October 11, 2018
Galveston and Dallas, Texas
At the Bay City Daily, Chris had spent the previous day getting caught up. Tom and Willa had been taking care of business during Chris’s physical and emotional absence, but responsibilities were piling up. Chris, Tom, Willa, the paper’s lawyer, Marnie and Sudhan were now in a conference room awaiting a call from Deputy Regional Director Dave Yardly. When Chris told Sudhan what he had learned from the EPA, she had asked to be present in case new information about Dr. Drake’s murder was revealed. Marnie insisted on being present as well.
As Chris waited impatiently for the phone call, Willa replaced the uneaten kolache at his place with an apple.
At the appointed hour, Dave Yardly called. He briefly discussed his credentials and welcomed Chris to verify them.
“I’d like to propose an exposé. An exposé by your paper of my organization,” Yardly said.
Chris sat up straight and dropped the apple he had unconsciously started eating. “You have my attention.”
Once the video and audio connections had been fine-tuned, introductions were made. There were two separate video link ups going on, one from Dallas and one from Alexandria. Out of sight of the camera, Tom was busy verifying the EPA players’ identities with the help of facial recognition software. The newspaper had to be careful that they were not getting suckered. He gave Chris a thumbs up, and they were off and running.
Dave Yardly began, “We received two calls on our Environmental Community Access hotline related to events in Galveston. Specifically, regarding the Gulf National Laboratory. One caller identified himself as a surveyor who had been tasked with inspecting a division at the lab. He was concerned that there could be irregularities related to the suppression of research on a sensitive, climate change topic. The second call came in minutes later and was anonymous. The female caller voiced a similar concern and went on further to claim that the matter was related to the murder of a researcher at the lab. I’m aware that the murder has been covered by your paper.”
Chris exhaled. All he could say was, “Please continue.”
“A group of us have assembled to do what we can to set things right. As I explained yesterday, this group is extracurricular and acting on our collective conscience to do what we can to stop the current assault on science and reason at the EPA. An assault that has been years in the making by those in industry and the political toadies on their payroll.” Dave’s cheeks were flushed. He hadn’t taken a breath since he started speaking.
Joann Damian from Communications in Alexandria jumped in. “We have solid information that efforts have been made from the top down to curb, stifle, and suffocate scientific interventions to mitigate the effects of climate change on the environment. Operatives within the agency have been charged to silence opposition and to suppress research in the area. At enormous cost to human health and safety.”
“How have these “operatives” been recruited? Why would they agree to interfere this way?” Chris asked, somewhat incredulous.
“In the time-honored fashion,” Dave continued. “Money and professional advancement.”
“We want to build an airtight case when we present our conclusions to the leadership of the agency,” explained Sarah Corelli from the Office of Regional Counsel. “We believe that the knowledge that the Bay City Daily is going to print an exposé will produce the results we want.”
“What results are you hoping for?” Chris asked, aware that these people were putting their careers on the line.
“The resignation of the EPA director and a thorough house cleaning at the regional levels,” Dave replied firmly.
“Whew,” said Chris. The people at the table looked at each other in amazement.
Detective Sudhan was next to speak. “You implied that you could connect all this to the murder of Dr. Gennifer Drake. How is that?”
“Thanks to some incredible sleuthing by our colleagues in finance,” Dave explained, “we’ve been able to track unauthorized ‘incentives’ from the level of the Director of the EPA to the head of the lab, a man named Dr. Thomas Thatcher. He has been granted the discretion on how to allocate funds to achieve the desired ends that we just laid out. So, essentially, here is where we stand. Our group can connect the dots from the top down to Thatcher. We hope the Bay City Daily and the Gulf County Police can connect the dots from the bottom up. Thatcher was paying someone off at the Gulf National Lab. Once we know who that was, we have an unbroken chain of deceit.”
Chris and Sudhan exchanged looks.
Chris took the floor. “We have the information you need. The only wrinkle is that the person linking all of this together is a dead man as of two weeks ago. But the money trail is well documented. So, yes, we can put this together and would be happy to publish as soon as you give us the green light. We also have Dr. Drake’s thumb drive with her research on it. We sent a copy of it to Anne Hallam a few days ago.”
Chris explained the details of the murders of Dr. Drake and the second surveyor. They concluded the meeting by describing the bizarre and violent deterioration of the late Roy Williams, the missing link.
After the phone call, Marnie said, “I think we will get justice for Gen and, more importantly, stop these abuses from continuing. That’s what Gen was asking me to do in her last letter.”
Chris nodded. He thought this exposé would bring some solace to Louise and Marnie.