CHAPTER7
Drake spentthe day much like the day before, tearing down walls damaged by the explosion. By mid-day, the men had completed the initial demolition needed to expose structural supports on the mountainside of the lodge. They stopped to take a break for lunch. Molly had packed food and drinks for the crew. They sat outside on the porch, breathing fresh air and discussing their progress.
“The structural engineer should be here after lunch to inspect the support beams,” Molly said. “If he doesn’t have time to complete his inspection today, he will return in the morning.”
“Will we need to be out of the way while the structural engineer is conducting his inspection?” Drake asked.
“Only out of the rooms he’ll be inspecting,” Parker said. “As of now, we won’t be tearing down any more walls unless the engineer thinks he needs to see more. We want the dust to settle enough he can see what he’s doing, which means we’ll move on to less dust-producing tasks until the engineer has completed his work.”
Molly picked up the conversation. “Once we have his report, we can determine our next steps as far as walls and ceilings are concerned. In the meantime, we’ll move to flooring. If we can salvage the original wood floors, we will. Where we can’t, we’ll need to rip out the damaged boards and prep for new flooring. The electrician will begin refitting damaged electrical lines tomorrow and bring anything that’s substandard up to code.” She smiled at the men. “Any of you ready to jump ship and join Hank’s Brotherhood Protectors?”
“I, for one, want to see this project through to completion,” Drake said.
The other men nodded their agreement.
Molly laughed. “Good. I’ll need all of you to make our deadline of this fall. That’s only a few months away. Barring any major setbacks, we should make that date.”
They were collecting their discarded wrappers and drink bottles when two white trucks pulled up in the parking lot in front of the lodge.
One of the trucks bore a logo for Strong Engineering. A man with salt-and-pepper hair stepped down with a clipboard in his hand.
The second pickup sported the logo for Greenway Construction. The man who climbed down from that truck crossed to the first guy, shook hands and followed him up to the lodge.
Molly met the man with the clipboard at the top of the porch steps. “Doug, thank you for making time in your busy schedule.” She shook hands with the man and turned to the men gathered around. “This is my demolition team. Guys, this is Douglas Strong of Strong Engineering. He might have questions for you as he goes.” She turned to the man behind Doug and shook his hand. “Frank, I’m glad you could make it. We’re still comparing bids and haven’t awarded the contract, but we’d like to get your take on the work that will need to be done. Guys, this is Frank Matson, the owner of Greenway Construction.”
Frank shook her hand, and then Parker’s, and nodded to the men gathered around.
Molly and Parker led the men through the rooms where the special operations demolition team had cleared the debris away from the walls against the mountain.
Drake and the others worked on the floors in the kitchen, where they broke up cracked tile, loaded it into wheelbarrows and removed it from the building.
Thirty minutes into their work, Parker appeared in the kitchen.
“Drake.”
Drake wiped the dust from his hands onto his jeans and followed Parker through the dining room into the first room he’d worked. The one with the hidden room where he’d found the body.
Doug Strong held out his hand. “I understand you’re a Navy SEAL.”
Drake nodded and shook the man’s hand.
“I did six years in the Navy. A recruiter convinced me to join the Navy and see the world.” He laughed. “I spent all six years in the belly of a nuclear submarine and then used my GI bill to get my engineering degree. Now, I can’t get enough fresh air and sunshine.”
“I don’t know how you did it. I wouldn’t want to spend one year, much less six in a tin can.”
“And I wouldn’t want to walk into a hive of Taliban.” He grinned. “Yet here we are in the Crazy Mountains of Montana.” His smile faded. “Tell me about this wall.”
Drake explained how he’d torn away the plaster from the other sections, but when he got to a gap, he had broken through what had appeared to be a doorway into a stone-walled room carved out of the mountainside.
“The good news is that the stone is intact. No cracks or damage of any kind. The solid rock probably shielded this room from the explosion in the mine, sparing the beam any structural damage. This room and the ones above it should be good to go.” Doug shot a glance toward Molly. “Are you going to keep the stone room open or seal it?”
Molly’s gaze met Drake’s. “I haven’t decided. It’s part of the lodge’s history. I’d love to know what it was used for, but a body being discovered in it might be too creepy for our clientele. We hope to attract families.” She shrugged. “I guess, to be determined.”
Molly turned to Frank Matson. “Greenway Construction was one of the contractors who did some work during the addition twenty years ago and the remodel fifteen years ago. Did you keep records of the employees who worked the jobs?”
Frank shook his head. “You’ll have to talk to Margaret Keller, my office manager. I didn’t own the company back then. It belonged to my father-in-law. I bought him out when he retired twelve years ago. I doubt the employee records go back that far. I only keep mine for ten years and then purge. I’m almost sure those records were part of my ten-year purge.” He frowned. “Do you think one of my father-in-law’s guys sealed the woman in the stone room?”
Molly’s gaze met Drake’s. “Someone put her there and then covered the door with plaster. It had to have happened during one of the construction phases. The lodge was continuously operational otherwise. Someone would’ve noticed work being done in one of the rooms. It was just a thought.”