Sour Apples (31 page)

Marvin shook his head dismally. “I gather he called the lab when the first report took so long to arrive. I’d saved the first report to a new computer file and modified it—that’s why it was delayed—and then I printed out a fresh copy, signed it, and sent it out. When Ethan called, the tech who ran the tests just printed out his original report and sent it to him, since it was technically already approved. I hadn’t changed the original report on the computer because I figured the tech might notice.”

“And now Ethan Truesdell is dead,” Seth said bluntly.

Meg shot Seth a warning glance: back off. “Marvin, did
you talk to anyone about the tests or mention who was looking for that information?”

Marvin nodded. “I called up the guy who runs my former department at Pioneer Valley and told him he might be hearing from a Joyce Truesdell or from the town of Granford or from somebody’s lawyer. He said thank you and more or less hung up on me.”

“You never talked to Rick Sainsbury?” Seth asked.

“I haven’t talked to Rick Sainsbury since I left Pioneer Valley. Why would I? I’m glad the company has done well, and from what I’ve seen, their further work has been competent. I truly thought this was all behind us, until now.”

“What do you think Pioneer Valley stands to lose, if that story comes out?” Christopher asked suddenly, breaking his silence.

“The company? Not much. It’s been a long time, and most of the original scientists have long since moved on, like me. I’d personally be the one at greatest risk, because my name is on those reports and Pioneer Valley can just point the finger at me. And yes, you say the woman’s cow died—but it’s not like
she
died because of exposure to whatever’s left on the site. I’d guess the company’s lawyers would argue that there’s no direct liability. If it even went that far. I’m sure they could afford to settle with whoever brought charges.”

“If the town could afford to bring charges,” Seth said grimly. “The legal fees would eat up our budget for the next ten years.”

“Don’t think Pioneer Valley doesn’t know that,” Marvin snapped.

Seth shot a warning glance at Meg. “So what you’re saying is that Pioneer Valley has no real reason to kill someone just to conceal this?”

“Not that I can see,” Marvin replied. “It’s not that important to them. They’ve got a lot of other irons in the fire now.”

They all sat in silence for a minute, then Marvin asked, “What happens now? Am I going to be charged with anything?”

“That’s not for us to say,” Meg said. “I have a feeling the original falsification is going to be made public shortly, although I don’t know if anyone will choose to prosecute you. But you might be better off if you spoke to the state police yourself, instead of waiting until they come looking for you. We do appreciate your being honest with us. You’ve told us a lot that we needed to know.”

Marvin stood up. “Christopher, I hope you won’t think less of me for this mistake from years ago. To tell the truth, I suspected things were coming to a head when you came to me with your anonymous sample. Of course I recognized the chemical signature. I even thought briefly of altering the results I gave you, but in the end I decided I was tired of hiding all this. Maybe I wanted to be found out. Please don’t judge me too harshly.” Without another word he walked out of the room.

Christopher spoke again. “Well, that was not what I expected. Meg, you do seem to entangle yourself in the most complex puzzles.”

“I’d almost forgotten you were here, Christopher. I hope I haven’t destroyed an important friendship for you. Marvin seems like a decent man, except for that false document over a decade ago. And I guess I should say the aftermath, when he tried to keep it covered up.”

“I believe he is. Are you going to throw him to the wolves?”

“I really don’t know,” Meg said. “I don’t think he had anything to do with the deaths, except that he told someone at Pioneer Valley, who might well have passed that information on to someone who would care, like Rick Sainsbury.”

“And why would that be?” Christopher asked, bewildered.

“You haven’t heard? Rick’s planning to run for Congress.”

Christopher’s expression changed rapidly. “Oh dear,” he said. “I can see that would complicate matters. What do you plan to do now?”

“I…have no idea,” Meg said. She glanced at Seth. “Seth?”

Seth sat back in his chair. “Detective Marcus needs to know that Pioneer Valley falsified its results. He can work out who has a motive from there. Besides, Granford is still stuck with a piece of polluted land, and somebody’s got to fix that. At least that keeps me in the investigation. I say let’s go home and I can call Marcus from there and tell him we have something he should see.”

“I wish I could say it was lovely to see you, Meg,” Christopher said, “but the circumstances have been somewhat peculiar.”

“I know,” Meg said ruefully. “I’m sorry, too, and I didn’t mean to take advantage of you, but you can see why I couldn’t tell you what was going on, not until we had some proof. I promise, once we get this sorted out, I’ll invite you to come by and I’ll give you a tour of my new orchard.”

“I will look forward to that. And I do hope this unfortunate issue resolves itself soon.”

“So do I, Christopher,” Meg replied.

When they reached the car, Meg slumped into the passenger seat and closed her eyes. “This day seems to be going on forever,” she said.

“It does,” Seth agreed as he started the engine. “Home?”

“Please,” Meg said. They drove in silence for several miles, until she roused herself to say, “What now?”

“You tell me,” Seth said, watching the road.

“You call Detective Marcus, I guess. You don’t think Marvin is going to bolt, do you?”

“My guess is no, but I could be wrong. On the other hand, he might decide he doesn’t want to wait and go to Marcus directly.”

“Would this information give Marcus enough reason to question Sainsbury?”

“Maybe. We have no proof that Rick knew anything about what was going on, either in the beginning or now. And even if he did, it’s a huge jump to also assume he’d have committed murder to cover it up. At the same time, everything points toward someone associated with the
campaign taking matters into his own hands—badly. On a more practical front, it should be easy enough to establish alibis for Rick during the critical times—Lauren can probably provide those, if she’s keeping his schedule.”

“I should talk to Lauren if I can. I’m not sure whose side she’s on at the moment. She did give us that information on Rick, but I don’t know if she thought it would clear or implicate him.”

“Do you think she would put the truth ahead of keeping her job?”

Meg reflected a moment before answering. “I’m not sure. We were colleagues first, and then friends. You know—she was someone to go to lunch or dinner with, but we never got
that
close. If somebody asked me, I’d say she is honest, hardworking, loyal, intelligent—all that good stuff. But how far would she go to get what she wants? The stakes are pretty high here. I have no way of knowing.”

“You two seemed pretty tight when she visited last year,” Seth said.

“That kind of surprised me, even then. I think she was floundering in Boston and was looking for alternatives. I’d made some big changes in my life, and maybe she was trying that on for size. How do you quantify a friendship, Seth? Lauren and I are seventy-five percent friends?”

“I can’t tell you that. But what matters now is, how far do you trust her? We’re dealing with two deaths here, three break-ins, a significant corporate cover-up, and a political campaign. All of which are presumably related somehow. Obviously there’s a lot at stake for a lot of people. Where do Lauren’s loyalties lie?”

“I don’t know. I need to talk to her, at least to thank her for the information.”

“And will she go running straight to Rick again?”

“Maybe. Are you assuming he’s manipulating her? I told you, she’s not stupid, and she’s got a pretty good survival
sense. I’d like to think she’d see through Rick if he did that. I think I owe it to her to find out.”

“So call her.”

“Now?”

“Why not? What’s to be gained from waiting?”

Meg shuddered. Twenty-four hours ago Ethan had been alive—and someone had thought he was a threat. Now he was dead. “You’re right.”

They pulled into Meg’s driveway. Bree was sitting at the kitchen table leafing through a magazine when they walked in. “Hey, guys. What’s up?” Max, who’d been napping on the floor next to her, showed much greater enthusiasm in his greeting.

“We were over at UMass to talk to a friend of Christopher’s,” Meg said, reluctant to go into the details with Bree. “Did we miss anything here?”

Bree gave her a questioning look before answering, “Nope, all quiet. Phone didn’t even ring. You got any ideas for dinner?”

“Yeah, delegating it to you.” Meg grinned at her, and Bree made a face in return.

“You staying, Seth?” Bree asked. “Because cooking for three’s a whole different ball game than cooking for two.”

“I’ll let you two fight it out,” Meg said. “I’ve got to make a phone call. So do you, Seth.” She found her cell phone and walked toward the front of the house for some privacy. In the living room, she hit Lauren’s cell number.

“Lauren Converse. Oh, hi, Meg—my mouth is moving faster than my brain. What do you want?”

Not the friendliest of tones, but Meg could hear voices and sounds of activity in the background. “You’re not alone?” she asked.

“That’s right.”

“Okay. First, I want to thank you for the materials you
sent.
All
the materials.” Meg emphasized the “all,” so Lauren would know she’d seen the extra pages.

“No problem. The campaign is happy to provide any information you need.”

“I appreciate that. Look, Lauren, I really need to speak with you.”

“I don’t know if we can fit that into the schedule. Rick’s pretty fully booked.”

“You can’t talk openly?” Meg asked.

“You’ve got it. What did you have in mind?”

“Breakfast tomorrow?”

“No can do. We’re talking to the local Rotary club.”

“Can’t you break free sometime between appointments?” Meg asked. “I wouldn’t ask if it weren’t important.”

“That might work. Say, ten?”

“Fine. Here?”

“Good. I can fit that in between stops in Springfield and South Hadley. I’ll see you then.” Lauren hung up, leaving Meg bewildered. She walked back to the kitchen, where Seth and Bree were chopping things.

Seth looked up when she came in. “Did you reach Lauren?”

“I did,” Meg said, sitting down. “But it was kind of a weird conversation. She wasn’t alone, and I don’t think she wanted whoever was listening to know that we were getting together. I don’t know whether that means I’m now a persona non grata to the campaign, or that her boss is still keeping an eye on her activities. Rick talked a good line, and he certainly turned over the documents quickly enough, but I wonder if he’s trying to keep Lauren and me apart.”

“Are you two getting together?”

“Yes, she’s going to be here at ten tomorrow, between other engagements. How’d you do?”

“Marcus was out of the office and isn’t expected back
today,” Seth said. “I left a message saying that I had some new information about the Truesdell case and wanted to talk to him.”

Bree had been following this exchange and finally broke in. “What’s going on? Why so hush-hush?”

“It looks as though Pioneer Valley knew their cleanup of the Granford property was incomplete, but they covered it up and falsified documents,” Seth summarized neatly.

“Oh, wow. You can prove it?”

“Yes. The guy who signed the documents told us.”

“And this leads back to the campaign?”

“We have no proof of that,” Meg said carefully. “At the time of the cleanup, Rick was running the company, and the division handling the remediation was under a lot of pressure to perform and stick to the schedule. But we have no tangible evidence that Rick knew what was going on, or condoned it.”

“But you think he did,” Bree stated flatly. “Where do you think Lauren fits? She’s only been working for him for a month or so, right?”

“Yes, but if this blows up into a scandal, it would have a direct impact on the campaign. She may not know anything specific, but she might have heard some talk in-house. I just want to give her a heads-up, in case this becomes public.”

“Looks like you’re saying that Joyce Truesdell was killed over this,” Bree protested. “You really think that’s not going to go public? Are you looking to help Lauren spin this?”

That was an angle that hadn’t occurred to Meg. Did she want to let Lauren get ahead of the story, before it came out? “No, not exactly. Look, Seth and I have tried hard to be discreet about this. We both know that even a rumor that the campaign had anything to do with what happened to Joyce could do serious damage, whether or not it’s true. For the moment, I want to know if Lauren knows anything and
give her fair warning that bad stuff may be coming. I think I owe that to her as a friend. Seth is going to give what we’ve found to Detective Marcus. Oh, and it’s two people who are dead.”