no time send a message to Idalie. He wanted to take her to dinner. To celebrate. He was on the fence about the last gift. In his excitement, he wanted to give it her tonight. But he knew he should save it for Christmas.
Traffic was always heaviest later in the day and was no exception, being just days from Christmas. The tree was being delivered Christmas Eve, so he really only had one more day. The carriage pulled up on the back side of the job off of 7th, and Ed crossed the dirt lot, heading for the bottom floor of the first building. The guards were at the edges of the site. He could see three of them before he walked into the first floor. The site had been cleaned again, after the last vandalism, so he walked the ground floor, checking the fittings, the steel beams. The workers were gone. It was dinner time for most people, or close to it. He stood in front, looking up. Each of the floors was well-lit after all the accidents. He didn't want any more trouble and the gates had been rebuilt another two feet higher, making it harder to jump them without being seen.
He checked his watch. Where was Hal?
Idalie had gone to the house but Ed was not there, something about more trouble at the job site. The streets were busy and the trolley even busier, so she walked there. The snow had stopped and it was just cold now, so she moved as fast as she could to keep warm. she rounded the corner. The gates were higher and she looked for one of the guards. to let her inside.
Why were there no guards on the busiest side of the site?
"Hallo!" she called out. "Hallo!" She walked the length two times before she saw the broken chain and pulled open the end of the fencing and walked into the lot. "Edward? Somebody?" She heard a groan and saw movement in the dirt yard by the east end. What she had taken for supplies covered with a oil tarp was a man. She ran over. It was one of the guards.
"Are you okay, sir? What happened." She knelt down beside him as he tried to sit up. "Have you seen Mr. Lowell? Mr. Green?"
"He hit me from behind. Where's Charley? The other guard?" She looked around be saw nothing. There were more guards in back. She wasn't sure what to do first. Find the guards. Get a policeman.
From somewhere above, she heard voices. "Edward!" She scanned the upper floors, where electrical lights were bright an almost blinding when one looked up at them. Then she saw the shadows. The silhouettes of two men on the topmost floor, standing near the scaffolding.
Buddy MacFarland was trouble. He'd worked for Ed for over a year before he'd finally fired him and hired a new site boss. "What are you doing here, MacFarland?"
"What do you think, Ed?" he said in that cocky, belligerent manner that caused trouble on the job even when there was no trouble to be had.
"I think you've been up to no good."
"And you'd be right."
"I would guess Hal and Wheeler are not coming, since I'm the one who fired you."
"Smart man. It's just you and me."
"I thought you had left town. We looked for you after the first break in and were told you moved on to Philadelphia."
"I did. A lousy workman's job is all I could get with no references. You ruined me. And Philly is just a short train ride away."
"This is stupid. Dangerous. Go on. Get out of here now and I won't press charges."
"You think you can get away from the guards"
"I already have and half of them are unconscious."
Ed heard someone on the scaffolding below, hoping it was one of the guards, so he moved away, talking, drawing MacFarland with him, feeding his mad ego to keep his attention until the man's back was to the scaffolding, which was to only way to the top floors.
But it was not a guard who rose up through the scaffolding ladder in a skirt.
Edward panicked. How the hell was he going to save her with this madman threatening to push him off. She raised a finger to her lips, took a step onto the wood flooring just as MacFarland turned around.
It all happened so fast. He had the image of Idalie swinging her purse through the air. It hit MacFarland square in the head and he went