Going Home - Chapter 27

When Orville had said the DA would meet us Tuesday morning, I was expecting something like ten or eleven, not at eight while I was still at the station chatting with Al, who Orville had scheduled for the day shift so we could both go up to Dixon.

I was also surprised to see Orville in uniform, since he rarely wore it when he wasn’t working. Although, seeing Orville in uniform next to a man in his mid-forties wearing a nice suit made it easy to work out that our visitor was Fred Stokes, the district attorney.

“Henry Brewer, right? I’m Fred Stokes,” he said, coming up to the partition and extending his hand.

“Mr. Stokes,” I said, cautiously.

“Al, it’s good to see you,” he said, letting go of my hand.

Even though I still had my suspicions about him, I could see how he was so popular. The man exuded personality, making eye contact with each person he was talking to, but not in a confrontational way, making it seem like he was interested in whatever you were about to say, even if it was just good morning.

“Before we head up to Dixon, would you mind stepping into the back room for a few minutes so we can talk,” he said after finishing his good mornings.

“Sure,” I said, looking at Orville for some kind of barometer.

“I’ll be out here when you two are done,” Orville said, basically telling me I was on my own.

I led the way to the small back room that was the closest thing we had to a place to meet privately, holding open the door for Stokes.

“I wanted to take a moment and personally apologize for how things happened the other day,” he said as soon as the door was closed. “I know Orville explained the reasoning for it already, but I also know how that kind of thing can leave a bad taste, and I thought you should hear it from me. I instructed Danny, before he came out here, to grill you hard and make sure everything was on the up and up before I signed off on the shooting. We’ve had a few rough incidents over the last few years, and the last thing our office can afford to do is be seen signing off on a shooting only later to have a cell phone video creep up and show a different scene than the one we reported.”

“I understand,” I said.

I still thought there was a better way it could have been handled, but I understood their predicament.

“I also wanted to thank you for the investigation notes and incident report on the barbershop fire. You did first-rate work, and I’m pretty sure we’re going to have a plea deal in place with Jeremy before the end of the month. He’s not getting as much time as I would have wanted, but we’re getting full restitution without having to wait several years for the trial to wind its way through, maybe more with appeals, which will help your Mr. Cooper.”

That part I wasn’t surprised about. I’d never witnessed a DA, no matter how much they talked about being hard on crime, who’d chose a trial over getting any kind of plea deal in place. I didn’t even necessarily blame them, since juries could be really unpredictable, and I’d watched obviously guilty people walk, even with mountains of evidence against them.

“Good,” I said.

“Now, about this Dixon business. Orville has walked me through it, and honestly, I’m not terribly surprised. They’ve been really hurting the more natural gas has pushed its way into their market share, and some of their site managers have been skirting the line a lot more to make up for it, since their jobs are on the line. This has gotten them into some hot water recently, so we have some leverage, but we have to play this smart. I told Orville to bring you along partly because I felt I owed you something after the other day, but mostly because once we manage to come to some sort of agreement to get them to back off, it will be on you to uphold our end. Legally, there’s not much we can do until they actually step over the line, and I think we can both agree that’s what we’re trying to avoid in the first place. So, keep your ears open and try to say as little as possible, and I think we can get you and your friend out of this situation. Deal?”

“Deal,” I said.

We went back out to get Orville and the three of us went out to Orville’s car. I knew Dixon had their regional headquarters in Charleston, so I thought that was where we’d be headed. Despite what Stokes had said, I seriously doubted anyone working at the mine would be able to keep the company from continuing to pressure Rosita, and yet he turned in that direction, driving past the end of Main Street and heading up the winding road to the mine.

When I’d been a kid and come up to the mine with Dad a few times, mostly so he could pick up something he’d forgotten, all the operations had been run out of portable buildings. I remember Dad saying they had built a larger, longer-term facility when I was in college, but I hadn’t been up here since then, so I’d never seen it in person. It had been a big deal for Dad, because it meant the company believed this mine had long-term possibilities, since it was investing in permanent structures.

When he’d described a more permanent building, I’d assumed something made out of concrete and glass, maybe not ornate, but solid. The building we drove up to, however was barely a step above the trailers they had been using. Sure, it was an actual building, but just barely. The walls were corrugated metal and there was a complete lack of any ornamentation. Aside from the concrete pad it sat on, there was barely a trace of brick, concrete or glass in sight.

Orville led us through the front door, where a receptionist was waiting for us. She escorted us to a bare-bones conference room, where a man in a suit and two other men in more standard, although suspiciously clean, work gear were already waiting. I recognized one of the men as the lead mine supervisor Gary Flowers, basically my dad’s boss’s boss. Dad had always complained that the guy didn’t get into the mines enough to actually do his job well, and from the state of his clothes, I couldn’t disagree.

“Mr. Stokes,” the man in the suit said, as he came over to shake his hand. “We received word that you wanted to meet with us, but your office was very vague on details. As I told them, we are of course happy to cooperate with you in any way we can, but there isn’t much we can do up here. Are you sure you shouldn’t be talking to someone in Charleston?”

Since I’d had the same thought as we drove up here, I was very interested in hearing the answer to this question myself.

“I’m sure. My goal here today is to take care of this issue without it becoming something larger or needing the intervention of the company itself. I think once I lay out the situation, you’ll agree that handling it here, locally, is the best choice for everyone.”

“Could you at least explain what the issue is?”

“Certainly,” Stokes said, taking a seat at the table, which prompted the rest of us to follow suit. “Recently your operations team have been attempting to acquire some land on the edge of town from one of the local residents. I couldn’t find any filings or anything specific on it, but I assume it’s for some kind of expansion of the mines?”

The guy in the suit looked at Gary, who said, “The west vein expansion.”

I assumed that meant something to the guy in the suit, who just nodded and said, “Yes. That land is sitting atop a new vein we discovered separated off of the main veins. It’s closer to the surface than some of the other areas we’ve targeted and the owner maintained mineral rights over it, so we’ve been in negotiations with them to acquire the land.”

“My understanding was the land owner rejected your offer,” Stokes said.

“Initially, yes, but we are still in discussions with them,” the man said.

I couldn’t help but notice both Gary and the other guy in work clothes shift a little bit, their eyes darting to Stokes before going back to focusing on their hands.

I was pretty sure Stokes picked up on the byplay as well when he said, “I think it might behoove you to have a deeper conversation with your subordinates about what constitutes their further discussions with the land owner. My understanding is that some of your employees have been making overt threats to the land owner, specifically comments indicating that not selling would be very dangerous to their health and long-term well-being.”

“I can assure you …” the man in the suit started to say before being interrupted by Stokes.

“I have no doubts, and I am very clearly not pointing any fingers at the moment. I will point out that these comments have been overheard or made in the presence of witnesses, including members of the sheriff’s department, which is how my office became aware of them. Now, as I said, I would prefer if this whole situation could be cleared up in house, to keep us from having our own version of the incidents up at McKinley.”

I hadn’t recognized the reference to an ‘incident up north’ back at the station, but now that he put a name to it, the incident clicked. There’d been a bunch of news reports spread out over the last few months of some conflicts between employees of Dixon’s McKinley mine up near the Pennsylvania border and some of the local residents that resulted in one of those residents getting shot. It ended up generating both criminal cases and a bunch of lawsuits that ultimately caused the whole operation to shut down.

The guy in the suit clearly read between the same lines because his agitation levels, already pretty high, seemed to jump through the roof and he was doing his absolute best to both make eye contact with his subordinates, who were doing their best to avoid it, all while trying to remain nonchalant. If this didn’t involve Rosita, I might have found the whole situation funny.

“I’m sure it was all a misunderstanding. We would never …”

“Of course not,” Stokes said, interrupting him again. “Which is why I’m here. I understand subordinates can sometimes become overzealous in trying to beat expectations and I want to ensure we’re all on the same page. The property owner has made it clear they unequivocally do not want to sell and want any attempts to pressure the sale of the land to end. Now, I know this will upset some of your expansion plans, but I think we can all agree that is better than the alternative. I also want you to understand this is a one-time trip. While I would prefer we keep things from escalating and am willing to let you handle this in-house, if this problem creeps up again, I’ll have no choice but to take things to the next level. Clear?”

“Absolutely,” The guy said, looking relieved now that he knew this wasn’t going to escalate. “I can promise you we’ll have a talk with our people and make sure we don’t have any more misunderstandings.”

“Good. I appreciate the help.”

Stokes apparently liked a dramatic exit, because he stood up and walked out of the room, ending the conversation there and causing Orville and me to have to scramble to catch up. I was almost to him when Gary came out of the conference room at a brisk walk and caught up with me.

“Henry,” he said, grabbing my shoulder, causing me to stop. “I just wanted to let you know how sorry I was to hear about your father.”

“I appreciate it,” I said, not really feeling anything of the sort, since this guy had always given Dad a hard time.

“I want you to know that I know you’re dating the person who owns the land, and I would consider it a personal favor to me if you could talk to her for me. Tell her I’m sorry some of our people got out of hand, and we’ll take care of it. We owe your family that much, after all.”

I knew he didn’t care one way or the other what happened to my family or anyone I knew, but I also knew he was about to catch a mountain of shit from the guy in the suit. Everything in the man’s body language suggested he didn’t know how far Evan, who almost certainly reported to Flowers, had gone. Although the suit guy probably wouldn’t have cared last week, a visit from the DA made everything different.

“Just make sure she doesn’t get any more threats, and I’m sure everything will end here.”

“You have my word on it.”

I had no reason to believe him, but I didn’t push it. I gave him a small nod and hustled to catch up to Stokes and Orville.

***

Having worked the previous night and then spending the morning with Orville and Stokes, I was wiped out. Since I didn’t work until the next night shift, I went home to get some sleep so I could spend the evening hanging out with Rosita, like we always did on days I didn’t have to work the night shift.

I did rush to the restaurant as soon as I got up, so I could give her the good news about Dixon backing off. It was before the dinner rush and Tessa was with her, the two in a huddle discussing something.

“Ladies,” I said, coming through the front door.

“How’d your meeting go?” Rosita, who’d heard about it at the BBQ, asked.

“Good. Stokes all but threatened them and they basically claimed they had no idea what was happening and it was just the act of an overzealous employee.”

“Yeah, right,” Rosita said.

I was a bad influence on her. When we’d first met, she hadn’t been overly sarcastic and little phrases like that weren’t in her vocabulary.

“I know, but what else were they going to say ‘yes, we told Evan to threaten and intimidate you into selling the land.’ Stokes made it clear you did not want to sell, and any future attempts would take this into a bad area. I hadn’t put it together until Stokes pointed it out, but Dixon got into some serious legal trouble for doing something not that different up north. He made sure the operations manager here knew that they’d have the same problem if it kept going, so while I normally wouldn’t put too much stock in their promises to put a stop to it, they seemed worried enough that I think it’s the last we’ll see of Evan.”

“I hope so.”

I went into the back and found a spot sitting on one of the prep tables where I usually sat to hang out with Rosita while I waited for her to find some kind of grunt work for me to do.

“Ohh, you’re mom said she needs a ride to the airport Friday morning,” Tessa said.

“Okay, but why didn’t she call and ask me herself?”

“She didn’t want to bother you while you were working and she knew you had the thing up at the mine. She figured you’d come by here tonight and since I was training, she asked me to pass it along.”

“Well, I guess it’s a job well done. Did she say why she was going to the airport?”

“To go to Florida with her friend. She’s already packed up most of the stuff she’s going to take so she can have it shipped down there, and everything else she’s either selling or throwing out.”

“So soon?”

She’d mentioned it at the BBQ, but it had sounded like a thing she was thinking about doing in the future, not something she was going to do by the end of the week. I was a little bit in shock.

“I know, I was surprised too, but you should see her now that she’s made the decision. It’s like the cloud she was under since your dad’s death has lifted a little bit. She’s still really sad, but she’s no longer paralyzed by it. I think being in a new environment will be good for her.”

I guess Tessa would know. She was almost a completely different person than the girl I’d helped outside of the gas station a week and a half ago. She was chatty, talkative and vocal about what she wanted instead of the terrified, mousy girl I’d first met.

“It’s going to be so weird, her not being here.”

“You’ll adjust,” Rosita said. “Just be happy that she’s found a way to cope with her loss.”

“I am. Okay, I’ll call her and let her know I can take her. Anything else big happening?”

Rosita shook her head, but I hadn’t actually meant the question for her, since I talked to her every day, I already knew everything that was happening in her life. Having seen Al that morning, I did, however, know Tessa had a piece of news to share.

“I have a date on Wednesday night,” she said, smiling.

“Ohh really? With who?”

“You really suck at this,” Rosita said, giving me a look.

“Let me have my fun,” I said.

“With Al, and I know he already told you, but I don’t care. He called me last night and asked me out.”

“You sound excited.”

“I am. We got along really well at the BBQ and your mom said he’s a really good guy. I could use a really good guy after … everything else.”

“Well I’m happy for you. I’ll tell you, Al is just as excited about the date as you are. He couldn’t stop telling Sarah and me about it this morning.”

“Good,” she said, looking immensely pleased.

The three of us chatted about Tessa’s date, the food bank, and just random stuff as she served the dinner crowd. It wasn’t overly busy, but middle of the week was a slower time for her anyway.

Things were starting to get back to normal. I was still wary that Dixon might not uphold its word and cause more trouble for Rosita, and I was still sad about Dad, but Mom was doing better, Rosita and Tessa were getting along great, and with her addition to the restaurant, Rosita and I would get to spend more time outside of the restaurant together, which was great.

The rest of the week flew by. We didn’t hear anything else out of Dixon, but Mom had a thousand things for me to do to help her get ready to move to Florida. She’d boxed up a ton of stuff to donate to the church. She’d also decided she wasn’t going to take a car with her to Florida. Francine’s daughter had a spare that she’d let them use, so Mom was giving me Dad’s old truck and giving Tessa her station wagon. While I didn’t really need a vehicle of my own, since I had the SUV from the sheriff’s office, there were going to be times when I wanted my own vehicle and the truck could come in handy.

I still felt a little strange about Mom giving up so much of the life she built in Buxton, but Tessa wasn’t wrong. She was a lot closer to being the woman she’d been before Dad’s death, and I wasn’t going to get in her way.

I finished my Thursday night shift and got to her house, where she already had bags sitting by the front door for me to load up. Her flight wasn’t for five hours, but we did have to drive all the way to Charleston and she liked getting to the airport early, since she said going through security caused her anxiety. On the drive, Mom was distracted, not really talking much, probably because she was leaving the place where she’d always lived behind for good, which would be a huge change for anyone.

Since I was tired after a long night’s work, we spent the first half of the ride in silence, which was a shame. Although I would still talk to Mom regularly, and I’d probably make the trip to Florida from time to time to visit, this was the last time we’d be living near each other, so it felt a little surreal that we weren’t using our last few hours together better. All that time in New York had caused me to miss out on learning what a relationship with my parents as an adult could be like, and now that I finally found it, we were going our separate ways again.

Despite that regret, it was Mom who finally broke the silence.

“I’m leaving you the house,” she said out of the blue.

“What?”

“I’m leaving you the house. I had the deed transferred over to you earlier this week. It’s all yours.”

“Why would you do that? I mean, I appreciate it, but that’s a huge part of your net worth. You can’t just hand it over to me. What if you need the money from the house?”

“I have our retirement, your father’s benefits and pension, and a little life insurance. Since we’re staying at a place owned by Francine’s daughter, we won’t even have to pay rent, so it’s not like I’m going to have much in the way of bills. Besides, I’d rather you have the house than sell it to someone else. It’ll still be in the family, so if something happens and we need to sell it, I know you’ll do the right thing.”

“I didn’t mean to sound ungrateful; I just think this has all happened really fast and you haven’t spent a lot of time thinking it through.”

“I know it is, but this is what I want to do. Besides, you and Rosita are getting pretty close, and she’s going to have to tear down her house to make way for the food bank she’s planning on building. I think it would be good for you two to have a better option than sharing an apartment.”

“We’re not there yet,” I said.

Things had been moving fast with Rosita and we were together nearly every day, but we hadn’t discussed taking any big steps with our relationship yet. Ultimately, that was my fault. She made it clear she wasn’t going to push me to commit to stay here long-term, but that also meant we couldn’t make any decisions on our relationship until I decided what I wanted to do. We’d only been dating for a few months, but until I figured out what I wanted to do, our relationship was in neutral.

“I know, but a mother likes to think ahead and besides, I want to make sure I have someplace familiar to stay when I come back to visit. Now, my decision is final. The new deed and everything is in your dad’s old desk with the rest of the stuff for the house.”

I was a little stunned by it, but I did appreciate her thinking of me and I was pretty sure I’d be happier there than at the apartment I was renting. Mom spent the rest of the trip going on about details of the move and what she was looking forward to, along with the occasional hint that the thing she’d like is to have grandkids one day.

We got to the airport and I helped unload the stack of bags she was taking with her. Thankfully, Francine’s son-in-law was going to meet her at the other end and help her with all of them, because it was way too much luggage for one person to deal with.

I was just putting the last of the bags on the cart when I felt a hand grab me by the shoulder. I whirled around, took a step back, and paused. It took me several seconds to place the guy who’d stopped me as one of my old college teammates. He’d been one year behind me and was drafted into the NFL the year after I was. My leg had taken me out of the league by then, so the last time we’d seen each other was my last season in college.

“Stilton?” I said, grasping for his name.

“Yeah man. I thought that was you. How’s it going?”

“Good. What are you doing in West Virginia?”

“I had a meeting with some people about being part of an ad campaign. It’s the off-season, so you know how it goes. Gotta change the hustle from the weight room to the conference room.”

“If you say so. I never got that far.”

“Yeah, I heard about your leg when it happened. That’s rough man. So you’re a cop now?” He asked, pointing at the sheriff logo on the side of my vehicle.

“Yep. I kind of fell into it after my NFL career died.”

“That’s cool.”

“So where are you playing these days?”

“I was in Jacksonville last season, but my contract just got sold to Tennessee. I’ve actually got to start getting packed up and moved to Nashville this week. I swear, it’s the thing I hate most about playing in the league. Unless you’re a free agent, they can just shuffle you off to wherever they want.”

“You’re moving to Tennessee?” I asked.

“Just clothes and stuff. My agent found a place for me to stay while I’m out there, but it’s still kind of a pain in the butt.”

That was pretty typical. A lot of guys tended to keep their residence in one place and just rent a place in whatever city they were playing in, to avoid this exact problem.

“I hear Nashville’s pretty nice.”

“I hope so. I’ve only gone out once to meet the team, but we’re coming up on the pre-season, so I have to get out there after I’m done with all this stuff. I’ve still got eight cities to stop in before the end of the month, then I can settle down and focus on football again. Speaking of, I gotta catch my flight. It was good seeing you Brewer.”

“You too,” I said to his retreating form as he hustled away.

I’d never gotten as far in my career as he was, but the guys I knew who had, even those guys at the lower level of the league, often lived a nomadic kind of life that, at the time, I thought sounded glamorous.

Now, it sounded a little bit like hell. The idea of constantly being in new cities, never knowing for sure where you were going to live the next year, would be emotionally and physically exhausting. Of course, maybe I’d just gotten old and it would have been fine when I was in my early twenties.

Putting thoughts of the NFL and the life I could have had behind me, I helped get Mom up to baggage check-in. We said our goodbyes, and I headed back to my car for the drive back to Buxton.