Stealing Shadows - Hiding In The Shadows Part 21

could hear was the sound of rus.h.i.+ng water."

"Water?"

"Yes. Like a waterfall, or water coming out of a pipe at high pressure.

just water. just water and darkness and that awful smell ... "Right here

is where we ran into the problem." Max Sanders, owner of the MayfairConstruction Company, jabbed a stubby finger at the blueprints spreadout on Kane's drafting table. "Without some kind of correction, andfast, this wall's coming down, Kane.

There are already cracks in the foundation."

Kane frowned. "Let's see the materials list again."

"Jed swears It's a design flaw rather than construction or materials."

"He would." The foreman always did.

"Not that I agree with him." Sanders produced the materials list. "But

I've looked the stuff over, and it's just what you insisted on, the best quality and well above code."

"So why is the foundation cracking?" Kane mused.

"Exactly. I honestly don't believe the crew picked up, Kane." Sanders darted a quick, apologetic glance at Faith.

Kane could have told him that she wasn't listening and so wouldn't be offended by the language. She was sitting on the sofa on the far side of the room with a magazine open on her lap, but as far as he could see she hadn't turned a page in more than twenty minutes. She had retreated into herself not long after they had arrived.

He didn't blame her. What she had experienced had upset him, and he'd

gotten it second-hand. Or third-hand.

Was it Dinah? Was she trapped somewhere, badly hurt and trying desperately to reach out?

But where? Where? So G.o.d d.a.m.ned maddening to know she was out there

somewhere and still, after all these weeks, have no clue where to lookfor her ... "So if it isn't materials or workmans.h.i.+p," Sanders said,"then What? I'm not questioning your design, Kane, but maybe there'ssomething neither of us could have foreseen. A fault in the ground,maybe, or something underneath the foundation that's causing unevensupport."

Kane forced his attention back to the job, as difficult as that was. Hewent over the materials list carefully, then studied the blueprintsagain. "Until last night, we hadn't had any heavy rain in weeks.

The geological survey said we're building on a solid clay base, with nogas pockets or ground water to undermine the foundation."

"We had to dig deeper than planned for the found- dation," Sandersreminded him.

"True." Kane opened a file and looked over the report from thegeologist. "But the ground should have been checked out far below thatlevel. I still don't see ..

"What?" Sanders demanded quickly when Kane obviously did see somethingin the report that bothered him. "Have you found something?"

Kane looked at him blankly for an instant, then shook off theabstraction and said, "According to this, there should be no problemsdirectly beneath the building. But there are also reports of springs andartesian wells in the general area, and both have caused problems inother buildings."

"But if the ground under ours is okay, would it be affected?"

"No, I took the water into account early on in designing the building."

Kane shook his head. "Let me work on the problem, Max. I'd rather findthe cause than just design a quick-fix patch to sh.o.r.e up that wall."

Sanders nodded but was clearly unhappy. "It's your design. But my crewcan't do squat until we get this taken care of, and I can't afford tohave them sitting around scratching their b.a.l.l.s for days. If it lookslike this is going to take a while, I'll have to put them to work onanother job, Kane."

"I'll let you know something by tomorrow, Max.

Don't worry. I'm no more eager than you are to delay work on thebuilding."

"I hear that."

Kane saw Sanders to the door, and when it had closed behind him, Faithsaid quietly, "Springs and artesian wells. That's what caught yourattention, isn't it?"

So she had been listening after all.

He sat down on a chair near the sofa. "According to what you've ...sensed, Dinah could be held underground. Maybe in a bas.e.m.e.nt or cellar.

If the sounds of water you're hearing are coming from a natural source, it could be a spring or well. "

"I guess." Faith rubbed her temple absently. "But it was ... so loud.

Water under tremendous pressure.

If it was natural, I don't see how anything could have been built nearit, not without having the structure undermined." She blinked, then saidsoftly, "It couldn't be that, could it? She couldn't be there, in yourbuilding?"

"I don't see how," Kane said. "The building site has been crawling withpeople for months, and the foundation is only now being closed in. Thestructure has been wide open, no hiding places anywhere."

"What about nearby?"

"Are there other buildings nearby? Of course.

Other office buildings, a hotel, a medical clinic, G.o.d knows what else."

"And even if we knew for a fact she was 'in that area, in one of thosebuildings, how could we possibly guess which one when we still don'tknow what this is all about? Why can't I remember?"

Kane started to reach out, then stopped himself.

He was becoming more and more aware of this urge to touch her, to beclose to her. Almost as if ... No. It wasn't that. Dinah was the one he wanted.

"You can't force it," he said finally. "And whether you remember or not,sooner or later we'll find out the truth."

She looked at him. "Will we? I can't help wondering how much you'll hateme if we find out that I am responsiblee for Dinah disappearing, forgetting us both involved in something dangerous."

Kane wanted to say he wouldn't hate her at all, but he wasn't sure itwas true. He wasn't sure he didn't hate her a little bit even now, fortying his emotions into knots. For wrecking his certainties.

The silence had dragged on just one moment too long when the office dooropened and Sydney Wilkes strolled in.

"I'm sorry, Kane-Sharon didn't tell me you had a visitor. h.e.l.lo, Faith."

This time, the silence was filled with a different kind of tension. Kanelooked from Faith's expression of surprise to his sister's dawningconfusion, and wondered if his own face was such a study inbewilderment.

"Syd, you know Faith?"

"Of course I know her." Sydney frowned as she looked at Faith. "I had todeal very closely with the Office of Building Inspections and Zoning onthat Andrews project, and Faith was the person I worked with. But Iguess I'm not so memorable." Quickly, Faith said, "I was in a caraccident a couple of months ago and lost my memory of practicallyeverything, including the people I knew."

"Really? How terrible for you." Sydney came to sit on the other end ofthe sofa, her face filled now with compa.s.sion. "That must be theloneliest feeling in the world." Before Faith could respond, Kane said,"What did you mean when you said you guessed you weren't so memorable,Syd?"

She laughed. "Injured vanity, I suppose."

He shook his head. "No, the way you said it implied that Faith was unusually memorable to you.

Why?"

Sydney looked uncomfortable. "You're reading too much into the comment,

Kane."

"I don't think so."

"Kane-"

"Sydney, part of Faith's lost memory might tell us who grabbed Dinah and

why. So if you know any- thing ... "

His sister looked at Faith, puzzled once again. "I wasn't aware you and Dinah knew each other."

"We were friends," Faith said.

"I see." Sydney shook her head. "Well, I don't, but that hardly matters.

Kane, there's nothing I know about Faith that could possibly help you

find Dinah.

We knew each other on the most superficial, businesslike level, nothing more."

"But she made an impression on you. Why?"

Sydney let out an impatient breath. "If you must know, it was because

she somehow misplaced the paperwork of two inspectors on that project, and we had to wait while the inspections were rescheduled.

Set us back two weeks."

"I'm sorry," Faith said.

Sydney smiled at her. "Well, I was upset at the time, but you did everything you could to get the second round of inspections done quickly, even worked overtime, so I forgave you. Paperwork does get misplaced, after all, especially in an office whose sole purpose seems to be to generate paper."

Kane wasn't entirely satisfied with Sydney's explanation, but he let itgo. Because he couldn't see how the situation could have had anything todo with Dinah's disappearance, not when it happened last spring.

Sydney said to him, "I gather there's been nothing new on Dinah?" "No, nothing helpful."

"I'm sorry, Kane. I wish there was something I could do." Lightly, hesaid, "You're holding the company together, and that's more thanenough."

"I couldn't solve Max Sanders's problem," she said wit a grimace. "Imean, it looked like a structural failure to me, but I'm no engineer. Ihad no idea where to look for a cause or a solution."

"I'll deal with Max, Syd. You 'just keep the other projects on track andthe other clients happy, and Macgregor and Payne will be fine."

"I'll do my best. In fact, I have a meeting in ten minutes to go overplans with a couple of residential clients, so I'd better get backdownstairs to my office.

I just wanted to see you while you were here and find out if there wasany news."