She smiled sadly at Sam. âNo offense, Coach.â
âNone taken,â he told her. âIâm sure if thereâs anything Phyllis can do to help you, sheâd be glad to. And so will I.â
âWhat is it, Allyson?â Phyllis asked, feeling that under the circumstances she could address the young woman by her first name, even though they had never met until tonight.
âI . . . we . . . well, Nate and I have read about the way youâve been involved in murder cases before. We thought you might be able to help us.â
Grimly, Nate said, âI still think youâre overreacting, Ally. Thereâs no point in getting ahead of ourselvesââ
âYes, there is,â she told him. She looked at Phyllis again and said, âWe need your help, Mrs. Newsom, because Iâm afraid the police are going to arrest Nate for my fatherâs murder.â
Chapter 6
A llysonâs worried statement hung in the air for a moment before anyone said anything. Finally, Phyllis broke the tense silence by asking, âWhy do you think that?â
âShe doesnât,â Nate interrupted. âNot really. Sheâs just upset, and who can blame her?â
With a hint of the steel that she had developed over decades of facing classrooms full of junior-high students, Phyllis said, âI believe I asked Allyson.â
The young woman drew in a deep breath, then said, âIt was the argument we had with Dad earlier today. He and Nate got really angry with each other.â
âFor Godâs sake, Allyson!â Nate burst out. âAre you
trying
to throw me under the bus?â
Sam said, âTake it easy, son. Nobodyâs tryinâ to do anything except understand whatâs goinâ on here.â
âAll right.â Nate leaned forward and clasped his handstogether between his knees. âIâll start from the beginning and tell you the whole thing.â
âI think that would be a good idea,â Phyllis said.
âI told you I work as Barneyâs business manager. Well, a few months ago a man came to see me in my office here in town and had a proposition for me. He was a landsman. Do you know what that is?â
âA fella who scouts up property for oil and gas leases and gets the owners to sign,â Sam replied.
âExactly. This man, Frank Holbrook, was interested in putting a gas lease on Barneyâs ranch. He gave me all the details and some legal documents for Barney to sign. But when I took the papers out there and told Barney about the deal, he took one look at them and refused to sign.â
âWhy?â Phyllis asked. âA gas lease is a good thing, isnât it? I know the boom in this area isnât nearly as big as it was a few years ago, but people are still making money off their leases, arenât they?â
âAccording to Holbrook, they are,â Nate said, âand Barneyâs ranch is a prime location because there hasnât been a lot of drilling around there. The geologists who work for the company Holbrook represents say thereâs still a lot of gas down there. But he still refused. He said he wasnât going to have a bunch of gas wells ruining the land where heâd raised cattle for more than forty years.â
Carolyn said, âI donât blame him. All that fracking they do while theyâre drillingâit causes earthquakes, you know.â
âIâm not sure theyâve ever proven thatâ,â Sam began.
âOh, itâs just common sense! You remember whathappened up in Azle a while back. A bunch of gas wells were put in, and they started having two or three earthquakes a week!â
Phyllis remembered the stories on the news and in the paper, and knew that Carolyn was right, at least to a certain extent. There had been a number of earthquakes in a fairly short period of time in the northeastern part of the county, and the residents
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