Bitter Root

by Laydin Michaels

  She glanced at her watch. Nine twenty. She needed to get on the road. She had managed to get an appointment with Nerbass’s assistant at ten forty-five, and the drive would take nearly an hour. She would have to catch up with Adi later, since she hadn’t returned her call from earlier, and now it went straight to voice mail.

  She made it to the offices of JB Dulac Transport by ten thirty. The place was really state-of-the-art. The building felt organic to the space it occupied. The design was modern but had the feel of belonging to its environment. She wasn’t surprised to see it was designated a green building by the USGBC. The natural lighting and wood used in the construction made the place feel warm and welcoming.

  “Hello, my name is Jacob. May I help you?” A young man entered through a half door and greeted her.

  “Yes, hello. I’m Griffith McNaulty. I have an appointment with Randy Pecot at a quarter to eleven.”

  “Ah, yes, ma’am. You’re welcome to wait here. Can I get you anything?”

  “No, thank you.”

  “Great. I’ll be right in my office if you change your mind. Feel free to look around. The fishing boats are docked out back, if you’d like to see them.”

  “Thanks. I might do that.”

  He nodded and went back to his work. She wandered around the pleasant lobby, looking at various displays and photographs. There was a model of the pier for the JBN Sports Fishing boats. Apparently, they were also touted for their green design and energy efficiency. The boat engines were designed to use less fuel, and that fuel was much cleaner than industry standards. She wondered if his helicopters ran on biodiesel. She made her way out the back door onto the dock. It was impressive. The entire structure was lined with reused materials. The covered boardwalk used photovoltaic cells cleverly camouflaged as ceiling structures. She had to admit that Nerbass truly seemed dedicated to environmental responsibility. That was a fresh point of view on the Gulf Coast.

  “Ms. McNaulty?”

  Griffith turned to see Jacob at the door.

  “Ms. Pecot is ready to see you now. If you will follow me, please.”

  Ms. Pecot? Griffith had fallen for the old gender trap and assumed Randy Pecot would be a he. That was a mistake she rarely made. She followed Jacob down a hall walled in silver metallic cork strips, with a bamboo floor. The office was fronted with glass and with a smaller glass wall facing the Gulf. The woman seated at the desk smiled warmly and stood as they approached.

  “Ms. McNaulty, what a pleasure. I’m Randy Pecot.”

  “Hello, Ms. Pecot.”

  “We aren’t that formal here. Feel free to call me Randy.”

  “Okay, Randy, I’m Griffith.”

  “Nice to meet you. Go ahead and have a seat. How can I help you?”

  Griffith sat on the comfortable overstuffed couch Randy indicated.

  “I’m not sure if you can help me. I’m actually hoping to get an appointment with your boss.”

  “So I understand. You have to know, Griffith, J.B. is a very busy man.”

  “Clearly.”

  “He’s also not quick to give interviews to reporters. He has been vilified in the press often enough to want to shield himself.”

  “Oh, I understand that. Believe me. I’m writing a story on how losing a child affects people. I’m trying to pinpoint why people react so differently by interviewing a wide range of people, from those in difficult economic circumstances to those in more fortunate circles. Mr. Nerbass is an excellent example of overcoming grief and honoring his child with his success.”

  “So, you know about Merley?

  “Yes. I came across that sad fact in my research.”

  “That’s a very touchy subject, Ms. McNaulty. J.B. never recovered from the loss of his daughter. It devastated him. He actually began his green building and sustainable energy plans in her honor.”

  “So he considers the loss of his daughter a reason to build in a sustainable way? That’s admirable. When did he give up on finding her? I think that would be the hardest thing, not knowing.”

  “She’s been missing eight years. He searched everywhere for Merley after she disappeared. He finally resigned himself to the fact that she was gone. If she had been alive, I am certain he would’ve found her.”

  “So you worked for him even back then?”

  “Well, no. I’ve been with the company for five years. Back then, JB Co. didn’t really exist. He started with a small bait shop in Dulac. After he lost Merley, he started the helipad transport business. That took off like crazy, and he expanded again and again. The sports fishing branch developed once he was headquartered here. So I’ve been in this office about four years.”

  “You mean he’s built this entire empire in the past eight years? That’s pretty remarkable. He must have had some strong investors.”

  “He’s completely self-made. He purchased the first helicopter secondhand with a loan from a good friend. I have a pamphlet here somewhere with his whole story. Hold on a second.”

  She rummaged around in her drawer, finally handing Griffith a slick brochure with the J.B. Nerbass story inside, but something about it felt shady. It was possible for a person to build a business from the ground up in eight years, but it was unheard of for someone to reach the heights that Nerbass had so quickly, especially from a small dock with no capital to invest. She had already checked his net worth. He was listed as just under $70,000,000 in assets. Unheard of growth, even by LA standards.

  She had assumed there had been substantial investment in the company by others to help create such a balance sheet. To hear it was done with virtually no help in such a short time period had all her alarm bells going off. Nerbass wasn’t a part of her story, unless he did have something to do with Adi, but she might make him the center of her next piece.

  “Thank you. I really would like to sit down with him and talk about how losing his child changed him.” Griff hoped like hell she wasn’t drawing attention to Adi, just the way Adi’d been afraid she would. It was too late now, though. If this was the person responsible for Adi living in fear, she’d damn well find out why and help put a stop to it.

  “I wouldn’t hold your breath, but I’ll check his schedule and find a time for you to meet.”

  “Thank you, I really appreciate that. Would you know approximately when the meeting might be? I need to arrange my schedule as well.”

  “He won’t be in town this week. He’s at a conference in Mexico City. He should have some time next week, before his trip to China.”

  “He’s going to China?”

  “Yes, he has some new ventures in development with the Chinese.”

  “But you think I’ll be able to have a moment of his time, don’t you?”

  “I’ll do my best to find time for you.”

  “I appreciate your help with this, Randy. I’m covering quite a few families who have lost children, and I think his story would be an inspiring addition.”

  “I’ll be in touch as soon as I have something confirmed.”

  “Thank you.”

  “I’ll walk you out.”

  She led Griffith to the door and politely excused herself. This new information about J.B. Nerbass had Griffith excited about doing a piece on him. She could always use this time in Louisiana to develop a storyline for Nerbass. She could multitask and maybe do a new piece off the back of the cooking article, one she could use for her next step back up the ladder. If it didn’t have anything to do with Adi, of course.

  The swift rise of his company was really tweaking the investigative journalist inside her. Time to get to work. She needed to know more about Nerbass. If he had anything to do with Adi’s fear, she could expose him, help Adi, and get her story. It could be a major win, as long as she didn’t screw anything up.

  She left the waterfront and drove directly to the local library to use their Internet access. She logged on to the public library system and pulled up Hoover’s Online. She searched JB Co and found the preliminary information she neede
d. J.B. Nerbass was the principal partner and president. His wife was listed as a board member and CFO. There were a total of five board members, including the Nerbasses. The other three names were interesting: Senator Ruben Landry, of the news article photograph; Ramon Zuniga, owner of a Mexican oil and gas exploration company; and Gao Feng, president of Lumera New Materials, a Chinese chemical company.

  The company had been established as a limited liability corporation five years ago. Prior to that, J.B. Nerbass was the Sole Proprietor of JB Dulac Transport. Something big had happened when the switch to LLC had been made. Nerbass had been gaining steadily with his transport company and fledgling sport fishing charter company, but things grew exponentially when he added Zuniga and Gao to his board.

  She noted the dates of each incorporation, then dug further back, to the purchase of the first helicopter for JB Dulac. The sale was registered from a group called Controller. It appeared to be a cash sale of a used Sikorsky S-76C. The listed sale price was just over two million dollars. Where had Nerbass acquired that amount of cash?

  He had been a bait shop owner, running shrimp and mullet out of a fair-sized store on a private pier in Dulac. He still held ownership of the pier and the shop. How could such a small enterprise give him access to that size of an investment?

  Randy Pecot had mentioned a loan from a friend, but what kind of friends had the ability to loan two million dollars? She thought about the board members. Had one of these men lent the cash for the purchase of the Sikorsky? She brought up a page on Senator Landry.

  He was born in a suburb of New Orleans, son of a restauranteur. Landry had begun his political life while still in school at LSU. He had campaigned on and off campus for then Democrat Trent Foster. He was an active and vocal campaigner, and when Foster won his seat on the state senate, he brought Landry along as a political aide. Landry followed his mentor into the Republican Party in the early nineties. He won his first elected office as comptroller of accounts for the city of New Orleans in 2002. His political rise was marked by questions of ethics and concern over misuse of funds, but he weathered the storm and came out of the 2006 elections as state senator.

  Griffith checked her time line. The purchase of the Sikorsky was dated June of 2009. Two years after Adi arrived at the Boiling Pot. She had no proof that Landry was the source of Nerbass’s loan, but she had a suspicion. Loaning someone money wasn’t illegal, in and of itself. But their motives and what they used the money for certainly could be.

  Next she looked up Ramon Zuniga. He was born into wealth, the son of Emilio Suarez Zuniga, the president of the state-owned oil company. He was educated in the U.S. in petroleum engineering, graduating the same year as Landry from LSU. He had begun his own state-sanctioned exploration company only a year after graduation. His company was responsible for most of the recent discoveries of oil, including the Macondo reservoir. He had made the state and himself extremely wealthy with his discoveries and his powerful gift of persuasion.

  From the outside, Zuniga was spotless. No whisper of corruption or back room dealing touched him. If he had a connection to Nerbass before his appointment to the board in 2010, she couldn’t find it.

  The last in the cast of characters was Gao Feng. He had assumed the role of director of Lumera New Materials when his father, Gao Jin, retired. There wasn’t a great deal of information about Mr. Gao online, but there was plenty about Lumera. The corporation fabricated metals and precision oil drilling parts as well as chemical processing and supply. It was the single largest exporter of Chinese chemicals. There had been six major stories involving Lumera in the past three years: A leak of toxic gas at their plant in Guangxi Province; a huge story about misappropriation of funds, resulting in half of the upper management of the company being replaced; a massive fire and explosion at a plant in Fujian Province; a clash with protestors near Beijing over the planned building of a new plant that made news worldwide; and two other unfavorable stories about the basic management of the corporation.

  Griffith wasn’t sure when Mr. Gao entered the radar of Mr. Nerbass, but somewhere the two had connected and since 2010, Gao had made regular trips to the Louisiana Gulf Coast. It still didn’t explain how Nerbass had created his empire so quickly before the other people got involved, though. And why was he tied to these three powerful men? Where did they connect before 2010? She had to get out there and talk to people who held some knowledge of Nerbass prior to 2010. She knew right where to start, with Mabel Baptiste in Dulac.

  *

  The drive to Dulac was interrupted only by a stop at Façon’s bakery for éclairs. Might as well have a peace offering. Griffith could tell that Mabel was home as she neared the house. The porch door stood open to the wide deck. She cautiously made her way up the staircase.

  “Mrs. Baptiste? I’m sorry to bother you, but I have a few questions.”

  “Shhhh! Quiet. Come on up off the stairs and be sure nobody sees you.”

  “Okaaay?” Griffith climbed the remaining stairs, happy she wasn’t being ordered off the property.

  Mabel was standing at the door waving her inside. “Hurry up, and duck down.”

  Griffith obliged and bent down to hurry through the door. The blinds inside the house were all closed, making the small room even less inviting. The stale cigarette smell had increased since yesterday.

  Mabel followed her in and quickly closed the door behind her. She pulled aside the blind on the door, as if expecting someone to be outside.

  “I promise you, it’s just me, Mabel. I didn’t bring a team of assassins with me.”

  “Well, aren’t you the funny one, Miss High and Mighty. It wouldn’t be the first time someone crept up my steps to cause trouble. Why the hell are you back here, anyway? I told you to get yesterday.”

  “I know you did. I had to come back, though. I need some information I think you can help me with.”

  “What information?”

  “About J.B. Nerbass. I want to know about him, before he became what he is now.”

  Mabel paled and sat heavily on the recliner. “I don’t have anything to say about that man.”

  “But your body language says you do, Mabel. Look, I don’t want to cause you any trouble. In fact, I brought you a treat. Here.” She handed over the éclairs.

  “You can’t buy me, lady. I’m not for sale.”

  “I’m not interested in buying you. I just want to ask you a couple of questions.”

  “I mind my own business. I don’t have anything to say.”

  “Let me tell you a story, then? Would that be okay?”

  “Go on.” She flipped open the bakery box and pulled out one of the pastries.

  “There was a young girl, from a really small town. Her father was a really nice guy, a shrimper, but he died, and the girl was left with her mother. The mother wasn’t a very nice person and didn’t treat the girl very well. Then the mother met someone, a man. And one day, when she was about fourteen, the girl disappeared. No one knew what happened to her. Does this sound familiar?”

  “Familiar? Hell, girl, that story happens all the time. In my case, though, the girl was a delinquent and she ran off to her boyfriend’s house. It’s a story that plays out down here about a hundred times a year. What makes your story different?”

  “My story is about the girl who disappeared. She’s a woman now, and still hiding from what she left behind. I want to help her.”

  Griffith watched Mabel’s eyes narrow. She knows exactly who I’m talking about.

  “Maybe you should just keep your yap shut. Maybe that girl ran for a reason.”

  “Maybe. She’s kind of shut down, you know, not living her life completely. I think if she can face what she ran from, she can let it go.” Please don’t be someone I shouldn’t have trusted.

  “And I say maybe what she left behind should be left alone. Maybe she knows it could hurt her.”

  “But I have to find out, don’t you see? I have to know so I can support her, either way.” Griffith
heard herself say the words and her breath caught as their meaning registered. I want to be there for Adi. I don’t want to be anywhere else. I really, really want her to be safe and happy. Screw the article.

  “What’s this girl to you? Aren’t you just a reporter?”

  She could be everything to me. I have to find out what I am to her. “I am. But she’s also my friend and I care about her. I want to see her free of the weight of her past.”

  “You’re stirring up a hornet’s nest, messing with this. The people you want to talk about are serious people. Dangerous people.”

  Griffith had guessed as much. Why else would Adi be so afraid of him? It was good to know Mabel felt that way too. She wouldn’t be running to Nerbass to tell him about Griff’s questions. And if she was right about who it was, dangerous probably wasn’t the right word. But in her line of work, she’d come up against plenty of vile people who deserved to be taken down. That in itself wasn’t going to get her to back down.

  “So, why would you think this girl would be in danger if she came back home?”

  “Seems to me, if you run away you probably have a reason. If you run away when you’re fourteen, it’s probably a good reason.”

  “Okay, but a reason that could hurt her now that she’s an adult?”

  “Look. You said J.B. Nerbass. I know all about his daughter and her disappearance. I always figured her body was out in the marsh somewhere. Never thought she might still be alive. Now you come around here with this story, and you make me wonder. I’ll tell you right now, if your friend is Merley Nerbass, she’s lucky she got away. Everybody in Dulac knows J.B. would’ve made sure she didn’t live to see fifteen if she’d stayed around.”