Slip and Slide

by Patricia Logan

  “Now that four miners are dead, it’s our case,” Thayne said after she left. His mood and manners had darkened considerably and Jarrett could tell he was on a short fuse. He changed the subject quickly.

  “So, the miners don’t use explosives down in the mine?” he asked.

  “No, that’s pretty old school,” Sales said. “These days, a lot of mining is mechanized.”

  “Mechanized?” Thayne asked.

  “The miners use something called a continuous mining machine to dig the mine shaft. They still use pick axes and shovels of course, but a lot of the work miners used to do by hand, is now handled by machinery,” Jarrett supplied.

  “That’s right,” Sales said. “You’ll see one when we go out there.”

  “Have you heard how Harlan Sizemore is doin’?” Jarrett asked, changing the subject.

  “Recovering as well as can be,” Lafford said. “We were there until about midnight and the last thing we did was check in with the doc. He seems to think the man is through the worst of it and his lungs didn’t sustain too much smoke damage. His brain function seems okay so the SCSR device worked for him. Of course, his full function remains to be seen but they’re tryin’ to remain hopeful that he’ll pull through.”

  “Are the miners still at the hospital?” Thayne asked.

  “Yeah, some are. The mine’s closed until it’s cleared by MSHA so Mrs. Sizemore is not alone while she waits.”

  “What’s the deal with the foreman… Bertrand Middleton?” Jarrett asked.

  “Like we said, we haven’t had much dealin’ with the mine until this all happened,” Sales said, “But from what we understand, he’s a decent guy. Not the friendly type but he don’t know us well and y’all are complete strangers. My guess is, unless Boggs wants him opening up about the way things are run down there, he won’t be crossin’ him.”

  Jarrett nodded and watched his partner do the same. They had expected as much but that didn’t mean they weren’t going to try to get information out of Middleton and the other miners. They might be sympathetic enough to talk to them about what was really going on if mining safety was compromised because they’d all lost brothers down there.

  “Middleton struck me as being Boggs’s man,” Jarrett said. “You said there was a mine manager too?”

  “Yeah, we get the same feeling about Middleton. Don’t know if he can be fully trusted but like I said, he’s friendly enough. Doug Haney is the man who manages the mine and is also the mine safety officer. He was already gone when you fellas got to the hospital. He had business with the MHSA he had to attend to.”

  “So, since we can’t get into the mine until MSHA is done with their inspections, we’ll start looking over the quarterly reports today. Maybe the citations too?” Thayne asked.

  Lafford nodded. “We’ll get you everything we have and look for the rest. Where are you staying?”

  Jarrett exchanged a glance with Thayne and they both smiled. “The Days Inn but we’ll be moving elsewhere tonight,” Thayne said. “That place is nasty.”

  “The Stratford is the best place in town if ya don’t care about prices,” Sales said.

  Jarrett nodded. “We ran into Jeffrey Boggs last night and he told us the same thing, even offered to get us a comp for the room which we declined.”

  Lafford and Sales both frowned. “Be careful about that one,” Lafford said.

  “He’s a real slick operator,” his partner added as he sipped the last of his coffee. They’d all finished breakfast and the waitress had come by to refill their coffees again. “Don’t trust what he has to say and don’t be surprised if he offers you another bribe like he did with the hotel room. He don’t like us too much since we refused him more’n once.”

  “After the explosion?” Thayne asked.

  “Yeah,” Sales added. “He claims the explosion was an accident but that didn’t stop him from tryin’ to make us anxious to call it one before the determination’s been made. My guess is, he ain’t gonna like two more agents poking around here. He’s gonna come at ya hard since we weren’t bribed.”

  Jarrett watched the two agents, knowing that they were taking a risk revealing that to him but then again, they may just be trying to throw him and Thayne off the scent of a bribe they’d already taken.

  “He was with his two men and a congressman when we came in here for dinner last night,” Thayne said. “The congressman looked about as smarmy as Boggs.”

  “Clifford Geary,” Sales said, nodding. “Yeah, that one is dirty for sure. It’s a pretty well-known fact around here that if something needs to pass the legislature, he’s the go-to guy to make sure it gets considered.”

  “So, he’s easily bribed?” Thayne asked.

  “Oh, you can say that. He’s as dirty a politician as they come,” Lafford said. “Rumors of graft and corruption have surrounded him since he was elected to congress. Just the fact that he’s here and not in Charleston, the state capital, is a pretty good indication that Boggs wants him here to influence whoever he can on the MSHA.”

  “Can they be swayed? I mean they’re a government organization also,” Thayne asked.

  Lafford smiled. “If you asked me a few days ago, I’d say no because the fact is, they’ve been issuing citations to Boggs since before the Red Hills Mining Collective bought the mine two and a half years ago. As far as we can tell, they haven’t cleared any of the citations off the books and have been fined up the wazoo.”

  “So, fines don’t bother them and they don’t care about clearing the citations,” Jarrett summed up. “Good to know.”

  “But the congressman is here when he would normally be in Charleston,” Sales said. “He’s either here to grab headlines by looking sympathetic to a mining disaster or he’s here to work with Boggs to mitigate damages if it’s found out that the CEO acted to cover up safety violations. Our guess would be both.”

  “I get it,” Thayne said. “I take it Boggs is a heavy campaign contributor to Geary’s re-election campaigns.”

  “I don’t know firsthand,” Sales admitted, “But I will say this. There ain’t a politician in office in West Virginia that ain’t sympathetic to the coal industry and when the business was booming before things began to change, US and state congressmen descended on Bluefield, Pocahontas County, and all the surrounding coal country like flies on shit at election time. They still come down and beg coal miners and the unions to fill their coffers.”

  “That’s crazy,” Thayne said. “They ask the UMW to fill their campaign coffers I assume because they promise to enact legislation protecting miners and their rights and then they turn around and protect the mine CEOs and owners who ignore citations. How fucked-up is that?”

  “That’s coal miner politics, Wolfe,” Jarrett said. He watched Thayne frown. He was really disturbed by the thought that the miners were getting a raw deal all the way around and it warmed Jarrett’s heart more than it should.

  “We’ll be cautious around Geary,” Thayne said. “At least we know the man’s motivated to look good in front of the cameras. If there was foul play that caused the explosion, I guess we’ll find that out too.”

  “Be careful of what you say around Geary, Boggs, and the UMW officials. The union pretends to be on the side of workers but they do nothin’ to see the safety changes made. We think they’re on the take as well. And you should know, there was a partial collapse at the mine about five years ago,” Lafford said. “That’s one of the reasons they sealed off a large portion of it. The mine owners say it was because that part of the mine was worked out but it sounds like it was also because of the partial collapse. Maybe sealing it up just made sense.”

  “Well, the miners who recovered the bodies of the two men near that section, said the seals were destroyed during this explosion,” Jarrett said. “So maybe we’ll be able to check to see if t
hat’s true.”

  “Maybe Middleton is willing to let you test that area of the mine to see if it really is worked out,” Sales drawled, “Not that it matters. We’re here to see what caused the explosion, not why they sealed up that worked-out portion of the mine. My guess is MSHA will be focused on the latest incident since it resulted in so many fatalities, but you can ask them to help ya convince Boggs to allow you access if you find a need to go in there. Don’t hold yer breath though.”

  “As long as we’re here, we need to learn everything we can,” Thayne said.

  Jarrett noticed he was getting worked up again. He admired how good Thayne was at his job and how devoted he was to preserving human life. If he was in any other profession, Jarrett had no doubt it would be something where he could put his humanitarian leanings into practice. Jarrett had always thought Thayne would make a great doctor for example. He looked up as the waitress returned with their check.

  “Will that be all?” she asked.

  “That’s it. Thanks, Marie,” Lafford said.

  Jarrett watched the way he smiled at the pretty brunette as he handed her his charge card.

  “Let me get ours,” Thayne said, reaching for his wallet.

  “No, we’ll expense this,” Lafford said, smiling at the waitress as he waved his hand at the cash Thayne was holding. She was blushing as she walked away and Thayne put his money away and replaced his wallet. “The Louisville office gave us that card and we hardly ever use it unless we take an odd lunch day or need to fill up the gas tank. I assume the agency is payin’ for your stay and the Stratford is a tad more expensive than the Days Inn,” he said with a smile.

  Thayne nodded. “Thanks.”

  They finished off their coffees, arranging to meet up at the mine the next morning unless Lafford and Sales were able to get a hold of the safety citations or the mine inspections to show them before that. After saying good-bye to the agents in the parking lot, Jarrett and Thayne headed off to their rental truck. They were halfway there when Jarrett heard a high-pitched whistle. He and Thayne turned back to see a tall man approaching. The second Jarrett recognized him, shock raced through him. He stopped, rooted in place as the last person he’d ever expected to see walked right up and held out a hand.

  “Jarrett,” he said. “Nice to see you.”

  Jarrett reached out a hand, as if in slow motion, grasping his. “Daddy?”

  ****

  Thayne stopped beside Jarrett and stood rooted in place as he watched Jarrett stick out his hand and shake the older man’s. Daddy? Shit.

  Jarrett’s father was an older version of him, probably nearing sixty, and the resemblance between him and his son was remarkable. He had a full head of silver hair, just a little darker than Jarrett’s, and he was about the same height, perhaps an inch taller than Jarrett’s six four. Mark Evans was a handsome man with bright blue eyes and when he smiled at Jarrett, the same twin dimples his lover had marked his craggier face. So, this is what Jarrett’s gonna look like in twenty years. Hot damn. Mark Evans was the Associate Director of Military Affairs for the CIA and other than that, the only thing Thayne knew about him was that he’d spent some time working in the coal mining industry before joining the Marine Corps and then later the CIA. That and the fact that Jarrett said they’d had very little contact over the last several years and had a strained relationship was enough for Thayne to be wary of him right out of the gate.

  The fact that he’d quite obviously learned that Jarrett was going to be in town, probably through his spy resources, made Thayne stop and take pause though. He was seeking Jarrett out for some reason. He hoped he wasn’t going to be a homophobic jerk because if Thayne sensed the man was going to attack Jarrett, even in a verbal confrontation, Thayne wasn’t going to hesitate to react badly. The smile on the man’s face told a different story though.

  Thayne watched Jarrett shake his father’s hand and then he turned to Thayne. “Thayne, this is my father, Mark Evans. This is my partner, Thayne Wolfe.”

  Evans sobered, looking at Thayne. He seemed to eyeball him critically and then his harsh features softened slightly as he held out his hand. “You’re Jarrett’s partner on the ATF. I owe you my gratitude. I understand you saved my son’s life recently.”

  Thayne shook his hand and faced off with his own serious expression. “I was just doing my job, sir. Jarrett’s my partner. He’s pulled my chestnuts out of the fire a time or two. I figured I owed him payback for what he’s done for me but I would have done what I could regardless.” Thayne glanced at Jarrett who was smiling, his own dimples in place.

  His father’s serious expression softened even more and he gripped Thayne’s hand even tighter. “That’s good, son. The way two partners should work together. I’m glad to hear it.”

  “I’m surprised to see you,” Jarrett said as his father dropped Thayne’s hand.

  Mark Evans smiled. “You know I keep tabs on ya, Jarrett. I heard the ATF was involved in the investigation at the Red Hills Mine so I took a chance and called your office. A nice woman by the name of Special Agent Connor answered your phone and told me you were headed to West Virginia to help out with a mining explosion. I’m just curious why they called you all the way from California.” He lifted an eyebrow and pinned Jarrett with a look that said, “Don’t lie to me because I’ll smell a lie in a second.”

  “SAC Howard in Louisville was concerned that his agents might need help with their investigation,” Jarrett replied. Thayne smirked and looked down to his feet when he heard the half truth.

  “If them agents are down here, they know the coal mines. What was the real reason you were called in besides the fact that you’ve spent a couple years under ground?”

  “SAC Howard was concerned that his agents were too close to the folks down here,” Thayne said, looking back up.

  Mark Evans studied Thayne’s face for a few seconds. “That’s more like it. I like your honesty. My son doesn’t tell me the whole story. He makes me work for answers.”

  Thayne’s stomach flipped and he got downright angry. “Maybe you’ve earned Jarrett’s attitude, sir.”

  Evans’s eyes widened for a second and then he suddenly burst out laughing. He reached out and clapped Thayne on the shoulder. “I think I’m gonna like this one, Jarrett.”

  Thayne was a bit surprised but he looked at Jarrett.

  Jarrett met Thayne’s gaze with a tiny smile but when he turned back to his father, he began to frown. “Well, now you know,” he said suddenly. “Was there somethin’ else?”

  Thayne was tempted to say something because Jarrett’s question was really rude and much more confrontational than his own had been. Jarrett’s father was being nice and had taken the time to find him so Thayne couldn’t really figure out where all the hostility was coming from. That didn’t mean Jarrett didn’t have a good reason. He’d just never seen him behave this way before. His happy-go-lucky nature seemed to be gone and it was kind of heartbreaking to see the hurt expression on Mark Evans’s face as well.

  “I was hopin’ you and your partner would come over for supper. I know you’ll wanna see your brothers and I’d like to talk to you myself, Jarrett.”

  Thayne watched Jarrett’s face expectantly. He hoped Jarrett accepted the invitation because he knew his lover felt very strongly about his family, despite the distance he’d kept between them in recent years. Listening to him talk about his brothers and his father when they were in LA and on the plane, had convinced Thayne how much he missed all of them and how isolated Jarrett had been feeling for years. When Jarrett nodded, Thayne blew out the long breath he hadn’t even known he was holding.

  “Yeah, we’ll be there. Everyone in town?” Jarrett asked. Thayne knew he was asking about Elijah, probably mentally preparing himself for a showdown if it came to it and probably hoping that Elijah was somewhere far away working for the M
arine Corps.

  “Everyone’s home. Elijah’s here on leave and the boys always come home on weekends even if they’re in school. It’s close enough to drive,” Mark answered.

  Jarrett nodded. “Okay, we’ll be there. Is Edie cooking?”

  Evans smiled and the dimples returned to the older man’s cheeks. “She’s cookin’ and when she finds out you’re comin’, she’s gonna be over the moon.”

  Jarrett turned to look at Thayne. “Edie’s our cook and housekeeper. She practically raised Jase after Mama died.”

  “You and your brothers did a pretty good job of taking care of Jase, Jarrett, but it weren’t a job for boys. I had to work and she kept us fed and the house clean. Anyway, we’ll talk about everything when y’all get to the house.”

  “Nice to meet you, sir,” Thayne said, holding out a hand. Evans shook it and then did the same with Jarrett. After he walked away, he and Jarrett walked to the truck.

  “I bet that was a shock,” Thayne said.

  Jarrett looked over and Thayne saw his ice-blue eyes had clouded with a darker blue. It was odd and Thayne had only noticed the darker color when he knew Jarrett was worried. “Yeah, that was a damn shock, to be honest.”

  “It was, but I’m betting you’ll be happy to see your brothers.”

  “Yeah. I am lookin’ forward to seeing my brothers,” Jarrett admitted.

  “Even Elijah?” Thayne asked.

  “Dammit, Thayne,” Jarrett said, sounding exasperated. He was frowning again. “You sure know how to rub me raw with all your questions,” he drawled.

  Thayne glanced around the parking lot to ensure their privacy before grabbing the front of Jarrett’s flannel shirt and pulling him forward. He looked deeply into his eyes and leaned in to kiss him on the lips. The kiss was quick but it felt good. When he pulled back, Jarrett was staring at him. He began to smile and then nodded his head.