“Well get more.” Maybe switching to Matthews had been a mistake. Worth it to meet Claire but maybe not a good choice for the long haul.
“See that’s just it.” Sparks’ pained voice stuttered as he spoke. “I had two palates delivered yesterday.”
“Surely the framers didn’t go through that much material in a day.” The framers were the slowest subs on the job. They’d tied up Claire’s guys and the sheet rockers. It seemed like everyone ended up waiting on the framers to finish.
“Not even close. There was over a palate and half still sitting there when I left yesterday. It was gone when I came in this morning. I don’t understand. I’ve never had this kind of problems with theft on my jobs. Not in the thirty years I’ve been doing this. I’m so sorry, Mr. Masters. Luke.” The older man corrected himself, and he did sound sorry. But his reaction seemed extreme. Was he really surprised at losing the materials or had Luke let himself get used to jobsites where stuff wandered off?
He had to admit the stolen studs were kind of odd. Usually it was the fixtures or even the copper wire that went missing. Things that were easy for a thief to reuse of fence for quick cash. Moving a palate and half of studs would take a decent sized truck and a fair bit of time, but it was still more inconvenient than expensive.
“Do the best you can to see that nothing else walks away and keep track of what’s gone missing in case I decided to make an insurance claim.” Although it would be a cold day in hell when that happened. He doubted Matthews would want to do it either. Between general liability and workman’s comp, insurance ate a sizeable chunk of any construction budget. There was no reason to get the adjusters involved for a couple of grand worth of missing materials.
“I’d like to order an extra shipping container. We have enough on site for the fixtures when they come in, but I want to start locking up some of the other materials, too.”
“Do what you need to do. That’s what I’m paying you for.”
Luke hung up the phone and left his office, locking the door behind him. He needed a shower, and if he hurried maybe he could get Claire to join him. As he walked across the hall to the penthouse, he tried to shake the feeling that he was missing something. That maybe there was more going on than just some stolen studs.
