No-Show

Twelve names are paid every Friday on the Mercier job. None of the twelve has ever set foot on the deck. In the trade they are called no-shows, and the money they collect goes back up the office stairs in a cigar box.

Eddie Keane tells himself it is a number, not a crime. Then the number starts to cost him.

On deck six, a bundle of steel carries a heat number that does not belong on his paperwork. Architect Lena Varga, who watches every unload and trusts only what has a tag, finds the first lie in the load path: members a size too light on the east line, where the building carries its weight. Eddie must choose between ripping out his own steel and a hearing nobody on the job can afford.

Every fix has a price, and every price is paid by someone else.