Surest Poison, The by Chester D. Campbell

Judge Gabriel Thackston, and Bart Masterson. Post, the word
merchant, had dubbed them the Four Felons and Miss Demeanor Poker Club. Now,
with Sid on board, they were Five Felons.
    “I presume everybody includes you?” he
said.
    “Of course I’ll be there. With rings on my fingers and bells on my toes.”
    “ You going to
try to jangle some nerves?” He drained his coffee cup. “Harrington told me
about the area down the hill behind the plant, which is where the TCE wound
up. I want to drive over there and take a look around.”
    “I have a feeling you’re prepared to give
this one all you’ve got.”
    Sid gave a slight nod. “Somebody, for
some reason, made an awful mess that had terrible long-range consequences.
Bailey showed me a photo of a little girl whose face was badly disfigured.
It apparently resulted from the TCE contamination. Years ago, I had a cousin
in almost the same shape. She ended up commiting suicide.”
    “That’s terrible.” Jaz closed her eyes
and shuddered. “I’d like to see that area, too. Why don’t we take my car?”
    He knew she didn’t care for his truck,
though for him it fit like an old glove. “Why not? You get cut-rate gas.”
    Since inheriting controlling interest in
Welcome Traveler Stores, she kept a close watch on the business but took no
active role in the day-to-day operation of the company.
    They strolled out to Jaz’s Lexus, and Sid
directed her toward the HarrCo plant. They had gone only a short distance
when he glanced at the mirror on his side. It felt like deja vu.
    “See that blue car behind us?”
    She turned her head. “What about it?”
    “It looks like the same one that followed
me into town when I left HarrCo.”
    “You’re kidding.”
    “Yesterday, a green Volkswagen followed
me when I left Bailey’s office.”
    “Who would be doing that? And why?”
    He didn’t reply.
    “Is there somebody from your past who
might have a reason to come after you?” she asked.
    He watched the mirror in silence before
replying. “I’d have to pull off both shoes and
count toes as well as fingers. But I don’t know of any reason for it to
happen now.”
    The car made each turn as they did,
though it held back a little farther than before. When Sid spotted a farm
gate set back from the road up ahead, he told Jaz to pull onto the graveled
entrance and stop.
    “We’ll check his license plate when he
passes,” he said.
    As soon as Jaz stopped, the other car did
the same. The road was a bit wider here. The car suddenly swung into a tight
turn. A cloud of dust boiled up from the shoulder. The blue vehicle
disappeared around a curve back toward Ashland City.
    “Want to give chase?” Jaz asked.
    “There were too many turn-offs back there
where he could hide.” He looked toward the road ahead. “I’ll get another
shot at him. He must have been watching the restaurant parking lot.”
    “You think somebody’s just trying to be a
nuisance?”
    Sid twisted around for a final look
behind them. “He’s being that all right. For now, let’s go find that road on
the other side of the hill and see what it leads to.”
    She drove past the last of the picketers
up to the intersection beyond HarrCo and turned in the direction Harrington
had indicated. They found the creek and followed the road beside it, soon
reaching a spot where the land sloped away from a high wooded hill that
appeared to be the one behind the HarrCo plant. Along the bottom of the
hill, a hodgepodge of small frame or asbestos siding
houses were sandwiched among a few single or doublewides. They saw
one typical old two-story farmhouse. Most had battered pickups parked in
front. A hayfield spread off to the other side of the road. Large, round
bales lined a rickety fence.
    “I imagine a lot of the people who
picketed the plant live around here,” Jaz said.
    Sid watched a school bus heading in their
direction. No doubt the area included families with