“So you gonna stay or leave?” Kelli asked. The hot wind whipped her hair and she pushed it off her face. Her eyes seemed to convey that she had seen this picture before.
“Everyone leaves …” She shrugged with an air of futility. “Or ends up being part of them.”
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
Hours later, Hauck lay on his bed at the motel. The Golf Channel was on the tube. Some obscure tournament in Dubai with a lot of European players he had never heard of. After a couple of beers and some decent Mexican, he’d left Dani a while back and went back to his room.
You gonna stay or leave? Kelli had asked him.
It had taken him two visits to see it. But standing at the door, looking into Watkins’s haunted eyes, he saw the very same thing that had been etched onto Hauck’s own countenance ten years before. The same cast of grief and helplessness and rage.
Guilt, too.
They always leave.
Hauck’s thoughts traveled back to a place they rarely did now.
Ten years ago, he had been behind the wheel of his Ford Bronco when he backed out of his garage in anger and over his five-year-old daughter, Rachel, who had been playing with her sister in the small yard in front of their house and had chased a ball into his path.
To this day, the remembrance of that impact, and the high-pitched terror of Jessie’s scream, still sent a shiver of anguish down his spine.
He was in a fit of impatience after a spat with Beth, which like most spats, could be traced to the most trivial thing, and had ended up costing them both the thing most dear to them.
That moment changed the rest of their lives.
But today he’d seen it again. Like it had happened just yesterday. Only a person who felt it himself with such immediacy would recognize it so plainly for what it was.
Leave, Kelli had said to him. I wouldn’t blame you if you did.
So what if Watkins had done something that led to his son’s death? Who cared if it was easier for him to live with it as some kind of unpreventable accident? Who was Hauck to force his way in and try to shine the truth on it? Truth is fungible, people say. Look at any conflict. There’s always a different side if you dig deeply. A different truth. This wasn’t his fight.
Does it get easier? Watkins asked him at the door.
Which part? The pain or the guilt.
He should just go back, Hauck tried to convince himself, like everyone was telling him to. He had a life on hold. An important job. A girl. If he was so looking for an answer, those could show him the way.
But that was before the latest text had come in from Brooke, just before he and Dani went to dinner.
That the team looking into the balloon accident in Aspen had indeed found something. A tiny hole in the nylon—most of the fabric had been consumed in the flames—ringed with microscopic traces of sulfur and potassium nitrate.
Gunpowder.
Which meant that the tragedy wasn’t what everyone had thought. An accident. Someone had shot a bullet into the shell. It was just like Dani had said. A part of a cover-up that was aimed at the person Dani was headed to see that morning. Who’d caught sight of something on the river the day before, when Trey died.
That made things different now for Hauck. For Watkins, too, whether he liked it or not.
Five more people had died.
When he told Dani about it she wept and Hauck put his arm around her. He knew how hard it was when your worst fears turn out to be true. Even ones you carried from the outset. He went back to the room and lay down, and thought about Naomi. He needed to talk to somebody. This thing was growing. Whoever had done this not only had the means, but the will. He checked the time. Ten thirty P.M. Well after midnight back east. She’d long be asleep. Most days she was up at five A.M. for a run before work.
He wrote out a text to her.
Miss you.
Then his thoughts shifted to Jessie. His older daughter was sixteen now. She’d been seven when the accident occurred. She lived with her mom and her stepfather in Brooklyn. Hauck saw her every few weeks, though less frequently now, now that she was dealing with boys and AP classes. He figured she’d be asleep as well, but he thumbed out a text message to her. He needed to feel a part of someone.
Just letting you know I’m thinking of you.
Then he put the phone down and closed his eyes. He felt sleep coming over him.
Next to him, his phone jingled. A text coming in. Jessie had written back: “Thinking of you too, Daddy.”
Which made him smile.
So late? he wrote back. What are you doing up?
He waited a few seconds until her answer came in. “I’m with a guy.”
He bolted up, sleep rushing out of him, until he heard the phone jingle again: “Hahaha! Just doing homework, dad. It’s exam time. Gotcha, tho!”
He wrote back with a wave of relief, just happy to feel her close. Yes, you did. He closed his eyes again and flicked off the TV.
The phone jingled again: “When you coming back, Dad? I miss you.”
I miss you too, honey, he wrote back.
It had been three months.
What are you going to do? Kelli had asked him. Stay or go?
He knew his answer in his heart, even if he hadn’t made up his mind.
No. It doesn’t get easier, he could have told Watkins. It doesn’t go away. It never does.
It only hides for a while.
He wrote out a last message. Something that made sense to him at least. Then he put the phone on the table and closed his eyes.
He was staying.
I am back, honey.
THE FALLS
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
Wade Dunn leaned back at his office desk, the phone to his ear. It was going on eleven; only the two or three staff manning the night shift were still around. He dialed the number and waited for the person he was calling to pick up.
“Wade …?”
“The very same,” he said with a chuckle, doing is best to appear upbeat. “How’re you doing, Dani?”
An hour ago he’d gotten the call, the one that was tearing his stomach into shreds. It was an old lesson, one he knew he should’ve learned before. You open the door and let people in, in this case the wrong people, they never let you go. It just keeps getting deeper and deeper.
“Wade, it’s late.” Dani sounded tired. “I can’t really talk right now.”
“I just don’t want you to think we don’t follow up on our guests when we let them out of jail here. We’re a full-service operation. So where are you?”
“You told me to get out of town, so that’s exactly what we did. I’m with my uncle.”
“So where’d you go? Hiking? Fishing? Down to the sand dunes maybe?” He knew exactly where they were, of course. That’s what was behind his call.
“Actually, we’re up in Greeley. We came for Trey’s funeral.”
“You did, huh?” He acted surprised. Though he already knew that, as well. He knew most everything about what they’d been up to since they arrived. Who they’d seen. Who Hauck had spoken with. “The funeral was yesterday, Dani, wasn’t it? Heard a couple of people went up there from here.”
“Yes, they did.”
He held his breath for her next answer. “So why you staying around …?”
She paused. “What’s the issue, Wade? I thought you wanted me as far away from there as possible.”
“What I wanted,” he said, “was for you to keep that pretty little nose of yours out of things that weren’t any of your concern, Danielle. And I hope that’s what you’re still doing. Are you?”
“Am I what, Wade?”
“Are you puttin’ aside all those crazy notions you had? You and that famous godfather of yours. I figured this was kind of a reunion for the two of you, and you don’t want to be dragging him into something all pointless and foolish.”
“I don’t know, Wade, all of a sudden there’s a lot that doesn’t seem so foolish anymore.”
; “Hmm, guess I know what you’re taking about.” He exhaled. “The balloon thing. Guess you’ve heard by now? So you were right on that, Danielle, they did find some possibility that there might have been foul play. Though I stress the words possibility and might.
“But at the same time you oughta know that both sets of customers on that balloon only booked the day before, so it seems whatever it was, if it turns out true, wasn’t aimed at them. More like someone here looking to do some mischief, God knows why.”
Dani said, “It wasn’t some mischief maker, Wade. You know damn well who it was aimed at.”
Wade felt a bitter taste on his tongue. “You ought to come back now, Danielle.”
“First you want me as far away as possible, now you want me back. I’ll be back when we’re ready to come back, Wade. Some things are starting to come out up here.”
“I just want to watch out for you, Danielle. Whether you know it or not, I always have.”
“Why do you need to watch out for me, Wade? Tell me what’s going on.”
“Just leave it all up there, darlin’, whatever it is you think you’re finding. Come on back here and go down the river like you always did. And let that uncle of yours, or godfather, go on back home.”
“I think it’s too late for that now, Wade. I have to go now. You’re sounding a little strange. You sure everything’s okay?”
Okay …? No, they weren’t okay. Nothing was okay anymore. He had a boy in the VA hospital who barely knew his name and had to learn how to put one foot in front of the other again. He had no money left in the bank but that he had to lie and look the other way for. He had a ruined, corrupted life that was falling apart a little more every day, save one last thing, the last thing he could hold on to—and that was the sliver of trust he had left with Dani.
“Nah, just worried about you,” he said, “that’s all. A stepfather’s allowed to feel that way, ain’t he? You never get too old for that, or too far away.”
“I wish you’d just looked into it, Wade. I know you know now that I was right. About Trey, and Ron. And I can’t just come on back right now. I can’t just go down the river, as if nothing has happened. There are a lot of people dead. And a lot of questions that need to be answered.”
He had the bottle in front of him. The bottle of Maker’s Mark he kept in the drawer. As a test of his conviction. He took it out every once in a while. To gauge his strength. This time he felt his hand shake, running his fingers down the bottle.
“Take it easy, Danielle,” he said, a sense of sorrow sinking in. “Do the smart thing, and come on back. Y’hear …?”
She hung up. Or he did. It wasn’t clear who.
Wade unwrapped the foil on the bottle and pulled out the cork.
I can’t protect you up there anymore.
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
“Ty …”
Hauck grappled for the phone on the night table: 6:05 A.M. The voice on the other end took him by surprise. “Tom …?”
“Always thought you were an early riser, guy,” his boss, Tom Foley, said with a chuckle. “Didn’t mean to be waking you up out there on vacation …”
Foley was about the last person Hauck wanted to have to deal with right now. And the word vacation felt like it had been marinating in sarcasm for a week. The morning sun shined in through the shades. He rolled over, forcing his brain to alert. He was usually up at six anyway. “No. I’m fine.”
“Hell, if I didn’t know how much you actually missed us here, I’d be thinking you’ve somehow been avoiding me.”
“I’ve just been out of earshot, Tom. They don’t have cell phone service half the places I’ve been.”
“Aspen …? I was out there myself not too long ago and I distinctly remember mine working just fine.”
“I’m just doing a favor for someone out here. I won’t be out here long.”
“And when you’re done with that …? When we heard you’d left the Caribbean, Ty, we were all actually figuring that we’d be seeing you back here.”
Hauck hadn’t decided anything, anything further out than learning whatever he could about Watkins and how that connected to Alpha and RMM. “You will, Tom. Soon. But listen, as long as you called, maybe there is something you can help me with. We’ve got a large oil and gas client at Talon, don’t we? I’ve never worked with them myself, but I’ve seen a few of the presentations.”
“Global Exploration. Yes, we do. Very large. They’re out of Houston. We handle some of their employee protection details in Saudi Arabia and Nigeria. Some cyber-work back home as well. Why?”
“I’m looking for whatever you can tell me about an outfit named the Alpha Group.”
“Alpha Group?”
“They do consulting in the oil and gas field. A lot of ex-military personnel it seems.”
“Can’t say I’ve heard of it. But what are you doing all wrapped up with them?”
“I’d rather not tell you why just now, Tom. I’m just doing a favor for a friend.”
“That’s becoming kind of a second career with you, isn’t it?” It was a friend of his who was killed that had started him on the Gstaad Group case. “I hope you understand what’s at stake here, Ty. There’s a lot of big things in the works. Not just here, but internationally. You share in all that, if you remember, Ty. I brought you in as a partner quicker than anybody.”
“I know that, Tom. And you know I appreciate it. I just need a bit more time.”
“I thought that’s exactly what we’ve given you these past two plus months … Time.”
“You know I put my salary on hold, Tom. I’m not taking a nickel. Just bear with me a little longer.”
“You have to make a choice, son. I know the money thing isn’t what gets you, but there’s an awful lot of it at play here. And I know you don’t relish the role of being in the limelight either. But whatever it is you’re doing out there, it can’t be worth what’s on the table here. Get on a plane and come on back. Hell, I’ll send one out for you. Say tomorrow …”
“Just tell me whatever you can on Alpha, Tom. And thanks for hanging in there with me. I appreciate it.”
“I don’t want you to appreciate it, Ty … I want you to earn it. When this is over, and I hope it’s quick, I’m looking forward to seeing you back here.”
“Soon, Tom.” Hauck climbed out of bed. “I promise. Soon.”
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
Hauck knocked on Dani’s door and she answered through the crack. She was in a T-shirt and panties and her hair was messed.
He said, “You want to come along so bad, come on.”
“Come on where …?”
“I got an address for Jen Keeler. I’m going to have a little breakfast and then head over.”
“So we’re staying …?”
“One more day.”
“Give me fifteen minutes to shower and get ready and I’ll be there,” she replied, excited.
“Ten,” Hauck said, backing down the hallway toward the lobby. “I eat quick.”
Half an hour later, Hauck having finished a cereal with some syrup and a banana, and Dani taking a yogurt and granola in the car, they headed into Greeley.
The Weld County Open Range Initiative wasn’t situated in some fancy office complex like RMM and Alpha. It was a storefront in a strip mall, between a pawnshop and a package store. And despite the big-sounding name, the office was tiny. There were a couple of desks. Posters and newspaper clippings on the walls. A young gal with red-and-green-dyed hair, big glasses, and tattoos running down her arm was manning the front desk, sorting papers from the copy machine. “Can I help you?”
“We’re here to see Jen Keeler?” Hauck said.
“Is she expecting you?”
“No, she’s not.”
The girl looked at them warily. “You’re not with the CSRC, are you?”
“The CSRC?”
“The state regulatory council. They come around here twice a year, get taken out to a steak dinner by the oil compani
es, and basically rubber-stamp their safety forms. There’s a group in the area now.”
“Do I look like I’m with the CSRC? We’re actually here about Charles Watkins.”
“Oh …” The girl put down her stack of papers. “We were so sorry to hear about that. And sorry for the third degree, as well. We get a lot of cranks and rabble-rousers in here who want to close us down. Or upset the townsfolk about us.”
“No worries. His daughter Kelli told us to stop in. Tell her my name’s Hauck.”
Jen Keeler was tall, thin, boyish in shape, her shoulder-length blond hair in a ponytail, a red shirt worn out of her jeans. There was kind of a look in her eye, a glint of determination that said that while her office and staff might be small, her energy and commitment were high, and she was not a person to be trifled with.
“You from the press, Mr. Hauck?” she asked, as they sat in front of her brief-filled desk. “Monica said this was concerning Charles Watkins.”
“Friends.” He shook his head. “Actually friends of his son, Trey. Or Dani was. He died in a rafting accident last Thursday in Aspen.”
“I know about it.” Jen nodded. “I’m sorry.”
“I saw you at the funeral Wednesday,” Dani said.
“I was there.” Jen shrugged. “I didn’t know Chuck’s son. I’ve only known him for just a few months. But it’s clearly had an effect. It’s kind of derailed everything.”
“Derailed …?” Hauck asked.
Jen put down a paper. “What’s your interest here, Mr. Hauck? As I said, I didn’t know Chuck’s son. It’s a terrible thing to happen on any level, but it was damn poor timing for us here. It’s hard enough just to take small steps forward, and then something tragic happens like that, and sets it all back. It’s kind of how things work here.”
“Watkins’s daughter Kelli suggested we talk with you.”
“Kelli did?”
“She thought you could explain some things to us. Like why a lot of the town had turned against her father. What sort of business did you have with Mr. Watkins, if you don’t mind me asking?”
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