Lincoln High School

After signing in at the front office, Jim and Blair headed for Room 218, the biology lab. Chaos reigned as the two men walked into the room. A half dozen students were yelling back and forth. An older gray haired woman moved among them issuing instructions and offering assistance with equal measure. Her energy and affection for her students were clearly evident in her tone and body language.

She quickly noticed the two new arrivals to her domain. "Can I help you gentlemen?" she asked, moving in front of them, staying between them and her young charges.

Both men withdrew their badges and offered them for her inspection.

"Ms. Palmer, we're here because we're investigating the illegal dumping that's occurring out at Bear Creek. We were hoping that you or one of your students might have seen or heard something that might help us," Blair volunteered.

"I heard about that. We're trying to put together a team to do some intensive study and assist with the clean up activities this summer."

She turned to her students and clapped her hands to get their attention. "Would everyone please take a seat for moment? These two men are from the police department and they would like to ask you some questions."

To Jim's amazement, the students moved quickly and quietly to take seats at the desks in the middle of the room. While the students were settling down, Jim gestured for Blair to take the lead. His partner had a knack for establishing a good rapport with kids.

As Blair began his explanation of why they were visiting, Jim's attention was immediately drawn to two of the students who were sitting in the back of the room. The girl was whispering to the boy sitting next to her.

Jim piggybacked his hearing with his vision and eavesdropped.

"We should tell them," the girl whispered.

"We didn't really see anything. Besides, we'll get into trouble for being at the site that late."

"It wasn't our fault we got lost. The stupid batteries in the flashlight died."

"And how many times has Ms. Palmer told us about being prepared when we are out on a site? She might not let us participate on the team this summer if she knew what happened."

Blair was wrapping up his statement to the students as Jim moved around to the back of the room. The two students were still whispering back and forth, paying no attention to him as he continued to listen.

"I still think we should tell them. What happened out there sucked!"

"Yeah, but we can do something about cleaning up the mess. We didn't see who did it and if we tell she might drop us from the group."

"But, we saw the truck..." The girl stopped talking when she realized that the rest of the room was silent. She blushed slightly at the glare she got from Ms. Palmer.

Jim wasn't surprised when none of the students were willing to volunteer any information. He pulled out several of his cards and handed one to each student, speaking as he moved back to the front of the room. "If any of you should remember anything, please don't hesitate to call us. Also, I can assure you that if necessary what you DO say will be kept in the strictness of confidence. Thanks for your time."

Jim headed for the door without saying another word. Puzzled, Blair followed his partner's lead and left the room.

"What's going on, Jim. We could've stuck around and tried to talk to them."

"Not in there, Chief. I think we'll have better luck if we wait outside and let them come to us."

Jim paused for a moment, listening to Ms. Palmer release her students for the day. He quickened his pace to the front door, leaving Blair in his wake.

Doubling his stride, Blair caught up with him just outside the door. "Okay, just what did you hear?"

"A possible lead," Jim replied smugly. "It may not be anything, but those kids were not going to talk in front of their teacher."

"So, now we wait and see if they'll come to us. Sounds like a plan."

They didn't have to wait long. Jim wasn't surprised to see the two students he had overheard coming towards them.

"Here they come." Jim and Blair leaned back against the front of the pickup, waiting for the kids to speak first.

Not surprisingly, the girl was the first to start the conversation. "Did you mean what you said? About keeping this confidential?"

"Depending on what you can tell us, we may need an official statement at some point. Why don't you tell us what you saw? We can keep it off the record for now."

The boy sighed, resigned to the situation that they were going to talk. "My name is David Kettel. This is Becky Paris. We were out at Bear Creek on Thursday night. We were doing a count of the nocturnal wildlife in the area. It was around two in the morning when we saw the truck."

"You know the exact time?" Jim asked.

Becky nodded. "We were two hours past our curfew and still not really close to getting home. So we were kinda watching the clock."

"What can you tell us about the truck?"

"Not much. It was dark out. It was a pretty big truck, barely fit on that road. It was one of those septic tank trucks. There was writing on the door, but it was too dark to read the words. The background was reflective white, that's the only reason I noticed it."

"Did you notice the name of the hauler anywhere else on the truck?"

Both kids shook their heads. "Just the word septic on the side of the tank," David added.

Jim noted a thoughtful expression on the kid's face. He waited patiently for the young man to gather his thoughts. "There was something else that might help you. The truck had a double set of taillights. The top light on the driver's side was burned out."

Becky agreed before adding, "I'm sorry we can't tell you anything more to go on. It was just too dark to see much."

"You've given us more than we had before," Jim said. "If you think of anything else, please give us a call."

With a final wave, the two students headed for the bus stop.

Blair moved around to the passenger side of the truck and reached for the door. "Not much to go on."

Jim climbed in behind the wheel and turned on the engine. "We know that we're dealing with a septic system hauler, white reflective sign on the door, and a missing taillight. Look, it's late. We aren't going to get anything more today. Why don't we pick up some dinner and head home?"

"Chinese, I'm in the mood for a little Chinese."

Tuesday Morning
Major Crime Bullpen

After a relatively sleepless night, the two men headed to the office. It was too early to talk to the last name left on the list of contacts provided by Inspector Cole or to start investigating the four contractors whose names were on the list of potential suspects.

There was always paperwork cluttering their desks and a few hours in the bullpen would be well spent.

Shortly after their arrival, Blair's attention was quickly drawn to an elderly man with a cane entering the bullpen, followed by Tom Wilson. "Jim, I think you've got a visitor."

Turning to face the door, Jim grinned broadly at seeing Ralph Wilson entering the bullpen. He pulled out a chair and gestured for the man to take a seat saying, "It's great to see you, Ralph. I just wish it was under better circumstances."

Ralph Wilson reached for Jim's hand. "It's nice to see you too, son. It's been too long."

After Ralph had settled himself into the chair, Jim introduced him to Blair. Ralph studied Blair carefully, before offering his hand. "I've heard a lot about you, Blair. It's nice to finally meet you."

"I wish I could say the same. Jim's been relatively quiet about you. I'm hoping you have some good stories to tell me."

"Sandburg!" Jim warned.

Ralph just laughed. "I'd be happy to tell you whatever you want to know."

Gleefully, Blair rubbed his hands together. "Great! For now, how about some coffee for everyone?"

"Tommy, why don't you go help him," Ralph said, his words indicated it to be a suggestion, but his tone definitely made it an order. With a glare at Jim, Tom followed Blair into the break room.

"I see you and Tommy are getting along about as well as you did before."

Jim laughed. "Don't blame me, I don't have a problem with Tom."

Frowning, Ralph nodded. "I know where the problem lies and I'm sorry."

Leaning back in his chair, Jim ignored the apology. "So, how's retirement been treating you?"

"I've been enjoying it, though I still keep my hand in the business. The warmer weather has been good for my health. My arthritis is much better. I can manage a few rounds of golf a week."

"So are you here just visiting or are you looking for an update on the case?"

"Just for a visit. Tommy told me that you were working the case, and I know you well enough to know that you'll keep me informed when you have something. I was already coming to town for the board meeting which was scheduled for later this afternoon, even before this mess at Bear Creek."

Something in Ralph's tone hinted that there was a problem, something other than Bear Creek. "Board meeting? I hope everything is okay with the business."

"The business is doing great. Almost, too good. Like I said, I still keep my hand in the business." Ralph started to say something more, but was interrupted by the return of Blair and Tom with the coffee.

Much to Blair's amusement, Ralph and Jim talked about the old days while Tom remained silent during their entire visit.

Tuesday Late Morning
Adopt-A-Stream

Ms. Margaret Singer had been waiting for them at the Adopt a Stream offices, as they had called ahead to arrange an appointment.

"Our organization was created in 1981; it is one of the oldest volunteer organizations in the state that has been very active in protecting water quality in Washington," she said as she led them to her office.

The sound of a cell phone ringing halted the conversation. Both men checked their phones, but it was Blair who flipped open his phone and answered.

"Sandburg." Blair stepped out into the hallway for the rest of the conversation while Jim followed the woman into the room.

"We're working on lobbying the state legislature to increase the protection in the remaining pure waterways. In the meantime, we do what we can with volunteers and try to restore the waterways that have already been damaged."

"So will you be working out at the Bear Creek site?"

"As soon as they are ready to begin the restoration activities. Right now, they are still investigation how extensive the damage is. That particular waterway hadn't been officially adopted. The Wilson Logging Company still maintains ownership and we worked with them when the land was first designated as a salmon restoration area. Mr. Wilson has already indicated that he'll help us repair the damage as soon as possible."

Jim nodded. "That's sounds like something Ralph would say."

Poking his head back into the office, Blair called, "We've got to go. They need us back at Bear Creek. They've got something for us to see."

Standing up, Jim nodded to the woman with an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry, it seems we'll have to stop back another time."

Upon arriving at the site, both men were shocked at all the changes in the area. Several trailers had been moved onto the site. Most of them belonged to either cleanup companies or laboratories. The largest was serving as the headquarters for the environmental agencies.

More surprising to see was all the human activity centered around the meadow rather than the creek. Inspector Williams was waiting for them to arrive. Inspector Cole was kneeling down in the grass behind a taped off area of the field. Only a few feet away, a front end loader was busy carefully excavating the area.

"What have you got for us?" Jim asked.

"It appears this area has been used for dumping more than raw sewage. During the last round of bio-monitoring, WOW discovered some unexpected toxic results with the macroinvertebrates. You do know what they are right?" Inspector Williams asked.

Jim choked out a brief, "Uh, ah."

Blair could only nod before ducking his head to hide his laughter, biting his tongue.

"Well, then you know they bioaccumuate several different toxic substances. Since they have limited mobility, the toxins that we found in them had to be localized to this area so we started looking for the source."

"I take it these toxins WOW discovered aren't normally found in sewage," Jim commented.

"No, not usually. The results combined with the general decline in the water quality indicated something else was affecting this area. We traced the problem to soil contamination and excavated where we found the strongest concentrations. That's how we found this." The inspector gestured to the taped area that was currently being uncovered by the front-end loader.

Jim ducked under the tape with Blair right on his heels. Several garbage bags had been uncovered and were now broken open and lying in the dirt. Ellison picked up a stick and poked through the contents of one bag.

Looking over his partner's shoulder, Sandburg exclaimed, "What is this, Grand Central Station for the midnight dumping gang?"

"Not necessarily," Inspector Cole replied. "The date on this newspaper is from 1999, which is long before the sewage was disposed of here."

"So what's the next move?" Blair asked.

"We start looking through all these bags. If we can identify the neighborhood or general location where this trash originated, we can narrow down the company that's been dumping out here."

Blair looked around at the dozens of trash bags that had already been uncovered.

"Oh joy," he muttered softly. "Where are all those volunteer groups when you need them?"

"Time to get dirty, Chief."

The four men, along with another couple of agents, began the monumental task of digging through the garbage. Overalls and gloves were quickly provided along with a large sheet of plastic upon which to do the sorting. Anything that could potentially be used as evidence was placed into evidence bags and stored in the main trailer in boxes, where Jim and Blair were working with Inspector Cole and Inspector Williams.

Garbage that could not be used as evidence was efficiently discarded into a dumpster that had been provided by the cleanup contractor. A large street map of the city was used along with a set of pushpins to mark each address that was discernible from the volumes of trash. It wasn't long before a clear pattern was established. All the addresses were on the east side of Cascade. Most of them belonged to various small businesses. There were only a few pins stuck in the residential areas of Cascade.

"It looks like this is a small business hauler rather than a residential. My guess is that if we were to track down these residential addresses, we'll find those people had discarded some of their personal mail at work," Inspector Cole stated as he finished up with the box in front of him.

Jim studied the pin locations in the map. "It appears that these pins follow a general route. If we can track down who the hauler was at these locations, we'd have a jump on who the guy is."

"I have an easier method," Blair announced.

"Which is?" Inspector Williams asked.

"We check out Comstock's Waste Management Co." Blair explained as he held up a copy of a billing statement that he had just discovered in the box he was sorting through.

"Wait a minute, I remember that name. Comstock. It was one of the names on the short list we got from the PSA only it wasn't Waste Management it was a septic system contractor," Jim interjected.

"Yes! It looks like we got him," Blair shouted excitedly.

One phone call later, Inspector Cole had been able to verify Richard Comstock, former owner of Comstock's Waste Management Co. was the same person who now owned and operated Comstock's Septic System, Inc. The same call also netted the work and home addresses of Mr. Comstock himself.

The group immediately decided to split up. Inspectors Cole and Williams headed for the home address of Richard Comstock. They already had cause to arrest him because of the garbage disposed of at the site. Jim and Blair headed to the work address. Their job was to see if they could confirm if one of the vehicles on site matched the description provided by David and Becky and matched the casts made of the tire tracks leading up to the water at Bear Creek.

Outside Comstock's Septic Systems, Inc.

Due to a traffic jam on the highway back into the city, it was well after dark before they reached Comstock's work location. The office was dark and no cars were visible in the parking lot.

"Let's see if we can get a look at the trucks from the fence, Chief."

Just as Jim was about to open his door, a truck pulled up to the gate from inside the compound. The driver opened the gate using a remote and turned out onto the highway. It was a large truck, big enough to have caused both the ruts and the damage to the overhanging branches at the site. On the door of the vehicle was a white reflective sign and the word septic was printed on the tank.

"And where is he going at this time of night? The water treatment plant doesn't take deliveries this late," Blair said softly.

"Let's see what happens when he comes to that stop sign, Sandburg."

Both men held their breath, waiting for the brake lights to appear. "YES!" Blair shouted when the driver's side top light failed to appear as the truck stopped at the corner.

Jim pulled away from the curb and started to follow the truck.

"It looks like you were right, Sandburg. We are lucky and we're the ones that get to catch him in the act. You'd better call it in. Let them know to stay back until we're closer to the final destination."

Blair picked up the radio and started to speak until he realized just what his partner had said. "Uh, Jim. You do mean before the act, right?"

"Compromise, we'll get them with their pants down before they start to drop their..."

"You really don't need to finish that sentence, Jim. Dispatch this is..."

Jim focused his hearing on the truck in front of them. Filtering out all other noises, he was careful to keep his attention on the truck. This was one suspect he didn't want to lose.

The tank truck headed directly for the city limits. Since the engine had a distinctive ping to it, Jim was able to track it from a long distance away. The fact that it was a cloudy evening and the roads were not lit helped tremendously in preventing the driver from knowing he was being followed.

It wasn't long before they had moved off the main highway into a wooded area just on the fringes of the national park. Jim turned off his lights as soon as they left the highway. They needed to catch this guy in the act. The area was permitted for timber management, but there were no other vehicles on the site.

Jim shifted the truck into neutral, allowing it to come to a rolling stop. He didn't want to alert the driver to their presence. He called in to Dispatch for backup, giving them their location. He gestured for Blair to circle around to the driver's side of the vehicle as he approached from the front.

They had arrived just in time. The driver was in the process of opening up the valves to release his load, when they converged on the scene.

"Freeze! Cascade PD!" Blair shouted.

"Put your hands over your head!" Jim added.

The driver immediately obeyed. As Blair kept the man covered, Jim cuffed him and mirandized him. Patting him down for weapons, he discovered the man's identity.

"Well, look here, Sandburg. We've caught the boss man himself red handed, Richard Comstock."

"I want to call my attorney. I ain't the boss man and I ain't taking the fall alone. I want a deal," the man exclaimed.

"You can have your call when you reach the station. Deals are up to the DA," Jim answered, with the wailing sound of sirens quickly approaching the scene.