Because I was trying to ignore Mab talking about River, because I was trying to ignore Monday talking about Mab, I was concentrating hard on the documents before us and can say this with confidence: Monday’s boxes do not contain the deed to the dam or anything relating to it or the land sale.
In their stead, Nora reads Russell the emails River got off his father’s phone in which, it is finally clear, on November 22, Duke Templeton plans to start repair work on the dam. Our dam. It was brand-new when he built the plant, but two decades later it’s as worse for wear as the rest of us. This is what Apple meant when she said Nathan could drown down here, the leaks and cracks she was worrying over in therapy. You can actually see them on the wall of the dam. Mab remembers brown curls of water wending their uneven way down the side from when she and River sat along its top and discussed leaping off the one in Switzerland. And those are only the cracks you can see. There must be at least as many on the lake side, but no reputable contractor would begin underwater work around here December through February. That’s why Duke was in such a hurry. Without a sufficiently functional dam there is no river there, and without the river there is no chemical plant.
The papers Duke was hoping stayed hidden and the papers Apple was desperate to find may have pointed the same place, but they are not the same papers. Neither wanted anyone to know about the dam but for different reasons. She wanted to destroy the letters that showed her father knew Belsum’s plan hinged on dumping chemical waste, knew the diverted river would be polluted and ruined, but sold them the land anyway, addressing the problem only by donating a house and taking his riches and moving away.
Apple knew her father’s actions were good profit-strategy but bad human-being, bad citizen-being, a bad legacy. What she didn’t know was that they were the missing link in the lawsuit, the elusive, irrefutable, incontestable proof Nora’s been after for our entire lifetimes.
What Russell says when Nora’s done laying all this out is “You’re gorgeous.” He is shaking his head in awe. “All four of you. Just gorgeous.”
“Russell. Focus. Are you listening? This is what we’ve been waiting for all these years. Proof Belsum knew before beginning operations that there was harmful effluent they needed to hide. In our river!” She discloses not a single word of Apple’s therapy sessions. She does not so much as hint at Nathan’s PhD or the reason for Belsum’s shift from container parts to chemicals or the question of GL606’s provenance. She does, though, report Omar’s story about Apple’s frantic search through the town filing cabinets, which, after all, is not a doctor-patient confidentiality breach, only hearsay.
“Just gorgeous,” Russell says again.
Nora blushes with exasperated pleasure, and also, of course, she is used to his cautious pessimism in the face of her surely-this-time enthusiasms. She hugs Mab with one arm, squeezes my foot with her other hand, bends her head toward Monday who gives Nora a small smile of thanks for not touching her.
“My girls,” she says.
Maybe she senses his sense that it’s too late. Maybe it’s all these revelations, finding everything she’s been searching for for so long and finding also that it doesn’t mean what she thought it would. Maybe it’s that the question Mab and I wrestled was never a question for her. I can see Mab grinding her teeth and know she’s wondering what I’m wondering. If we told him about Nathan’s tests would that be enough? Or would it not matter because we could never prove he shared them with his father, or that his father, without a PhD in chemistry himself, knew what they meant? But Nora was never going to use anything Nathan disclosed in therapy anyway. Maybe her sad smile is because of any of that, or maybe she’s just tired, or maybe she finally sees what Russell’s been trying to tell her for years now.
“It’s not enough?” She’s smiling with wet eyes.
“Probably not.” He smiles back. “Especially not now that nearly everyone’s dropped off the suit. Especially because this brings in other parties, the Groves, mostly deceased and with whom your beef is not. Especially not after so much time.”
“I can get more emails,” Mab says weakly. “I can look more places. There’s more evidence out there.” She looks at me. “I know it.”
What we three feel is desperate. What Nora and Russell feel is more like goodbye. This is its own victory—maybe the most important one—but we’re not ready.
“The problem is you have all the proof you need of their disregard and their scheming and their willingness to do you great harm. It’s just not enough to take them down or make them stop. However—Hey! Look who’s here! It’s Matthew Pumpkin! Come on over, Mr. Pumpkin.”