Didn't matter now, she supposed, with the case closed, and apologies--such as they were--delivered. But she was curious. "Go on."
"His latest assignment was for the Nuclear Facilities Planning Committee. Until he got here he'd been billing the nukers sixty hours a week. And by the way, he's expensive. I think I need a raise, boss. Am I a six-figure kind of agent?"
Dance smiled. She was glad that his humor seemed to be returning. "You're worth seven figures in my book, TJ."
"I love you too, boss."
The implication of the information then struck her. She riffled through copies of The Chilton Report.
"That son of a bitch."
"What's that?"
"Royce was trying to get the blog shut down--for his client's sake. Look." She tapped the printout.
Power to the People
Posted by Chilton.
Rep. Brandon Klevinger . . . Ever heard of his name? Probably not.
And the state representative looking after some fine folks in Northern California would rather keep a low profile.
No such luck.
Representative Klevinger is the head of the state's Nuclear Facilities Planning Committee, which means the bomb--oops, excuse me, the buck--stops with him on the issue of those little gadgets called reactors.
And you want to know something interesting about them?
No--go away, Greenies. Go whine elsewhere! I have no problem with nuclear energy; we need it to achieve energy independence (from certain interests overseas whom I've written about at great length). But what I do object to is this: Nuclear power loses its advantage if the price for the plants and the energy expended in the construction outweigh the advantages.
I've learned that Rep. Klevinger just happens to have been on a couple of posh golfing trips to Hawaii and Mexico with his newfound "friend," Stephen Ralston. Well, guess what, boys and girls? Ralston happens to have put in bids for a proposed nuclear facility north of Mendocino.
Mendocino . . . Lovely place. And very pricey to build in. Not to mention that it seems the cost of delivering the power to where it's needed will be huge. (Another developer has proposed a far cheaper and more efficient location about fifty miles south of Sacramento.) But a source has snuck me the Nuclear Committee's preliminary report and it reveals that Ralston's probably going to get the go-ahead to build in Mendocino.
Has Klevinger done anything illegal or wrong?
I'm not saying yes or no. I just ask the question.
"He was lying all along," TJ said.
"Sure was."
Still, she couldn't concentrate on Royce's duplicity just now. There was, after all, no need to blackmail him at this point, considering he was headed home in a day or two.
"Good work."
"Just dotting my j's."
As he left she hunched over the MCSO report. She was a little surprised that David Reinhold, the eager kid--the one she'd played cat-and-mouse with last night--hadn't brought it in person.
From: Dep. Peter Bennington, MCSO Crime Scene Unit.
To: Kathryn Dance, Special Agent, California Bureau of Investigation--Western Division.
Re: June 28 homicide at house of James Chilton, 2939 Pacific Heights Court, Carmel, California.
Kathryn, here's the inventory.