Save Me - Lisa Scottoline [119]
“I heard he had a forklift accident.”
“He did.” Juanita pointed to the left. “Right over there. You can see the loading dock.”
“Creepy.” Rose turned around, but she couldn’t see around the corner. “Do accidents like that happen a lot, here?”
“A fatality, at Homestead? No way.” Juanita eyed the X-ray screen. “Forklifts can be dangerous. Bill came over here from the big plant, wait, lemme think, I don’t know exactly when he started”—Juanita positioned the next box—“but I know he was here by July. I remember because of the holiday. We had a company picnic, and he was the new guy, over from the big plant. The peanut people always stuck together. That was our joke.” Juanita chuckled. “Bill was a nice guy, and he’d been with the company a long time. Then all of a sudden, I come in, I hear he died.”
“I wonder how that happened. I guess he wasn’t experienced on the forklift.”
“No, he was. Very. Drove a forklift at the big plant, too.”
Rose didn’t get it. Mojo told Julie that Bill wasn’t experienced. “So isn’t that strange that he could have an accident, even though he’s so experienced?”
“No, accidents happen to experienced people. I think they happen more, because the experienced guys don’t watch as much. My neighbor is a roofer thirty years, and last week he fell off a ladder and broke his leg.” Juanita shook her head, closing the flaps on the next box. “Still, I was so sad when Bill died.”
“I’m sure. Did anybody see what happened, that night?”
“No, there weren’t any other employees around. We were down to a skeleton crew at night because of what I told you.” Juanita closed another box. “They didn’t find him until it was too late. He bled to death.”
“Yikes. Who found him?” Rose was verifying her facts.
“The Director of Safety. Joe Modjeska. Mojo.” Juanita sent another box on its way. “Great guy.”
Right. “Did you have a lot of interaction with him?”
“Mojo was here all the time. He was in our building so much, we called him Mr. Peanut.” Juanita smiled, moving the next box along. “He resigned but I heard they asked for it. The captain goes down with the ship.”
“Why was Mojo here so much? Did you have more safety problems than the big plant?” Rose didn’t want to sound too inquisitive. “I don’t want to work in a place with a lot of safety problems.”
“Don’t worry, the new guy hardly ever comes by.” Juanita eyed the screen again. “Mojo just liked us, that’s what he said. He thought we were more fun, and we are.” Juanita smiled, and Rose joined her, but she was dying to get a look at the loading dock, to check the rest of Mojo’s account.
“Can I take a bathroom break, boss?” she asked.
Chapter Sixty-eight
Rose went to the loading dock, slowing her pace as if she were just walking through. Two men in phosphorescent lime green uniforms, maybe for greater visibility, drove scuffed orange forklifts, whipping them around the concrete floor. The loading dock was a long, wide area, with flattened cardboard boxes piled on the floor, next to pallets stacked with boxes, shrink-wrapped with plastic sheets, to make a block. On the left was a line of white garage-type doors, with rectangular windows, and two of the doors were closed. The others opened into the containers of tractor-trailers, and at a glance, it looked as if the containers were a series of long, dark rooms.
Rose remembered Mojo had told Julie it was dark in the loading dock, but it was as light here as the factory floor, with panels of exposed fluorescent fixtures attached to a metal support overhead. She wondered if the lighting had been improved after Bill Gigot’s death and made a mental note to ask Juanita. Even if his death was a murder, she was curious if they’d changed the lighting, for show.
Rose stepped aside as one of the men steered a forklift into one of the containers, carrying a pallet of shrink-wrapped boxes. Two large lamps on the cab, like the eyes on a hardshell crab, lit his way, and even if the loading dock had been dark, the lamps would