Chapter 05

’Tinker’ Taylor: Home Guard

Kangaroo Court

During the last two days several people have given evidence against Lee ’Tinker’ Taylor about what he knows, can do, and how much he hates the complainant. However, there’s no direct evidence Lee had access to the explosives or placed them where they would destroy the private dam on the property of Mike Kane. The only clear evidence is the marker tags in the explosives used show they came from those bought and owned by Mr Kane. A check of his Explosives Store shows some explosives missing, but not enough to do all of the damage done. The brick building has a thick steel door secured by a top-of-the-line security system with no links to outside except the power line. The security includes a set of cameras covering the door, the interior, and all of the approaches. It has back-up batteries to run it for forty-eight hours before going into a full lock-down mode then shutting down if the power is cut. So the question is: How did whoever destroyed the dam get hold of the explosives? The camera recordings show everyone who removes the explosives, and it shows them filling in the register, but there’s no record of Lee ever being near the building.

The strongest argument claims a friend of Lee’s who has access to the explosives got extras and gave them to Lee. The complainant and the prosecutor haven’t presented any evidence to support the theory nor can they name a possible collaborator. While there’s a lot of evidence of how much they dislike each other and of how Lee would like to do this, including Lee admitting he suggested it should be done by someone. However, it’s all circumstantial evidence with no hard evidence to link Lee to the crime or the place at that time.

The case is a clear and easy win for Lee Taylor, except the judge is a very good friend of Mike Kane, so is the District Attorney, and the three of them are looking for ways to railroad Lee, regardless of the evidence. Any other District Attorney wouldn’t have taken the case to court and any other judge would have kicked it out in the first few minutes.

All of the evidence has been presented and the judge is working hard to try to hang something on Lee Taylor when another man sitting in the body of the court rises and says, “Your Honor, if I may suggest an answer which will save the court a lot of time and money.” The judge waves for the man to continue. “I’m not fully aware of the background, but from what I’ve heard said in this court, and outside during the breaks, I’m aware that whatever the ruling is it will be appealed due to neither side accepting a ruling against them. I get the feeling the defendant’s main objection is he doesn’t want a criminal record and the complainant just wants the accused out of the area for the next two years for personal reasons I’ve not heard stated. I’ve a solution that will satisfy both sides if the court and they will permit it.”

Judge Mann asks, “What is it you suggest?”

“I can offer the accused three years of employment at a rural facility in another state. I suggest the court rules ’not guilty with prejudice’ if the accused signs a three year work contract and the District Attorney agrees to not appeal the decision. This means the accused doesn’t have a criminal record while the legal bills are paid for by the complainant and the accused is out of the area for longer than the complainant wants. Each gets what they want without any further court hearings or costs.”

“What is the job and the organization?” is the Judge’s next question.

“The job is as a General Worker at the Boyes Educational Facility.”

Mike Kane, the District Attorney, and Judge Mann smile at the idea of Lee being a lowly general worker at a re-education facility. It would be very close to sending him to a juvenile facility, which isn’t a punishment option for the nineteen year old accused. Lee doesn’t like the idea, but he talks quietly with his lawyer about the suggestion.

Lee’s lawyer, Ian Bond, says, “Look, it’s not an ideal answer but it gives you three years of paid work, housing, feeds you, pays my bills, and gets you away from the harassment by those idiots. I’d go for it if I were you!” Ian is concerned for Lee’s financial future because he doesn’t know what Lee’s financial details are, beyond the balance in Lee’s local bank account. Ian does know Lee pays rent for the house he lives in, but Ian doesn’t know the owner of the house is the trust fund established by an ancestor of Lee’s on his mother’s side as the trust fund owns a lot of property and other assets. Also, Lee is wealthy in his own right and he’s one of the twenty-seven full beneficiaries of the trust receiving a monthly payment as against the distant relatives who only receive an educational support grant. Lee has most of his money invested in his own trust fund.

Lee stands to say, “I’ll accept the work contract on those terms.”

The District Attorney and the judge both agree, so the man writes out a contract with a term stating: ‘contract to be void if the case isn’t ruled in favor of the accused with prejudice.’ The contract is signed and witnessed then shown to the other parties. Mike Kane isn’t happy with the special term because he’d been planning to have the judge make Taylor pay his legal fees instead of making him pay Taylor’s legal fees.

A short discussion between Judge Mann and the District Attorney is followed by the judge saying, “The case has no merit. Randolph Leyland Taylor is innocent of all charges and I rule with prejudice against the complainant. The accused is free to go and the complainant is to pay all of the legal costs of both sides plus the court fees for this case.”

The only person to smile while leaving the court is the man with the work contract. He leads Lee across the road to a café while Ian writes his bill then he hands it to Mike Kane.

A few minutes later Ian Bond is walking out of the court with a check for his services while Kane is writing a check for the court costs. Kane is not happy to be paying the bills, but he is very happy to get Taylor out of the area until after his eldest daughter finishes high school. Thus getting Lee Taylor out of her life, which is Kane’s main aim of the whole affair.

Café Conversation

In the café the man directs Lee to a table well away from anyone else then he holds out his hand as he says, “I’m Bob Ringer.” They shake hands before Bob adds, “I work for a major public trustee which manages the trust which funds the Boyes Educational Facility.”

Lee says, “I’m not happy about having to work at a boys’ home, but I’ll do it because I agreed to do it.”

Bob laughs while he places an order for drinks and sandwiches with the waitress who just arrived. Lee places his order too. Then Bob says, “I think you need to know the full name is The Royce Boyes Educational Facility spelled B O Y E S as it’s the family name. It’s in a rural area with only a few employees at the facility. The staff are expected to stay on-site during the term of their contract. It’s a residential educational facility for a select group of young women from very wealthy families.”

Lee ‘s eyebrows go up as he asks, “Just what will I do there?”

“Many things. The first thing is for you to re-read the contract, and please note you’re employed by the Boyes Trust, not the educational facility itself. Your main duties will be as the General Worker at the educational facility, but you work for the trust and you’ll be tasked with extra duties by the trust. We’ve some concerns about activities at the facility as there have been some reports and rumors we don’t like. So we want you to spy on them for us. We’ll pay you an extra twenty thousand dollars a year to be our spy there.” He hands over a sheet of paper with employment terms for Lee to read. The summary sheet reads:

Employment Terms for the General Worker

a. $125.00 per 8 hour day or part day worked over 4 hours
b. $65.00 per part day worked under 4 hours.
c. 40% bonus for each day of On-call 24 / 7 .
d. 1 week of recreational leave accrued for 12 weeks of work.
e. 1 week of sick leave accrued for every 24 weeks of work.
f. Housing, meals, and work clothing are provided by the employer.

Based on a normal 5 day working week of 8 hours per day over a 48 week working year the annual salary is $30,000.00 plus paid leave. The wages with all of the bonuses are calculated on the full day rate listed above. Unused recreational and sick leave will be paid in full at the end of the employment contract period.

Lee notices the document has a revision date of three months ago.

“Assuming they roster you as twenty-four by seven, which is the plan, that’s just over twelve hundred dollars a week. Over the three full years of work that’s one hundred and fifty six weeks, plus the twelve weeks of accrued but not taken rec leave gives you one hundred and sixty-eight weeks pay of about two hundred thousand dollars for the three years work. Plus the sixty thousand dollars we’ll pay you means you’ll have a damn good pay for just three years of work. Due to how the award is structured you’ll be paying taxes on the base salary without the bonuses. I don’t know how the accountants worked that out with the IRS, but that’s the deal we have with them. As you can see, we also provide the work clothing, food, and housing; so that’s like a lot more money in the bank for you. Oh, the extra pay from us is shown as a bonus.”

“That still doesn’t say what my duties are!”

“You’ll be the general handyman and fix-it person. Which is perfect for a person who tinkers and fixes anything the way you do. If you can fix it you order the parts then you do the work when the parts arrive. If you can’t fix it you let us know then you hire a specialist or tradesman to do the work while you watch them. There’s a yardman who works under you because you’re in charge of all of the maintenance activities, plus there’s a House Manager with two cooks and a cleaner working for her. While the House Manager is in control of the whole facility and can task you with jobs that need doing you’re the one who decides what to do and when to do it for all of the repairs and maintenance work. There’s also provision for another maintenance worker for your unit.” They talk some more while Lee learns what he needs to know for this job. A good thing is they’re hiring Lee several weeks prior to the old contractor leaving.

Lee asks, “How come you’re here looking at me for this work?”

Bob smiles as he says, “One of the main trust board members knew we were looking for someone more skilled than we’ve previously hired and they knew of your wide range of skills and current troubles, so they gave me your info and suggested I attend the court. Most of what we know about you is from the investigation report they gave me on you. I became very interested in hiring you once I saw you were able to do just about everything we may have a need for at the facility.” Bob opens his briefcase, removes a folder, and slides it across the table to Lee.

Lee opens the folder to see a basic investigation report on him. While it does list all of his official education and training plus much of what his father taught him before he died about two years earlier, it doesn’t have a lot of detail on Lee’s financial status while it lists his parents’ names but none of their background. He looks at the letterhead of the firm who did the report, and he recognizes it, which makes him wonder who had them do up the report and why they kept so much of his family background out of the report. The way this reads shows Lee is a multi-skilled worker with only a few actual trade qualification but able to work in most of the trades. It also mentions his current local bank account and rental housing without any mention of the family trust, Lee’s own trust fund, or any of the other assets Lee has. Someone had this report specially trimmed to suit the criteria Bob has for who he wants to hire. Due to what is and isn’t in it Lee is wondering which of his family members on his mother’s side had this report created and given to Bob, and why they did it.

While sliding the report back across the table Lee says, “I see they got most of my skills listed, but they haven’t listed all of them. It’s a good report, but I do wonder who had it put together, and why. However, that isn’t a matter of much relevance right now. So let’s get organized.”

The two discuss the intended work and where Lee is to report for work in two days before they part to go their different ways. They’ll pack up and meet at the trust offices which are few hundred miles from where they are. Due to the terms of the contract Lee sells off or gives away most of the furniture and things he has locally before he ships the rest to his storage unit prior to leaving town.

Preparing for Work

Due to the facility’s rural location the trust has some trouble finding a suitable person to work in Lee’s job and the staff retention rate for his job is low, thus the work by Bob to get a skilled person for the job. The past contracts have been for two years and Lee will be the first to work more than the two years in the job. They don’t have trouble filling the other jobs and their retention rates are very good. Lee finds the discrepancy in filling the jobs to be very odd, but they don’t get around to telling him anything else about the location or the facility until he’s ready to be sent to the site. Before Lee is sent to the facility he’s given some practical tests to establish his level of knowledge and skill for the duties he’s being hired to do. They already know he’s a good general handyman from their checks of his background, and now they learn exactly how skilled he is. He’s a lot more skilled than they thought, and he’s much better than any of their previous employees for this job. However, they do send him to do some short courses for additional skills because this also allows him to get official state qualifications, so it keeps him there longer than planned. Then they train him to do the spy work for them. Part of the extra training time is taken up with the proper testing to have Lee accredited as having the skills to be licensed to do his daily work as the plumber, electrician, building contractor, and maintenance supervisor. This makes Lee’s work management a lot easier while it reduces the need to call in outside workers. This is a cost savings for them, so they also pay him a bonus of a thousand dollars for each of the licenses he proves competent in. Lee likes the testing because it improves his ability to get more work after this contract is over.

The trust orders a lot of the special tools Lee may need for his work. Most of the tools he’ll need are already at the facility, but Lee is able to do extra work they previously hired outside experts to do so they buy the tools for him to do the work. In packing the extra tools they can also include some of the additional gear he needs for their spy work.

All of the extra training and testing delay Lee’s transfer to the site for several weeks. This delay results in Lee not being able to be given an on-site briefing by the person he’s replacing. Thus they get a written report from the leaving worker to give to Lee to read. There’s nothing of new data that’s a real concern in the report. Lee’s contract doesn’t start until he’s on-site ready to work, so they pay Lee five hundred dollars for each week of the training he does before being shipped to the work site.