Elements

"It's not like I haven't seen it before," she whispered. "Leave it out and be comfortable."

She wanted more than anything to take the next step in their physical relationship by bringing the pleasure that a woman in love with her man should be able to do without reservation, but she couldn't bring herself to cross the boundary with Jules until he was confident that doing so would not compromise Didi in the eyes of anyone who learned of their relationship.

She returned her head to his shoulder and her lips against his neck as she asked, "Jules, how do you see our future?"

Jules thought for a few seconds before responding, "Didi, if you don't already know it, I'll tell you now; I have no future without you by my side. A life with you is the impetus behind my Cabot Geological strategy. I want to marry you and spend the rest of our lives together..."

"Do you want to make love to me?"

"God, Didi, I have wanted to make love to you since the moment your eyes met mine. I'm not speaking of sexual desire, although that is definitely present; I am talking about sharing a physical love with you that till now, has only existed for me in poems and love stories."

"I've felt the same way, but I respect your concern for me," Didi said. "Now that I have this hope and anticipation about our future, I crave you more than ever. I don't want to wait until we go to America to share with you the love that I feel or feel your love for me."

"Believe me, I understand, but if anyone suspected that you were more to me than my personal assistant, especially before the sale of my shares is completed, then your career would be ruined. We need to be careful and not let any rumors get started."

"Again Jules, I understand and appreciate your concern," Didi said. "However, your schedule between now and the twenty-third of May has you working here at the house and all meetings being conducted via teleconference. After the sale, you're still working from here until the board meeting on the twenty-ninth and our flight to New York will depart on the thirtieth. No one other than Sara will know my comings and goings here at the house during that time."

"And Sara is a problem..." Jules started to say.

"Only if you allow her to be," Didi interrupted. "Can I make a suggestion?"

Jules placed his hands on each side of her face and pulled her lips to his before saying, "I'm listening."

Didi maintained lip-to-lip contact as she said, "Buy the condo, but instead of doing it for me, do it for Sara. When you and I find the place where we want to eventually live, we both know that it won't be here. That means that Sara won't have a house to keep for you. Give her the condo now, but don't mention that you intend to leave permanently. She is always complaining about not having any place for her grandchildren to visit her while she is living here, so the condo will provide that for her. Explain that since you and I will be working here for the rest of the month, she can spend less time here and use it to get the condo set up. Tell her that she can prepare breakfast and lunch, do the laundry and other chores, but that she can return to the condo in the afternoon and not return until the next morning."

Didi placed her hand around Jules' still prominent erection and continued, "By which time, I will be out of your bed and diligently working here in the office."

Jules now spoke against Didi's lips as he said, "I already bought the condo. It's furnished and ready for occupancy. How would you feel about taking the afternoon to go back to your apartment to pack what you need to move in here for the rest of the month?"

"No need," Didi said. "Once we get Sara out of here, you can help me unload everything from my car."

Chapter Three

Nancy Koslowski impatiently sat at one of the three tables in the dining area of the Old Orchard Lodge, sipping on her bottle of water. With the three tables pushed together as they were currently, there would be enough seats around them for the seven people who were supposed to be meeting with her, if they ever showed up.

Checking the time, Koslowski grudgingly accepted that no one was late; she was just early. The events of the day, along with the gallon and a half of coffee that she had probably drunk since breakfast had her body as anxious as her mind was for the meeting to get underway.

She could see the Bois Blanc Township Marina from the windows of the lodge and had watched the large Coast Guard cutter departing the island for the past thirty minutes. It was a clear, evening and she had been able to watch the ship's journey more than halfway back to the mainland.

This was the same ship that she had hitched a ride on yesterday. The hazardous material crew had finished investigating every location on the island where a body had been found. Joel Roberts and Vincent Barrow had not been the only victims of suspected arsenic poisoning. Koslowski had led the Coast Guard hazmat team on a search of the island that found fifteen additional bodies and six other residents in critical condition. The bodies were currently stored in a freezer at the fishery and would be transported to the mainland on the morning's ferry. Those affected but still living had all been airlifted by Coast Guard helicopters to hospitals in Cheboygan.

Koslowski had been forced to spend the night at the lodge, but she had used the time to make the necessary arrangements for the lodge to be used as a sort of command center for the pending investigation, regardless of who headed it. Her investigation yesterday had indicated that the arsenic contamination had affected only people living northwest of Pointe Aux Pins, specifically around the coast of Lime Kiln Point. The lodge was located east of the marina, which placed it outside the contaminated area and gave quick access to both the marina and the small airport on the island.

Unless there was a mass murderer on the loose, the source of the poisoning had to be somewhere on the island, and those who had been assigned to assist Koslowski in identifying and locating it were scheduled to meet with her in a few minutes. The FBI agents arrived at the island's airport this morning, along with an investigator from the Environmental Protection Agency. Sheriff Abbott arrived at the marina before 9 am, bringing a contingent from the county's search and rescue team as well as investigators from the Michigan State Police. Based upon what they had all witnessed today, additional resources were being called upon to assist. There would soon be more people investigating these poisonings than there were full-time residents on Bois Blanc Island.

Sheriff Abbott entered the room and took a seat next to Koslowski without saying anything to her. Nancy knew that the Sheriff seldom wasted his words, so she wasn't surprised by him wanting to wait for the others to arrive before saying much if anything. They had discussed earlier that the entourage from the county search and rescue team would return to the boat in the marina, where they would wait for the Sheriff to join them after this meeting. The State Police investigators would remain on the island until all the jurisdictional issues were ironed out and decisions were made about which agency would lead the investigation.

Koslowski looked at the door and saw one of the FBI agents holding it open for his partner, the lady from the EPA, and the three investigators from the State Police. The six new arrivals took seats around the table and looked toward Koslowski as they each got their file tablets prepared for this meeting. Nancy glanced at Sheriff Abbott once more and saw him nod back at her.

Tapping on the file tablet on the table in front of her, Koslowski said, "I believe everyone should have received the reports I forwarded from the hazmat team leader and Captain Ebersol with county search and rescue. Does anyone have any comments or questions about these reports?"

The FBI agent who had introduced himself as Derrick English was the first to speak, "How long will it take the coroner to confirm the cause of death for all victims is arsenic poisoning?"

"I spoke with the pathology department at McLaren hospital less than an hour ago," Koslowski replied. "The blood samples from each of the victims have arrived and they expect to have readings on the amount of arsenic trioxide in the blood of each victim for us by the morning. The actual autopsies won't begin until tomorrow and completing them all will take several days."

Carol Hardy from the EPA stepped into the conversation, "If the blood tests indicate two point five milligrams per kilogram of arsenic trioxide or higher, then we can be confident that arsenic poisoning is the cause of death. Autopsies might reveal some other underlying issues in some of the victims, such as heart disease or one form of cancer or another, but those would not be contributory factors in their deaths."

Derrick English's female partner, Arrington Byrnes tapped her file tablet and asked, "We still have no confirmation on the source of the arsenic or how the victims were exposed, do we?"

Carol Hardy answered before anyone else, "The report from the Coast Guard hazardous material team indicates that there is no trace of arsenic in the air beyond normal and acceptable levels. All but one of the victims' residences relied upon well water, which would be a likely source for arsenic, but every one of the wells, in addition to the island's water system tested at far below acceptable levels for all heavy metals. Tests of the water along the shore of Lake Huron are also clean, but the inland lakes on the island have not been tested. Those will be targeted tomorrow, but I don't expect that we will find any contamination in them either."

"So," asked Sheriff Abbott, "if the environment, being the air and water is not the source, are we to assume that this is not environmental or natural contamination? That would imply a purposeful act by someone. Well, I guess it could have happened by accident somehow."

Koslowski didn't want to contradict her boss, but she had to ask the question, "If the source isn't environmental, how do we account for all the victims being from the same part of the island where residents in other parts of the island haven't been affected?"

"That could also play into the contamination being a purposeful or accidental act by someone," Sheriff Abbott said. "We need to learn more about each of the victims to see what commonalities may exist besides the area of the island that they lived on."

He looked around the table and asked, "Did anyone get a sense that the victims knew each other?"

Harry Glidden, one of the State Police investigators nodded and said, "Every permanent resident on the island is bound to know all the others. That's the key to them all surviving the isolation here between November and the first of May. They likely depend on their neighbors when they need something. We'll need to look beyond the fact that they knew each other and identify other common traits or activities between them."

"Good luck with that," Arrington Byrnes said, "I've noted that every victim, alive and dead either lived alone or with their spouse who was also a victim. Some of the victims are known to have attended the same church, but others didn't. Some of the victims were retired, others had jobs, such as Vincent Barrow and the three other single men who were fishermen. The Clary's were the young husband and wife who ran that online shop selling their paintings."

Derrick English agreed with his partner, "We're going to have to interview all the other full-time residents to see what they know about the victims, with a primary focus on any who live in the same area of the island but haven't been contaminated."

"We're also going to need to perform more thorough searches of their homes," Carol Hardy said. "We'll need to list everything we find and cross-compare the findings at each residence. There could be something at each house that is the source for the arsenic in each case. Maybe each of them used the same wood preservative and that is how they were exposed. Unlikely, but we need to check."

"Nancy," said Sheriff Abbott, "you said that the autopsies will take several days, but I assume that the one on our first victim, Vincent Barrow, will be performed tomorrow. Can you check with the hospital and have them get us any information they can on the victim's stomach contents as soon as they have them?"

He looked around the table and said, "If the exposure wasn't from drinking contaminated water, or breathing it in the air, maybe it was in something that all the victims ate."

Carol Hardy nodded and said, "I was going to mention that among the common things that we need to identify at each residence is all the food, particularly anything that is fresh or frozen and not from a commercial source. I believe Arrington noted that all residences had stand-alone freezers, which I think is expected here on the island."

Arrington nodded and said, "That's correct, and the ones that I did get a chance to examine were all closer to empty than full. Again, that is something we would expect to see after months of isolation on the island."

"Okay," said Derrick English, "I'm going to recommend that Carol and her team take the lead with the investigation at this time. Until we have evidence that a crime has been committed, I see all of us in law enforcement playing a supporting role in the scientific investigation. Any objections?"

"We're fine with that," said Harry Glidden. "I have been instructed to offer the use of one of our boats to help shuttle people and supplies between the island and the mainland. The helicopter we have stationed at the Cheboygan airport will also be placed on-call for your use during the investigation."

"Agent Byrne and I will remain here to act as liaisons with the FBI lab in D.C. if necessary," Derrick English said. "Although we may find accommodations on the mainland and leave the island accommodations for Carol's team working the investigation on the island itself."

"Since she has already established contacts with the medical teams examining the victims, I would like for Nancy to run point for my department," Sheriff Abbott said. "Are you okay with that, Nancy?"

Koslowski smiled and said, "As long as I can expense a few necessities until I can get by my place to pick some things up." Addressing Carol Hardy, she asked, "How soon will you be able to get more people from your team here and how many are you expecting?"

"I'll have three inspectors from the Land, Chemicals and Redevelopment Division, four agents from the Superfund and Emergency Management Division, and another two agents from the Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Division. I'll be here representing the Great Lakes National Program Office and work with our Canadian counterparts as deemed necessary."

"That gives us about a dozen dedicated investigators here on the island and support from every agency on the mainland," Koslowski stated.

To Carol Hardy, she asked, "The hazmat team had instruments that seemed pretty sophisticated, but they were testing for a wider range of contaminants than just arsenic. Is there a simpler testing device that novices such as me can use to test food and other items?"

"Yes," Carol said, "there are commercially available test kits that my team will be bringing to the island tomorrow. They can detect arsenic amounts of less than one part per billion in water, in food, and on surfaces. The degree to which the test changes color will indicate the amount of arsenic detected. We can then run additional, more involved tests where circumstances dictate."

Sheriff Abbott stood and said, "If you're all set, Nancy, I'm going to head down to the marina so that we can get the boat back to St. Ignace before it gets dark. I'll call Angela Drummond and have her get in touch with you. If you share the alarm code for your place with her and tell her what you need, it'll be brought over to you first thing in the morning."

"I'll do that," Koslowski said.

~~~

"The methylmercury in Dry Head creek will get diluted as it enters into the Big Horn River, but we're talking concentrations so huge that the water won't be suitable for human consumption without extensive filtering and treatment," EPA agent, Jon Carlson reported to his regional administrator.

"In fact," Carlson continued as he slid some print outs across the desk to his boss, "preliminary tests performed at Williston, North Dakota indicate that the methylmercury levels in the Missouri river are already showing levels above safe human consumption. That means the Big Horn from the confluence of Dry Head Creek and the Yellowstone River from the confluence of the Big Horn are all contaminated. That will likely make all fish in those bodies of water as well as any tributaries, lakes reservoirs unsafe to eat."

David Mitchell had been in Washington, D.C. for the past two weeks and was just learning about the events within his region. He kept shaking his head in disbelief as his agent present his report. The extent of mercury contamination was staggering. In all of his years with the Environmental Protection Agency, he had never experienced or heard of an environmental catastrophe as widespread as this one was shaping up to be. Even some of the worst oil spills in the oceans didn't compare.

He studied a large map of the region mounted on his office wall and asked, "You believe the source is near the headwaters for this Dry Head creek, but the actual location hasn't been found. Is that still the situation?"

"Yes," Carlson confirmed. "We have confirmed that the water in both Dry Head Creek, which originates in the Pryor Mountains and runs through the ranch, as well as the aquifer that feeds the ranch's well both contain highly elevated levels of methylmercury. It must be an underground source, but we may need a geological examination of the area to help us locate the source. There has never been any mining activity in this area, so the stratus composition of the land isn't in any records that we have been able to find so far. The tribal government does have reports of hot springs intermittently appearing near this area, and mercury ores are known to be found around geothermal spots such as hot springs, but it would still need to be extracted from the surrounding ore, such as cinnabar for the mercury itself to get into the water."

"Let me make sure I understand this for my own report," Mitchell said. "Mercury rarely exists in a raw form but is usually embedded with other ores. This means that someone or something is extracting enough mercury somewhere in southcentral Montana to contaminate river water hundreds of miles away. The last report I saw on mining within the United States stated that our accessible mercury ores were completely depleted."

"Don't forget the potential that mercury vapors are also being released into the air," Carlson added. "The air quality tests performed at the ranch where we had the fatalities showed high concentrations, but we haven't gotten results back yet from our teams testing the air quality in Crow Agency, Billings, Bozeman or any of the other surrounding areas."

Mitchell considered the added information and asked, "I know that we're dealing with the Crow reservation leaders on this, but has the FBI been investigating the possibility that this event is of human origin? I mean do they suspect that someone caused this?"

"I think that was everyone's first suspicion," Carlson said. "There has never been a naturally occurring mercury contamination on a scale such as we're seeing here anywhere in the world, so suspecting that someone purposely caused it would be expected. Considering the amount of mercury that this event is releasing into the environment, the possibility of this being a purposeful act doesn't hold up very long. It hasn't been completely discounted yet, but it looks unlikely."