[click here for table of contents]
PART THREE
Chapter 26
Among those already present around the large table in the conference room at the Kingston Police Department were Police Chief Ryan, Mayor Kroeger, Alderman-at-Large DeMarco, and several detectives that Charles’ father had served with when he was on the force.
Charles and Timothy had come with their evidence, and their moms, though Cathryn had stayed home, so as not to complicate matters.
Jack Wallace, Chief of Operations at IPM Kingston, was the last to enter the room.
“Hi Jack,” Chief Ryan said.
“Jim,” Jack Wallace said, likewise addressing the chief by his first name, taking a seat. “Thanks for calling me.”
“Sure thing, Jack,” Chief Ryan said. “Okay, I think we’re all here. Let’s begin, shall we?”
He shuffled a few papers on the table in front of him
“So, thank you all for coming in on a Saturday, I know there are other places you’d rather be,” Chief Ryan began. “I think most of you know Charles Lambeau, Jr. already...”
A couple of the detectives at the table chimed in with a friendly, “Hi Charley,” to which Charles smiled and politely waved.
“...and this is Timothy Miller, Charles’s, uh, partner,” the chief continued. “I’ll be honest, I didn’t know what to make of this at first but, I’ve had a chance to review their collected materials and, frankly, these young men have conducted a thorough and impressive investigation of a situation that’s of great local importance...
“I think I’d be doing Charles and Timothy a disservice if I attempted to paraphrase here, so...I’m going to go ahead and ask them to make their own presentation, if that’s what they’d like to do...”
Charles looked to Timothy, who nodded for Charles to go ahead.
“Thank you, Chief Ryan,” Charles began. “I do believe we’d like to go ahead and present what we’ve uncovered...”
Timothy happened to look in the corner of the room and spied a slide projector sitting on an AV cart. Man, if only he’d known in advance, Foto-Mat girl probably could’ve turned their photos into a kick-ass slide presentation.
“Ladies and Gentlemen,” Charles continued, “Exhibit A is not for the squeamish, but I think you’ll agree it immediately draws our attention to the importance of the subject at hand.”
This was Timothy’s cue to dump the contents of a brown paper lunch bag he’d been holding in his lap.
The dead frog flopped out onto the faux wood-grain of the conference table. Having begun to decompose, it smelled slightly of marine death.
“This frog was found already dead in Tannery Brook just yesterday afternoon. Who was the culprit? A neighborhood cat? A raccoon? A bird of prey perhaps? No...the culprit was the water itself.”
At this, Charles produced the plastic test bottle with the water sample in it. He plunked it onto the table next to the dead frog with great effect.
“Timothy Miller and I ran a series of laboratory tests in a controlled environment which proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that the water in Tannery Brook contains unacceptably high levels of benzene and other chemicals, which are toxic to both animals as well as humans...
“The question, then, how did benzene get into the water? I draw your attention to this map of Kingston, clearly showing the route of Tannery Brook from the old Colonial Quarry on Route 32 to Warren Street uptown, where the sample was taken...
“Colonial Quarry for years produced native bluestone, the dust from which would have been about as harmless as dirt flowing into the Tannery Brook...
“But these photos, taken within the last month, present quite a different portrait of what’s seeping into Tannery Brook at the old Colonial Quarry today…"
Charles began passing photos around the table. The photos showed the extent of the barrels floating beneath the surface of the quarry’s water, as well as close-ups of particularly corroded barrels, leaking toxins directly into the water.
“Where did these barrels come from?” Charles asked rhetorically. “From the IPM plant right here in Kingston…"
Charles then passed around the photos of the van clearly marked IPM, and the men in the process of dumping barrels into the water.
Eyebrows went up around the room, a few pairs of reading glasses came out of shirt pockets.
Mayor Kroeger looked particularly surprised at what he was seeing.
“Jack, is this true?” he stage-whispered down the table.
Jack Wallace did not answer for the time being, patiently waiting his turn to look at the photos, like he was still processing the information like everyone else.
Jack Wallace was the kind of guy who, professionally, was usually cool as a cucumber. He was doing a good job of remaining composed for the moment, but you could tell he was concerned. Very concerned.
“So the question remains,” Charles continued, “does IPM know what it is they are doing? Is it their legal right to buy an old unused quarry and dump whatever they like on their own property? Surprisingly, the Federal government does allow this sort of thing to happen under certain circumstances…
“But I have in my hands an official Federal document, acquired through the Freedom of Information Act, stating clearly that IPM applied for a permit in 1972 to dump benzene and other chemicals directly into the Esopus Creek…"
Charles pointed to the word benzene on the document he was holding...
“...and they were denied a permit on the basis that benzene is a known carcinogen.”
Charles pointed to the word carcinogen on the document.
“So here we have it in writing, in an official document, that IPM knew that benzene was a carcinogen, but they proceeded to dump it into the waters at the former Colonial Bluestone Quarry anyway…"
Charles passed the papers around.
“Please feel free to examine it for yourselves,” Charles added, concluding the presentation. “Timothy and I have several copies on file, of course, for our personal records.”
Both Timothy’s and Charles’ moms looked on in utter amazement, both at the detailed work their sons had accomplished without their knowledge, and the utter seriousness with which the City’s highest ranking officials were taking it.
The detectives, the Mayor, the Alderman-at-Large, everyone continued to examine everything with great interest, passing it all along until, finally, all the evidence had accumulated in a big pile in front of Jack Wallace, who continued to leaf through it for a moment, then pushed it aside.
“Very interesting indeed,” he said finally. “Chief Ryan, can I talk with you alone for a moment?”
# # #
Chief Ryan and Jack Wallace walked back into the conference room about five minutes later.
“Mr. Mayor, Mr. Alderman,” Chief Ryan said, “I want to thank you for coming in on a Saturday, I think we can take it from here.”
“I want an update on Monday,” Mayor Kroeger said. “And Tuesday, and Wednesday.”
“Yes sir,” Chief Ryan assured him, then he thanked the detectives who’d come in on their day off as well. As the men were walking out, they all made sure to say things like, Nice work Charley, Timothy... etc.
So now it was just Police Chief Ryan at the table with Timothy, Charles, their moms in the background, and the head of IPM.
“Charles, Timothy, I want to thank you for your impressive research,” Jack Wallace began. “Truly, you’re both a credit to our community, and I appreciate the work you’ve done...
“As head of IPM, I take all this very seriously... IPM isn’t just an international corporation, we’re part of the Kingston community, we’re family. If through some oversight it turns out we’ve somehow contributed to a situation that’s less than completely safe for every member of our community... then I can assure you, we will resolve this situation quickly, we will resolve it completely, and we will resolve it permanently...”
Damn, this guy was good.
“Here is what I’m proposing to do...directly after I leave here, I will be calling my board in to meet, today. We will be devising an immediate plan of action and, I give you my word, we will be presenting you with a comprehensive plan within ten day’s time... and if you find you have any additional concerns, I can also assure you that we will address them most eagerly and work them into our plan...does this sound...acceptable?”
Timothy suddenly found himself thinking of the boys he ate lunch with every day in the cafeteria, the ones whose dads all worked at IPM. This guy was their dads’ boss. No, this guy was their boss’s boss.
How was it that the boss of the boss of everyone’s dad in town was sitting here, asking them if his plan was acceptable?
He and Charles looked at each other, trying to decode what they’d just heard and figure out if it was, in fact, acceptable, or if they were being sold a bill of goods.
“The only thing I ask,” Jack Wallace added, “is that you let us do our work in good faith, and that we keep it between us, and not bring the press in on it.”
It seemed that this was what Jack Wallace was angling for all along, but Timothy found he lacked the confidence in such a high pressure situation to weigh in on this.
Charles meanwhile, seemed to have no trouble jumping back in.
“So, in ten days,” he said, “you guys come back to us with a comprehensive plan.”
“That’s right,” Jack Wallace agreed.
“And if you don’t have a comprehensive plan in ten days, we go to the press.”
Jack Wallace remained perfectly composed. If he didn’t adjust his head ever so slightly, you’d never know how hot under the collar he actually was.
While having presented himself as accommodating, he obviously didn’t want it to seem that these two boys had any kind of leverage over him, or over the fate of a multi-billion dollar corporation.
But he could not risk equivocating over something that, according to his own terms, seemed perfectly reasonable on the surface.
“You have my word we’ll have a plan in place within ten days...or you can take it to the Freeman.”
Charles and Timothy both looked over to Chief Ryan as the authority figure in the room they felt they could trust.
“Sounds good to me,” Chief Ryan said, nodding to Jack Wallace, who immediately began rising from his chair.
“Any other concerns, boys?” the Chief added.
Timothy almost held his tongue. The meeting seemed to have gone better than he could have imagined. But he knew that Charles had presented Chief Ryan with some notes on how this all related to Grafton, but the Chief hadn’t mentioned this and neither had Charles.
“There’s one thing that bothers me,” Timothy said, right eye twitching slightly as he channeled Peter Falk.
Jack Wallace made like he was still listening, while continuing to gather his papers. Charles, meanwhile, pleaded subtly with his eyes for Timothy to let it drop, but if IPM could have Ken knocked off before he went to the press, couldn’t they do the same to Charles and him?
“Yes, Timothy?” Chief Ryan said.
“How is it that the day before Ken Wilson went to the D.E.C., he wound up dead?”
Jack Wallace stopped moving. He looked from Timothy over to Chief Ryan, like, What the hell is this kid talking about?
“I think we should let Mr. Wallace go call his board members,” Chief Ryan said, “they’ve got their work cut out for them if they’re going to be ready in the next ten days.”
Jack Wallace, glad to be off the hook for whatever this was, said his last goodbyes and exited the room with his copies of the evidence clutched in a manilla folder.
“Timothy and Charles,” the Chief said, “why don’t you stick around for a few more minutes so we can talk about this...”
# # #
Timothy and Charles’ moms each felt like they had been transported to Mars. They’d been in the room the whole time more or less for legal reasons because the boys were both minors, but now that it was down to the boys and Jim Ryan, who was a family friend of the Lambeau’s, Charles’ mom took Timothy’s mom to the break room so they could get a cup of coffee.
“Can I get you guys anything?” Chief Ryan asked Charles and Timothy.
Timothy was actually wondering if the coffee at the police precinct would be any better than at the diner, but when Charles said, “No, we’re okay,” he decided to keep quiet.
“Timothy, do you know what’s meant by fragmentary evidence?” Chief Ryan asked.
The Chief’s tone had grown more paternal, Timothy felt he could trust that he was not trying to put him on the spot.
“Not exactly,” he said.
“Well, the evidence you fellas presented regarding the quarry? That was solid evidence. That’s why I called the Mayor in here. That’s why I called Jack Wallace in here. They needed to see this. It’s the real deal, and it’s going to change lives...now, the stuff about Grafton...not so solid...which is not to say it’s not valuable, it’s just better we leave people like Jack Wallace out of it.”
Timothy no doubt had a discouraged look on his face.
“Look, Kurt Grafton’s a smalltime criminal, he was on our radar since before we picked up his brother, but you leading us to his storage space actually helped tremendously, did you know that?”
“How did it do that?”
“We found a substantial amount of stolen goods in Grafton’s storage space connecting him to all sorts of burglaries. We’ve finally got enough to build a case against this guy, he’s going away for a while.”
“But what about Luke Grafton?” Timothy asked. “What about the IPM job we heard the two of them talking about on the phone?”
“I can tell you from our investigation that Luke Grafton sometimes worked as a day laborer over at the IPM plant, that was probably what you heard them talking about. Seems like that’s how he and his brother managed to move some high-end copier equipment out the backdoor. We’re talking grand theft here, it’s significant.”
“But what about the timing?” Timothy asked.
“You mean the new car?” Chief Ryan said, pointing to the photo of the Mustang Timothy had included in the evidence. “The Graftons had some money. Seems like Luke was the smart one, always insisted they keep day jobs as a cover, no big expenditures, but the minute he was out of the picture, Kurt couldn’t help himself.”
“Yeah but, I don’t just mean the car,” Timothy said, “if there’s no connection, why did Luke Grafton attack Ken right before he turned his report in to the D.E.C.?”
Chief Ryan looked at Timothy in an understanding way. He could see the boy desperately needed to find explanations for things that had no explanation.
“Timothy...I oversaw this case personally. We are well aware that Ken Wilson was a chemistry student at New Paltz and that he’d identified toxins in the brook by your house. But I can tell you with utter certainty that his assault, while tragic, had nothing to do whatsoever with IPM or with the chemicals in Tannery Brook.”
“Then...why would…” Timothy started to ask, but his question trailed off as the case he thought he was building dematerialized in front of his eyes.
“I realize some of this may be...particularly troubling to you,” Ryan said.
He’d read the report of the scene his officers had come upon at Timothy’s house and drawn his own conclusions, but was not going to elaborate further.
“I don’t know quite how to explain this...there are people in this world who don’t understand how other people can be...different...” Ryan tried to put this delicately. “And sometimes it’s easier to hate people who are different than figure out how to accept them...I know that’s not a very satisfying explanation but, unfortunately, I’ve seen other cases like this and...that’s just the way it is.”
It wasn’t that Timothy didn’t know Ken was “different” as Jim Ryan put it. Thinking back to the fight he’d had with Crazy Carl, and similar things he’d heard said over the years, he more-or-less understood what Jim Ryan was trying to say without saying it. He’d known all along that some people could hate other people who were “different.”
But that this hatefulness could lead to what had happened to Ken? Jim Ryan could try explaining this five different ways.
Timothy just couldn’t believe it.
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I’m angry!
Superb chapter. And not just for mentioning Columbo. Timothy is growing up fast and in the right direction.