“Mr. Sleighbow,” she said as soon as she had identified herself and what he had asked her to investigate, “I have to be up front with you. There are more unanswered questions than answered ones with Calligan so far as I’m concerned, but the job you asked me to do is finished. I can’t find any evidence of any threats to Calligan and his property prior to the explosion. Whatever else is going on, he did not deceive Romulus in that regard.”

David looked blank. He obviously could not see where her statement was leading.

“Oh?” There was a long pause. “I find your phrasing interesting, Miss Talldeer. Do you have any reason to think Rod Calligan has attempted to deceive Romulus Insurance in any other way?”

She sighed, as David frowned, and she made an abrupt gesture to him to warn him to be silent. “Let me just say this much, Mr. Sleighbow. The information I have leads me to think that Mr. Calligan is less than ethical in his business practices. He is continuing to suffer accidents—some appear to be outright sabotage, and some simply seem to have no possible natural explanation. It may be that he has some business rival that he has annoyed, or some less-than-legal associates that he has angered, and he is attempting to cover their retribution up by claiming that it is all the work of Native American and ecology groups. I am not going to attempt to guess what kind of policy he took out with you, but I suspect that such a situation would not be covered, especially if he deliberately concealed illegal activities and associates.”

“You are quite right, Miss Talldeer,” Sleighbow replied, his voice even and betraying no emotion. “And those are interesting speculations.”

“They’re only speculations, sir,” she said warningly, making a hushing motion at David, since he looked ready to jump in again. “I have not found any evidence to indicate anything of the sort. All I have found is that he is considered to be less than ethical by his peers, and that there do not appear to have been any terrorist-type threats prior to the explosion. Other than that, I can only say that while I have not actually met the man, the things I have uncovered would make me unlikely to use his services even if he were the only contractor in the three-state area. I certainly would not recommend him to anyone else. My personal feelings are that a man like that collects enemies, and a man like that may well have been involved with some kind of organized crime figure at some time. But that is strictly a personal feeling and I have no facts to justify it. And I will admit to a slight prejudice against him because he seems to be attempting to make Native Americans into scapegoats for what has been happening to him.”