"No?" Neil whispered. "It can't be. This can't be true."
The bulldozer began to reverse back toward the garage door. As soon as it was within the factory, the door began to descend. Whoever was operating the machine could not be identified. He was but a silhouetted blob, concealed behind the blinding illumination of the headlights.
For the next couple of minutes, the Beans deliberated among themselves about what they had seen. About what it might mean, and what they should next do.
Soon after, a normal sized door opened, several feet to the side of the garage door, which was now closed. For a brief moment, a figure was silhouetted within the doorframe. It was a person with broad shoulders, and tall enough that he almost had to stoop to fit through. It seemed that there was something gripped within one hand, but they could not yet be sure.
As the figure stepped outside, it immediately became clear who he was.
"Jasper!" Neil exclaimed in a low whisper.
As if he had heard his name being called, the janitor stopped cold in his tracks. His head jerked toward the hiding spot of the Beans, and they ducked down behind their cover, huddling ever closer to each other. They held Nibbler tight, so that he stayed down low, hidden with them. Through the high grass and brambles, they could see Jasper peering in their direction, his single eye squinted in concentration.
His stubbly jaw shifted, and the corncob pipe moved from one side of his clenched teeth to the other. For a few terrifying moments, the Beans were sure that they had been discovered. The sound of their heartbeats was like thunder in their ears, like the galloping hooves of a herd of beasts.
They stared at each other, their eyes wide with terror, their breath held in their lungs. They knew as well as anyone: You don't mess with Jasper. Even Nibbler understood the gravity of the matter, and he remained silent, his ears pressed flat against his head, his eyes filled with concern, his snout somberly quivering about.
And now, what would the dastardly janitor do, should he spot the children spying on him, past midnight in this most unlikely of settings? He was clearly in the midst of some fiendish plot, and he would not take kindly to any meddling by the Beans.
They were already on his bad side, after all. In fact, although Jasper seemed to have a poor disposition when it came to children in general, it seemed fair to assume that the Beans were the ones that he most despised.
Still perched at the edge of the factory's roof, Arturo ruffled his feathers and uttered a low call. Distracted by the noise, Jasper looked away from the place where the Beans were hiding, and up at the bird. The two seemed to glower at each other in a wavering, silent stalemate.
"Hmph," Jasper finally grumbled, before looking away from the perched falcon, and going about his work.
Now that he was no longer staring intently in their direction, Neil and his friends felt somewhat safe. Shifting their bodies, they once more peered above their cover, to more closely study Jasper's activity.
It was indeed the menacing janitor, of that there could be no doubt. Even from their distant point of observation, the Beans could see enough of his features to be sure of his identity. He was, after all, one of a kind.
The bulky, one-eyed janitor went about his work, sweeping away at the loading dock with his mahogany broom, cleaning up the refuse and debris that had accumulated. Jasper whistled while he worked, chewing at his corncob pipe. The great ring of keys at his waist jangled quietly, like a strange wind chime on a gust of air.
"What is he up to?" asked Jack.
"I don't know," Neil whispered. "But he's up to no good, that's for sure. Whatever he's doing, I'm sure my dad doesn't know about it."
"Do you think he's the one responsible?" Maria asked. "Is he the one dumping those barrels into the river?"
"He must be," Sara said. "But what can we do about it? We can't confront him. Jasper would swat us down like flies."
"We need help," Jack said. "I hate to admit it, but we do. We can't do this by ourselves."
"I don't know?" Neil said. "Titus said that it was up to us, remember? Little ones, as he calls us. He said that he couldn't ask for help from grownups, because they wouldn't understand. He said that they wouldn't even believe in him."
"Right," Maria said. "He can't ask adults for help. But we can. It was up to us to get the ball rolling. Because grownups are blind to things that aren't black and white."
Jack rummaged inside of the duffle bag, until his hand finally emerged, the spare cell phone clutched within his fingers. "Ah-hah! Doesn't seem to have gotten wet?" he said, as he flipped the phone open. "Should we call my dad? He's the shift manager at the sneaker factory tonight."
"No," Sara said. "We don't want Mr. Murray confronting Jasper on his own. Call my dad. Call the chief."
Jack began to hand over the phone to Sara, but then he paused. "Wait? don't you think our parents are going to be mad at us? Super mad?"
"Why?" Neil asked. "Because we snuck out of the house in the middle of the night, when we were already on thin ice for getting in trouble for the food fight? For being up past midnight on a school night? For adventuring in the woods past dark, when we could have gotten lost and starved to death, or fallen into a ravine, or something like that?"
Jack thought about it for a few seconds. It was quite a list of infractions, when Neil put it like that. "Um, yeah. All that stuff."
"Sure, they're going to be mad," Sara said. "But we can't do this by ourselves. This is bigger than all of us."
"You're right," Jack said, as he handed Sara the phone. "We need help."
Chapter Thirty-Four
Showdown Looming
It went without saying that Chief Fresco was quite surprised when he was disturbed from a sound sleep as he lay snugly beneath his cozy blankets, jarred awake by the ringing of the phone that sat on the nightstand beside his bed. His surprise quickly became alarm, when he recognized his daughter's voice on the other end of the phone.
His alarm only grew, as he realized that not just one of his daughters was missing from home in the middle of night, but both of them. And as Sara explained to him on the phone, they were currently hunkered down in a muddy riverbank, conducting some sort of bizarre reconnaissance mission.
After this hurried (and rather groggy) conversation, Chief Fresco cleared the cobwebs from his head, and hurtled into the police cruiser that was parked in his driveway, still dressed in nothing more than his flannel pajamas and slippers.
Less than five minutes later, the Beans saw the cruiser peeling down the long driveway that led to the sneaker factory. They could see the headlights illuminating the pavement and the trees beside it, as the car came barreling toward the factory at imprudent speeds.
"Okay," Neil told his friends. "Let's go!"
They had remained hidden by the riverbank, crouched below the cover of the vegetation. Jasper had returned inside of the building, but they remained fearful that the menacing janitor might come back to the loading dock, and spot them. He held a great deal of awe over the Beans, and even now, with Chief Fresco on the scene, they still regarded Jasper with caution.
At Neil's words, the Beans sprang from their cover. Remaining in a tight formation, they sprinted for the police cruiser, with Nibbler leading the way. As they arrived at the car, it braked to a stop. The driver's door opened, and Chief Fresco leaped from within.
"What's this all about?" he asked, as he clutched his daughters close to him. "What are you kids doing out so late? You had me worried sick!"
"We're sorry, Dad," Maria said.
"Yeah, we're sorry," Sara told her father. "But something terrible has happened."
"What is it?" Chief Fresco asked. He held his daughters at arm's length, and looked closer at them, as well as Neil and Jack, and Nibbler, who circled about, wagging his tail. "What manner of shenanigans is this? You kids look like wild animals!"
Now that they were in an area with decent lighting, the Beans could see that they did indeed look very much the worse for wear. They turn
ed to each other, examining their filthy faces. They were covered in mud and weeds, and their clothes were torn in several places. Their pants were soaked up to the knees, and their shoes and socks were likewise drenched. There was so much mud and dirt on their faces, it almost looked like they were wearing disguises. Nibbler now looked like a brown dog, as opposed to an apricot-colored one.
"Never mind that right now, Dad," Sara said. "We've got big problems here! It's Jasper. He's been dumping barrels of toxic waste into the river at night, and destroying the water supply for the wildlife."
"What?" Chief Fresco asked, clutching at the sides of his head. "That doesn't even make any sense. Everybody just slow down here, while I try to sort out what's going on."
"It's true, Chief," Neil said. "He's up to no good, I tell you. He must be trying to sabotage Dad's factory, and take down the whole town with it!"
"What?" Chief Fresco asked again, scratching at his head in confusion.
There was a loud thoom as a door crashed open. The Beans flinched in alarm, and turned toward the noise. Gasping, they instinctively moved behind Chief Fresco for protection. Nibbler began growling.
There, in the open doorway of the loading dock, stood Jasper.
"Well? well? well," the janitor murmured, as his single eye fell upon the group, piercing them like a spear of gray-blue quartz. He calmly removed the corncob pipe from his mouth with his free hand, while the other rotated the mahogany broom. "And what have we here?"
Chapter Thirty-Five
The Plot Thickens
Summoning his courage, Neil stepped forward, to stand beside Chief Fresco. He pointed an accusing finger at Jasper. "We know what you've been up to! You've been dumping barrels of sludge into the river, and we caught you in the act!"
"Oh?" Jasper asked mildly, raising an eyebrow. He seemed remarkably calm for a man who had been caught performing such dastardly deeds, and who now stood face-to-face with the town's lawman.
"That's right," Jack said. "We caught you right in the middle of your skullduggery! How else do you explain what you're doing here, in the middle of the night?"
Still confused by the entire matter, Chief Fresco was trying to get a grasp on things. "Yeah, Jasper," he said. "What are you doing here?"
Jasper began to quietly chuckle, as he walked closer. "Why, I work here, of course."
There was a stunned moment of silence from the Beans and Chief Fresco. Even Nibbler ceased growling, and tilted his head in a quizzical fashion.
"You work here?" Maria asked.
"That's right. You know that Neil's father employs many of the town's residents. I'm no different? I've needed a little extra money to support my family during these hard times, and he's been kind enough to grant me some hours on the nightshift, cleaning up around the factory. It's not easy, working so late at night, and then having to report to school to perform my janitorial duties in the morning. But as I'm sure you children know," Jasper said, smiling in a toothy fashion, "I'm an awfully hard worker."
"And this is how you repay my dad?" Neil asked in outrage. "By dumping toxic goop into the river, and trying to ruin the good name of the sneaker factory?"
"Bah!" Jasper sneered at them, glowering down at the Beans. "You've got it all figured out, do you? If something untoward? is going on here, as you seem so sure of? I suggest you speak to the shift manager. Perhaps he can shed some light on these doings that you seem so concerned about."
"Oh, we will," Jack assured him. "You better believe we will."
"He's right," said a voice from behind Jasper.
The Beans and Chief Fresco looked beyond the janitor's shoulder, and they saw that it was Mr. Murray who had spoken. He was standing in the doorway of the loading dock, behind Jasper.
"He's right," Mr. Murray repeated. He stepped forward, joining the rest of them on the loading dock. "Jasper may be guilty of misconduct. But I'm the shift manager. And ultimately? I'm the one who must take responsibility, for whatever has happened on my watch."
"What do you mean, Dad?" asked Jack. "It must be Jasper!"
"That's almost certainly true," Mr. Murray agreed. He smiled sadly. "But it still happened on my watch, when I was supposed to be the one in charge. My hands, I'm afraid, are not clean in this matter."
The Beans and Chief Fresco stared at Mr. Murray in disbelief. Their jaws hung slackly at this most unexpected of developments.
"What are you saying, Dad?" asked Jack. "You wouldn't do something like this. I know you wouldn't!"
Mr. Murray walked closer to his muddy son, and laid a hand on his shoulder. "That's true, Jack. I would never do such a thing, not myself. But allowing somebody under my own supervision to do it, and turning a blind eye, does not make me free of responsibility."
"I advise you to remain silent in this matter," Jasper grumbled, as he calmly rotated his mahogany broom.
Mr. Murray ignored him, and continued. "I never wanted anybody to get hurt, you understand. Things have been so tough around here. I was only trying to make ends meet, to make the budget work. To see that the new business venture was successful. The future of the factory depended on it? But it's no excuse for what I allowed to happen."
"I'm not following this," Chief Fresco said, scratching at his head.
Mr. Murray sighed. "Things have been real tight for the factory. With the economy being what it is, our revenues have been way down, and our expenses just keep going up? healthcare for our employees, property taxes, even our utilities. The truth is, the factory has been on the brink of bankruptcy for quite some time."
"Bankruptcy?" Neil asked in astonishment.
Mr. Murray nodded his head. "I'm afraid so. We never let you kids know just how bad things were, because we didn't want you to worry. You deserve to live without stress at your age." He laughed sadly. "But I guess I screwed that up, didn't I? Things were getting so bad? always worrying about money, wondering how we were going to make ends meet, just to keep the doors of the factory open for one more week. About three months ago, when our new cleats project was at a critical point of research and development, and we were about to begin the manufacturing process, the budget became unbearably tight. We had more money going out than we had coming in? and that's when I began to allow Jasper to take more and more liberties, and I turned a blind eye to? to what I suspected might be happening."
Chapter Thirty-Six
Time to Face the Music
"What do you mean, Mr. Murray?" Neil asked.
"One of our biggest expenses was getting rid of the toxic waste that was created as a byproduct of our manufacturing process. It has to be disposed of in a very specific manner, you see, in order to protect the environment? but it's also very expensive to do so. Our factory was so jam packed with inventory, because the economy's been sluggish, and our sales have been down. Old stock was taking up space, and then we had to make more room for the cleats we were making, as well as all the new assembly equipment we required to manufacture them.
"We had barrels of waste piling up, and nowhere to put them. And that's? that's when Jasper approached me, and offered to take care of our waste problem? In exchange for monetary compensation, of course. He said that he had a solution. I? I didn't ask him what the solution was. I just gave him the go-ahead. I didn't want to know what he was up to. It was easier that way? I could pretend I didn't know what was going on."
Jasper was glowering at Mr. Murray, and in a menacing tone, he grumbled, "Perhaps you should choose your words more carefully? sir."
"The new venture was our last ditch effort at saving the factory, you see," Mr. Murray continued. "And maybe, our last chance to save Hollow Oak, too. So many people in this town depend on the factory for their livelihoods. I felt responsible for them? for everybody.
"Looking back, it all seems so clear that it was a terrible idea. I just crumbled under the pressure, and I took a shortcut when the opportunity presented itself. Coach didn't know about what I was allowing to happen on my watch. He would have never allowed it. I t
hought that I was helping him? helping the town. I thought that in the end, I would save everybody. I was just so desperate? I didn't want the factory to close.
"I didn't want to fail the town? and I didn't want to fail my son. I wanted to keep a roof over your head, Jack, and provide for you. I was sick with worry, and I kept wondering? if the factory closed, how would I pay for the house, and utilities, and food, and clothes, and everything else? How would I ever find another job that paid enough, in this recession? Those are the reasons I allowed these terrible things to go on under my supervision. But you children need to understand that it's no excuse for what I allowed to happen, none at all. My negligence harmed others. I hurt the town that I love, and I let down those who depend on me."
"Oh, cry me a river," Jasper mumbled under his breath.
"Now, I'm afraid things will get harder for you, Jack," Mr. Murray said. "But you need to stay brave, and no matter what happens? don't be afraid."
Jasper cleared his throat. "I don't know about all this. Seems like ol' Jasper's always getting a bad rap, I must regrettably say." After a long, awkward pause, he added, "I suppose I'll just be returning to work, then."
The others watched and shook their heads as Jasper shuffled back inside of the factory, sweeping with his mahogany broom as he went. He whistled in an off-key tune as he departed, mumbling to himself. When he was gone, Mr. Murray spoke again.
"I have little doubt that Jasper is guilty of dastardly deeds. But there must be consequences for my negligence, as well. I won't simply hide behind him, and let him take all the blame. What kind of message would we be sending to the town - to our neighbors - if I did not pay the price for what I've allowed?" He waved a hand at Neil, Jack, Sara, and Maria. "What kind of a message would we be sending to our children?"
"Of course," Chief Fresco said, as he bowed his head sadly. It was a hard pill to swallow, but he knew that his lifelong friend was right. "Well. I suppose we better get you down to the station. Maybe start filling out some reports, eh?"
Mr. Murray smiled. He gave his son a hug, and then released him. "No. Get these Beans home, first. It's way past their bedtimes."
The Green Beans, Volume 1: The Mystery of Hollow Oak Page 11
