what?”
He shook his head. “I’d already heard that their spokes-woman’s a real piece of work. Flashy dresser, lots of jewelry, real compelling way about her. Shook the right hands, kissed the right asses, made a lot of slick-sounding promises.”
Dana nodded, recognizing the type. “Sounds like half the veterinary pharmaceutical reps I’ve met. Only she came to sell a company, not a product.”
“Oh, yeah. She was selling, all right. Selling dreams of a Devil’s Claw with fresh, clean-running water, of workers moving in and spending money in local businesses. Young females among them.”
“Water, workers, and women. Sounds like the Devil’s Claw trifecta.”
Jay smiled wryly. “According to the transcripts there weren’t many dissenters.”
“Other than Angie…”
He nodded in confirmation. “And she was shouted down every time she started asking questions.”
“Asking questions?” Dana echoed, imagining her sister on the warpath. “Or screaming accusations?”
“My deputy told me she was carrying on about the rape of the earth or…No, that wasn’t it. She talked about the Salt Woman being defiled.”
“The Salt Woman?” Dana found herself thinking of the digital photos Jay had e-mailed to her before she’d made the drive to Devil’s Claw, when he’d asked her if she could identify her sister’s things. One in particular came to mind—of the tapestry on the abandoned loom, with its tightly woven field of starlit desert backing the resplendent figure of an impossibly beautiful old woman, her white hair whirling around her naked body, her thin legs stepping forward, her dark, determined eyes locked on an unfinished horizon. The detail was incredible, by far the best work of Angie’s she had seen. “Is there some significance?”
Eversole shrugged. “Not that I’ve ever heard of. Andfrom the way Wallace talked about it, I got the idea it didn’t mean anything to him either.”
Dana thought of her sister’s long-standing interest in mythology and wondered if there might be some connection. She’d do an Internet search on this Salt Woman once she regained access to the laptop locked in her trunk. Probably a waste of time, she thought, just one more of her sister’s drunken outbursts.
With a sigh she changed the subject. “Before, when you were talking about those transcripts, I got the idea something bothered you about them. Was it the way that spokeswoman honed in on exactly what people in your county wanted?”
Again he hesitated before answering. “No, I’d have expected Miriam Piper-Gold—that’s the woman’s name—to make promises. And like I told you, I looked into Haz-Vestment’s reputation, found they’ve made a name for themselves with good corporate citizenship.”
“So what was it, then?”
He frowned off into space, his gaze shifting to the open blinds and the clear blue sky beyond them. “It was the warnings. Piper-Gold was pretty subtle, but she referred several times to the nervousness of her investors, how they’d been bitten twice when communities that seemed ready to welcome them ended up balking after considerable money had been spent. There was apparently some lawsuit by out-of-town interests. Environmentalists reacting on emotion and not facts, as she put it. The L-word came up a few times, too.”
“L-word?”
He smiled. “Liberal. That’s not something you call your worst enemy in Rimrock County.”
“Why does that not surprise me?”
“Because you salad-munchin’ eco nuts are all so intuitive.”
A laugh slipped free before she asked him, “So she washinting, I presume, that Haz-Vestment wasn’t interested in gracing a community of misguided hippies with its facility?”
“Exactly.”
Dana’s smile faded as the gravity of Eversole’s concern sank in. “And my sister was the one ‘misguided hippie’ in the county.”
As her eyes burned, she held off tears by telling herself the scenario he was suggesting wasn’t so much
He shook his head. “I’d already heard that their spokes-woman’s a real piece of work. Flashy dresser, lots of jewelry, real compelling way about her. Shook the right hands, kissed the right asses, made a lot of slick-sounding promises.”
Dana nodded, recognizing the type. “Sounds like half the veterinary pharmaceutical reps I’ve met. Only she came to sell a company, not a product.”
“Oh, yeah. She was selling, all right. Selling dreams of a Devil’s Claw with fresh, clean-running water, of workers moving in and spending money in local businesses. Young females among them.”
“Water, workers, and women. Sounds like the Devil’s Claw trifecta.”
Jay smiled wryly. “According to the transcripts there weren’t many dissenters.”
“Other than Angie…”
He nodded in confirmation. “And she was shouted down every time she started asking questions.”
“Asking questions?” Dana echoed, imagining her sister on the warpath. “Or screaming accusations?”
“My deputy told me she was carrying on about the rape of the earth or…No, that wasn’t it. She talked about the Salt Woman being defiled.”
“The Salt Woman?” Dana found herself thinking of the digital photos Jay had e-mailed to her before she’d made the drive to Devil’s Claw, when he’d asked her if she could identify her sister’s things. One in particular came to mind—of the tapestry on the abandoned loom, with its tightly woven field of starlit desert backing the resplendent figure of an impossibly beautiful old woman, her white hair whirling around her naked body, her thin legs stepping forward, her dark, determined eyes locked on an unfinished horizon. The detail was incredible, by far the best work of Angie’s she had seen. “Is there some significance?”
Eversole shrugged. “Not that I’ve ever heard of. Andfrom the way Wallace talked about it, I got the idea it didn’t mean anything to him either.”
Dana thought of her sister’s long-standing interest in mythology and wondered if there might be some connection. She’d do an Internet search on this Salt Woman once she regained access to the laptop locked in her trunk. Probably a waste of time, she thought, just one more of her sister’s drunken outbursts.
With a sigh she changed the subject. “Before, when you were talking about those transcripts, I got the idea something bothered you about them. Was it the way that spokeswoman honed in on exactly what people in your county wanted?”
Again he hesitated before answering. “No, I’d have expected Miriam Piper-Gold—that’s the woman’s name—to make promises. And like I told you, I looked into Haz-Vestment’s reputation, found they’ve made a name for themselves with good corporate citizenship.”
“So what was it, then?”
He frowned off into space, his gaze shifting to the open blinds and the clear blue sky beyond them. “It was the warnings. Piper-Gold was pretty subtle, but she referred several times to the nervousness of her investors, how they’d been bitten twice when communities that seemed ready to welcome them ended up balking after considerable money had been spent. There was apparently some lawsuit by out-of-town interests. Environmentalists reacting on emotion and not facts, as she put it. The L-word came up a few times, too.”
“L-word?”
He smiled. “Liberal. That’s not something you call your worst enemy in Rimrock County.”
“Why does that not surprise me?”
“Because you salad-munchin’ eco nuts are all so intuitive.”
A laugh slipped free before she asked him, “So she washinting, I presume, that Haz-Vestment wasn’t interested in gracing a community of misguided hippies with its facility?”
“Exactly.”
Dana’s smile faded as the gravity of Eversole’s concern sank in. “And my sister was the one ‘misguided hippie’ in the county.”
As her eyes burned, she held off tears by telling herself the scenario he was suggesting wasn’t so much
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