‘Fuck, no. Are you kidding?’
Kirk thought about his last evening with Ashlynn. He wanted a kiss. A squeeze. A fuck. Anything from that beautiful chick. They were drinking; he needed to get her wasted if he hoped to get anywhere near that amazing body. He figured out later that she kept pouring her beers on the ground when he went to piss. The more he drank, the more he bragged, hoping to impress her.
She talked about how warm she was. She undid a couple of buttons on that churchy silk blouse of hers. He could see the swell of those perfect breasts. ‘Really?’ she asked, with her big eyes and that smoky voice. ‘What problems?’
‘Swear to God, boss,’ Kirk went on. ‘I didn’t say a word.’
‘The police have linked Aquarius to Vernon Clay through a name on a hotel register,’ Florian told him. ‘They believe he’s back.’
‘He’s not.’
‘I’m having doubts.’
‘I told you four years ago the problem was solved.’
‘Yes, you did.’
Kirk was getting angry. ‘What, do you think I lied?’
‘I think for enough money, you’d tell me whatever I wanted to hear. Don’t forget, I know all about your other disgusting business, too.’
The vein in Kirk’s neck throbbed. ‘You don’t complain when it saves your neck.’
‘Vernon Clay,’ Florian repeated calmly.
‘What about him? I’m telling you, he’s not Aquarius. The police have it all wrong.’
‘I don’t believe you.’
Kirk didn’t want to argue with the boss, but he was losing control. The frustrations of the day piled up on him. ‘What the fuck are you saying?’
‘I’m asking if Vernon Clay
‘Hell, no!’
‘Where is he?’
‘You know where he is.’
‘Do I?’
‘You want proof?’ Kirk asked. ‘Is that what you’re saying? I’ll give you proof.’
‘I want to know whether Aquarius is Vernon Clay.’
‘He’s not. Look, give me two hours, and meet me in the usual place.’
‘Why?’
‘Because then you can ask Vernon yourself whether he’s been sending fucking notes to anybody.’
39
Chris sat in the deserted parking lot of the high school while the rain poured over his car. It was supposed to keep raining most of the night, swelling the rivers and ditches. Temperatures were sinking. He waited in the cold, with his engine and lights off, wondering whether George Valma would show up. The Mondamin scientist was fifteen minutes late. He thought about calling again, but as he opened his phone he saw blurry headlights glowing from the residential streets of Barron. A white sedan crawled along the border of the athletic fields and pulled into the lot beside Chris. The linebacker-sized scientist got out and climbed into the passenger seat of the Lexus.
‘I appreciate your coming,’ Chris said.
George shook rain out of his gray hair. ‘This was a mistake. If anyone sees me with you, I could lose my job. I shouldn’t have told you anything. I’ve got my kids to think about.’
‘I understand your situation.’
George fidgeted impatiently. ‘So what is it now? What do you want?’
‘Ashlynn found something,’ Chris said.
‘What?’
‘She told another girl that she had proof that Mondamin was connected to the cancer cluster in St. Croix.’
George shook his head. ‘She didn’t. That’s wrong.’
‘How do you know?’
‘Because you can’t
Chris thought about Hannah, who had made all the right choices in her life and was now in a fight to stay alive. You could blame God. You could blame bad luck. It didn’t change a thing. Cancer was a merciless enemy.
‘Okay, you’re right,’ Chris admitted, ‘but whatever she found, she was so horrified that she was willing to expose her own father.’
‘This involved Florian?’ George asked.
‘That’s what she said.’
‘I don’t know what it could be.’
‘I think you do, George. You think Vernon Clay poisoned the town of St. Croix, and Florian covered it up.’
The scientist shook his head. ‘No.’
‘Vernon Clay was mentally ill. Obsessive. Delusional. Schizophrenic. That’s the kind of man we’re talking about, George. Pretend you’re a mad scientist. If you got it in your head that you wanted to wreak havoc on a town, could you do it?’
The scientist nodded reluctantly. ‘Yes, someone with Vernon’s knowledge of chemistry and access to hazardous pesticides could have done some bad things. He could have used any of a dozen different chemicals in quantities that would have been grotesquely dangerous. That doesn’t mean he did, and even if he did, it doesn’t mean that the contamination caused the cancers. Humans react in different ways to environmental toxins. It might have caused widespread illness. It might have had no effect at all.’
‘If he did, though, the truth would have been devastating in a courtroom. That would have been the end of Mondamin.’
George shrugged his massive shoulders. ‘You’re the lawyer.’
‘Florian’s a lawyer, too. If he discovered that Vernon Clay was involved in widespread chemical contamination, he knew he would have been at risk of losing everything. Having it exposed would have been devastating.’
‘Exactly. So why would Florian bankroll an independent investigation when he got sued?’ George asked. ‘He wouldn’t do that. He would have fought like hell to make sure no one got near Vernon Clay’s land.’
‘Maybe he’d already cleaned it up. Maybe he knew there was nothing to find.’
‘You can’t ever be sure about things like that,’ the scientist insisted. ‘With the proper equipment, an expert would have found evidence of dumping, particularly if it was as extreme as what we’re talking about. You can’t hide from the kind of technology we have today. Florian knows that.’
Chris thought about Aquarius and the cover page of Lucia Causey’s special master report. ‘On the other hand, if an outside expert ran all the tests and found nothing, that would quash the rumors once and for all. No more litigation. No more questions from the environmental agencies.’
‘That’s exactly what happened,’ George told him.
‘So maybe the special master screwed up.’
‘Impossible. Lucia Causey is a top-flight epidemiologist. She had state-of-the-art equipment at her disposal. If there was something to find, she would have found it.’
‘What if Florian got to her?’ Chris asked. ‘What if he influenced her?’
