House Rivals by Mike Lawson Read Free Book Online Page A

Great Plains. They actually have satellite pictures showing this. Flaring is bad in that it not only contributes to greenhouse gases but it actually wastes a lot of gas. They’re burning off millions of cubic feet of gas a day.”
    DeMarco wondered if she was exaggerating—but he doubted she was. “So why do the gas companies do it?” he said.
    â€œBecause it’s cheaper to flare the gas than it is to install the equipment to capture it. Or they’ll say it’s for safety reasons. Anyway, this legislator from Williston runs a bakery and she was pushing for legislation to reduce flaring. Then out of the blue comes an old lady, who looks like everybody’s grandma, and she files a lawsuit saying she was poisoned by a cupcake.”
    â€œA cupcake?”
    â€œYeah. She said she found rat feces in the cupcake and it made her sick, and she got a lawyer to file a suit. This baker couldn’t afford to fight a lawsuit, and if a rumor got out that she had rat shit in her flour, it would kill her business. Then the same thing happened, just like with Stevens. The lawsuit was dropped and the baker quit being a squeaky wheel. When I asked her about it, she started crying and wouldn’t talk to me. Shouldn’t you be taking notes or something?”
    â€œNo,” DeMarco said. “I don’t need to take notes, not at this point. I get the gist of what you’re saying but the thing is, I’m not sure what to do next. I have to give it some thought.”
    â€œWell, I know what you need to do,” Sarah said, her eyes blazing like they might set DeMarco’s martini on fire. “First you need to go read my blog and then get Mr. Mahoney to read it.”
    DeMarco almost laughed out loud. Mahoney never read anything. The people who worked for him read the documents that Mahoney was supposed to read, then told him what the documents said.
    â€œThen what Mahoney needs to do is convince the attorney general to investigate Curtis. What Curtis is doing isn’t happening in a single state, so it would be appropriate to get the FBI and the Justice Department involved. They need to form up a federal task force.”
    â€œA federal task force?” DeMarco said. “Based on a cupcake lawsuit?”
    â€œShit, I’m just wasting my time with you,” Sarah said. She started to get up but DeMarco placed a hand on her forearm. “Hold on, Sarah. I just need to think about all this, then maybe I’ll talk to Mahoney.” He had no intention of talking to Mahoney.
    â€œOkay,” Sarah said, then tears welled up in her eyes. “I just can’t get anybody to take me seriously and this is serious stuff. Curtis is making a mockery out of democracy and nobody cares.”
    â€œI care, Sarah.” Actually the only thing DeMarco really cared about was this girl not getting hurt. Although he admired her courage and her commitment, he thought she was being naïve if she believed she could change a political system that had become blatantly corrupt. She also didn’t seem to understand that without solid evidence—which she didn’t appear to have—she would never be able to prove to the satisfaction of any court in the land that Curtis was doing anything illegal. But his job wasn’t to help her advance her cause; his job, as far as he was concerned, was to keep her from getting killed.
    â€œNow tell me,” DeMarco said, “about these death threats and the other things people have done to try to get you to stop.”

6
    â€œDo you hear me?” Curtis said. “I want that bitch to quit writing about me.”
    Marjorie and Bill were still sitting in the Pirogue Grille with Leonard Curtis, less than two miles from where DeMarco was meeting with Sarah Johnson. By now their coffee was cold and the waitress didn’t bring them fresh cups because Curtis had rudely instructed the waitress to leave them alone.
    Sarah