Forbidden Ground (Cold Creek #2)(22)
It was illegal to insert objects into mounds and earthworks. The state of Ohio termed that vandalizing or desecration, a second-degree misdemeanor. Carson had told her about a couple of idiots who were adding their own fake artifacts to mounds, then trying to sell them as authentic. They had spent ninety days in jail and paid a $5,000 fine—for each mound. Maybe that was what had happened here. She’d have to ask him more about that.
Kate hurried down the mound, vowing she’d be back for that star. But all she could think of now was that she’d tell Grant about it and ask him if she could at least check out the top of his mound to see if there was anything similar. It was an excuse to get a better look at Mason Mound. She was almost tempted to go there first, explain to him later. But she didn’t want to get him more upset than he already was over Paul’s terrible death. She hoped he’d be in a better mood today than the depths of despair she’d left him in yesterday.
She tossed her equipment into her rental car and headed for the mill.
*
Grant was trying to keep his temper, but he could see Lacey was reveling in this chance to annoy him.
“All the lumber mills in this state and you choose this one to picket,” Grant said as he faced down her little crowd of protesters walking back and forth with the placards just off his property line. “How nice that you wanted to see me again.”
“Don’t flatter yourself,” she said, stopping to face him with one hand on her hip. The clove-flavored gum she liked to chew hit him with its strong scent. “We rotate mills and factories where we protest. It was just your turn, and we had a place to stay with my parents, so it worked out. We’ll be back tomorrow.”
Lacey had gained weight, her hair was blonder, and she wore a heck of a lot of makeup. She looked a far cry from the natural girl he’d once fallen in love with. Her companions were all pretty young, except for one guy who was keeping a good eye on her.
“Hey, don’t just pick on her!” the man said, stepping forward. “We’re all in this together.”
Lacey nodded and leaned her shoulder against his in a possessive move. Grant just shook his head. The man reminded him of a bouncer or a boxer, when most of the picketers seemed more millennial types. He was good-looking, though, and Lacey had always gone for that. Grant could see Lacey had this guy wrapped around her little finger for anything she wanted or needed.
“This is Darren Ashley,” Lacey said when she saw Grant glaring at him. “He’s new to Green Tree, and he’s all-in.”
“I’ll bet,” Grant said, but he just wanted this confrontation over—nicely, calmly. “Lacey, as you, above all people, know,” he said, ignoring the others, “the Masons have always replanted tracts of trees and cut carefully.”
“Cut carefully, that’s a good one. Oh, I heard about Paul on the car radio, so I’m sorry for that. He was very talented.”
“And he used our cut tree trunks for his art, so not even those were wasted, right?”
“Never mind using your smarts and charm on me, Grant Mason. Been there, done that.”
Darren Ashley nodded as if he thought Lacey was really handling this. Again, Grant fought to keep calm.
“Well, all of you, enjoy yourself today. Knock yourselves out, but please don’t come on my property unless you intend to purchase some of our environmentally harvested products.”
“And what about noise pollution, smoke pollution!” Lacey shouted when he started to walk away. That was when he knew she was here for a personal vendetta. Hell, she’d wanted out, and he’d ended up paying her well for leaving him.
“By the way,” he added, turning back, “you and your friends should watch out for the big timber trucks that pull in, since you need to stand on the road.” Again, he started to walk away.
“You’d like it if we got knocked into the ditch, wouldn’t you?” she yelled. He knew he was going to lose his temper, when he thought he’d handled things with reasonable control.
He turned back yet again. Darren Ashley was giving him the finger, and Lacey’s little group was all eyes and ears. He fought hard not to leap at the guy and deck him, but that wasn’t his way.
“No, I wouldn’t like that, Lacey, because we’re all busy earning a living here, and I don’t have time to call the rescue squad for you. I’ve got a staff of eighteen men and three women on-site and others in the field who need to feed their families, and we don’t even have time to fish you and your signs out of a ditch.”
“That’s another thing! You should hire at least half women! That’s half of the population, you know!” Lacey shouted.
“If I see a qualified or interested woman, one who likes this beautiful area of the country and the good people who live here and doesn’t have pie-in-the-sky dreams of fancy places and exotic people, I hire her!” he yelled just as Kate pulled up, slowly, gawking at the picketers. Luckily, she drove her car between Grant and Lacey’s attack dog Darren, who had started toward him.
Grant turned his back on the man and walked toward the mill, knowing Kate would figure out who was behind the Green Tree protest, knowing she’d sense how deeply upset he was. At least the picketers, including Lacey’s avenger, had gone back onto the berm of the road.
But as Kate got out of her car, he saw she was upset, too. “Sorry about all that, Grant,” she told him, with a narrow-eyed glance at the protesters. She walked into the mill with him. “Is she out there—the blonde with the eye makeup?”