AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You’ve lost your mind. I told you to pack toys. Do you need a vibrator care package?”
“Yes, please. Extra batteries.”
“Got it. Now go to bed, you hilarious weirdo.”
“Love you too.”
Chapter16
Parker
Another day, another million leads to follow. That morning, Adele was giving me a lesson on brakes. Thankfully, she was extremely patient—despite how emotional this was for her—because engineering and machinery were not in my wheelhouse.
“Why didn’t the safety inspector find brake tampering?”
“Because he’s a fucking moron,” she said under her breath. “Normally, to disrupt a brake system, the brake lines would be cut. That’s the most surefire way, and it’s relatively easy to do. That way, the brakes simply don’t work because the hydraulics will not apply pressure to the brake pads to make the wheels stop turning.”
“And this?” I asked, pointing to the diagram she had drawn for me.
“Is different,” she explained. “If your brakes aren’t functioning, the truck will tell the driver. We have systems in place to prevent this.”
She picked up a metal object that was roughly the size and shape of a water bottle. “In this case, the slack adjusters were tampered with. This mechanism automatically adjusts slack on each brake. They get calibrated and checked by a computer system. By law, we do not touch them. But this one”—she held it up and pointed to faint scratches near one end—“someone used a wrench to adjust this. See these scratches?”
I nodded. I could see the evidence of tampering, though I still didn’t understand how it had all come together. “So the brakes still work?”
“Yes. The brakes still work, and the driver would not get an alert. But the other slack adjusters are applying evenly when the brakes are engaged. And this one is not. Which creates instability. Over time, it becomes more out of sync, making the likelihood of a roll, skid, or flip higher.”
“And if road conditions are bad?” I asked. I was finally making sense of things and connecting the dots. The mountain roads in winter were treacherous, and with unpaved sections and tight turns, even minor instability could be fatal. So the person who did this clearly knew a lot about brake systems and had access to do it without detection.
“Exactly. The brake system did not register an issue, and when the inspectors went over the vehicle, the system was intact, the drums were fine, and the fluid levels were appropriate.”
I sat back, chewing on my pen cap. Someone accessed Gagnon trucks not once, but twice, to tamper with the slack adjusters in order to increase the likelihood of an accident.
“I know what you’re thinking,” Adele said, “but I know my team. You’ve already interviewed most of them.”
“But what about someone who’s not a mechanic?”
“I don’t allow anyone I don’t personally train near my trucks.”
“But at camp?”
“Rules at camp have always been strict. And people generally don’t hang around storage bays, especially in winter, but it’s possible.”
“There’s no security or cameras or anything like that up there?”
“At a north woods logging camp? Definitely not. We’re lucky to have plumbing.”
I took a handful of photos of the slack adjuster, making sure to get it from every angle, and measurements, then typed up notes regarding today’s discussion while Adele worked. I liked her. In another life, we’d be friends. She was a hell of a gym buddy, and I enjoyed her wry sense of humor.
Sometimes, I thought I might actually miss this place when I was gone.
“Adele.” Remy appeared in the doorway, startling us. He was out of breath, and his normally friendly face looked strained. “Get upstairs. The feds are here. There’s been an arrest.”
I perked up, and my investigative radar whirred to life as I looked between them, not sure whether I should follow. What kind of arrest? As far as I knew, the trail had gone cold after this summer. The organization had gone underground, or it had at least stayed off the police’s radar.
He looked over at me. “Paz thought you should probably stay here.” He looked a little sheepish as he said it. “Our lawyers are on their way, and we don’t want any of our employees to suspect that you’re more than his girlfriend.”
I nodded, though I was frustrated. If I wasn’t privy to the information, how could I help them?
