Frank liked Matt Costa, but the FBI agent didn’t prioritize protecting the environment like Frank did.
Matt was good at his job. There was no doubt in Frank’s mind that Matt would do everything in his power to investigate whether someone at Southwest Copper Refinery was responsible for the illegal dumping of toxic slag, and he would do everything in his power to find out who killed Emma Perez. But he and his team had already been here a month and they were no closer to an arrest on either of those things.
Time was ticking. Frank’s team had already inspected every known creek and river near where Emma had found the birds, and they’d all come up clean. But birds were migratory, and they had to expand the search. If they did that, it could alert the criminals and then they might never catch them. Matt wanted them to stand down temporarily because it could jeopardize the bigger investigation, but he didn’t have the authority to order him to do that.
The problem, as always, was resources. They had only so many people and so much time, and after the known waterways tested negative, the case was de facto closed. But Frank couldn’t accept that. Birds were the most at risk of poisoning from a contaminated lake or river because they were small, but over time other wildlife—and humans—could be affected. There were over forty threatened or endangered species in the state, and Frank was responsible for helping protect them.
He was doing this on his own personal time, even though he was using AREA’s equipment. He would find answers. He’d written up a plan even before he talked to Matt yesterday, but now he put it in motion. He would scour every square foot of the potential contamination zone with his drone, starting where Emma died and going out in a mathematical radius based on the migration routes. If there was anything to be found, he’d find it. And find out how Emma got caught up in it.
Had Emma died because of her investigation, or had she simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time? It didn’t make sense to him, and Frank had said as much to Matt. Matt didn’t have a response, but he’d seen far more violence and death than Frank ever had. Maybe senseless crimes were commonplace to the seasoned federal agent. They would never be to Frank.
Based on what Frank could decipher from Emma’s notes, her theory had been good, but roughly executed. She’d forgot to factor in standing water that was virtually inaccessible on foot. The drone would find those areas and then Frank could make a plan to access them.
He set up his tent, secured his food, then climbed up to the top of a boulder overlooking the site where Emma had been attacked. He didn’t doubt Billy’s belief that he’d seen someone move among the trees. The police at first considered Billy a suspect, or that Emma had fallen and he felt guilty and lied about seeing another person. But there was the bloody rock. And Billy didn’t budge from his story. Plus the initial investigation found some evidence of another person in the woods. Unfortunately, the tracks were minimal and led nowhere. When the FBI came in and had an expert review the crime scene and autopsy results, they concluded that she was murdered; it was no accident.
But they still had no solid leads. Frank was as frustrated as Billy, even though he knew more than he’d told the kid.
There was no love lost between Frank and John Molina after Frank had accused him of cutting corners when drilling a new well two years ago. Frank had been wrong, he’d apologized, but Molina hadn’t forgiven him.
Frank didn’t want to believe that Molina could be party not only to illegal dumping but to murder. Maybe someone else in the company was looking to cut corners. It wouldn’t be the first time. But he also had to consider that the birds died of something else—other mines in the area, outside businesses that might bring their waste into the desert thinking no harm was done in dumping it, not understanding that the ecosystem was delicate even here in the vast southwest.
He knew how far some mining companies would go to protect their profits or save their business during uncertain economic times, and how unscrupulous some could be when money was to be had. His job was a balancing act—to protect the environment and at the same time protect the local economy and jobs. It was important that he get it right.
Frank had worked for AREA for twenty-three years. He loved his job, but more, he loved the land. He’d been raised in Colorado—one of the reasons he had liked having Emma Perez as an intern was because they talked about all their favorite places to camp and hike. He had come here for an entry-level opening right after he graduated from college and got married. He’d raised his daughter here, who was finishing her sophomore year at Baylor University. She loved camping and hiking like he did, but she was an athlete first and foremost and had been accepted with a partial scholarship to the Baylor soccer team.
That was another reason he had taken Emma under his wing—she reminded him of his own daughter, whom he missed. He was divorced, his wife had moved back to Colorado but she agreed to let their daughter finish high school in Tucson. Maybe that’s why they’d grown so close.
He set up the drone to give him a visual on his laptop. He would record only if he saw something suspicious, because recording would drain the battery faster. He’d recharge the drone overnight, then hike back to his truck and drive to the next location, where he’d set up camp for the day.
As he programmed the drone and made sure it was functional, he thought about how he was feeling a little lonely. Maybe he was a little obsessive about Emma’s death. He missed his daughter, and though he didn’t miss his wife, he missed the companionship, the friendship. Someone to talk to and eat with and hike with. So he became fixated on Emma’s death, determined to provide evidence to support the report she drafted under his name for Game & Fish before she came out here that fateful day.
His guilt ate at him. He’d dismissed her when she found the three dead birds with her professor. Had he been too dismissive? If she had just come to him with the additional information she learned—before she started inspecting water sources—he would have listened and initiated a formal investigation into the contamination. Billy said she was “obsessed” with the dead birds, but hadn’t shared much about her research and findings.
She wanted more proof, something tangible. She wanted evidence.
So Frank had to look, to know for certain. And while it was painstaking work, he knew exactly what he was doing. They’d already covered the known waterways. Now Frank was working on Emma’s theory—seasonal streams or new ponds that formed after the winter storms.
Frank wanted to go through the proper channels, but Matt Costa was right—they had no proof of illegal dumping so far, so Matt wanted an undercover investigation to protect the integrity of the case and everyone involved—AREA, employees of Southwest Copper and the people of Patagonia proper.
We have to do this the right way, or no way at all.
There were many competing interests—the economy versus public health, the environment versus the economy, the innocent versus the guilty. Frank would be devastated if they accused John Molina and Southwest Copper again if they were, in fact, innocent. It could cost Molina his business. The false accusation two years ago nearly did.