Chapter 87

Tuesday morning started off with all kinds of action going on. Jenny, Patti and I were entertained to all kinds of sounds coming from next door. There were sounds from diesel engines to all kinds of crunching and crashes. It was loud enough to have all the girls in the kitchen before we left for work. They wanted to go watch. I told the make sure they stayed well out of the way if they did.

When I walked into the office the night supervisor handed me a stack of messages that had come in this morning. Joe from maintenance had the second Homer the pervert ready for me to test out. It had improvements over the first one. The maintenance supervisor wanted me to move the trailer over to the field house so they could start putting the mats in. He wanted me to watch the first few to go in. He had an idea he wanted to discuss about loading.

There were a lot of messages from staff to 'give them hell'. I guess the word had gotten out of where we were going and why. This college had been through it and we had been lucky no one had been killed other than the victim that had taken her own life. I still blamed that on poor crisis counseling.

I hooked up the trailer with help from one of the day guys and backed it up to the side door of the field house. I was only there for a couple of minutes before Joe met me there. He was satisfied with the position and helped me unhook the trailer.

He explained that they thought it would be better to semi fold the mats and push them against the front than to load them length wise. They would be self supporting that way and a lot easier to get out.

I agreed with him and offered to help them put the mats in, but he refused to allow me to help. He said they would put a cross support to hold them in place and then load Homer and Homer Jr. at the rear of the trailer.

I worked on all the things that I need to do to keep my department running. I spent a couple of hours with Richard Bozman dealing with issues on the new dorm construction. It seems that the contractor thought his people would have run of the entire college. It didn't take long to put an end to that.

Sarah Grayson came in near lunch time and asked if she could talk to me privately. We went into my office.

She asked, "Is it true that you are going to Frost Borough?"

"Yes, we are leaving tomorrow afternoon." I replied.

She said, "I have a friend there. Her name is Belinda Stevens. Her roommate was the girl that was attacked ten days ago. Now, with a girl being killed this Friday night, she is taking it very hard. Would you talk to her? Please."

"I'll be more than glad to talk to her. Do you have a picture of her or will you just tell her to see me?" I asked.

Jenny called to see if we could do lunch. She brought soup and salad from the deli. Fifteen minutes later we were all sitting in the lunch room eating.

"Have you heard anything from the girls?" she asked.

"No, not a word. We left them plenty to do. They should be busy." I said.

"True, but I still was expecting a play by play report," she said with a laugh.

To change the subject I filled her in on the request by Sarah Grayson that we talk to her friend. Jenny seemed to be in deep thought then she said, "If Kate does not have any one going with her I wonder if she would mind a room mate?"

"That is a good question. I'll wander over after while and find out." I said.

I had hardly finished when the phone beeped telling me I had an e-mail. It was from the girls; it was filled with pictures. Jenny, Patti and I went into my office so we could look at them on the big monitor. I had to laugh; the first picture was of Marcy wearing a hard hat and safety glasses sitting in the excavator. The caption with the picture read 'Some times to get it right you just have to do it yourself'. We had a good chuckle at that one.

All that was left of the house was a small pile of rubble. There was a long row of work vans parked alongside the east loading dock. Bob must have brought every crew he had to the job. Inside the plumbers were fitting PVC pipe together for all the drains and the forms were coming together for the pad. There were a lot of 2x4 frames laid out in several places on the floor. In one picture all the girls - even Jeanna - had hard hats and safety glasses on. At the end of the e-mail Marcy had typed "A lot of progress is being made, things are going better than expected on all fronts."

I sent back, "It sure looks like it. Thanks for the update, see ya in a few hours."

I got a call from the C-town's police department, the contractors trucks hauling material to the job site were leaving dirt and mud on the side street. There was so much dirt that the town's street sweeper would not clean it. If we did not put an end to that they would hire someone to clean the street every day and bill us.

I met Richard at the entrance and the construction foreman at the site and relayed the town's message. The solution was that they were going to dig 100 feet of the entrance road back a foot deep and put in crushed coarse cobblestone and have someone wash the mud off the truck tires before they went on to the highway, if they needed it.

On the way back I stopped at the audio and visual department and had a chat with Kate. I explained Sarah's interest and thought about taking her along. She was indeed going alone and would love to have a room mate. I asked her not to say anything to Sarah until I had a chance to work out all the details.

At two I had three more interviews for part time people that could do over night trips. I needed them to be able to fill the request from the athletic department for increased security on field trips. We had lucked out this time. They were all three from local police departments looking to supplement their income and hoping to get their foot in the door for a future full-time spot.

I had Jenny check the police records for any problem areas. I did not want anyone that had a history of complaints filed against them for any reason. I did not want anyone that was quick on the taser, pepper spray or trigger happy. I did need them to have a carry permit because I wanted at least one person on each bus armed.