He Sent the Helicopter for Her Dog, So I Took Back My Wings novel · Chapter 17 of 24

Chapter 17: The Note

The federal agent stood at the hangar door in a gray raincoat with a clipboard under his arm.

He was polite and he looked tired.

"Mr. Dolan?" he said. "I'm an inspector with the Flight Standards office. I'm here on a complaint."

"Whose complaint?" Hank said.

"Sutton Aviation, filed through its vice president of flight operations. It alleges that Dolan Air Rescue is flying under-maintained aircraft and that a Sutton pilot, Mr. Donovan, is working for you while under company investigation."

Bruce stepped out of the shadows with his hands open.

"I'm Donovan."

"Mr. Donovan, the complaint also asks me to review your medical certificate for a fitness question."

"Fitness," Bruce said.

"A psychiatric flag. I'm required to look at it. I'm sorry."

I felt the whole hangar go cold.

"There's no flag," Bruce said. "I passed in March."

"Then it'll clear. But until it does, I can't let you fly. And until I've inspected both aircraft and the records, they stay on the ground."

"How long?" Hank asked.

"Seventy-two hours. Maybe less if your logs are clean."

"My logs are clean," Hank said, "because I do them every night with a pencil."

The inspector almost smiled.

He looked at his clipboard and frowned.

"The filing time on this complaint is 5:52 this morning," he said. "Mr. Donovan, when were you placed on leave?"

"Nine o'clock. On television. I resigned by text the night I left, and they never wrote back."

"So the company accused you before it suspended you."

"Yes, sir."

He made a note.

"I'll put that in my report," he said. "I'd put it in yours, too, if I were you."

He went to work, with Hank walking beside him holding a flashlight.

Bruce leaned against a post with his arms folded, staring at the grounded Bell 407.

I took his arm.

He let me, after everything I had thrown at him on the helipad.

"It's her," I said.

"I know."

"She's hitting everything you love."

"She's hitting what you love," he said. "I'm only the nearest thing."

Outside, a van pulled up, and then another.

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