Chapter 12 Darby Explains
Voyles sent East down to New Orleans to learn the truth about
Verheek's death. Lewis brought the news to his office.
'Denton, when are we going to start taking this Pelican Brief seriously?'
he asked. 'People keep dying because of it. We'd better
investigate it. It must be Mattiece.'
'I know,' Voyles said. 'We'll send down a team of men, but I
don't want the fool in the White House or Coal to hear that we're
investigating it - I want to surprise them. When the President told
me to leave the brief alone, I was carrying a small recorder in my
pocket. I've got every word, loud and clear. If we find that the
brief is accurate, the press will love us, and we can let them know
that the President told us not to investigate it.'
'That'll be the end of him and Coal,' Lewis said happily.
'I know. He'll have no chance in the election next year. We've
got him.'
They smiled at each other. 'But what about Mattiece?' Lewis
said. 'If he hadn't killed all -those people, we wouldn't have
thought the brief was right. He must be crazy.'
'There are rumours that he is,' Voyles replied. 'I've spoken to
the CIA. They had men in New Orleans. They don't know where
Mattiece is. He's probably not in this country. He owns houses all
over the world. We'll need their help to get him. They were fol-
lowing the girl too, but they lost her in Chicago airport. She could
be anywhere by now.'
'She could be dead,' Lewis said. 'Mattiece's men are following
her as well.'
♦
Grantham traced two old photographs of her - one from her
high school, one from her first university. He pinned them up beside
his desk. She was beautiful.
She called him as she had promised. He had read about the killing
of a lawyer in New Orleans, and she told him the true story.
She also told him about the other killing, which had not appeared
in the newspapers. Then she said, 'Can you come to New York
tomorrow, Grantham?'
'Of course. It'll only take a few hours. But please call me Gray.'
He looked at the photographs of her.
'I'll ring tomorrow morning to tell you where to meet me. And
tomorrow I'll tell you who killed Rosenberg and Jensen.'
'Do you know who did it?'
'I know who paid for the killings. I know his name. I know his
business and his politics.'
'And you'll tell me tomorrow.'
'If I'm still alive.'
A pause. 'Perhaps we should talk immediately,' he said.
♦
They met in her room in the St Moritz Hotel in New York.
They chatted for a while, getting to know each other. It was the
first normal conversation Darby had had for a week, and it was a
great pleasure. They sent out for some food, and after they had
eaten he switched on a recorder and she told him a story:
'For centuries, the Mississippi River has been carrying mud
down to the sea. Where the river meets the sea, marshes have
spread out over an enormous area. These marshes are the home
for a great many rare and unusual animals, birds, reptiles and fish.
'Then oil was discovered there in 1930. The oil companies began
to destroy the marshes. Where the river mud had been creating
new land, now the sea was able to wash the land away. Since
the discovery of oil, tens of thousands of acres of Louisiana
marshland has gone. Every fourteen minutes, another acre disappears
under water.
'In 1979 an oil company owned by Victor Mattiece found a
very rich oilfield, worth thousands of millions of dollars. Mattiece
wanted it all. He knew that others would buy the surrounding land
if they heard there was a major oilfield there, so he pretended that
nothing had happened. He stopped work there, and waited.
Slowly and patiently, as the years passed, he bought the surrounding
land. He created new companies, lots of them, so that no one
would know that he was the buyer. At last he was ready to begin
drilling.
'Then a small environmental group called Green Rescue made a
legal request to the courts to stop the drilling. The request was un-
expected, because for so long Louisiana had profited from the oil
companies. The court in Lafayette agreed that all drilling should
stop until the case was settled.
'Mattiece knew that this could take years. He was dangerously
angry. He spent weeks with his lawyers, making plans. But every
move they made was disallowed by the courts.
'People were sympathetic to Green Rescue's case. A lot of wildlife
was at risk. The marshland where Mattiece wanted to drill
was home to a great many rare and beautiful sea birds, including
brown pelicans. There were very few of these pelicans left. When
people thought about the case, they thought about the pelicans.
'At last the case came to trial. Green Rescue lost, and that was
not surprising: Mattiece had spent millions of dollars and had the
best lawyers in the country. But the judge still forbade the drilling
to start. The pelican was a protected bird under Louisiana law,
and Green Rescue weren't finished yet: they would take the case
all the way to the Supreme Court.'
'How long would it take to reach the Supreme Court?' Gray
asked.
'Between