“Bert, help us. Tell us if there was anything else. They said we have to leave town but what else? Is there no clue about where they left Jase?”
“No.” Middleton glared at him fiercely. His face had grown red with his emotions and pain. “He just said they’d put him somewhere y’all would never think to look so not to even try.”
Thayne turned to look at Jarrett who’d stopped pacing and had come back over to sit beside Elijah. The expression on his face was terrifying and he realized Jarrett was thinking the same thing he was. His stomach did a flip-flop and Jarrett’s voice was quiet when he finally spoke.
“They’re holding him in the mine.”
Chapter Fifteen
Once the men finished their conversation with Bert Middleton, they excused themselves and went downstairs to begin their search for Jase. They all knew the youngest of Jarrett’s brothers was in terrible danger, and Thayne suspected they would need the help of Doug Haney to go down into the mine; Haney was a man he and Jarrett neither liked or trusted but at this point, they’d have to trust the Red Hills Mine manager.
As distracted as they were, Thayne could tell Jarrett was reluctant to leave Bert Middleton at the hospital without a guard on him, fearing he wouldn’t face justice for his part in Boggs and Geary’s plans, but they didn’t have the time or inclination to deal with him at the moment. They’d both believed him when he said he didn’t know anything more about Geary and Boggs plotting aside from being blackmailed to run them off the road. They took the elevator down and had just stepped out of it when Thayne’s phone began to ring. He pulled it out of his pocket and glanced down at the screen before swiping it.
“Snow, is that you?” Thayne glanced at Jarrett who was as anxious as he was to get some information about Boggs and Geary and their financial dealings.
“Yeah, Thayne. I’m here and boy do I have some information for you two.”
Thayne’s heart beat wildly and he nodded at Jarrett who then mouthed FBI to his brothers. “Hang on, Snow, we’re headed out to the car.”
He followed Jarrett and his brothers out to Steel’s Ford F-150 extended cab truck and he and Jarrett climbed into the backseat before Thayne reached down, putting the phone on speaker and placing it on the console dividing the front seat so everyone could hear. Steel started the engine and pulled out of the parking lot.
“All right, Lincoln. You’re on speaker with Jarrett and his two brothers.”
“His brothers?” Snow’s voice was hesitant.
“Long story, Snow,” Jarrett said. “In short, Boggs was murdered and it looks like Geary kidnapped my youngest brother to make us drop this case and leave town. After we talked to you the other night, a couple of Geary’s goons tried to run us off the road.”
“Wow. You two sure know how to step into it don’t you?” Snow said.
Thayne could hear the thinly-veiled amusement in Snow’s voice.
“Yeah, it’s a gift,” Jarrett snarked.
“Snow, we think we have a lead on Jarrett’s brother, so…”
“Okay, I’m sensing some urgency so here’s what the FBI found. You asked me to look into the financial dealings of Saginaw Mining as well as Red Hills. As you told me, Saginaw owned the Red Hills Mine until 2014 when they sold to the newly formed Red Hills Mining Collective, a West Virginia Corporation. The CEO of the Red Hills Mining Collective was none other than Jeffrey Boggs who was previously on the Saginaw board.”
“Right. We were able to figure that out from our research,” Jarrett said, impatiently.
Thayne frowned at him. Lincoln had done them a favor and Jarrett knew it.
“Okay, so along with the sale, a half million dollars in federal safety funds meant to be used for upgrades after a partial collapse of the Red Hills Mine in 2011 were transferred from Saginaw to the Red Hills Mining Collective.”
“Yes, yes, we know that much,” Jarrett urged.
“Okay, you know that but when the FBI looked into the bank accounts of both companies, they found that once the transfer of funds took place when the sale was finalized, they then disappeared from the Red Hills Mining Collective accounts.”
“Let me guess,” Thayne said, staring at Jarrett who was listening intently. “The money went into Jeffrey Boggs’s bank account. We suspected he stole the money all along.” He looked out the rear window as Steel sped his truck toward the mine.
“Actually no, and this is where it gets interesting,” Snow said. “A recent Supreme Court decision removed the limits to what corporations can donate to political campaigns and the federal safety money, or a half million dollars anyway, was donated to a Super PAC set up for Sandy Sullivan, West Virginia Attorney General, shortly after Boggs bought the mine and resigned his position at Saginaw.”
“A Super PAC? Like a political action committee?” Thayne asked.
“Yeah, you probably already know this but it’s one of those organizations set up to pool campaign contributions from members and then donate them to a politician’s campaign.”
“Right. So how does the attorney general figure into all this?” Jarrett asked.
“My favorite part. Sandy Sullivan is married to Clifford Geary. She kept her maiden name,” Snow replied.
“Okay, even I can understand that Boggs was paying into Sullivan’s campaign coffers but why not donate into Geary’s campaign coffers directly?” Thayne asked. “They both need money to run for reelection.”
“Yeah, and the mine’s been issued citation after citation,” Jarrett said. “He’d eventually have to do the upgrades the federal government requires him to use the funds for. Even Boggs can’t avoid those and pay the fines forever.”
“No, but he can appeal them and while they’re under appeal, he doesn’t have to pay a red cent,” Snow said. “And the most devious part… Attorney General Sullivan is the only person able to make those appeals go on forever by burying them at the bottom of a very long list of appeals and that’s not all. When researching the purchase of Red Hills Mine by Boggs, I began to wonder why he did it.”
“For the half million in safety money. That’s evident,” Thayne said.
“Yeah, but when you think about it, a half million dollars is a pretty paltry sum and the risk would have been high if Boggs got caught,” Snow said.
“So I guess there’s more,” Jarrett said. The keen interest in his partner’s expression showed Thayne that Jarrett was more than interested in finding out what Boggs had been planning. He was also fascinated and anxious to hear.
“Something so much more that Boggs could have turned the mine’s purchase into a venture worth a hundred million dollars, not just five hundred thousand.”
“Go on,” Jarrett said.
“Okay, between 2006 and 2012, coal had been dropping in domestic consumption for some time. The economy was failing, congress and the president were pushing for clean energy alternatives. Wind power, solar power, and even bio fuels were getting all the attention and the coal industry was being demonized. That led to the crash the coal industry has been experiencing,” Snow said. “However, what you may not know is that coal exports were going through the roof. Over the same period of time, US coal exports increased ninefold, peaking at one 117 million short tons of coal in 2012.”
“So how does Red Hills figure in?” Thayne asked.
“I’m getting there,” Snow said. “Prior to the peak, Saginaw and other Powder River Basin based companies couldn’t ship coal out of the country fast enough. They were shipping to ports in Asia, South America, and Europe because India, Brazil, South Korea, and the Netherlands were the largest consumers. Saginaw and the other Powder River Basin based companies decided to build six coal export terminals in the Pacific Northwest to ease shipping. Unfortunately for them, the terminals raised environmental concerns similar to those of the Keystone Pipeline, so by February
of this year, those planned terminals had been scaled down to two from the original six.”
Thayne looked at Jarrett and nodded before leaning back down to speak to Snow. “Okay, so are we to assume that Boggs, who worked for Saginaw at the time, helped to get Saginaw involved in the Powder River Basin export terminal project?”
“Yes,” Snow said. “And guess what little mine also got included in the project because it was owned by Saginaw?”
“The Red Hills Mine in West Virginia?” Jarrett asked, nodding at Thayne.
“Bingo. It was the only mine in West Virginia to be a part of the Powder River Basin project to build those terminals because it was owned by Saginaw. Because the Red Hills Mine is included, they can also participate in the exporting of coal from those terminals which would make them…”
“The most profitable mine in West Virginia,” Jarrett finished for Snow. “So why did Saginaw sell the mine? If they knew it was part of the Powder River Basin terminal project, that would have made it valuable.”
“Let me guess,” Thayne said, “Saginaw never realized Red Hills was part of the project when they voted for the sale.”
“That’s right. Boggs’s role at Saginaw was as the Director of Sales and Acquisitions so he buried the Red Hills inclusion in the Powder River Basin terminal project when he did up the paperwork for the sale. He worded it as something along the lines of ‘Red Hills Mine and all of its contracts’. We think Boggs must have explained contracts to be debts they owed as a result of the collapse which just motivated Saginaw to sell even cheaper and faster.”
“But the terminal project was scaled down in February of this year which meant that Boggs wouldn’t make as much as he planned to,” Jarrett said.
“That’s right. They scaled back from six terminals to two terminals but they still retained equal percentages of participation. Even if Boggs lost two thirds of the money he expected to make, he’d still make tens of millions of dollars,” Snow said.
“You’d think with that much to gain, Boggs would just fix the stuff wrong with the Red Hills Mine. Then, he wouldn’t have to give the money to Sullivan at all. Why’d he risk it?” Thayne asked.
“Greed. Narcissism. Who knows? Maybe he thought he could have it all. At some point he was probably just covering his bases so that if the Pacific Northwest project never happened because of the environmentalists, he’d still have a mine and the influence his money bought with Sandy Sullivan,” Snow said.
Thayne gaped at Jarrett. “Jesus. The answers have been right here all along, Jarrett. Once Lafford and Sales showed up at the Red Hills corporate offices asking for the citations, Boggs must have known that turning them over would lead them right back to the missing federal safety money. Geary would have been even more panicked because both his wife’s career as well as his own would be affected by Boggs’s dirty money. His picture is plastered all over the news so the public is well aware that he was close to Boggs. Geary would be fucked if the ATF went public with our investigation. No wonder they tried to have Middleton run us off the road.”
“What do you want to bet Geary is the one behind the rumors that Sales and Lafford are gamblers. Maybe he started them to try to get them discredited if they found out even half of what Lincoln’s been able to uncover,” Jarrett said.
“That would totally make sense. I sure as hell haven’t seen anything that leads me to believe that Sales and Lafford aren’t totally stand-up guys. They want this investigation over with as much as we do,” Thayne replied. “So when Middleton failed to kill us, Geary’s men kidnapped Jase in an effort to make us shut down the investigation and leave. And we can assume Geary killed Boggs, but why?” Jarrett asked.
“Because Boggs was the one who didn’t do the upgrades on the mine,” Thayne said. “If questioned, Geary can simply state that he had no idea where Boggs’s corporation got the money to donate to his wife’s campaign. They’ve been friends for years so of course ‘poor dear Jeffrey’ would want to donate to Sandy’s campaign. Geary’s hands are clean and it’s Boggs’s that are dirty. Geary can simply say he had no idea that his friend wasn’t putting the safety of his miners first,” Thayne said as the pieces fell into place.
“It would be really easy for Geary to point fingers away from himself as suspect in Boggs’s murder. All he’d have to do is hold a news conference calling for justice in Boggs’s murder and drop the hint that the miners conspired to kill him because he knowingly put all of them in danger,” Jarrett added. Thayne watched him shake his head. “I got to tell ya. If the guy didn’t take Jase, I’d actually admire him for being so fucking devious.”
“I’ll say,” Thayne said. He watched as Steel turned onto the road leading to the mine before leaning into the phone again. “Lincoln, we need to go now but I don’t know how to thank you. The FBI’s information has been invaluable once again.”
“I second that,” Jarrett said. “You did a great job for us, man. Please thank the cyber division.”
Snow laughed into the phone. “Hell, I told them the ATF owes us one, Evans. I don’t need much. Just a four-course meal at the finest restaurant in LA.”
“I tell you what, Lincoln. We’ll call you as soon as we get back in town. Tell your friends at cyber to expect a meal too. We’ll send something delicious to the office,” Thayne said.
“Make it enough to feed an army. Those nerds eat like demons,” Snow said with a chuckle.
“You got it my friend. Talk to you later.”
“Stay safe,” Snow said, disconnecting the phone.
Steel pulled the Ford truck into the mine’s gravel parking lot. Production was still shut down so the lot was empty. The only illumination besides the parking lot lights came from Dough Haney’s trailer. A single truck was parked beside it. Thayne was glad the man worked long hours because they were planning on going down into the mine and they would need Haney’s help. They got out and so did Steel and Elijah who’d remained silent during the trip, listening to what Lincoln Snow had found out.
“Jesus, Jarrett, is your job always this excitin’?” Elijah asked when they stopped and formed a circle at the front bumper of Steel’s truck.
A ripple of relief went through Thayne as he watched Jarrett’s brother see his job in a whole new way. For all Thayne knew, Elijah thought Jarrett was some kind of paper pusher when he was anything but. No one, even an officer in the military like Elijah, was as brave and capable as his partner. He glanced at Jarrett with such love in his heart, it felt as though it would burst from his chest.
Jarrett simply smiled at his brother. “Naw, Elijah, most of the time it’s a hell of a lot of paperwork,” Jarrett said.
“Bullshit.” The word was out of Thayne’s mouth before he could stop it and all three Evans brothers turned to look at him. “Seriously, if you think my partner can sit and do paperwork all day without sticking a gun in his mouth, you have another thing coming.”
Steel and Elijah chuckled.
“You been down in that mine?” Steel turned to Jarrett with the question. “You know where we’re going?”
“Steel, ya can’t go down there with us,” Jarrett protested.
“The fuck you say, Jarrett! Jase is my brother too.”
“That goes double for me, bro,” Elijah growled.
The look on his face was fearsome and Thayne wondered how Jarrett was going to keep them both from joining him. Something told him that nothing was going to prevent all the Evans brothers from going in search of their youngest sibling. He was only slightly surprised when Jarrett ignored Elijah and turned to Steel, reaching up to put his hands on both of his shoulders before looking down into his eyes.
“Steel, you heard our friend from the FBI. Congressman Geary is up to his eyeballs in Jase’s abduction. We don’t have time to go back to the sheriff now. Elijah is a trained Marine, buddy. You are an artist, the maker
of beauty, and you know the mayor personally, right?”
“Well, yeah. He’s the one who selected my sculpture to be put in the park but how’s he gonna help with Geary?”
“He’s the one who’s going to have to motivate the sheriff’s office to rally his whole department to arrest Geary and his men if needs be, Steel,” Jarrett implored. “We’re counting on you, brother. Please do this for us and I promise, you’ll be the first person we call when we find Jase.”
Steel seemed to ponder that for all of about fifteen seconds and he finally blew out a long breath. “Fine. I’ll do it. I’ll go rally the troops.”
Elijah stepped forward and hugged him hard. “Thanks, Steel. Love you, brother.”
Jarrett stepped up after Elijah turned him loose and hugged him as well. “Be careful.”
When he finally let go of Steel, the shorter man was glowering. He glanced at Thayne and then stepped forward, giving him a quick hug as well, then turned on his heel and went back to the driver’s door. After Steel drove away, they headed over to Haney’s office. Before they got there, the door opened and the man stepped out onto the landing of the stairs.
“What are y’all doin’ here?” the mine manager asked, staring them down. He was holding a shotgun and even though Jarrett and Thayne were armed, they hadn’t pulled their weapons. They did now, pointing them directly at Haney. Thayne watched Elijah drop back slightly behind his older brother, probably to cover him if needed. He imagined Elijah was armed to the teeth the way Jarrett and he always were.
“Federal agents, Haney,” Jarrett shouted. “Put down the weapon.”
When Haney made no move to lower the shotgun barrel, Thayne shouted. “Do it, Haney. Right now, you’re in violation of about ten federal laws so if you don’t want to spend eternity in prison, I suggest you listen to my partner.” Thayne heard the man’s audible gasp.
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