Page 45 of My One and Only

“I guess it’s a fairly easy scam to pull,” Cam said, angry that his company had been scammed. “So all six of those guys are hard nos. I’m not taking on someone else’s problems.”

“Absolutely not,” Don said. He sucked in a deep breath. “I should have called their supervisor myself. Asked the same thing. And I’m embarrassed that I didn’t.” Cam heard him swallow. “I saw six journeymen construction guys and jumped. Should have known it was too good to be true.”

“Not necessarily, buddy. Why would you have thought the same scam was going on at another company?”

He glanced over at Jo and realized she was listening intently to his side of the phone call. Looking away from her, he interrupted Don’s apologies. “I’m not blaming you, Don, for God’s sake. But we’re not hiring these guys. We’ll have to keep on looking.”

“Yeah,” Don said. “I’ll keep digging.”

“I have a lead on an electrician and a carpenter. I’m gonna call them in a little bit. Talk to them and see if they’d be a good fit.”

“Yeah? That’s great. Where’d you get their names?”

“Jo worked with them several years ago,” he said, deliberately keeping his answer vague. “She vouched for them, but I want to talk to them myself. If they pass me, I’ll turn them over to you.”

“Thanks, Cam. That would be great. We need to get fully staffed again. We have a lot of houses that are waiting to be built.”

“Yeah, I know,” Cam said. “I’ll keep you posted.”

“Thanks, partner,” Don said.

“Anytime,” Cam replied, smiling. “Jo’s sent out a bunch of emails. She’s just waiting to hear back from them. With any luck, we could be back on track in a couple of weeks.”

“That’d be great,” Don said. “Fingers crossed,”

“Yeah, me too,” Cam answered as he disconnected the phone. He glanced at his phone. “It’s almost lunch time,” he said to Jo. “You want to grab something quick?”

She looked up at him. “What did you have in mind?”

“I keep cans of soup, frozen mac and cheese and sandwich stuff in my fridge,” he said. “We can eat right here, if you like.”

“Sound’s good,” Jo said. “I’d like to keep working on tracking down this truck. I’ve called about half of the collision shops in this area, and I’d like to get that finished before we have to leave.”

“Great. Let’s have lunch, then you can get back to work.”

She tilted her head and studied him. “If it’s all the same to you, I’ll work while I eat. I’ll get through these names a lot faster that way.”

Chapter 14

Jo chewed a bite of her mac and cheese as she studied the last number on her list. This repair shop was the farthest away from Ogden, and she thought it was unlikely that the owner of that blue truck had gone more than twenty miles to get it repaired. But she swallowed the last of her lunch, took a drink of water and called the shop’s number.

“Everest Collision,” a voice said. “This is Cliff.”

“Hi, Cliff. My name is Jo Hatch. I’m investigating a hit and run collision that involved a blue Dodge Ram truck. Dark blue, recent model. One door on each side of the cab. It should have some front-end damage, but not enough to make it undrivable.”

“Yeah, we got a truck like that in the shop,” Cliff replied slowly.

Her heart pounding, Jo asked, “Do you have a name or a phone number for the owner?”

The guy on the other end of the line huffed. “We got a name, but if it’s the guy’s real name, I’ll eat my shirt. Bob Jones.”

“Can I have the phone number?”Jo asked.

There was a long silence. “Not sure if I can do that,” the repair guy said. “I’ll have to ask the boss. He’s not here right now.”

“How about the VIN or the license plate number?”

“Vin’s scraped off. I could find the one on the firewall in the engine compartment, or the driver’s side door jamb, though.”

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