Tidal Pools by Lawrence Thackston

Author:Lawrence Thackston
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Holladay House Publishing
Published: 2013-11-06T00:00:00+00:00

1:08 PM

Chloe walked into The Lucky Shark and scanned the near empty establishment. Poppa was behind the bar washing beer mugs and did not notice her, but a hand shot up in a booth in the back and waved her over. Chloe slid in on the opposite side.

“Is this your idea of a good place to talk?” the man scowled. “Smells like a frat house on Sunday morning.” He cocked his eyebrow disapprovingly.

Chloe looked at him with irritation. “It’s convenient, David. What more do you want?”

David Mayfield was a good-looking man in his late forties; he had brownish-blonde hair with streaks of gray in his faded goatee. He wore a suit jacket but was tie-less and his shirt was unbuttoned at the top with a hint of the same color chest hair showing. He winced and started again. “You’re right. Sorry. It’s good to see you, Chloe. How are you?”

“I’m fine, David,” she said quickly. “What’s the word on the Galeegi project?”

“What? You can’t say ‘it’s good to see you too’?” He paused, searching her eyes. “I’m just trying to be genuine, Chloe. That’s what you wanted, right?”

“A little too late for that,” she answered flatly. “Now, what about the project?”

David laughed incredulously. “Come on, kid. I’m offering an olive branch here. That is, if you haven’t noticed.”

“I don’t give a damn about apologies or olive branches or anything like that, David. I’m speaking strictly on a professional level. You’re the projects director, and I need to know about my work on the Galeegi.”

David held his offended pose for a moment and then relaxed his shoulders. He took a quick drink from the water glass in front of him. “Okay, okay. Well, as you might imagine the project is suspended indefinitely.” He scrunched up his brow. “By the way, why didn’t you let someone know that there was some kind of murder spree happening down here? We would have pulled you home sooner.”

Chloe stammered and shook her head in a frustrating attempt to explain and not explain at the same time. “Uh, it all happened so fast. I wasn’t really aware of much until yesterday. But what about the project, David?”

“It’s dead for now,” David said. “The FBI and the island’s police will be looking into the break-in. Industrial espionage probably. It’s always the first sign of a sinking ship. My guess is Waldorf Enterprises. They’re woefully mismanaged, and they’re not too far upriver. We caught them doing a chemical dump in North Carolina seven years ago. They’ve paid through the ass ever since.”

“So, I’m out of Galeegi?”

“I’ve already reassigned you. You’ll report back to the Federal Triangle tomorrow, and then you can join Adrianna in Montana in a few days. She’s doing stressor identification tests in some of the ranchers’ field streams out there.” David stopped momentarily reading her disappointment. “I thought you’d like that assignment. You said you always wanted to work Section Eight—to see Montana.”

“But what about Galeegi?”

“Are you kidding me? Are being shot at, having some

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.