Slip and Slide

by Patricia Logan

  “As soon as I got here, they threw a ton of money at me and set me up with good bonuses. I was told to hire my own folks and finish supervisin’ the buildin’ of the mine. I hired folks with lots of experience and it were a good job for years. The industry was on the rise and we was makin’ money and uppin’ our short tonnage of production every year. Then, on a routine inspection, the MSHA inspectors noticed we had some timber that was beginnin’ to rot. The mine was only five years old at the time. That was in 2006 shortly before the US coal industry went into the largest few years of increased production and exports the country had ever seen.

  “We had money to fix stuff but we were workin’ three production shifts and barely able to close for a truncated maintenance shift to do the fixes on our machinery much less shore up timbers when they wasn’t fallin’ down. If you wanna point the fingers at me and tell me I should have closed the mine down and made the fixes, I would have tried but I probably would have lost my damn job and that didn’t help my miners. Bringing in someone new when we was that busy would have been criminal. I had to go against the bosses to get them to allow me to close for the four hours I did demand. That almost cost me my job. They weren’t happy, so I put things off because the bosses began ridin’ me and threatened my job.”

  “So, you put off replacing the rotting timbers?” Thayne asked, incredulous that a safety officer would admit to such a careless decision.

  “No, we began to do them little by little and then the coal industry began to slow. Don’t know if ya know this, but between 2008 and 2014, the AB declined over 30 percent in coal production.”

  “AB?” Thayne asked.

  “The Appalachian Basin,” Lafford filled in and Thayne nodded.

  “So, anyway, when we slowed production, I did away with one production shift and instituted one long maintenance shift like we do now but it were too late. The collapse was in an area of the mine where we hadn’t yet replaced the rotting timbers. We had three miners with cuts and bruises but they was trapped for near on twelve hours. Fortunately, we had good ventilation in that branch of the mine and we was able to pump in oxygen.”

  “They were lucky,” Jarrett said.

  Haney nodded. “So, it scared us all and when I heard about the federal safety funds I was hopeful.” He frowned deeply. “I really hoped I was gonna be able to fix everything with that award but to this day, I only seen a trickle of it, never enough to fix what I need. Saginaw passed it on to Boggs’s group when he bought the mine but I never saw a thin dime of it. Don’t matter now though. Four good men with families to feed are gone and if I don’t get it in the next two weeks, we’ll close and this job I love will be gone. It’s gonna severely affect this town as well as them families who are struggling’ to feed their kids and keep a roof over their heads the way I am.” He looked up at them, eyeballing them miserably. “These men are my brothers. It’s my responsibility if they ain’t safe.” His eyes teared up. “I was hopin’ to hang on for a year more till I retire and then join the union and go after ‘em as a whistleblower.” He shook his head. “That ain’t gonna happen now, though. There ain’t gonna be a mine in two weeks.”

  Thayne glanced at Jarrett and his partner held up his hands. He felt bad for the man but he was pissed at him, at the company he worked for, and just about everyone at the moment.

  “Mr. Haney, we can tell we’ve stepped into it here. We don’t mean to upset ya. We just wanted to ask about the 2011 mining collapse,” Jarrett said.

  Thayne turned and looked at his partner with a little surprise. He had to stop from the swell of pride he felt as he processed the fact that his lover sounded like the reasonable one for a change.

  “We really hope things work out for you in the financial arena,” Sales said, “Until then, maybe we’ll take our inquiries directly to Boggs and the Red Hills Mining Collective.”

  Haney reached up and scrubbed a hand through his graying hair as he looked at them. The man looked a little calmer but Thayne was honestly afraid that the guy was about to have a breakdown.

  “That’d be best course a’ action. Like I said, I can’t do a damned thing without money from the CEO and the corporate office. I wish ya better luck gettin’ answers than I have when ya talk to ‘em and while yer at it, ask ‘em to fuck off just for me.”

  “We’ll do that,” Lafford snorted. The man sounded as disgusted with the whole conversation as the rest of them looked. Thayne turned on his heel and led the way out the door and through the front office as the others followed. Once they’d walked across the parking lot, they stopped in front of their vehicles where they couldn’t be overheard.

  “Well, that was worthless,” Bud Sales said. He took his hat off his head and scratched his short hair.

  “I don’t know about that,” Jarrett said. “At least we know Haney’s being honest about how frustrated for lack of funds as he says he is. I feel for the guy and I really doubt that whole hissy fit or his confession in there was staged.”

  “Yeah, I’d have to agree,” Thayne replied, nodding. “I don’t think he’s lying and I think it’s time we do some more digging into the Red Hills Mining Collective’s finances.” He glanced at Jarrett. “We can ask Lincoln Snow to have their financial crimes division take a look at their bank records though I’m not so sure they’d show what happened to those safety funds.”

  “Lincoln Snow work in the LA Office?”

  “Snow works for the FBI and we helped him out this summer in a fireworks case we worked recently. He owes us a favor,” Jarrett said.

  “Wait a minute,” Lafford said, eyes widening. “The domestic terrorism case tied to the Freedom Brigade Militia? That one was you two?”

  Thayne smirked. “Yeah, that was us. We assisted Snow and his partner, Matt Terraciano, who died down at the border, put that case to bed.”

  “Hot damn,” Lafford said, looking them over as if seeing them for the first time. “That was some damned fine work. We knew the ATF helped out on that case but we didn’t realize you were the ones.”

  “Hell yeah,” Sales added. “The ATF has taken it in the shorts so many times in recent years, it really helped morale to hear the agency had helped take down a nationwide conspiracy and a dangerous militia to boot.” He reached out and shook both of their hands again. “The FBI definitely has wider resources when it comes to financial crimes, so if Snow will help us to uncover what Boggs and the Collective are hiding, that would be great.”

  “We’ll go back to Boggs’s corporate office and see if we can scare up copies of them citations,” Lafford said. “Keep in touch?”

  “Of course,” Jarrett said. They all shook hands again and parted in the nearly empty parking lot and climbed into the truck. Thayne had noticed that there were no miners hanging around the way there had been the day before. Maybe it had finally sunk in that the mine was closed and would be for a while. He turned to Jarrett as he started the truck.

  “I don’t know about you but I think besides calling Snow, we should do a little research on the Saginaw Collective and why they didn’t use the money before Red Hills bought it. Also, I’d like to know why Red Hills bought a failing mine in 2014 when the whole industry was on a downhill slide,” Thayne said.

  Jarrett glanced at him and nodded. “Let’s get back to the hotel and pick up our laptops to use in the library. I agree. We should look into them things and others. The fact that the mine changed hands at all in a failing economy has been bothering me too. I never could wrap my head around it.”

  “We should also see what we can find out about the rumor that Sales and Lafford have a gambling problem,” Thayne said.

  Jarrett smirked and glanced at him as he idled near the parking lot entrance before turning toward town. “You might be on to somethin’ there. I just don’t know how the hell we’re gonna find out about their gamblin’ debt. Hanging out with the locals a
nd talking to some of the miners would be where I’d start but judging by the two yahoos we met last night, I don’t know if we’ll get much cooperation.” He pulled out onto the highway and glanced at Thayne once they were in traffic. “Anyway, we’ll start with the miners and then maybe go back to that bar or try and find a local hangout where the moonshine’ll loosen some lips. I’m gonna head to the hotel first.”

  “Okay.” Thayne nodded, pulled out his phone, called up Lincoln Snow’s phone number, and hit the button to make the call. When the phone connected, Thayne smiled. He hadn’t talked to the man he and Jarrett had come to think of as a friend, since they’d ended the fireworks case over the summer.

  “Snow,” the deep voice boomed into the phone.

  “Lincoln, it’s Thayne Wolfe. How are you?”

  “Wolfe? Hey, how are you? Long time no talk. Is that crazy partner of yours still giving you the fits?” Lincoln’s buttery smooth voice matched his flawless mocha skin. He was one handsome man and Thayne had genuinely liked the FBI agent almost from the moment they’d met. His partner, Matt Terraciano, had been killed down at the Mexican border during a joint federal operation as their task force tried to capture a shipment of fireworks that were destined for the hands of a vicious militia to use to make bombs. Matt had died in the raid, leaving behind a family, but fortunately, they hadn’t lost too many men. Lincoln had lost a partner who was his best friend, and Thayne couldn’t imagine how he would have felt if he’d lost Jarrett in the same way.

  “Jarrett is always giving me fits, my friend. He’s right here in fact. Let me put you on speaker.” Thayne punched the speaker button on the phone and held it out so Jarrett could be heard.

  “Hey, Snow. How are you?” Jarrett asked into the phone as they drove.

  “Evans! I’m good. Glad to hear you haven’t killed yourself yet.” Snow’s chuckle was deep and Thayne couldn’t help but smile. “In fact, I was gonna call you two. I asked for a transfer up to the LA field office so I wanted to meet you two for lunch when I report for duty at the end of the week.”

  Thayne exchanged a glance with Jarrett. “That’s great. You’ll be our contact in LA I hope.”

  “It was one of the things I asked for when I requested the transfer and they seem pretty amiable about it. My SAC in Los Angeles, Lydia Miller, knows we worked together down south and they like it when the two agencies get along.”

  Thayne laughed. Federal agencies had a fierce rivalry wherever they were and being thrown together had often been contentious in the past. He believed every word Snow said when it came to cooperation. SAC Stanger would be thrilled to know they had a friend at the FBI’s LA field office.

  “Cooperation between the FBI and the ATF will be a novelty in LA I’ve no doubt. I’m glad you made the move. How’s Matt’s family?”

  “Thanks for asking. Matt’s wife and kids moved here to be close to their families who live in the area if you remember, so I thought it would be the best for me to be close. It’s the primary reason I asked for the transfer. I’ve known his kids since they were born.”

  Thayne’s heart went out to Lincoln. He’d been completely devastated when Terraciano had passed away and, like a lot of guys in law enforcement and the military services, taking care of the families of the brothers they lost was very important to them. He wasn’t surprised at all that Snow had left San Diego behind and moved north to be close to Matt’s kids.

  “I’m glad they have you close and we’ll get together for coffee as soon as we’re back in town,” Thayne said.

  “Where are you now?”

  “Bum fuck West Virginia,” Jarrett replied in his thickest drawl. Snow started to laugh through the speaker phone and Thayne could hear the smile in his voice.

  “What the hell are you doing there?”

  “They sent us off to help the local ATF satellite office investigate an explosion in a coal mine and since Evans grew up in the area and has worked in the mines, they tapped us.”

  “Hmm. The local ATF field office doesn’t trust themselves to handle a coal mining disaster? I’d think they have lots of mining experience. There’s sure enough of them.”

  “The closest field office is Louisville, Kentucky. The office here isn’t much more than a trailer where the two field agents work. They’re nice guys and know the miners but—well…” Thayne stopped what he’d been about to say. He hesitated to confess why they were really sent down. He and Jarrett genuinely liked Bud Sales and Clint Lafford.

  “I get it. They just needed to import some trouble from California because an explosion in a coal mine isn’t enough headache,” Lincoln said with a deep rumbling laugh.

  “Hey! I resemble that remark,” Jarrett said. The grin on his face was hypnotic and Thayne chuckled as well.

  “Anyway, there is a reason we called,” Thayne said.

  “Okay, what can the FBI help you guys with?”

  Jarrett pulled into the asphalt parking lot of the Stratford Hotel, parking the truck under a shady tree out of the way to talk rather than going through the valet line.

  “We’ve got some questions about the mining company’s finances and we were really hoping to get the FBI’s help in chasing down some leads. We know your financial crimes division is faster and better about this than we are, even though we are tapped into the same central database,” Thayne said.

  “You guys do guns, explosives, and booze. We do everything else. I get it,” Lincoln said. There was a teasing quality to his voice. “But seriously, we have full-time analysts who do nothing but this and before I became an active field agent nine years ago, I was assigned to financial crimes. I can spot a set of cooked books like no one you’ve ever seen. What can I help with?”

  “That’s awesome.” Thayne was so glad he’d made the call. He laid out what they needed, basically a full accounting of Saginaw’s finances before selling the mine to Boggs’s company, and then a full accounting of how the federal safety funds had been used once they’d been transferred to the Red Hills Mining Collective.

  “Okay,” Lincoln said, once Thayne was finished. “I’ll get on this and get back to you as soon as I have something. It may take a day or so.”

  “Thanks so much, Snow,” Thayne said.

  “Snow? One more thing,” Jarrett said. “There’s a politician down here and we’d like you to look into his accounts as well. The guy’s name is Clifford Geary. He’s a West Virginia congressman who’s been seen all over town with the Red Hills Mining Collective’s CEO, Jeffrey Boggs. You’ve never seen a slicker bastard. He’s got dirty written all over himself and if he has something to do with all this, we’d like to see if you can make that connection.” He shot Thayne a look.

  Thayne widened his eyes. He wouldn’t have even thought of checking Clifford Geary out. He just figured the guy was down there from Charlotte riding the wave of media attention miners killed in a tragic explosion would garner, like every other vulture on the planet. The fact was, every morning since they’d been there, they’d opened the newspaper with their morning coffee to see Geary bloviating about how his administration would be looking into claims of unsafe mining practices in Bluefield. The truth was, he was full of shit and there was nothing he could do that the unions and the MSHA hadn’t already done aside from handing out his own money to fix the problems in the Red Hills Mine.

  But it seemed people ate up tragedies in the newspaper and they couldn’t get enough of printing his statements. There had even been a front page photo on the Bluefield Daily Telegraph with Geary and Boggs wearing yellow mining hats and examining a clipboard and pointing down at something while frowning. It had probably been stacked with empty paper but it sure as hell had made for an impressive photo op. Thayne was impressed that Jarrett had thought of asking Snow to look into Geary at all.

  “It sounds like you guys have a whole lot of unanswered questions dow
n there. I’ll do whatever I can to help you sort it out and get back to you,” Lincoln said.

  Thayne was relieved and grateful for the help. “We’re so grateful, Snow. Thank you. Let us know whatever we can do to help you as well,” he said.

  “Will do, Wolfe. Talk to you two later.” He hung up the phone on his end and Thayne swiped the screen, glancing at Jarrett.

  “I wouldn’t have thought to ask about Clifford Geary but you’re absolutely right. He’s down here for a reason besides seeing to it that his slippery mug is plastered over every newspaper in West Virginia. There may be something to your suspicions. Thanks for thinking of that, partner.”

  Jarrett smiled. “Okay, time to get our laptops and then do some research,” he said, pocketing the truck’s keys and getting out. They headed into the hotel, mentally preparing for a long day of research, just happy that they had the FBI’s help and anxious to see what Snow and the FBI would turn up.

  Chapter Twelve

  Thayne and Jarrett sat across from each other at a long table set off in a quiet corner of the small public library where they could whisper to each other and not be overheard. Thayne set up his laptop near the computers the library provided and was currently looking up statistics for the coal mining industry to get a better feel of what had happened with it since the industry began its nationwide decline in production in 2007.

  Jarrett knew his partner loved research but as far as he was concerned, this felt like way too much desk duty for his liking. He was the kind of guy who lived for action and sitting still in a library just about had Jarrett ready to scream. His knee bounced under the table and it gave his body just the outlet he needed for all the kinetic energy. That little bit of motion would have to suffice for now. He thought going to the bar and talking to the miners would be a lot more productive but here he was.