CSI: Crime Scene Investigation s11e08 Episode Script
Fracked
We should go skinny-dipping.
Man 2: Oh, that's fantastic.
What are you guys talking about? Hey, no.
We were just You know, we were gonna have a little blast.
- Grab this.
- Take a swing of this.
Oh! Lexie.
Come on.
Lexie, come on.
Here.
Hey, hey, come on, Lexie.
I'm coming! I'm coming! I'm coming! Cannonball.
Cannonball.
Okay, okay.
Is it cold? I don't want to get cold.
Lexie, come on! Oh.
Got to get in here.
It's like a Jacuzzi.
Oh, yeah, right.
Uh-oh.
Down, boys.
Hello.
I see you.
Oh, it smells like rotten eggs.
It's just sulfur.
It's good for the zits.
Good for you.
You've been trying to see me naked for a year.
We won't look.
Okay, fine.
Close your eyes.
Hey, huh? Huh? Ooh Oh! Hey! Hey! Hey, what what the hell was that for? You got a look.
You don't need to grab my ass.
I didn't touch you.
Right.
Come on.
What the hell! Hey Hey! Come on! Whoa.
Hey! It wasn't me.
Don't look at me.
Oh, yeah.
So, when I was a teenager, we used to go skinny-dipping in a quarry in New Jersey.
Ran into a few bodies.
Most of them were wearing cement shoes.
And all of them were named Anthony.
Back in the good old days, when the Mob really knew how to take care of business? Ah, yeah.
Actually, it's kind of nice in here.
Yeah, maybe if you hold your nose.
Sulfur spring.
You know, if you bathe in this water every day, you can have a really beautiful complexion.
Oh, yeah? I got you.
Okay.
Yeah, his complexion's definitely improved.
Oh.
Blood exuding from the right nares.
Probable internal head trauma on that side.
Interesting pattern to this wound.
Maybe he hit his head on the rocks? Well, it's an L-shaped wound, so, not a rock.
Probably a pistol butt.
No pruning on the volar pads.
That means he was dead before he hit the water or very soon after.
Well, maybe there was a struggle at the edge of the water.
Or a body dump.
Shirt's torn.
Ambient temp's 97, water's 107, and the liver temp is 106.
5.
So, calculated PMI is four to seven hours.
Well, air unit didn't see any other cars, except the kids' Jeep.
Guy's out here in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night How'd he get out here? And who was he with? Who are you? Who, who, who, who? Who are you? Who, who, who, who? I really wanna know Who are you? Oh-oh-oh Who Come on, tell me who are you, you, you Are you! Hey, it's hot out here.
Stay hydrated.
Yeah.
Thanks.
Let me show you something.
Okay, what have you got? Now, this soil's pretty hard packed, so even if there was another vehicle out here, we probably wouldn't know it.
Mm-hmm.
But I did find something interesting here.
This is a fresh motor oil deposit.
The color of it tells me it's been in the engine for a while.
Someone had a leak.
Yeah, and I'm pretty sure it's not from the kid's Jeep, or one of ours.
Could be how the John Doe got out here.
Mrs.
Robbins has a birthday.
The big one.
She doesn't want to make much of it, which means I have to.
You got any ideas? Can't go wrong with diamonds.
Girl's BFF.
Man's worst enemy.
What about a nice pair of yellow-metal earrings? Oh, come on, Doc.
You can say the word.
Gold for her 50th? I mean, it's okay.
Just add a few carats.
You'll thank me for it later.
Any thoughts on C.
O.
D.
? We can rule out the L-shaped laceration and associated blunt force trauma to the head, because there was no damage to the skull.
I can't say the same for the rest of him.
He was a smorgasbord of disease.
Liver's enlarged and necrotic.
The brain and the kidneys are peppered with precancerous lesions.
The gastrointestinal tract looks like it's been scrubbed with steel wool.
Plus there was nerve tissue degeneration.
How old was he? Not old enough for all of this.
He was a very sick man with a seriously-shortened life expectancy.
So, what did kill him? I was just getting to that.
He drowned.
When the water passed through his larynx, it caused a reflexive spasm, and that sealed the airway, making it impossible for him to breathe.
Not so good for him, but good for us, because it locked a sample of the water that killed him into his vocal folds.
Well, if he did drown in that hot spring, the water sample that Ray collected should match what you've got in that syringe.
Looks like two different sources to me.
Trace will have to confirm, but I would say that our friend here did not drown in that spring.
Floater's prints came back to a Walter Burns.
In the system for assault, 25 years ago.
He got into a bar fight over a girl, but no record since then.
Not exactly a hardened criminal.
No.
You check DMV? Burns lived on a ranch in Cable Springs.
Not far from where we found him.
He owed a pickup, so, Brass put a broadcast out on the plates.
Sent a couple of unis over to the ranch.
No truck.
Not much of anything, really.
The place had pretty much gone to seed.
Next of kin? Had a wife, but she died last year.
I checked Walter Burns' phone records.
Apparently, he didn't have many friends, except maybe one.
More than a dozen calls made back and forth in the last week.
Rosalind Johnson? She is the editor of the Cable Springs Courier.
Editor, publisher, lead reporter, advertising rep.
And I sweep the place out every night.
So, what capacity were you calling Walter Burns three times a day? Walter is a source for a story I'm working on.
What story? Not at liberty to say, but you'll be reading about it soon enough.
Drop the Woodward and Bernstein act, okay? Your source, Walter Burns, was found dead last night.
Oh Your phone records indicate you were the last person to speak with him.
So? What happened? I'm not at liberty to say.
Fair enough.
How about a little give and take? I help you, you help me.
Starting with how Walter died.
No.
Let's start with what you and Walter talked about last night.
We talked about Cable Springs.
About his ranch, his health.
Your turn.
Walter was a very sick man.
You do an autopsy? Yes.
He was riddled with systemic lesions, amongst other things.
Can I see the report? Can I see your story? Do I need to remind you of my First Amendment rights? Ms.
Johnson, we can get a court order and subpoena your notes and sources.
And I'll go to jail before I give them up.
Am I free to go? Just don't go far.
Oh, um, Walter's wife was sick, too.
You might want to look into that.
That's on the house.
Reporters.
Hey, Archie.
Hey.
I got your text.
What's going on? This vehicle.
Found in an empty lot near Fremont.
No driver.
It looks like blood on the outside here.
Yeah, that's never good.
We can't get to it right now, man.
We're working the Walter Burns case.
This is the Walter Burns case.
He drove a pickup.
I know.
Check this out.
This Escalade is equipped with an aftermarket navigation system.
It's full of goodies.
Okay, what are you looking at right now? Cable Springs.
That's Walter Burns' property.
Who's the registered owner? Richard Adams.
Also from Cable Springs.
Been to Walter Burns' property half a dozen times.
Really? What about the hot springs, last night? No.
According to the system, the last trip started in Cable Springs around Main Street, and ended just around Fremont and Nordling where the cops found it.
Positive for blood.
Expended nine millimeter cartridge casing.
Ejector and extractor marks are consistent with a Beretta, or a Taurus semi-auto.
So the gun is fired inside the car, but instead of the blood being on the inside, it's on the outside.
Amylase bubbles.
Amylase indicates saliva.
That's consistent with a gunshot wound to the chest.
You know, I'm thinking, the shooter sat right here in this seat, told the driver to get out.
Please don't don't do this.
I I have a family.
During expiration, blood is forced into the throat, which induces violent coughing, breaking the blood up into tiny droplets that mix with amylase, aka saliva.
Assuming Richard Adams is the victim, what happened to him? Cops searched the area around the lot.
They didn't find anything.
No body, no blood pool.
So where did all this happen? I'm betting the answer's in here.
Nothing throws cold water on a guy's libido like a couple of cops out for a midnight stroll.
Hey, Sheila, roll up the sidewalk.
We're gonna be a while.
You, hey, different story; zero tolerance.
I see you again, I'm gonna give you a ride home to your wife.
That's good PR.
I try.
I spoke with Richard Adams' wife.
She said he called her last night around 8:00 from the office.
The guy's an engineer with a local gas company-- Conservo Solutions.
He said he was on his way home.
Where's his office? Cable Springs.
Yeah? On Main Street? What, do you do tarot readings on the side? Ha-ha.
Adams lives and works in Cable Springs.
This ain't Cable Springs.
No, it is not.
Hey! Uh, excuse me.
Carry on.
Well, the navigation system in his car said he stopped around here for a couple minutes.
To remove the blood spatter from the car.
I figure him for a $50 recreational detour.
Mm.
Maybe that's what the killer wanted us to think.
So they abduct him from his office, and they drive him to Vegas, to Hooker Alley? That's premeditation.
Here we go.
Looks like we got some blood here.
Divot in the pavement, some dry blood Looks like a piece of bone-- I think it's skull fragment.
You know, Adams was probably already down when he was shot the second time.
Spent casing.
Head stamp nine mil.
Yeah, it's the same brand as the nine mil I found in Adams' car.
So the guy has been shot at least twice.
Body couldn't be far.
Uh-huh.
Drag marks.
Well, there he is.
Hello, Richard.
Pretty wife.
Wonder if he called anybody else last night.
Bingo.
What, you just gonna call it right now? All right.
JOHNSON You've reached Rosalind Johnson at the Cable Springs Courier.
I can't take your call right now, but if you leave a message, I'll get back to you.
So, Richard Adams, our dead engineer here, knew Walter Burns, our dead rancher.
Adams was killed less than a day after Burns, and they both made one final call to Rosalind Johnson? She sure has a knack for interviewing dead guys.
Two dead bodies in 24 hours.
That must be one hell of a story she's writing.
Richard had been on edge for weeks.
Even my sister noticed it.
He would check the locks at night, and then he would check them again.
He was convinced that someone was following him, but he wouldn't tell me who.
Your husband was an engineer at Conservo Solutions.
What exactly did he do there? He was a safety inspector.
Conservo Solution's drilling for natural gas in the neighborhood, and so he would go around to the ranches, and he would just make sure there were no problems.
He went to visit a rancher named Walter Burns several times.
He visited a lot of ranchers.
Anyone who complained.
What did they complain about? You have to ask the company.
What can you tell me about a woman named Rosalind Johnson? You mean that reporter? She was in close contact with your husband.
She called him the night he died.
She called him all the time.
She was working on some story.
And are you certain that was the extent of their relationship? Are you suggesting he was having an affair with her? No.
No way.
Richard didn't even want to talk to her, but she was so pushy.
And do you know what they talked about? The woman had a bug up her ass about the drilling.
She was convinced that it wasn't That it wasn't what? I can't talk to you about company business.
Ms.
Adams Conservo Solution employees and their families all sign nondisclosure agreements.
If I violate it, I will lose all of Richard's benefits.
I can't afford that; I have a son in college.
Ms.
Adams someone has murdered your husband.
Now, if you know something, you gotta tell me.
What, did somebody threaten you? Hmm? Someone from that company? Not from the company.
Goat's head?! Someone left this on your front porch? When? The day before yesterday.
The day before your husband died? Okay.
Was it in this bag when you found it? No, it was in that box.
Bug spray should keep the creepy crawlies contained.
Second instar maggots.
Been dead at least 24 hours.
This looks like a hatchet job.
Tissue's necrotic.
No contusions on the wounds caused by the hatchet.
Yeah, this animal was dead before someone separated it from its head.
Oh, dear.
Ooh.
Dozens of lesions, just like our floater Walter Burns.
Could they have had the same disease? Well, maybe it's our goat's C.
O.
D.
Why would you leave an infected goat's head on someone's doorstep? I'll take that one.
I've seen The Godfather 11 times-- this was a message.
Ah.
It's not a horse head, but, uh, hey, times are tough.
So we have a rancher and a goat showing similar gross pathology, both with connections to Cable Springs and the Conservo engineer.
So we'll let this culture grow overnight.
I already popped some lesion pus from a rancher, and I'll pull his tissue slides for comparison.
And maybe we'll get an answer to this medical mystery.
How's it going? Found a bloody print on the inside of the box.
Blood's not human.
It's all goat's blood? Well, as soon as they develop a presumptive test for goat's blood, I'll let you know.
But in the meantime, the print's pretty good.
It's got a right-slant loop, a core and a delta.
It's AFIS quality.
I've been downloading all the images from Richard Adams' cell phone.
You got to see this.
That's my goat.
You sure? Yeah, the left horn is damaged, just like the one I found.
See there? Hey, did you get latitude and longitude within the metadata? Sorry.
Haven't gotten that far yet.
I was getting a little excited.
There we go-- That's right down the road from Walter Burns' property.
Well, maybe his neighbor's got the rest of your billy goat.
And the nine millimeter and the truck with an oil leak.
You think he killed Walter Burns and Richard Adams? I'll ask him when I get there.
I'll run the print.
All right.
Gas company's drilling right in his lap.
I checked out the owner of this place, Bill Gibson.
No priors.
He's been here for 40 years.
His work card's on file.
Well, if his prints are on that box, Greg should be able to get a match.
It's not exactly a thriving enterprise.
I didn't see any livestock.
What do you got, Nick? No oil leak.
But he could've fixed it by now.
Let's see if Mr.
Gibson's here.
I got point-- don't shoot me in the ass.
Mr.
Gibson, LVPD! What the hell you people doing on my property? Sir, put the animal down; show me your hands.
You want to tell me what this is about? Why don't you tell us why you shot that goat? 'Cause he was sick, and I'm putting him out of his misery.
You gonna cut that one's head off, too? Throw it on somebody's porch? Is that why you're here, you think I killed that engineer? Did you? No! What about your neighbor, Walter Burns? Walter was a friend, so was his wife.
In a way, he was lucky.
He got put out of his misery, too.
Sir, we're gonna need you to come to Vegas and answer some questions.
This place may not look like much, but there's only one way I'm leaving.
I don't want to shoot you, sir.
We don't want any trouble, now, Mr.
Gibson.
But trouble's all I got, son.
Mr.
Gibson, you haven't been feeling well lately, have you? What do you care? You know, 40 years, I get good, sweet water from my well.
You want to know how much the gas company paid me for my mineral rights? $50,000.
Only covered one round of my wife's chemo.
Your wife had cancer? Just like Walter's wife, like a whole lot of other people around here.
You know, I called the Water District, the mayor, the EPA, but nobody cared.
We care, Mr.
Gibson.
Now, Walter was gonna get proof that Conservo Solutions was poisoning us! Then he turns up dead! Sir, I'm not gonna ask you again.
You won't have to.
I buried my wife.
Now I'm burying my last animal.
I ain't got nothin' left.
Oh, and now you folks from the county finally come down here, accuse me of murder.
We only want to understand what's going on.
You want to understand? Let me show you.
I don't see any evidence of any kind of explosive device in there.
I don't mean to insult your intelligence, but water's not supposed to blow up like that.
Wasn't there a river in Ohio a long time ago that was so polluted that it caught on fire? The Cuyahoga, just outside of Cleveland.
You know, I had a cousin who lived there.
He said the water didn't flow, it oozed.
Said if you got in that river water, you'd probably dissolve before you'd drown.
It's what started the Clean Water Act.
Maybe we got the same thing here.
Maybe.
What are you thinking? Well I don't mean to insult your intelligence, Nick, but water's not supposed to bubble like that unless it's Perrier.
Smell that.
Serious chemical odor.
Yeah, I smell it-- but the main component of natural gas is methane, and it's odorless.
Odorless but highly flammable.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
What are you doing? Just a little science.
Relax.
You're a smart guy.
So Mr.
Gibson's water contains methane.
Yeah, and who knows what else? Well, I'd bet that it's that "what else" that's got all these people around here and their animals sick.
Ms.
Johnson, would you come inside, please? I heard Bill Gibson is dead.
I'm not authorized to make public statements about an active investigation.
What the hell happened? You have to talk to the PIO.
Thanks for your time.
I can talk off the record.
Please.
So, talk.
There's a problem with Bill Gibson's well water.
We suspect there's a similar problem with the well water in the surrounding ranches.
Tell me something that everybody in Cable Springs doesn't already know.
All right.
Richard Adams was the engineer who ran the safety inspections.
The GPS on his Escalade showed that he visited ranches in the surrounding area.
He knew there was a problem with the water.
Which means Conservo knew as well.
I could have told you that.
Ms.
Johnson, can you tell me why you think Bill Gibson, Walter Burns and Richard Adams are all dead? Because they figured out a year ago what you're just figuring out now.
Conservo was taking shortcuts, ignoring safety protocols.
Gibson and Burns tried to do something about it.
Did you know they were both sick? Lots of sick people in Cable Springs.
Have you seen your doctor recently? Yeah.
You can read about it in my article.
Which is coming out when? Unfortunately, all my sources keep dying on me.
And I'm still missing one crucial piece of the puzzle.
Have you ever heard of "fracking"? Sounds like a sci-fi expletive.
Look it up.
And then give me a call.
Very well.
I'm not gonna touch anything.
Good.
Those the results from the water samples? Yeah.
Hand 'em over.
I analyzed the sample we collected from Mr.
Gibson's well.
Methane, fumaric acid, barite, ammonium silicate Glutaraldehyde?! Benzene?! Huge carcinogen.
isothiazolin-3-one.
All of these chemicals are implicated in cardiovascular and respiratory disorder, endocrine disruption, gastroenterological failure, nerve and urinary system destruction Yeah, uh, bad for you-- I get it.
I've been examining the bacterial culture for Mr.
Burns' brain lesions.
Come on over here.
Come on.
This way.
Take a look.
I don't need a mask, do I? No.
Ooh.
Nasty.
I'd hate to have those floating around my colon.
Or anywhere else.
They like necrotic tissue.
But the real story is in the histo.
The slides confirm Walter Burns was suffering from metastatic carcinoma.
I pulled the clinical autopsy reports on Gibson's wife and Mrs.
Burns-- they both died from metastatic carcinomas.
Because maybe they were drinking bad water.
This is the analysis from the water found in the vocal folds of your hot springs floater.
You see, it's the same toxins, but much higher concentrations.
So Walter Burns may have drowned in the source of the contamination.
If these chemicals are in the water supply in Cable Springs, we have a major public health emergency.
We need to warn people.
And tell them what? A water sample from one well is hardly proof of widespread contamination.
I found it.
What? What Rosalind Johnson was talking about-- fracking.
It's short for hydraulic fracturing.
It's a process used to obtain natural gas from shale rock.
Conservo Solutions pioneered the process in Nevada.
They drill until they hit gas-bearing shale.
Then they pump millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals into the hole.
This creates miniature earthquakes breaking up the rock, releasing the gas.
So they're drilling right through the aquifer in Cable Springs, where everyone gets their drinking water.
What happens to all the chemicals they put down the hole? It says here that half the fracking fluid comes up with the gas, gets pumped into an evaporation pool.
And the rest remains underground? If industry safety protocols aren't followed, methane in the fracking fluid enters the groundwater.
Which means that if a farmer or a rancher is pumping water from his well, gas comes up with it, it mixes with the air-- it creates an extremely combustible mixture.
Well, Conservo Solutions had to file an environmental impact study before they started drilling.
There was no study.
Since 2005, gas companies haven't been bound by the Clean Water Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, or the National Environmental Policy Act.
So I'll do my civic duty and I'll call the Health Department, while you guys are solving crimes.
The water's the crime.
Seriously, it's not Chinatown, Ray.
Okay.
Be more specific.
Now, this is a trace report on the oil that Nick found at the hot springs-- it contained soot, which tells us it came from a diesel engine.
It also contained titanium at 114 ppm.
That's an additive used in commercial fleets.
Which tells us it came from a commercial-grade vehicle.
The only commercial fleet in Cable Springs belongs to Conservo Solutions.
Richard Adams was their employee.
Walter Burns and Bill Gibson both leased their mineral rights to the company.
Well, I'm not sure that's enough for a warrant.
Whoever drowned Walter Burns was driving a commercial diesel truck.
The same person probably killed Richard Adams.
Get us the warrant, Conrad.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Can I help you, Officers? You sure can, big man.
I gotta take a look at your trucks.
Why? 'Cause that piece of paper says so.
Excuse me.
Do you guys have a gym on site, as well? What are you talking about? Well, I see you have a nice little lap pool here.
No, no, no.
That's for the bunny huggers.
Environmental regs.
It's an evaporation pool.
For what? Stuff we use for drilling, mostly water.
We pump it back out and store it there.
Fascinating! Hey, partner, you mind if I use your truck? Ray! Yeah? Got what looks like a piece of a shirt here.
It's the same pattern as the one that farmer was wearing that we pulled out of the lake.
Walter Burns? Yeah, man.
I think he was here.
Gibson said that Burns was going to get proof that Conservo Solutions was poisoning the water.
The proof is in that evaporation pool.
There's a higher concentration of chemicals there, and I bet we can get a match to the water we found in his vocal folds.
Yeah.
Guy rips his shirt jumping the fence 'cause he wants to get a sample out of that pool.
Somebody spots him, hits him in the head with the butt of a gun.
He falls in the pool.
He drowns.
Then they take the body out to the hot springs and dump it there.
Yeah, I buy that for a dollar.
Hey! Yeah? These all the trucks you have? We got a few more out on the road.
We need license plates and drivers' names.
I gotta call my boss.
That's gonna take some time.
Oh, you take all the time you need, Hoss.
Nothing moves till you do.
All right.
Langston.
Hey, Ray.
Found your leaky truck.
And then some.
Blood inside the cab.
Got a Beretta nine mil by the driver's seat.
You hang on to that driver.
We're gonna need to talk to him.
Yeah? Well, he's not going anywhere.
He's not talking, either.
I have been up and down this entire godforsaken road and nobody has seen nothing.
No accidents, no vehicles, nothing.
They're all suffering from retinitis pigmentosa.
Well, have a look at this.
The valve's loose, about a quarter turn.
Almost never happens without human intervention.
I think somebody set up our trucker Cody Trimble to get a flat.
Slow leak.
Tire goes down.
Trimble gets out to fix his tire, becomes the proverbial sitting duck.
And that takes care of Conservo's only loose end.
This wasn't an accident.
Firing one.
The back spatter on this pistol is consistent with the dead trucker's gun.
Right.
If DNA's a match for Richard Adams, then we've got the murder weapon and his killer.
The bullets and the cartridge casings from Adams' Escalade and the alley are both a match.
This guy Trimble made our job easy.
Too easy.
That's some blood on the lanyard ring.
And what looks like some hair.
It's the same color as Walter Burns' hair.
I think we know what made Walter Burns' head wound.
So Burns hopped the fence at Conservo Solutions, hoping to get a water sample from the evaporation pool.
But what he got was a Beretta to the head.
He drowned in that pool, which explains why he had high concentrations of fracking fluid in his vocal folds.
Cody Trimble drove Walter's body out to the hot springs.
Which we confirmed by the blood we found in Cody's truck.
Right.
So a Conservo Solutions trucker with no priors goes on a murder spree.
He kills two Conservo whistle-blowers.
He then takes a hit for the home team? That's some serious company loyalty.
Thank you, gentlemen.
That's it.
Case closed.
What? Seriously? You're going to let some corporate lawyers tell us when our investigation is over? No.
They're not telling you.
I'm telling you.
You got your evidence.
You got the bad guy.
Justice has been served.
Well, we still need a water sample from Conservo's evaporation pool.
For what? Because Walter Burns drowned in fracking fluid, and the only place it can be found is in that pool.
You don't need a sample, because there's not going to be a trial.
Killer's dead.
Oh, like the engineer and Walter Burns? Another happy accident for Conservo? Et tu, Brass? No one can accuse me of being a bleeding heart, but I know that someone with deep pockets hired that trucker to do their dirty work and then disposed of him.
Don't you want to nail those bastards? Yeah.
Of course I do.
But do you have any evidence to prove that? Bill Gibson blew himself up because Conservo Solutions took everything away from him.
They took his ranch.
They took his health.
They took his wife.
And there's hundreds of Bill Gibsons out there.
Catherine, you're a crime scene investigator, not Erin Brockovich.
What about the hit and run? Keep the case open, and let me know if anything else turns up.
"Fracking" is industry slang for "hydraulic fracturing.
" It's the method that Conservo's uses to drill for natural gas.
You get a gold star.
Thank you.
Walter Burns busted into Conservo's well site to steal a sample from the evaporation pool.
That was the missing piece of your puzzle.
I tried to talk Walter out of it.
I told him I had a better way-- an insider who was going to give me corporate documents.
Proof that Conservo knew they were polluting the water and they chose to cover it up.
And Walter didn't listen.
Richard Adams got himself killed before he could deliver.
I worked Richard for months.
He was the one going to those ranches.
He was the first to see people were dying.
Short, controlled breaths.
That's it.
That's it.
I thought I could expose Conservo before it was too late.
I believed that stuff about "one person can change the world.
" Maybe I was wrong.
I'm not going to quit.
So what can you do now? Publish what I have.
Rosalind, all you have are anecdotal accounts.
If you publish without the hard evidence to back it up, Conservo will bury you.
They will shut your newspaper down.
They will try.
That's how they win.
By threatening people.
Or buying their silence.
Fear is their biggest weapon.
But funny thing is, I'm not afraid anymore.
Guess it's 'cause I don't have much to lose.
I have a friend who may be able to help you.
She's starting a clinical trial.
Holding a slot open for you.
Least I could do.
Man 2: Oh, that's fantastic.
What are you guys talking about? Hey, no.
We were just You know, we were gonna have a little blast.
- Grab this.
- Take a swing of this.
Oh! Lexie.
Come on.
Lexie, come on.
Here.
Hey, hey, come on, Lexie.
I'm coming! I'm coming! I'm coming! Cannonball.
Cannonball.
Okay, okay.
Is it cold? I don't want to get cold.
Lexie, come on! Oh.
Got to get in here.
It's like a Jacuzzi.
Oh, yeah, right.
Uh-oh.
Down, boys.
Hello.
I see you.
Oh, it smells like rotten eggs.
It's just sulfur.
It's good for the zits.
Good for you.
You've been trying to see me naked for a year.
We won't look.
Okay, fine.
Close your eyes.
Hey, huh? Huh? Ooh Oh! Hey! Hey! Hey, what what the hell was that for? You got a look.
You don't need to grab my ass.
I didn't touch you.
Right.
Come on.
What the hell! Hey Hey! Come on! Whoa.
Hey! It wasn't me.
Don't look at me.
Oh, yeah.
So, when I was a teenager, we used to go skinny-dipping in a quarry in New Jersey.
Ran into a few bodies.
Most of them were wearing cement shoes.
And all of them were named Anthony.
Back in the good old days, when the Mob really knew how to take care of business? Ah, yeah.
Actually, it's kind of nice in here.
Yeah, maybe if you hold your nose.
Sulfur spring.
You know, if you bathe in this water every day, you can have a really beautiful complexion.
Oh, yeah? I got you.
Okay.
Yeah, his complexion's definitely improved.
Oh.
Blood exuding from the right nares.
Probable internal head trauma on that side.
Interesting pattern to this wound.
Maybe he hit his head on the rocks? Well, it's an L-shaped wound, so, not a rock.
Probably a pistol butt.
No pruning on the volar pads.
That means he was dead before he hit the water or very soon after.
Well, maybe there was a struggle at the edge of the water.
Or a body dump.
Shirt's torn.
Ambient temp's 97, water's 107, and the liver temp is 106.
5.
So, calculated PMI is four to seven hours.
Well, air unit didn't see any other cars, except the kids' Jeep.
Guy's out here in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night How'd he get out here? And who was he with? Who are you? Who, who, who, who? Who are you? Who, who, who, who? I really wanna know Who are you? Oh-oh-oh Who Come on, tell me who are you, you, you Are you! Hey, it's hot out here.
Stay hydrated.
Yeah.
Thanks.
Let me show you something.
Okay, what have you got? Now, this soil's pretty hard packed, so even if there was another vehicle out here, we probably wouldn't know it.
Mm-hmm.
But I did find something interesting here.
This is a fresh motor oil deposit.
The color of it tells me it's been in the engine for a while.
Someone had a leak.
Yeah, and I'm pretty sure it's not from the kid's Jeep, or one of ours.
Could be how the John Doe got out here.
Mrs.
Robbins has a birthday.
The big one.
She doesn't want to make much of it, which means I have to.
You got any ideas? Can't go wrong with diamonds.
Girl's BFF.
Man's worst enemy.
What about a nice pair of yellow-metal earrings? Oh, come on, Doc.
You can say the word.
Gold for her 50th? I mean, it's okay.
Just add a few carats.
You'll thank me for it later.
Any thoughts on C.
O.
D.
? We can rule out the L-shaped laceration and associated blunt force trauma to the head, because there was no damage to the skull.
I can't say the same for the rest of him.
He was a smorgasbord of disease.
Liver's enlarged and necrotic.
The brain and the kidneys are peppered with precancerous lesions.
The gastrointestinal tract looks like it's been scrubbed with steel wool.
Plus there was nerve tissue degeneration.
How old was he? Not old enough for all of this.
He was a very sick man with a seriously-shortened life expectancy.
So, what did kill him? I was just getting to that.
He drowned.
When the water passed through his larynx, it caused a reflexive spasm, and that sealed the airway, making it impossible for him to breathe.
Not so good for him, but good for us, because it locked a sample of the water that killed him into his vocal folds.
Well, if he did drown in that hot spring, the water sample that Ray collected should match what you've got in that syringe.
Looks like two different sources to me.
Trace will have to confirm, but I would say that our friend here did not drown in that spring.
Floater's prints came back to a Walter Burns.
In the system for assault, 25 years ago.
He got into a bar fight over a girl, but no record since then.
Not exactly a hardened criminal.
No.
You check DMV? Burns lived on a ranch in Cable Springs.
Not far from where we found him.
He owed a pickup, so, Brass put a broadcast out on the plates.
Sent a couple of unis over to the ranch.
No truck.
Not much of anything, really.
The place had pretty much gone to seed.
Next of kin? Had a wife, but she died last year.
I checked Walter Burns' phone records.
Apparently, he didn't have many friends, except maybe one.
More than a dozen calls made back and forth in the last week.
Rosalind Johnson? She is the editor of the Cable Springs Courier.
Editor, publisher, lead reporter, advertising rep.
And I sweep the place out every night.
So, what capacity were you calling Walter Burns three times a day? Walter is a source for a story I'm working on.
What story? Not at liberty to say, but you'll be reading about it soon enough.
Drop the Woodward and Bernstein act, okay? Your source, Walter Burns, was found dead last night.
Oh Your phone records indicate you were the last person to speak with him.
So? What happened? I'm not at liberty to say.
Fair enough.
How about a little give and take? I help you, you help me.
Starting with how Walter died.
No.
Let's start with what you and Walter talked about last night.
We talked about Cable Springs.
About his ranch, his health.
Your turn.
Walter was a very sick man.
You do an autopsy? Yes.
He was riddled with systemic lesions, amongst other things.
Can I see the report? Can I see your story? Do I need to remind you of my First Amendment rights? Ms.
Johnson, we can get a court order and subpoena your notes and sources.
And I'll go to jail before I give them up.
Am I free to go? Just don't go far.
Oh, um, Walter's wife was sick, too.
You might want to look into that.
That's on the house.
Reporters.
Hey, Archie.
Hey.
I got your text.
What's going on? This vehicle.
Found in an empty lot near Fremont.
No driver.
It looks like blood on the outside here.
Yeah, that's never good.
We can't get to it right now, man.
We're working the Walter Burns case.
This is the Walter Burns case.
He drove a pickup.
I know.
Check this out.
This Escalade is equipped with an aftermarket navigation system.
It's full of goodies.
Okay, what are you looking at right now? Cable Springs.
That's Walter Burns' property.
Who's the registered owner? Richard Adams.
Also from Cable Springs.
Been to Walter Burns' property half a dozen times.
Really? What about the hot springs, last night? No.
According to the system, the last trip started in Cable Springs around Main Street, and ended just around Fremont and Nordling where the cops found it.
Positive for blood.
Expended nine millimeter cartridge casing.
Ejector and extractor marks are consistent with a Beretta, or a Taurus semi-auto.
So the gun is fired inside the car, but instead of the blood being on the inside, it's on the outside.
Amylase bubbles.
Amylase indicates saliva.
That's consistent with a gunshot wound to the chest.
You know, I'm thinking, the shooter sat right here in this seat, told the driver to get out.
Please don't don't do this.
I I have a family.
During expiration, blood is forced into the throat, which induces violent coughing, breaking the blood up into tiny droplets that mix with amylase, aka saliva.
Assuming Richard Adams is the victim, what happened to him? Cops searched the area around the lot.
They didn't find anything.
No body, no blood pool.
So where did all this happen? I'm betting the answer's in here.
Nothing throws cold water on a guy's libido like a couple of cops out for a midnight stroll.
Hey, Sheila, roll up the sidewalk.
We're gonna be a while.
You, hey, different story; zero tolerance.
I see you again, I'm gonna give you a ride home to your wife.
That's good PR.
I try.
I spoke with Richard Adams' wife.
She said he called her last night around 8:00 from the office.
The guy's an engineer with a local gas company-- Conservo Solutions.
He said he was on his way home.
Where's his office? Cable Springs.
Yeah? On Main Street? What, do you do tarot readings on the side? Ha-ha.
Adams lives and works in Cable Springs.
This ain't Cable Springs.
No, it is not.
Hey! Uh, excuse me.
Carry on.
Well, the navigation system in his car said he stopped around here for a couple minutes.
To remove the blood spatter from the car.
I figure him for a $50 recreational detour.
Mm.
Maybe that's what the killer wanted us to think.
So they abduct him from his office, and they drive him to Vegas, to Hooker Alley? That's premeditation.
Here we go.
Looks like we got some blood here.
Divot in the pavement, some dry blood Looks like a piece of bone-- I think it's skull fragment.
You know, Adams was probably already down when he was shot the second time.
Spent casing.
Head stamp nine mil.
Yeah, it's the same brand as the nine mil I found in Adams' car.
So the guy has been shot at least twice.
Body couldn't be far.
Uh-huh.
Drag marks.
Well, there he is.
Hello, Richard.
Pretty wife.
Wonder if he called anybody else last night.
Bingo.
What, you just gonna call it right now? All right.
JOHNSON You've reached Rosalind Johnson at the Cable Springs Courier.
I can't take your call right now, but if you leave a message, I'll get back to you.
So, Richard Adams, our dead engineer here, knew Walter Burns, our dead rancher.
Adams was killed less than a day after Burns, and they both made one final call to Rosalind Johnson? She sure has a knack for interviewing dead guys.
Two dead bodies in 24 hours.
That must be one hell of a story she's writing.
Richard had been on edge for weeks.
Even my sister noticed it.
He would check the locks at night, and then he would check them again.
He was convinced that someone was following him, but he wouldn't tell me who.
Your husband was an engineer at Conservo Solutions.
What exactly did he do there? He was a safety inspector.
Conservo Solution's drilling for natural gas in the neighborhood, and so he would go around to the ranches, and he would just make sure there were no problems.
He went to visit a rancher named Walter Burns several times.
He visited a lot of ranchers.
Anyone who complained.
What did they complain about? You have to ask the company.
What can you tell me about a woman named Rosalind Johnson? You mean that reporter? She was in close contact with your husband.
She called him the night he died.
She called him all the time.
She was working on some story.
And are you certain that was the extent of their relationship? Are you suggesting he was having an affair with her? No.
No way.
Richard didn't even want to talk to her, but she was so pushy.
And do you know what they talked about? The woman had a bug up her ass about the drilling.
She was convinced that it wasn't That it wasn't what? I can't talk to you about company business.
Ms.
Adams Conservo Solution employees and their families all sign nondisclosure agreements.
If I violate it, I will lose all of Richard's benefits.
I can't afford that; I have a son in college.
Ms.
Adams someone has murdered your husband.
Now, if you know something, you gotta tell me.
What, did somebody threaten you? Hmm? Someone from that company? Not from the company.
Goat's head?! Someone left this on your front porch? When? The day before yesterday.
The day before your husband died? Okay.
Was it in this bag when you found it? No, it was in that box.
Bug spray should keep the creepy crawlies contained.
Second instar maggots.
Been dead at least 24 hours.
This looks like a hatchet job.
Tissue's necrotic.
No contusions on the wounds caused by the hatchet.
Yeah, this animal was dead before someone separated it from its head.
Oh, dear.
Ooh.
Dozens of lesions, just like our floater Walter Burns.
Could they have had the same disease? Well, maybe it's our goat's C.
O.
D.
Why would you leave an infected goat's head on someone's doorstep? I'll take that one.
I've seen The Godfather 11 times-- this was a message.
Ah.
It's not a horse head, but, uh, hey, times are tough.
So we have a rancher and a goat showing similar gross pathology, both with connections to Cable Springs and the Conservo engineer.
So we'll let this culture grow overnight.
I already popped some lesion pus from a rancher, and I'll pull his tissue slides for comparison.
And maybe we'll get an answer to this medical mystery.
How's it going? Found a bloody print on the inside of the box.
Blood's not human.
It's all goat's blood? Well, as soon as they develop a presumptive test for goat's blood, I'll let you know.
But in the meantime, the print's pretty good.
It's got a right-slant loop, a core and a delta.
It's AFIS quality.
I've been downloading all the images from Richard Adams' cell phone.
You got to see this.
That's my goat.
You sure? Yeah, the left horn is damaged, just like the one I found.
See there? Hey, did you get latitude and longitude within the metadata? Sorry.
Haven't gotten that far yet.
I was getting a little excited.
There we go-- That's right down the road from Walter Burns' property.
Well, maybe his neighbor's got the rest of your billy goat.
And the nine millimeter and the truck with an oil leak.
You think he killed Walter Burns and Richard Adams? I'll ask him when I get there.
I'll run the print.
All right.
Gas company's drilling right in his lap.
I checked out the owner of this place, Bill Gibson.
No priors.
He's been here for 40 years.
His work card's on file.
Well, if his prints are on that box, Greg should be able to get a match.
It's not exactly a thriving enterprise.
I didn't see any livestock.
What do you got, Nick? No oil leak.
But he could've fixed it by now.
Let's see if Mr.
Gibson's here.
I got point-- don't shoot me in the ass.
Mr.
Gibson, LVPD! What the hell you people doing on my property? Sir, put the animal down; show me your hands.
You want to tell me what this is about? Why don't you tell us why you shot that goat? 'Cause he was sick, and I'm putting him out of his misery.
You gonna cut that one's head off, too? Throw it on somebody's porch? Is that why you're here, you think I killed that engineer? Did you? No! What about your neighbor, Walter Burns? Walter was a friend, so was his wife.
In a way, he was lucky.
He got put out of his misery, too.
Sir, we're gonna need you to come to Vegas and answer some questions.
This place may not look like much, but there's only one way I'm leaving.
I don't want to shoot you, sir.
We don't want any trouble, now, Mr.
Gibson.
But trouble's all I got, son.
Mr.
Gibson, you haven't been feeling well lately, have you? What do you care? You know, 40 years, I get good, sweet water from my well.
You want to know how much the gas company paid me for my mineral rights? $50,000.
Only covered one round of my wife's chemo.
Your wife had cancer? Just like Walter's wife, like a whole lot of other people around here.
You know, I called the Water District, the mayor, the EPA, but nobody cared.
We care, Mr.
Gibson.
Now, Walter was gonna get proof that Conservo Solutions was poisoning us! Then he turns up dead! Sir, I'm not gonna ask you again.
You won't have to.
I buried my wife.
Now I'm burying my last animal.
I ain't got nothin' left.
Oh, and now you folks from the county finally come down here, accuse me of murder.
We only want to understand what's going on.
You want to understand? Let me show you.
I don't see any evidence of any kind of explosive device in there.
I don't mean to insult your intelligence, but water's not supposed to blow up like that.
Wasn't there a river in Ohio a long time ago that was so polluted that it caught on fire? The Cuyahoga, just outside of Cleveland.
You know, I had a cousin who lived there.
He said the water didn't flow, it oozed.
Said if you got in that river water, you'd probably dissolve before you'd drown.
It's what started the Clean Water Act.
Maybe we got the same thing here.
Maybe.
What are you thinking? Well I don't mean to insult your intelligence, Nick, but water's not supposed to bubble like that unless it's Perrier.
Smell that.
Serious chemical odor.
Yeah, I smell it-- but the main component of natural gas is methane, and it's odorless.
Odorless but highly flammable.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
What are you doing? Just a little science.
Relax.
You're a smart guy.
So Mr.
Gibson's water contains methane.
Yeah, and who knows what else? Well, I'd bet that it's that "what else" that's got all these people around here and their animals sick.
Ms.
Johnson, would you come inside, please? I heard Bill Gibson is dead.
I'm not authorized to make public statements about an active investigation.
What the hell happened? You have to talk to the PIO.
Thanks for your time.
I can talk off the record.
Please.
So, talk.
There's a problem with Bill Gibson's well water.
We suspect there's a similar problem with the well water in the surrounding ranches.
Tell me something that everybody in Cable Springs doesn't already know.
All right.
Richard Adams was the engineer who ran the safety inspections.
The GPS on his Escalade showed that he visited ranches in the surrounding area.
He knew there was a problem with the water.
Which means Conservo knew as well.
I could have told you that.
Ms.
Johnson, can you tell me why you think Bill Gibson, Walter Burns and Richard Adams are all dead? Because they figured out a year ago what you're just figuring out now.
Conservo was taking shortcuts, ignoring safety protocols.
Gibson and Burns tried to do something about it.
Did you know they were both sick? Lots of sick people in Cable Springs.
Have you seen your doctor recently? Yeah.
You can read about it in my article.
Which is coming out when? Unfortunately, all my sources keep dying on me.
And I'm still missing one crucial piece of the puzzle.
Have you ever heard of "fracking"? Sounds like a sci-fi expletive.
Look it up.
And then give me a call.
Very well.
I'm not gonna touch anything.
Good.
Those the results from the water samples? Yeah.
Hand 'em over.
I analyzed the sample we collected from Mr.
Gibson's well.
Methane, fumaric acid, barite, ammonium silicate Glutaraldehyde?! Benzene?! Huge carcinogen.
isothiazolin-3-one.
All of these chemicals are implicated in cardiovascular and respiratory disorder, endocrine disruption, gastroenterological failure, nerve and urinary system destruction Yeah, uh, bad for you-- I get it.
I've been examining the bacterial culture for Mr.
Burns' brain lesions.
Come on over here.
Come on.
This way.
Take a look.
I don't need a mask, do I? No.
Ooh.
Nasty.
I'd hate to have those floating around my colon.
Or anywhere else.
They like necrotic tissue.
But the real story is in the histo.
The slides confirm Walter Burns was suffering from metastatic carcinoma.
I pulled the clinical autopsy reports on Gibson's wife and Mrs.
Burns-- they both died from metastatic carcinomas.
Because maybe they were drinking bad water.
This is the analysis from the water found in the vocal folds of your hot springs floater.
You see, it's the same toxins, but much higher concentrations.
So Walter Burns may have drowned in the source of the contamination.
If these chemicals are in the water supply in Cable Springs, we have a major public health emergency.
We need to warn people.
And tell them what? A water sample from one well is hardly proof of widespread contamination.
I found it.
What? What Rosalind Johnson was talking about-- fracking.
It's short for hydraulic fracturing.
It's a process used to obtain natural gas from shale rock.
Conservo Solutions pioneered the process in Nevada.
They drill until they hit gas-bearing shale.
Then they pump millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals into the hole.
This creates miniature earthquakes breaking up the rock, releasing the gas.
So they're drilling right through the aquifer in Cable Springs, where everyone gets their drinking water.
What happens to all the chemicals they put down the hole? It says here that half the fracking fluid comes up with the gas, gets pumped into an evaporation pool.
And the rest remains underground? If industry safety protocols aren't followed, methane in the fracking fluid enters the groundwater.
Which means that if a farmer or a rancher is pumping water from his well, gas comes up with it, it mixes with the air-- it creates an extremely combustible mixture.
Well, Conservo Solutions had to file an environmental impact study before they started drilling.
There was no study.
Since 2005, gas companies haven't been bound by the Clean Water Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, or the National Environmental Policy Act.
So I'll do my civic duty and I'll call the Health Department, while you guys are solving crimes.
The water's the crime.
Seriously, it's not Chinatown, Ray.
Okay.
Be more specific.
Now, this is a trace report on the oil that Nick found at the hot springs-- it contained soot, which tells us it came from a diesel engine.
It also contained titanium at 114 ppm.
That's an additive used in commercial fleets.
Which tells us it came from a commercial-grade vehicle.
The only commercial fleet in Cable Springs belongs to Conservo Solutions.
Richard Adams was their employee.
Walter Burns and Bill Gibson both leased their mineral rights to the company.
Well, I'm not sure that's enough for a warrant.
Whoever drowned Walter Burns was driving a commercial diesel truck.
The same person probably killed Richard Adams.
Get us the warrant, Conrad.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Can I help you, Officers? You sure can, big man.
I gotta take a look at your trucks.
Why? 'Cause that piece of paper says so.
Excuse me.
Do you guys have a gym on site, as well? What are you talking about? Well, I see you have a nice little lap pool here.
No, no, no.
That's for the bunny huggers.
Environmental regs.
It's an evaporation pool.
For what? Stuff we use for drilling, mostly water.
We pump it back out and store it there.
Fascinating! Hey, partner, you mind if I use your truck? Ray! Yeah? Got what looks like a piece of a shirt here.
It's the same pattern as the one that farmer was wearing that we pulled out of the lake.
Walter Burns? Yeah, man.
I think he was here.
Gibson said that Burns was going to get proof that Conservo Solutions was poisoning the water.
The proof is in that evaporation pool.
There's a higher concentration of chemicals there, and I bet we can get a match to the water we found in his vocal folds.
Yeah.
Guy rips his shirt jumping the fence 'cause he wants to get a sample out of that pool.
Somebody spots him, hits him in the head with the butt of a gun.
He falls in the pool.
He drowns.
Then they take the body out to the hot springs and dump it there.
Yeah, I buy that for a dollar.
Hey! Yeah? These all the trucks you have? We got a few more out on the road.
We need license plates and drivers' names.
I gotta call my boss.
That's gonna take some time.
Oh, you take all the time you need, Hoss.
Nothing moves till you do.
All right.
Langston.
Hey, Ray.
Found your leaky truck.
And then some.
Blood inside the cab.
Got a Beretta nine mil by the driver's seat.
You hang on to that driver.
We're gonna need to talk to him.
Yeah? Well, he's not going anywhere.
He's not talking, either.
I have been up and down this entire godforsaken road and nobody has seen nothing.
No accidents, no vehicles, nothing.
They're all suffering from retinitis pigmentosa.
Well, have a look at this.
The valve's loose, about a quarter turn.
Almost never happens without human intervention.
I think somebody set up our trucker Cody Trimble to get a flat.
Slow leak.
Tire goes down.
Trimble gets out to fix his tire, becomes the proverbial sitting duck.
And that takes care of Conservo's only loose end.
This wasn't an accident.
Firing one.
The back spatter on this pistol is consistent with the dead trucker's gun.
Right.
If DNA's a match for Richard Adams, then we've got the murder weapon and his killer.
The bullets and the cartridge casings from Adams' Escalade and the alley are both a match.
This guy Trimble made our job easy.
Too easy.
That's some blood on the lanyard ring.
And what looks like some hair.
It's the same color as Walter Burns' hair.
I think we know what made Walter Burns' head wound.
So Burns hopped the fence at Conservo Solutions, hoping to get a water sample from the evaporation pool.
But what he got was a Beretta to the head.
He drowned in that pool, which explains why he had high concentrations of fracking fluid in his vocal folds.
Cody Trimble drove Walter's body out to the hot springs.
Which we confirmed by the blood we found in Cody's truck.
Right.
So a Conservo Solutions trucker with no priors goes on a murder spree.
He kills two Conservo whistle-blowers.
He then takes a hit for the home team? That's some serious company loyalty.
Thank you, gentlemen.
That's it.
Case closed.
What? Seriously? You're going to let some corporate lawyers tell us when our investigation is over? No.
They're not telling you.
I'm telling you.
You got your evidence.
You got the bad guy.
Justice has been served.
Well, we still need a water sample from Conservo's evaporation pool.
For what? Because Walter Burns drowned in fracking fluid, and the only place it can be found is in that pool.
You don't need a sample, because there's not going to be a trial.
Killer's dead.
Oh, like the engineer and Walter Burns? Another happy accident for Conservo? Et tu, Brass? No one can accuse me of being a bleeding heart, but I know that someone with deep pockets hired that trucker to do their dirty work and then disposed of him.
Don't you want to nail those bastards? Yeah.
Of course I do.
But do you have any evidence to prove that? Bill Gibson blew himself up because Conservo Solutions took everything away from him.
They took his ranch.
They took his health.
They took his wife.
And there's hundreds of Bill Gibsons out there.
Catherine, you're a crime scene investigator, not Erin Brockovich.
What about the hit and run? Keep the case open, and let me know if anything else turns up.
"Fracking" is industry slang for "hydraulic fracturing.
" It's the method that Conservo's uses to drill for natural gas.
You get a gold star.
Thank you.
Walter Burns busted into Conservo's well site to steal a sample from the evaporation pool.
That was the missing piece of your puzzle.
I tried to talk Walter out of it.
I told him I had a better way-- an insider who was going to give me corporate documents.
Proof that Conservo knew they were polluting the water and they chose to cover it up.
And Walter didn't listen.
Richard Adams got himself killed before he could deliver.
I worked Richard for months.
He was the one going to those ranches.
He was the first to see people were dying.
Short, controlled breaths.
That's it.
That's it.
I thought I could expose Conservo before it was too late.
I believed that stuff about "one person can change the world.
" Maybe I was wrong.
I'm not going to quit.
So what can you do now? Publish what I have.
Rosalind, all you have are anecdotal accounts.
If you publish without the hard evidence to back it up, Conservo will bury you.
They will shut your newspaper down.
They will try.
That's how they win.
By threatening people.
Or buying their silence.
Fear is their biggest weapon.
But funny thing is, I'm not afraid anymore.
Guess it's 'cause I don't have much to lose.
I have a friend who may be able to help you.
She's starting a clinical trial.
Holding a slot open for you.
Least I could do.