Chapter 13
Chapter Thirteen
CHASE
“ T hanks for tagging along.” Forrest said it to me but looked into his rearview mirror as he pulled away from the curb. We’d met in town and I’d just gotten into his truck. We’d spent the majority of yesterday together—on my farm, with engagement party planning—but we’d had neither the time, nor the privacy, for shop talk.
“Looks like Sierra’s got you running.” I cast a glance in the backseat, where Everest sat securely in her crate, going to town on what looked like a real meat bone. The plan was to take her to the groomer. Best as I could guess, the bone was a bribe.
Everest was a smart dog, just like Jameson was. Everest was also a chowhound, just like Forrest, so he understood the assignment. If she had to go to the groomer, she’d better get hers.
“Just helping her out.” Forrest merged into traffic. “Sierra’s up for another promotion at work. With all the wedding planning, this is the least I can do. Everest’s grooming will take about an hour. We can take a walk.”
Fifteen minutes later, Forrest had checked Everest in and we were starting down a local hiking trail. It all felt very cloak and dagger.
“I’ve been over and over the data,” Forrest said. “It wasn’t a mistake. There was no way to reprioritize the list without a manual change. And it would have had to be changed in multiple systems.”
“Someone wanted the Cranston Fire prioritized,” I concluded. “Someone powerful enough to make it happen.”
“That’s where we need to go with this,” Forrest replied. “Motive, means, and opportunity.”
“I’ve started looking into that.” I’d been thinking much the same. “The area was remote. Mostly unincorporated. Damage to developed property was mostly to luxury vacation homes. Do we know anyone up there?”
“Sierra used to be a ranger at Shasta. She still knows people she can trust at Cal Fire.”
Forrest and I had already talked about the implications of going through “proper channels.” We were drawing closer to territory that had the potential to draw suspicion if people knew we were sniffing around.
“Once we get a list of landowners, we can move on to means,” Forrest continued. “Find out who had the kind of money or power, or access that would let them tamper at that level.”
I nodded. “And we also have to look at the personal connections of anyone who was on duty.”
“That gets to opportunity,” Forrest continued. “Not only would the person who set all this in motion have needed enough power to influence things—he would have needed one of his own boys on shift. Suspicious shifts in personnel or chain of command is another logical place to look.”
“This shit’s gonna take us at least a week.”
“Could be longer.” Forrest’s voice was grave. “Chances are, we’ll still need luck to piece together the connection.”
We’d walked a ways down the path and were coming upon a clearing. I paused, facing Forrest now, my chest proactively tightening with familiar rage. I had to tell him the other thing I figured out.
“I know what the insurance company’s afraid of,” I began. “The current cause of death is accidental. If we were ordered to fight the wrong fire, that all changes. If we can actually prove we never should have been put in that situation…” I waited for Forrest to piece it together.
“Then the case isn’t about whether they’re obliged to pay for an incident that took place across state lines—it becomes about wrongful death. Shit.” Forrest now looked as incensed as I felt. “Shit,” he repeated after another few seconds.
I gave him time to let it all sink in.
“Now, we know what we could be dealing with. This could be a multimillion-dollar case. And they’ll have to pay it out times three. Once the other two families catch wind, they’ll file suit.”
“This is getting serious,” Forrest said. “And messy as hell.”
“Violet’s lawyer needs to know.”
Later that morning, after stopping home to gather documents that could serve as clues, I cased the parking lot of the building where Katrina worked. It was housed in a seventies-era office park that was just dated enough to possess its own charm. The building was well-kept and clean, if not a bit quiet walking down carpet-lined halls. The door plates on most other offices seemed to be for therapists or other attorneys.
I didn’t have any qualms about showing up unannounced. Katrina’s approach was to work alone but to work with a small number of clients, giving her real time to focus on each client’s case. She was in her mid-forties, liked to wear bright colors, and wore her hair in long, shoulder-length locs that lightened to russet at the ends.
“Chase Greenleaf. As I live and breathe. To what do I owe this distinguished visit?”
I grinned. “Kat Stephens. It’s been a while.”
“Seems like your pun game hasn’t gotten any stronger.”
I threw up my hands in the universal sign of peace. “Hey. Don’t blame me if your momma and daddy have a sense of humor. I can think of worse folk singers to name your kid after.”
Kat rolled her eyes in a way that told me she wasn’t going to explain to me again that her parents hadn’t named her after the Cat Stevens, and that I was welcome to call her Katrina like everybody else.
She shooed me into her office and closed the door behind us. “Tell me, Chase. What can I do for you?”
Katrina walked around her desk to sit behind it, then motioned for me to follow by sitting in the guest chair across. I took the invitation and shed some of my playfulness in preparation for what I was about to say.
“I have some information that may be useful to Violet’s case.”
“Fantastic.” She trailed off with caution, giving me the side-eye I deserved. She was right to be suspicious of why I would be coming to her instead of going directly to Violet.
“I’m here because I’d like to tell you about it,” I continued as if such visits were perfectly natural.
“You mean tell us about it,” she corrected. “Let’s dial Violet in.”
“We can’t call Violet.” I knew better than to bullshit her. “Not in this exact circumstance. I need what I have to say to stay between me and you.”
Katrina didn’t hesitate to answer.
“I’m afraid that’s not how it works. Violet is my client, which means that my obligation is to work in her best interests.”
“I can assure you, everything I’m about to tell you is.”
“Part of acting in her best interest means disclosing everything I know about the case and how I know it. I am not at liberty to conceal my sources from her.”
“Well, what if I hired you, then? Wouldn’t anything that you and I discussed be protected?”
Katrina shook her head. “Not automatically, no. If I suspected that something you had to tell me posed a conflict with an existing client, it would be my duty to refuse to take you on.”
I quieted, thinking of the thumb drive in my pocket—of the set of documents that could make Violet’s case—of whether there was anything in the world I could say in this moment to convey some of that information. The drive contained enough clues for an investigator to find the right tree to bark up. It contained only reports that were a matter of public record. Best-case scenario, Katrina’s investigator would figure it out and request that other reports be unsealed. But none of that would happen if Katrina wouldn’t take it anonymously.
“Looks like I’m out of luck today.”
Katrina gave a half-rueful smile, as if she empathized with whatever I was trying to do. “Yeah, that’s kind of how it works. Based on the way this conversation is going, I should advise you that anything more you say about Violet’s case is something I’ll have to disclose to her.”
“Understood.” I rose from my feet and extended my hand. Even though the meeting hadn’t gone the way I had hoped, I respected her professionalism.
“Can I give you a word of nonlegal advice?” she asked before I could leave.
It was my turn to nod. I had a feeling I knew what was coming.
“I know how much you care about her. You were there every single day of the first trial. Whatever’s going on here, find a way to level with her and do it quick. You and Violet are too good of friends for you not to tell her the truth.”
Katrina’s appeal weighed heavily as I drove back to the farm, seeing no way out of my own pickle. I was trying to protect Violet on all fronts. I wanted to spare her every ounce of rage and grief and revenge that had begun to consume me, or to at least delay telling her until we knew the whole truth. Because the only thing more tortuous than the truth itself was the questions.
But I couldn’t be so focused on handing her a neat little package that I deprived her attorney of information, possibly sacrificing her ability to win the case. And she would have found out sooner rather than later if I’d successfully executed my leak. And maybe this was all just me protecting myself. Maybe I loved Violet so much, I couldn’t handle breaking her heart. Maybe I was still all messed up.
“Mornin’, darlin’.” After my trip to Katrina that morning, it was barely that anymore.
Violet and I had needed to reschedule our weekly meeting given Forrest and Sierra’s visit. When I’d come up on her at her desk in the loft, she’d been deep in concentration. Upon hearing my voice, she looked up at me.
“Oh, hey, Chase. I didn’t hear you come in.”
Her reaction to me was instantaneous—her eyes softened and brightened all at once and her lips melted into a smile. It triggered persistent thoughts that had been running through my mind since she’d tendered her resignation to come back in full force.
Violet was the most important person in my life. She was the glue that held me together. The very best thing that had ever happened to me and this farm. I loved her and I couldn’t let her go.
I love you, Violet. I always have.
If only I could say it out loud. But I’d never been able to do that, either. So, I pulled her up into a hug that I sorely hoped was neither too tight nor too desperate, no closer to answers about what I was going to do.