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“And you found it in the creek?”
Ben glanced up at Chase. “Buried in the creekbed.”
“How deep?”
Ben shrugged his shoulders. “Hard to tell. We’ve been working here for quite a while, so I can’t be sure, but probably four, maybe six inches. And look here,” he pointed to what would have been the lid of the barrel. “It’s been punctured.”
“Intentionally?”
“I don’t think a woodpecker made those holes, do you?”
“Son of a bitch!” Chase jerked his gloves from his back pocket and rotated the metal drum again. The label was scratched and muddy, but some of the letters were still visible. The lid of the drum had a few barely visible holes in it. “No wonder there’s no fish in the creek . . .” His eyes narrowed on the empty can.
“You reckon it wasn’t empty when it was buried?” Ben asked, reaching into his breast pocket and pulling out a crumpled pack of cigarettes.
“Hard to tell.”
“Who would bury a drum so close to the creek?” He lit the cigarette and inhaled deeply.
Chase’s mouth pinched. “I can’t hazard a guess,” he said sarcastically. “Show me exactly where you found this.”
After wrapping the drum in oilcloth and placing it in the back of his Jeep, he followed Ben back into the water and stared at the hole Ben had been digging when he’d unearthed the barrel of poisonous herbicide, if that’s what it was.
“I was just smoothing the bottom of the creek out, makin’ it ready for more gravel when I decided to deepen it near the bank. My shovel struck metal, so I worked to find out what it was.”
“Don’t touch anything,” Chase commanded. “I want to take some samples of the water and the soil.” He returned to his Jeep for his hip waders and sterile vials and set about collecting the samples, careful to label each specimen. Then, muttering under his breath, he crawled through the rusted wires of the barbed fence and began taking soil and water samples a few feet inside Dani’s boundaries.
“Tell the men to take the rest of the day off,” Chase said. “And I don’t want any of them in the creek without waders.”
Ben nodded.
“As for drinking from the creek—”
“No one does.”
“Let’s keep it that way. And don’t say anything about this,” Chase warned, looking at the man on Johnson’s side of the fence.
Ben took a final drag on his cigarette before flipping it onto the muddy bank of the creek where it smoldered and died. “You can count on me. I’ve heard tales about that one,” he said, nodding in the direction of Dani’s house. “If she finds out you’ve been on her land again, there’ll be hell to pay.”
Despite the cold dread stealing through him, Chase forced a sly smile. “No reason to disturb the lady, right?”
“Right.” Ben chuckled, took off his gloves and grinned lazily. “Leastwise, not by steppin’ on her land.” He looked at Dani’s house again and his gaze grew distant. “But there are other ways I’d like to bother her.”
A muscle tightened in Chase’s jaw and his blue eyes turned stone cold. “Not a good idea, friend,” Chase said.
“No?”
Chase was spoiling for a fight and he knew it. But having it out with Ben Marx was just plain stupid. He ground his back teeth together and said, “Considering how she feels about Caleb, I think it’d be best if you left her alone. Don’t you?”
Ben read the message in Chase’s glare. His lazy smile dissolved under the intensity of Chase’s cold eyes and he reached for another cigarette. “Whatever you say; you’re the boss.”
“Then it’s understood that Dani Summers is off-limits to anyone working for me.” Chase could hardly believe what he was doing; acting like some fool male dog staking out his territory. With his own men, no less! And yet he couldn’t stop himself or the feeling of possession that ripped through him any time another man said Dani’s name.
“Sure, sure,” Ben said hastily. He’d been on the receiving end of Chase’s wrath enough times to know that he didn’t want to cross McEnroe. Especially about a woman. Chase was a fair employer but if pushed hard enough, he had a temper that wouldn’t quit. In Ben’s opinion it didn’t make much sense to get him mad.
“Good. Make sur
e the rest of the men get the word. And don’t tell anyone about the drum of dioxin or whatever the hell it is. I want to check it out first.” And then there’ll be trouble. Big trouble.
