Chapter 38
CHAPTER 38
They didn’t have to wait long, within ten minutes of their return Jack called Lizzie and told her the Cranberry Harbor police had called him and said Billy had dropped the charges. Lizzie literally jumped up and down.
“I will give you all the details tonight of how that came to be,” she says to him.“I’m sure you’ve got a million things to do. Love you!”
She turns her attention to her parents and Eric.
“Dad, Eric, you should have seen Mom in action, she confronted Billy, and it was amazing,” Lizzie says, taking the cover off her lasagna, warmed from the office microwave. “I have never seen her be so stone cold tough and unwavering. It was amazing to behold!”
“I would not want to mess with your mom when she has being right on her side,” Peter says. “She is formidable.”
“Billy’s face was like, like, I don’t know, a cross between a deer caught in headlights and a kid who got caught cheating on a test. I was glad I wasn’t him,” Lizzie says.
Eric is quiet as he eats his food, though he keeps checking his phone.
“You okay?” Lizzie asks.
“Yeah, I guess I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop, I keep checking Twitter to see if anything has shown up from the major newspapers, but there’s nothing so far,” he says.
No sooner are those words out of his mouth, then his phone rings. He answers and abruptly gets up from the table.
“Yes, this is he, who is this again?” He asks, “From the Washington Post?” he turns to look at the three Martins looking right back at him. “Yes, I’d be happy to answer your questions. Shoot.”
For twenty minutes he paces back and forth across the office, Lizzie half expects to see a worn path in the rug. Gabby, Peter and Lizzie are trying their best to not eavesdrop, and talk amongst themselves, but it’s pretty difficult in their small-ish office. Lizzie’s stomach drops every time she hears him emphasize these are vetted documents, yes, they have documentation for his source’s employment at the facility…she knows the reporter on the other end is just doing due diligence, but she can’t help herself from worrying that no one is going to believe them. That Gobel and Green will find a way to weasel out of this, like every rich corporation and billionaire seems to do. She finds herself pleading and bargaining with the universe to not let these folks off the hook yet again.
“Okay, phew, that woman was grilling me,” Eric says, taking a seat and looking drained.
“Everything seems okay?” Peter asks.
“Yeah, at first I was worried that she was doubting me, doubting us and Gloria, but as we kept talking I could see that she was making sure she had all the facts and I could tell that she was shocked as much as we were by all that we uncovered,” Eric says.
“The story you uncovered,” Lizzie corrects him. “We may have run the story, but it was all you. Thank you, not just for our paper, but for our community, and at the risk of sounding like a movie or something, thank you for saving the country from them doing any more harm.”
“Well, let’s see if anything happens to them, we all know how slippery these kinds of criminals can be. They have the best lawyers and no end of money so they are seldom the ones who go to jail or are punished in any real way. Let’s hope these accusations are egregious enough that justice finally wins out,” Eric says.
Gabby begins to gather the discards from their meal. Thankfully she’d had the presence of mind to put the ice cream in the freezer of their small fridge when they’d arrived, so they do not have a puddle of it on the table.
“I’m going to head home, Peter. Lizzie, please keep me posted, okay?” Gabby says, picking up her purse and jacket.
As she gets ready to leave they hear some noise out on the street, Lizzie looks out the window, “Oh my gosh, there’s a whole bunch of people outside–they’ve even got signs!”
The others come over to look, there are about 30 people outside, many with signs with messages like, “Thank you!” and “Terra Marique Forever!” “Cranberry Harbor Wins!”
“Would you look at that,” Peter says. “We have fans!”
“We should probably go down and say something, don’t you think?” Lizzie asks her dad.
“Yes, we should,” he says.
They all put on their coats and go outside, and when the crowd sees them they erupt into applause and cheers.
They all stand there for a moment, unsure what to do. Peter starts saying, “Thank you, thank you,” trying to get them to stop; he’s embarrassed, he’s never done what he does for the accolades.
“You are all so kind to come here, we can’t believe it,” he says. “Thank you for your support and for believing in us, and for reading! And thank you to this wonderful young man who found out all the wrongdoing that’s been going on, Eric Jackson,” he says, gesturing to an embarrassed Eric. The crowd cheers.
Lizzie can see he’s feeling very emotional, so she steps up, putting her hand on her dad’s shoulder. “Yes, thank you! We did this to tell the truth, and to save Terra Marique, and for this town, and all of you who make this the most incredible place to live. Thank you so much for your support. We love you all. Now, if you’ll excuse us, we have more work to do!”
A few people come forward to shake their hands and thank them again, but then all three of their cell phones start ringing and they have to go. As they walk back into the building, each having conversations with either a government official or reporter, it’s clear, this story isn’t going anywhere any time soon. Gobel and Green are going down.