Chapter 8

Unfortunately, when they got back to the motel, there was a note on their door advising them to contact the motel office, and when Tom dropped by, he was advised to contact Muriel. She told him that the care home in Bear Creek had phoned to tell her that Serge was extremely ill and not expected to survive for long. After a flurry of phone calls to arrange a flight back home, then more calls to let Muriel and the Welches know that they were leaving in the morning, they fell into bed and managed to catch a few hours’ rest.

Tom and Sandy caught the first plane out of Victoria the next morning, but what with a connection in Vancouver and another in Kamloops, they didn’t arrive back in Bear Creek until that afternoon. Once they were there, they rushed right to the hospital. Unfortunately, they were too late to be able to say goodbye to Serge. Then, they were surprised to find that his funeral and burial were to take place in Victoria. As a result, they found themselves back in Victoria only three days after they had left.

One of the letters Muriel had received at the office while Tom was away annoyed him very much. Basically, it was an announcement from the Provincial Parks Department telling him that his lease was under consideration as a future park. It was in legalese, so he had to have Laura translate it for him, but he had a hard time controlling his temper as she explained it to him.

The Parks Department was effectively limiting his lease in various ways. First off, if he wanted to sell the lease, they would disallow the sale to anyone, but the province itself. Secondly, Tom was not allowed to bring in any heavy mining machinery. As well as that, any roadway improvements through provincially controlled areas would be disallowed.

In effect, they were trying to tie his hands and force him out of the area, but what annoyed him most was the fact that Serge’s lease was several years old. In other words, as long as lease fees were coming in and no development was happening, they were content, but once he’d started to develop a claim, they wanted to shut him down. He couldn’t even understand how they could have known what he was doing, since he hadn’t filed any taxable income from the money he’d earned there yet. All they legally had to go on was a change of ownership of the lease and his original claim, but none of that included any major funds. Something about the Parks Department’s actions stank to high heaven, and Tom made up his mind that right after Serge’s funeral, he was going to find out just what was going on.

The funeral was a very strange time for Tom. First of all, there weren’t very many people there, and Tom only knew Sandy and Muriel, but after the services, he was approached by three of the men who had dropped in. One had been Serge’s lawyer, and he advised both Tom and Muriel that they should attend the reading of Serge’s will in two weeks’ time at an address in downtown Victoria.

The other two men who approached Tom were representatives from two different mining firms who had purchased leases and mines from Serge at some time in the past. It surprised Tom to find that both of them recognised him and knew of his dealings with Serge. What astounded him even more, though, was to find that one of the men even knew how much raw gold he’d had assayed in the past year. Then he pissed Tom off thoroughly by telling him that for a single-person operation, he was doing extremely well. That comment, coming from a man who was dressed in a suit that must have cost a thousand dollars, didn’t sit very well with Tom.

“Don’t tell me I’m doing well when you don’t know your ass from an adit! Just remember that I’ve worked that damn hole for almost two full years, and I had four other guys up there last summer for almost three months, all of us working from dawn until dusk. Then another person joined me for three more months, and we worked even harder,” Tom stared the man square in the eye. “I’ve been snowed in for months at a time, and for several months, I damn near starved. On top of that, I have to pack in with every ounce of supplies I use because if I use a float plane, it has to land on a lake several miles away from my log cabin. When I did take mules up there to make packing in supplies easier, the damn wolves and bears killed them off. Hell, we’ve had to kill bears, wolves, wolverines, and rutting bull moose, as well as all sorts of other animals, and every one of those died within yards of the company’s bunkhouse. Then, to top it off, I just got a notice from the government telling me that I couldn’t sell the lease to anyone else, even if I wanted to. If I ever let the lease slip out of my hands, the Parks Department wants to turn the whole area into another useless park that no one can get to since it’s so far from civilization.”

“I’ve heard about most of that,” the man in the expensive suit smirked knowingly. “I believe you may have offended one of the local lawyers in your general area in some way. He’s the one who originally contacted us, and I suspect he’s probably responsible for your problems with the provincial government, but if you are interested, there is a way around that. You see, our company made a prior offer, which I may say you turned down rather insultingly. But still, we can legally say that the government was not interested at that time and broke into ongoing negotiations.”

“Oh, there’s more than one way to skin a cat, but I will talk to my lawyer about your present offer since I consider it a further insult on your part,” Tom frowned at the man.

“Then I would recommend that you consult a lawyer who wasn’t from Bear Creek,” the guy chuckled maliciously.

“Oh, don’t worry about that,” Tom snorted. “I’ve already arranged to give that little prick some competition, even before I found out about your company’s illegal bullshit. I’m bringing in a crackerjack lawyer from Victoria who is going to run that jealous bastard out of town. You see, he’s an envious little shmuck, who was formerly married to my girlfriend, which is all I’ve ever done to offend the obnoxious ass. I’m one of the many guys in town that he’s terrified to meet face to face, but I’m not going after him physically; instead, I’m going to help the new lawyer put him out of business. Then he’s going to have to run fast and far to get out of my reach, because I have a rather long arm in western Canada, and if I have my way, he’ll end up in jail. Of course, now that you’ve openly admitted that you have conspired with him against me, you just might have the cell next door to his.”

“Do you really think you have enough clout to do that sort of thing?” the guy still looked slightly amused.

“Yeah, I can,” Tom smiled, but it was more like a snarl. “My whole family has been involved in the resource industry for more than fifty years. Doesn’t my last name ring any bells?”

“Oh my, you’re not related to the Dunn-Redding group, are you?” the fancy-looking dude suddenly stared at Tom with wide eyes as his face developed a fearful aspect.

Tom just smiled and nodded, but the suit looked at him quite differently, then took a step back and swallowed rather obviously.

“Oh, I’m not all that greatly offended by your actions, and while I know my father has a reputation for being a hard man, even he wouldn’t shoot the messenger,” Tom kept a thin smile on his face. “However, you should know that I’m the rebel of the family, and my values aren’t quite as stringent as my father’s. Once I’m finished dealing with the local lawyer, I’m going to have time to consider how you and your firm have dealt with me. After all, I’ll need to keep the lawyer I bring to Bear Creek gainfully employed, won’t I?”

“Well, I didn’t mean to offend you in any way, Mr. Dunn,” the man tried to look apologetic.

“Hey schmuck, the only way you might offend me any further is if you or anyone else from your company tries to warn the lawyer that you just ratted out. If you did that, I’d definitely have to do something about it, because I intend to see to it that his resume reads ‘ex-lawyer,’ so do yourself a favour and butt out of this one, completely. I will warn you that your job is hanging on a very thin thread right at the moment, and to cut it, all you’d have to do is to speak to that lawyer about anything, even the weather. If you do that, you’d better buy a ticket tonight and get onto a plane to a country that refuses extradition to Canada; otherwise, I promise - you’ll have problems.”

“Yes-sir, Mr. Dunn,” the guy’s voice had fallen almost to a whisper. “I’ll go grab a phone and pass on a warning to my company that we had best not contact him, and I’d best do that right now.”

“Unh uh, no phone calls, no warnings that can be overheard in any way. If you want to warn your boss, then you’d best go to his home and whisper it in his ear. If I even hear a rumour that you passed on a warning to anyone else doing anything illegal regarding my lease or my claim, then your ass is grass and I just bought a weed-whacker. Now, for your own safety you had best leave this building, but you’d better move like your pants are on fire, because as soon as I find a phone, I’m calling the RCMP! By the way, that’s the fastest way to a lawyer’s office, and you might want to hire a real good one,” Tom pointed toward the door, then watched the man scurry off.

Sandy and Muriel had been standing back, just watching Tom’s quiet conversation with the overdressed little man until he had scuttled away, then they approached.

“What did the dude in the thousand-dollar duds want?” Muriel asked bluntly. “You didn’t seem happy with him and he left here as if you’d just told him he was in danger.”

“Well, he’s from the company that sent me that insulting offer on my lease, but what annoys me most is that he knows a lot about my business. Not only that, but he warned me that Sandy’s ex-husband is trying his damnedest to sabotage me in any way he can. Lister has been his company’s source of information, which also means that someone in the local assayers’ office is crooked enough to be passing on information about me. So, I’m about to see what I can do to cost a few people their jobs. When I get done, Laura may be setting up her practice in an area which no longer has a lawyer who can practise legally. After all, I doubt very much if you can practise law from a jail cell.”

“I’m not sure what you intend to do, but I thought assayers weren’t allowed to pass on any information about the quantity or quality of the ore they handled?” Sandy frowned.

“Legally, they can’t,” Tom smiled icily. “Which is why I intend to contact an official here in Victoria about that situation. After I get done, heads are going to roll in several departments and branches of government services. You see, I’m betting that the Parks branch also has information it shouldn’t have until after my taxes are filed for last year, which you haven’t done yet.”

“Oh ho, you plan to get the income tax department involved, don’t you?” Sandy grinned wickedly. “Since federal departments love to swat down provincial bureaucrats who are interfering in their playground, that ought to be interesting to watch.”

“Well, the provincial authorities have a finger in the income tax pie as well, but the lease my company holds is with the federal government. I think Federal Mines and Minerals might be interested in the actions of the Provincial Parks Department in this case. Since the Conservatives have a majority in Federal Parliament and since they’re so gung-ho on development of resources, I’d say sparks could fly over this sort of interference with a fully legal, but developing mine.”

“Jeez, you fight dirty, don’t you?” Muriel chuckled.

“No, not really. He just releases all of his hounds at the same time, but he makes sure his hounds are all bigger than the coyotes and skunks that they’re being sent to chase,” Sandy chortled.

“Nope, I don’t turn out all the hounds, because I reserve the right to do some of the hunting on my own,” Tom said quietly. “Sandy, would you mind taking Muriel home? I have to make a few phone calls, then I imagine I’m going to have to talk to a few folks face to face, but I shouldn’t be any more than three or four hours.”

Twenty minutes later, he was sitting in a small room with Laura, and she was looking at him almost as if he were a stranger. Not only had her boss called her away from the work she’d been doing, but she’d been given virtual carte blanche to handle whatever business Tom wanted to have done. Her present task was to help him accomplish whatever he wanted, but to advise him so that he didn’t even ruffle the law, let alone break it in any way.

Once she saw that the door to the tiny office was closed and they were completely alone, she asked, “How did you manage to get permission for me to help you like this?”

“I asked to have you help me personally,” he grinned. “Of course, I did mention just who my family is. Then suddenly, everyone in your whole office became extremely cooperative.”

“Your family?”

“Yes, the Dunn-Redding family, of Dunn-Redding Petroleum Explorations. I want you to place a call to their office, and I want you to sit in while I’m talking, especially if I’m able to talk with my father,” Tom frowned. “I want you to be nearby if I start to lose my temper. Just swat my knee, step on my foot, or kick me in the ankle if I start to talk too loudly or start looking extremely angry. I don’t want to start another family fight, so I’m asking you to help head it off before it gets started.”

Laura couldn’t help but giggle nervously. “How much are you paying my boss to have me do this?”

“Not a penny. I told him that I’d hired you as my lawyer and asked if we could use a private office for a short while. You’ll have to settle the fees for the office use between the two of you, and then I’ll pay you for that as well as for your time.”

“But I work for this firm, not for myself,” she protested.

“That’s why we’re here at the office where you normally work,” Tom whispered, while holding his finger in front of his mouth and winking. “In theory, if you have a question about the law that you can’t answer, you can ask one of your bosses about it. In the meantime, you’re getting practical experience in a real-time setting, and I have a lawyer who is already privy to my situation as well as someone I know has my best interests at heart.”

“Oh, you are sneaky,” she giggled again.

“Ahha, now that you’re in a good mood, we need to phone Dunn-Redding in Calgary, and I’ll get you to place the call. Ask for Jack Dunn Senior and tell the woman who answers the phone that it’s a personal call from Thomas Dunn of Sunrise Mineral Exploration and Development. When Dad gets on the phone, greet him, give him your name, then say you’ll connect me, wait a few seconds, then I’ll pick up this phone, but I want you to stay on that line and listen in. Oh, one other thing, don’t mention that you’re my lawyer until I tell you to, okay?”