Chapter 11

They won both tenders and there was quiet jubilation. Nick made it clear that he expected Jerry to make frequent visits to the sites although not so frequent as to be felt to be treading on his site managers' toes. He himself visited them once a week taking Sally with him. Inevitably her quick eye missed nothing. On one occasion he saw her eyes narrow and her taking a breath about to launch into tirade. He managed to catch her eye and she deflated. That did not stop her telling him forcefully in the car on the way back to the office. It was punctuated with remarks such as 'the man's an idiot' and 'can't he see beyond the end of his nose?' Nick let her rant merely raising his eyebrows when it became particularly vituperative. She petered out in the end and looked slightly shamefaced.

What she had said though was valid and Nick asked Jerry to come and see him. He asked him to meet him in Sally's office where he would be chatting to her. Jerry took the hint.

"Hello, Nick. Hi, Sally," he said cheerfully on walking in. "I gather you visited the council offices today. Ron said you didn't look too happy."

"You spotted it, Sally. You tell him," said Nick quietly.

Sally looked at him apprehensively but saw only a reassuring smile.

"Um ... well, it was the plasterers doing the refurbishing bit," she said quietly to Jerry. "For some reason that I can't understand, they had three old jerry cans of petrol in there. One of them was leaking. That ... um ... was a fire hazard in itself but, and I know this is a small chance, petrol could have got mixed into the plaster because they weren't mixing it on a board but straight on the concrete floor."

This was all said rather hesitantly but Sally's eyes clearly showed her disapproval at such slipshod behaviour.

Jerry stared back for a moment. Whether he was challenging her or whether he was gauging the importance of what she had said was not immediately apparent. It was clearly the latter.

"Thank you, Sally," he said grimly. "Good point well made. I think I need to go there now and kick Ron's arse. That's unprofessional and, as you say, potentially dangerous. Excuse me."

He turned and left.

"Well done, Sally," said Nick gently. "You handled that beautifully."

"Thank you," she murmured seemingly in another world. She had said her piece quietly and effectively and Jerry had accepted it.

"Wow!" she thought. "Jerry took it without a murmur. Wow!"

Nick left her sitting silently at her desk and went back to his own office. He winked at Megan as he went through hers and she smiled at him and gave him a thumbs up.

The following week Nick took Sally and Megan with him to visit Gareth's quarrying sites. Megan was thrilled. She had never seen her David at work or indeed where he worked even though she knew the area. He gave her a conducted tour and both received a lot of well-natured ribbing as they walked round.

Nick and Sally were both fascinated. Neither had had experience of quarrying or indeed the subsequent stone-crushing. Gareth was an enthusiast which made their visit all the more interesting. Sally had covered geology in outline at university and Gareth thoroughly enjoyed giving her more detail.

Things went quiet even though Nick continued his visits to drum up custom. Both supermarkets expressed interest. The county council also did about the bypass and the dualling projects. So did the industrial estates with the maintenance projects.

For Sally though there was really nothing for her to get her teeth into. Her joint visits with Nick to both of Jerry's projects produced nothing more. Ron had clearly been sharpened up and the port office block was moving faultlessly with time in hand. The quarry visit was a one off. She was bored. Nick was at a loss to know how to keep her amused. Without her mind being occupied she became more aggressive again. She started to badger project managers for early plans for the container and cruiser docks although she was careful not to hector them. Nick had to speak to her as well as calm ruffled feathers.

At last, Harry came up with his outline plan for the container dock. This admittedly was a slightly academic exercise in that Derek Wilson, the port's project director, had his own design team but it did set a benchmark against which Marshall could judge the port's plan. Sally was scathing.

"Bloody waste of money! Why do they want to impose their own design on contractors who are probably going to be more up to date and who are going to design something which doesn't cost a bomb. All we need is a clear specification and then come up with an idea or ideas at this early stage."

"I agree, Sally," said Nick, "but I'm not going to put any backs up at this stage. If and when we win the contract then I might start to throw my weight about a bit as regards the future."

"Hmph!" she retorted but subsequently reflected that Nick was making sense. "Damn him," she thought. "He always does."

She attacked Harry's plan with vigour. She had to admit that it looked good. Then, as required of her, she began to delve into the detail. She could find nothing wrong with the railway depot. It appeared compact and efficient. She admired the design and the engineering. However, she did find something on the quayside operation, something she considered quite serious. She went in to Nick's office.

"Hello, Sally," he greeted her. "What can I do for you?"

"I've found a serious error in Harry's design for the container dock."

"Oh Lord! Tell me."

"They've got their shear stresses wrong. The cranes are rail-mounted and while the rails spread the load they haven't taken into account the sudden rise in loading as the axle passes over the chairs."

"Show me."

She appeared right. The weight of the crane had been spread in the calculations by the rails.

"This looks bad," he said.

"I think it's appalling!"

"Let me see the drawings."

Sally pushed them over to him and he studied them for a couple of minutes. She watched him, disapproval written all over her face.

He looked up with a slight smile. "Sally, the rails are continuous, sunk flush with the top course and resting on spreaders and then concrete. There's no problem."

Sally's jaw dropped. She had made a complete nonsense. She went pink with embarrassment, grabbed all the papers and fled. She managed to close Nick's door quietly, ran across Megan's office and slammed her door shut behind her. Then the storm broke. She was furious with herself. She was supposed to be a top class engineer and she had always considered herself to be meticulous. She had shown herself to be neither and to her boss. She cried with rage and mortification.

She was unaware of the noise she was making but Megan could hear her clearly.

"You ass! You stupid, stupid, conceited ass! Too bloody clever for your own good! Why didn't you double check? Idiot! Idiot! Idiot!"

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Megan hoped it was her fists and not her head on the desk. She slipped in to Nick.