Read The Reckless Engineer for Free Online Page A

here in time?’ Caitlin came in with Bubbles and closed the door.
    ‘Let’s call him.’ Jeremy drew out a dining chair for her and rang Harry on his mobile.
    ‘Harry, the McAllens would like you to be here today.’ For now , she had said, Jeremy noted. ‘Could we have the officers come here instead of Caitlin’s going to the police station? Any news from Edwards?’
    ‘She’s not being especially questioned as a suspect at the moment. Most people in the McAllen-Connor household will be questioned eventually to assist with the investigation as a matter of routine. If Caitlin cooperates Edwards might release Jack on police bail.’
    Jeremy saw what Harry had meant by “a conflict of interest”. The urge to guide Caitlin to look after Harry’s present client’s interests was strong. Yet someone needed to be here guiding Caitlin in her own interest.
    ‘So, yes, I can be there with her. If it need not be recorded I shall get the officers to come over to the Connor residence. I should be there about 12:30 and we can take it from there.’
    Jeremy relayed the encouraging news to Caitlin.
    ‘You must be starving. Let me fix some breakfast—kipper, eggs over easy, and toast,’ Caitlin said with a grateful sigh and took the pan from his hand. ‘Oh, and Jeremy, there are important company documents here. Could you ask the officers to take copies of everything and leave the originals, or at least leave copies behind? They may use the copier in my office on the first floor. I told them so yesterday also.’
    Back to icy calm. And, yes, she had run everything by herself yesterday without putting a step wrong. Was she the “protected princess in distress” she was a moment ago, or this cool, calm business-woman impeccably running a large corporation’s accounts, this little castle, and the lives of everybody in it like a well-greased machine?
    The boss had spoken and he had better say “how high.” He headed out towards the search in the backyard. And she had picked his breakfast for him right down to the very last detail. He had wanted a toasted bacon sandwich and a black Americano with two sugars. Like Jack had complained long ago, Caitlin did make everybody’s decisions for them. Suddenly Jeremy couldn’t contain the feeling he needed a break from her. He remembered that Jack had sometimes felt the same way.

CHAPTER 6
    Saturday, October 16 — One Day Later
    The police and the forensics officers had just concluded turning Jack’s lab inside out. Jack had turned this large barn in his backyard into his lab when he had first moved in with Caitlin. Jack and Jeremy had spent many weekends here together after Jeremy joined Marine, turning it into the dream workshop and male sanctuary any engineer would wish to escape into. Jeremy had put up the loft to the right of the main entrance, and together they had carried the TV and the comfortable old couch and armchair up here.
    Jeremy turned the coffee maker on, took out a bag of pretzels and some dips from the mini fridge to stop his stomach rumbling, and sank into the couch. Only a pleasant, diffused light from the morning sun reached him up here, and an occasional gruff command from a distant policeman disturbed the peaceful sounds of birdsong and the wind. He closed his eyes and drifted off into light memories . . .
    Jack and Jeremy were once again on the waves of Portsmouth Bay heading out to sea on The Ancient Mariner , one of Marine’s boats, to test the latest products out of their engineering division: the MS350 Sonar Visor and the MR430 Radar Tracker. The MS350 bounced sonar signals off the bottom of the sea through the transducers attached to the boat’s hull and generated a visual of the terrain at the bottom of the sea and fish shoals in the waters below them on the touch-control screens. The MR430 did a 360-degree radar scan and tracked any radar-visible object in the vicinity of their boat.
    Jack had put the boat into anchor and they were taking a break