Strong Cold Dead (Caitlin Strong, #8)(38)

It seemed to Caitlin that the old man wasn’t even acknowledging the presence of the others. Even when they all took short stools set in the cover of a grove of shade trees reflected in the shimmering surface of the still pond, it was as if the two of them were alone. Silence dominated at first, broken only by the regular dappling of the waterfall’s currents slapping against the pond waters.

“Do you know why I’m here, White Eagle?” Caitlin finally asked.

“That man was killed off our lands. It’s not our problem or our concern.”

“I was hoping you could shed some light on other matters.”

“They should know he will only be the first,” White Eagle continued, ignoring what Caitlin had just said, sounding like he was playing a recording through his mouth. “That if they don’t heed this warning, others will die too, just as they did in the time of your great-great-grandfather. You hear my words, Eckawipe?”

“I do, and they sound like a threat.”

“Because they are, not from me but from the land itself. From nature.”

“Your granddaughter mentioned that.”

White Eagle’s gaze shifted to Ela, as if noticing her for the first time. “My granddaughter does not speak for me or the land. She has yet to learn that language.”

“You’re aware of Steeldust Jack Strong’s experiences here, then.”

“I remember it like it was yesterday, Eckawipe.”

Caitlin let the old man’s comment stand. “He came to the reservation because of a killing just outside it, too. The victim today was found in virtually the same condition.”

“Torn apart, as if by an animal?”

“I was thinking bear.”

“So did Jack Strong. But I’ll tell you what I told him. No bears roam these parts. No wolves or mountain lions, either. Not then, not now.”

“You told him,” Caitlin repeated. “In 1874. A hundred and forty-two years ago.”

“I believe your math is correct,” White Eagle told her. “And the white man today who repeats the same mistakes will pay the same price, Ranger. Many more will fall now, just as they fell then.”

“Your own tribal leaders made this deal, White Eagle,” Caitlin reminded. “Your granddaughter’s standing in a protest line facing across the road, when really she should be teaching those kids she came back here for, and watching her back.”

“Then the land will protect her as she protects it. That is the sacred bond our people made too many centuries ago to count. Persist in your trespass and you place your own life in jeopardy from forces you can’t possibly imagine or understand.”

“Why don’t you help me understand them?”

White Eagle shook his head. “You’re no different from your great-great-grandfather. I’ll tell you the same thing I told him: begone and let nature handle its own.”

“And what if I can’t do that?”

“Then even I won’t be able to protect you.” The old man’s eyes fixed briefly on Cort Wesley before moving to Dylan and holding on him. “Or those you love.”





32

RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA

“Will the defendant please rise?”

Cray Rawls rose from the table, smoothing the folds of his suit straight as he looked toward the jury, meeting each and every one of the members’ gazes with an ominous glare that suggested he might still be able to affect the outcome of the case. He looked at them and smirked, his nostrils still teeming with Candy’s cheap perfume from the night before, reminding him of what it felt like to hold all the power, a sensation he clung to while awaiting the verdict.

“Ladies and gentlemen of the jury,” the presiding judge continued, “in the first count of the indictment, People of Lynchville, North Carolina, versus Rawls Energy, Petroleum, and Chemical, or REPC, also known as REPCO, how say you?”

“We find the defendant, Cray Rawls, not guilty.”

Rawls could hear the murmurs of surprise spreading through the jam-packed courtroom, continuing until the judge rapped his gavel.

“In the second count of the indictment…”

Rawls listened intently, but his mind drifted elsewhere. He hadn’t been overly concerned about the verdict because the state clearly hadn’t met its burden in trying to prove his company was responsible for poisoning the tainted drinking wells. Under his direction, his legal team had opted for a risky strategy of conceding REPCO’s coal ash storage ponds had indeed leaked nearly forty thousand tons of toxic ash into a major river basin. Coal ash, containing such toxins as arsenic, lead, mercury, and cadmium, was what was left over when coal was burned to generate electricity.

Even the company’s concession that this was among the worst such spills in history still left the burden on the state to prove REPCO had poisoned the class action complainants’ well water. Experts called by both sides proved to be a study in contradiction and confusion. Then, Rawls had surprised opposing counsel again by not taking the stand in his own defense. They had elected to name him as a defendant in the suit, so he could face jail time even as his company faced ruin. In doing so, though, they had removed the option of calling him to the stand, relying on an inevitable cross-examination that had proven not so inevitable at all.

“We find the defendant not guilty.”