager.
She’d won Eric’s and Tyson’s confidence on her first day. They recognised and welcomed her as another of their own. In the six short weeks since she’d joined them, it felt to everyone as if she’d been there from the start.
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