Taken: Day 14

Word Count: 84,141

Summary of Events:

After accompanying Dolly for all of her auditions, Mitchell and Dolly went to visit Walton at the bar and discovered Kelly there looking in much better shape than before; Mitchell learned Kelly was now a milkman, and Kelly also offered to help Mitchell learn more about Marion Edgar when Mitchell expressed discouragement at his lack of progress. Mitchell was working as an extra body in the removal of part of a ship's propellor that'd broken when the crane lifting the part fell into the dry dock; somewhat reflexively Mitchell took control of the situation before Marion Edgar himself and the yard foreman arrived . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

“What all happened here?” Marion demanded, his voice clear and sounding rather refined.

Mitchell held out the notebook open to the first page, all of which were marked by bloody fingerprints from his hands and grimy fingerprints from other men.

“A report in duplicate and all witness statements,” Mitchell replied.

“And who are you?” Marion inquired, looking rather disdainful.

“Parker Newton, sir,” Mitchell replied. “Pardon the mess, I had to use something to stop the bleeding before the medics arrived.”

“Why didn’t someone call me?” Grover demanded. “All of the sudden I hear an ambulance and I see it leaving!”

“I’m sorry sir,” Mitchell said. “I was down in the dry dock, I don’t know that there’s a telephone down there or I would’ve made sure someone called.”

“And who put you in charge?” Marion inquired sternly.

“Well, I just took charge, sir,” Mitchell replied. “I knew the crane operator would’ve died if I didn’t act and no one else was moving, so I moved.”

Marion looked at the notebook carefully, holding it with his fingertips as he read and turned the pages.

Grover looked at the pages intently as he stood beside Marion.

Mitchell felt uncomfortable, hoping that no one would be upset at him for what he’d done, seeing as he’d sort of ended up going back to England. After all the events were rather similar to when one of his comrades’ engines had died and he ended up crashing his plane into a stand of trees.

He’d escaped in better shape than the crane operator, but in that situation Mitchell had similarly just taken control and led the charge to not only extricate his comrade, but clean up the wreckage entirely and have the plane deconstructed into parts that could be selvaged for other uses and parts that were so ruined all they could be used for was melting down and remaking.

“Rather comprehensive,” Marion said. “Have you dealt with accidents before?”

“Yes sir,” Mitchell replied. “A friend of mine was in an accident a couple years ago, less severe, but still, I ended up organising the efforts to get him to a hospital and clean up the mess.”

“How long have you been with us?” Marion asked.

“A month sir,” Mitchell replied.

“He’s the mechanic in replacement of Palmer Tellier,” Grover said.

“Then what was he doing in the dry dock?” Marion asked.

“We don’t have enough mechanic work to keep him busy,” Grover replied. “So we send him to do odd jobs where we need an extra body.”

“Raise him to six months wage,” Marion said. “That sort of valour cannot go without reward.”

Mitchell startled. A raise? Just like that? At least he wasn’t in trouble.