Page 596 of Cold Case, Warm Hearts

“Jest call me Buck, ma’am.”

“Buck, this is very serious business. We have to work together to find out what’s going on here. Are you with me on this?”

“Yes ma’am, I’m with ye. I’ll do whatever you want me to. I’ll even shave the beard off Lincoln if you want me to. You jest tell me, and I’ll do it.”

“Good,” Sydney said, trying to ignore the man’s uncomfortable stare. “The first thing we need to do is a thoroughinspection of the mill.” Sydney looked at her calendar. “Is tomorrow a good time for you?”

“You jest name the time and place, and I’ll be there.” He smiled again.

“I’ll meet you here at 8:00 AM.”

Sean lookedtoward the office and caught glimpse of Buck coming down the front steps. He waved then walked across the parking lot. “Buck!”

“Yeah boss. Whadda you need?” Buck tucked his flannel shirt deeper in his pants and sucked in his round gut.

“Where’ve you been? I’ve been looking for you. We have some business to take care of tonight, and we need to talk.”

“I was settin’ up a time to take an inspection with Miss Lassiter.” He let out a low whistle. “She’s a nice little piece of pie if you get my drift. She needs my help.” He winked. “I’ll help her and maybe she can help me.”

Sean’s face darkened. “She’s off limits. Do you understand?”

“Now boss. Don’t tell me you’ve already staked a claim on ‘er.”

“She’s not your type Buck. Stay away from her or you’re asking for trouble for all of us. The sooner she does her inspection or whatever it is she does, the sooner we can get her out of here. Do you understand?”

Buck spit on the ground. “Whatever you say, boss.”

Sweat drippeddown Sydney’s forehead and pooled inside her safety goggles. Sawdust covered her clothes, and she couldtaste the grittiness. Buck kept their appointment and met her at 8:00 AM to do the sawmill inspection. He charged full speed through the sawmill, leaving her to follow behind, taking notes on her clipboard. They waded through the thick air, musty with cinnamon-smelling sawdust.

She stopped in her tracks and looked up. Buck didn’t realize she wasn’t behind him until he got to the exit door. He turned and came back and stood beside her.

“Why is that man not wearing fall protection?”

He looked up. “Which man?”

Sydney pointed in the air. She couldn’t believe her eyes. “That man on the lumber sorter. That’s exactly how Timothy MacGregor was killed. And where are the guardrails?” She shook her head. “These are willful violations to the requirements of the Occupational Safety and Health Act and Regulations.”

Buck looked at her like she was speaking a foreign language. She threw her hands up and headed to the exit door. “Didn’t you guys learn anything from the last OSHA inspection?”

Buck followed her. “We’ll fix all this, Miss Lassiter.”

“You’re darn right you will. I want to go to the wood yard now.”

On the way, she noticed the hostile stares of the workers she passed and remembered Jake’s prediction about how these men wouldn’t appreciate a woman telling them how to fix their problems.

Sydney was sweating buckets by the time they reached the wood yard. It would take her a while to get used to the sultry humid heat. She pushed a loose strand of hair under her hardhat, trying to ignore Buck’s persistent ogling. She looked around at the huge stacks of lumber, some dried and some still green. After the logs were cut into lumber, they had to be dried. Some pieces could be dried in the sun but most were placed in a kiln where they were baked by electric heat.

The lumber was stacked on each side of the kiln, allowing for a narrow passageway down the middle. Buck stood with his arms folded above his belly and watched without speaking while she made several notations on her clipboard. “When was this built? The foundation isn’t solid.” She pointed. “See, the tracks are sagging.”

“There ain’t no telling,” Buck said. “It was here when I got here.”

She walked inside and inspected the inside walls of the kiln and then moved to the escape door in the back. The escape door was a necessary precaution in the kiln because once the main door was closed, it couldn’t be opened from the inside. She tugged at the handle and tried to push open the door. It didn’t budge. “What’s wrong with this handle?”

Buck came up behind her, and she stepped out of the way to let him try. He grasped the handle and pushed against the door but to no avail. “I reckon it’s stuck, Miss Lassiter.”

Sydney turned and walked out of the kiln. “I’m going around the back to see if anything is obstructing it from the outside.” Buck followed close behind.

Once around the back, she could hardly believe her eyes. “Well, no wonder the door won’t open. You have all this lumber stacked up behind it.” She shook her head. “The handle’s broken, and this lumber shouldn’t be here.”

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