Chapter 127

“I was beginning to get concerned about you, Elena,” Theo said. “I couldn’t find you anywhere.”

“I’m sorry,” I apologized. “Mr. Dale wanted to go ahead and continue the tour because he was worried that you would be awhile.”

Dale looked at him. “Is your stomach all right? It sounded pretty nasty before.”

Theo made a face. “I don’t know what I ate for breakfast this morning, but it didn’t sit well. My apologies for running off on both of you.”

“Don’t worry about it,” I said. “The tour of this building has actually been very interesting. I’m learning a lot, so hush, so Mr. Dale can continue.”

Theo stepped back, and Mr. Dale continued talking about drawing the water in, filtering it, and the process necessary to purge any forever chemicals that might happen to be in the water. I snapped a couple of pictures of things Mr. Dale approved.

Our next stop showed us where the water got cleansed on a microbial level and then pushed out to the residents of Packhaven. The rest of his tour took about half an hour, and then we wandered back toward the main office buildings.

This time, on the way back, Mr. Dale talked about the local ecosystem and the types of plants and animals that were supported in the protected area around the reservoir.

I rolled over all of my newly acquired information around in my head all the way home. The whole while, my nerves buzzed with tension. If Mr. Dale’s accusations were true, then I would almost rather be dealing with the obvious corruption back in Loopington.

Having an obvious bad guy was way less stressful, than wondering who was behind all the smiling faces and who was really a monster. Because only a monster could deliberately move and then poison innocent people, including children.

When we got back to the reservoir’s office buildings, Wendy and Ed were standing near the car waiting for us. They waved.

“We were starting to get worried,” Wendy said when we reached them. “We’ve been waiting for fifteen minutes.”

“Sorry about that,” I apologized. “There was a lot to cover. We walked to our location, so not only did we do the tour, but the walk was enjoyable as well.”

“Do you have everything you need?” Wendy asked.

“Did you get the pictures?” Ed demanded.

I nodded and held up the camera. “I didn’t forget, and I’ve got everything I need,” I reassured.

“Excellent,” Ed said. “We should stop for lunch on the way back. And let’s get going because I’m hungry.”

“I’ll pass,” Theo mumbled. “Unless maybe if we go someplace that’s got some chicken soup.”

“I think we can swing that,” Wendy said. “I know a nice cafe on the way back. Are you guys ready?”

I shook Mr. Dale’s hand and thanked him. Then, the four of us got in the car and left the watershed and its mess behind.

I sat in silence in the back, my mind turning over the possibilities of how to get this news out. And the squirming sensation of waiting to get home so I could find a way to get on the dark web churned my stomach. I think the story was about to bust wide open.

If Wendy noticed my distraction, she didn’t say anything. Instead, she filled the time with her usual babble. Theo didn’t say anything, either. Unfortunately for him, the effects of whatever Mr. Dale had given him continued to linger, and he spent most of our time at the cafe for lunch in the restroom.

He headed straight for the restroom again when we arrived back at work. I sat at my desk and worked on compiling the story with the best spin I could put on it. It hurt my heart to write only half the truth.

It also made me wonder if Wendy had known all of this. She kept getting on me about how I could see a way to write the truth within the constraints of the Palace Press’ panel. And I could see how you can do it as long as you ignore all unpalatable truths.

If I wrote the story the way the Palace Press wanted it, and I wrote that the water going into Packhaven was clean, then it would be easy to continue to believe that both the government and Packhaven were as wonderful as they seemed on the surface.

In fact, if I’d never bothered to go any deeper than that or ask further questions, then I could have continued to believe it as well, which was why I was still conflicted over whether or not Wendy was party to this.

Because Wendy didn’t get the interview that I got, all she heard was the engineers showing her how the purification worked and then proving that the water going to Packhaven had no contaminants in it. Since the story was about Packhaven’s water, Why would she ask about anyone else? And if she had never asked about South Haven, then, of course, she would never have seen the evidence or even seen the look of someone trying to deflect her question.

So then, did she know? Had she ever asked those questions? Had she ever caught those looks? Or was she covering up for the government as well?

The tangle of thoughts in my head made my stomach turn until I wondered if you couldn’t catch whatever Mr. Dale had given to Theo.

At the end of the day, I turned my story in to the editor and packed up my stuff. Wendy caught me waiting for the elevator.

“Elena, I scanned over what you sent in. It was good.”

She smiled at me. It certainly seemed a genuine smile.

“Do you see what I mean?” she asked. “We get to tell the truth. And today, we get to tell one of the good stories. Now all the people of Packhaven can relax knowing that their water is safe.”

I bit my lip and swallowed my frown once again. I just couldn’t tell with her which side she was on. Because she was right.

No matter what else I’d uncovered, the residents of Packhaven could sleep easier, knowing that their water was clean. And if she hadn’t asked the right questions, did she have any idea that there were residents of another town nearby who did need to worry? People who weren’t protected by the test that we just saw run?

I needed someone to talk to. I needed to talk to Charles. He would understand. He would have advice. He would have some idea how to unsnarl what seemed like impossible knots to me.

Theo stayed quiet the whole ride home, except for the one time that I asked him how his stomach was feeling.

“I’m hanging in there,” he said.

“I’m really sorry you feel like this. Do you want to stop at the drugstore and pick something up for it?”

He shrugged his shoulders. “Food poisoning should pass in a day or so. I should be fine in the morning. If I’m not, we can swing by the drugstore on your way to work. Thanks for your concern.”

Guilt nibbled my guts. Now, I wish I had asked Mr. Dale another question because I would have asked him if there was anything I could do to help with Theo’s continued discomfort. As it was, I didn’t know what he’d given Theo and how long it would take to get out of the system completely. I also didn’t know what I should suggest for relief.

“Do you have any ginger tea in the house?” I asked him.

He nodded. “That might work. If nothing else, it’ll keep me hydrated because I’m certainly going to need it.”

“I’m so sorry,” I said. And I really was.

Just because I questioned whether people were involved in this criminal enterprise didn’t mean that I wished anyone harm. And Theo really was nice.

What if he was oblivious to everything that was going on? It was quite possible that he wasn’t some henchman and that he was just hired by the government to watch over me.

Certainly, from a government standpoint, it would make sense to have fewer people in the loop if you were going to be doing dirty deeds.

Theo went straight back to his apartment and shut the door between their apartment and ours. I really hoped the poor guy would find some relief.

It only took about fifteen minutes after we arrived for David and Charles to get home as well.

“How did your day go?” Charles asked.

“I got my next story into the editors,” I said.

“Oh? What story now?”

I didn’t answer Charles’s request for details. Instead, I looked at David. “Theo got into something that upset his stomach today,” I said, trying not to lie and say it was food poisoning because I knew for sure that it wasn’t.

But I also didn’t want to admit that I knew that the poor guy had been drugged. “You might want to go check on him. He’s had frequent trips to the bathroom all day,” I explained.

“I’ll go look in on him. Thanks for letting me know.” David said. He hurried off to the other set of apartments, and Charles and I were alone.