"That's the question, isn't it?"Paul leaned back against the booth, his eyes drifting to the photographs on the wall."I've been doing this job for thirty years, Kari.I've seen cases like this before—powerful people protecting their interests, evidence disappearing, witnesses going silent.Most of the time, the cover-up wins.The system is designed to protect itself, and the people running the system have a lot of practice at making problems go away."
"That's not an answer."
"No, it's not.It's context."He met her eyes."You want answers?Here's what I know: we're outgunned, outmanned, and outmaneuvered.They have resources we can't match and connections we can't trace.Every move we make, they're ready.Every door we try to open, they've already locked it."
Kari was getting frustrated.She didn't need him to just rehash how bad things were—God knew she did it often enough in her own head."So we just give up?Accept that they've won?"
"I didn't say that.I said most of the time the cover-up wins.But there are exceptions.Cases where someone finds the right pressure point, the right piece of evidence that can't be buried.Cases where the conspiracy gets sloppy, or starts turning on itself."Paul paused."The question is how we find that opening."
Kari turned her coffee cup in circles, watching the dark liquid swirl."What if we went public?Took everything we have to the media, let them run with it?"
"With what evidence?Ben's testimony that he can't give without revealing that he lied to the FBI?Your mother's research is suggestive but not conclusive.My suspicions, which are based on patterns and instincts rather than proof?"Paul shook his head."We go public now, we look like conspiracy theorists.Devco's lawyers would tear us apart, and whoever's protecting them would use the opportunity to bury the investigation for good."
"What about going around the FBI?Taking it to another agency—DEA, ATF, someone with different jurisdiction?"
"Same problem.We don't have enough to justify opening a new investigation, and the moment we start shopping this around, word gets back to whoever's blocking us.They'll know we're still digging, and they'll take steps to make sure we can't dig anymore."
"Steps like what happened to Ben?"
"Maybe.Or maybe something worse."Paul's voice was heavy."These people have killed before, Kari.Evan Naalnish, your mother, probably others we don't even know about.If they decide we're a serious threat, they won't just try to scare us off.They'll eliminate the threat permanently."
Kari thought about her last conversation with Ben.She knew the stakes, alright.But that didn't make waiting or keeping quiet any easier.
"We need to be smart about this," Paul continued."We need more information, more resources, more people we can trust to help us analyze what we have."He hesitated, as if a thought had just occurred to him.
"What?"Kari asked."What is it?"
"You're not going to like it."
"I don't care.Tell me."
He nodded, as if coming to a decision."There's someone who might be able to help.Someone with experience in exactly this kind of investigation, who's outside the current system but knows how it works from the inside."
Kari's stomach tightened.Suddenly, she had a feeling she knew what was coming.
"Your father."
The words settled between them like stones dropped into still water.Kari took a breath, then another, giving herself time to respond without reacting.
"Paul, we've been down this road.I asked him for help after I first saw my mother's research.You know what he said?"She kept her voice level, but the frustration bled through anyway."He said he had a life.Other commitments.He couldn't get involved."
"That was months ago.Things have changed."
"Have they?"Kari shook her head."My father moved on a long time ago, Paul.He's got his position at the university, his research, his life in Flagstaff.He's got Linda."She said the name without bitterness, just acknowledgment of a fact."When my mother left him and came back to the reservation, he let her go.Built a whole new existence without her.And that's fine—people grow apart, marriages end.But he also let go of everything she cared about.Including her research."
"He took it seriously when you showed it to him.You told me yourself—he spent a week going through those files, found the patterns Anna had documented."
"And then he handed me a thumb drive and wished me luck."Kari's jaw tightened."He validated her work, Paul.He confirmed that she was right, that people were being killed.And then he stepped back and let me walk out the door alone, because getting involved would have been inconvenient for him."
Kari sensed she was being unfair.Her own bitterness surprised her, because until that moment she hadn't realized the resentment she harbored toward her father for distancing himself from all this.She was angry that he didn't care more about what had happened to his ex-wife, angry that he didn't try harder to support his daughter, angry that he could live his life without agonizing over what had happened to Anna.
Angry that he, apparently, didn't feel the pain the way she did.
Paul was quiet for a moment, stirring his coffee.The jukebox had switched to Johnny Cash, the Man in Black singing about walking the line.
"I'm not going to defend his choices," Paul said finally."James has always been better at analyzing problems than solving them.Better at understanding people from a distance than connecting with them up close.It's what made him good at the Bureau, and it's probably what made him a difficult husband."
"He dismissed her research for years.Did you know that?While she was alive, while she was trying to put the pieces together, he thought she was seeing conspiracies where there weren't any.He told me himself—he didn't take her seriously until it was too late."
