Halfway to the Truth (9 page)

Shelley had managed her way to being this side of drunk before they returned to her sister’s home. Wanda was waiting for them in the parlor, passing the time watching her favorite channel, HGTV.

As Reese guided Shelley onto the sofa, Wanda turned off the TV and looked at the pair.

“Appears I don’t have to ask if you had a good time. Did you get to meet the Chief, Shelley?”

“Yes I did,” she slurred. “And he’s a helluva good looking man.”

“He’s not married you know?” Wanda said. “He’d be a good catch for a woman. Maybe he could be a further incentive for you to move back here?”

“What are you talking about Wanda?” asked Shelley, nearly passing out.

Wanda looked at the more sober of the two. “Reese, your old editor plans to retire in a few months. Says he’s going to get a place in Florida and go fishing every day.”

She then turned her eyes back at her sister, “You could take over his job when he leaves.”

“Wanda, why are you so hell-bent on me coming back to this place? I have a great life and a great job in Savannah.”

“
Do you
? Well at least give it some thought. Maybe you’ll see things differently in the morning.”

“Okay, whatever you say Sis. Sorry you two, but I need to go upstairs; I’m not feeling well.” She dismissed herself and tried not to fall down as she made her way to the stairs.

Reese slid down the sofa closer to Wanda. “Thank you for having us. Your sister did have a good time this evening. She works hard every day, and I think she needed something like this as a distraction. Savannah’s a nice place, but it always seems like you’re doing business there rather than living there.”

She reached for Wanda’s hand. “You miss her a lot don’t you?”

“Yes, ever since my husband passed away I feel awfully alone. We didn’t have children and his relatives are a long way off. Shelley is the only family I have left. I’d love to have her come live here, and she’d be wonderful as the editor on our newspaper. I just don’t think it would be as exciting for her as what she has now. You agree with me don’t you?”

Reese laughed as she said, “Four hours ago I might have agreed with you. But she and the Chief really hit it off — I felt like a third wheel, if you know what I mean. He really let loose himself tonight. All I can say is I hope he doesn’t have an early shift tomorrow.”

“That’s encouraging,” said Wanda.

“Think I’ll be going to bed now,” yawned Reese. “It’s been a long day. We’ll see you in the morning. Thanks again.”

She leaned over and kissed Wanda on the cheek.

The next morning, Wanda made the girls a hearty breakfast, after which, the three of them looked at old photo albums.

Shortly before noon, a familiar police car pulled up to the curb in front of the house. Shelley’s heart started to beat fast when she saw Chief Daniels get out. They all went outside onto the porch to greet him.

“Morning Wanda,” he said, tipping his hat, then added, “Shelley, Reese.”

In unison they all returned his gesture and invited him inside but he declined saying, “I can’t stay long. Reese I have some information for you. It’s all right here; you can read it later.”

He started up the stairs and handed her an envelope.

Then he turned his focus on Shelley. “I can’t remember the last time I drank that much beer. Made it tough to get up for my shift this morning. I wanted to let you know that I had a great time last night. I hope you come back soon so we can get to know each other even better.”

Still nursing a slight hangover, Shelley smiled back at him saying, “You can count on it.”

“You both have a safe trip back to Savannah, and let me know if I can be of further service. Reese, be careful. Listen to your friend there,” he said, pointing to Shelley.

He returned to the squad car and pulled away.

“Unfortunately Wanda that’s our cue to be heading out ourselves,” Shelley advised. “I had a wonderful time with you and I promise I’ll be back soon. We’ll get our things now and let you get back to enjoying your Sunday.”

It only took them a few minutes to retrieve their belongings and throw them in the car. They each kissed Wanda on the cheek and said goodbye.

Once their seat-belts were fastened, the women drove off in the opposite direction of Chief Daniels, waving their hands out the windows at Wanda.

During the return trip, Reese and Shelley barely spoke — each was in their own world.

Shelley put on a country-western station and undoubtedly reminisced about the time she spent with Rob.

Reese on the other hand, had thoughts of how she was going to approach Greenfield. She glanced at the envelope that was sticking out of her purse and wondered what the Chief had found out that would help her. She decided to wait until she got home to read it.

It was about mid-day Monday before she and Shelley again saw each other.

“That was some weekend,” Shelley said to her friend. “I only spent a few hours with him, but it was the best time I had in a long time. He was witty, funny…”

“Who are you talking about,” Reese asked half paying attention to her.

“Rob! You know, Chief Daniels!”

“Oh yeah, I guess?”

“I can see you’re somewhere else girl, Did you ever read the note he gave to you?”

“Yes, I did. Greenfield’s first name is Sylvester.”

Shelley chuckled, “No wonder he goes only by Greenfield.”

Reese didn’t think it was funny, but continued anyway. “He’s a con — did three years for car theft. He hired on with Drakos Shipping about two years ago. Before that he just drifted from place to place. He’s got an apartment on the east side of town in the Island Tree Apartment complex. I’m getting ready to go over there soon and wait for him to come home.”

“You want me to go with you?”

“I don’t think so; I can handle it. And two of us might intimidate him.”

“When are you going to tell Doug about your offer from Drakos senior?”

“I’m not sure. Maybe tomorrow.”

“Remember what I said, I don’t know anything about it.”

She looked at her watch. “I have a meeting with some of the other reporters so I have to be going, but good luck with Sylvester.”

Reese gave a frown to Shelley as she marched off with a smug look, then started to gather her things.

After watching the apartment that Greenfield lived in for over two hours, she saw an old, blue pickup truck pull into one of the parking places nearby. The man that got out looked like the man she remembered who stopped the forklift and pleaded for mercy.

“Excuse me,” she yelled running after him. “May I have a minute with you?”

He turned in the direction he heard the woman’s voice. When he saw it was the person he almost ran over, he tried to hurry into his apartment but fumbled with the keys and she caught up to him.

“I don’t think (cough) you should be talking to me.” He lowered his eyes so as not to look directly at her.

“Come on Sylvester, I think you at least owe me an apology.”

“How’d you know my name?”

“I know a lot about you now. How you did time and where you’ve been the last couple of years. But what I don’t know is what you were doing in that warehouse?”

He nervously fumbled with the keys in his lock. “I work there (cough). I drive a forklift and package things up to be sent overseas (cough, cough). But I’m getting ready to quit, that job (cough) because it’s killing me.”

“Do you want to tell me about it?” Reese asked sympathetically.

“No, I don’t!” he said, becoming more emboldened. “What’s it to you anyway?”

“Look, I don’t mean you any trouble,” she insisted, “but I’m going to work for Drakos Shipping soon myself. I just thought I could learn more from the worker bees than I would from management. I already know a lot about their operation, so won’t you help me?” she asked trying to persuade him she was his friend.

“Do yourself a favor lady and stay (cough) away from that area you were in — it’s poison! I came from the doctor last week (cough) and he told me this cough is from exposure to hazardous chemicals. That’s why I’m quitting after I get my next check.”

She pushed him for more information. “What hazardous chemicals?”

“Mercury, PCB’s, lead, barium (cough), you name it. It’s all the stuff I’ve been coming into contact (cough, cough) with since I started working there.”

“I don’t understand,” she persisted.

“From all that electronic trash I haul around. I and two other guys offload the stuff from trucks (cough) and store it in that warehouse until it’s ready to be shipped. Then we stack it on pallets (cough) and wrap it with cellophane before loading the pallets into shipping containers. I don’t know where it goes from there and I don’t care. (Cough, cough) All I know is that I’ve got to get away from it.”

Reese remembered seeing infrequent stories on the major news channels about electronic waste, but it wasn’t a topic she was familiar with in detail.

“What else do you know?”

“Look (cough) I’m sorry about that incident, but I’m not saying (cough) anything else to you. You’ll find out soon enough when you work there. I need to go!” He opened his door and quickly shut it behind him.

For the first time since coming to Savannah, Reese was worried and needed to get to her computer to do some research.

Arriving back to her apartment, she laid her laptop on the table and began to Google electronic waste. Links to a number of electronic waste topics came up. She perused the list: recycling, disposal sites, disposal, recycling for cash… Her eyes stopped on, impact on public health.

She clicked the link and saw a slew of articles dealing with electronic waste, also known as E-waste, and its related health issues. Starting with the first article, she read how E-waste represented only a small part of the trash in our landfills, but was more than fifty percent of the overall toxic waste. Her adrenaline was flowing as she continued to learn that E-waste was a global problem, and that many developed countries ship their discarded equipment to less developed countries.

The next line she read made her mouth go dry.
There the E-waste is dismantled and burned, producing toxic emissions harmful to waste site workers and nearby communities
.

“Wow!” she said out loud.” Drakos Shipping is involved with sending E-waste to Africa.” She continued reading well into the evening.

That night, Reese had a terrible time sleeping. She couldn’t get the thought of what she learned out of her head. When morning arrived she knew what she had to do.

“What are you doing in here?” asked Doug as he opened his office door and saw Reese sitting at his desk.

“We’ve got to talk,” she said. “You may want to call Shelley in here as well.”

She moved her chair so he could gain access to his desk phone.

“Shelley, Reese is in my office and she has something to tell us,” he relayed to her. Then he added, “I don’t care what the print shop’s problem is, they’re always having issues. Just get over here!”

He looked at Reese agitated saying, “People seem to be forgetting who runs this place.”

He managed to get into his chair and drummed his fingers on his desk until Shelley arrived.

“Okay girl, what is it you have to say that brought you in so early this morning?”

Clearing her throat Reese started. “Viktor Drakos has offered me to become his Public Affairs representative.”

Doug stood up and leaned across his desk trying to hold back the anger that welled up inside him. “When did this happen?” he said, directly confronting Reese. “I told you to keep me informed? I doubt he just picked up the phone last night and called you. What’s going on?”

“Hear me out Doug. Have a seat and I’ll tell you.” She brought him up to date on everything that happened from the previous week and what she learned from Greenfield.

He turned to Shelley, “What do you think? Can we run an article on this?”

“And you young lady,” he said, looking back to Reese, “you’re going to tell him today you’re not interested in any offers he makes to you.”

“No Doug, that’s not what I’m going to tell him,” she said defiantly. “I’m taking the job, but if you’ll sit down I’ll tell you why.”

“Sit down? You don’t tell me what to do in my own office,” he yelled. “I gave you the opportunity of your life and this is how you repay me?”

Shelley went over to Doug and tried to calm him. “I’m just as surprised as you are,” she said, “but let’s hear her out. Please sit down so we can get to the bottom of this.” She practically pushed him to sit.

She rolled her chair closer to Reese turning her back to Doug so he could not see her face. “What’s really going on Reese?” she sternly asked, while at the same time indicating with her face to play along with her.

“If you’ll let me explain,” Reese declared looking past Shelley at Doug, “maybe you’ll understand my motivation.”

“Go ahead,” invited Shelley, rolling her chair away.

Reese scanned their faces as she spoke. “You can’t go off half-cocked on Drakos. We don’t know that he’s doing anything wrong. I discovered that the State of Georgia doesn’t have specific laws regulating electronic waste. That explains why there were no markings outside the warehouse. But handling the material on a regular basis could put anyone working with it at health risk, especially without proper protection. Look at Greenfield — he has developed a bad cough that his doctor assigns to working with the hazardous waste. The two have to be connected, but we need to find out more about it.”

“What about federal laws?” Shelley interrupted. “Surely, they are more stringent?”

“Not really. There is legislation dealing with things like computers and batteries but they’re very loose on defining E-waste in general. And you know Washington, they have waivers for everything. I don’t think what Viktor is doing is illegal, at least on this end of it.”

“So why do you feel you need to go work for him?” Doug insisted. “Just stay on it like you have been and you’ll get more answers.”

“Don’t you see Doug, if I’m on the inside we’ll get to the information quicker? I’ll have access to all sorts of documentation that we aren’t privy to now. And, I’ll feed the information back to you.”

“I can see her point,” Shelley said to her boss.

“Here’s my answer,” he emphatically stated, “You can get the hell out of here, pack your things, and forget about being a reporter. I’ll see to it that you never work at another newspaper again.”

“If that’s the way you feel about it, then I’ll leave. But you’re making a big mistake,” Reese exclaimed. “I’ll go it alone. But don’t make an ass of yourself and print anything you can’t back up without proof. I’ll be all over it, and the owners of this paper won’t like what I have to say.”

She got up, pulling her arm way from Shelley’s attempt to grab at it to keep her from leaving, and slammed his door on her way out.

“You want to follow her?” asked Doug seething with anger.

“Not unless you want to fire me too!” Shelley replied. “But she is right about one thing, we don’t have facts for an article yet. And
you
just let a golden opportunity slip right through your fingers because of what? I’ll go and see what I can do to salvage this,” she said, getting up.

“Leave it, Shelley! Let her go!” he commanded, leaning back into his chair and looking as though he were contemplating revenge.

“Ma’am there’s no excuse for driving that fast,” said the officer as he handed Reese a ticket. “I’m sorry you got fired, but the road is no place to take out your frustrations. I hope the rest of your day is better,” he said, tipping the edge of his trooper hat and returning to his squad car.

Sitting along the side of the road she couldn’t help but think of Chief Daniels and watched the police car pull from behind her and head down the roadway. 

She looked at her speeding ticket and thought, “That’s the difference between a small town and a big city I guess.” She tucked the ticket into the passenger side sun visor and poked in the phone number to Nikolaus Drakos.

He was quick to answer. “Hello, this is Nikolaus?”

“Hi, got a minute?”

“Oh hi!” he replied recognizing a familiar voice. “I didn’t recognize your number. This is the first time you called my cell phone. What’s up?”

“I just got a speeding ticket. But before that, Doug Williams fired me. I’m calling to let you know I’ll be taking your father up on his offer. Just so you know, that’s why he fired me.”

“You sound a little down,” he deduced.

“Nikolaus… do we have to wait until this weekend to go to Tybee Island? I feel I need to be with you.”

“Of course we don’t have to wait Reese. I can pick you up in an hour. What’s the address of your apartment?”

Throwing caution into the wind, she gave it to him and said she’d be waiting outside when he got there. She only needed to throw a few things into a bag.

Reese knew she was acting on impulse, but she also was getting tired of everyone telling her what she could and could not do. She was in need and, right at that moment, Nikolaus was what she needed most.

Almost to the hour on the nose, she saw the yellow Corvette pull into the parking lot and approach where she was standing. She looked down at his smiling face and immediately felt some of her tension leave her.

“Got room for a passenger?” she solicited.

“Sure do! Throw your bag onto the back seat.” He leaned over and opened her car door from inside. “You certain you’re up to this?”

She got into the vehicle. “I don’t want to think of anything but you and me right now. Let’s go! I want to feel the wind run through my hair.”