Slip and Slide Read online

  “Nice to meet you,” Thayne said, stretching out a hand to shake.

  Jarrett watched the man eyeball him suspiciously before taking his partner’s hand. The man was about forty-five years old but his face was deeply grooved and covered with soot. His clothes were grubby and his hands were filthy, his nails black. He turned and shook Jarrett’s hand as well. His eyes looked bright white in his dirty face.

  “Come on then,” he ground out.

  Thayne glanced at Jarrett and Jarrett read the unspoken thoughts on his partner’s face. These miners are going to be difficult. As they walked toward Harlan Sizemore’s room, following Middleton, the miners who lined the hall parted for them, staring them down silently as they passed through. The tension was thick enough to cut with a knife. They were not welcome here and as much as Jarrett understood it, he also knew they wanted answers. They were angry that their brothers had died in the mine and if, as Jarrett suspected, the explosion was caused by improper ventilation, they had every reason to be pissed off. The way the miners looked at it was probably that the ATF was in the way down here. He guessed the only reason they tolerated their presence at all was because they hoped they’d get some justice and greater safety improvements.

  They arrived at Sizemore’s room and were ushered in. A nurse stood beside a computer, punching in numbers while a small woman stood by Sizemore’s bed. She had been crying and was clutching the patient’s hand. She was wearing a wedding ring and she looked up, nodding at them when they walked in. Up close, Jarrett could tell that her clothes were threadbare. His heart immediately went out to her.

  “Myrna, these men are here to help investigate what happened to Harlan,” Sales said. “This here are Special Agents Evans and Wolfe from the ATF.”

  “Y’all are strangers,” she said accusingly. “You should leave the investigatin’ to our own. Everyone knows what hurt my Harlan. It were Jeffrey Boggs. If my Harlan dies, Boggs has his blood on his hands along with all the others. Everyone knows that mine weren’t safe… that all Boggs cares about is profit. He never gave a fig about the men who slave down there for him.”

  “Now, Myrna,” Sales began, “Give them a chance. Won’t ya?”

  She sobbed out loud and then looked down at her husband, reaching her hand to smooth his sooty blond hair away from his forehead. The man wore an oxygen mask and when she touched him, his eyes blinked open. He stared at her for a few seconds and then his hazel eyes filled with tears.

  Jarrett’s heart almost broke as he witnessed the love between them. Myrna Sizemore leaned over him and put her forehead to his, the way he and Thayne had done to each other on occasion and Jarrett’s heart suddenly filled with such deep emotion for his partner, it nearly took his breath away. He glanced at Thayne only to find that he was staring at him and his normally bright blue eyes had clouded with an emotion of their own.

  “Darlin’, these here men are gonna talk to ya for just a minute,” Myrna said to her husband. She straightened and pinned them with daggers. “Make it quick and don’t let him take his mask off,” she said in clipped tones.

  Jarrett almost smiled at her. She was a formidable woman and he had to admire her but then again, he’d met many women just like her down in West Virginia. He was convinced the harsh life they led honed them into granite. Myrna Sizemore leaned down and kissed her husband on the forehead and then let go of her man’s hand, walking around the foot of the bed, and brushing past the five of them, headed toward the door.

  “Make it quick,” the nurse reiterated, speaking up for the first time as she stepped away from the computer.

  “I’ll leave y’all to it,” Middleton said, putting a large hand on Myrna’s shoulder as she got close. Jarrett watched as the nurse followed them out the door. Thayne and Jarrett and the other two agents walked over to where Sizemore lay on the bed. His eyes were still open and he was taking deep rasping breaths into the face mask he wore over his mouth and nose.

  “Harlan, we’ll make it short. Can you tell us what you remember?” Sales asked.

  Sizemore nodded slowly as he focused on first the two agents he knew and then looked at Thayne and Jarrett. He took a ragged breath and when he spoke, his words sounded hollow and slightly muffled coming from under the mask.

  “Joe, Roy, and me rode the shuttle car down to level three where we was gonna work on the continuous minin’ machine in the B Left section.” He gasped between words. “We found out the conveyor chain needed replacin’ and didn’t have the right size. I was headed back up top to get one when there was an explosion.”

  “That’s why you became separated from Joe and Roy?” Jarrett asked.

  Sizemore nodded. “Was nearly up top,” he gasped, “Nearly made it out but the explosion knocked me off my feet and out cold, I guess. When I come to, I hooked up the SCSR… got the mask on just before I passed out again. Don’t remember nothin’ else.”

  The door behind them opened and a doctor walked in. The expression on his face was serious. “You need to go now and let this man rest. He shouldn’t be talking to anyone, much less the authorities. Let him be. You can do whatever investigations you want to when he’s stable. Now, leave.”

  Jarrett watched the others nod at the doctor and after thanking Harlan Sizemore, he joined his fellow agents and his partner in the hallway. Bertrand Middleton and Myrna Sizemore stood there. She looked terribly worried and had quite obviously been crying again. Middleton looked as grave as before. As they strolled away from Myrna, Thayne stopped in front of her and reached out to take her hand.

  “Thank you so much for letting us talk to Harlan, ma’am. We’ll try not to bother either one of you again. My partner and I are here to help find out what happened, that’s all. I hope he feels better soon. I trust you’ll give him our best wishes when you’re both feeling up to it.”

  Jarrett watched as Mrs. Sizemore looked up at Thayne with a new expression of trust blooming in her eyes. She nodded and Jarrett watched as she squeezed Thayne’s hand.

  “Yes, thank you, Special Agent. Ya have nice manners there.” She offered Thayne the wisp of a smile and Jarrett felt his own heart go out to her. They started to walk away when other men began coming up to them and offering their filthy hands to shake and murmuring their thanks. Jarrett was shocked to his toes to find that Thayne’s simple gesture of compassion was seen as an ice breaker by the miners. It seemed in that very moment that they were no longer going to be treated as strangers but looked upon as folks who were there to help.

  Jarrett had never seen hardened men like these turn around the way they did, except only occasionally when he was in the military and in enemy territory. If the kindness of only one Marine was shown to villagers, then their presence was often grudgingly accepted. Unfortunately, one bad apple with an itchy trigger finger could cause them to be looked upon with great suspicion and even hatred, making their jobs very difficult and dangerous. Once they learned that, the Marines would routinely try to schedule soccer games with the village children to break the ice. Jarrett wondered if Thayne, who knew absolutely nothing about mining or miners, had instinctively understood that, or as Jarrett suspected, Thayne was just a damned decent and compassionate soul who seemed to instill loyalty in everyone he met. It was a gift Jarrett knew his partner possessed but to see him in action was really something special.

  They made their way to the end of the hallway and Jarrett heard the elevator ding. The doors whooshed open and a man in a long expensively cut coat stepped off, followed by two other men who were also wearing richly-tailored suits. The man, who was a little younger than Jarrett and Thayne stopped in front of the four agents. He looked right past Sales and Lafford, not even stopping to glance in their direction. When his gaze landed on them, he lifted his chin and turned a shrewd eye on them.

  “Gentlemen,” the man said. He spoke with a slightly less pronounced drawl than Sales and Lafford had. B
efore either agent could introduce the man, he held out a manicured hand. “Jeffrey Boggs.”

  “The owner of the Red Hills Mine,” Thayne deduced, reaching out to take Boggs’s hand.

  “The CEO of the Red Hills Mining Collective, yes,” Boggs said, turning to Jarrett and reaching for his hand as well. “I take it you men are authorities like the ATF here?” He indicated Sales and Lafford with an incline of his head. “You’re not UMW so that leaves… MSHA?”

  “Sorry, MSHA?” Thayne asked.

  “Mine Safety and Health Administration,” Jarrett said for his partner’s clarification. “No, we’re ATF.”

  Boggs’s eyes widened comically. “More ATF? Why more ATF? You must be convinced the explosion was more than a tragic accident, gentlemen,” he drawled, raising an eyebrow.

  “We never said that,” Lafford replied. “Never said it weren’t neither.”

  “We’re here to determine what caused the explosion,” Thayne said.

  “Well, I think we know what it was,” Boggs said, frowning hard. “Human error. Those men were using an acetylene torch where they had no business using one, though no one could have known there was a broken seal. Obviously, the seals weren’t maintained the way they should have been as I was led to believe.”

  “You seem to have a lot of information,” Jarrett observed, looking Boggs right in the eye. Boggs stared back and finally blinked.

  “Yes, well, my foreman let me know as soon as there was a cause.”

  “That’s yet to be determined, Boggs,” Sales growled. “Besides, Middleton ain’t the mine’s manager, Haney is and we ain’t heard anything of the sort from him.”

  Jarrett watched as Boggs glanced at the murderous looks he was getting from several of the miners who’d closed ranks around him and his men. When Boggs got a look at just how they were staring, he closed his mouth.

  “Of course he is, gentlemen. I haven’t heard much from him. Is he around?”

  “I haven’t seen him,” Lafford said, looking around the lobby.

  “Well, it doesn’t matter. In any case, I do hope you’ll do a thorough job of seeing to it that justice is served here and that the explosion is investigated thoroughly. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’d like to visit Mr. Sizemore.” He stalked away from them, keeping his head high as the ocean of miners parted for him, letting him walk down the corridor followed by his lackeys.

  “Well, he’s a piece of work,” Thayne said, watching him go.

  “He’s a piece of somethin’ that’s for sure,” Jarrett drawled. “I take it, Middleton, the foreman, is his man.”

  “Sounds like it,” Sales said with disgust. “But Haney is the mine’s manager and he don’t appear to be here. I’m sure y’all will meet him out at the mine.”

  Thayne snorted at him and then turned toward Sales and Lafford. “Thanks so much for meeting us tonight. Look, we need to check into our hotel. It’s been a long day. Can we meet you both for breakfast?”

  “Sure thing. There’s a Denny’s out on Highway 77. We can meet you there at nine if that works,” Sales said. “We’re gonna hang out here a little longer.”

  “Of course. Thank you, agents,” Thayne said.

  They all shook hands and Jarrett climbed into the elevator, following his partner. He was starving and exhausted and at the moment, all he wanted was room service and Thayne in that order.

  ****

  Thayne and Jarrett had left their bags in the back of the truck when they went into the hospital so when they came out, they had to dig for their motel reservation. Once they’d located it, they headed out to the Days Inn to check in for the night. It was late, nearing eleven by the time they got out of the truck at the motel, and Thayne unloaded their duffels from the back while Jarrett went to the manager’s office to check in. A rather rotund woman sat behind the desk, watching an old episode of Three’s Company on the small television. She smiled at Jarrett when he came in, giving him a furtive up and down glance and when she decided she liked what she saw, she asked him for a reservation number even though the parking lot looked deserted and there was probably no shortage of rooms. After getting a key, he and Thayne traipsed upstairs to the second floor, walking down to the last room in the place and opening up the door.

  Jarrett was annoyed to find that the room smelled a little bit like cigarettes and that the bedspreads and curtains appeared to have not been replaced since sometime around the release of Olivia Newton John’s last album. He was really glad he didn’t have a black light so he could examine all the DNA that had been left behind over the years. Thayne set the duffels down on one of the double beds and went to hang their garment bag in the closet while Jarrett went to inspect the bathroom. He was greeted with 1950s bright green fixtures and a white and black tile floor that had some serious black grout. He wondered whether it had started out white and decided that it probably had. The sink had rust stains and he was reminded why he really hated seedy motels. The place probably got very few tourists since Bluefield wasn’t exactly a tourist destination, and Jarrett reminded himself that they were definitely going to find a better place to crash the next night. His stomach rumbled as he walked back out of the bathroom and nearly ran right into Thayne.

  “Remind me to find a cleaner place for tomorrow night,” Thayne groused as if he’d read Jarrett’s mind.

  “Damn straight.” He slid his arms around Thayne’s back and pulled him close, dropping his gaze to his lover’s full lips. “I’m a starvin’ man, Wolfe.”

  Thayne’s lips twitched and lifted into a smile as he turned his gorgeous bright blue eyes on Jarrett. “I hope you’re talking about food.”

  Jarrett’s smile faded as Thayne’s broadened and he realized he’d been only half-kidding. “Well, what do you say, we find a restaurant to grab some food and then come back so that I can take your virginity?” Jarrett said.

  Thayne snorted as he leaned forward to peck his lips with a quick kiss. “I’m afraid that ship has sailed, big boy.”

  It was Jarrett’s turn to snort as he kissed Thayne. “Big boy? We ain’t talkin’ about my anatomy. I was thinkin’ a burger and fries.”

  Thayne grinned, letting his hand slide down to cup Jarrett’s groin before letting go of him and taking a step back. Jarrett was slightly annoyed that he’d started something without the intention of finishing. “Let’s get directions to that Denny’s and make it quick. I’m starving and need a nice salad.”

  Jarrett nodded, scooped up the room key, and walked out of the door with Thayne following. “I don’t know how you can eat all that veggie shit. I mean don’t get me wrong, I love the way it looks on ya, but you have to be starvin’ half the time.”

  “Excuse me but do you see a gym around here? If I eat a bunch of carbs, I just have to work them off and since we’re in Podunk Nowhere, that’s just not happening.”

  They got into the truck and closed the doors. Jarrett was driving. He liked driving whenever they went out but when they were driving a company car like the Crown Vic they’d used when they’d come back from San Diego, Thayne was relegated to the driver’s seat because Stanger had pretty much insisted on it after Jarrett had crashed a couple of vehicles when he and Thayne had first come back.

  “You want to stop and ask directions?” Thayne asked.

  “Naw, I know the neighborhood. Just take a left at the end of the drive. It’ll take you out to 77 and then you make a right onto the highway. Denny’s is about two miles down on the left.”

  Thayne glanced at him as he drove. “I keep forgetting that this is like your mothership.”

  Jarrett chuckled. “Yeah, that’s one way of puttin’ it.”

  “So, you can tell me all about the area,” Thayne said.

  Jarrett narrowed his eyes as he looked at his frustrating partner. As much as he cared for this man, watching his wide-eye
d innocence was surprising sometimes. Thayne was a genuinely nice guy and Jarrett watched the way people responded to him. A perfect example was the way the miners at the hospital had readily accepted them just because he was nice to Myrna Sizemore who’d nearly lost her husband. It seemed Thayne could do that with everyone but still, every time he witnessed it, he was surprised. Jarrett was a chameleon. He’d always been a chameleon and he could work people and get them to cooperate most times by simply turning on the charm but with Thayne it came effortlessly. He probably didn’t even realize he was doing it.

  “I tell ya what I ain’t gonna do tonight,” Jarrett said.

  Thayne turned to look at him as they drove up to the Denny’s. “What?”

  “I ain’t gonna tell you anything about the neighborhood,” he grumbled.

  Thayne rolled his eyes and then pulled into a parking space. “Fine. Be a grumpy ass,” he said, slamming the truck’s door. They walked toward the entrance of the restaurant and as they did so, Jarrett noticed a sleek black newer model Mercedes parked in a handicapped spot right up front. Immediately beside the handicapped spot, were three other empty parking spaces and Jarrett failed to notice a blue handicap placard hanging from the Mercedes’s rearview mirror. As they walked past the car, he noted no handicap license plate either. He glanced at Thayne who was looking the car over as well. He glanced at Jarrett with eyes that flashed anger.

  “You see that? The driver is parked in a handicap spot and the make of the car? How many folks in this town can afford a Mercedes like that?”

  “I’ll give you one guess,” Jarrett replied.

  They continued on into the restaurant, spotting Boggs and his two lackeys along with another man who easily appeared as slick and polished as the CEO, sitting in a booth. The hostess escorted them toward the party of four as they walked to their own booth and Boggs glanced up, flashing them a brilliant white smile. He reached out a hand and stood as they walked up.