pants, already soaked from the rain, but didn’t react.
Josie looked back at Skip, her mind still focused on the details. “What if Santiago came back? What if he realized he’d gotten into something, and he came back that night for help?”
Skip raised his eyebrows.
“Are there antidotes? Or first-aid procedures you follow for chemical burns?” she asked.
“Sure, to an extent. If he truly got into the chemicals I’m afraid he touched, he’d need much more than a first-aid kit.”
“But he might not know that.”
Skip looked skeptical. “He certainly knows basic first aid and safety procedures. He would have washed the chemicals off immediately and treated the skin. He’s been through a number of mandatory safety trainings. If his skin came into contact with those chemicals, he knew to approach a supervisor immediately for treatment.”
“What if he came back the night before he died and stopped at his locker to put on his boots? Would he have access to them?” she asked.
“Yeah. He’d been working here for several years. Had a clean personnel record. Some of the guys have keys so they can have access to the buildings they work in. We keep the buildings locked at all times, so we give them keys so they can get in and out during the day. He’s worked here long enough to have his own set. It’s kind of a badge of honor to have a set of keys. A trust issue.”
Josie nodded, putting together the pieces in her mind.
Skip’s cell phone rang and Josie listened as he spoke to someone about a request that the NRC had for paperwork. He glanced at Josie. “Diego needs help for a minute. Do you mind?”
Josie motioned toward the building. “Of course not. I’ll catch up with you later.”
She watched Skip jog across the parking lot and considered Santiago and the timeline of events. She felt certain his death was connected with the plant, and her hunch was it took place at night. When she and Dillon had come to the plant the security was lax. She assumed the plant had operated for so many years in the isolation of the desert with no security issues that the gaurds had become complacent. And it wouldn’t take long for the wrong person to pick up on the complacency.
Josie walked over to where Otto stood listening to Mitch brief his crew.
“I got a hunch,” she said.
“Do you now?” His surprise turned to a grin as he turned away from the group. “Fill me in.”
“Skip just confirmed that both Santiago and Brent Thyme were working with hazardous chemicals in the pilot unit the week before they both developed lesions on their arms or hands.”
Otto rubbed at the stubble on his chin. “Well, that could change things.”
“We could be looking at chemical burns—not radiation.”
“Maybe the CDC can sort that one out.”
“I’m still stuck on Santiago’s boots. I’d lay money on the fact that he and Thyme got into something they weren’t supposed to, and he came back to make it right. He came back into the plant and put his boots on as a security measure. My hunch is, he left a dead man.”
Otto nodded slowly, thinking it through.
“Remember the first day we came and met Diego, and he took us for a quick tour around Unit Seven?”
He nodded.
“There was a small room on the right side of the building that houses their security tapes. Diego said they don’t monitor them, but they’re digitally archived. I worked with a similar setup last year when the Family Value installed their system.”
“I remember.” He frowned. “You planning on viewing the tapes after we’re done here?”
“I’m going now. Skip just said employees with good personnel records are allowed keys to the various buildings. I want to get to those tapes before someone else does.”
“Diego know you’re planning on viewing the tapes?” Otto asked.
“He’s busy.”
“Skip know?” he asked.
“He’s busy too.”
“And what if one of those two killed Santiago?”
“All the more reason for me to check this out now. Cover for me?”
Otto sighed and pulled his cell phone out of his shirt pocket. He flipped it open. “It’s on with the volume turned up. You call if anything looks out of place. Let me know when you get the video pulled up.”
Josie walked quickly across the parking lot and through the gate into the production area. She walked around the track until she reached the building labeled as Unit Seven, keeping an eye open for Diego and Skip, but she saw no one. The action was