“I’ll never forget it.” The Battle of Seattle in 1999, where forty thousand gathered to protest policies of the World Trade Organization.
“You think it’s safe to go back to the farmhouse tonight?”
“I don’t see why not. There’s not much point in harassing us now.” It was time to think about packing up and heading home. They’d trained enough locals to ensure the real cleanup would be monitored, and Jenn would rally the troops back to town if there was trouble. “Uh…I won’t be coming home tonight.”
Jenn gave her a sidelong look. “You have another date with the enemy.”
“I do,” she said, scuffing her foot as though confessing to childhood mischief. “But I don’t think she’s the enemy. She was out of the loop on this.”
“Are you sure you can trust her?”
“It doesn’t really matter because I can’t help myself.” She recalled her first date with Cathryn and laughed. “But if anything happens to me, you can tell them it was Cate with a C.”
She was already checked in at the Weller Regent, since they’d left the farmhouse in anticipation of another raid. It was silly she hadn’t given Cathryn her room number, but now she had an excuse to call. On her prepaid cell phone, she tapped the button for recent calls, expecting to see Cathryn’s number. It wasn’t there.
“Oh, shit.” Either her cheap cell phone didn’t remember numbers…or she’d used the wrong one to call the police on Marty.
* * *
“RM 317.” The text message came from SappHere instead of Stacie’s prepaid phone. It occurred to Cathryn the ensuing investigation into Nations Oil’s misconduct could very well result in all of her phone records being subpoenaed, and maybe even her texts from SappHere. Perhaps they’d accept her explanation of meeting a woman named Marlene and let it go at that. If not, there was nothing she could do about it now.
Hoss hadn’t left town after all. He was holed up at the North Shore Resort with Bryce and the lawyers plotting how they were going to get out of this mess. The corporate jet had whisked Washburn back to DC and was returning for all of them in the morning. The Nations Oil brass, which now included her, were flying home just the way they’d arrived a few short weeks ago.
Stacie’s face fell once again when she realized Cathryn hadn’t brought her overnight bag.
“I’m sorry, change of plans.” She explained the situation with Hoss. “But I have two or three hours. How about we forget all about the oil business and enjoy our time together?” She took Stacie in her arms and they kissed, gradually tumbling to the bed.
“I have just one condition,” Stacie said. “This can’t be goodbye. I don’t know how we’re going to do this, but I’m not letting you walk out of my life.”
Cathryn knew her willingness to risk coming here was proof her feelings for Stacie were strong enough to withstand the stress of hiding their relationship from everyone who mattered. Weekends, vacations. They could even spend time at her home in Houston and no one would ever know. She’d lived in her townhouse for four years and not once had anyone from Nations Oil stopped by.
“It’s not goodbye, I promise.”
They spent their first hour fully clothed, trading kisses and deep, soulful gazes. Cathryn ran her hands through Stacie’s short brown hair and committed to memory every fragrance, wrinkle and feature, whatever she might conjure to soothe her longing when they were apart.
Stacie gently pushed her onto her back and began loosening the buttons on her shirt. “Every time we’ve done this before, I couldn’t wait to touch you. It made me feel power and privilege to know someone as beautiful as you was giving herself to me. All I wanted was to make you feel so wonderful that you’d remember me forever. That isn’t enough anymore.”
Cathryn arched in anticipation of feeling Stacie’s hands on her breasts. From their very first night together, it had been about comfort and physical pleasure, a welcome respite from the demands of work.
“Now I want more than to touch you. I want to make love with you so you’ll know all these feelings inside me. I’m so lucky I found you, and nothing would make me happier than to know you felt just a little of that for me.”
“Of course I do. You’re making a real difference in my life, and that’s the biggest compliment I could ever pay you.” As she’d gotten to know Stacie and the reasons she worked as an environmentalist, it was impossible to dismiss her as one of the crazies she used to deride so easily. There wasn’t a selfish bone in her body, and she showed remarkable restraint given how she was persecuted by the likes of Depew. Cathryn respected her, and though her work was very different, she strived to conduct herself with integrity like Stacie’s.
They stripped off their clothes and fell together again, with every kiss, touch and gesture conveying a message of solemn devotion. The clock moved like a pinwheel, spinning their time away too fast.
“I have to go,” Cathryn said.
“I know.”
“You’re on top of me.”
“I know that too. It’s part of my strategy to keep you here.” Stacie eventually rolled off and slipped on her panties and shirt as Cathryn too got dressed. “I’d like to go somewhere with you, a vacation or something. Not that I don’t love worshipping your glorious body, but I believe there’s a lot more to both of us than what we’ve been able to show each other in a hotel room. I want us to laugh and be ourselves.”
“I want that too.” In the meantime, though, Cathryn saw no choice but to hide, especially with her job on the line. The board of directors could can the whole slate of officers, and who would blame them if they did? It would solve a lot of her personal problems, but she hadn’t climbed to the pinnacle of her career to have the rug pulled out from under her feet. If she could hold onto her job, she would.
Stacie walked her to the door and snaked her arms around her neck. “I’m going to start back to Pittsburgh tomorrow. Whatever you do, don’t walk out this door and change your mind about me.”
“I love you, Stacie.” She savored one final kiss and walked out, not daring to look back lest Stacie see the tears pooling in her eyes.
What if she couldn’t do this?
* * *
The driveway was blocked by a car from the Bunyan County Sheriff’s department, leaving Stacie no choice but to park on the grass. She expected to find the farmhouse in disarray again after the SWAT raid. The storm troopers knew they wouldn’t find anything, but screwing with activists was such irresistible joy. Still, it was hard to believe they’d wreck the place again after having to pay damages the first time. She hoped Jenn was inside giving a full accounting of what they’d broken this time.
“We didn’t hear you pull up,” Jenn said as she sprang from the couch, her eyes darting furtively over Stacie’s shoulder.
Deputy Gustafson, wearing a tight brown uniform shirt with dark green pants, emerged from the dining room. The house appeared to be in order, suggesting Jenn and the volunteers had straightened it already, or perhaps the thugs hadn’t tossed it after all. So why was a deputy paying them a visit?
“That’s the Prius for you. The engine cuts off whenever I slow down so I can sneak up on practically anyone.”
“Deputy Gustafson has a few questions for you about Marty.” Though her voice was calm, Jenn’s eyes were wide and anxious.
“I hope he didn’t put me down for a character reference. I’ve got nothing good to say about someone who’d sell drugs to kids.”
“Can we step outside, Ms. Pilardi?”
Not good. As his former girlfriend, Jenn should be the one answering questions. And no one should be answering to the sheriff’s department in Bunyan County, unless Marty had somehow gotten his case transferred back over to a friendly jurisdiction. That wouldn’t be surprising.
The screen door closed behind them, and the deputy led her to a corner of the wide porch. “When Mr. Winthrop was arrested, he was in possession of two ounces of marijuana. That’s a felony in Minnesota.”
“Yeah, I always worry about
the first-timers who come along on our campaigns. There’s no way to know what they’re really like until you spend some time with them. We don’t tolerate drugs, Deputy. It’s in our training materials, and everyone has to sign a pledge. I can show you Marty’s if you want to see it.”
“Yes, I’d like a copy of that if you don’t mind.”
“We’re not just drug-free. We have strict rules about weapons and alcohol too, anything that might get us in trouble. You have to understand, Deputy, we get hassled a lot because we ruffle the wrong feathers. We’ve had two raids on this house on account of someone spreading false information about us. We aren’t terrorists, and we don’t deal drugs. The people who were staying here came here from all over the country because they care about the environment. If we don’t stand up and make these oil companies take responsibility, no one else will.”
Gustafson looked up from a small tablet where she’d been taking notes. “Do you think it’s possible somebody set him up with those drugs?”
The danger in offering up too many details was getting caught in a small lie that would unravel her entire story. “I thought about that at first, but then I heard he’d been kicked out of the army for marijuana.”
“The thing is, Mr. Winthrop says you sent him to the high school to see a man by the name of Jeff Johannesson, who I haven’t been able to find. And while he was there, the Duluth Police Department got an anonymous call that he was out there selling drugs. Do you know anything about that?”
“Unbelievable!” Stacie sighed deeply and shook her head, still determined not to lie. “That’s how it is with guys like Marty. Whenever they get caught doing something, it’s always someone else’s fault. I bet you hear that all the time.”
“I sure do,” the officer said cynically. “The sheriff just asked me to check everything out. Can you give me a rundown of where you were last Tuesday?”
“Sure thing.” She opened the calendar function on her phone and stepped closer so the deputy could see. “I had a couple of conference calls that morning, and then I went to the office for a while.” Too bad she couldn’t produce the GPS coordinates of the tracking device to back up her story.
“He said you told him you had a meeting with a county commissioner, but I checked that out and your name didn’t show up on anyone’s calendar.”
The thoroughness of this investigation was disturbing. “That’s because it’s not true. I didn’t have a meeting. I don’t know why he said that, unless he was just trying to concoct something elaborate to make it more believable. I’m telling you, I had no idea he had anything to do with drugs, or he wouldn’t have been part of our group.”
Gustafson nodded blankly, as if tepidly accepting her explanation. She started for her car but turned back. “Do me a favor, would you? Leave me a number where I can catch up with you in case I have any more questions.”
Ugh. Stacie had hoped that would be the end of it, but this case wasn’t going away as long as Marty Winthrop was pointing fingers and Depew was pressuring the sheriff’s department to follow up.
Jenn joined her on the porch as the deputy drove away. “What’s going to happen?”
“Nothing, I hope. I told her guys like Marty always blame everyone else for their problems.”
From the sound of it, Gustafson was working only with Marty’s version of events and not any of the actual evidence, which meant his case probably hadn’t been transferred after all. This was all a special favor to Depew. Now she had to hope no one looked into the phone she’d used to make the call.
Chapter Seventeen
The fiasco at Lake Bunyan had made national news with humiliating video that caused even the wooden-faced, baritone anchor of the most-watched news network to chuckle. Even worse for Cathryn, it kicked off with her rosy introduction of Washburn, who was now getting unwanted attention from the Senate Ethics Committee.
The flight back to Houston would undoubtedly be the most miserable three hours of her life, and after yesterday’s disgraceful incident, that was saying something. She was the first to board the plane and took her usual seat in the back.
She was startled moments later when Woody stepped aboard, for the first time wearing a bolo instead of his usual necktie. No doubt he’d pick up a big hat too as soon as he returned to Texas. Amy was right to feel cheated at how he’d been promoted so many levels above his old job, and there would be lots of other petroleum engineers on Bryce’s team who would feel the same way.
He set his briefcase on the center seat. “This is a far cry from being crammed into a regional jet. It could take some getting used to, but I’m willing to give it a try.”
“You might want to start by not taking Hoss’s chair.”
“Oops!” He moved to the seat across the aisle from hers. “I really appreciate having the chance to work under you, Cathryn. There’s no way I’d have this job if you hadn’t been such a good mentor.”
There’s no way he’d have this job if he hadn’t stumbled across the tanker logs. “I enjoyed having you on my team, and I hope my next technical assistant is as smart and hardworking as you.” It never hurt to be gracious, especially since he could very well be her boss someday.
Her personal phone chimed with a message from SappHere. “Miss you already. Safe travels.”
She answered back to say the same and dropped her phone in her briefcase. It wasn’t fair she’d finally met someone she could love with all her heart, and they were doomed from the start by circumstances. If she had one wish, it would be—
“Where the hell is Depew?” Hoss demanded angrily as he stormed aboard the plane. Judging by his red face, his blood pressure was in the danger zone. He was followed by Bryce and Gregg. Poor Larry would be left behind in Duluth to oversee the cleanup.
“I saw him this morning at breakfast,” Woody said.
“Call him and tell him to get his ass here.”
“He’s coming now, Mr. Bower,” Juan said, scurrying down the steps to take Depew’s bag.
“Sorry I’m late, fellas…and ma’am,” he added, tipping his hat. “It takes all day to get it through those thick skulls that locked down means nobody gets in.”
Bryce, whose face was nearly as red as Hoss’s, poked a finger in Depew’s chest. “For what we paid you, we weren’t expecting a bunch of imbeciles. Everybody did their job but you.”
Though it always made her uneasy when Bryce went off on someone, Cathryn didn’t mind seeing Depew on the receiving end. If he weren’t such a bastard, she might have volunteered the observation that the activists could have discovered the bitumen on the lakebed before he ever arrived on the scene, which happened to be true. It was much more satisfying to watch him squirm.
Hoss loosened his collar, which Cathryn hoped would calm him down. “How did we get blindsided like this? I thought you had somebody on the inside.”
“I did, but he got himself arrested on a drug charge. He says that woman set him up, Stacie Pilardi, the head of that crazy ecoterrorist outfit.” Depew swiveled toward Gregg. “By the way, he needs a lawyer who can plead that down. It wouldn’t do to have him start singing.”
“Goddammit, Karl!” Bryce yelled. “What the hell do you think we hired you for? You put all of our asses on the line and now you expect us to take care of your man? We paid you for security services. If he’s got anything to sing about, that’s your problem, not ours.”
“Excuse me,” Gregg said, craning his neck to make eye contact with Cathryn and Woody in particular. “I need to remind everyone that, as general counsel, my presence makes this a privileged conversation. If you’re called upon to give a deposition, you’re not required to divulge anything you hear on this plane. In fact, your responsibility as officers of the corporation requires that you safeguard all information from private company meetings, including this one.”
Especially this one, she thought. She gripped her armrests as the jet roared down the runway and burst into the air, quickly gaining both altitude and speed.
&n
bsp; The men, locked in a pissing match, hardly seemed to notice.
Now it was Depew who was red in the face. “Don’t think for a minute you’re going to hang me out to dry, Tucker. Remember our little powwow at Jackson Hole last year? I recorded every second of it because I knew you sons of bitches would get all high and mighty if things ever went south. You’re up to your necks in this, all of you, and I can prove it if I have to. Bribes, vandalism, roughing up the protestors. You signed off on every bit of it, and you told me to stop that reporter who was fixing to tell the whole world about you dredging the lake. My guy sitting in jail—the one you don’t want to help—he was following your orders, and that’s what he’ll sing about if you don’t get him out.”
Hoss whirled to face Tucker. “You told him to take out a reporter?”
“I had to, Hoss. Larry called and said she was asking about the dredgers like she knew something. She had pictures of our dredge pad in her briefcase. Somebody was feeding her information.”
“Do we have any idea who it was?”
Depew spoke up. “It probably came from that drone we shot down. Our inside guy said there was somebody holed up in one of those cabins, but we swept the whole lake twice and didn’t find them.”
“Maybe they were playing your guy the whole time,” Cathryn said, relishing the chance to twist the knife. “I don’t know what the range is on those drones, but it seems like they could have been flown in from outside the perimeter.”
Depew scoffed. “You give them a lot more credit than I do.”
“We gave you too much credit, Karl,” Hoss spat, and spun back toward Tucker. “What are we getting from Larry on the EPA?”
“He met last night with Kryzwicki, and he’s on board.”
“He damn well better be. His head’s on the chopping block too.”
As the lead inspector for the EPA, Bob Kryzwicki was more vulnerable than anyone. He’d signed off on a preliminary report saying the spill was heavy oil and they’d accounted for all of it. Walking that back at this point would require an elaborate fabrication.
Anyone But You Page 20
