Dangerous Undertaking Read Online Free PDF

facilities, turbines, generators, and network of transmission lines necessary to convert nature’s aquatic energy into electricity for the power-hungry consumer.
    The article announced Senior Executive Vice President Fred Pryor was personally overseeing the project. It was a challenge that skipped all the political headaches of a nuclear facility, but there were still the environmentalists and EPA inspectors to deal with. “Keeping the project on time and on budget is the company’s top priority because Broad Creek is good for the public and good for the shareholders.” So said Fred Pryor in the newspaper.
    “Ridgemont Power and Electric was buying the land?” Tommy Lee asked.
    “Not that I know of. Not my area. I think I saw a memo at the home office that the family didn’t want to discuss it while the grandmother was alive. That’s understandable. Ol’ timers get so attached to their memories.”
    Except Martha Willard didn’t have any memories. Not at the end. But Dallas had so strong an attachment that he murdered his brother and sister. Was that the reason Ridgemont Power and Electric had only gotten as far as inquiries? Had Dallas refused to sell?
    “Any leads on where Willard might be?” Pryor asked, changing the subject. “You think he came on our property?”
    “We don’t know that,” said Tommy Lee. “It’s just that we found his truck on an old logging road a few miles away. It dead-ends next to the main rail line. You’ve got a spur running in here. We thought he might have taken it.”
    The engine whistle broke through the sheriff’s comments. We looked up the valley to the track running along the water. The power company’s own yard engine rolled along hauling out several carloads of debris to the truck loading zone at the main highway. From there it would bring back more gravel or other construction supplies directly to the dam site.
    “That’s the old Pisgah Paper Mill’s abandoned spur,” said Pryor. “Activating it was my idea. It’s proven to be a real asset for transporting materials in and out of the valley. We never go all the way out to the main line, and we chain a gate across the track each night. I’ll alert the crew to keep their eyes open. Good luck, Sheriff. Nice to have met you, Mr. Clayton. Hope you’re on the mend.” Tommy Lee and I had been dismissed.
    As we walked back to the patrol car, Tommy Lee said, “I don’t like him.”
    “Pryor? Why not?”
    “See that blue Mercury parked by the trailer?”
    I turned around and stared at the car, one of several parked by the edge of the mobile office. When I noticed the “Cain for Sheriff” bumper stickers plastered all over the rear, I thought I understood why Tommy Lee disliked the man. Cain was challenging him in next month’s election. “Maybe it’s one of his employees,” I said.
    “No, it’s not,” said Tommy Lee. “And it’s not Pryor’s either. That’s my esteemed opponent’s car. Bob Cain himself. He does security consulting. Explains why Fred Pryor hustled outside to meet us.” Tommy Lee smiled. “The son of a bitch is aiding and abetting the enemy.”
    “What now?” I asked. “We don’t even know which direction Dallas may have headed.”
    The sheriff leaned in the open car door and yanked the mike from its cradle. “I’ll have the deputies organize search teams. We should walk the tracks.”
    I looked up at the hills surrounding the excavated valley. Dallas Willard was out there somewhere, mentally unstable, exposed to the elements and dangerous. He had reached out to me for help by phone, and then tried to kill me with his gun. I couldn’t stand the idea of being out of the action. A part of me still was and always would be a law officer.
    “Count me in,” I told Tommy Lee.
    He looked at my useless arm.
    “Hey. There is nothing wrong with my legs.”
    He smiled. “No, I guess not. Too bad I can’t say the same thing about your head.”

Chapter 4
    The next day was a cool and