Lost in Tennessee (27 page)

She kissed his neck. “Care to make it interesting?”

“You go first.”

“I spent most of the day in mind-numbing sessions about interesting topics presented by middle-aged white guys who were as entertaining as toast. I got to lunch late, so all the seats were taken, and got to have my own private picnic on a square of sidewalk. In the exhibition hall, vendors ignored me to kiss up to zit-faced twenty-somethings with business cards. That wasn’t really bad, because if they realized the kind of capital I could swing, they’d have been on me like flies on shit. Day ended with being stood up by the one vendor I wanted to see. We were supposed to have dinner but he never showed. No call. No email. Nada. I ate dinner pathetically alone. Your turn.”

“I started the day visiting Angie’s mother. Her living room is filled with the wilting flowers from the funeral. From there I went to see the divorce attorneys. I know I over pay them because of how many teeth they show when they see me. They’re just way too happy. Then I went to rehearsal, where I played like I was in a middle school band. Went to the bar with Jeb, Tom, and Hyde, where I found out my first wife lied about the baby being mine, and my brother has been removed from the case.”

“Shit. You win.”

“I’m not done. Finch called to say Fawn is missing.”

“I suppose it’s too much to hope she went back to California. Well, you definitely win.” She stripped off her shirt. “Ready for your prize?”

“Oh, I love your idea of interesting,” he said, taking her to the floor.

K
ate ran down the stairs, the steps thundering and squeaking under her feet. Due to a hard rain, she’d taken Wednesday off to spend with Butch, and she was itching to get back to work. She landed in the kitchen, disappointment saddening her face. “Crap. It’s only you.”

Butch raised an eyebrow. “That’s not what you were saying last night.”

“Damn it. Tom’s left. I wanted to get a ride. I don’t like taking the Shelby on site. Too much debris.” She sat on a chair and pulled socks onto her bare feet.

“Wasn’t Hyde supposed to have your truck back yesterday?”

“Yeah but there was some wreck and he had to bump me. He’s supposed to be done today and I hope he is. We’re pouring one of the partially exposed walls, and I’d like to get around in my own truck.” She sighed heavily.

That bad boy smile grew across Butch’s face. “I could be persuaded to drive you.”

Kate loved that expression of his. Good things always followed. “Persuade, huh. I suppose you have ideas.”

He wiggled his eyebrows. “Many ideas. Make sure you eat today, you’re going to need your energy.”

She tied her boots, her body tingling with anticipation. “Rest up, muscles. You’re going to need
your
energy.”

Minutes later, Kate checked out the sky from Butch’s passenger seat. Above the rolling green hills, gray clouds thickened. They were set to pour a critical wall today. It had been scheduled for yesterday, but an all-day rain nixed that plan. Today the forecast called for overcast skies. The sky above them looked like it planned to do more than just be cloudy. “Just a few hours, then you can do your worst.”

“If it rains again, come on home, and I’ll teach you a game. It’s called ‘Hay Rollin’.’” Butch turned into the entrance.

“How do you play?”

Butch kept his eyes on the road and his face straight. “We find a stack of hay and roll around. First one to get naked wins. There’s Hyde.”

Butch parked next to the white truck Kate used day-in, day-out. Pick-up trucks and the occasional sedan pulled on site as workers reported for the day. Hyde stood behind Kate’s truck, watching the comings and goings.

Kate slammed her door and rounded the back of the truck. “Hey, Hyde. Thanks for bringing her home. Anything I should know about?”

Hyde hooked his thumbs in his pockets. “Not mechanically. She’s tip top.”

Butch put a foot on the truck’s bumper, resting his forearm on his knee. “What about non-mechanically?”

Hyde squirmed, shuffling his thick paws on the dirt. “It’s gonna sound crazy, but I think someone moved your truck. I put her in an empty bay to lock it up ’cause of all the small tools you keep in it. No point inviting foolishness. When I pulled her out this morning, she was nose in. I swear I backed her in.”

Kate rounded on the truck and threw the door open. “Is anything missing?”

Hyde followed her around, Butch with him. “Not that I can see. You keep a neat truck, so I thought you might be able to tell.”

She climbed in, searching the center storage area, glove box, and rear seat. Everything she could think of, she found where it should be. “Huh. That is weird.”

Hyde pulled his ball cap off and ran a hand through his hair. “Maybe I’m just imaginin’.”

Butch tipped his own hat as another worker waved in greeting. “Nothing wrong with imagining. I make good money at it. Need a ride back to the garage?”

“Yep. Little Red, I did a standard service for your, Tom’s, and Waters’s trucks. Tom’s will need brakes next go around. Otherwise, you’re good to go. Here’s your bill.”

Kate gave him a warning glare as she took the paper. If he undercharged her, she would have to get creative. She read over the parts costs, the labor hours, and the rate. “Looks fair. We’ll get it processed. Thanks.”

An hour and a half later, Kate got the call she’d been waiting for. Waters and Tom were ready to pour the concrete wall. Her truck bounced across the yard, racing against dark gray clouds.

Kate parked a truck length from the edge of the dig. This end of the building would be the crowning glory. The Cicada Headquarters would house the corporate staff, but it would also be a center for manufacturing and shipping. Much of the square footage was exactly that—square. Not here. A dramatic, double-story, open space with nearly a third of it receded into the earth, this part of the building looked like a super-sized version of a walkout basement. However, the skylights and glass-beaded concrete would make it a museum-quality gallery.

Today her crew poured the second level of the outer wall. The form work had been set for days, waiting for the weather to cooperate. Kate could have been pressing her luck pouring today, but waiting for perfect condition would kill a schedule.

Kate slid out of the truck and balanced three cups of coffee as she shut the door. Waters stood at the near end, watching over the progress. Over three feet wide, the form work started ten feet below ground and ended two feet above. Work today would be done from top-side. That’s where the party was. Large beige tarps had been draped over the forms as protection from prior rains. The last section of the wall sat open to the sky, waiting on concrete from the truck that maneuvered into position.

Kate handed Waters the steamy cup of coffee. “Here you go, chief. It’ll put a spring in your step.” Kate rocked back and forth on her heels, curbing anticipation as she watched the men mill about. “You double checked the line, right? I thought you were ready to pour.”

“You have no patience, Kate. You never have. Concrete is an art. You don’t rush art.”

Kate wrinkled her nose with faux disdain. “You’re slow. You’re so slow, you’d get trampled in a turtle stampede.”

Waters raised an eyebrow to her. “I can still pull you over my knee.”

“Why don’t you pour the concrete instead? At least you have a chance of coming out on the winning end of that job.”

Waters rubbed his weathered hand over his shadowed jaw. “You always did have a fast mouth.” He raised his voice to be heard down the length of the wall. “All right, boys. The boss lady wants us to get going.”

Kate kicked mud at Waters. “I hate when you call me that.”

“I know.” Waters grinned like a bear with a fish. “Why are you in such a good mood anyway?”

“I love this part. It’s the point where my imagination becomes real. I worked hard on this. You, Tom, the crew. I couldn’t ask for a better team. Look at the columns. They’re beautiful. The wall’s going to be the same. I know it.”

“The mix is a pain in the ass to work with. It sets instantly. There’s no time for second chances. Let me get over there.” Waters took charge of the crew, directing laborers and drivers into final position. The turning drum on the concrete truck kicked into another gear and, moments later, a crystalline concoction slid down the chute and into the form. Three pairs of hands worked fast to move the quick-setting concrete into position. Tom personally vibrated down the concrete so no air pockets would mar the sparkling wall.

Waters shouted for the tarp to be stripped from the next section as the wind kicked up. He looked to the sky and then over his shoulder at Kate. He shook his head.

“Come on. Hold off.” Kate measured the darkness in the clouds. “You’re not even supposed to be here.” Her crew worked fast, moving down the line, closer to where she waited at the starting point of the wall.

A few taunting drops fell, so few Kate could count them. Under Waters’s orchestration, the crew moved as a single unit. They had taken that rain cloud as a personal challenge, determined to beat Mother Nature at her own game.

Kate stepped back, giving the crew the room it needed to remove the last section of tarp. She saw it, thirty seconds after the men peeling the tarp did. She fumbled for her phone, shouting at her crew while the call went through. “Jeb. We need you here. Bring an ambulance.”

Chapter Fourteen

L
ightning cracked, whipping across the boiling sky. Thunder like a herd of elephants announced the opening of the heavens. Cold, heavy rain fell to the earth. First as a drop here and there, then in sheets so thick Kate lost sight of the men working next to her.

All hands scurried in the rain, draping the enormous tarps back over the forms to keep the rain off of the work. Sirens competed for air space as four vehicles sped to the site. Jeb led the pack in his sheriff’s truck. Butch brought up the rear. A gust of wind pillowed the tarp and pulled Kate toward the hole. Her legs dug in uselessly as the earth turned to mud and gave way under her weight.

Butch jumped from the truck and fought to her side. Self-preservation kicked in, and Kate let go of the tarp. She flailed her arms, trying to gain her balance as the mud under her feet moved. Butch pulled her against him, turning as the tarp lashed his back.

“We have to get the form covered,” Kate shouted over the wind.

Jeb, Butch, and the deputies worked with Kate’s crew to pin the tarp and weigh it down. Not soon enough, the storm lessened, passing on. It slowed to a steady rain but left everyone covered in mud, the sheriff’s men included.

Jeb left two men at the scene and shepherded everyone else into the trailer conference area. There hadn’t been time for questions when they arrived. With things now under some semblance of control, Jeb took the lead. “What the hell is going on?”

Waters drew a muddy towel down his face. “There’s a body in the wall. A woman. We found her when we pulled the tarp off.”

Jeb took a deep breath. “Did you recognize her?”

Waters shook his head. “She’s head down. Can’t see her face. She has blond hair. A lot of it.”

Kate rested her hand on Waters’s shoulder. “We didn’t know what to do when it started pouring. We tried to cover everything with the tarps to keep it dry.”

With the rain down to a drizzle, Jeb walked out to the site with his men, Kate, Tom, Butch, and Waters. Tom and Waters pulled back the tarp, sheeting any trapped water into the hole behind it. A woman had been stuffed into the wall. She was stuck sideways between the pale green rods that lined the front and back of the form. Somebody went to some effort to get her in there, as she wouldn’t have gotten down that far on her own.

“We didn’t see her until we pulled back the tarp.” Waters explained about the rain and the process. “The concrete flowed ahead of where we worked. It looks like part of her is in, part of her is out of it.”

Jeb stood on the forms, shining a flashlight below. “When did you cover it?”

“Originally? Tuesday morning. We just opened it up today as we went along.”

Jeb looked at his deputy. “Get the kit. Everyone out. Now. Back to the trailer.”

Kate did as Jeb said when she would rather have been out with his men. Out there, she could have been useful. Here, she paced like a caged animal, running from questions she didn’t have the answers to. “Just let me think,” she barked at the voices in her head. She clapped her hands sharply, pulling all eyes to her. “This is what we’re going to do. First, everyone give the sheriff full access. I know no one on this site had anything to do with that woman’s death, so we have nothing to be worried about. Second, everyone will receive full pay for today. Tomorrow, we’ll shift work around to other areas. Tom and I will deal with the investigators and inspections. We’ve had a good safety record so far, but we’re going to have to be perfect now. No short cuts. You see any, you tell Waters, Tom, or me.”

Tom curled around a cup of coffee. “Kate, Jeb could shut the site down for a while.”

“We’ll deal with that if and when it happens. This is a Riley project. We take care of ours. Hell, we can send them to Butch’s to start on the house.”

The men and women around the table, many wet to the bone, had been still since they sat. Paula played hostess, scavenged supplies of towels and rags, coffee and water, hugs and pats. Kate noticed some stirred as shock wore off. Thinking, planning, talking helped everyone’s sanity.

“Who could it be?” a laborer asked. “How could she have gotten in there?”

“How are we going to get her out?” Waters asked. “She’s half embedded in concrete. We take those forms down now, and we’ll have her and hundreds of pounds of concrete in the basement. It might be fast setting concrete, but not that fast. I’m thinking we’ll have to wait until it hardens and jackhammer her out.”

“I’ve never jackhammered a body out of concrete,” the laborer said. “This is Tennessee, not New Jersey.”

“I’m going to do it,” Tom said. “We’ll see if Jeb will let us out there. We can drive some sort of dam in at the joints and take apart just the last panel of the form. From there, we’ll take it in layers. Everything stays tied off. Belt and suspenders. Nobody else gets hurt. Butch, is there a doctor in town who could work with me?”