Chapter 18

It was a rainy morning. Cal was up early and ate breakfast in his house. He was eager to tackle the day ahead and that was a relief. The night before he had driven his brother to his cabin after the calling hours for Roxie’s aunt. Edwin offered him a beer when they arrived and that one led to another.

“At least we’re on speaking terms again,” he thought as he cleaned up the breakfast dishes.

It seemed like Edwin’s discussion topic of choice was Roxie. Cal was surprised when he found out that she never showed at the Dew Drop, after Edwin was so sure she would.

“Maybe she’s found someone else,” Cal had speculated, “someone willing to treat her better than you do.”

“Oh, yeah,” Edwin scoffed, “Who might that be?”

Edwin hinted more than a few times to see if that ‘someone’ might have been Cal, but at the end he seemed to accept Cal’s denial

“At least you didn’t ask her about it at the funeral home,” Cal scolded.

Edwin huffed.

“I would have, except you were standin’ right there the whole time.”

Well, they were on speaking terms, Cal reminded himself, but that didn’t mean saying nice things while they were speaking.

Cal put the prior night’s meeting with his brother out of his mind and his thoughts turned to Roxie. At that moment she was sure to be preparing to take her aunt to the cemetery. Cal and Edwin would have agreed to go with her, but she’d been adamant to go by herself.

Cal thought it was the wrong choice, but he held himself back from butting in. She must have had her reasons. The rain was unfortunate and it would add more gloom to a sad day.

“Roxie might have thought she could tough it out, but she might realize that she wants someone with her at the last minute.”

Mr. Connor and the minister would have to do. Roxie had made her choice. Cal couldn’t figure out why he kept feeling bad about it.

Cal stopped at the light where he would make a left from Commerce St. onto Main. For his purposes the rain was a good thing. It was certain to keep the protestors away at the County Office Building where he had a meeting with George Lambe for his first appointment that morning.

Cal drove past the front of the County Building on his way to the public parking lot. As he expected, the demonstrators weren’t there because of the rain.

“Sunshine patriots—sunshine protestors,” Cal said to himself.

He had to admit that the spur-of-the moment sneer was a bit unjustified. Overall, Wesley Ingram’s effort had been quite impressive. There were almost always at least a handful of volunteer protesters on patrol. Most of the college students went home for the summer. Cal wondered where all the sign carriers had come from.

The rain didn’t show any sign of letting up, but Cal had an umbrella with him. He always kept it in the back seat of his car.

“I’m lucky Edwin didn’t see it when I gave him a ride last night. He’d never let me hear the end of it.”

Cal knew that the image of the black umbrella and his Mustang didn’t fit well together, but he stayed dry while others ran from their cars to the door, so who had the last laugh? Cal went in the street level door and pumped his umbrella to shake off the rainwater. He folded it up and snapped the little strap that held it together and then found an out of the way corner in which to stash it.

He looked around and found himself in the lobby in front of the legislative chambers where Jack Ross had held his press conference not long ago. It reminded Cal of his business for the day. He caught the elevator and headed for George Lambe’s office.

When he got to the County Manager’s office George was down the hall at the Finance Director’s office. The secretary ushered him into George’s inner chamber. A minute later she set a cup of coffee in front of him. Cal was happy for the delay. It was a chance to collect his thoughts about Midco and the Annex. He didn’t hear George come into the room.

“Staying dry today, Cal?” George bellowed.

He must have realized that Cal was lost in his thoughts. Cal jumped a little at the surprise but didn’t spill any coffee.

“Doing my best, George,” he answered.

Lambe sat at his desk. His secretary set a coffee in front of her boss. Cal shook his head as she was about to ask him if he wanted a refill. George took a sip and sat back with his hands behind his head.

“We’ve got to make sure we’re on the same page with this Midco project,” he said to Cal. “Where are we at right now?”

“Besides dodging protestors,” Cal answered, “the immediate step is to get the appraisal results back from Bennett Associates. That should be done inside of two weeks, maybe even sooner.”

“Do what you can to make it sooner,” George said. “They can usually knock off a few days if you let them know time’s of the essence.”

“I’ll call them right after we’re done,” Cal promised. “Other than that, we’re waiting for the hard copy of the waiver certificate from the DEC. We wanted to hold off on talking to the utility and cable companies pending the funding of the access road.”

“I’d go ahead and talk to them now,” George said. “I have another plan for the access road. Let’s get those companies on board.”

“Really—that’s good news!” Cal exclaimed. “What have you got in mind?”

George shook his head.

“I have to keep that to myself, for the time being. I’ll let you in on it as soon as I can. And please, don’t even mention it to anyone.”

Cal was puzzled, but nodded that he would do as asked.

“I have a couple of things to tell you,” George continued. “First of all—and most important—Homer Barlow is going to ask you to make a presentation to the City Council at their meeting next week. He’ll probably track you down today.”

“Did Homer tell you?” Cal asked.

“No,” George answered, “it was Mildred Watkins, the Councilwoman. She called me at my home last night. It seems that everyone on City Council was yawning over the project until Ross went on TV and these protestors started up. Now, they’re all keen to jump on it.”

“Do you think they’re for it or against it?” Cal asked.

“Cautiously for it,” George assured him. “You can bet that they’re excited about getting the fresh tax revenue, and maybe filling some of those empty storefronts on Main St.

“They may have some questions about the pollution thing, but I doubt that it will be a big concern. I wouldn’t get into the tax issue. You’ll only get them upset and you haven’t even got numbers to talk about yet. Don’t worry about the protests. Most of them know the story, and you can bring anyone who doesn’t up-to-date easily enough.”

“I’ll have to prepare a presentation,” Cal said.

George finished his coffee and then leaned forward.

“Just be sure of two things,” he said. “Not a word about the access road and nothing in public about the property appraisal. If you get to talk to them in executive session, then you can say something. It’s their Annex. They have a right to know. But if the number—or even a hint of one—gets into the public, every person in this county will have an opinion on it. So, for the time being, we’ll keep that close to the vest.”

He sat back again.

“And, of course, the access road,” he repeated.

“I think that will be okay,” Cal said. “I’ll focus on the history of the whole thing, like you said. I’ll tell them about Midco and the jobs. It should go okay, unless Homer wants to make trouble.”

“I’ll guarantee you, he won’t,” George answered. “At least, he won’t at this meeting ... I know Homer better than Homer knows Homer. He’ll be afraid to stick his foot in his mouth, so he’ll say nothing until he can digest it all. He’ll be more than happy to let you do the heavy lifting.”

“The gas pipeline and TV cable issues should win some support,” Cal laughed.

“Don’t forget that there will probably be a turnout from Ingram’s people,” George warned. “Be ready for them, but I wouldn’t engage them, if you can help it.”

“Okay, I’ll be ready,” Cal promised. “What was the second thing you wanted to tell me?”

“I found out how Ingram got involved,” George said. “Do you know a guy named Harrison MacAllister?”

Cal shook his head.

“Well I do,” George went on. “He’s the Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Conservation. He’s a lawyer by trade and a former state legislator from Manhattan, so what I’m about to say will make some sense. He’s against this waiver, and all waivers.

He knows the physical risks at the Annex site are nil, but it’s in his department’s interest to avoid letting any person, place or thing not be vulnerable to litigation. The DEC is basically an army of lawyers and he’s the general.”

“He’s not willing to compromise that to bring in a new employer?” Cal asked

Lambe shook his head.

“No,” he answered, and let the word hang in the air. “He’s got his agenda and he’ll stick to it,”

George paused for a few seconds.

“You can’t just think that creating jobs is trump and everything else takes a back seat. It might with you—and it does with me too. A person might believe it listening to campaign speeches. But after the speeches die down, everyone has his own agenda.”

“You would think...” Cal started to say.

“There’s more,” George interrupted. “When the word came from the Governor’s office, MacAllister was between a rock and a hard place. He didn’t want to buck the Governor. He was appointed by Spitzer, after all, not the current Governor. So he went to Ross for help, even though he’s in the other party. Ross saw his chance and punted the ball to Ingram. So, Ross is on the sidelines with MacAllister owing him a favor and Ingram is doing MacAllister’s work for him. That’s typical Jack Ross.”

“Whew,” Cal shook his head. “I knew Ross was behind it somehow.”

“Ross will watch closely and decide to jump in when the time is right on whichever side he sees as a better opportunity for him. If we’re lucky, we’ll keep him guessing. When he sees that we’re winning, he’ll want to jump on board with us.”

“I can’t stand this political...”

“It’s the big time, Cal. You’ve got to be willing to get your knuckles bloody,” George told him. “Unless you want this project to be an ‘almost was’.”

“No,’ Cal mumbled. “I sure don’t, and I’m not afraid, either. Sometimes, it’s hard to figure out what to swing at.”

“For one thing, you’ll probably have to convince Tanaka to drop the insistence on the waiver. It will remove the biggest controversy.”

“I’ll try,” Cal replied, “but that was number one on his list. I don’t think...”

“We don’t have to tackle it right away,” George said. “Let Midco get in deep enough so they don’t want to back out. Let this protest thing play out. Let the other side invest everything in the waiver issue and then we’ll drop it and finish the project all at once. Before they know what hit ‘em, Tanaka will be picking out the colors for his new office at the Annex.”

When Cal walked outside after his meeting with George Lambe he found out that the rain had slowed to a drizzle. He decided to leave his car in the municipal lot next to the County Office Building and walk the two blocks to his office. He had his umbrella in hand in case the skies opened up again.

As he stepped around a puddle in the middle of the sidewalk, he thought about Roxie again and her aunt’s final ride to the cemetery. He figured that it had to be going on at that moment. He was glad that the rain had let up.

“Why can’t I put this out of my mind. It’s too late to do anything about it now, anyway.”

Rain, or not, Cal reckoned that had to be a lonely moment for her. He wondered why she wouldn’t let anyone accompany her—or if he should have insisted over her objections.

“People shouldn’t feel so reluctant to take help from their friends.”