Read Online The Infinity Tattoo by Eliza McCullen - Free Book Online

the pool. See, another cousin of mine? He was a policeman too. Too many times he was asked to turn on a countryman. He didn’t like it. Now he is dead. Please, be careful.”
    “I will be,” Jack said. Then he watched Andres stroll out into the night and disappear.
    Now, in the silence of the night in the shed in Sedona, Arizona, all of that seemed very far away. Was it somehow related to what was going on now? But how?
    His thoughts turned to Meg. And to Bonnie. Bonnie had said that the two of them had come together for a reason. He decided he would have to tell Meg about Honduras and the more recent events that led him to her door. Soon . . .

CHAPTER FIVE
    Jack paused for a moment to catch his breath and stare at the bold cliff of red rocks that rose in stark relief against a piercingly blue sky. He wiped the sweat from his forehead. Meg wasn’t kidding when she said he’d earn his keep. His first day on the job found him digging trenches for the irrigation system she was installing at a new residence. The whole area seemed to be under construction, with houses at various stages of completion.
    She was right when she said it was a beautiful part of the world. As they drove to the work site early that morning, with the sun just starting to rise, they went through a magical landscape of red-rock monoliths rising out of hills covered in various shades of green brush.
    Jack had literally stared, at a loss for words. So this is what Meg was talking about. It was stunning. Just stunning.
    “Kind of takes your breath away, doesn’t it?” she said.
    “Yeah,” Jack said. “I can’t believe people actually get to live here.”
    They arrived at the work site where Julio and Manny were already waiting. Meg hopped out of the truck and Jack did likewise.
    “Julio, Manny, I’d like you to meet Jack. Jack is a friend of a friend. He’ll be working with us for a while.”
    Julio stepped up to shake Jack’s hand. He was short, maybe five foot six, and wiry. His hair, once jet black, was now speckled with grey. His face was leathery, scored with deep lines around his eyes and mouth. His look was frank and appraising. Jack had no doubt he was assessing him. Meg had mentioned that he was like a second father to her. He was probably sizing Jack up both with respect to his intentions and his capacity to work.
    Manny offered his hand as well. He was quite a bit taller than Julio. Jack guessed he was in his late twenties or early thirties. His hair was black and he was so deeply tanned that his skin was the color of chocolate. He had broad shoulders and chest, and his arms were like tree trunks. His handshake was firm and dry.
    “Nice to meet you, Jack,” he said with an open and friendly smile.
    “Likewise, Manny,” Jack said.
    And without further ado, they got down to work. They unloaded the power trencher from the bed of the truck. Chalk lines were already on the ground, marking out where they would dig the trenches. Julio would operate the trencher while Manny and Jack would follow behind, smoothing the floor of the trench so that they could lay the pipe.
    Jack led the way directly behind the trencher, removing the bulk of the rocky soil that the trencher had broken up, and Manny followed, shoring up the sides and scraping the bottom to create a level bed in which they would lay the pipes. As the morning wore on, the temperature rose from a pleasant sixty to somewhere in the eighties. The sun was hot and intense.
    Every time they paused, Manny handed Jack a bottle of water. “Never let yourself get dehydrated, man,” he told Jack.
    “Thanks.” Jack took this advice to heart. He had already experienced the effects of dehydration in the desert, and he didn’t want to repeat it.
    Meg worked right alongside them. Sometimes she supervised, checking the depth and level of the trenches. Other times she wielded a shovel.
    The power trencher managed to get the job done, but barely. Several times they had to stop and fiddle with