free hit counters
Chapter 66
This was going to be one Wednesday morning that he didn't have to mess around in the mail room, Mike thought to himself as he walked into Kutzley's office the next morning, carrying a handful of the first papers that Webb had brought back from Camden.
Fortunately, he'd been able to get that Sanford woman off into a corner following the meeting, and get a little more detail about the Endangered Species Act and its impact on the sewer problem than what he'd heard at the meeting, so his story wouldn't make him sound like a total ninny.
Whatever he learned this morning would probably make everything obsolete, he knew. It was one of the perils of a weekly newspaper; sooner or later, something was bound to break on Wednesday morning, and it would be a week before he could report it.
Probably half of the meeting's attendees were already there, sitting around in chairs hauled into Kutzley's office. Kutzley was behind his desk, getting worked over by Milliman. "What burns my butt," Milliman said, "Is how something like this could happen, and we
don't have any warning whatsoever."
"I gotta admit, they did send us a public notice," Kutzley said. "It was even in the Record-Herald. But, you read that notice, and it really doesn't say a thing. There's not a thing in there that says that the snake is living in the sewer system, that the sewer system is part
of their critical interest area, what the ramifications of a critical interest area are, or that they were in such a yank."
"Sounds like the damn government," Milliman said.
"Then, this notice we got the other day about the critical interest area, that didn't even say that much, just that one had been declared. Not a word about what it meant. Hell, I never heard of such a thing. I had to look it up at the library this morning."
"Yeah, but nobody ever heard of a damn Gibson's Water Snake, till now, when the damn thing crawls up out of the sewer."
"There could have been a better job done on the part of the Fish and Wildlife Service on keeping us informed," Kutzley said. "On something that doesn't mean anything, they send us a ton of paper. On something that's important, we have to find out like this. Let's see,
who's missing?"
"That Sanford girl, and Hjalmer," Clark said.
"Hjalmer had an autoclave blow its zap out at the hospital this morning," Kutzley said. "He said he'll be along after he gets it working."
Just then, Heather stuck her head shyly in the door. "Is this the right place?" she asked.
"Sure, come on in, Miss Sanford," Clark replied.
"I brought Pam Appleton along with me," Heather said. "She's the investigator for Athens University on the snake project. I didn't think you'd mind."
"No, good," Clark said. "The more we know about that snake, the better. In fact, I think we'd better start with you bringing us up to speed on this snake."
"Well, briefly," Pam said. "This spring, a single specimen of a snake that we think is a Gibson's Water Snake was discovered living in the sewer system, here in Spearfish Lake. Now, the Gibson's Water Snake is a a very rare, and we thought possibly extinct subspecies
of the Northern Water Snake, which is common around here, but with distinct markings. The markings on this snake are thoroughly consistent with a Gibson's Water Snake, but they would also fall on the limit of the range of markings for a normal Northern Water Snake.
Since then, I've . . . that is, we have, Miss Sanford has been working with me . . . we've been unable to find other examples, in spite of the Defenders of Gaea funding an extensive television surveillance of the sewer system."
"You're saying that this critical interest area was declared over one snake?" Clark asked, increduously.
"That's right," Heather said. "However, it could take years to confirm or deny whether there actually is a population of them living around here."
"You say this snake was found in the sewer system," Musgrave commented.
"That's what Dr. Gerjevic and I were told, down at Athens," Pam said.
"Just where was it found?" Musgrave asked.
"I'm embarrassed to say that I don't know," Pam said. "One of the teachers at the high school brought it to us. He said one of the other teachers brought it to him, and that some child had brought it to class."
"That snake could have come from anywhere," Blackbarn said. "That's pinning an awful lot on a mighty slim chain of evidence."
"Well, I know who it was," Pam said, but he hasn't been speaking to me."
"Who was it?" Clark asked. "I'll call him."
"John Pacobel," Pam said.
Mike was glad it was Clark that had volunteered to call. He'd had to kiss Pacobel's ass enough over the years, first when he was the commander of the guard unit, then worse when the softball team won the state championship . . . but that wasn't why Mike had a
sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. "Pam," he asked, "When was this snake found?"
"Late April, sometime. I don't know the date."
That just about confirmed the sinking feeling. "Don't bother calling Pacobel," Mike said. "Call Linda."
"Linda?"
"Yeah, your wife. Ask her if she's the one that gave the snake to Pacobel."
"You sure, Mike?"
"I'm sure. Call her."
Clark reached for the phone on Kutzley's desk. In about thirty seconds, Mike's suspicion was confirmed. "What's this all about?" Clark asked.
"Kirsten isn't going to like this," Mike said, "But that's got to be the snake that crawled out of the bathtub drain. It scared the shit out of her, and she broke a hair dryer killing it. Tiffany took it to school, for show and tell. I never saw it myself, but she said it was a little
black snake, with some gold on it."
"That's the one," Pam said. "Then, it definitely came out of the sewer system."
Kutzley nodded his head. "Well, we definitely had a snake, then, so, at least in the short term, there's at least a possibly justified reason for a Critical Interest Area. That seems pretty solid to me. Now, that just takes us back to the question of how it's going to affect this
EPA directive. It looks to me like we've got two laws, or at least two bureaucracies, at odds on this. Miss Sanford, you say the Endangered Species Act will prevent us from building the storm sewer separation?"
"I'll have to be honest and say no," Heather said. "The law does prevent federal agencies from expending funds that would threaten endangered species, directly or indirectly. The stamp on that letter the EPA sent you was probably sufficiently illegal."
"That's a rather fine point," Blackbarn said.
"Probably so," Heather conceded. "But lawyers are in the business of arguing fine points. In addition, the law does provide penalties for those that threaten an endangered species, and you'd certainly be in violation of the law if you went ahead with the system.
Speaking as a representative of the Defenders, we'd have to fight you on that, in and out of court." There, it was out. She was more than a savior, she had teeth. There was no need for anyone to realize how hollow her threat was; McMullen and Harper probably wouldn't break
loose the money for a major court fight. Best to let the city pay for it.
"I'm missing a point here, somewhere," Clark said. "Just what the Sam Hill does our building this separation system have to do with this snake?"
"I asked Pam the same question, the other day," Heather said. "She gave me a real good reply, so I think I'll let her answer that."
