Celia's Puppies (43 page)

Lost in their own thoughts, Steve, Candy and
Megan fell silent.

“
Mom works at the Marlowe
School,” Mike said.

They all began talking again.

“
SHUT UP!” Megan yelled.
“God!”

Steve nodded. Candy stood.

“
Where are you going?”
Mike asked.

“
I want my mom,” Candy
said. “You said she was at the Marlowe school. I’m going to see my
Mom.”

“
Actually, she’s outside.
Waiting. For us.”

“
She works at the Marlowe
school?” Megan asked.

“
Jake hired her when they
needed more people. She started right after Katy and your kids
started going there. She speaks five languages and kids love her,”
Mike said. “She came because she wanted to know her grandchildren.
Ryan knows who she is. He’s kept her secret.”

“
Why is it safe for her
now?” Steve asked.

“
Because of me and Val,”
Mike said. “There was a conversation, and an agreement to leave us
alone.”

“
Us?” Megan
asked.

“
You, me, Candy, Steve,
Jill and our kids,” Mike said. “We don’t know anything about any
money. Do we?”

Everyone shook their heads. Candy walked to
the door.

“
Wait,” Mike said. “Mom’s
had some work done. You might not recognize…”

Candy ran out the door and into her mother’s
arms. Crying, laughing, kissing and hugging, Steve, Megan and Candy
met their mother for the first time in fifteen years.

Chapter Fifty-Three
Don’t mess with the master

An hour later

Blane lay on the bed with his head in
Heather’s lap. He liked communing with the baby. Now that he was so
sick, he liked her warm comfort. Plus, he hadn’t thrown up in
almost two hours. A major accomplishment, he thought.

“
Ok,” Heather said. She
had been reviewing the site tapes on his laptop. “Here’s the part I
think you should look at. We looked at last night,
right?”

“
Yeah,” Blane said.
“Nothing.”

“
What’s weird is that Aden
and Bambi found concrete under the shoring,” Heather said. “I
reviewed all of yesterday.”

“
When did you do that?”
Blane asked. He rolled on his side to look at the
computer.

“
While you were asleep,”
Heather said.

“
I wasn’t sleeping,” Blane
said.

“
Uh huh,” Heather said.
“You forgot what you’re SUPPOSED to say.”

“
Yes, wifey,” Blane
said.

They laughed.

“
Watch the timestamp,”
Heather said.

“
You’re going too
fast.”

“
Ok, slow boy,” Heather
slowed down the fast forward. “Right here. See this
guy?”

They watched the left head light of a rusted
out Jeep Cherokee pull up. The bright white work lights created a
line of light and shadow. At four-fifty, it was pitch dark except
directly under the blazing lights.

A man wearing coveralls and a battered coat
came into view. He looked one way, then the other. Moving fast, he
ran out of view. He returned with open cans of paint, which he
poured into the trench. He ran out of sight and returned with two
more rusted cans.

“
That’s weird,” Blane
said. “What time was that?”

“
Four fifty-three. He’s
using the site to dump some kind of industrial waste,” Heather
said. “Probably figures it’s safe.”

“
Where are our
guys?”

“
I doubt they could see
him in the dark with just the spotlights,” Heather said.

“
They shouldn’t have been
working when it was so dark.”

“
Trying to catch up,”
Heather said. “Check out this camera.”

The black and white video showed a man
running up to the trench with three or four half filled bags of
concrete. He looked up as if he saw something. An excavator roared
in the background. The man ran to his Cherokee and took off.

The entire thing lasted less than two
minutes.

“
Look here,” Heather
said.

Blane sat up to see what she was pointing
at. Her finger showed the concrete falling in a neat pile along the
edge of the trench. Heather clicked to another camera and they saw
a cloud of white powder drop against another edge of the
trench.

“
Is that enough to do it?”
Heather asked.

“
Not in normal
circumstances,” Blane said. “I mean, we’ll have to have Jake and
Sam look at this. You’ve got two piles of concrete in two areas.
Our guys are working fast and in the dark. Yeah, that might do
it.”

“
What do you
do?”

“
Beside worship the
wifey?” Blane laughed.

“
That’s a given,” Heather
said.

“
We call Jake and Sam,”
Blane said. “After they see this, we call the police.”

“
Do you think someone did
it on purpose?”

“
It’s certainly
intentional. This guy didn’t accidentally spill all of this junk
into the trench,” Blane said. “But it’s not sabotage.”

“
That’s good news,”
Heather said.

“
Very good news,” Blane
said. “Thanks. You’re awesome.”

“
Eh, what’s a wife
for?”

“
Screwing?”

“
Yeah? You don’t know many
married men.”

“
Hey, if I was married to
Ashton Kutcher, I’d screw him regularly!”

“
But would you call him
‘wifey’?” Heather laughed.

“
Good point,” Blane said.
“Thanks Heather. This is fabulous. We’ve got the license plate
number and everything. We can give it all to the
police.”

“
I’m glad I could
help.”

Blane lay back down on her lap.

“
I’d screw Ashton Kutcher
regularly too,” Heather said.

Blane laughed.

~~~~~~~~

Tres Sierra, the CFO, rubbed his face to
keep from crying. He had contacted every bank and banker in Denver.
All he learned was that their bank was well within their rights to
call the debt. In fact, he heard banks were doing it to everyone,
then charging huge fees to keep what little available credit
flowing.

Fuckers. His mind flashed through images of
firebombing their bank.

“
Hey,” a man stuck his
head in the controller’s office. “I came to see Jake, but... Where
is everyone?”

“
Working,” Tres’s
firebombing rage spilled over into his demeanor.

“
Don’t want to interrupt
work,” the man said. “I wanted to drop off the Avs tickets for
Jake. Does he really have a girlfriend?”

“
Avs tickets?”

“
We share season tickets
for the Avalanche. Hockey? He takes half. I think he goes with
Mike, but I heard he has a girlfriend.”

“
He shares tickets with a
venture capitalist friend of his Mom’s?” Tres said.

“
Celia was more than a
friend to me. She saved my life,” the man said.

“
You probably feel like
you’re in her debt,” the CFO said.

“
In her debt? I owe her
everything. She even gave me the loan to start my
business.”

“
Venture capitalists loan
money to companies.”

“
Sort of,” the man said.
“Listen, maybe I should...”

“
I have a crazy question,”
Tres said. “Would you secure some debt for us?”

“
Us?”

“
Lipson
Construction.”

“
What are you talking
about?”

Tres laughed.

~~~~~~~~

Friday afternoon — 3:30 P.M.

Smiley Middle School

“
Who’s that?” the new boy
pushed Nash Norsen’s shoulder.

“
My friend, Sandy,” Nash
said. He waved to Sandy, who waved back.

“
She looks like a
hooker.”

“
Yeah, like you know what
a hooker looks like. I think she’s beautiful,” Nash’s best friend
Tommy said. “Hey Sandy.”

Sandy waved to Tommy.

“
Shut up, she’s my Dad’s
girlfriend,” Nash said.

He ran down the steps to where Sandy and
Noelle waited for him. He hugged Sandy. She put her arm around his
shoulder as they walked to Aden’s car.

“
Where’s Dad?” Nash
asked.

“
There’s been a MAJOR
problem at work, Nash,” Noelle said. “We’re going with Sandy to her
work.”

“
What happened?” Nash
asked.

“
I think it’s more like
what didn’t happen,” Sandy said. “Are you okay to come with me? I
was going to cut your hair in between. You can stay with me
tonight.”

“
Did your shop ever fix
their website?”

“
No,” Sandy said. “Could
you…?”

“
Not a problem.” Nash
stood a little taller with the idea that he might actually be able
to help.

“
Are you hungry? Your Dad
packed some snacks for you, but I thought we could order a
pizza.”

“
PIZZA!” Noelle
said.

“
Front seat!” Nash yelled
then ran to the car.

“
You always get the front
seat...” Noelle ran after him.

Shaking her head, Sandy walked past a man
coming to pick up his son. He looked at Sandy, then did a double
take. Embarrassed, Sandy put on her sunglasses and ran to catch up
with the kids.

~~~~~~~~

Friday afternoon — 4:30 P.M.
Bambi’s water and sewer site

“
Don’t mess with the
master!” Valerie yelled from on top of an excavator.

The crowd of Lipson employees cheered as she
set the last steel shoring in place. After the police collected
what they needed, Valerie had helped the team pull all the shoring
out. She instructed the team to dig the junk out of the trench.

When they were ready, she insisted on
setting the trench shoring herself. Sitting on top of an excavator,
covered in mud, Valerie was every bit her mother’s daughter. She
worked with practiced efficiency.

“
Damn, I forgot how fun
this is!”

“
You want a job?” Bambi
asked.

“
She has one,” Honey
pointed to the rows of photographers.

“
When did they get here?”
Valerie turned the excavator around and drove back to their storage
area.

Jumping out of the excavator, she was
surrounded by Lipson employees. The employees formed a wall of
bodies in front of the photographers. Valerie looked from face to
face.

“
Thanks,” Valerie said.
“After my initial panic, I... I’m a Lipson girl. Fuck it if the
world knows.”

The employees laughed. Bambi ran up to
Valerie.

“
We can ...”

“
Let’s walk the site,
Bambi,” Valerie said. “If they want to take photos, that’s got to
be all right.”

Bambi laughed and hugged Valerie. With a
bevy of paparazzi on their tail, Valerie, Bambi, Honey and the
assistant site managers walked the entire site. She found Mike
waiting for her at the construction trailer. Like magic, she
disappeared to Mike’s old Bronco.

“
I had the greatest
afternoon,” Valerie said.

She climbed into his lap. With the steering
wheel pressed against her back, she kissed his lips. He sighed in
her embrace.

“
Jake was right,” Valerie
said. She brushed the dirt she’d transferred from his
face.

Mike shook his head to clear it.

“
About what?” he
managed.

“
We’re not one thing or
the other,” Valerie said. “I’m not a Lipson girl or an actress. I’m
just me. And just me had the BEST time this afternoon. What did you
work out?”

“
We’re on,” Mike
said.

“
We’re going to have so
much fun!”

Valerie clapped her hands then climbed back
into the passenger seat. Mike started the car. Before he put the
car in gear, Valerie climbed back into his lap.

“
I love you Mike,” she
said.

She was about to kiss him again when they
heard feet against the pavement. The paparazzi had caught up with
them. She moved back to her seat and Mike took off toward the
Castle.

“
Home?” she
asked.

“
Uh huh.”

“
To work?”

“
Something like that,” he
said.

“
Drive fast.” She clipped
her seat belt.

~~~~~~~~

The next day — 2:59 A.M.

Pete’s Kitchen

After crying all day, Jill stumbled through
her shift at Pete’s. She was certain her relationship with Jacob
was over. She’d never endanger her mother by having her come to
Denver. So that was that.

As if she hadn’t had a hard enough day,
everyone at Pete’s avoided her. She felt like she had a giant X on
her forehead. What did she care? She was a model now. She didn’t
have to work here.

Even Meg was weird when she called to check
on Katy. Meg was so strange on the phone she decided her sister was
angry with her.

And Tanesha hadn’t come in today. Tanesha
worked four jobs to keep her grandma’s house out of foreclosure.
The only time Jill saw her friend was in the wee hours of the
mornings at Pete’s. Jill looked for Tanesha’s shoulder to cry on.
But tonight, she never came.