Mountains Apart

by Carol Ross

  “Bering, I—”

  The chirp of his cell phone interrupted them. He looked at the display with a scowl. “It’s Janie. I have to answer it,” he said, but what he didn’t say was that he knew it had to be important, because she wouldn’t bother him tonight if it wasn’t. At least it had better be....

  “Janie, hey, what’s up? Gareth? What? Have you called Tag? Okay, good. Yep, I’ll be there as soon as I can.

  “It’s Janie. She’s, uh, she’s in labor. But it’s still too early. I have to go and be with the boys while my mom meets her at the hospital.” He grabbed his jacket and slipped it on.

  “Is there anything I can do? Would you like me to sit with the boys so you can go to the hospital?”

  “Um, maybe... Can you come with me right now?”

  She put on her coat, grabbed her bag and they headed out the door.

  * * *

  EMILY SPENT THE NIGHT at Janie’s, and Bering spent the night at the hospital. Emily had slept intermittently on the sofa. Bering had finally called her from the hospital around 4:00 a.m., but it was six in the morning before he felt comfortable leaving the hospital.

  Now he was telling her that while Janie’s condition had been extremely serious, she was currently stable and so were the babies. They had managed to stop the labor, but she was going to have to stay in the hospital for a few days and take it easy for the remainder of her term. Which meant the rest of the family would have to step it up to help her with the older boys.

  “Mom has already written up a schedule so someone can pick the kids up from school every day. I have Tuesdays and Fridays.”

  “Bering, please let me know if there’s anything I can do to help.”

  He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her. He buried his face in her hair. “Emily, you’ve done so much already. Staying here all night like this so I could be at the hospital...” He whispered softly, “Thank you.” Then he pulled away and looked down at her.

  She smiled warmly at him. “It was the least I could do. I’m so glad she’s doing okay.”

  “How are the boys?”

  “Worried about their mom. They were up late, but they are still sleeping. They were relieved that they didn’t have to go to school. Why don’t you go lie down for a while and get some sleep? I don’t have to be at the office until ten.”

  Bering took her up on the offer and slept soundly until nearly ten when Emily came in to wake him. Tag was calling on her cell phone looking for Bering....

  * * *

  BERING MET THE SENATOR at the Cozy Caribou. He shook his hand and sat down opposite him in a booth. “Jack, thank you so much for coming—I didn’t expect you to actually show up for the vote.”

  “You’re welcome, Bering. It’s my pleasure—and a really good excuse to get out of Washington for a couple days. Tag told me about Janie. How is she?”

  “Still in the hospital, but it looks like she and the twins are going to be fine.”

  “That’s wonderful news. She’s a strong woman.”

  “That she is.” Bering nodded and waited for the senator to continue.

  “The reason that I’m here, Bering, is that things have moved even faster than I anticipated. It didn’t take much digging to piece it all together. And...long story short—there are indictments.”

  “Indictments?”

  “Yep, this investigation has taken on a life of its own. And we have you to thank for that, Bering. The Department of Justice guys served Franklin Campbell and the CFO at their office this morning. But it seems that his nephew, Strathom, the senior VP, is on the run.”

  “On the run?”

  “In transit, anyway. He was supposed to be here in Rankins last night, but apparently there was some kind of mix-up with his flight and he ended up in Great Skeet for the night. We’re assuming it was unintentional.”

  “I would say so,” Bering said. “They don’t even have an airport up there.”

  Senator Marsh smiled at Bering. “Apparently, they have an ice field that’s suitable as a landing strip. Word is he had to spend the night in an old maintenance shed. And now there’s a storm moving in up there. But I’m here to hold a press conference and announce the indictments before the town-council convenes. I tried calling your house and cell phone several times during the flight and again this morning but I couldn’t reach you, which is why I called Tag. We have notified the news outlets, so I wanted you to be here for this.”

  “I see,” Bering said weakly. His head was spinning. He looked across the room and saw that a pool table had been moved and a podium set up in its place. There were people milling around with microphones and cameras. Just then another news crew came in through the door and headed toward the crowd. “I was at the hospital all night and had switched it off. I saw that you called, but I never thought...”

  Bering hadn’t even dreamed there were going to be indictments. The senator had told him about the investigation, but in Bering’s experience, things didn’t usually move so quickly where Washington, D.C., was concerned. He had assumed that the senator would bog the project down in some type of political red tape, but he hadn’t been expecting this. He wished he had time to tell Emily; still, it wouldn’t make any difference anyway. If the project was stopped—it was stopped. And he knew Emily well enough to know that she would not want something illegal to be going down within her own company.

  “I almost feel sorry for Campbell’s stepdaughter. I wonder how she’s going to take the news. Has she arrived yet? I’ve been curious about her—we haven’t been able to pin any of this on her yet. It’s easy to assume that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, but as she didn’t actually come from the tree... Who knows, right? The employees sure seem to love her, but it’s hard to believe that she could have such a key role in the organization and not know anything.”

  Bering felt a cold numbness spread through his chest. “His stepdaughter?” he repeated, even as the notion began to seep into his consciousness.

  “Yes, I assumed you knew. This Emily Hollings who’s been running the operation here? She’s Franklin Campbell’s stepdaughter. And from what I’ve garnered, she is also Strathom’s fiancée. Like I said, it’s pretty hard to believe that she wouldn’t be involved in some capacity, isn’t it? But regardless, we’re shutting this thing down, and someone is going to pay for this egregious and illegal activity.”

  Bering heard the words, but he couldn’t quite bring himself to respond. He stood, but then remained motionless as Senator Marsh got up and strode across the room, stepped up to the microphone and began to speak. Bering watched the unfolding scene play out but he had no idea what to do about it. It was as though he was suddenly frozen in his shoes, unable to react as the probable repercussions of what he’d precipitated began crashing down around him.

  “Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I’m honored to be here this morning as one of your senators from the most awesome of all the states in our great union, Alaska, and happy to be serving in Washington, D.C., as an advocate for the town of Rankins. I know you were all expecting a vote from the town council at tonight’s meeting, and I understand that passions have been running high on both sides of this issue for the last several months, especially so in the last few weeks. But I’m here to inform you that there will be no vote tonight or anytime soon, for that matter. As of this morning, indictments have been handed down alleging fraud, bribery and conspiracy against Franklin Campbell, the chief executive officer of Cam-Field Oil & Mineral, Damon Kryzinski, the chief financial officer, and Jeremy Strathom, the senior vice president of operations.

  “As a result, the environmental-impact reports for the project here in Rankins have been subpoenaed, an investigation has been launched, thus rendering Cam-Field’s operations here on hold indefinitely....”

  * * *

  EMILY HAD KNOWN that something was wrong before she’d even stepped through the door of the Caribou. Amanda had called in a panic right after Bering had left, informing her that news
crews were arriving at the diner and that Laurel had called to say that Senator Marsh had arrived and was holding a press conference in regard to Cam-Field’s proposed development project.

  But she’d known, in her heart, before this. She’d felt at the town-hall meeting that things weren’t right, and she’d felt it when Bering had asked her to cancel that last rally. And Laurel had sensed it, too. Things had been too quiet. She should have paid attention to those warning signs. Heeded her instincts. Clearly, she had allowed her feelings for Bering to cloud her judgment. But what did this mean exactly?

  Emily’s brain fought to make sense of the senator’s words. Indicted? Franklin indicted? She felt as if she was standing on a thin sheet of ice that had begun to slowly crackle beneath her feet. She could almost feel the swirling tentacles of icy water waiting to grab her and pull her under. Her stepfather wasn’t exactly an environmentalist, that was true, but as far as Emily knew, he’d always done everything by the book. She would have known if he’d been breaking the law, wouldn’t she?

  She saw Bering standing near the front of the crowd. How could he do this without even telling her? He could have at least given her the courtesy of a warning. And he hadn’t even glanced her way. He was standing there looking tough and hard—as if he was made of stone. He’d made her care about him, and all so he could have her stepfather indicted and make a fool of her in front of this town that she’d come to love with all her heart? She’d been right all along—about not being able to separate business from her personal life. How could she have been so stupid? All her life she’d lived by a set of principles that had served her well in business, and now, the one time she hadn’t listened—the one time she’d allowed her heart to intrude—she was paying for it big-time. She should have known better.

  She was intensely disappointed with herself. Her radar had been malfunctioning ever since she’d arrived in Rankins, and if she was any kind of true professional, she would have made allowances for that. She’d known that she wasn’t at the top of her game—she should have bowed out and let someone else do this job. But her stupid pride had been at stake. Well, if it had been in shreds before, it was completely gone now, just...blowing away on the Arctic breeze. Not to mention the playing fast and loose with her heart—what a joke. She was the joke. Bering must be enjoying the laugh of a lifetime. But she had more important things to worry about than herself now.

  Poor Franklin—Cam-Field was his passion, his baby, his lifeblood. And if anyone knew the truth of that, it was Emily. It dawned on her that she had no choice in the matter now. She had to do something. She certainly couldn’t quit. It was true that she couldn’t forgive him for promoting Jeremy over her, but she couldn’t leave him to wallow in this mess, either. She had to help him. She had to help clean this up.

  She turned and spotted Cricket Blackburn just inside the door. She went over to him, whispered in his ear, received a nod in return and then quickly left the restaurant before reporters noticed who she was or that she was there.

  Franklin wasn’t going to win any father-of-the-year awards, that was true, but he had given her a roof over her head, a quality education and a job that she loved, or had for most of her life anyway. Security—Franklin had given her security.

  But Bering had given her love. And his family had shown her unconditional acceptance—or so it had seemed. And she’d thought that Franklin’s betrayal had hurt. Injured pride was a surface wound compared to the icy-cold knife Bering had plunged into her heart. His betrayal cut so deep she was sure it would never pump warm blood through her body again. Right now, security didn’t seem so bad.

  * * *

  “I’M STANDING RIGHT here. You can’t ignore me forever.”

  Amanda sighed dramatically and looked up, not bothering to mask her irritation. “What do you want, Bering?” she said.

  “Where is she?” he repeated again through clenched teeth.

  “None of your business.”

  “Amanda. Come on. Give me a break. I need to see her.”

  “Yeah, well, she doesn’t want to see you.”

  “Yes, I’ve gathered that.”

  Bering had called and called Emily since the meeting and she hadn’t picked up even once. After the press conference, he had stayed, at the request of the senator, long enough to answer questions from reporters. Emily had left before he’d had a chance to explain, and now he couldn’t find her.

  “But I want to see her,” he said.

  “So what? I don’t know what to tell you, Bering.”

  “Amanda, can you please help me out here? What can I do? What can I give you? Money? Anything you want.”

  “Help you out? Sure, yeah. You know what? I am going to help you out and,” she added, her voice now infused with fake enthusiasm, “I’m going to do it for nothing. Now, under normal circumstances I would probably lose my job for this. But since you’re the one who made it his mission to befriend Emily, bewitch her and then stomp all over her, I’m willing to risk it. So here goes—you’re a self-centered, despicable dirtbag. And I suggest that you go find someone else to toy with, because Emily is done with you.”

  “Amanda, listen. I want to explain—”

  “You really hurt her, Bering. If you had any idea what that woman has gone through in her life... She has never had anyone— Oh, never mind. That doesn’t even matter. What matters is that you’re a first-class jerk. There, see? Now I’ve done my good deed. And you don’t even need to reciprocate in any way because I’ve done it purely from the goodness of my heart—”

  “I need to see her, Amanda.”

  Amanda puffed out a stream of air, sat back and crossed her arms over her chest. “Why did you do this to her? You obviously knew you were going to win this thing, so why? It was cruel to get involved with her like you did.”

  The guilt he felt at her words was nearly overwhelming. “I didn’t know all this was going to happen. After a certain point, I was...confident I was going to win, yes, but I didn’t know...everything. I didn’t know her stepfather was the CEO—I don’t know how I missed that one, but I did. I didn’t know the senator was coming to Rankins today, and I didn’t know about the indictments. I knew an investigation had been launched, but that’s it. And I know that Cam-Field has been investigated before and nothing serious has ever become of it. Amanda, I swear to you, I didn’t know...”

  Amanda stared at the wall behind him.

  “Amanda—” Bering continued his plea “—look at me. I have to see her. I have to explain. It’s not like you think. It’s not what she thinks. I never meant to hurt her.”

  Amanda stared at him hard. “I love Emily, but I’ve always believed that she works too hard, that her job is too important to her. To my knowledge, the only men she’s ever dated have been business acquaintances and the only socializing she does always has something to do with Cam-Field. That smooth-talking rat Jeremy proved to be the worst of all. And the truth of the matter is that I’ve never seen Emily as alive as she’s been these last weeks that she’s spent with you, Bering. She’s been like a different person—Emily, but better...happy.”

  “Then give me a chance, .”

  She sat forward in her seat and opened the drawer in front of her. She took out a small manila envelope. “Here,” she said and handed it over. Bering opened it and looked inside—a key. He knew immediately what it unlocked. Now if only the key to sorting out this whole mess could be acquired even half as easily.

  Amanda lowered her voice another notch. “There is no doubt in my mind that she would not only fire me, but kill me on the spot if she knew I gave it to you. And as she’s also an incredible person and my best friend, you’d better fix this, Bering. Do you hear me? Fix this.”

  “I’m going to try, Amanda. Believe me, I’m going to try.”

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  BERING USED THE KEY to get into the house, but she was already gone. He didn’t know why he was surprised. He knew the logistics that Emily was capable of. Some of her stu
ff was still there, but enough of her personal items were gone that he knew she was, too. The only thing he saw in her bedroom, lying on the floor by the side of her bed, was the scarf he had given her. He picked it up and stuffed it in his pocket.

  As Bering walked to his pickup, he heard the familiar and unmistakable sound of a Cessna flying overhead. He stood outside in the freezing wind and he knew. He felt the joy drain from his soul along with the gradually decreasing hum of the plane.

  * * *

  “SO, ESSENTIALLY WHAT you’re telling me here, Stuart, is that Cam-Field submitted environmental-impact reports with incorrect facts and improper documentation?”

  “That’s correct, Emily.” Cam-Field’s longtime attorney slid a paper across the gleaming conference table. “These are all the jobs where the paperwork was forged. Franklin’s name is on the paperwork, but he claims, and we know, he did not sign them.”

  Emily shook her head in disbelief. “He didn’t. He hasn’t signed off on EI reports in years.”

  “I think the best course of action would be to try to pass the buck along to the local governments who approved the work.”

  “Play dumb, you mean?”

  “Plead ignorance,” Stuart corrected.

  “What jury in the world is going to believe that a company as established as Cam-Field is going to make mistakes like this? Mistakes that we’ve never made before? And the CEO of all people? Any good attorney is going to point out that Cam-Field has filled out hundreds and hundreds of these reports over the years. And to have Franklin’s signature on them—there’s no way...”

  “We’re just going to have to show them how it can happen. Bad advice from inept local officials...” He continued to lay out a scenario showing how it could have happened but Emily had quit listening.

  Inept... It dawned on Emily right then and there, as she perused the list, exactly what had happened. She didn’t even need to think it through—it was like a picture coalescing perfectly in her mind’s eye.