Truth and Humility

by J. A. Dennam

  And that vein in your neck is doing push-ups, Mac thought when his boss took the book and unceremoniously tossed it into his locker. Not fooled, Mac watched the man head to the showers behind an intense look of sorrow.

  Damn.

  ____________

  Dark thunder mingled with a chilling wind, gravel beneath the soft rubber of her climbing shoes. The pungent blooms of Sweet Annies wafting around her with a trace of…what was that? Chimney smoke with a weird wet twinge. Someone’s first fire marking the start of Fall. No lights, only shadows in two shades of night. Rich, muffled roar of water moving along the bank. Close.

  Footsteps. She turns. A small arc of blinding blue. Before the p; bsp;current renders her helpless, she sees the face of her attacker dimly lit by the flash. It is her own.

  A forceful hand shook him awake. Groggy, Derek lifted his head from the pillow, blinked in the darkness. At first he thought he was twelve again and his little sister had just had a nightmare. “I’m up,” he mumbled and plopped his head back to the pillow.

  “I think I just had my first memory,” Danny whispered, crouched beside him. “Well, it was a dream, but I think I’ve had it before, I just didn’t know that it meant anything and I could even smell things, it was so real!”

  Derek opened an eye, could see her shape against the whitewall behind her. She was shivering in her pajamas though it was warm enough that he’d kicked off the covers. He propped himself up on an elbow and regarded her in his skivvies. “You dreamt about the night at the river?”

  “Yes!”

  “Did you remember anything? Anything about Rena?”

  Danny threaded her fingers through her hair, gave it a frustrated toss. “I think I remember being shocked. But it was weird, because I was the one with the stun gun and it was as if I was looking through Rena’s eyes.”

  “So you didn’t see her, just yourself attacking her.”

  Another violent shiver ran through her and Danny stood up, hugged her arms. “Pretty much.”

  It was clear to Derek what she wanted and he jerked a thumb. “Hop in.” She bounded over him and they both faced each other on their stomachs in the double bed as they’d done countless times growing up when she’d needed to talk to someone. He welcomed the camaraderie. It had been disturbingly absent since the night in the tree house, since the truth had come out. “You slept in your room again,” he observed tiredly.

  Her large eyes glazed over in the dark. “I can’t go back to the tree house. I tried and all I saw was him.”

  Anger roused Derek by another degree. “You don’t owe him your happiness, woman. You don’t owe him anything.”

  Danny hugged the pillow tighter between her elbows. “I took a lot from him.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  “If my dream is any indication, it would seem as if I did.”

  Derek sighed, a long frustrated breathy sound that morphed into a growl. “When I was a suspect, did you honestly believe I was capable of hurting a woman?”

  She sniffed, lightly shook her head. “No, of course not.”

  “You just knew, right? Blind faith.”

  “Yeah.”

  His touch was gentle as he tucked a loose lock of hair behind her ear. “Ditto.”

  Danny teared up with emotion. Her brother, her family didn’t need to know the details to believe she was innocent. Why couldn’t Austin have such blind faith in her? He’d rather believe she was guilty. Even after that incredible night they shared that had changed her life forever. She could have sworn she’d seen love in his eyes, felt it radiate from his body into hers when they made love. When he was inside her.

  Shaking the image from her head, Danny squeezed her eyes shut tight and focused on Derek, the lengths her brother had gone to in order to protect her. It warmed her, though also added to the guilt that had been eating her alive for the past few days. Feeling sorry for herself, she whispered, “You are such an ass for throwing yourself under the bus for me.”

  Derek chucked her under the chin. “Love you, too, sis.”

  “Dumbass.”

  “I want to hear it one more time.”

  “Dumb-shit, dumbass.”

  “With feeling.”

  Despite her doldrums, a reluctant smile tugged at her lips. His teeth shone against his silhouette and she snorted into the pillow. “Stop it,” she ordered loudly, but the sound was muted against feather down. “I’m not ready to forgive you, yet.” Her eyes sought his again and she sobered. “Just because I’m the baby of the family doesn’t mean you can treat me like one. I’m a big girl. I deserved the chance to redeem myself.”

  Derek adjusted the pillow beneath him. “It was partly my fault, anyway. I blamed myself for being late. If I showed up on time, we would have been on the crag instead of in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

  “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”

  “And the insults just keep comin’.”

  “I mean it, Derek. What if you went to prison because of this? Your only crime was answering a phone. Would you have just sat in a cell for twenty-to-life and played housewife to some roided-out thug without fessing up?”

  His spine straightened at the insult. “What makes you think I would have been the bitch?”

  “This isn’t funny!” It took some effort to reduce her voice back down to a whisper. “Every time I think about it – and that’s all I think about – I just want to level something.”

  Derek frowned. “Shaw told me you’re doing a pretty good job of that at the grain plant.”

  Danny sighed, moved hair from her eyes. “Shaw has a big mouth.”

  “He cares about you.” Derek remembered how the kid who’d been hired on the previous summer had sulked when Danny left. He liked working with her, respected her ability and kept the new hires in line if a feminist thought entered their heads. “He’s afraid you’re going to hurt yourself if you continue to throw caution to the wind.”

  “I’m careful enough. You know how it is.” A humorless smile played at the corner of her mouth. “It’s the perfect job for me right now. There’s no need to be gentle, I have the freedom to mutilate rusty steel however I please.”

  The plant had been used in the turn of the century for dehydrating and processing alfalfa hay. Having shut down long ago, the hulking conglomeration of steel chutes, conveyers, hoppers and giant funnels had been deteriorated by the elements over time, had developed a thick patina of rust that now looked like a meticulous paintjob. It was purported to be haunted, therefore a huge draw to teens wishing to fulfill their adventuresome fantasies. To prevent an inevitable disaster, the plant had to go. And Danny was taking advantage, taking liberties with her cutting torch and sledgehammer that had ended in a controlled mishap

  on the site that day. She shrugged a shoulder. “Nobody was anywhere near that hopper when it broke away and I wanted to hear what kind of racket it would make when it fell.”

  Derek’s eyes twinkled. “Tell me.”

  “You’d think Armageddon had finally come. Shaw jumped the highest,” she rolled her eyes, “which is probably why he bitched.”

  “No, he bitched because you were up top. That thing could have wiped out something structurally important on the way down, taking you down with it.”

  “I’m not an amateur, Derek. Shaw is just jealous because he didn’t get a crack at it. Everybody was thinking the same thing I was, I’m just the only one with the authority and the balls to try it.”

  “Yeah, well…too big a ball sack will hobble any man, just you remember that, little sister.”

  Tired of the lecture – yet feeling strangely better – Danny scooted to the end of the bed and headed to the door. “Pot and kettle, big brother,” she threw over her shoulder. “Pot and kettle.”

  Chapter 21

  “Motor won’t budge, boss,” Mac informed when he finally made it down from the top of the two-story blender. At maxed load capacity, the scissor lift swayed as it lowered givin
g Mac a disturbing case of heebie-jeebies. He kept his fear of h wiand the lid are sealed tighter than a frog’s ass. We’re just going to have to take it down with the blades inside.”

  Austin shook his head, poured over the blender specs laid out on the table before him. “It’s too heavy. We’ll just have to cut away one of the feeding chutes from the top. Create an opening to give us access to the blades. If we can cut them out by hand, it’ll lighten the load just enough to be able to lower the tank intact without damaging our equipment.”

  “And why does the tank need to be intact?”

  “Got a buyer for it.”

  “Should we check the joints first? Make sure it’s solid before we put a man in there?”

  “Already done.” Austin checked his watch, frustration marring his brow. The motor should have been pulled already. Having to cut the blades out by hand will set them back almost a whole day. “We’ll cut the chute away now then I’ll start on the blades in the morning.”

  Mac took a few steadying breaths, then glanced up at the huge tank. Flanked by two towering conveyers that fed it from the top, the blender was used to mix ingredients before emptying the contents onto another conveyer below it. That conveyer had already been removed. “Hope you aren’t claustrophobic, boss,” he mumbled, half afraid the man would expect him to climb in that thing with him.

  As if reading his employee’s mind, Austin responded, “I’ll need you out here as a gopher in case I need anything.”

  “You going in alone?”

  “At first. If I can do it myself, that will free up the rest of you to work on the remaining conveyers. Maybe we can still stay on schedule.”

  ____________

  It was only ten-thirty in the morning and already Danny was covered in sweat from head to toe. The hardhat she wore more for shade than safety. She glanced down from four stories at the half-dozen vehicles in the lot below. Her red Jeep stood out and she could see how dirty it’s black ragtop had become from up there. Damned dirt road. She wondered how long her rims would last traveling back-and-forth over the cheese-grater surface. Of course, she could borrow a company truck. But sometimes after sending her men home, she would detour to places unknown for some much needed alone-time and her father always expected his trucks home strictly after work.

  The platform she was on towered over the tallest hopper in the plant. She’d saved that one for last considering the scaffolding she’d have to contend with. A flatbed trailer that was loaded to full capacity with scrap steel was being pulled from the lot at that moment while a truck philoldulling an empty one took its place.

  Shaw topped the last step with the necessary length of hose to fire up the cutting torch that rested on the platform below. Two years her junior, the kid was still a teenager, but exercised the work ethic of a responsible adult and carried the physique of one as well. He was tall, muscular, good looking with wheat-blond hair and intelligent gray eyes. She knew it bothered him when she’d tease him about his youth, call him a wetback, so she quit doing it some time ago. The man was sensitive around her, but didn’t appear to take it so harshly when teased by everyone else. Derek had told her it wasn’t the same coming from a female. She just had to accept there were certain concessions she’d have to make because of her gender.

  “I’ll need you to help me lower the lamps down before we start cutting,” she suggested, knowing she was the only one who could make it up to the stadium lights overhead without a ladder.

  Shaw leaned way back, looked up at the lights. “Nothing’s gonna fall down on me, is it?” he asked sheepishly, gauging her need for destruction this day.

  Danny threw him a sullen look. “I would never put you in danger, Shaw,” she reassured, sensing he still had issues with the crashing hopper.

  “Just yourself, huh?” he shot back, forgetting his place. When he realized he’d just dressed down his supervisor, his face heated and he pursed his lips. “Sorry,” he mumbled.

  Brushing it off, Danny tied a rope around her waste. Since the climbing pegs used to reach the lights in the old days were rusted and unreliable, she carefully shimmied up one of the light poles the old fashioned way while Shaw looked on from below.

  “Shouldn’t you hook on to something up there while you do that?” he asked, watching her straddle the horizontal bar that held the three large flood lamps she was working loose. Damn, but he’d really missed the pink tools.

  Danny struggled with one of the bolts, gave up and used her hammer to tap the handle of the wrench until the bolt came loose. “You just worry about the fixture, Shaw,” she admonished, growing tired of his fretting. “Don’t let it swing or it could hit something and break. Wouldn’t want glass all over you.”

  As she lowered the first fixture with her rope, he reached up to grab it when they both heard her name shouted from below. They both looked toward the source of the sound at the same time and the glass bulb exploded as it crashed into the pole.

  “Dammit, Shaw!” Danny yelled, clearly vexed with her crewmember. “What did I tell you?”

  “Sorry, Danny,” he mumbled, feeling awkward after having made such an uncharacteristic mistake.

  “You okay?”

  “Yeah,” he replied, brushing glass from his shoulders. “Someone down there is trying to get your attention.”

  Just as he said it, an ear-splitting whistle re-captured her attention. tenatte She squinted, pushed her hardhat up a notch to get a better look. “Mac?” she verbalized in confusion. The visual confirmation of the vehicle he’d driven made her swear. The Cahill logo on the driver’s side door was unmistakable. Just then the passenger door opened and Sue stepped out onto the dirt.

  “What do you want?” Danny yelled from her position four – no five – stories above.

  “I need to talk to you!” Mac yelled back, his wide face turned up toward the sun.

  “I’m working!”

  “It’s an emergency!”

  It would have to be in order for the Cahill loyalists to seek her out, Danny thought with distaste. The people whom she thought were her friends wanted nothing to do with her as long as her services weren’t needed. On her way down the pole she wondered what mishap had happened in the salvage yard this time. Another piece of equipment drive over the embankment? Someone’s lottery ticket get stuck in a tree? Like she didn’t have better things to do.

  “Who are they?” Shaw asked as she untied the rope.

  “Cahill’s crew,” she informed sourly and began her descent down the ladder.

  “I’ll come with you.”

  She didn’t object. When her feet hit the ground, Mac and Sue were right beside her.

  “There’s been an accident at the Minerva plant,” Mac said, worry distorting his features.

  “Just tell me why you’re here, Mac,” she sniped bitchily.

  “We were dismantling a blender and it broke apart from its moorings. Now it’s just dangling there and we have a man trapped inside. Nobody can get to him, Danny, but maybe you can.”

  The panic on Mac and Sue’s faces was clear and it rattled her slightly. But she stood her ground. “I don’t work for Cahill anymore.”

  Sue piped in to emphasize the urge in urgency. “We’re running out of time before that thing breaks loose, Danny, please! There’s a man inside and we know he’s conscious, but barely. We need to get him out. There’s no telling how badly he’s injured.”

  “Did you call the fire department,” Shaw asked from behind Danny.

  Sue and Mac both looked him over distastefully. Mac said, “Of course we did, but they won’t get near it until we stabilize the blender first and we can’t do it to their standards without wasting valuable time.”

  “Then they won’t let me get near it, either,” Danny deduced with a noncommittal shrug. “They have rules about that kind of thing.”

  Panic lent a strangled vibrato to Mac’s voice. “Not if you make it inside the blender without them knowing.”

  Her brows drew down in anger. �
��I’m not getting within a mile of any Cahill jobsite, Mac. I’ve been warned, remember? Austin will just have to handle this one without me.”

  “Danny…” Sue reached out, grasped her shoulder before she could walk away. “The man who’s trapped…it is Austin.”

  Several more of her crew members were walking toward the small group having finished loading the flatbed trailer with scrap metal. Danny didn’t notice. Shock waves spread through her body at the thought of Austin being injured or possibly killed. But her heart still warred with her brain. She shouldn’t care. She should send them away, let the fire department handle it. Her father would kill her because if she went with Mac and Sue, he would inevitably find out about her relationship with Cahill Salvage…and the man behind it.

  “Danny, please!”

  “SHIT!” she screamed, stomping her boot into the dirt and creating a small dust storm in the process. The tantrum did much to sort her priorities. “Shaw, send everyone home. I’m going with them.”

  “But Danny…”

  “Just do it!” She was mad enough, in no mood to deal with the kid’s protective nature.

  Shaw removed his hardhat when she did and refused to budge. “If you’re going, I’m going. Derek would kill me if he found out about this from someone else.”

  “Fine,” she snapped. “I might need you. In fact you can call Derek, have him meet us there, too.”

  Mac gave the kid his measure and opened the passenger door for Danny. “We don’t need them, Danny. Just you.”

  Danny worked to get her tool belt off while scooting to the middle of the bench seat. “If I’m going to risk my life for him, I need people around me that I trust,” she grumbled, consternation gnawing at her insides.

  Both doors slammed shut and suddenly Danny was sandwiched between two much larger people. Mac started the engine, threw the truck in reverse. “Danny, you can trust us as much as you did before.”

  Danny continued to stare straight ahead as the truck bounced out of the parking lot into the road. “Would you put your trust in people who turned their back on you?” she asked quietly.