Chapter Seventeen
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
It was late by the time Liam made it back to the apartment. The sun set early this time of year and night had fallen before he’d even left Bremerton. He took the ferry across the Sound, which he’d done only a handful of times before. It was not an unpleasant journey and it afforded him a view of the city skyline at night he’d seldom seen. From the dark horizon buildings rose up, illuminated by the lights of the office buildings and apartments within. He scanned their dark silhouette, trying to pick his office out from the others. They were difficult to tell apart in the distance.
Liam’s mind swam with everything that had happened over the past few days in the valley. The city greeted him with a strange emptiness. Nearly a decade Liam had lived in the city, but returning now didn’t comfort him like he’d expected. He was struck, driving down empty streets between towering concrete and glass-windowed buildings, by how cold the whole place felt. For the first time, he pondered how jarring it was, to be back in the city after spending so much time in the quiet and gentle forests.
Leaving Iona and the valley behind had been harder than he’d anticipated. Their time together had been short, but he felt as if he’d known her for a lifetime. Then again, maybe he had. He’d spent in his childhood beneath the branches of the maple, but she had been there too. Another wave of sadness washed over him with the realization that the maple and the house would be sold and gone for good. Again, he tried to put it from his mind.
Maple greeted him back at the apartment, her tail wagging as she jumped up on his legs. It was bad form, but Liam was often so happy to see her he didn’t have the heart to correct it. The rest of the apartment was quiet. Both Annie and Zev were in their rooms for the night, and Liam made himself some dinner in the kitchen.
It was difficult to ignore the comparisons between his home in Seattle and the one he’d grown up in. Where the cabin had been old and worn, his apartment was new and only a few years old. The shiny new appliances, crisp wood floors and clean white walls were not yet worn by time. Zev was more frugal than Liam, but the apartment blended the eclectic, thrifted style that Zev preferred and the expensive things that Liam had acquired over the years with money from his corporate job. It was the apartment he’d dreamed of as a kid, really.
It was also devoid of anything resembling personality.
It’s newness now felt more sterile than luxurious. As much as it pained him to admit, a part of him already missed the warmth of his childhood home.
The apartment represented everything he’d been working towards. So what if it would never be his to own? And so what if he had to share it with his roommates? He wouldn’t be there forever, and someday he’d have the house and life he’d dreamed of.
***
Monday morning, and the work alarm associated with it, came far too early for Liam’s liking. He’d rolled into work after sleeping nearly twelve hours, but feeling like he could have slept a dozen more.
He was among the first to arrive. The cold florescent lights in the lab hummed as he turned them on. His colleagues had left a large stack of samples in his workstation, prepped and ready for him—more than enough to keep him occupied all week.
First he turned on the computer, the notification sound of a few dozen missed emails grating on his still tired brain. Then he powered up the chiller and exhaust fans. Once ignited, the torch would need time to heat, and he combed through his emails while he waited.
Being back at the lab was a welcome change after the chaos of the past few days. The processes were predictable, and his work was pleasantly routine by this point in his career. Each test was like a puzzle, his work was uncovering the essence of each sample like a detective.
Each sample would need to be processed with a series of boiling, cooling, and acid additions before finally diluting the sample to its original volume. Plumes of acidic gas shifted up the fume hood with each addition of nitric and hydrochloric acids.
Meticulous labeling and programming of his machine would guarantee flawless results, but the tests would still take a few hours to complete. In the meantime, Liam organized the corresponding reports and shifted into his chair, prepping for another two hours of data entry and report writing. He’d just settled into the paperwork when Sawyer knocked at the wall of his workstation and offered Liam a coffee.
“Sarah’s not real happy you were gone so long,” he said as he handed Liam the paper cup. “We’re even more behind than usual. This week looks like it’ll be a rough one. But I heard she’s ordering pizza for everyone to stay late tonight.”
Liam blinked at Sawyer, who was about as close to being a friend as any of his coworkers could be. “Pizza?” Liam repeated dumbly, when he realized Sawyer was waiting for a response. The coffee scalded his tongue as he took a sip, but he didn’t mind—he’d missed his morning latte.
“Yeah, you know how it is. I think the whole team is staying, to try to get caught up. We missed you last week.”
Liam ran a hand through his hair—it was getting a bit too long for his liking, but it was difficult to get away from work during the week. “Yeah, pizza sounds good, I guess.”
Sawyer retreated to his own workstation as Liam read off the findings of the mornings tests. Everything so far had been within acceptable limits: cadmium, chromium, silver, zinc, nickel, lead and copper, all permissible. The last sample, however, a large spike of chromium had caught Liam off guard .
He prepared a new sample and reran it. Perhaps there had been some contamination? An easy mistake with such small concentrations of metal.
No, his second and third tests confirmed it. He even had Sawyer look at the calibration of his machinery, just to be sure. Whatever company this sample had come from was dumping 40 ppm of chromium into the Puget Sound water table. In small quantities, it was not overly harmful, but at rates like that…
Liam scowled at the report he held in his hands. It was unusual to encounter such a high value in one of his samples, and didn’t have to file these kinds of reports often. Without the report, those companies wouldn’t know or understand the impact they made, and Liam was thankful at least they’d be made aware.
The rest of the day passed in an utterly normal fashion. No mythical beings appeared before him seeking aid to save their forests. No rifles pointed in his face. All was as it should be, and yet…
The timber theft and the danger to Iona still nagged at the back of Liam’s mind. Throughout the day, he caught himself staring blankly at his open document, unable to focus on his work.
It didn’t help that his absence sparked animosity among some of the other lab technicians, and few of them bothered disguising their irritation. They all knew why the team was behind on the samples this week and had Liam to thank for the unpaid overtime. He endured their comments with a grimace, much less patient with them as he usually was.
By five o’clock, Liam was so drained he decided he wouldn’t be productive if he stuck around, and ducked out while nobody was looking.
Five years he’d worked in that lab, and not once had he left promptly at the end of the day. It felt… liberating.
Besides, after spending the weekend together, Liam was feeling particularly nostalgic with both Annie and Zev, and was looking forward to spending some time with them. It had been months since they’d all had a proper evening together.
***
Back at the apartment, the lights were on, and music greeted Liam as he opened the door. He called out for Annie and Zev as he entered, but they didn’t respond. Probably they couldn’t hear over the record player, one of Zev’s old jazz records playing in the background. Liam turned down the hall and into the kitchen, but what he saw had him stumbling back and nearly knocking Maple down with him.
Annie and Zev had been caught in an embrace, lips pressed together and Annie’s hand knotted into Zev’s hair.
“Oh, shit. Sorry,” he muttered, and the two broke apart, springing to opposite ends of the kitchen.
Annie’s face went red, and though Zev was less outwardly embarrassed, they looked down at their feet.
“We didn’t think you’d be back so soon,” Zev said, a bit of color on their cheeks as they leaned up against the counter opposite Annie in the small kitchen.
“I wasn’t up to staying late today. I’m a bit tired still,” Liam muttered. “Uh, I didn’t mean to interrupt.”
“No! It’s okay,” Annie said a bit too hastily. “We just finished up with dinner, if you want some. How are your parents?”
Liam looked back at her and his stomach twisted. How long had this been going on? And how could he really not have noticed, when they all lived together? It was his Annie, after all.
But then he frowned to himself. She hadn’t been his Annie in a long time. The memories they shared were just that—memories. He’d hardly bothered getting to know the woman who stood before him now. But Zev had been his best friend for almost a decade. A twisted jealousy reared up in him, at the closeness they’d grown to share without him, in the short months they’d all lived together.
“They’re settling in,” he said with a wave of his hand. “What is this though, how long has this been going on?” He asked the question with what he hoped was a joking tone, but it was harder than he’d anticipated to hide the hurt he felt.
“A couple months now,” Zev answered, the guilt clear on their face.
“Ah,” was all Liam said back. It’s not that he was mad, not really.
In fact, it was his fault for not knowing. After all, how much had he even been around? He spent most of his days at work, and didn’t prioritize spending any real time with his friends and roommates. Isn’t that what Zev had been trying to tell him? The reason why they drove out to the valley to help was to spend time with him. What stung most was that they’d felt a need to hide this from him, and for so long. He ran a hand through his hair.
Silence hung in the air as they stood in the too-bright kitchen. Zev looked between him and Annie, then checked the time with a pinched expression.
“Well, I should probably get going then, working the closing shift tonight,” Zev told Annie. They both moved towards one another, before remembering Liam’s presence. A minute later, Zev had grabbed a jacket and their keys, and left with a hasty goodbye.
Liam couldn’t help but think they seemed rather eager to leave. Zev had never been one to face a conversation head-on, something that had caused problems between them in the past.
Annie lingered, looking uncomfortable.
“I tried to tell you the other day. I wanted to tell you a while ago, but it’s been hard to catch you,” she started. “We only really kept it from you at first to keep you from feeling excluded. I know Zev’s been your friend for ages, and… we have our history. I just didn’t want to hurt your feelings.”
“So you kept it from me for months? How does that make it easier for me?” he asked, his words having more bite than he’d intended. It wasn’t fair to take his anger out on her when she’d clearly been trying to tell him back at the old rotting fort. Even then, he’d been too preoccupied to let her finish her sentence. Emotions roiled in his chest, flitting between anger and heartbreak.
Annie closed her eyes and sucked in a breath. “It doesn’t, I know. It was a tough situation, Liam. You are always at work, or exhausted from work… it just never seemed like the right time to tell you.”
Liam pushed his glasses further up his nose, fidgeting as he took in her words. They were entirely true, he realized. And his anger evaporated.
He saw her clearly for the first time in years.
True, they’d dated half-heartedly in high school, but it became clear to both of them their relationship just wasn’t romantic, and it faded into friendship. Liam had thought he’d harbored feelings for her when she first moved in with him, but she’d never done anything to encourage them, and he hadn’t either. Now that he thought about it, he realized she’d always been more of a fall-back plan to him rather than a real romantic interest.
Beyond that, what he’d felt in the short days he spent with Iona put his feelings for Annie into perspective. He loved her, yes, but not in that same way.
He’d been so engrossed in his career, in succeeding in his work, he hadn’t made time for her in any capacity at all. She should be his closest friend, given their history, but he hadn’t put in any effort—choosing instead to coast on their shared memories. No wonder she and Zev had found such comfort in each other. He’d basically driven them to it.
Liam sighed, hanging his head in his hands as he leaned over the kitchen counter. Like so many realizations lately, he’d missed what truly mattered.
Maple whined up at him from her spot curled beneath his feet, unhappy about his distress and unable to help.
“You’re right, Annie. I owe you an apology, actually,” he started, meeting her gaze to emphasize his point. “I loved you, Annie. I always have. And in some ways, I think I always will… but things have changed a lot since we were kids. There was a time I dreamed about our life together, a life we built. But it wasn’t really you, it was the idea of you—I know that now. It was a childish fantasy of mine, but I value you as a friend, and I’ve been a pretty shit friend to you. If Zev makes you happy, then I’m happy for the both of you. Obviously.”
Annie seemed to relax, as if a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. “Thank you, Liam. I… I think I really needed to hear that. I miss having you as a friend, you know?”
“I miss it too.” Liam let a laugh escape him, feeling the tension between them ease for the first time in what felt like a decade. “But hey—I’ve been thinking a lot about those loggers and I’m thinking you could help me out.”
***
A few days later, the three roommates gathered around the table, eating a spicy, red lentil soup that Zev made and discussing the timber theft in the valley.
Things around the apartment had settled after Liam’s discovery and his talk with Annie. The awkwardness evaporated quicker than he’d been expecting, and they’d been happy to have Liam around more. In fact, they’d been able to eat dinner together, and started watching reruns of old TV shows in the evenings. He felt closer to either of them than he had in months, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was still missing, especially after returning from the valley.
Annie had been digging into the information Liam gave her about the company, and had gathered them to report her findings over the dinner table.
“She’s a dryad, Liam. A dryad! How cool is that?” Zev practically shouted in the small apartment. “I went down a rabbit hole last night. You know the myths are as old as ancient Greece?”
“I mean, I did know that. But it is pretty cool, I guess,” Liam muttered into his bowl and pushed the mushy carrots around with his spoon. Truthfully, he hadn’t been able to get Iona out of his mind, and as the days stretched on, his stomach grew heavy with the realization he wouldn’t see her again. “Dryads come from oak trees, though, not maple. That’s why they don’t call themselves dryads.”
Zev rolled their eyes across the table. “Same thing, really.”
“It’s not! They’re very different.”
“Both of you shut it,” Annie chided, and set down her own bowl. She returned from her desk with a stack of newspaper articles and official-looking documents, and spread them out across the table. “You’ve been reading Wikipedia while I’ve been doing to actual hard part.”
“Knowing your allies is just as important as knowing your enemies. Tell me you aren’t just as thrilled we met actual dryads? ”
“She’s not a dryad ,” Liam corrected again.
Annie rolled her eyes at both of them, then gestured down at her research.
“So, check it out—based off what the old guy at the gas station told you, I was able to find some information online. They have a couple of government contracts for timber harvesting on public lands throughout the year. Those contracts go back decades, when Andrew’s father ran the company. But over the past six years, they’ve nearly tripled their business—likely since Andrew took over. Since then, they’ve moved to a bigger building, and taken out a few pretty significant loans for new equipment. But the contracts have stayed mostly the same, so the money is coming from somewhere else.”
As she spoke, she rifled through the stack of papers. Lease agreements, financial statements, contracts—Liam had no idea where she’d gotten it all from. It was impressive work.
“My contact at the Seattle Times told me that it’s quite often that timber gets stolen from public or private land, especially times like right now where the market price is so high. They’ll forge documents saying they got permission to harvest it from private land owners, and ship it off to be processed somewhere else. Tony’s looking into it, sleuthing around for a lead—but he agrees, we’ve got a good story here, if we can dig up a few more pieces.”
“More evidence?” Liam asked, incredulous. There could be little undiscovered evidence with how thorough Annie had been.
“Well we’ve got plenty of evidence , in the photos that you took, and what I have here. But, it’s a news article, not a court case. Ideally, you’d go on record, talk about what the theft means for your family, you know?”
Liam swallowed hard, leaning back against the chair. To go on record would put him right back in Andrews crosshairs, the very place he just managed to escape. He struggled to put his hesitation into words, but Annie, perceptive as ever, didn’t wait for him.
“I get it, Liam. It’s risky. But it’ll bring attention to the issue, and bad PR is almost as bad for business as a lawsuit—maybe worse, actually.”
As she finished, she smiled proudly at the work she’d done, and Liam felt like a coward all over again. He was growing tired of feeling like a coward.
“You’re a freaking wizard, Annie.” Zev said, grinning at her and standing to clear their empty dishes. “A story like this is the kinda thing that could destroy a company. Andrew's gonna get what’s coming to him.”
“This felt… good. To be able to do something, for once, you know? I found dozens of cases, just like this, all along the coast here. It’s shady business. Andrew needs to be stopped.”
“Yeah, I guess so,” Liam said. “Maybe Walt will come around and we can have him talk to the press. ”
Annie looked sympathetically at him, but only nodded. “Here, you hold on to these, look through them. If you think of anything else that might be useful, let me know.”
She shoved the stack of papers into a folder and pushed them to him. It was a lot of power he held, to destroy a man’s life, to get revenge for the stolen trees. The answer was laid out before him, and still he hesitated. Did Andrew’s livelihood deserve to be destroyed? Andrew was, like the rest of them, trying to make a life for himself in a world that demanded its due.
Then again, while Liam knew what it meant to work hard, this was something else. His work didn’t cause so much harm to the natural world.
He sighed and leaned back with a full stomach. At least the soup was good.