“This isn’t going to be so hard after all,” Kim said into his microphone. “I found a whole drawer of Process Deficiency Reports. They go from nineteen eighty-eight to the present. Now, all I have to do is find January ninth.”
“Hurry up, Kim,” Tracy said. “I’m starting to get nervous again.”
“Relax, Trace,” Kim said. “I told you I haven’t seen a soul in an hour. I think they’re all back in the lunchroom watching a ball game.. . . Ah, here we are, January ninth. Hmmm. The folder’s jammed full.”
Kim pulled a clutch of papers from the folder. He turned around and put them down on the library, table.
“Pay dirt!” Kim said happily. “It’s the whole group of papers Marsha talked about.” Kim spread the papers out so that he could see them all. “Here’s the purchase invoice from Bart Winslow for what must have been a sick cow.”
Kim glanced through the other papers, finally picking one up. “Here’s what I’m looking for. It’s a Process Deficiency Report on the same cow.”
“What does it say?” Tracy asked.
“I’m reading it,” Kim said. After a moment he added: “Well, the mystery has been solved. The last cow’s head fell off the rail onto the floor. Of course, I know what that means after the work I’ve been doing today. It probably fell in its own manure and then went in to be butchered for hamburger meat. This cow could have been infected with the E. coli. That’s consistent with what you found out from Sherring Labs this afternoon indicating that the patty made from the meat butchered on January ninth was heavily contaminated.”
In the next instant, Kim was startled enough to let out a whimper. To his utter shock the Process Deficiency Report was ripped from his hands. He spun around to find himself facing Elmer Conrad. While he’d been talking, he’d not heard the man come into the room.
“What the hell are you doing with these papers?” Elmer demanded. His broad face had become beet-red.
Kim felt his heart race. Not only had he been caught looking at confidential documents, but he had the microphone in his right ear. To try to keep the wire out of Elmer’s line of sight, he kept his head turned to the right, looking at Elmer out of the corner of his eye.
“You better answer me, boy,” Elmer growled.
“They were on the floor,” Kim said, desperately trying to think of something. “I was trying to put them back.”
Elmer glanced at the open drawer to the file cabinet, then back at Kim. “Who were you talking to?”
“Was I talking?” Kim asked innocently.
“Don’t mess with me, boy,” Elmer warned.
Kim put his hand on his head then gestured ineffectually at Elmer, but no words came out of his mouth. He was trying to think of something clever to say but couldn’t.
“Tell him you were talking to yourself,” Tracy whispered.
“Okay,” Kim said. “I was talking to myself.”
Elmer looked askance at Kim, almost the same way Kim was looking at Elmer.
“You sounded like you were having a goddamn conversation,” Elmer said.
“I was,” Kim offered. “Just with myself. I do it all the time when I’m alone.”
“You’re one weird dude,” Elmer said. “What’s wrong with your neck?”
Kim rubbed the left side of his neck with his left hand. “It’s a little stiff,” he said. “Too much mopping, I guess.”
“Well, you got some more to do,” Elmer said. “Remember those two restrooms next door here? Remember I told you that you had to clean them.”
“I guess that did slip my mind,” Kim said. “Sorry, but I can get right to it.”
“I don’t want you doing a crappy job,” Elmer said. “So take your time even if you have to work past eleven. Understand?”
“They’ll be pristine,” Kim promised.
Elmer tossed the Process Deficiency Report onto the table and roughly pushed all the papers together. While he was occupied, Kim pulled the earphone out of his ear and tucked it under his shirt. It felt good to straighten his neck out.
“We’ll leave these papers for the secretaries to deal with,” Elmer said. He reached over to the file cabinet and pushed the open drawer shut. “Now get the hell out of here. You’re not supposed to be in here in the first place.”