Page 83 of Wild Oblivion

“We need to get this done.”

Jesus ran back to the van and grabbed the tiles. He brought them into the living room and set them on the floor by the drying concrete.

We all huddled around and looked at the tile.

“That doesn’t match,” I said.

Juan shrugged again to say,close enough.

“It doesn’t match.”

“Ok. You find some tile that does. We looked everywhere. This is what you’ve got.”

I shared a concerned look with Jack.

“Well. The coffee table is going over it. Maybe nobody will notice.”

We didn’t have much choice.

"Fine. Just get it all put back together as fast as possible," I said.

"I don't want to be here any longer than you do. If we get caught, I don't think even you can get us out of this.”

He was right about that.

I told him we’d be back in a few hours to check on things.

A neighbor accosted us as we walked down the driveway. She was a rather plump woman with short auburn hair and teal eyes. "What's going on?"

Her expression was part curiosity, part concern.

I stopped and talked to her while JD and Henrik continued toward thepublic worksvan. "We’re having trouble with a line. Have you noticed a loss in pressure or muddy water?”

She shook her head. "No."

"That's good. We should be out of here in no time.”

"Well, I got curious. I was about to call James and let him know something was going on. He told me to look after the place while he was gone. I saw the truck out front. You can never be too careful these days. I thought I should look into it.”

"Yes, ma'am. Good instincts. Like I said, we shouldn’t be too much longer.”

She seemed satisfied, but still looked at me with suspicion. “So, James knows that you’re doing all that work?”

“I believe someone should have left a notice on his door prior.”

“They just had that new pool put in. I hope you didn’t have to tear up that gorgeous patio.”

“The city line runs right up to the cleanout. The house has expanded quite a bit from the original structure.”

“We just moved in last year, so I never saw the original home.”

“Don’t worry, my crew is cleaning up now. We’ll have everything back the way we found it.” With the dust mask on, she couldn’t see my face, but I smiled with my eyes.

That seemed to satisfy her to some degree. Then she asked, “What is your name, just in case there are any issues?”

“Tim Dalton.”

She made a mental note of it. “Do you have a card or anything?”