Chapter 45 Chapter Forty-Five

They drove Cole's police car to the office complex where Molly Pittner, the Trent mining company, had worked.On the way, Pooler called the Ohio company that did soil testing.Changing two receivers in a row did not yield much.Pooler motioned Cole to pull over.Cole turned to look at him after parking the car. Puller said into the receiver, "Well, let me talk to your leader." After another two minutes, there was finally a voice on the other end. Puller explained the situation, and the other party answered. "Can you talk to me on the phone?" Puller asked. He continued listening, nodding.After he asked the other party's contact information, he copied it in his notebook. "Okay, the court will issue an order. I would be very grateful if you would do it as soon as possible after receiving the order."

He hangs up and looks at Cole. Cole said, "Looks like a court order is still needed, isn't it? I didn't expect the soil sample analysis to be so classified. Did they tell you something?" "Just saying it was Matthews Reynolds himself who asked for a soil sample. He paid for it with a credit card and wanted to measure organic matter in the soil or something. They didn't want to tell me which area the soil sample was from or what they found in it. You Can you handle the relevant court documents?" "I'm going to the county judge today." She put the car back on the road.

"It must be the soil around here, don't you think?" Cole said. "Estimated so, but we must be confirmed." "Why measure the soil?" "Pollution," Puller said. "I mean, what else could it be?" "So it's all due to this? Pollution?" "Well, if it's true that they went back to the scene and killed Wellman to get this test report, then I think that's probably what happened. The test report must have revealed some very serious problems." "This is West Virginia, Pooler. Much of the land and water here has long been polluted. Hey, we can't even drink the water here. People know that. You just walk around for a while or look at the air If you look at the things mixed in, you will know how serious the pollution is. So I can't imagine how to kill seven people in a row in order to keep a so-called secret that has been made public."

"That's a strong argument. Let's look at it from another angle. Was there any friction between Trent Mining and the Environmental Protection Agency?" “Any coal mining company in West Virginia has had friction with EPA and state regulators. Coal does drive the economy here, but coal mining has to be constrained by a lot of government regulations.” "If you break the rules, you're going to get in trouble, aren't you?" "That's right," said Cole approvingly, "but the question remains, is it worth killing seven people, including even a policeman? If Roger breaks the rules, he can pay the fine, and he's been fined before." Fines, fines many times. He has the money and doesn't have to go to those killers."

"What if it's something far more serious than violating those rules?" "what do you mean?" "You told me that Trent wouldn't have a good time here if people were dying of cancer. Polluted water, constant disease, and children dying. It would ruin him. His entire business. Everything he owns will be lost, including that big house and his private jet. Maybe he'll go to jail if there's evidence he knew about these things and didn't do anything about them. Maybe they just happened to something like this could happen.” Cole seemed unconvinced by his claims.She broke the silence after driving a few kilometers.

"How did Reynolds get involved in this? I mean, if it was Petra, I think it would make sense. She works in an office somewhere in Trent, and maybe she found something she shouldn't Knowing things, hearing something, seeing something in a file or on a computer screen. But if that's the case, why didn't she send that soil sample herself? Why through Reynolds?" "It's also possible that she was afraid that someone would doubt her, so she used Reynolds as an intermediary to cover up the fact that she was involved. They were neighbors across the street. Maybe they talked on the street and became friends or something. Pete Na and Eric saw Matthews Reynolds in uniform. He was an officer who worked in the Pentagon and was sworn to defend the country. They felt that Reynolds and his connections could help. Reynolds agreed to do what they said to do it, but someone found out. They sent killers and killed both families."

"These killers are strong. Roger doesn't seem to have such an army of killers who are on call." Cole said. "How can you be sure he doesn't have killers on his staff? The conflict between the union and the mine bosses can be violent. Trent was already on the defensive, and Jane told me he had hidden weapons. And you tell me, Trent Didn't you spend any money to hire those guys who play with guns to help him settle the case? Even if it's to scare others and engage in a little intimidation tactics?" "Unions don't play a big role in open-pit coal mines because you don't have to send miners into underground mines to get the coal out. So union-management conflicts don't happen very often here. In fact, the unions here are almost Disbanded years ago."

"I admit this is just a conjecture that needs to be done a lot. Hopefully we can find something in the place where Petra worked. In the meantime we can't forget the drug lab. If this case is really connected to drug dealers , the sooner we find out, the better." “The way I see it, it makes a lot more sense to explain it in terms of drugs than it does in terms of coal. Drugs, guns and violence have never been separated,” Kerr said. "But the soil sampling can't be explained from the drug point of view, and Reynolds' involvement and Wellman's killing can't be explained."

"My head is on fire. Alright, let's focus on the problem at hand. How are we going to investigate in Petra's office? What's your strategy?" Kerr asked. "Questions are asked broadly, and correspondingly expected to be answered broadly. Our eyes and ears are pricked. Nothing that seems ordinary should escape our attention." "Well, if, as you say, the company is killing all these people to keep some sort of secret, then I doubt the folks at Petra's office would be happy to help us. They're probably scared that nothing Dare to say." "I never said it was easy."