Celia's Puppies (40 page)

Jill fainted.

Chapter Fifty-One
A very bad day

Friday, November 14 – 4:30 A.M.

“
I’m sorry, Jill. I want
to understand, but I don’t,” Jacob said.

“
Maybe you should try
harder.” Jill turned her back on him to look out the
window.

“
Ok,” Jacob said. He went
to her side so he could see her face. “We picked up our wedding
license the morning of Halloween. We were going to surprise
everyone at the Halloween party. That’s why we were having such a
big party! Then WHAM! All of a sudden, you can’t do it.”

“
Well, I can’t,” Jill
said.

“
There are fifty billion
people around so we can’t talk about it and you haven’t been able
to talk about it since!”

Jill shook her head at him.

“
Did you change your mind?
Do you not want to get married?” Jacob asked. “Or is it that you
don’t want to marry me?”

Jill turned to look at him. Her arms crossed
over her heart. Her face was closed to him. He’d never seen her so
shut down. Her entire manner was one hundred and eighty degrees
from where she had been two weeks ago. Not sure what to do, he
returned to the facts.

“
Claire Martins sent, by
your words, your amazing wedding dress. She even made, again by
your words, an unbelievable dress for Katy. We worked with Delphie
for a month to finalize our vows.”

“
And?”

Jacob clenched his jaw to keep from
screaming at her. Letting out a breath, he attempted another
tack.

“
Do you want to marry me?”
he asked.

Jill’s face flushed. Her eyes echoed with
longing. She nodded.

“
Then...” His eyes asked
the question.

She turned away from him again.

“
Why was it so easy to
marry Trevor?” Jacob immediately regretted the words. Incapable of
stopping himself, he added, “Would you marry me if I beat you?
Belittled you? Cheated on you? Stole your money?”

Jill’s shoulders vibrated with sobs. Unable
to contain his anger, Jacob stalked toward the loft door. Jill ran
after him. He stopped in place when she grabbed his shoulders.
Turning, he saw her exhausted face streaming with tears. His rage
and jealousy vanished in the face of her sorrow.

“
You have to trust me.
Please,” Jill said. “It’s not you. It’s not you. It’s not
you.”

He scooped her up to hold her close.

“
You say all those things…
and I deserve them,” she said between her sobs. “It’s complicated.
I...”

“
You ask me to trust you.
But, Jill, you aren’t trusting me,” he said. “Trust me. Tell me
what’s going on. If you don’t tell me, my mind goes...”

“
But you’re a psychic! Why
don’t you ...”

“
It doesn’t work like
that, Jill,” Jacob said. “No real psychic is any good at predicting
their own future. I’m too invested to be impartial. I want you to
be my wife. I want to grow our family. Any feedback I get is
muddled by my own desires and emotions.”

Jill cried into his shoulder.

“
Jake, we’ve got to go,”
Sam yelled from the door. “It’s snowing.”

“
I’ll be right there,”
Jacob said to Sam. Turning back to Jill, he added, “We’ll talk
tonight?”

Jill nodded. Almost as an after thought, she
pressed something into his hands.

“
I love you, Jacob,” Jill
said.

He kissed her then hurried after Sam. He
stuck the card into his back jeans pocket, grabbed his jacket and
ran to Sam’s idling truck.

“
We have to figure out
whether to close sites or leave them open,” Sam said.

He took off out of the Castle driveway.
Turning right on Colfax, he drove as fast as the traffic would
allow.

“
We have a few sites ahead
of schedule,” Jacob said. “Don’t worry, Dad. We’ll make up the
time.”

“
Time is money, son. Every
day we’re behind is another financial projection we haven’t
met.”

“
It’s like this every
fall,” Jacob said.

“
We account for that,” Sam
said. “We have to meet our projections this fall or...”

Jacob scowled at the snow. Sam’s ‘or’ was
that the board wouldn’t allow him to do what he had spent the last
four years working toward. He shook his head.

“
I have this funny feeling
about today,” Sam said. “Delphie wished me ‘Good luck’ this morning
when I left. THEN she said, ‘This just has to happen.’ Scared the
crap out of me. You don’t have any...”

“
Sorry Dad, I’ve been a
little distracted.”

“
Jill?”

“
Ah fuck Dad, I don’t
know.”

Jacob’s irritation made Sam laugh. Jacob
turned on the radio to listen to the weather forecast. They drove
in silence toward the Lipson construction corporate office off of
Kalamath and Third Ave. At the office, they were greeted at the
door by a sweating, pale Blane.

“
I have the weather
projections for every site,” Blane said. “We’ll need to close these
three at least – County Line, Golden, and Louisville.”

“
We can’t close Golden,”
Sam said. “We’re four days behind there.”

“
No choice,” Blane said.
“It’s dumping snow.”

“
Fuck,” Sam
said.

Jacob touched Sam’s shoulder. They continued
their way into Jacob’s office for their morning check-in.

“
Just a second,” Blane
said. He ran into the single toilet restroom.

“
How long has he been like
that?” Jacob asked Aden.

“
All morning. He’s in the
middle of the ribiviron treatment. Heather says it’s expected.
But...”

Blane looked even worse when he came out of
the bathroom.

“
You have to go home,”
Jacob said.

“
You need me here,” Blane
said. “We have to keep this company on target or we won’t be able
to sell! We’re already behind and...”

Blane’s anxious words reflected the mood of
the entire office. Jacob noticed that the lights were on in every
office. The doom laden snow brought every corporate employee to
work early this morning.

“
Go home,” Jacob
said.

Blane sagged. Jacob grabbed him before he
hit the floor. Aden took his other arm. Together they negotiated
him into an arm chair in Jacob’s office.

“
I’ll call Heather,” Aden
said as left the office.

“
Don’t call her!” Blane
protested. “I’ll be fine!”

“
Just rest,” Jacob said.
“We really need you well.”

“
Hey Jake!” Jacob’s
company phone squawked. “It’s Honey. I’ve got some bad
news.”

“
What’s up?” Jacob picked
up the phone.

“
I don’t have any idea
what happened.”

“
What do you mean?” Jacob
asked.

“
Our trench shoring’s
slipped over night,” Honey said. “Bambi’s in the trench now trying
to assess the damage.”

“
How does trench shoring
slip?” Jacob’s voice rose with frustration.

“
Don’t yell at me, Jacob
Marlowe. I am just the messenger,” Honey said. “You need to take a
few breaths there, bro.”

Jacob let out a breath. His loud question
drew the corporate employees from their office. They were gathering
outside his office. He closed his door in their faces. Aden came in
the door as soon as he closed it. Jacob nodded to Aden then turned
his back to the door.

“
Ok, I’m calm,” Jacob
said. “How did that happen?”

“
We don’t know,” Honey
said. “We’re sending the overnight tape in to you now. We’ve been
trying to make up the week we’re behind. Everyone’s been working
fast and long hours. I think it’s some combination of the trenches
not set right and the snow.”

“
How long will it take to
fix them?” Jacob asked.

“
We’ll need a couple days,
Jake. Do you want to talk to Bambi?”

“
That’s all right. Did it
crush any pipe?”

“
No,” Honey said. “We dug
the trench and set the shoring last night. We haven’t laid pipe in
this section yet.”

“
No one was hurt?” Sam
said.

Surprised, Jake looked up at his father’s
voice. Sam had let himself into Jacob’s office.

“
Was anyone hurt?” Jacob
asked.

“
No. It was like this when
we got here,” Honey said. “Just so you know, our guys think it’s
sabotage.”

“
Paranoia always reins
supreme,” Jacob said. “Thanks Honey. You’ll let me
know?”

“
I will,” Honey
said.

Turning back to the office, he shook his
head at Aden, Sam and Blane.

“
Did you close the sites
for snow?” Jacob asked Sam.

“
I did,” Sam
said.

“
This is number four,”
Jacob said. “We can catch up tomorrow or the next day. But this
site’s out for a week. They think it’s sabotage.”

“
Fuck,” Blane said. His
forehead rested on his hand. “I can review the tapes.”

“
After you rest,” Sam
said.

“
Hey Jake,” the box on
Jacob’s desk squawked again. A man’s voice repeated, “Jake? Are you
there?”

“
Yeah, Jerry, I’m here,”
Jacob said. “What’s up?”

“
Our guys uncovered some
remains yesterday afternoon,” Jerry said. “They didn’t tell me
because they didn’t want to delay the site.”

“
HOLY FUCK,
Jerry!”

“
I know,” he said. “It
looks to me like it’s an entire dwelling. Either early settler but
probably some kind of Native thing. I saw it this morning when I
walked the site.”

“
Have they laid pipe over
it?” Jacob asked.

“
Yes,” Jerry said. “But
not much. We can pull it. Easy.”

“
What happened?” Sam
asked.

“
Native dwelling at the
sewer site out East,” Jacob said.

“
Holy fuck is right,” Aden
said. “What the hell is going on?”

Jacob held up his hand for the men to be
silent.

“
Did you make the call,
Jerry?” Jacob asked.

“
No, the men wanted me to
call you first,” Jerry said. “Now I know that we’re real concerned
about meeting our goals, but Jacob Marlowe, Lipson’s never ever
constructed over a grave. Your mother would have a fit. You cannot
ask me to...”

“
Okay, Jerry. Okay,” Jacob
said. “You’re right. We’re not going to become something we’re
not.”

“
I don’t want to buy a
company...”

“
OKAY,” Jacob
said.

“
Okay?”

“
Close the site. Call the
local cops and we’ll call the museum. I’ll contact the
owner.”

“
Fine. That’s
fine.”

Jerry ended the call.

“
How many is that?” Sam
asked.

“
Three closed for snow.
Honey’s site closed because of the trench shoring. Now this,” Aden
said. “That’s five.”

“
We’re never going to...”
Blane said.

Blane clutched his stomach. Sam got Jacob’s
trash can under him seconds before he threw up. Blane missed the
trash can.

“
My office?” Aden
asked.

“
Oh God, I’m so sorry. Oh
my God,” Blane threw up into the trash can.

“
Listen, I know this seems
really tough,” Sam said. “But we’ve been through tough times
before. We can’t let this get us down.”

“
Hey Jake,” Jacob’s phone
squawked. Jacob looked at the phone debating whether to answer. Sam
grabbed the phone from him.

“
Hey Georgia, I’m going to
leave you on speaker,” Sam said. “What’s up?”

“
Remember how we turned
the water on at Steele Street yesterday?”

“
Yeah,” Jacob
said.

“
Well, we blew a clay pipe
in Country Club.”

“
Where?” Jacob
asked.

“
Circle Drive,” Georgia
said.

“
Oh fuck,” Aden
said.

“
These rich folks are
pissed off, Jake,” Georgia said. “Tony’d be here to tell you but
they are screaming at him. Here...”

The sound of a homeowner screaming at Tony,
the site manager, came through the phone.

“
Pissed off,” Georgia
said. “What assholes.”

“
Did you turn off the
water?” Sam asked.

“
Yep,” Georgia said. “Just
made them madder. At least one homeowner is talking about suing.
But it’s not our fault their pipes are ancient. Like a hundred
years old.”

“
Thanks Georgia,” Jacob
said.

“
Tony’d like it if Sam
came out,” Georgia said.

“
We’re not quite sure what
we’re going to do today,” Jacob said. “But we’ll get back with
you.”

“
Thanks Jake,” Georgia
said. “You know Tony’s just sick about this. We were on time and on
budget. If we have to fix this? And for free? We’re going to take
the whole company down.”