The Investigators Pt. 03

"Now what?" Asked Lee. I thought we were finished. Do you think they found something else, maybe?"

"I have no idea, none at all. Let's call Davis and see if he can shed any light on this subject. I doubt it or he would have called us already."

As the words were leaving his mouth, his phone rang again. Noticing the call was from Davis, he answered, "Speak of the Devil. Hi, Davis. We were just about to call you. The refinery wants us to meet with them in the morning for some reason. Do you have any ideas what this is about?"

"Actually, yes, I do have, this time anyhow. I just got off a conference call with the vice president for engineering and the oil company's chief financial officer. It seems you will be there for a few more weeks and I will be sending down a contracting engineer and estimator first thing tomorrow, so they should be there tomorrow night and ready for work the day after. Now hang on for a bit as this is going to maybe get wild. Their board wants us to take all the drawings and notes and records and estimate what the job should have cost to get to this point. I know that is confusing and it may get worse. None of us have ever done anything like this but a couple have heard of it.

"We have all the paperwork, so we know what the job costs are. What they want to know is what the job should have cost. Meaning we need to reverse estimate everything and arrive at a cost, then submit that cost to the board. I wish I could tell you what their thinking is but I can't. I am at a total loss this time."

"Damn, Davis... I have never heard of anyone doing anything like this either. Should be interesting, especially when factoring in the supposed unknowns. Also, manpower and transportation and all those types of things figure in, too. Damn, again. Well, we will give it our best shot."

"I know you will, Mike. I have the utmost faith in you. I will get you a good set of estimators on the road. How is your mini vacation going otherwise?"

"Well, it has been interesting to say the least, and there have been a few things happen lately I was going to talk to you and Wilson about as soon as I could, but now this has come up so I don't know...."

"Whatever it is, Mike, go ahead and ask. I called Wilson after the oil company called me and he is sitting here in front of my desk, so ask away."

"Hi, Mike. Is my daughter there with you, by chance?"

"Hi, Daddy. Hi, Uncle Davis. I am doing fine, thanks you."

"What's on your mind, Mike?" asked Davis.

"Well, Lee said something as we were finishing lunch and I wanted a clarification on it. She said flat out that if I proposed to her, even in a halfhearted way and she accepted it, that if backed out or changed my mind or said that I was just kidding, that you two might use your mafia experiences and put a contract out on me. Is there any truth to that?"

"Well, that is a bit of a hard question to answer over the phone. Did you propose, even sort of?"

"Yes."

"Did she accept?"

"Yes."

"Did you mean it?"

"Yes."

"Did you get her a ring?"

"Yes."

"Then we probably would, but if we didn't, her mother and aunt would, and I think your mom would contribute to the cause, also. When is the wedding?"

"She hasn't told me yet. This just happened this afternoon, so things are pretty much still up in the air."

"Congratulations from both of us here. I better get off so she can call her mother."

"I think she is doing that right now using her phone. Yep, I see her smiling. Later, guys. I will call after the meeting tomorrow."

"Do that. Bye now, and again, congratulations and welcome to the family.

"When Lee finished her call to her mother, she walked over to where Mike sat on the couch and sat in his lap and wiggled some before saying, "That was a sneaky way of telling the guys about our engagement you know."

"Huh?? Oh, I wasn't telling them about the engagement, I was asking about the contract on me you mentioned."

"Asshole...... Come kiss your fiancé and you might be forgiven."

"Might?"

"Depends on the kiss."

She beat him to it by throwing her arms around him and giving him a toe curling kiss that lasted forever, almost...

"Am I forgiven yet?"

"Not fully, but off to a start. A couple hundred more like that may do it. Mom said, "congratulations," and that she is happy for us and is excited about planning a wedding. Now, what did Davis say about the meeting?"

"He said he had been on a conference call with the vice president for engineering for the oil company and their chief financial officer. We have now been hired to reverse estimate the entire project. That sounds simple at first thought, but it in reality, the opposite and will be quite difficult and time consuming. We will have another contracting engineer and an estimator from the home office arrive tomorrow to start the process.

"We will have to first make a chronological list of everything that has happened starting with the first item that was chargeable to the project. Then we will need to make a thorough estimate for the work that each particular task will entail, then go to the next item. We need to remember that the first item might have to be disassembled and scrapped before the new drawings could be implemented, then repeat this over and over until we reach the point we are now. Then we total all the assorted costs and make the report to their board and wait and see what they say. None of us have ever heard of such a thing, well, maybe a couple have, but it is rare and for sure none of us at our company have ever attempted anything like it. It is a good thing the project is not any further along than it is or we might be retiring here."

Lee looked shocked and then sort of perplexed and asked, "What about me? What will my role be and what will I do as I am not an engineer like you guys and have only limited field experience. I think I will be worried somewhat."

"Hey, someone has to bring coffee and snacks." Then he ducked the pillow she had thrown at him while muttering "Asshole" again and telling him he now had to start all over with the kisses.

"Such terrible, terrible punishment. Oh, the agony of it. Honey, you are going to be the administrator for us. You will keep track of our progress and the items we have finished and those left to do. You will also keep a multitude of running lists about man hours, equipment usage, housing, meals, travel, wages, insurance, overhead and more. All these things we charge the client in one form or another, usually covered in the percentage of the overall contract price we call profit and overhead. That percentage usually runs from 12 to 22 percent so if we have a one-million-dollar job that has a 14 percent Profit and Overhead schedule, then that job has to be completed for $8,600,000 or the company loses money. That 14% comes right off the top and goes to the company headquarters as operating expenses, etc. At least the field office does and if that happens then no one gets a low-cost bonus or a good work bonus or safety bonus of any sort.

"Each of these types of things have to be calculated and recorded, and you should excel at that with your education. I will be counting on you, Sweets. A lot."

"Wow, I never knew so much went into figuring the price of a project. Do all companies do it the same way?"

"Pretty much. They will each have own percentage figures and their own way to estimate the number of man hours involved in a project. Take welders for example. Some welders can and do make say 4 12 inch welds in a day, while others think 2 should be a maximum. That is the kind of people I try to eliminate. Get the better and faster people and job gets done quicker and cheaper Not for the company to make even more money, but for them to be able to keep contracts with a satisfied customer. I have seen too many contractors barred from bidding a job for taking too long to complete one or more in their past. You will be busy. You excited, my wife to be?"

"Very much so, my husband to be. Between my excitement and worries about the job, I doubt I will be able to sleep tonight."

"Well, if you are laying there and get all bored and such, you might wake me and we can see what we might do to fill up some of that time you are awake."

"Just like a man. Trying to figure out a way to get into a girl's panties."

"Yeah, so?? You say that like it is a bad thing or something."

"Not in this case. Not bad at all. I sure do love you, Michael. So very much."

"As I do you. You settled down enough to go to supper? I think I would like to try the Argentine Grill tonight. It is supposed to be great. They use a little different way to cook their meat. They use indirect heat meaning they normally place the meat beside the fire and allow the wind to blow the heat over and around the meat cooking it without burning it like can happen with a fire underneath the food. Takes a little longer but so what?"

"Sounds good and interesting, too. Let's go and then maybe try one of the casinos afterwards just to maybe get some more souvenir chips."

"I don't think souvenir chips is what your devious mind is thinking about but the idea sounds great. There are either 11 or 14 casinos on the island, I forget which. Some big and some little, so let's go look and see what we find."

Their steak dinner at the Argentine Grill was great and the service was fantastic as was the selection of wines from Argentina. Mike thought that the bill was a bit pricy at over $100 for the two of them but that is the nature of tourist places.

Mike drove them to a large casino he had seen several times. This one was independent as it was not associated or attached to a hotel, which he thought might be a good thing. He told her they should first just walk around and tour the casino and see what was available. Lee agreed and off they went.

The main room was a very large room with gaming tables and games of all sorts scattered about. If one tired of one type game, he had only to turn around and try something different. Mike noticed that there was about form of gambling he had ever heard of available. Then he noticed the sign over a door in one wall proclaiming the room inside as the baccarat room. Mike had always heard of baccarat but had never been around a game before and was anxious to see a game and watch its progress. After all, baccarat was James Bond's game of choice in so many books and movies. Right?

Mike took Lee's elbow and guided her into the room and up to a velvet rope that kept spectators a short way back from the tables. Mike quickly noted that the two main players at the table were using the big square chips, making a $10.000 bet on every hand with a smaller $5,000 chip used as a side bet for each hand. He also noticed that neither of the players was paying real attention to the game, simply pushing more chips to the center when the dealer called for them. Otherwise they were engaged in conversation with each other. Mike also noted that each ha well over $150,000 in chips in front of each man. At the end of the table was a man playing with $1000 chips and he was very aware of each card, grimacing if he did not like the number on it. Wow, so this is how the rich live, huh?

Back out in the main room, Lee stopped Mike and asked him what that game was and what those huge chips were. She about fainted when he told her. She asked what kind of person could afford to play with that amount of money and not even pay attention to the game.

"My bet would be South American drug lords from Columbia and Venezuela. Did you notice the giants standing along the wall in black suits? Think they are just spectators?? Let's go play our game. What would you like to try first?"

"Blackjack. I did not see any $1 tables, so I will play $5 for a bit to see how it goes." Mike led her to a table with several open chairs and what looked like a full card shoe. They play for maybe 20 minutes, but neither one had their hearts in the game so they left even though they were slightly ahead. Mike tossed a $10 chip to the dealer for a tip and they wandered around a bit more.

As they were standing and looking at the roulette table, they noticed a group of three Chinese gentlemen approach the table. Without a word being spoken, the pit boss raised his arm and snapped his fingers a bit and pointed to the three men and made some form of motion and rather quickly a man in a black suit came to the table with three trays of chips and 3 pieces of paper, which each man signed one of. The man walked away and the gentlemen assumed a spot at the table, where evidently large bets were being made. What Mike would call floor walkers put one of those velvet ropes around the table, closing it off from everyone but those three gentlemen. Mike also noticed that unlike in American casinos, all drinks were free. Evidently in hope people got drunk and gambled to heavily. And lost.

Mike and Lee wandered about a bit more and played a few different games just to say they had, and decided it was time to call it a night. They did keep a few souvenir chips, although Mike told Lee she could not have one of those big square chips to keep. She called him a spoilsport as she was kissing him again.

In the car on the way to their hotel, Lee said, "Wow, Mike. I have never seen anything like that. So much money floating around like it doesn't mean a thing. I cannot believe it. And those Oriental guys.... I guess they are regulars, and must have a good credit line. Did you see that guy just snap his fingers and all that money appeared. So, that is how the other half lives. I don't think we will ever make it that far. Besides, acting like that is not in either of our natures. Love and make me forget all that stuff."

"Your wish is my command, dear lady and future wife of mine." And as soon as the door to their room closed behind them, the 'making her forget' process started in earnest. Lee had a bit of a problem forgetting completely, as it took three treatments to make her forget and fall sleep.

The next morning, they awoke early and grabbed quick showers and dressed hurriedly so they could take advantage of the hotel's breakfast buffet, one of Mike's favorite things. Other than a few favorite things, he thought he could almost eat breakfast at least twice a day. As soon as they were finished, they drove to the refinery and made their way to the conference room to start the day's tedious activities. Neither of them were really looking forward to this task, but it had to be done and it paid well for the company.

Mid-morning, Mike got a call from Davis saying the two estimators would be arriving on the 210 PM flight from Houston and said that a car had been arranged at the rental agency them at the airport. He asked Mike to meet them at the airport and show them to the Holiday Inn and then show them the way to the airport and brief them on where to eat and whatever else they might want. He said they should have a map from the rental agency in the car in case they get lost.

"Mike, let's get this thing done and you two back home. They are dragging their feet and even though we are making a pile of money on this, it is playing havoc with our schedule for your site inspections and whatever investigations might be needed. Well, just play it by ear, all right? They love you down there and it looks like they are trying to keep you. Same thing that happens up here, I guess. Just watch yourself and take good care of our girl. Bye now." And disconnected, leaving Mike to think about what Davis had said.

The new members to their team did arrive and were given the tour of the best routes between their hotel and the refinery, and received their identification badges. Mike introduced them to everyone and they all got started on sorting out the different work tasks, mostly by date.

About 1030 in the morning two days later, Mike looked up to find Lee had a large pile of papers scattered about on an unused area of the tables. In fact, she had moved two together to give herself more space to stack and sort her work. She looked up at him and said she was starting to understand what she was doing thought she was making some real headway.

"Mike, Honey, I think I have these drawing arranged in chronological order now. Do we want start with putting hours and other expenses to each drawing or how should we do it?"

"Wayne, can you come here for a minute, please?"

"Sure, Mike. She is a lot easier to work around than Andy is or ever will be." And laughed at his own comment. "What's up?"

"Lee thinks she has all these fabrication drawings arranged in order now. Would you start to estimate the amount of time and money it would take to complete each drawing if you were bidding it hard dollar for the company. Do you understand what I mean and what we need here?

"Yes. I think I know just what you mean, and if necessary I will get Andy involved, too. I understand the refinery manager wants to talk to you this afternoon about something serious. What's up with that, pray tell?"

"Not a clue one right now. Whatever it is seems to be a sort of a secret for some reason. Now, let me caution you to not rely solely on these drawings to arrive at your numbers like we would do if you were bidding it blind at home. Go to the site and walk it both ways from end to end a couple of times. Think about getting stuff here from the laydown area or the warehouse. Think about what could be prefabricated and how much it might save. Look for any hazards to the crane or to our people. Think crane placement, moving welders and anything and everything. Make lots of notes if we need to discuss anything. We were asked to do this right, so let's do it right.

"Lee will be attending this afternoon's meeting with me. She will take notes and be a witness in case we should need one. Now, it is 11 AM and maybe a bit early, but I think Lee and I need to take you two guys to one of our local dives here in San Nicholas. Are you guys ready to go eat?" Upon hearing this last comment by Mike, Lee's face lit up knowing they were going to get a super lunch before going into the meeting. A condemned man's last meal maybe she wondered to herself.

They left the office in Mike and Lee's rental. Mike was thinking that as soon as cars had driverless options, that this spot's name and address would surely be included on all menus. It would sure be programmed into his. It was a quick trip from the office to the parking lot. "A bar, Mike?" asked Andy.

"Part of it is. Trust us on this one, Andy. You can order anything you want so long as you only want ribs or grilled chicken. Bon Divi, Miguel. Lee and I will have the usual, please."

"Bon Divi, Senior Mike. Coming right up. Go get your Polars and it will be ready."

"What did you order, Mike? What is good here?"

Everything is good, but like I said, he only has two choices and we love them both. In fact, we order one order of each and share. Now that is up to you and Wayne. Drinks are available inside. We get a Polar, pronounced Po—Lar. It is from Venezuela and damn good. They have other things but that is what the natives drink.

Both Wayne and Andy ordered the grilled chicken after seeing ours. When everyone was seated, Wayne asked what 'Bon Divi meant.

"Papiamento is a bastardized language made up with words from the English, Spanish, Dutch, maybe another language. By the time a kid starts to school here he or she can speak four languages at least. Some even more. It is just a way of life here in the islands. They are used to it and think nothing of it. Bon Divi is the Papiamento version of the Spanish Buenos Dias, or good morning. If you stay long you will get used to it."

"Damn, Mike. This place is something else. I hope we get a chance to sightsee some."

"You will. Lee and I will make sure of it."

"Thanks. So, you think we should be heading back so you can go to your meeting?"