He would sigh and drop it. Or so she believed.
Confronting Dereck in the Terminal
Back at the airport, Sheila asked Dereck why her father’s measuring tape was in his drawer. His fingers went still in her hand.
He tried to play dumb at first. When she asked him plainly whether he had sold her dad’s workshop tools, he lowered his voice and called it complicated. He said he had planned to explain everything after the trip.
Sheila stepped away from him. He glanced around, warned that people were staring, and dismissed the whole thing as a fuss over some old tools.
She told him not to call them that. When he said they were going to miss their flight, she answered that they would simply have to miss it.
They left the airport separately. Sheila took a taxi home, while Dereck followed later in their car with the luggage.
Racing Against an 11 A.M. Deadline
Vivienne hugged her daughter in the kitchen before saying a word. Then she laid the receipt on the table.
It covered almost everything. The table saw. The workbench her father had built with his own hands. His cabinets, and the hand tools he had gathered over forty years.
The clock read 8:42. The buyer was due in a little over two hours.
On the back of the receipt was a short handwritten note saying small items had already been removed. Sheila had no idea what that meant, and the not knowing frightened her most.
At the storage facility, the manager recognized her. She showed him her ID, the rental account, and the receipt, and explained that she had never agreed to any sale.
The manager checked the records. Because the unit was rented in Sheila’s name, he explained, Dereck having access didn’t prove he owned what was inside. He put the collection on hold and called the buyer.
The buyer was surprised to hear about the dispute. He said he had paid the husband, but he agreed not to collect anything and asked for Dereck’s number. The manager also removed Dereck’s access to the unit.
For the moment, at least, her dad’s workshop tools were going nowhere.
What Was Already Missing
Inside the unit, the scent of wood dust, old cardboard, and her father’s furniture polish hit Sheila all at once. His workbench stood against the back wall, and his blue toolbox sat where she had left it.
But there were gaps on the shelves. The smaller tool chest was gone. So were his hand planes and the wooden box where he kept his measuring tools.
Someone had already started stripping away pieces of her dad’s workshop tools, and Sheila knew exactly who.
Dereck pulled into the parking lot about twenty minutes later. He was upset that she had stopped the release and told her the buyer had already paid.
Sheila said he would just have to return the money. When he claimed it wasn’t that simple, she asked why not. He had no real answer.
