Chapter 125

Ed frowned. “But, I won’t get pictures of whatever Elena sees, just in case I need them.”

“It’s definitely more scenic to the North,” Mr. Wladron said. “If you’re looking for pictures and are only going one direction, north is the direction to go.”

Mr. Dale nodded in agreement. “I can’t let you take pictures inside the mechanical room, anyway. You’re welcome to take pictures of any of the test results I take down there. But for security reasons, we can’t have photography inside the pump houses.”

“I guess that makes sense,” I said. I looked at Ed. “Do you have a spare camera? Theo can carry it, and one of us can take pictures of all of the tests and maybe the exterior of the building or anything else Mr. Dale says we can take pictures of.”

Ed hesitated.

I gave him my most charming smile. “I promise I know what I’m doing. I’ve been reporting for quite a while. This isn’t something I’m likely to screw up. I’ll do it all myself if it makes you nervous to let Theo have the camera.”

Ed let out a long sigh. “You are a capable reporter,” he admitted. “I will give you the camera. But only you. No offense,” he said to Theo.

“None taken,” Theo reassured him. “Not that I couldn’t snap a few pictures if you needed me to.”

“It’s not about just snapping a picture,” Ed threw back. “To do it right, photography is about the lighting, and centering the object, and making sure that the image conveys to the reader everything needed to illustrate the story.”

He turned up his nose. “This doesn’t go in your scrapbook or on your computer at home. This goes out to the public to help them understand the full measure of what we’re covering.”

“Okay. Okay,” Theo said, holding his hands up in surrender. “It’s not just a picture. I’ll let Elena do the photography.”

Once I had the camera around my neck and Ed was reasonably sure that I wasn’t going to do something horrible to it, he and Wendy took off with Mr. Waldron.

Mr. Dale pointed us out a side door. “They’ll have to drive up to their location to view the outdoor measures. But we can walk down to the pump houses. It’s only about half a mile. Are you up for that?”

“I think I can handle it,” I said.

I looked down, glad that I had worn my sneakers that day instead of heels. They weren’t necessarily the best match with the skirt that I had chosen to wear. But they didn’t look horrible. And besides, who was going to care if we were hiking through the woods?

Theo was my bodyguard. I wasn’t interested in impressing Mr. Dale. and the only other life out there were birds and maybe a stray rabbit or two. Birds and rabbits didn’t care about shoes. Before we left the office complex entirely, Mr. Dale opened the door to a room that, when I peeked inside, looked like a break room.

He entered and motioned for us to follow him. “Would you guys like coffee before we head out?” he asked.

“No, thank you,” I answered.

“I’d love a bottle of water if you have one,” Theo said.

“Sure.”

Mr. Dale opened the refrigerator and rummaged around the inside while Theo stood beside the exterior door. I politely scanned the break room, waiting. It was pretty standard for offices and smelled the way most of them did, like coffee grounds and paper, though that might have been Mr. Dale. I’d gotten a whiff of a very officey-sort of scent on him earlier.

After digging for a minute, he came out smiling. “Someone pushed the bottles of water to the very back of the refrigerator, and they were buried behind lunches. Sorry.”

He cracked the top of the bottle and handed it to Theo. Theo took the water and drank deeply.

Mr. Dale led us back outside and down the path between the blue buildings making up the offices of the watershed complex. We left those and took off down a well-maintained gravel path on the hillside above the reservoir.

Along the way, low pipes ran beside the path.

“Are all the pipes above the surface?” I asked.

Mr. Dale shook his head. “Some are below the surface. That insulates them from the weather. But these here are pretty much weatherproof, and they are accessible for easy maintenance. The ones that are buried aren’t too deep. The forests surrounding us keep the worst of the freezes at bay, and the ground here never freezes very deep. Just the top couple inches at most.”

He hesitated a moment, opening his mouth twice before finally speaking. “If you don’t mind my saying so, you have a very unusual scent.”

My body stiffened, ready for the usual insults.

He rubbed his chin. “I almost didn’t catch it out here because it’s almost like fresh air. But you definitely brought it into the breakroom with you. Your husband is a lucky man to come home to that scent filling the house each day.” He smiled kindly at me.

I blushed, unaccustomed to such compliments.

Mr. Dale changed the subject and went on to explain how the watershed worked and where all the rain drained into the rivers to run into the reservoir. Theo walked at my back, observing the woods. I could see by his expression that he largely zoned out on what I had to admit was a rather boring conversation. If I wasn’t reporting on this, I don’t think I’d have been much more interested than Theo.

It didn’t take us long to reach a low building where all of the pipes ran inside. Theo’s stomach let out a rolling growl, and he placed a hand on his gut, his face scrunching up.

“I don’t feel quite right,” he said. He shot Mr. Dale a pathetic look. “Is there a restroom in this building?”

Mr. Dale pointed around the east side of the building. “In the parking lot around the other side of the pump house. There’s a portable toilet there, but there are no actual facilities in this building. You’ll have to use a portable one, I’m afraid.”

“You’re good,” Theo asked me, his stomach gurgling and groaning wetly.

I nodded.

He took off, dashing around the side of the building in a run, or at least as close to a run as his clenched legs allowed.

“I hope he didn’t eat something bad,” I told Mr. Dale. “I’d hate to think we brought any kind of virus with us.”

Mr. Dale shrugged and opened the door. “We might as well get some work done while we’re waiting. Can I show you around?”

I nodded, and he let me inside. He pointed us down a corridor with a low ceiling lined with numerous pipes. Inside the sprawling pumphouse, the sound of water was almost overwhelming. It rushed and swished and gurgled inside all of the pipes.

“I hope you’re not planning on doing the interview in here,” I said loudly.

He shook his head and indicated the hall that we were walking on. So I continued to follow him. About halfway up, he turned and took a side path. The catwalk we were on wound its way between the pipes.

When we could no longer see the main pathway, my heart started to beat hard. I’d sent my bodyguard off. What did I get myself into?

Mr. Dale finally stopped and leaned close, speaking in my ear, slightly louder than a whisper so that he would be heard over the noise of all of the mechanics and piping.

“It’ll be a while before your bodyguard gets back. I needed to talk to you in private.”

“Oh?” I asked, body tensing to run away.

“I’m sorry. I hope you can forgive me. I slipped a little something in his water that’s going to keep him in the bathroom for quite a while. But I couldn’t risk talking to anyone but you.”

I frowned, my brows coming together. “What do you mean?”

“You wrote that piece on the corruption of the government in Lupinton? Were you aware, now that you’re working for the Palace Press, that your old work has been banned in Packhaven?”