16 Chapter 16

The rest of the summer was very busy with more installations and repairs. Ed learned a great deal on each job and was excelling in his night course. The year passed quickly and in January Ed graduated from the course at the top of his class. His boss was delighted and had him write the certification exams right away. He passed the State exam and got his Universal Certification which allowed him to work on any level of HVAC systems. Once more his boss was very pleased with his new employee's performance.

There was a sudden cold snap in February of that year and all hands were called in to deal with a surge of furnace repair calls.

Mr. Drakos' daughter Lydia worked the dispatch desk and received a service call requesting Ed specifically. She looked at her father and he noted the address. It was in Silverton Heights, a very posh neighborhood he'd been trying to drum up business in for years. He would have sent a more senior technician but that might upset the customer. He called Ed himself and asked him to be his absolute best on the call as this customer could lead to much more business.

Ed drove the van up to the front door of a familiar mansion. He zipped up his parka and walked around to the back of the van to get his tools. He didn't even have to ring the doorbell as the door opened as he approached it and he stepped inside. The door closed and he turned to see Rachel Thompson wearing a form fitting ski suit and big furry boots. It was very chilly in the house.

"Edward! Thank goodness you're here! The furnace won't come on!" she gasped.

He took off his boots. "Can you show me the thermostat?"

She nodded and led him to a wall display. It was a touch tablet mounted on the wall. He made his way through the menu and turned the temperature up. There didn't appear to be any issues at the thermostat. The furnace wasn't responding to it.

"Where is the furnace?"

Rachel led him through the house to the stairs leading downstairs. He saw the room he'd been exposed in and caught Rachel looking at him with that knowing smile once more. They entered a room for the house's utilities. Ed noted the furnace had no power. He looked at the electrical panel and noted the breaker was flipped for the furnace.

"There shouldn't be anything else on this circuit. Did you notice a power outage? Did a light turn off or some other appliance shut down unexpectedly?" he asked.

Rachel thought for a bit. "The lights inside the garage won't come on," she replied.

"Can I see that?"

Rachel led him to the garage and he smelled ozone and burnt plastic when he entered the open space. He walked over to the far side of the garage and found a melted space heater plugged into a wall socket. He put on his insulated gloves and unplugged the dead heater. He then tested the receptacle and found it was dead.

"Didn't you notice the smell of burning plastic?" he asked the woman.

"Yes, but it's the garage. There are lots of smelly things in here," she said defensively.

Remembering his boss wanted him to be nice to the customer he just nodded. "Luckily the breaker popped so you didn't have a fire."

She looked nervously at the space heater. The melted slag was close to a tarp which showed signs of bad scorching. Ed lifted the corner of the tarp and underneath were a number of plastic gasoline cans. He counted at least eight. He let the tarp drop again and looked over at Rachel.

"Any idea why someone would want to point a space heater at gas cans?" he asked.

Rachel's expression showed fear as she looked at the evidence before her then it switched to a fierce anger.

"That BASTARD!" she raged. She pulled out her phone and dialed 911.

Once the police arrived they took Ed's statement as to what he did and saw when he arrived. They questioned Rachel separately while Ed waited. While this was happening the fire department's inspector was in the garage taking pictures. Once he'd documented the scene he had everything put in bags and taken out as evidence. He used the ladder in the garage to get to the access door to the attic space above the garage and discovered the firewall between the garage and the house had been compromised. He bagged a hatchet he found in the attic over the garage. That space butted up against the master bedroom.

Finally, Ed was given permission to get the furnace back online which was just a matter of resetting the breaker. He tested it and confirmed it was working. The house would be warm again in a number of hours.

He had to get back to the office as they had texted him to come back ASAP as they had more customers to deal with. Rachel paid him with her credit card and signed the work order. She gushed her thanks and he just nodded and smiled.

When Ed arrived at the office his boss greeted him with a huge smile.

"Edward! You did well! I just got off the phone with your customer and she was very pleased! She said she wants you back in the spring to service the air conditioner and said that she will let her friends and neighbors know about our excellent service!"

Ed smiled at the kind words. He nodded to his boss as he took the address for the next customer from Lydia.

Mr. Drakos patted Ed's shoulder as he walked back to his office with a huge grin on his face. He was very pleased with himself for investing in Ed. It looked like it was potentially going to pay off with new business in a lucrative neighborhood.