Absolutely spotless.” “Come out of what?” said Nell. “Who?” Duke laughed again. “The company. DK Industries. The Corps of Engineers’ report’s out tomorrow and we’re cleared, one hundred percent.” Had Lee Ann said something about this? Nell couldn’t remember. “Cleared of what?” “Cleared of what? My God—hasn’t Clay discussed this with you?” “Discussed what?” “We could have been ruined,” Duke said. “Lost everything.” “Why?” “Why? Because we built the ship canal—the beginning of everything, our first big project.” “Where the flooding started?” For a moment, Duke didn’t look so cheery. “One of the places the flooding started,” he said. “But I don’t deny if we had known certain things, the dikes would have been higher and the Canal Street gates stronger. The opposite—I guarantee it.” “What things?” “Technical things.” He waved them aside. “All kinds of geologic data we didn’t have and—this is the whole point—couldn’t have been expected to have had by any regulating agency.
