The next morning, Helen rousted Rummy and Doris out of bed early and dragged them off for breakfast and a fast walk down the beach. Sandy had spent the night, and the two women walked down the sand as Sandy and Rummy, demurely clad in rugby shorts, ran ahead.
Helen interrupted her chat with Doris, “Good, I´m glad they´re off and running. It´ll give them a chance to find common ground.” She looked at the diminutive woman striding through the tidal wash a few feet away. Doris´s short dark curls topped a lean, muscular body.
“Where did you get those abs and that fabulous butt?” Helen asked.
“I´ve been a professional gymnast for years. Used to compete, now I coach. Muscles just seem to come with the job.”
“Where do you coach?”
“Mostly I´m a coach for the British national team, but I got an offer recently to work with a privately funded international training center here in France. I´m still thinking about it.”
“Where is that?”
“It looks like it will be in Provençe right now, but they´re not sure. They´re really looking for a site. They´ll be building a whole new center, so they want good climate and enough space, but good communications, too.”
“When we get back, give me some names. This is something Rummy and I could get into. Have you told him about it?”
Doris looked over at Helen, “I´ve mentioned it, but I think he´s been too concerned about what´s going on in Freiburg to go very far with it. This Schellen job has him really worried, partly about you and partly about the business. He´s terribly fond of you, and I can see why, now I´ve gotten to know you. And coming here hasn´t helped.”
“Doris, is Rummy having a problem?”
“Of course he is, Helen.” Doris skipped through the water, her breasts bouncing slightly. “He hasn´t figured out how to handle nude people all over the place. For all his rowdy youth, Rummy´s a very conventional sort. He´s quite at sea, and I must say, aroused as hell. And you can be sure I´m enjoying that.” She grinned up at Helen. “And seeing you in the altogether has got his balls in an uproar, too.” She chuckled deep in her chest. “Not that I mind, you understand,” she continued cryptically. “But don´t worry, Helen, he just needs to get acclimated.”
“I hope so,” Helen said and returned to the earlier topic, quizzing Doris on the training center, the people involved and the kinds of facilities that would be needed.
When they had turned back and the men had caught up, Doris kissed Rummy, took his hand, and they lagged behind. Helen and Sandy walked on back to the apartment, and the other two returned somewhat later. Rummy seemed much more at ease.
The orange cat met them at the door, demanding a full report of where they had been and what they had been doing without his permission. No one really paid attention, but he did get his ears rubbed. When Helen sat at the table, he launched himself into her lap. Helen´s face showed a moment of panic, but she realized the beast had somehow gained his place without the slightest use of his claws. Shaking her head, she let him settle down for as long as he chose.
They began working on the contact logs, cataloging the visits of Sebastian Ritter and anyone else who seemed of interest. There was a fairly substantial list of names before too long.
When the phone rang, Helen answered.
“Helen, this is Paul Dumont.”
“Hello, Paul,” Helen replied, gesturing to the others for quiet. The orange cat abandoned her lap for a place under the lounge. Sandy went to another instrument and quietly listened in. He quickly found his pocket computer and began punching buttons, setting up a connection.
“What can I do for you, Paul?” Helen continued.
“Helen, first of all, I wanted to be sure you and Rummy are all right. When I saw your report about the attack of the Bagger, I mean the excavators, I was horrified. I can´t imagine how that happened.”
“It appears to have been set up very carefully, Paul. We don´t know how – or why – it happened either, but I intend to find out. But thank you for asking.”
“I´ve also called to apologize to you,” Dumont went on.
“Apologize? What for?”
“I think we got off to a bad start, and it´s my fault, Helen. I don´t know if you´re aware, but I´ve only been with Schellen for about six months.”
“No, I wasn´t,” Helen answered, beginning to take notes. “Where were you before?”
“I was with Herzog-Elmiger AG, in Lauzanne for four years, doing pretty much the same thing I´m doing for Schellen: project management. Schellen made me a good offer, and my wife´s got family near here.”
“Well, what´s this about an apology?”
“When I started at Schellen, I was seconded to Constructeurs Sauter for a while. They showed me how they used what they called ‘labor consultants´ to cut costs.”
“Did it also mean cutting corners?”
“Ah! So you do know. Yes, it did.”
“Well, Paul I don´t know much. I´d appreciate your telling me what you can. And I´d like to know why you´re telling me at all.”
“Fair enough. There are a couple of reasons, and I´ll tell you as I go. When I found out that Sauter was using this idea to bring in cheap labor from the East, I asked to return to Schellen – end the secondment. I didn´t want anything to do with it. Schellen told me to keep my mouth shut and to let it go.
“When I was assigned to the Freiburg job, I met you and Rummy up there, you´ll recall. Just sort of on a hunch, I had asked Rummy earlier about this Brechstein fellow, who was the guy I´d heard about at Sauter. And then, in Freiburg, I mentioned labor consultants. Your reaction told me you didn´t have anything to do with that sort of thing, and I was glad to hear it. But then, just yesterday, I learned that Brechstein had quit, and that he had died five years ago.
“Helen, I wanted to call and apologize for bringing this up at all, and for any problem I might have caused by making such a suggestion.”
Helen stopped taking notes for a moment and took a deep breath instead. “Paul, thank you. I appreciate your directness and your frankness. Your apology is accepted.”
“Thank you.”
“But tell me something. What do you know about Theo Brechstein? What can you tell me about his involvement with Schellen?”
“Not very much, I´m afraid. Anyway, his connection was with Sauter, not Schellen. As soon as I understood what Sauter was doing, I pulled out of there. But I was told that Brechstein had been a Man from Bau, you know, the labor inspector.”
“Right.”
“Well, Brechstein was described as a man who was very sympathetic toward the men from the east who were willing to work as illegal laborers or semi-skilled workers just to support their families in the east. You know how it used to be back during and after the Cold War; those guys would sneak over and make a few Marks or Franken and send it home. It´s been even more common since the Wall came down, and even with the expansion of the EU, there are still a lot or illegal workers from one place or another. Apparently he was willing to wink at some of that.”
“And then Sauter would sell these guys to the contractors at a premium?”
“Yes, I suppose they´d charge the contractor an attractive rate, then pay the foreigners a lot less, but still enough to make it attractive.
“But, Helen, I didn´t like any of this. I felt I had to clear things up with you. And I don´t think Schellen would have anything to do with it either.”
“Well, Paul, I´m not as sure as you are. You remember e-mailing me last week that Schellen wanted a meeting? In our meeting, Schellen offered us just the kind of deal you´re talking about. We sort of had to play for time and ask for a specific proposal. But we won´t really consider that, of course.”
“Of course. Well, that´s certainly interesting. I don´t really know what to say.”
“Tell you what, Paul. Let´s just let it ride for now. I told Schellen that we wouldn´t have anything to do with it. But he pulled a maneuver, and he´s going to send us a proposal. Maybe it´s over, maybe not. Let´s wait and see.”
Abruptly, Helen changed the subject. “Did you get the reports I sent you yesterday?”
“Yes. Yes, I did. Thank you, they´re very complete, and we´ll be working on the action items immediately. Just please know that I´m very sorry this matter came up at all.”
“It´s quite all right, Paul. I appreciate your thinking about it, and I appreciate the information.”
When they had hung up, Helen turned to Sandy. “Did you hear all that?”
Sandy waved his PDA. “I not only heard it, I´ve got a recording of it. Shall I play it for Rummy and Doris?”
When that had been done, Helen asked, “Well, do we believe him? I mean about not wanting anything to do with the labor issues. And, what do we do about it?”
Sandy spoke up. “I´m not sure I believe him.”
Rummy concurred. “I sure don´t. When he mentioned labor coordinators, or whatever he called it, that day in Freiburg, it didn´t make a lot of sense, but somehow it felt like something real. And then Werner Siegmann said Dumont had made a clear offer to him. I´ll be calling him shortly to see what numbers he got.”
“Sounds to me like Dumont´s trying to cover his ass,” Doris said. “The apology idea makes sense, but I don´t see a lot of sincerity behind it, based on what Rummy just said.”
Helen picked up the log sheets. “Okay. Let´s finish these. Check Dumont´s visits to our contractors especially. The Dumont phone call is on file – Sandy, would you copy that recording onto my machine, please? – and we´ll just check out what he´s doing, and what he´s been saying to our contractors when Rummy talks to the guys on the site.”