“What are you working on now?” Juliette asked halfway through the first sandwich. “Anything in particular?”
“Juliette, really. The least you could do when you want a favor is read my stuff.”
“I’ve been busy.”
Maggie perked up. “With what? Dirty deeds at the crossroads in Western Mass?”
“You can say that twice.”
“Something I might be interested in?”
“That depends. How do you feel about the safety of the water supply?”
“Whose?”
“Yours. Boston’s.”
“Hmm. Protective but it’s not at the top of my to-do list. Why?”
“Raven Chemical wants to build a plant on the south shore of the Brewer’s River, a hundred yards from the bank. If they built it here, that would put it just across the street, about where that brick frat house is.”
“Bad. But they’ll just insist they’re going to follow all the laws concerning the disposal of hazardous waste and that the plant doesn’t pose a threat to the environment or the health of the residents.”
“What are you, doing their PR now?”
“I could. They always say the same things and I’ve seen enough of their press releases to be able to cite them from memory. The trouble is, no matter how often it turns out to be a crock, people believe it just the same. If you want a story my editor will run, you need to come back after people start dying.”
“Jesus, that’s cold, Maggie.”
“That’s the business, Juliette Rose, and don’t tell me you don’t know it. Unless you’ve got an angle?”
“It’s a secret.”
“Your angle?”
“No, silly. The plant. They’re in cahoots with a State Senator. The whole deal’s going down at midnight in a smoke-filled back room somewhere on Beacon Hill. Nobody’s supposed to know about it but a few key people.”
“You say that as if it’s unusual.”
“Come on, Maggie. Political skullduggery? The potential poisoning of the Commonwealth’s public drinking water? Corporate malfeasance? This is right up your alley.”
“Alright, Julie. You’ve made your point. So who’s the Senator?”
“Finnerty.”
“Fixer Finnerty, friend to polluters everywhere provided they contribute to his campaigns? Next in line for Senate president, Ways and Means Chair, the guy who wants to be the next governor? That Finnerty?”
“The very one. Have I got your attention?”
“Attention, yes. Commitment, no. I’m up to my waist in the Big Dig muck for the foreseeable future. Beachum built the tunnels using substandard materials and they’re leaking like a string of sieves placed end-to-end under a giant colander. They may have falsified their invoices, charging double the actual cost, along with their test results of the tunnel walls. There are at least six Senators and a couple of dozen Reps responsible for overseeing the project who took money from them for looking the other way while all this was happening. That’s not something I can drop for a secret chemical plant in the middle of nowhere that may or may not affect Boston’s drinking water sometime in the indefinable future.”
“This isn’t going down tomorrow, you know. I figure we’ve got six months before it really hits the fan. Do anything for you?”
“Of course. Why didn’t you say that in the first place?”
“I wanted to get you excited about the concept.”
“Excited is a little strong but I’m interested.”
“Interested enough to do me a favor, like, now? This week?”
“I should have known,” Maggie sighed. “Making no promises either way – what?”
“Don’t you know Finnerty’s aide?”
“Teddy Davenport? You know I do. The snake. Why?”
“Would you be willing to…renew your acquaintance with him?”
“Delicately put. For you,” Maggie said. “Only if there’s a very good reason. You know what that creep did. He used me. Told me a bunch of lies when we were all but living together. I believed him, I wrote them, and I almost had to move to Bonderant, Wyoming when the truth came out. A very, very good reason, Juliette.”
“I always think revenge is a good reason,” Juliette Rose grinned.
“This thing you want me to do would make him look bad?”
“Smell bad, too. Like a fish left out in the sun for three days.”
Maggie sighed and wriggled in contentment. “Now you’ve got my attention. Say on, girlfriend, and the bloodier the better.”
