Concrete Evidence (20 page)

She could feel her pulse in the fingers that gripped the phone. “So you’re saying Higgins Industries—the company that built Higgins boats—did invent a type of concrete called Thermo-Con?”

“Yeah. That’s right. Andrew Jackson Higgins—AJ—is my great-grandpa. My grandpa worked for him on the Thermo-Con team. My dad knows all about AJ and the company. You should call him.” He rattled off the number.

Erica’s hands shook as she wrote down the phone number. She thanked the young man, hung up the phone, and let out a loud yelp.

Lee came running into the den. “Erica? Are you okay?”

Thrilled to have someone to share her excitement with, she launched herself at him. He caught her with an oof as she wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist.

“I did it!” she exclaimed, then kissed him with all the exuberance she felt. Her tongue slid into his mouth as she threaded her fingers through his hair, and he kissed her back with equal enthusiasm. Damn, he was a good kisser.

She pulled back and grinned. “Aren’t you going to ask me what I did?”

“I don’t care what you did,” he said, taking a step toward the extended sofa bed.

She laughed. She didn’t know what had come over her but didn’t care. She gripped his hair and pulled his mouth to hers again. After another interval, she leaned back and said, “We don’t have time for this now. I’ve got a phone call to make.”

“You started it,” he said. They’d reached the foot of the bed, and he dropped kisses along her throat as she arched backward to give him better access.

“Oh God, Lee. I’m so excited,” she said breathlessly. He plucked out her hairpins one by one. Her hair tumbled down her back.

“So am I, Shortcake.” He nibbled her neck as his fingers threaded through her hair.

She laughed. “No. No. I’m excited about Thermo-Con.”

He stopped. “You’re hell on my ego.”

“You’ll survive.” She kissed him again, then wriggled until he set her down.

“So what, besides me, are you all excited about?”

“You were right about the connection between Higgins Boats and Thermo-Con. I just spoke with Andrew Jackson Higgins’s great-grandson. He said Higgins Industries did invent Thermo-Con. We may not have the patent file, but we did find the patent!”

“That’s great,” he said without enthusiasm.

She laughed. “Aren’t you excited?”

“I was excited about getting you naked.”

“But we’ve found the inventor, and now we have a solid theory for why the Thermo-Con house was built for ERDL. We can connect the house to a bona fide historical figure who was directly involved in the project. We’re talking about a person who Dwight D. Eisenhower referred to as ‘the man who won the war for us.’” She pushed Lee away from her. “Now shoo. I’ve got to call AJ’s grandson—the son of the man named on the patent.”

He pulled her against him, and she felt his arousal against her belly. His voice deepened as he said, “I think we should celebrate with sex first.” His mouth captured hers in a kiss that blew their earlier efforts out of the water.

He had a good point. No, scratch that. A hard point. Her fingers wandered to the buttons on his shirt as the mattress pressed against the back of her knees. All she had to do was lean backward and she’d be on the bed with Lee tumbling on top of her.

The front door opened, then closed with a bang. “Honey, I’m home,” JT called out.

“Damn,” Lee muttered, releasing her.

She laughed. “Another time, maybe.” She reached for the telephone.

“
S
O, AFTER
I
GOT OFF THE PHONE
with AJ’s grandson,” Erica said, “I called his aunt. She and I had the loveliest conversation.” She grinned at her dinner companions—her temporary roommates. They sat in the dining area, eating delivered Chinese food and drinking wine JT had opened to celebrate her success with Thermo-Con. She knew little about wine but suspected this bottle sold for three figures.

She swirled the liquid in her glass and admired the deep garnet color, feeling a hum of satisfaction with both the company and her progress on the report. JT reached for the rice. While he was distracted, Lee shot her a heated look, causing a sensuous flame to slither through her, adding a certain naughty pleasure to her already giddy mood.

JT’s eyes crinkled indulgently. “What did the aunt tell you?”

She swallowed a bite of mu shoo pork before answering, “She was married to the guy who ran the Thermo-Con development team. He died about twenty years ago, but she knew all about his work. She told me how Higgins tried to market Thermo-Con. She doesn’t know anything about the house built on Fort Belmont, but she agreed with our theory that Higgins was trying to sell Thermo-Con to the army. He probably had the house built for ERDL, hoping the army engineers would love it so much they’d build Higgins Thermo-Con homes on bases all over the world.”

She wondered if she was babbling and worried her social demeanor had grown rusty with disuse. JT had been nothing but kind to her and treated her like a kid sister, but still, she couldn’t help feeling uneasy around him. The man was way out of her league. He was tennis to her ping-pong.

Then there was Lee. She didn’t know how or why, but he’d gotten under her skin. She felt his presence on a cellular level and craved his company like fine chocolate. But Lee wasn’t ping-pong either. No. Rugby came to mind: foreign and unfamiliar, but rowdy, fun, and blatantly physical.

“So what does all this mean for the house on the reservation?” JT asked.

“Well, for one thing, we meet our deadline. I finished the report. But mostly it means the house is historically significant and should be protected as such. It looks like there is at least one burial beneath the basement, and there might be more, so protecting the burials versus the house could get tricky. In most cases, the burials would trump the historic property.” Belatedly, she realized that she was speaking to a man who was one-quarter Menanichoch. She spoke quickly to cover any offense, “As well it should. Human remains are much more important than structures, even when the structure is connected to an historical figure.”

JT shrugged. “I leave those issues to tribal members who are more informed. In this situation, I run the company doing the work, and I’m looking out for Talon & Drake’s interest, not the tribe’s. Will the tribe be happy with your work?”

“The house is in poor shape. Letting it slide into further disrepair would be an adverse effect to what is clearly an historic property. The remains are tricky, though, and will require consultation, mitigation, and management.” This opportunity was too good to let slide by, and she gave the big boss a sweet smile. “I’d like to be the Talon & Drake point person. I know the issues; I know the project.”

JT cocked his head to the side. “But you don’t have an MA. Based on the Secretary of the Interior Standards, you aren’t qualified.”

She strained to maintain the smile. She had a perfectly good MA, which she was still paying for. “I would work under Janice’s supervision, of course.”

“Then I’m sure the tribe would be satisfied if you were selected.”

Dammit. She was as qualified as anyone to run this project. In her pre-Jake life, she’d written several EAs and had run a few sensitive burial excavations. “It might be a good opportunity for Lee. He could learn about the process.”

“Actually, I’ve got other plans for Lee. I need him elsewhere for the next week or so.” He looked at Lee. “The New York office is having problems with a database you created. Since you’ve wrapped up Thermo-Con, you can take a break from helping Erica and fix it.”

Lee’s eyes flashed with alarm.

She set down her chopsticks. “Lee created a database for the New York office?”

Worry faded, and Lee’s expression turned blank.

“Yes,” JT said.

Lee didn’t flinch or look away. He just gazed steadily at Erica, neither confirming nor denying JT’s statement.

She looked from Lee to JT. “But he’s incompetent with computers. Especially databases.”

Surprise crossed JT’s face; then some sort of understanding registered. He took a deep breath and spoke as though resigned. “He’s been programming since he was a kid.”

“Is this true?” She wanted to skewer Lee with a chopstick.

He nodded, but his expression remained blank.

Hurt was followed by rage. She held Lee’s gaze but spoke to JT. “He’s still a kid.”

Lee inclined his head in agreement.

“Why did you lie?”

“I’m working at Talon & Drake to learn about archaeology.” His voice was cold and steady. “I’m not there to work on your cell tower database. I already know about databases. I get paid much more than minimum wage to work on databases. It seemed prudent to lie.”

He obviously didn’t care about the hours she’d spent fixing the damn database while he played computer games. “But you haven’t shown the slightest interest in archaeology or anything we do at Talon & Drake. The only thing I’ve seen you work on with any kind of dedication is improving your Tetris score.” Appetite gone, she stood and left the room.

E
RICA’S DOOR SLAMMED
, rattling the dishes on the dining room table. Alone with JT, Lee took another sip of wine and set his glass down with extreme care, determined not to take his anger out on the fragile crystal. No, he had a better target. He glared at JT. “Nice job.”

“I was trying to give you an outside job so you could hack without looking like a slacker in her eyes. I didn’t know you’d lied about your skills.”

“You stupid shit. I’ve lied to her about
everything
. You told me to be incompetent. So I am.”

“I told you to be incompetent about
archaeology
. Not computers.”

“It’s not like we’re on some sort of dig. We’re in the office. All the work is on the computer. Hence, I’ve been a technological moron pretending to play simple computer games.”

JT smiled slightly. “Damn, she’s pissed.”

“You have no idea what she went through with her cell tower database. That’s why she worked late Wednesday night.”

“But you could have fixed it for her.”

“Hell, I’m the one who broke it. I’d left the Thermo-Con file in Arnie’s office and couldn’t get it back because your meeting ended. I had to give her something to do so she wouldn’t notice the file was missing.”

How on earth could he repair the rift between them?

He closed his eyes and thought about how she’d felt in his arms today. Wild and wanton, she’d kissed him with abandon while her thick hair draped over his arm. All he’d wanted to do was toss her on the bed and slide slowly into her, gazing into her warm gray eyes as he discovered the secrets of her body.

He opened his eyes, letting go of the fantasy. “I’ve got a lot of cell phone calls and e-mails to sort through at the office. Pretending to play computer games was wearing thin. Your idea of giving me a fake programming task was a good one. I just wish you’d warned me. But, even if you had, her anger was inevitable.”

JT nodded. “We’ll have to ask her to keep the fact that you’re working for me a secret.”

“I think she’ll go along.”

“Unless she’s involved. Then she might guess what you’re doing.”

“She’s not,” Lee said. He didn’t know where this conviction came from, but he didn’t doubt it.

“Find out everything you can about Novak. My gut says he’s involved with the smuggling, and if we get something solid, I can stop Drake from teaming with him. But we have to do it in a way that doesn’t tip them off that we’re on to them.”

“I know. I’m on it.”

C
HAPTER
T
WENTY-
O
NE