Walk the Wire (Amos Decker #6)(44)

“What do you do to fix it?” asked Jamison.

“We open the well and force up lots of barrels of fluid that we just sent down to clean up the blockage. If there are more serious issues, like a well needs some type of invasive intervention because it’s deteriorating, equipment has corroded, or the reservoir conditions have changed, then we call in a workover rig. They’ll drop in a wireline to lower both measurement and testing equipment to see what the issue is and arrive at a solution. They can usually find an answer and get it back online.”

Decker looked impressed. “And here I always thought you were just a guy digging holes with a shovel.”

Baker grinned. “Well, I did my share of that too, back in the old days. Now it’s all technology and science and engineering. But, hey, I’ll take working inside a trailer with my own toilet and AC in the summer and heat in the winter any day.”

“Quite the operation,” noted Jamison.

“How long do you see yourself here, Stan?” asked Decker.

“Long enough to save up what I need to retire and to help out the kids and their education. Then I’m heading to Florida, chucking my cell phone into the ocean, and I’m going fishing. And I’m not going to stop till I croak.”

“Now, tell me what you remember about this guy who talked about the time bomb,” said Decker. “His name was Ben?”

“Yeah, least that’s what he said.”

“Last name?”

Baker rubbed his face and sat back in his chair. “I’m not sure. It was over a year ago and there were a lot of people around and I’d been drinking.”

“And you’re sure he was in the Air Force?”

“Yeah, he was in his official cammies and he told me he was assigned there.”

Decker said, “What if we can show you pictures of people who worked there? Would that help?”

“It might, yeah. But how are you going to do that? I was in the military. They don’t like giving out info to nobody.”

Decker glanced at Jamison. “We’ll think of something.”





“HOW ARE WE GOING to get Colonel Sumter to give up his list of personnel?” said Jamison on the drive back. “He hasn’t even gotten back to Kelly on his earlier request. And I don’t see us getting a search warrant. We have no probable cause. And on top of that, this Ben guy was military; he’s not there anymore anyway. It’s all Vector personnel now.”

“So let’s dial up some help.” Decker pulled out the device Robie had given him.

“What’s that?” she asked.

“Apparently, a hotline to Batman.”

He hit the green button. Within two seconds, Robie answered.

“Yes?”

“Need some help. Wondering if you could provide it?”

“Tell me what it is and I’ll see what I can do.”

“We’re looking for a guy who used to work at the Air Force station here. First name Ben, last name unknown.”

“Is he military?”

“Yes. We learned that the DoD pulled out the military component and outsourced the work to a firm named Vector. You know them?”

“Why is this guy important?” said Robie, ignoring the query.

“He told a guy I trust that we were sitting on a ticking time bomb here. So I want to talk to him.”

“I’ll see what I can do.”

“One more thing.”

“Yeah?”

“Irene Cramer. Any idea why the Feds are interested in her?”

The line went dead.

Jamison glanced at Decker. “Well?”

“Not sure. I might have just said something I shouldn’t have.”

They drove past the western edge of the Brothers’ Colony, where they saw colorful oil rigs erected along the way with trailers and trucks and lots of activity.

Decker read the sign erected in front of one rig nearest the Air Force property: THE ALL-AMERICAN ENERGY COMPANY. Two large Stars and Stripes were suspended from tall flagpoles and flapping in the breeze. Decker said drily, “Well, that’s patriotic.”

“What could be more American than drilling for oil?” quipped Jamison.

*

Kelly said, “We’ve had a BOLO out on Parker from the minute we found him missing. There’s been no sign of the guy.”

They were walking to the room where the postmortem had been performed by Walt Southern on Pamela Ames.

“I guess around here there are lots of places to get rid of a body,” said Jamison.

“Yep. We got landfills full of crap that they add to every day, including some radioactive stuff that comes naturally out of the drilling process.”

“Radioactive,” said Jamison. “And they can just dump that in a landfill?”

“Well, they’re not supposed to. But people aren’t supposed to do lots of things and they still do.”

“That’s why we have a job,” grumbled Decker.

As they entered the room Southern was finishing up some notes in a paper file.

He eyed Decker warily. “Heard you came by to look at Cramer’s body while I was out of town.”

“I did.”

“It looks like you opened her up again.”