“This was real minor-league, it stayed with the Forest Service. There was a chunk of disputed federal land in northern Washington State. The usual logging/farming/dune-buggying/tourism side fighting the totally leave-it-for-the-mosquitoes side. Doreen had volunteered as a tree-hugger a few months before she got nabbed hooking in Seattle. Doing field tests, whatever. What she gave up when we pressed her were two schemes. The first was her fellow volunteers tilting the odds by planting Canadian lynx hairs near tree trunks—smearing the DNA then ‘discovering’ it. Apparently, the lynx is mucho endangered, so that would’ve meant big-time land restriction. The second con involved poisoning wild horses and leaving carcasses in spots grizzly bears didn’t frequent to draw grizzlies and enlarge estimates of their habitat. See what I mean? Low-rent, the Forest Service gave even less of a crap than the Bureau, took no action. Then a senator who got tons of logging money found out and he raised a stink and an investigation ensued. No one went to jail but people lost their jobs.”

“Names,” said Milo.

“I don’t have any, the guy from whom I inherited the files wasn’t into extraneous detail.”

“Maybe not so extraneous, Gayle, if Kathy Vanderveldt and Dwayne Parris were among those volunteers. Some people lost their jobs, others might’ve lost their careers.”

“Expelled from med school and law school due to moral turpitude?” she said. “Yeah, I guess that could happen.”

She stood, tried to put money on the table. Milo’s big hand closed around hers. “My treat, Gayle.”

“Why?”

“You deserve it.”

“Yeah, sure,” said Lindstrom. “When I got a bad grade, my dad lied to me the same way.”

I said, “Manipulating physical evidence.”

He said, “Kathy Lara can’t be a doctor, but gets herself a gig where she can still have fun with biology. Same old story, with twisted types it’s all about control.”

“With everyone it’s about control,” I said. “The key is how you go about it.”

Lindstrom’s call came as we drove back to the station.

“That was quick, Gayle.”

“Wish I could say I pulled strings, all I had to do was pull our copy of the Forest Service file. Vanderveldt and Parris are named as participants in both cons. In fact, they’re the only participants named. And Vanderveldt was, indeed, booted out of U of Idaho med school—where she’d been at the bottom of her class. Parris’s standing at U Wash law school was actually pretty good but he also got tossed. Both of them appealed twice. Denied. You really see that as motive?”

“That and fifty G’s, Gayle.”

“Yeah, I guess that covers a lot of bases,” said Lindstrom. “So what now?”

“So now I talk to them.”

“I’d like to be involved.”

“When the time’s right.”

“Hope that’s not a lie. With my dad I could tell. With you, not so easy.”

CHAPTER

40