The Girl in the Hard Hat (29 page)

‘It appears,’ Frank stated grudgingly, ‘that the majority of your work procedures are acceptable. So we will not be shutting this operation down.’

‘Well, that’s a fuckin’ relief.’ Carl grinned at each of them as if he had known it all along.

‘I haven’t finished.’ Frank lifted his chin haughtily and Carl’s grin disappeared. ‘We will not be shutting this operation down so long as one problem I have identified is rectified
immediately
.’

Carl glanced at Wendy and then frowned. ‘What problem?’

‘You, Carl.’

Carl’s gaze swung back to Frank. ‘What the fuck?’

Frank opened his file and withdrew what Wendy could now see was not Gavin’s but Carl’s resume. ‘It has come to my attention that you do not have a driver’s licence.’

Carl stood up. ‘Of course I have a fuckin’ driver’s licence. Had one for years. Got it when I was fuckin’ eighteen years old. So maybe I had to sit the fuckin’ test six times but I still got that shitty little piece of paper.’

Frank remained seated as he revealed the guts of his diabolical plot. ‘According to your resume, the last job you worked on was in Indonesia. Apparently, you were there for four years. During that time, you acquired an Indonesian driver’s licence but you allowed your Australian one to lapse.’

‘So I didn’t pay a few fuckin’ bills. Big deal.’

‘It
is
a big deal.’ Frank closed the file with a snap, making Wendy’s heart sink. ‘It means you are not legally allowed to be driving in this country, let alone cruising around in a ute on a highly hazardous construction site. Which is why . . . Dan and I are requesting your immediate removal from the project until such time as you have fixed the problem. It is simply too unsafe to have you here.’

‘My removal?’ Carl was momentarily speechless.

Frank glanced at his watch in a businesslike manner, as though he had something more pressing to do after this arse-kicking. ‘I shall personally escort you to the gate, where you will have to arrange for
someone else
to drive you home. You are welcome, if you like, to correspond with site via telephone from Wickham but under no circumstance are you to set foot at Cape Lambert until you have a legitimate Australian driver’s licence.’

‘But that could be weeks, depending on how many government departments we get bounced through,’ Wendy protested. ‘What about the project?’

‘That is our request.’ Frank shrugged. ‘We shall, of course, expect Barnes Inc to keep up with its proposed schedules and other work practices in the meantime. Your company has by no means lost any of its responsibility to its contract, despite this slight mishap.’

Slight mishap.

She could just kill him.

‘I ain’t fuckin’ leaving.’ Carl stabbed a finger at him.

‘I’m sorry but –’

‘Shut the fuck up, you arse-faced little shitbag.’

Frank’s jaw dropped open.

‘There is no fuckin’ way that I’m leaving my men just so you can get high and mighty on a fuckin’ technicality. I can’t leave the project now. I’m fuckin’ running it.’

‘Well, you’ll just have to get someone else to run it for a while.’

‘It’s my project, my responsibility, my baby. I’m not going to let you fuckin’ kick me out. You’ve got no right. Anybody with two brain cells to rub together can see I can fuckin’ drive.’

Wendy had actually witnessed Carl tearing around in his ute and several times nearly backing into someone or something, but decided this was not the time to bring that up.

Frank nervously licked his lips. ‘I don’t think you quite see my point. What you’re doing at the moment is not just against site regulations. It’s against the law.’

This statement only seemed to incense Carl further. ‘Tell you what, fuckface! When I actually give a shit, you’ll be the first person I give it to!’

Frank stood up, clutching his file for support. ‘Mr Curtis,’ he tried to infuse authority rather than fear into his voice, ‘why don’t we just make this simple and you accompany me to the gate now?’

‘I’m not going anywhere with you. And if you try to fuckin’ make me, I’ll snap your puny little neck with my bare hands.’ Carl viciously mimed doing so.

Frank swallowed hard and then in desperation turned to Wendy. ‘You have one hour to escort this man from site. If he is not gone within that time, I am shutting this operation down. I mean it. I am shutting you all down!’

On this cowardly threat, he stalked from the room, slamming the door behind him.

Carl began to pace the floor, anger vibrating from every fibre of his being.

‘Carl –’ Wendy began tentatively.

‘Shut up,’ he snapped. ‘I’m fuckin’ thinkin’.’

But after pacing for five minutes he still hadn’t said anything more.

‘Carl, if I may –’

‘You may not.’

‘I know it’s a pain in the arse but we’ve only got,’ she glanced at the clock on the wall, ‘fifty-four minutes before that idiot shuts Barnes Inc down. Please let me get you off the premises before that happens – at least till we can get you a licence or figure something out.’

‘I’m not going.’

‘But you know there is nothing else we can do.’

He turned on her contemptuously. ‘You just had Neil and Fish fired. Do you honestly want to escort the project manager off site now as well? How do you think that’s going to go for you?’

She recoiled like he had slapped her. All this time, she had thought Carl oblivious to the rumours circulating about her, or at the very least indifferent to them. Perhaps she needed to credit him with a little more awareness, despite his apparent ‘she’ll be right’ attitude towards everything.

After wringing her hands for a few moments she said, ‘I don’t care what people think of me, and neither should you. We both know you wouldn’t be leaving the project to prove Frank right. You’re doing it for the good of everyone else. Just stop for a minute, Carl, and look beyond your own pride.’

He finished pacing to glare at her, opened his mouth and then shut it again. For a second she thought she might have got through to him, until he lifted his arm and pointed to the door.

‘Out!’

‘But –’

‘
Out!
’

Knowing that no further words were going to make a difference, she quickly made for the door, which he slammed shut behind her.

What am I going to do now?!

She hurried back to her office, trying to ignore the looks of curiosity from the others seated in the main office donga, who had also just witnessed Frank fleeing the scene. She sat down at her desk and put her head in her hands.

‘I take it it didn’t go well,’ Chub’s faintly amused voice sounded in front of her.

She groaned and looked up. ‘We have fifty minutes before TCN shuts the Barnes Inc operation down.’

‘What?’ Chub started. ‘Why?’

Wendy quickly outlined Frank’s evil plan.

‘That weasel.’ Chub frowned. ‘I hadn’t attributed him with so much creativity.’

‘Well, I don’t know how to get Carl off the premises, Cobber,’ Wendy cried, throwing up her hands. ‘He simply won’t go.’

‘Seems to me what you need is some muscle.’

She looked up at him hopefully.

‘Yes, yes, I have an incredible amount of upper body strength.’ He proudly lifted his girth and then dropped it. ‘There’s, er . . . just one problem.’

‘What’s that?’ she demanded.

Chub’s mouth twisted into a pained expression. ‘I’m chicken. Always have been. You know when I was at school I used to wet my pants, literally, whenever there was a fight in the playground. And most of the time I wasn’t even involved.’

‘Urgh!’ Wendy moaned in frustration. ‘Who else can I ask? Nobody is going to want to help the TCN spy escort the project manager off the job. Apart from the fact that everybody hates me, Carl would no doubt offer to fire them on the spot if they so much as touched him.’

‘Good point.’ Chub examined the fingernails of one hand, then said without looking up, ‘You could ask Gavin.’

‘I
am not
asking Gavin.’

‘Why not? He is the next senior person on site. On those rare occasions when Carl is sick or on R and R, he’s supposed to be the acting project manager. Almost seems like his right, really.’

‘I don’t see how it’s his right at all,’ Wendy snapped, feeling like she was fast losing control of the situation.

‘And,’ Chub nodded seriously, ‘he’s got muscles. That fella is built like a brick shithouse. Have you seen him with his shirt off?’

‘No.’ Wendy choked.

‘You should,’ Chub nodded thoughtfully, ‘you’d like it.’

‘
Cobber
.’

Chub lifted his palms up in surrender. ‘I’m just saying.’

She was silent for a moment as she glared at him. His lips twitched under her murderous stare before he shot a quick look at his watch. ‘Well, I guess you’ve got all of forty-five minutes to think of something else. I’d get onto that if I were you.’

‘
All right
,’ she cried, ‘you win! I’ll get Gavin on the phone.’

The phone rang twice before he picked it up.

‘Sarge?’

‘Hi, Gavin.’ She infused what she hoped was a business tone into her voice. ‘I need your help. Can you come to my office?’

‘Er, sure. Could you just give me an hour? I want to stay till this pile is driven.’

‘It can’t wait an hour.
I need you now
,’ she pleaded and then realised maybe she should have used a different turn of phrase. ‘I mean, I need your muscles.’

Geez, girl!

‘You need my
what
?’

She slapped her palm to her forehead and closed her eyes. ‘Did I say muscles? I mean that in the context of your whole body –’

‘You need my
body
?’

‘Look, can you just get down here and stop asking stupid questions?!’ She slammed down the phone and jumped away from it like it was a tiger snake.

A snort from Chub came from her right. ‘Well played.’

‘Oh, shut up.’

Gavin arrived not ten minutes later, throwing the door open and leaping into the room like Batman minus the mask and cape.

‘G’day, lead foot,’ Chub murmured. ‘Do you think you could have got here any sooner?’

Gavin ignored him and turned to Wendy. ‘What did you say you needed?’

‘Offering your services, are you?’ Chub’s lips twitched. ‘Somehow I’m not surprised.’

Wendy stood up, wringing her hands and biting her lower lip. ‘TCN is going to shut us down in thirty minutes if you don’t persuade Carl – perhaps physically – to leave site.’

Gavin stuck his pointer finger out. ‘You see, I never would have guessed you were going to say that.’

‘Really?’ Chub seemed amused. ‘Wasn’t it obvious?’

Wendy glared at the HR manager, who appeared to be enjoying himself far too much. ‘Will you be quiet? Can’t you see we’re going through a crisis here?’

Chub lowered his eyes. ‘Sorry.’

Wendy quickly filled Gavin in on all that had occurred at the audit that morning. ‘We’re down to twenty-seven minutes.’

‘Trust me.’ Gavin grinned. ‘We’re not gunna need that long.’

Chub threw Wendy a smug look. ‘What did I tell you?’

But she ignored him, holding the door to their donga open. ‘Then let’s get this show on the road.’

Wendy and Gavin headed over to Carl’s office, reaching him just in the nick of time. The project manager had donned his hard hat and safety vest. It was apparent he was just about to step out – no doubt to resume his usual duties.

‘What the fuck is this?’ His jaw slackened as Gavin walked in, followed by Wendy, who meekly shut the door behind her and leaned back against it, holding the knob for support.

‘Call it an intervention,’ Gavin informed him.

Carl took one look at him and then turned to Wendy. ‘You’ve brought this pretty boy, who can’t hammer a nail in straight let alone a fuckin’ pile, to get me out?’

Gavin grinned. ‘Always great to get a little feedback on the job – lets a man know how he’s doing.’

‘If you think he can talk me into fuckin’ leaving you’re mad.’

‘Who said anything about talking?’ Gavin scoffed. ‘I was just going to knock you out and drag your body to the kerb.’

Carl’s attention finally swung back to Gavin with a growl. ‘I’d like to see you try.’

Gavin shrugged and took a step forwards, just as Carl’s fist caught him on the side of the jaw.

The piling engineer’s head turned with the force of the punch and Carl’s fist immediately dropped as though he was stunned at what he had just done.

Gavin looked back at him. ‘You know, I was actually joking about hitting you. But now . . .
now I’m not
.’

He threw his fist into the fray but Carl blocked. So he launched another one that hit home.

Wendy’s hands went to her face. ‘Guys! Stop! I thought I could do this but I can’t.’

They ignored her. A chair overturned. Boots marked the vinyl.

‘This isn’t right!’ she cried.

You’re supposed to be the safety manager! Instead you’re in here encouraging two men to brawl! Are you crazy?

Without thinking she threw herself into the skirmish, intending to pull their arms apart. If she had thought about it, she would have realised that such a tactic would have been useless against the strength of two bulls with their horns locked together, but she wasn’t quite thinking clearly.