Read Online The Bee Balm Murders by Cynthia Riggs - Free Book Online

of its usual range met up with the red pines grown for telephone poles south of their range. He showed Finney the now-defunct golf driving range that had been a wind farm and before that had been a gravel pit.
    Finney Solomon looked with interest. After Orion pointed out the commercial vineyard that had given up and sold out, Finney said, “You’re not trying to discourage investors, are you?” He smiled as if to indicate he was only kidding. “I’d like to see that Ditch Witch unit of yours.”
    “It’s on our way,” said Orion, passing, without comment, the pick-your-own-berries place that was for sale.

 
    C HAPTER 9
    The Ditch Witch drill was parked behind Trip Barnes’s Moving and Storage in an area of junked vehicles and construction debris. The rig glistened and sparkled in its surroundings, as out of place as a coat and tie at a clambake. Orion, Casper, and Finney Solomon walked over the rough ground to the rig.
    This was Orion’s first opportunity to examine the machine closely, and he walked around it, studying it with interest. To him, an engineer, it was perfection. The entire rig was not quite twenty feet long, about seven feet wide, and, on the trailer, about ten feet tall. Compact.
    “So this is it!” said Finney. “A lot of action packed into a pretty small package.” He smiled down at Orion.
    “It’ll do the job,” Orion said, feeling irritated for some reason. On the way from the airport, he’d done most of the talking. Casper had said almost nothing. Now, Orion could look at Finney directly, see his face and find out who this man was. All he knew was the guy had been a friend of Angelo Vulpone’s and claimed to have connections to venture capitalists.
    Orion and Finney walked around to the front of the Ditch Witch drill and stood on either side of the trailer hitch, while Casper checked out the rear.
    “You have an engineering background?” Orion asked.
    “My background is strictly financial,” said Finney. “I’m depending on you to tell me what I need to know.”
    “This is the first time I’ve been able to examine the rig,” said Orion.
    “Do I understand an investor bought the rig in exchange for a share in your company?”
    “That’s right,” said Orion.
    Finney scratched his chin. “Did he buy it outright?”
    “She,” said Orion. “Dorothy Roche. She worked out some kind of payment plan with a finance company.” He noticed a fleeting skeptical look on Finney’s face. “She’s wealthy. Lives in Edgartown, expensive cars, expensive house. No question of money.” Orion put his foot up on the trailer hitch to relieve his back. “According to her, financing it is the best route.”
    Finney looked thoughtful. “Sometimes it is. How did she get involved?”
    “She apparently has contacts in New York who’d heard about our fiber-optic project. She attended a selectmen’s meeting where I spoke and came up to me afterward.”
    “I’d like to meet her, talk to her. Would you mind calling and introducing me to her?”
    “How long are you staying?”
    “I’d planned on leaving in the morning, but I can rearrange my schedule to leave later.”
    “I’ll set up a breakfast meeting for you. I’m sure that would work for Dorothy.” Orion’s back was beginning to ache, so he stepped over the trailer hitch and they moved around to the side of the machine.
    “This rig even has cruise control,” Orion said.
    Finney grinned. “You’d drive this down the road using cruise control?”
    “It’s not that kind of cruise control,” said Orion. “The operator can set the drilling speed and then just monitor the unit while it drills. Less fatigue and increased production.”
    He showed Finney where the drilling fluid was stored. He pointed out the mud pump. The operator’s controls. The pipe rack. They walked partway along one side and Orion was about to point out the new tracks, not a speck of dirt on them, when Finney said, “Impressive. But I’ve seen enough.