Stone Cold

Chapter 6

I drove to the houses in the back of the development, pulling up behind Billy Lummick's truck. He sat on the porch steps of the house, eating a late lunch with another man and three boys. Lummick practically scowled as I parked, but the look faded into a neutral one when I stepped out onto the sidewalk. I gave him the best smile I could. "Mr. Lummick," I called in an upbeat manner. "Nice to see you again."

"Same to you, girlie," he replied, not bothering to stand or shake my hand as I walked up to the house. He took a big bite of his sub sandwich as the other men watched me with mild interest.

"I just wanted to let you know I was here to talk to your employees, if that was alright with you."

He slowly chewed the food in his mouth as he watched me with wary eyes. His demeanor had completely changed from yesterday, furthering my suspicions that he had it out for his brother. People who usually hire private detectives are eager for us to get all up in everybody's business to try and solve their cases, but it seemed like this man was hoping I would merely look at the evidence he gave me and call his brother out right off the bat.

I found it rather insulting. I crossed my arms over my chest and raised my eyebrows at him, waiting on an answer.

He sighed. "Fine. I don't care what you do."

I wondered briefly if he was so confident because he felt like no one knew what was going on, or if there was truly nothing to hide.

I dropped my arms, smiled and thanked him. "They're all at these houses, correct?" Once he confirmed that they were, I got back in my car and drove down to the farthest one. It looked as if they were playing leapfrog with their projects. Once one crew was done, they would pass up the other ones that were being worked and start on the next one down that hadn't been started yet.

I saw a young man, a large bag of grout on one shoulder, walk from a truck parked on the side of the road to the back through the gate on the side. I parked my car behind the truck and promptly followed, giving enough distance so as not to invade his personal space. Nonetheless, he gave me a wary glance as he entered the back yard. I gave him a soft smile, trying to ease his obviously concerned expression. I looked to the porch where two men were laying stones, and one other boy was mixing grout. The boy whom I'd followed set his bag of grout down and began helping another man cut stones.

I approached the men as close as I could without getting in their way and cleared my throat. "Excuse me."

They looked up. One seemed surprised, as if he'd been too into his work to notice me. The other asked, "Can I help you?" He sounded like he originated from the south.

"Yes, my name is Melissa Kennedy. I was just hoping I could ask you all some questions. I won't take much of your time."

"Listen, darlin'," the man replied. "The police already talked to us. We don't know nothin' about the boy that was buried."

I gave him the best surprised look I could manage. "What? What boy?"

"Oh. I guess you didn't know. You didn't see the taped-off house?"

"I saw it, but I figured someone had just broken in."

He shook his head. "Nope. They found a body."

I gave a quick glance around. One of the boys looked at me, another one mixed grout, but everyone else kept working. They seemed calm, not on edge at all.

"So what are ya here for?"

"I've been informed that someone is stealing money from the company. I was asked to investigate the situation."

They all looked confused. Either they had no idea what I was talking about or they were wonderful liars. I had a feeling none of them knew what was going on with either investigation, but my job was to ask questions and narrow them down anyway. If I went to Mr. Lummick or Detective Forrester, and told them no one was guilty of either crime but I had never asked them about it, it would make me look like an idiot.