Page 16 of My One and Only

Cam’s eyes widened. “Is your job really that dangerous?”

She shrugged. “I’ve never had to use a weapon on personal time,” she said. “But it’s company policy.”

“And you don’t have a problem with that?”

“Why would I? It’s just common sense.”

This was getting too heavy, so Jo said, “I learned a lot in the Army. More when I started at Blackhawk Security.”

To head off more questions about her job, which she’d have to dodge, she asked, “What’s next in your investigation?”

He sat back in his chair and took a drink. “I’m gonna ask Simms who he paid. Unless he’s as stupid as a bag of rocks, he’ll give me the guy’s name. I’ll make sure he knows it’ll be his only chance to save his job.”

She’d been in charge of people when she was in the Army, and this wasnotthe way she dealt with problems.

Clearly reading her expression, Cam leaned toward her. “You don’t seem happy with my solution.”

Jo studied him for a moment. Finally said, “When I was in the Army, I had people working for me. If any of them had done what Simms did, they’d be gone. Dishonorably discharged. We took honesty seriously. If a guy cheated once, there was a good chance he’d do it again.”

Cam sighed. “Unfortunately, we don’t have that luxury. We have to find new people before we can fire the ones who were cheating. Not so easy right now. There’s a shortage of carpenters, electricians, plumbers -- all kinds of skilled laborers. And the people who cut corners and did that shoddy work? They have us by the short and curlies. They know damn well it’ll take us time to find replacements for them.”

“How can you trust them? You can’t look over their shoulders every damn minute of every day.”

“No.” He swallowed, and a flash of anger filled his eyes for a moment. “We can’t. But we can do unannounced inspections. Show up at the sites without warning.” He sighed. “A lot of work, but I’ll make sure they’re all doing quality work.”

“Kind of a morale killer, isn’t it?”Jo asked.

“What’s the damn alternative,” he said, his voice hard. “Can’t replace them all tomorrow.”

“Are all your people local?”she asked

“Most of them are. We have a few guys from Chicago. A couple from Indiana.”

Jo frowned. “Do they commute from Chicago and Indiana every day? That’s a hell of a drive.”

Cam shook his head. “We have some empty rooms in our headquarters. We installed bathrooms and small kitchens, and they live there.”

She tilted her head as she studied Cam. “How many of those rooms do you have available?”

Cam shrugged. “Probably eight or nine more. Haven’t really kept track. If we find someone who’s willing to work, we offer them a room. We can install plumbing and a stripped down kitchen pretty quickly.”

Jo leaned back in her chair and studied Cam. “I might know a few men and women who could do the work you need. From my time in the Army. I started out supervising construction people. Moved to a different job pretty quickly, but I kept in touch with some of them. I could see if any of them would be interested in working for you.”

“Are you serious?” Cam stared at her, a combination of hope and disbelief on his face. “You actually know people who can do carpentry, plumbing, HVAC and electrical work?”

“I do.” A shiver of guilt slid through her. She’d lost touch with her construction buddies after she went to work for Blackhawk Security, and she regretted it. But she hadn’t had the time to get together with them.

Cam leaned toward her. “If you could find some men and women who’d be interested in coming to work for me, I’d be forever grateful.” He frowned at Jo. “As long as they do quality work.”

Jo laughed. “I was their boss. They damn well did quality work. If they hadn’t, I’d have made sure they were transferred to another job.” Her smile faded as she studied Cam. “I’ll send off an email tonight. See if anyone’s interested.”

“So you supervised a construction crew?” Cam studied her, and she saw the curiosity in his expression. “Where did you get the skills to do that?”

She shrugged. “I learned on the job. And as I said, I wasn’t in that job very long. But I stayed in touch with a bunch of the people I worked with. They were good men and women and very good soldiers.”

“We can use as many people as you can convince to come to Ogden.” He shook his head, a tiny smile curling his mouth. “Had no idea that going out to dinner with you would be good for business.” His smile fell away. “Hard to find people willing to commute this far for a job. And people who are married or have kids can’t pack up and easily move all the way out here.”

“Yeah, that would be rough. I had no idea that skilled workmen were so hard to find.”

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