Mayte came around the desk and knelt down, watching obediently. "Mama, Kerry's friend, Colleen, just came to the office and said to tell everyone who is talking that Kerry did not get hit by Dar. Did you know that?"
Maria stopped in mid dial and clicked the phone off. "Did I know that it was not so? I never once even thought that it was. Was there people saying that?"
"She said that there were, but I did not hear anything like that," Mayte said. "People do not say such things to me, I think, because they are afraid you will hit them."
"Good." Maria nodded briskly. "I will send a note to Conchita and Rose, and those others so whatever they are saying, they will stop. I have got them good chained."
"Trained, mama." Mayte murmured. "But I am glad it is not true. I would not like to think Kerry could get hurt that way."
Maria leaned on her desk. "I will tell you something. Dar may be many, many things and some people may think she is tough, and mean, and would do something like that. But I know in my heart that before she would do any little thing to hurt Kerry, she would faster jump off the building."
Mayte nodded. "I think so too." She hesitated. "But mama, I did hear something that really bothered me just before. Some people are saying that they are going to break up, and they have heard Kerry talk about leaving. Do you think that's true?"
Maria turned in her chair and stared at her daughter. "Como?" She said, astonished. "They told you that? Who told you that?"
Mayte shook her head. "No, they did not tell me, Mama, I heard. It was in the bathroom. They did not know I was there." She explained. "One was the woman who works over near the little room with all the books here, and the other I did not know."
Maria was quiet for a brief time, as she pondered what to do. "Mayte, no, I do not think that is true at all." She finally said. "But we must find out who is saying these things, and why they are saying them."
"Okay." Her daughter agreed. "Then we can throw food at them, yes?"
"Tch." Maria gave her a look. "That was not funny."
"Mama, yes it was." Mayte told her. "Kerry said it was very funny. She is so sad there are no pictures." She got to her feet. "But, yes, we should find out who is being so mean, and make them stop it. I know it would hurt Kerry very much if she heard someone say that. I think she really is very devoted."
"Si." Her mother agreed. "First, let me do this thing I want to show you. Have you gone for lunch yet?"
Mayte fidgeted a little. "I was going to meet someone for lunch, Mama."
Maria looked at her, then made a clucking sound. Mayte blushed, and shrugged. "It is not that person with the pins again, is it?"
Mayte shook her head.
"Dios Mio." Maria dialed the phone. "Please god, that you find someone nice like Kerrisita who I don't have to worry about being a pincushion."
Mayte sighed. "It would be nice if Kerry were twins." She admitted mournfully.
Her mother paused, and gave her a look.
"Don't you think so?"
"Dios Mio." Maria glanced at the ceiling, then looked down as the phone was answered. "Hello, Senor Clemente? Si, this is Maria. Yes, I have something I need for you to do for me."
ANDREW LOOKED UP as the door slammed, recognizing one of the two women in charge of the computers. She stopped and looked around, then headed determinedly toward him. Since he was the only one left in the trailer, it wasn't unexpected, so he turned and faced her waiting in neutral silence.
"I'm looking for the crew chief," the woman said, stopping in front of him.
Andrew rotated his head and looked round the small trailer. "He ain't here." He drawled politely.
"I can see that. Where is he? I need to speak to him right now." Shari snapped.
"Wall." Andrew sniffed. "I do believe he said he was goin' to get him some lunch."
Shari looked at her watch. "When?"
"'Bout half hour past."
Visibly disgusted, Shari turned and regarded the trailer. "Did he say where?" She turned again and stared at Andrew. "With all this going on, how could he have just left?"
"He was hungry?" Mild, blue eyes blinked back at her. "Feller's entitled to have him some lunch."
"Not on my dime." The woman paused. "Did I meet you somewhere before? Or are you just from around here?"
A corner of Andrew's lip twitched. "Ah do believe we have never met. I surely would have remembered it."
"Whatever." Shari turned and headed for the door. "When he gets back, you tell him to call me. Otherwise, I can arrange for him to find another job." She turned, pausing on the steps out. "Sure you can remember all that?"
"Ah do believe I can," Andy said. "If that there feller does come back, ah will surely tell him."
Halfway out the door, Shari stopped. "If?"
Andy got up and stretched, his hands touching the roof of the trailer as he shook the kinks out of his tall frame. "Yeap. He done took all that there paperwork with him, and ah figure he probly headed back to his office or something."
"Shit." Shari slammed the door and stomped down the steps making the wall of the trailer shake.
Andrew lowered his arms and chuckled, half turning as the back door opened and the supervisor returned wiping his hands off on the tails of his shirt.
"Hey, did I hear that woman in here?" The super asked.
"Yeap." Andy nodded. "I done told her you took off for the day."
The super started laughing. "You did?" He walked over and slapped Andrew on the back. "Damn, I like you Ugly. I'm gonna give you a damn raise." He went to his desk and looked out the window. "There she blows...I mean goes...what'd she want, anyway?"
Andrew returned to his sorting task, making marks on a sheet of paper. "Ah do not know," he answered honestly. "Just wanted to talk to you."
"Ahhh...it'll wait." The super sat down at his desk. "Last thing she asked me to do was submit one of her orders six times. What kind of bullshit was that? Must be nuts."
Andy's eyebrow lifted. One thing he was fairly sure of was that whatever the woman did, it was for a purpose, and the purpose was probably something he wasn't going to like.
Just like he didn't like the woman herself.
"WHAT?" Kerry frowned, listening to Mark's voice on the cell phone. "Tell me this again?" She glanced up as Ceci re-entered the living room. "They said what?"
"It's a crock, boss." Mark sounded more than peeved. "Son of a bitch. I called them to find out a ship status on the order, and they told me it was on hold because they were out of stock."
Kerry's one good eye narrowed. "You didn't hear that when you placed it the other day?"
"Nope, I had a seven day delivery quoted," Mark said. "So I called our rep, and he said there wasn't anything he could do--out of stock is out of stock-- but he could get us hooked up through a distribution channel provider."
"At list price," Kerry said.
"Yeah."
"Problems?" Ceci sat down on the love seat and picked up her teacup, sipping it as she watched Kerry's face. Her usual good humor had vanished, and the gentle planes had hardened into a much sterner profile.
"Bastards." Kerry murmured. "Mark, that can't be an accident. We're all using the same gear. Someone got to someone."
"That's what I thought." Mark agreed readily. "But the rep won't budge, said someone above him released the shipment, some big customer apparently."
Kerry folded her arm over her stomach and stared past the glass doors. "We're big customers, Mark."
"That's what I told him. And told him. And told him," Mark said. "I don't think there was squat he could do, Kerry. I even asked to talk to his boss and got told he was out of the country."
"Pfft." Kerry snorted in derision.
"So what do you want to do? Go with the distribution order? Maybe we can shave off some costs somewhere else?"