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“Buck Sanveesa,” Moe sighed. “He’s a mess.”
“Well, whatever was happening in the trailer, James was worried about Buck screwing it up. He sent a couple other guys out there to help him. We need to find out what they're doing in that trailer."
Bailey reached into her sweatshirt pocket and pulled out the letters. “I found these in my mother’s drawer. They’re from my father. He was instructing her to do things. Pulling all sorts of strings. I have to imagine James was receiving similar letters. It’s definitely at a tipping point.”
“What was he telling them to do?” King asked, taking the stack of letters from her.
“Get rid of me. Sabotage some of our systems so we begin to see them as necessary to our survival. He suggested knocking the dam down because it would be too difficult for us to build it up again. Then to rob us of our supplies to make us scared and desperate. He was stressing the importance of a stockpile of money and building up wealth so they could use it for control.”
Moe furrowed his brows. “I thought they were pretty desperate out there. Starving.”
Bailey shrugged. “Maybe they are. I don’t see how they could be making money with the supplies my father told them to gather.”
Arnoldo reached his hand out to see the letters. “What kind of supplies?” He took a deep breath, looking at the list of supplies Bailey showed him. "This is bad, really bad," he said. "These are all common ingredients for cooking meth. They're definitely cooking it in that trailer, and if they're selling it in town, we have a serious problem on our hands."
King nodded grimly. "I think some of them were tweaking. I thought they were jumpy from the circumstances, but now that I see that list, some of them are definitely using.”
Moe looked at Arnoldo expectantly. “This is a good thing, isn’t it? They’re doing something illegal. Something that’s negatively affecting the town. That’ll get the cops up there, right?”
Arnoldo shook his head. "I don't know. I mean, even if we could convince the police to take action, we don't know who we can trust. There's too much corruption in this town, and James and his men have connections there. We’d need proof and then some kind of outside agency that might care about it.”
“We need to call Carmen,” Bailey edged out, the pain written all over her face. Just uttering Carmen’s name clearly reminded her of how King had lied. How he’d arrived under false pretenses and tricked her into thinking it was fate that brought him. Pride had her quickly changing her expression and straightening her back. “You should call her, King. Give her an update about the possible drug connection and see if that’s something she can work with. Maybe she has a contact who would be interested in busting James and the rest of them. I doubt the weapons they have were obtained legally.”
“She’d probably rather hear from you,” King said, speaking cautiously, feeling like he’d just stepped onto crackling thin ice.
Bailey only shook her head, seeming unable to form the words. She took a half step back and hugged her arms around herself. “I’m going to go sit with my mother. Let me know if you hear anything. It’ll be chaos here in the morning, trying to get everyone out who wants to go. I’m sure you two have a lot to talk about... logistics and all.”
She slinked away, trying but failing to keep it from turning awkward.
“What was that about?” Arnoldo asked, looking to Moe for some explanation and he obliged.
“King pretended he was here by coincidence, saying he ran out of gas and needed a place to sleep for the night. In reality, Carmen sent him here to spy on Bailey. When shit hit the fan, he had to tell her, and it’s been a little tense around here since.”
“I wasn’t here to spy,” King corrected. “It wasn’t like that.”
“Yikes.” Arnoldo tossed his hands up as if he wanted no part of this. “You dug a deep hole with that. Good luck climbing out.”
“Carmen was right to worry,” King tried to remind them, but he knew exactly how he looked in all of this.
“Call her,” Arnoldo sighed. “It might be messy, but Bailey is right. Carmen is likely your best shot at getting something done.”
King's heart ached as he watched Bailey walk away. He longed to chase after her, to wrap her in his arms and beg for her forgiveness. But he knew she needed space, knew she wasn't ready to talk to him yet. He glanced down at his phone, wanting to call Carmen and set things in motion to bring James and his men to justice, but his mind kept wandering back to Bailey. He wished he could go back in time and change things, make it so he’d never betrayed her trust. His chest felt heavy with the weight of his regret as he watched her disappear around a corner.
Fishing his phone out of his pocket he dialed Carmen. If he couldn’t make things right with Bailey, he could at least try to make them safe.
CHAPTERTWENTY-FIVE
Bailey
This was the rally Dr. Murray had warned about. The phenomenon before death where the person experiences a temporary improvement in their physical condition. He explained that this could include a return of energy, clarity of thought, or improvement in vital signs such as breathing. This can give the impression that the person may be improving, but it is often a temporary situation that occurs before the final decline.
Even knowing this was true, watching her mother experience it was agonizing. It was like a cruel joke, a cosmic tease. Just when she had begun to accept that her mother was leaving her, that she would soon be gone, she was given a glimmer of hope. Maybe, just maybe, her mother would recover and they would have more time together. Time to finally see eye to eye.
But deep down, Bailey knew that wasn't true. She knew the rally was only a temporary reprieve, a last gasp before her mother's body gave out for good. The thought of that was almost too much to bear. It was a rollercoaster ride of emotions, and all Bailey could do was hold on tight and ride it out until the end.
“They must be coming,” her mother said, shifting her body more upright than it had been in a week. “I can feel it.”
Bailey didn’t bother clarifying that this surge of energy could be medically explained and didn’t mean her mother was on the mend. There would be no convincing her this was anything other than her husband’s prophecy being proven true.
