Celia's Puppies (42 page)

“
What’s the word, Jake?”
Jerry asked.

“
This entire job is
cancelled,” Jacob said. “Off our books.”

Jerry’s assistant threw his coffee cup
against the trailer’s wall.

“
I KNEW we shouldn’t have
called,” an assistant site manager said. “Fuck, my one chance...
God damn it.”

The other two assistant site managers shook
their heads.

“
That’s it, isn’t it? God
damn it, Marlowe.” Jerry’s angry face was inches from Jacob’s. His
index finger tapped on Jacob’s chest. “I’ve worked at this company
all my God damn life. And why?”

Jerry spun away from Jacob. His employees
watched their site manager in stunned silence. Spinning in place,
Jerry turned back to Jacob.

“
Because some rich asshole
set unachievable conditions. In almost thirty years, Lipson
construction’s met our fall projections three times! Three times in
thirty years! Now we have to pull off some fucking miracle. God
damn it.”

Jacob opened his mouth to respond, but Jerry
wasn’t finished.

“
This is on YOU, Marlowe.
You should never have let those fuckers set ANY condition on our
company. When it comes down, YOU better say that YOU fucked up
because we’re not taking the blame.”

Jerry crossed his arms in defiance. Jacob
opened his mouth again to speak.

“
You can fire me if you
want,” Jerry said. “I’m not going to work over some lost
civilizations remains. I’m not going to take the blame for the
employees losing the company. And I’m not going to put up with
bullshit.”

Jacob raised his eyebrows with the question
– was Jerry done?

“
Yeah, I’m done. Your Mom
made the same face when I went on a rant.” Jerry bowed his large
body slightly. “I’m sorry.”

Jacob laughed at his apology.

“
You don’t have to
humiliate me, Marlowe. God damn it. I’m trying to be
humble.”

“
I think he wants to say
something, Jer,” Jerry’s assistant said.

“
Oh,” Jerry said. “Go
ahead. I’ll listen.”

Jacob opened his mouth to speak.

“
But just so you know, I
meant every word. Even though I’m sorry I go on and on.”

Jacob started laughing so hard that the men
in the small trailer began to laugh.

“
Ok, I get it,” Jerry
laughed. “Go ahead.”

Jacob’s face shifted to stone.

“
The bank has called our
credit. We have twenty-four hours to secure new
funding.”

The silence in the trailer was
deafening.

“
The only thing they will
take as capital is the Castle. They know there’s no way I will put
my child, my family… hell anyone who needs a place to stay… in the
position of not having a home.”

“
What about the school?”
Jerry asked.

“
We rent,” Jacob
said.

“
What are you going to
do?” Jerry’s assistant asked.

“
I don’t know,” Jacob
said. “We’ll do something. But as of this moment, the only way to
secure our debt is to either put my mother’s home up as equity or
...”

“
Let the board buy the
company,” Jerry said. “Mother fuckers...”

“
Exactly,” Jacob said. “I
want you to hear this from me. You and your men did exactly the
right thing. I need you to clean up the site and get back into
town. We have a couple of other situations that could use your guys
and, Jerry, your experience. How long will it take to tear this
site down?”

“
Three days,” Jerry said.
“But if we’re needed in town, then we can go there now. We can tear
this site down this weekend.”

“
I was hoping you’d say
that. Can you guys get out to Golden? They shut down due to snow.
They’re having trouble with the melt off. They could really use
you. I need your men at County Line. They can restart but their
guys moved to Steele Street to help.”

“
We’ll go right now,”
Jerry said. “You’re going to sort this financing out?”

“
Have to,” Jacob said.
“Construction companies run on credit. We have to have credit to
buy the supplies we need to complete jobs and pay employees.
Without it, we close the doors.”

“
What are you going to do
when you get the financing worked out, Jake?” one of the assistant
site managers asked.

“
I’m going to get rid of
the board.”

Unintentionally, Jacob smiled his evil
hockey smile. The men shifted uncomfortably. Noticing their
discomfort, Jacob let out a breath.

“
Let’s just get through
today,” Jacob said.

~~~~~~~~

“
One, two,
three.”

Aden yelled over the wind, snow and
machinery. He waved his hand down and the loader buckets of two
backhoes moved in unison. Tap, tap, tap. The trench shoring moved
off the bottom of the trench.

“
STOP,” Aden yelled over
the machinery and the wind.

The backhoe operators lifted the buckets.
Aden climbed into the trench. Shaking his head, he dug a handful of
dirt from the steel shoring plate. He stuck the dirt in his pocket
then climbed out.

“
What is it, boss?” Bambi
yelled.

“
I don’t know,” Aden said.
Pulling the dirt from his pocket, he showed held it out for Bambi
to see. “Have you ever seen anything like this?”

The dirt was a mixture of red Denver clay
soil and some kind of gray matter.

“
I thought these were
rocks, you know.” Aden pointed to a gray chunk. “But...”

“
Throw me a shovel,” Bambi
said.

Bambi climbed into the trench. Honey passed
her a shovel. She dug around where the steel shoring had been.
Mimicking Aden, she put a handful of dirt in her pocket and climbed
out. She showed Aden her dirt.

“
That’s concrete,” Honey
said.

“
That’s what I thought,”
Aden said.

“
Concrete,” Bambi said.
“What do we do?”

“
We call the police,”
Honey said.

“
I don’t want to be the
site that...”

“
Don’t worry, Bambi,” Aden
said. “Jake’s going to work everything out today.”

“
How do you know? Jerry
said the financing’s been pulled and...”

“
I know the man,” Aden
said. “He’ll work it out.”

“
Police?” Honey
asked.

“
Police,” Aden said. “And
thank God, no one was hurt. If we hadn’t had this snow storm,
someone could have been crushed.”

Honey wheeled to the trailer to make the
call.

“
And the tapes?” Bambi
asked.

“
Heather and Blane are
reviewing them,” Aden said. “When Jake said we had to buy those
video cameras for the lights, I thought he was nuts. So expensive!
But man, I’m glad we have them.”

“
Me too,” Bambi said. “Me
too.”

~~~~~~~~

Two hours later

“
This is how this goes,”
Mike said.

Standing in the middle of Megan’s living
room, he paced back and forth in front of Steve, Candy and Megan.
He opened his mouth to speak, then shook his head.

“
Why are we here, Mike?”
Megan asked. “You said it was an emergency.”

“
And where’s Jill?” Candy
asked. “If we’re getting yelled at, she should be here
too.”

“
Yeah,” Steve said. “Why
does Jill get to miss out on this yelling?”

“
Jill. Yes, this is about
Jill,” Mike said. “Jill is not here because it’s about her. Jill
won’t marry Jacob because she thinks you guys can’t to deal with
the truth.”

“
What truth?” Megan
asked.

Mike let out a breath. He looked from face
to face. He closed his eyes to their faces then said:

“
Our mother is
alive.”

He didn’t open his eyes until they stopped
talking.

“
SHUT UP,” Megan
yelled.

Steve and Candy stopped talking.

“
Start at the beginning
Mike,” Megan said. “You saw the bodies.”

“
I saw a body, our
father’s body and a charred… I don’t know what it was,” Mike said.
“The state police said Mom’s body was burned beyond recognition in
the fire. Dad was thrown from the wreckage. Most of his head was
destroyed. I recognized what he was wearing and his
watch.”

Mike pointed to the watch Steve was wearing.
Steve wore his father’s watch every day.

“
Why would Mom abandon
us?” Candy’s voice echoed her loss.

“
Why do you think?” Mike
asked.

“
Because she had to,”
Megan said.

“
My mother loved me.
Fiercely,” Candy said. “She knew about me. She told me that I was
perfect in every way. Every day. Even though I’m gay. That’s the
only reason my mother would leave me. She was forced.”

“
But Mike why would she
have to?” Steve asked.

“
You want to hear this?”
Mike asked. “Jill tried to tell you. Each of you. But you didn’t
want to know.”

“
Oh Mike, we were just…
crazy. I remember her saying something but… I wanted Mom to be
alive so badly. I thought she was... imagining I guess.” Megan
shrugged. “Is she angry?”

“
Jill?” Mike chuckled.
“No. This is something she has carried for a lot of years. For
us.”

Steve nodded.

“
I want to know,” Steve
said. “I want to know.”

“
Me too,” Candy
said.

She held out her hands to Steve and to
Megan. They took her hands for support.

“
Meg and I have a
different father than you guys do,” Mike said. “Our mother was
married to him before she married your father. She thought he
died.”

“
That’s why there’s four
years between me and you,” Steve said.

“
Right.”

“
And why Dad hated you,”
Candy said.

“
Right. I look like my
father,” Mike said.

“
I remember,” Megan’s
voice was vague. “When you say those words, I know that’s true. My
Daddy was… funny, used to make faces, loved me… a lot.”

“
He does,” Mike said. “He
loves us – Steve, Candy and Jill included. He’s intervened in all
of our lives when we really needed it. Money mostly. Steve,
remember how the bill for your car was twenty dollars when the
estimate was six hundred? Or your school, Candy? Remember how you
got the scholarship to pay for knives and stuff? This house? Meg,
how did you get that low interest rate?”

“
How does he know about
us?” Steve asked.

“
Ever notice how Jill
writes everything down in her journal? Every detail,” Mike
said.

Steve, Candy and Megan nodded.

“
Ever notice how she
doesn’t have shelves and shelves and shelves of them?”

Like a light bulb flashing over their heads,
their faces lit up.

“
She sends them to Mom,”
Megan whispers. “She used to ask for money sometimes... She sends
them to Mom.”

“
Right.”

“
Mom and her husband live
together in Costa Rica. He’s retired. Mostly.”

“
Why did Mom think your
father was dead?” Candy asked.

“
He traveled for work a
lot. He was gone for years and Mom was told he died. She married
Dad. I call him Dad because...” Mike shrugged. “There’s
more...”

“
What?” Megan
asked.

“
Our Mother is the
daughter of one of the head of the Bratva,” Mike said. “The Russian
Mob. Dad worked as an accountant for the Mob. He got in some kind
of trouble, I don’t exactly know what. They had to leave the
country. Mom was pregnant with Steve. She left with him but,
according to Jill, she didn’t know what going on until they were
here. She never had a chance to say good-bye to her
family.”

“
I remember that too,”
Megan said. “Long plane fight. Mom was very fidgety and Dad was
stone. Mike and I tried to be extra good so we wouldn’t get in
trouble.”

“
He stole some amount of
money,” Mike said. “I’ve heard the term ‘billions’.”

Candy and Steve gasped. Megan jerked to the
present.

“
Did Mom...?”

“
She knew nothing,” Mike
said. “Knows nothing. I don’t either. Do you?”

He looked from sibling to sibling. They each
shook their heads ‘no’.

“
Jill?”

“
Jill doesn’t have a
clue,” Mike said.

“
So the money
just...”

“
Vanished,” Mike said. “Or
he spent it or gambled it or it never existed. My father thinks the
whole thing might have been a way to get Dad out of the country. He
was killed for stealing the money. Remember those surveyors that
came right after Mom and Dad died?”

“
They surveyed the house
and the lot. They said it was for the new loan but...” Megan rubbed
her forehead. “We didn’t have to do that for our house.”

“
Right,” Mike said. “They
were looking for the money. Found nothing.”

“
Mike?” Megan asked. “What
does this have to do with Jill?”

“
Mom wants to see her get
married,” Mike said. “Jill doesn’t want to upset you or put Mom at
risk. She’s not going to marry Jacob.”