One Mile Under

by Gross, Andrew

  “Of course I locked the door. Anyway it wasn’t opened. That tank was airtight. The only thing I can even think of is maybe through one of the water ducts out to the river. But that would be … We searched the area. All I can say is that she’s gone.”

  McKay thought for a second about what this meant. Everything he had just told Moss was untrue. Everything the man was probably now drafting in an email, assuring his superiors about it being smooth sailing from here on in. But it was even worse. She had seen him. His face. A rare mistake, but one he thought came with zero risk. If she was talking to the authorities now, they were totally screwed …

  “What if she talks, John? I damn well would. We’re the ones she can pin it on. We’re the ones who have everything on the line.”

  “I know that, Mr. McKay.”

  “Find her. We don’t let people down, John. Either here or back overseas. That’s not just a phrase, you realize. It’s a commitment. It’s what we stand for. And now we’re about to let a whole lot of people down. Important ones. You find her. Both of them. And when you do, you do what you have to, and do it right this time. This isn’t Alpha anymore, you understand that? This is us. This is one big, giant shit ball now.”

  “I understand.”

  He hung up. McKay’s stomach ground as tight as powder. He took in a breath and got back on the phone with Moss. “You’re on your cell, Wendell?”

  “I am.”

  “It might be a good thing to destroy it. Take it apart. Remove the chip. Maybe toss it down one of those wells of yours. Today, if you can manage the time.”

  “What’s wrong?” the RMM man asked, hearing the sudden change in tone.

  “What I told you before, about that problem we discussed … I’m afraid I may have been a little premature …”

  CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX

  They made it back to Carbondale just after five P.M. Before heading to Dani’s, they stopped to pick up Blu where he’d been staying for the past four days.

  As soon as he saw her get out of the car, he bounded up and smothered Dani with kisses, his paws up on her chest, almost as if he sensed what had happened. Dani put her head against him, knowing that was true. “Oh, Blu, baby, you sure are a sight for sore eyes. You have no idea how close I came to never seeing you again.” He eagerly hopped in the back of Hauck’s SUV, his tail wagging happily.

  They all went back to her ground-floor unit in town. Dani’s roommate was still on the West Coast. Exhausted, Dani sank wearily onto her couch, Blu climbing up, one leg at a time, and resting his chin on her thigh.

  “Who can you call?” Hauck asked her.

  “Who can I call for what?” Dani replied.

  “Who can you call to come and stay with you? Or better, who can you go stay with? I don’t want you here alone.”

  “C’mon, I can take care of myself, Uncle Ty. I’ll be fine. Honest.”

  “I saw that, but not for the next couple of days. You’ve been through a lot. You haven’t even started to deal with what just happened. You need to take it easy and regain your strength. Personally, I’d take you to the hospital …”

  “I don’t need to go to the hospital.” She shrugged. “I suppose I could call Geoff.”

  “Your Aussie boyfriend?”

  “He’s not my boyfriend,” she said defiantly.

  “Okay, your friend. Your boss. The one who’s called you a couple of times up in Templeton. The one you’re not supposed to be canoodling with.”

  “Okay.” Dani finally gave in. “Yes. Him.”

  “Call him then. But you can’t just stay with him. Wade might know.”

  “No one knows … Besides, he lives in Glenwood Springs. That’s fifteen miles away.”

  “Find some other place. Somewhere they can’t trace. Otherwise you can go visit your father in Chile.”

  “Uncle Ty, don’t you think you’re taking this a bit too far …?”

  “Just find a place, Dani. For once, just trust me, please.”

  “Okay, okay … If I had a phone maybe I could. Mine’s still back in that asshole Robertson’s car. Shit, along with my wallet and my license and all my credit cards. And my river guide ID …”

  Hauck sat across from her. “If I told you back in that tank that you could get out, but you’d have to leave your phone and credit cards behind, what would have been your answer?”

  “I would have said, can’t I just take my river ID with me, please …? All right, I hear you. I’ll find a place.”

  “Now.” Hauck tossed his phone over to her on the couch.

  She glared at him. “I mean, just what is it you want me to say, Uncle Ty? ‘Someone tried to kill me and I’m too scared to stay at my own place right now’?”

  “I don’t care what you say. Say you’ve missed him. Say you’ve been away three days and you need it bad. Tonight. Whatever you want to say. Just make the call.”

  She rolled her eyes, pouting, but picked up his phone. She started punching in the number. Then she stopped. She looked up at Hauck, like a wave of new concern had come over her, her eyes reflecting something more serious. “What are we going to do about Wade?”

  “I’ll handle Wade.”

  “I don’t mean about that. I’m not scared of him. For God’s sake, the man was my stepfather. He practically raised me. I mean, I can’t just go on here as if nothing has happened.”

  She was right. Wade complicated things. “You just call.”

  She dialed the rafting company and Geoff did come on, and he seemed to be as happy to hear from her as Hauck had hoped he’d be, not to mention just as worried not to have heard anything from her these past few days. Apparently he’d left some messages that had gone unreturned.

  All she told him was that something was going on and she really needed a place to be that night. It didn’t seem to take much convincing. He said he’d come by and pick her up when he closed things up around half past six.

  “He said he has a friend’s house up in Snowmass. The guy’s out of town, okay. Happy?”

  “You know, the same people who put you in that tank know the way up here,” Hauck said, putting it back in his pocket.

  “Well, now if you’ll excuse me I’m going to jump in the shower. I don’t think I’ve ever felt slimier in my life.”

  “That’s a good idea.”

  CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN

  Hauck stepped out on the back deck, which was bordered by two other ground-floor units. He sat in one of those mesh infinity chairs, reclining all the way back, and took a sip of a beer he found in the fridge.

  There were two ways Alpha could go on this. They could figure he and Dani had gotten the message and wanted to get as far away from this mess as they could. Like any sane person likely would.

  Or they could make sure they covered all their tracks. He and Dani still knew about Trey and how that tied in to Rooster’s balloon mishap. They could finger Robertson and McKay in what had happened today at the river. If he were them, Hauck decided, he’d want to make sure that there was no trace left to follow and no one to turn them in.

  But they wouldn’t just follow them back up here. It was too soon. Too obvious. Fingers pointed at them.

  Besides, they already had someone up here to do the work.

  But he knew they’d come. No doubt about it. Eventually.

  These sorts of things, these kinds of people, they always did.

  His cell phone chimed. He took it out and checked who it was. The readout said Washington, D.C.

  “Hey,” Hauck answered, shifting back in his chair.

  “Hey back,” Naomi said. “So how did your day go?”

  “Typical,” Hauck said back with a snort.

  “Typical as in, just another day at the office? Or typical of someone who’s pushing back against a very powerful company and is probably getting in way over his head.”

  “You decide. Right now I’m staring at a beautiful snowcapped peak.”

  “Where are you?” Naomi asked.

  “B
ack in the mountains. We left.”

  “Well, that’s the best new I’ve heard all day. You finally came to your senses?”

  “If that’s what you call having a bullet go right by your head and your goddaughter being drowned to within an inch of her life, yes, I did.”

  “Oh my God! You’re both okay?”

  “Yes. She’s all right, too. Just a bit shaken.”

  “What are you trying to do, Ty, get her killed? Over fucking water rights …?”

  “Yeah.” He rubbed his head. “She got sort of a crash course in that subject today. At least now you know what I meant by ‘typical.’”

  “Ty, are you trying to just scare me or does this just come out naturally? I got in touch with an assistant AG at the Colorado attorney general’s office today. I’ve had some dealings with him in the past on some banking litigation the states are signing on to. I ran the whole water rights thing by him, how local supplies are being bought up or diverted for outside commercial means and he immediately went: ‘You mean energy companies?’”

  “I get it. It’s not exactly secret out here.”

  “He said that was mostly governed under local ordinances, so I asked, what if people were colluding to divert them unfairly. Like companies paying off politicians or town managers. Or diverting water that the community needed. As in a drought.”

  “And …?”

  “And he basically just laughed. He recommended I contact the state’s department of environmental affairs. Department of Violations and Policing, or some bureaucratic office like that. You can only imagine where that will get you.”

  “Yeah.” Hauck grunted with frustration. “That’ll take two years.”

  “He asked, just for argument’s sake, which company I was referring to, and I told him RMM.”

  “That must have made him laugh even harder.”

  “No, that made him go silent. For about a minute. Then he went into this speech that the energy trade is responsible for almost a third of the job growth in the state, and RMM a good portion of that. And that they’re tied in with half the politicians in the state and have built more in terms of infrastructure for the towns—new schools, parks, civic centers—than all the public money combined. He pretty much said in the current administration you’d have better luck taking on the NRA to cancel a gun show in Fort Collins than get an inquiry into RMM.”

  “What about murder and bribery?” Hauck sighed sarcastically. “Aren’t those crimes?”

  “I asked that. I had to be a little vague, Ty—I mean, I’m financial fraud, not Justice.”

  “I understand.”

  “But I said, just for argument’s sake, if, say, a capital felony had been committed, and it led back to an oil company in an attempt to cover up the improper granting of water rights, what would be the disposition of the state to look into that?”

  “And he said …”

  “He said that it isn’t actually up to the state. That it’s up to the local police authority and district attorney where the crime was committed. So then I said, what if they declined to act on it? What if it all fit under the heading of conflict of interest? Or more, like they were all under their thumb. And just to fill out the hypothetical, what if we were talking RMM …?”

  Hauck was silent.

  Naomi said, “That’s when he laughed again.”

  “Yeah, the humor’s hard to miss.” Hauck took another chug of beer.

  “Look, off the record, he said the best path would be to give this to the local press or TV and let them investigate it, until the local jurisdictions would be forced to respond to it. I’m sorry. You picked a big fish to fry here. Especially in this state. I wish I could have been of more help.”

  “You did great, Naomi. It’s about what I expected. Thanks.”

  “So what are you going to do now?”

  “I really don’t know.”

  “You’re going to go back there, aren’t you?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Ty, you heard the reaction I got out there. No one wants to touch this. The proceeds mean too much to the state. What happened today … was this basically a way to tell you to stay clear?”

  “Either that, or to kill me. Or Dani. It was hard to tell.”

  “Ty, don’t joke. I’m honestly worried about you. That has to matter to you. I’m worried you’ll do something foolish and I’m going to hear about it on the evening news.”

  “It does matter to me, Naomi.” He put down the beer bottle. “It’s just that, this does, too.”

  “More than me telling you to back out …?”

  Hauck stayed silent.

  “I guess I get it,” she responded kind of dejectedly. “You know I’m not your wife. I’m not even sure if I’m your girlfriend. But I do have a stake in you, Ty. You have to acknowledge that.”

  “I do acknowledge that, Naomi.” Hauck glanced at his watch. It was almost six P.M. “I know this is rotten timing, but I have something I have to do.”

  “Stay safe, Ty …” He could hear she was frustrated. “Let me hear from you that you are.”

  “I will.”

  They hung up. Hauck didn’t like the manner in which they did. He took his car keys and knocked on Dani’s bedroom. “I’ll be back in a little while,” he said. “Geoff will be here in a couple of minutes. Don’t let anyone else in but him.”

  “Where are you going?”

  “I have to see someone about something.”

  CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT

  The police station had thinned out for the night shift when Wade Dunn finally stepped out the door.

  He was dressed a khaki police shirt over jeans, a cowboy hat, and the same python boots he’d been wearing when Hauck had met him before. He chatted in the doorway with one of the officers on his staff, gave him a laugh and an amiable poke on the shoulder, then headed over to his vehicle, which was parked in the spot marked CHIEF.

  Hauck went up to him.

  Dunn’s demeanor changed—maybe surprised to see Hauck back and in front of him. Or maybe just rolling around in his head in a moment of panic exactly why Hauck was there. His eyes finally brightened in recognition.

  “Hey …! Hauck, isn’t it? Dani’s godfather? I see you’re back.”

  “That’s right.” Hauck stood in the way of the police chief and the green-and-white official SUV.

  “Your trip over so soon? I heard she took you up to her friend’s funeral up outside Greeley. Not much to see up there but potato fields and a few oil wells. I’m afraid you didn’t get to see our state at its best.”

  “I’d have to agree on that.” Hauck nodded. Dunn was either completely out of the loop or a ridiculously bad actor. Hauck figured the latter.

  “Look ….” The chief glanced at his watch. “I’m afraid I have to be over in Glenwood in a couple of minutes. AA meeting. Not telling you anything everyone else here doesn’t know. I’m one of the hosts tonight.”

  “I’ll walk you over to your car.”

  “Car’s right here, actually. So how’s my girl? She was taking her friend’s death pretty hard.”

  “She’s okay. She had a little run-in up there today.”

  “Run-in? Anything I can do?”

  “There might be, now that you bring it up. I think she realizes now she may have gotten in a little over her head in some of this business. Like you warned me, she gets pretty riled up about things.”

  “You can take that to the bank and cash it.” Dunn grinned with a shake of his head. “Always been her way.” He stopped at his car. “So, uh, like I said, I—”

  “Those photos …” Hauck looked at him.

  “Photos …?” Dunn stared back, playing dumb.

  “I think you know what I’m talking about. From the ranger station the morning Trey Watkins was killed. Dani said you took them.”

  “Well, I wouldn’t quite call it ‘took ’em,’” the chief snorted officiously. “They’re part of an investigation. I just can’t be showing them around.”r />
  “So you’re opening an investigation? The Watkins family will be glad to hear that.”

  “I merely meant that they’re part of the official record now. Police property. Depending on what we decide to do,” the chief said, backpedaling. “You used to be in this line of work. I figure you understand.”

  “I do understand. Same way I understand you’re pretending you don’t know exactly what I’m talking about, and that your name didn’t come up in a curious way while we were up there …”

  “My name …?” Dunn took out his key and clicked open his door. “It did?”

  “By the same man whose car was in those photos you have in there.” Hauck looked at him directly.

  The chief blinked, his runny eyes locked on Hauck, trying to convey the full measure of his authority. “I’m not exactly sure just what we’re talking about, Mr. Hauck.”

  “Some bad things have happened, Chief, and a lot of them seem to find a path back to you. You and some really unfriendly people up there. I guess the only question is what we’re going to do about it now. Dani’s a good girl. You know that as well as anyone. I know you have feelings for her in some way. But I also know …”

  “You also know what, Mr. Hauck?” Dunn took off his hat and stared at him hard now.

  “I also know you seem to be a man who’s willing do what he has to do, when it all comes down to it.”

  “When what comes down? I’m not sure I catch your meaning.”

  “What inevitably will, Chief Dunn. What always does when people get in over their head.”

  Dunn nodded, twisting his mouth, and ran his hand along the close-cropped sides of his scalp. “I’m thinking there’s a threat in there somewhere. Which is a crime, as you likely know. If you weren’t Dani’s godfather and I wasn’t late for this meeting …”

  “No threat,” Hauck said, “there.” He put his hand on the driver’s door. “Here’s the threat, and I want it to sink in carefully before you take whatever your next step is in this mess. One you’ll likely not be able to walk back from.”

  “You’re treading a very narrow line here, mister”—Wade stared at him—“whatever résumé you come with.”