Chapter 19

"Thanks Frank," Brian said into the phone. "Are you sure no one saw you moving them?"

"What? Do you think I'm an amateur?" Frank Reynolds asked. "Of course no one saw me."

"Can anyone tell you moved them?" Brian asked, ignoring Frank's sarcasm.

"I used the same grade and color twine. The foundation is six inches narrower at one end and six inches wider at the other. I can't even tell I moved them. I looked this morning to make sure when we did our pre-meeting job walk," Frank assured Brian. "Look, I've got to get in there. The construction meeting is about to start. Just make sure you have the rest of my money when I come by Jake's Place tonight. I wouldn't mind if you had that Sandra woman there either as a bonus for doing a good job."

"I'll be there with your money and I'll check with Sandra," Brian chuckled. "I might even have a little extra in the envelope for you as a retainer for the next job. Don't forget to take good notes in the construction meeting," Brian advised laughing. "You want to make sure you do a good job."

"I'll be sure and do that," Frank laughed back. "But if the survey team is any indication of how they work we don't have to do anything to mess them up. Can you believe it took them two days to lay out the job site? That's a one day job at the most. How does a company like that make money?"

"I don't know but I'm not taking any chances," Brian replied seriously. "I'll probably have you do a few other things as the project goes along. Keep your eye out for anything that can be done that might implicate the Klutz. I think I can get the council to pull the contract with just a few accidents with her involved."

"You mean that pretty little brown haired girl?" Frank asked.

"That's the one," Brian agreed. "Take my advice though. Stay away from her. She is dangerous."

"I've heard people talk about her since I got in town last fall but I haven't seen anything like the stories I've heard," Frank said doubtfully.

"I'll try to introduce you to a couple of guys that can give you some firsthand descriptions of Miss Disaster in action," Brian replied dryly. "I'll see you tonight," he said before hanging up. He didn't wait to see if Frank replied because Sandra had just returned from the bathroom.

"Hey Babe," Brian said as he let his eyes travel over her lush body wrapped in a towel that wasn't up to the task to concealing everything. "How'd you like to go to Jake's Place tonight for supper?"

"I can't believe we are having our first construction meeting today," Tim said in amazement. "Two and a half weeks from startup! That has got to be a record," he said before taking a sip of his coffee.

Bill hugged Susan against his side and grinning said, "Thanks to Miss Fantastic here, soon to be Mrs. Miller." He kissed her unruly curls.

Bill took a sip of his own coffee before asking, "Did you get the survey stakes moved back?"

"Yeah," Tim replied chuckling and shaking his head. "What a bunch of amateurs."

"How could you tell where to move them back to?" Susan asked curiously. She was snuggled up against Bill with one of his arms over her shoulder. Susan had decided that it was one of her favorite positions. It kept her close to the big man for when he decided he needed to kiss her. She felt a thrill run through her entire body every time he kissed her. She even got a thrill when he kissed the top of her head.

"Our survey team placed a few extra markers for us," Bill said grinning. "That's why it took two days instead of one."

"This isn't our first rodeo," Tim said grinning back at Bill. "We could have spotted the change with the additional markers but the cameras gave us an extra edge. We knew immediately when they were changed which made it easy to get them changed back so they didn't know we changed them back."

"Plus," Bill said as he picked up the narrative. "Now we know at least one of the guys Brian has on our crew."

"Which one is it," Susan asked curiously.

"That little weasel looking guy that does framing," Tim said still chuckling. "What his name? Oh yeah, Frank Reynolds."

"Are you going to fire him now?" Susan asked.

"No way," Bill protested. "If we do that, Brian will just try to get someone else on our crew. He may already have someone else and we'll watch for anyone trying something. The advantage of knowing about him and leaving him on the crew is that Brian thinks he has a successful saboteur in our camp. If he decides to try something else he would go back to the same guy since he has already proved that he can do the job and not be caught. Meantime, we assign Mr. Reynolds to jobs where he can't do any damage and watch him."

"Do you mean he's just going to think he got away with it?" Susan asked incredulously.

"Only for a little while honey," Bill said soothingly.

Bill discovered that his wife-to-be was fiercely protective of those she loved. She was ready to relieve Brian Blain of his manhood when her friend at Jakes Place reported the conversation from Saturday night. He thought for only a moment about how volatile her temper was before deciding to explain their legal plans.

"Remember that I told you that Tim and I were both in the Military Police?" Bill asked.

He continued after he felt Susan nod her head against his arm. "A lot of people go into the military to get their law enforcement training and certifications then stay in law enforcement after discharge. MPs are a close knit group and some of us stay in touch. I knew most of the MP Officers and Tim knew a lot of the non-commissioned officers. Well, a friend of a friend of Tim's is a Lieutenant with the Navajo County Sheriffs Office. Tim talked to him about what we have been told and called him this morning to tell him about the recording showing this Frank guy moving the survey markers. I did some checking of my own and the Navajo County Sheriff's Department is a class act. They are professional and know how to keep things close to their chests. Towards the end of the project we will turn everything we know over to them and file charges."

Tim chuckled again but it wasn't the jovial sound Susan was used to hearing from him. It sent a shiver up her spine.

"The amount of money involved would make this a major felony with obvious premeditation. Our friend Frank will be facing 15 to 20 years unless he can plea bargain it down and the only way he can do that is come clean about who paid him to do the job," Tim said. "We've got them."

Bill smiled at his friend and nodded. "Tim really likes getting the bad guys," he said to Susan with fervor.

"I can see that," Susan said seriously as she looked at Tim in a new light. She craned her head around to look up at Bill and said, "You do too and both of you are sneaky." She was smiling when she said, "I'm glad I'm on your team."

They were still laughing after they rinsed their coffee cups and left the 5^th wheel for the first construction meeting.

"Bill said that I can work for him after I turn 18 this week," Jimmy said proudly to Mandy and Beth. "It will only be part time until I graduate next month but I can work full time after that."

Jimmy was driving the girls to school again. They were waiting in the line of cars at the middle school as parents dropped their students off.

"Wow, that's neat," Mandy gushed.

"So what?" Beth asked irritated. She was getting tired of all the lovey-dovey stuff over the last few days. Her mom and Bill were bad enough. Ruth and Tim just added to all the happy love bird club and Mandy and Jimmy made it worse. It made her feel lonesome. "We've been working part time for him since he got here."

Jimmy glanced at Mandy then back at traffic as he moved forward another car length. Mandy had talked to him about how her little sister seemed to feel like she was being left out. Everyone was pairing up with someone except Beth. Jimmy had an idea but hadn't talked to Mandy about it. He thought about it again for a moment and decided to go ahead without consulting his girl friend. He was still a young man but he would learn that wasn't always a good idea.

Ignoring Beth's comment, Jimmy said, "Hey Beth, your mom is still nervous about Mandy and I going out alone after she, ah, she, ah..."

"Caught you?" Beth asked with a tone of voice that couldn't be sweetened with honey.

"Ah, yeah," Jimmy said blushing and ignoring her tone. "Anyway, I was wondering. I know its short notice and all but, ah, you know I'm having my birthday party Friday night."

"Yeah," Beth said in a sullen voice. It wasn't fun to be catty if he wasn't going to respond to it.

"Well, I was wondering if you would mind coming to the party." Jimmy said. "I think your mom would be more comfortable with Mandy going. Also, my brother doesn't have anything to do that night and he feels funny hanging out with us because he won't be with anyone. Everyone else would be there as couples. I feel bad for him staying up in our room for the whole party. You'd really be doing me a big favor if you could come. I promise I'll make it up to you," he concluded as he pulled to the curb where Beth would get out.

Beth was silent for a minute. She knew Carl, Jimmy's brother and thought he was cute. He seemed to be a nice guy but he hadn't really acted like he noticed her. He was on the JV football and basketball teams and most of the girls he talked to were part of the 'In Crowd'. Beth wasn't allowed to date yet but she didn't know if her mom would mind her going to a party with Mandy though. After all, it was an 18^th birthday party and her mom had some strange ideas sometime. She wasn't excited about sitting at home and watching Bill and her mom play love birds either. Finally she shrugged and said, "OK. I don't mind going but Mandy will need to ask mom. She gets some weird ideas sometime but Mandy knows how to make her see the light. See you guys later," and got out of the car.

Mandy watched her sister walking towards the school entrance until she disappeared. Then she looked back at Jimmy as he pulled back into traffic.

Jimmy glanced at her nervously out of the corner of his eye when she didn't say anything. "What?" he finally asked after he pulled into the High School parking lot.

"I heard the JV teams were having a little unofficial end of year party Friday night," Mandy said in a neutral voice.

"Really? I hadn't heard," Jimmy lied. He wasn't a very good liar. His voice squeaked. That was one of the things Mandy liked about him.

"Really," Mandy confirmed. "And you knew it too. What's going on Jimmy?" she asked.

Jimmy squirmed in his seat for a minute before saying, "OK, I knew about the JV party but Carl didn't want to go." His voice squeaked again.

"Jimmy," Mandy said warningly.

"OK, OK," Jimmy said in surrender. "I told him I would give him $20 to come to my party if Beth agreed to come. You said she was feeling left out so I was just trying to find a way to include her."

"You're going to give him $20 to spend Friday night with my sister?" Mandy asked with raised eye brows and in the same neutral tone.

"No. I told him I would give him $20 but when he found out I wanted him to hang with Beth he said no. He thinks she's hot and wouldn't take the money," he said.