33. Jessika
THIRTY-THREE
JESSIKA
The drive to the camp is different this time.
We go in the early morning, just Grant and me, three days after the revelation about Meridian Industrial.
Grant has been very quiet since he saw the name, not withdrawn exactly, but internal, processing something in that particular way of his that involves very little external evidence of what's happening underneath.
I've been giving him room.
But in the truck on the way north, with the October trees going bare against the gray sky, I say: "Tell me about Raymond Blake."
He looks at the road.
"In prison someone who knew someone made a comment about a Blake family in the next county over. A Raymond Blake who had money. I filed it. Never looked further."
"Why not?"
"Looking him up felt like, opening something I didn't need to open."
"And now."
"And now he's connected to the thing that compromised Morgan and the thing that's been threatening your family and the thing that got me—" He stops. "The drugs in my garage. The person building a case against me." He breathes. "Someone who knows my record well enough to weaponize it."
"A friend would know that," I say carefully.
"A friend would know," he agrees. Very controlled.
“Grant, are you?—"
"I'm fine," he says. Flat.
"I'm not asking because I doubt you," I say. "I'm asking because this is significant."
A pause.
"I know." He exhales. “I'm processing. I'm angry, which is clean. I’m, there's something else under the anger that I haven’t, that I haven't gotten to yet."
"Okay."
"I'll get there."
"I know you will."
We drive for a while.
"His company has been using Holcomb's land for three years," Grant says eventually. "Which means he's had a presence in Briar County for at least that long. And—" He stops.
"And you've been there the whole time," I say quietly.
"I've been there the whole time," he agrees. "And if he knew who I was?—"
"The photograph at your NA meeting," I say. "Someone tracking your addiction history. It could be he is building leverage."
"Against his friend," Grant says. Very flat.
"It happens," I say. Quietly. "It happens."
He's quiet.
"Morgan," he says suddenly. "The introduction to the dealer. Collins introduced Morgan to someone who got him using again. But Collins was working for Holcomb. Who was working for Meridian. Who was—" He stops. "The person who actually targeted Morgan specifically?—"
"Would have had a reason to want the environmental investigation stopped," I say. "Before it reached Meridian's involvement."
We look at each other on the county highway.
"Raymond Blake had Morgan targeted," Grant says. Quiet. Certain.
"We need Morgan to tell us what he knows," I say. "All of it. Whatever he held back."
"I know."
We drive.
I reach over and put my hand over his on the console.
He turns his hand and holds mine.
We drive to the Vance’s.
At the ranch, Morgan opens the door before we're out of the truck.
He looks better than last time. Something more present in his eyes, the medication stabilizing, I think, and eight months of quiet.
Inside, with coffee, I say: "Morgan. Tell us about Raymond Blake."
And something in Morgan's face, some last layer of held-back information opens.
"He hired me," Morgan says. "For the survey work.
Not the county, Meridian contracted out through the county, but the original contact was through a man named Blake.
I didn't connect the dots until later. Until I had the contamination data and started trying to trace back who had reason to hide it. "
"He hired you specifically," Grant says.
"I think he knew who I was," Morgan says carefully. "I think—" He stops. "The way he spoke to me, in the beginning. Before it all went wrong. There was something familiar. Something I couldn't place."
Grant is very still.
"He knew I was your friend," Morgan says. "I think that's why he picked me. Because if things went wrong, if I found something, he thought he could—" He stops. "Through you. Through whatever leverage he had or thought he had over you."
"He was going to come after me," Grant says.
"I think so."
"He says," Morgan says, and looks at me, "that the deputy knows you're asking questions now."
We stand up at the same time.
"Nova," I say.
I'm already calling her phone.