The Professor (McMurtrie and Drake Legal Thrillers #1)(47)
“Sorry for the noise,” Ms Bulyard said. “The boys just got home from football practice, and...” She sighed, smiling. “What can I say? They’re teenage boys.”
Rick smiled back at her. “No worries. I was a teenage boy not that long ago, and my mom still tells me I’m too loud in the house.”
Ms Bulyard laughed and took a sip from her coffee cup. “So how can I help?”
Instead of explaining all of the background again, Rick chose to get right to the heart of it. “We met with Hank Russell over a month ago at the Ultron plant in Montgomery. Ultron’s lawyers were there, so I couldn’t really talk with him. He gave me his business card, and after we left the meeting, we noticed that your name and cell number had been handwritten on the back. We thought he might be trying to help us, and that you must know something about the accident that killed our client’s family or perhaps something else that might be relevant... like maybe the schedule that Willistone’s drivers were on.”
Ms Bulyard held her coffee cup with both hands, gazing down at the dark liquid. After several seconds, she sighed, and looked back up. “What you have to understand is that Hank was sort of a mentor for my husband, Buck, who... died in the fire you’re talking about.”
“We’re sorry for your loss,” Rick offered.
“Thank you,” Ms Bulyard said, drinking a sip of coffee. “Anyway, Hank was a few years older and had been with Ultron longer. When problems would arise, Buck liked to run them by Hank and get his take before he called the corporate brass.” She paused. “Buck talked with Hank about the Willistone... problem.”
“The Willistone... problem?” Rick repeated.
Ms Bulyard nodded. “They were too good to be true. Once Buck signed the contract with Jack, deliveries picked up by twenty per cent. Everything ran faster. We delivered gas faster and more efficiently than we ever had, which meant our clients were able to sell more gas and we made more money. The partnership with Willistone made Buck the most valuable plant president in the southeast. At that time, the only Ultron plant in Alabama was in Tuscaloosa. The Montgomery plant was under construction, but it wasn’t a reality yet. Hank Russell was actually working at the Chattanooga, Tennessee plant at the time.”
Rick narrowed his eyebrows. “So working with Willistone was good for your husband and good for Ultron. How is that a problem?”
Ms Bulyard took another sip of coffee. “Like I said, they were too good. Buck said he thought they were breaking DOT regulations. He had looked at some of the bills of lading, and the times didn’t match up.”
“What do you mean?” Rick asked.
“When a Willistone driver picked up a load at the plant, he got a bill of lading. The bill had the pickup time stamped on it, and it also had the expected delivery time. So, let’s say we had to deliver gas to a Chevron station in Huntsville. It’s about three hours from Tuscaloosa to Huntsville, give or take fifteen minutes. Willistone would pick up the load and our loader would stamp the time on the bill as 1pm and the delivery time might be 3pm.” She shrugged. “Well, that only gives the driver two hours to get there.”
“So... were they late a lot?”
Ms Bulyard shook her head. “That’s just it. They were never late. Like I said, our clients loved Willistone, because they were always on time.”
“Then how did...” Rick stopped, feeling his stomach constrict into a knot.
Ms Bulyard smiled sadly. “How do you think?
“They had to speed,” Dawn piped up, her eyes wide as she looked at Rick.
Ms Bulyard nodded. “Buck knew it, and I’m pretty sure he told Hank about it. Buck thought we’d eventually get bitten by it and–” she gestured with her hands to Rick and Dawn “–I guess we did.”
Rick blinked his eyes, trying to process everything Faith Bulyard had just said. “So, according to Buck, it sounds like these bills of lading would have been very damaging evidence.”
“They would have been,” Ms Bulyard said, shaking her head. “But now they’re gone.”
The fire, Rick thought, also shaking his head. “Did you see any of the bills of lading that Buck was talking about? The ones where the numbers didn’t match up?”
Faith Bulyard shrugged. “I’m sure I did. That’s probably why Hank led you to me. My job was records custodian, so I always signed the bill when the loader brought it to record keeping.” She sighed. “I just never paid attention to the times. My signature reflected that we had received the bill and the delivery had gone out of the plant. It was purely a record-keeping function, and I never looked at the times. I... I didn’t have a clue what was going on until Buck told me.” She cut off, and her eyes welled with tears again.
“Would any of the gas stations have kept copies of the bills of lading?” Rick asked, feeling desperation kicking in.
“No. The driver would get a copy and we would keep the original. That’s it.” She shrugged. “You might see if Willistone has any of them, but I doubt they do.”
Rick had already asked Willistone in his request for production for bills of lading, and they did not have any. Also, since Newton’s rig had exploded in the accident, there was no hope of getting Dewey’s copy of the bill.
“Ms Bulyard, do you have any personal knowledge beyond what your husband told you regarding the pickup and delivery times being too tight?”