Page 37 of The Tycoon

“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.

“Got it.”Regan stood and eased her phone from her pants pocket and dialed Mason.“Mason, I have a job for you.”She walked into the hall.“I want you to get me everything on Jerry Sykes.I want you to go all the way back to his birth.I know we didn’t do a deep dive on him before.That’s my mistake.But somewhere in there is a reason for him to want Cole dead.”

“Any other reason?”

She paced in the hallway.“Yes, he’s the one who caused the spill at Platform A-063.Cole and I flew in here today.We’ll be flying out tomorrow and probably returning to Denver tomorrow, as well.”

“You got it.I should have all the information by the time you return.”

“Thanks.”She hit the red button and ended the call before Mason could ask any more questions.Now was not the time to be thinking about her relationship with Cole…or perhaps the relationship she wanted with Cole.She was afraid he only saw her as his bodyguard, especially after the way she’d handled the perpetrator of his attempted murder.Would he always see her as the bodyguard?Isn’t that what she was supposed to want?Why did she have to go and fall in love with her employer?

Dave returnedto the conference room.“Here are the files on Sykes and those employees we have detained.”

Cole shook his head.“They are not detained.They can leave whenever they want, but I want to talk to them first.”

He nodded.“I’ll have them brought up one by one.”

“How many are there?”

“Just two,” replied Dave.

“All right bring the first one here.”

A while later, a man in his thirties entered the room, followed closely by Dave.

“Have a seat Eric,” said Dave.“Cole Kincaid, this is Eric Franklin.He was on duty the night the spill was discovered.”

“Hi Eric.What can you tell me about that night?”asked Cole.

“Well, Mr.Kincaid.I started my shift like normal.I was in the monitor room when I checked the monitors for the well.We’re closing it down and yet, it was still pumping, which wasn’t right.Then I checked the CCTV feed and saw the oil pumping into the ocean.I shut everything down so the pumps would stop.”

Cole nodded.“And did they?Stop I mean?”

“Yes, sir, but we still had a spill,” said Eric.

“Okay, what happened next?”asked Cole.

Regan listened and made notes on her tablet.She tried to follow along and got Eric’s name, as well as some of the conversation.She watched Eric for signs of guilt and saw none.The man appeared to be completely truthful.

Eric fisted and unfisted his hands.“I sounded the alarm.I needed everyone working on this if we were going to get the spill contained.”

“Did everyone respond?”asked Cole.

Eric nodded.“As far as I could tell.”