The Girl in the Hard Hat (11 page)

Wouldn’t it be great if she could just quietly get her hands on the Barnes employee manifest? A quick glance at that would give her the truth without any need of a fuss. Barnes Inc and their subcontractors had to amount to the majority of personnel on this site. TCN would make up the rest, plus the usual guys who worked for the port.

She glanced at Chub. He was possibly the kindest person she’d met since she’d started working at Barnes Inc. If she asked nicely, he’d probably let her have an unauthorised look. Still, there was no incentive for him to do so. He may even get into trouble for it. Even nice people had their limits, or as her mother had warned,
their price
. She drummed her fingers on the desktop.

Should she ask him and risk him wanting something in return? She hated being obligated to anyone.

‘It’s my biceps, isn’t it?’ Chub said without looking at her. ‘That’s why you’re staring at me.’

‘Er . . .’

He held up an arm so that she could have a better view. ‘They’re pretty big, aren’t they? If only they didn’t
hang
like that . . .’

Her mouth slowly turned up. ‘Cobber,’ she began slowly.

‘Yes.’ He tucked his two chins in his chest as he looked over the rims of his small round spectacles at her.

She wheeled her chair closer to his desk, clasping her hands in her lap so tightly the knuckles turned white. ‘I was wondering if you might help me with something. You see I’ve been trying to locate someone in town. And it would make my search process so much shorter if you’d allow me to look at the Barnes Inc employee manifest.’

She grabbed her lower lip between her teeth and held it.

Chub was silent for a moment, as he continued to study her over his glasses, then without blinking he said, ‘What’s their name? Maybe I could look for you.’

Her breath eased out. ‘His name is Hector. Not sure of his last name but I know he is or was a welder.’

Chub turned back to his computer and started moving his mouse and pressing keys. She clenched her teeth in excitement, unable to relax.

He only kept her waiting a few minutes and she couldn’t help but wish she had asked this before.

‘I’ve found one Hector on the list. Hector Warner is his full name. He’s not a welder though, he’s a site supervisor on Gavin’s team.’

The beat of her heart roared in her ears. It was entirely possible that her father, having been a welder when he was with her mother, had now risen through the ranks to become site supervisor. Was it all finally coming together today? Had she found her father after all this time, and so easily too?

She put a hand to her chest. ‘What colour is his hair?’

Chub looked up at her in some amusement. ‘I don’t know. Are you okay? You look like I do after I discover I’ve eaten my lunch for morning tea.’

Her colour returned and she managed a wry smile. ‘Yep, it’s just been a long time coming.’

‘Been looking for this guy a while now, have you?’

‘Sort of.’ She didn’t meet his eyes.

‘It’s an ex-boyfriend, isn’t it?’ he enquired. ‘The bastard owes you money, doesn’t he?’

‘No, no.’ She laughed evasively. ‘Nothing like that. I can’t wait to meet him though. Would he be on the wharf if I took the bus out?’

‘He would be,’ Chub began tentatively, as though he were about to deliver some bad news, ‘if he hadn’t resigned a few weeks ago.’

‘
What?!
’

‘I know,’ he shrugged. ‘Awful luck but that’s what it says on the list.’

‘May I look?’

‘Sure.’ He slid back.

She moved her chair closer so she could view his screen. Chub was right, the list provided no more information than he’d already told her. Name, occupation, site team, start date, end date.

‘How do I find out how old he is and where he’s from?’ she asked. ‘Do we have a copy of his resume or licence to practise?’

Maybe it had his birth date and/or contact details on it. After all, if he was in his thirties or something she could end the search there. But if his age seemed reasonable, at least she’d have a possible address or phone number.

‘Yes, actually we do. But it’s not in this file.’ He closed it and as he did so his computer froze. ‘Oh shoot, looks like the server’s down again.’

If it were socially acceptable to scream in frustration she would have done so. Instead she was forced to sit there, on the edge of her seat, in silence, as Chub tried a number of manoeuvres to unfreeze his computer, all without success.

‘I’m sorry, little mate, I’m going to have to get back to you later.’

Unfortunately, the server did not come back on before knock-off. It was the most frustrating hour of Wendy’s life. On the return drive to camp, she hit upon the idea to ask Ethel about it when she went to see her about the air conditioner. If Hector had lived in the camp he may have left a forwarding address with the camp administrator. Hadn’t she herself filled out her Perth address on those forms Ethel had given her to complete?

As luck would have it, when she reached the camp reception Ethel was away from her desk – a
Back in fifteen minutes
sign was taped to the counter. She stood outside reception, leaning on the wall by the door. She would see Ethel literally the second she returned.

It was a typical Pilbara evening for early October: warm and balmy. The camp smelled faintly of red earth and old leather. Insects clicked, keeping time as she waited. Just then she spied a blue-tongued lizard sitting right in the middle of the main road across from reception. The beast was fully grown, at least half a metre in length, and it looked like a mini dragon, its scaly pewter coat decorated with glossy black stripes.

Majestic little fellow
, she thought, hoping he would move soon. It was knock-off time and ute traffic was pretty busy. She looked down to find a stick. Maybe she could poke him on his way.

Just then she heard the roar of an engine – probably someone eager to get back to camp after a hard day’s work. She stepped away from the reception building, fear for the blue-tongue propelling her forwards.

Sure enough, a Barnes Inc ute was tearing up the road. She put a hand over her mouth but just at the last second the vehicle screeched to a halt about a metre in front of the lizard.

She watched in amazement as the ute door opened and Gavin jumped out. The sight of his windswept hair made her falter and step back a little. Goosebumps broke out on her flesh even though it wasn’t the least bit cold.

He hadn’t noticed her though; his eyes were trained on the blue-tongue. With swift, purposeful movements, he walked over to the languid lizard and expertly picked it up.

Her eyes widened as she watched him speaking to it. She couldn’t hear what was being said because she was too far away, but from the lopsided grin on his face she guessed it was a friendly telling off. He walked over to the side of the road and placed the lizard under an acacia tree. It turned its back on him and trotted off over the red pebbled earth. With a smile and shake of his head, Gavin returned to his vehicle and drove into the camp car park.

‘What the hell are you looking at so bloody intently?’ an abrasive voice asked.

Wendy jumped almost guiltily as Ethel joined her at the door of reception. ‘Oh, er . . .’ She rubbed her temple. ‘Nothing.’

‘Whatever you say,’ Ethel replied, utterly uninterested. ‘Are you just darkening my door to be a pain in the arse or do you actually want something?’

Wendy cleared her throat.
Am I missing something here? Or are you still a bitch?

She tried her luck anyway. ‘I just came to thank you for the new air conditioner.’

Ethel’s bushy eyebrows met over her nose. ‘What air conditioner?’

Uh-oh. Wasn’t her.

Anxious to change the subject in case Ethel decided to take the new air conditioner off her, she shrugged. ‘You know what, doesn’t matter. I actually have something else to ask you – something more important.’

Not that she believed for a second Ethel would help her find Hector given her lack of knowledge about the air conditioner. But what did she have to lose in asking? She followed Ethel into the reception building. ‘I’m looking for someone who I think might have lived in this camp. I was wondering if he left a forwarding address.’

To her surprise, after a moment, Ethel grunted, went behind her desk and sat down. ‘I’ll look it up for you this once. But I’m not running a free friend-finding service here. Next time, just get his mobile number and track him down in your own time.’

‘Absolutely,’ Wendy readily agreed.

Ethel adjusted her computer screen and then put her hands to the keyboard. ‘What’s the name?’

‘Hector. Hector Warner.’

Her bony hands flew across the keys and then pressed enter with a flick.

‘Hmmm.’ Ethel leaned in, putting her chin on her palm. It took all Wendy’s willpower not to reach across the desk and swivel the screen around to face her.

‘Nope.’

‘Nope what?’ Wendy faltered.

‘He never lived in the camp.’ Ethel clicked the menu off and sat back in her chair. ‘So how are you liking your donga?’

‘Huh?’ Wendy was still busy trying to process the first part of Ethel’s response about Hector.

‘Your donga,’ Ethel snapped impatiently. ‘The one I specially picked out for you, girlie.’

It was then that Wendy realised why Ethel had helped her with Hector. It was because she wanted her to stay longer so she could gloat about the donga.

Nobody does anything for nothing, remember?

Her mouth stretched into a wide grin as she realised her silence on the subject must have been killing Ethel.

Clasping her hands together in front of her chest, Wendy said, ‘It’s perfect! Thank you! Wouldn’t change a thing.’

At Ethel’s chagrined expression, she left the building, dusting her hands with satisfaction as she shut the door. It was her first gratifying win since she’d got there.

The only thing was, if Ethel hadn’t given her a new air conditioner then who had? Was it the same person who had fixed her flyscreen? A Good Samaritan?

Or a secret admirer.

Was it something she needed to worry about? She didn’t know. So far this person’s actions hadn’t been creepy so much as nice.

Nobody does anything for nothing.

She frowned. She had no choice and no leads. She’d just have to wait and see.

Her mind returned instead to the news about Hector. Technically, there were no hard and fast rules that if you worked on the job you had to live in the camp. Maybe he lived in Wickham or Point Samson or even a bit further out. The point was, even though he’d quit Barnes Inc, he might still be living very close by.

Her excitement kicked back up.

So close.

After a quick, cleansing shower she went straight to the mess for dinner. It was the first time in a week since she had done so, so unwittingly she created a bit of a buzz when she walked in. If she hadn’t wanted to be alone with her thoughts, her spirits would have lifted slightly. It was the first sign of friendliness the guys had shown her in days. Ever since she’d started handing out memos and carrying out inspections, they’d been doing their absolute best to avoid her.

On the one hand, it was great not to have to deal with the flirtatious teasing. On the other, it was just as unpleasant to be treated like someone with an infectious disease. It wasn’t as though she was deliberately picking on people. Any criticism she made, she gave serious thought to and only delivered if absolutely necessary. Tonight, however, she was off duty and the men in the mess seemed to sense that. They waved to her, shouted greetings across the room and offered the news that apart from lasagne there was a lamb roast which she might like if she thought Charlie’s efforts were ‘safe’ enough to taste.

Charlie was the new chef who had started last week. He was very young and very shy. She had a feeling the guys enjoyed embarrassing him as much as they did her. She smiled reassuringly at him as he stood behind the steaming counter and requested a little of his lamb roast. Relief swept through her as she spied Lena and Sharon sitting nearby. She made a beeline for them.

‘Hi, guys!’

Surprisingly, they were equally pleased to see her. She knew Lena had been struggling a little with Wendy’s role as safety manager. All the engineers were. But to give the girl some credit she hadn’t uttered a single rude word to her, which couldn’t be said about Fish or Craig or any of the other engineers.

Except Gavin.

Gavin had said nothing at all. Stone cold silent on the subject.

Do you honestly want him to say something? Isn’t it better that he stays away from you?

She blushed as her mind automatically revisited each encounter they’d had. He was flirtatious, shameless and persistent. But she still had no intention of taking him up on the offer he was obviously making.

Lena interrupted her thoughts.

‘We were just talking about you.’ Her smile was bright. ‘What are you doing on the weekend?’

‘Oh, we have this Sunday off, don’t we?’ The realisation was like picking up fifty bucks on the side of the road. ‘I completely forgot!’

‘How on earth did you do that?’ Sharon laughed. ‘I’ve been counting the days.’

They only got one Sunday off a fortnight. They had to wait five weeks before they earned R and R, which was a week off. Most of the boys flew home for it, but some stayed to bum around in town. It was definitely a long time to wait for a break but Wendy had been so preoccupied with her search for her father and getting a head start on her new job that every day had seemed to blend into the other.

Radar and a man called Leg were also seated at the same table. They immediately put their cutlery down. ‘What’s it to be this time, Madame E? Another fishing trip?’

Lena stuck out her tongue. ‘Who said I was inviting you? This is going to be a Girls’ Day Out.’ She turned to Wendy. ‘What do you reckon? A day on the beach, bit of a swim and a sunbake with your gal pals? We can have lunch in Point Samson or something.’

‘It sounds wonderful. But . . .’
I might be tracking down Hector Warner that day.

‘But what?’ Lena seemed disappointed. ‘You can’t mean to stay in the camp. You’ll be bored batty. Tell her, Sharon.’