The Big Dig Read Online Free Page A

“Whyn’t ya stay a while, Carla?”
    â€œHeh,” Hector said.
    â€œI’ll stick with Marian.”
    She flashed me a smile as I helped her jam trash into an overstuffed can. We made good time over the cobblestones, no more than two minutes from the rotunda to the barriers and the chain-link fence.
    Wonder of the world it may have been, but to me it looked like a huge hole in the ground, a gaping horizontal wound bridged by decking, stuffed with scaffolding, trucks, and mysterious machinery, bristling with pipes and hoses. One guy was pushing a broom around the hard-packed earth at the bottom of the massive trench. The rest were milling aimlessly, leaning against corrugated metal storage sheds, sitting on piles of iron bars. At union wages, they were an expensive bunch of bench-warmers.
    Horgan was up top, yelling at a driver sitting high in the cab of a red truck with NORRELLI AND CO. painted in white letters on the door. The boss waved his arms angrily, pointed and shouted. The truck driver had the world’s weariest expression on his heavily lined face, as though he’d heard every argument a hundred times and nothing could faze him, certainly not a red-faced construction company boss. He shrugged as though it were an effort.
    Horgan’s hands were curling into fists, uncurling, curling again, and I wasn’t sure he wasn’t about to reach for the door handle and take a poke at the driver. O’Day was nearby, yakking into a cell phone. I didn’t recognize any of the hard hats. Those that weren’t down in the trench were keeping well back, eyeing the scene like it was on television.
    Marian made a beeline for her dream boss. I hung back, not eager to make myself conspicuous. Just because I didn’t recognize any of the laborers, didn’t mean there was no one on-site who wouldn’t recognize me. Not that there are a bunch of jailbirds on union construction crews, but I’d be kidding myself if I thought there was no crossover, no risk of being made as a former cop, especially if I stepped up and defused a situation that looked like it might turn violent.
    O’Day stuck his cell phone back in his tool belt. “Norrelli’s kid says we’re definitely on for tomorrow. He’s real sorry about today.”
    â€œFuckin’ bet he is.”
    â€œLeave it, Gerry.”
    â€œAnd let the whole damn crew sit?”
    â€œWe’ll pour first thing tomorrow.”
    â€œWe’re ready now!”
    â€œMr. Horgan? Maybe you could help me take a look at the man-loading charts.” Marian’s voice was as smooth as milk and twice as soothing. “They’ll need revision, and when we transferred them onto the new system, I’m not sure I got the procedure straight.”
    I could almost see Horgan’s blood pressure recede. He smiled down at her automatically, and it was then that I noticed his wife. She’d changed from suit to jeans and a heavy sweatshirt. Wearing a hard hat and vest, she melted into the crowd. I gave a quick glance at the workers closest to her, but Kevin Fournier wasn’t among them. If I’d had a camera I’d have taken her picture. I’ve never seen anyone look so alone in a crowd, so lost, so scared.

Chapter 4
    When I tried to reach Eddie after quitting time at three o’clock to get the lowdown on the Horgan assignment, I was told he was in a meeting, temporarily unreachable, might as well have been on the moon. So I left a message on his voice mail, and went to school.
    No, I am not taking keyboarding classes. I go to school, my local high school, Cambridge Rindge and Latin, to pick up my little sister, Paolina, for the simple reason that she’s been grounded for rotten grades and worse behavior, and can’t be trusted to go home alone.
    Her home is not my home. She lives with her mother and three younger brothers in a tiny house in Watertown. I lend her a “legal” Cambridge