"This sounds serious," Bill remarked, as he walked to Frank.
"Could be," Frank replied, as he sat on a chair.
"Would you like a coffee?"
"Something stronger if you can. Been drinking coffee since 5 this morning."
"Scotch okay?"
Frank nodded. "That would be great."
He stood up and walked toward Bill passing him papers as Bill passed him a drink.
"You better pour yourself one as well."
Bill took the documents.
"What are these?"
"Drink first," Frank insisted, pouring one for Bill.
Bill took the drink and sat at the table.
"I have a feeling I am not going to like this."
As they sat, Jarge waddled into the kitchen and jumped up on the ledge of one of the windows.
He squawked at Bill and flapped his wings.
"You know you can't get out that way," Bill barked at him.
Jarge squawked at him again and continued to flap his wings.
"What are you doing in here anyway?"
Jarge jumped down from the ledge and waddled back to Bill.
Bill laughed and stood up.
"Someone."
He walked to the patio doors in the living room and opened them. Outside he saw Mable standing on the veranda.
As soon as Jarge walked out through the door, Mable started squawking at him.
Bill laughed, as he closed the door.
"Lover's spat," he explained to Frank.
"He has a girlfriend now?"
"Oh yea," Bill sighed, as he sat down again.
Frank laughed and shook his head.
"That is incredible. It was something when you had one, but now two?"
"They are both pains in the ass sometimes, but, what can I say. They are part of the family."
Bill heard Jarge laugh, as he and Mable flew away.
"Asshole."
Bill picked up the documents again.
"So what am I looking at here, Frank?"
"I was in the office of the Minister of the Environment, awaiting a meeting."
Bill looked confused.
"I thought the contract was cancelled?"
Frank nodded,
"It was, but Parsons' secretary called me and said he wanted a meeting with me. Something about finalizing the cancelled contract and some shit about conflict of interest."
Frank took a sip of his scotch.
"I was in St. John's anyway for a family affair, so I decided to drop by and see what was going on."
"And?" Bill's interest was peaked.
"While I was sitting there, his secretary came in and informed me that he would be tied up for at least another fifteen minutes and she put a folder on his desk. Now, normally I would not have paid any attention to this, but there was something about the folder that caught my attention. Besides being rather old looking, I saw the name Tuckamore Bay printed on the corner of the folder."
Bill smiled, sipping his scotch.
"So naturally you had to take a look."
Frank took out a pack of smokes.
"You mind?"
Bill shook his head and took an ashtray from a shelf behind him.
"Not at all."
Bill pulled a pack of cigarettes from the shel as well, but stopped before opening them.
"Just wait a sec."
He got up and left, returning a minute later with two Cuban cigars.
Frank put out his cigarette.
"Now we're talking."
He looked at the cigarette pack on the table, with a picture of Tuckamore Bay on the the front.
"I have no idea what those are."
"Don't ask," Bill laughed, as he lit Frank's cigar.
"Anyway, you were saying."
Frank nodded.
"Naturally I had to look, especially after being sent out here a couple months back."
He drew on his cigar.
"Good shit."
Bill had to agree. They were good shit.
"The papers?"
"Well once I realized what they were, I took out my cell phone and started taking pics as fast as I could. I didn't need Parsons walking in on me or his secretary. Fortunately for me, Parsons' office is one of the most unorganized and I had enough time to get pics of all the papers."
"So, like I said. What am I looking at here?"
Frank pointed at the first paper.
"That is a report on the findings of a geological team that took some core samples from a mountain near here. The other document next to it is the findings of the core samples."
Bill scanned the document quickly.
"Traces of gold?" he read aloud.
He continued to read.
"These are dated August 1962."
Frank nodded, passing off Bill's wonderment, as he did not know of the prospectors that had been in Tuckamore Bay in the 1950s.
"The pictures there show the actual core samples. According to what I read, there were traces of gold in the samples. Normally, those traces would have been enough for the government to send another team out here to take further samples, but as you can see by this document."
Frank pulled another paper from under the core sample pictures.
"The Minister put a hold on the expedition."
"Why would he do that?"
"I did some digging and that date on that particular document was about a month or do before an election. The then Minister, Vic Parsons, was not re-elected and I guess in the shuffle, the documents were refiled and basically forgotten about."
"Until now?"
Frank nodded, as he drew on his cigar.
"These are really good. You have great taste my friend."
"Remind me to give you a pack before you go. Henry Tucker gets them for me. Apparently he has relatives in Cuba that fly into Deer Lake on a regular basis with cigars."
Frank laughed.
"Legally, I assume?"
"Okay," Bill laughed, "we will go with legally."
Frank shook his head.
"This is one unique little village."
Bill sat back in his chair.
"You have no idea, my friend."
Bill picked up another document.
"What the fuck?"
"I thought that one would catch your attention."
"What am I reading here?"
"Do you know a Simon Hirst?"
Bill nodded.
"Yea. The weasel was here, just last week, trying to strong arm me into selling the village to him and a group of investors."
"Yea, I thought so. Somehow, Mr. Hirst found out about the gold findings and he got in touch with the honourable Minister, Mr. Calvin Parsons and these documents seem to be the end result of the conversations."
Bill looked at another email.
"This one says that Hirst found out from an employee who is from Parsons Pond."
He kept reading.
"His grand-father was one of the geologists who did the core samples?"
"Seems to be and as you can read, dear old granddaddy kept a sample for himself. i did some more digging and granddaddy died a few years back and somehow, this Jimmy Parsons found the core sample and kept it, not realizing what it was. Somewhere along the line I guess he read the accompanying documentation and realized he might literally have a gold mine. And to make the matters even more interesting, Vic Parsons was the grandfather of our now minister, Calvin Parsons."
"A real family affair."
Bill laughed, as he put the papers back on the table.
"Jimmy probably thought the core sample was an ant farm."
Frank pulled out one more paper.
"These were the last emails between Jimmy Parsons and Simon Hirst. As you can see, Jimmy sold everything to Hirst for ..."
Bill started laughing as he read.
"For 5 thousand dollars, a new apartment in a swanky part of Edmonton, a cruise and a promotion to assistant manager, with a $2 an hour raise."
Bill rolled his eyes, as he shook his head.
"Good old Jimmy drove a hard bargain."
Frank had to agree.
"But Jimmy's lack of intellectual prowess handed the, quote, unquote, goldmine to Hirst."
"With one little stumbling block," Bill added.
"The mineral and forest rights for the village of Tuckamore Bay belong to the people of Tuckamore Bay."
Frank nodded.
"As long as the village stays in your ownership and the people stay here. And as long as the government does not declare the village as a relocation."
Bill drew on his cigar and shook his head.
"They can't. Everything is in place for us to be self sufficient. We have met all government and municipal standards. We have actually went above and beyond the standards. They can't shut us down now."
Frank shook his head.
"Never say never, Bill."
"What does that mean?"
Frank took a long, deep breath.
"There was another memo on Parsons' desk. This was from Daniel Best himself. He wanted an update on all relocation properties. And Tuckamore Bay was still on the list."
"How is that even possible. Matty has been in contact wit the government on all aspects of this. We have documents from provincial and federal government agencies. All the proper papers have been filed."
"Well, obviously, someone is hiding the truth from the upper echelon of the government."
"Calvin Parsons?"
Frank nodded. "It has to be. Somehow, he is keeping the proper documentation hidden."
"Some believe that Best might be involved."
Frank shook his head.
"No. No way."
"Why would you say that?"
"Best held off as long as he could on the relocations. He didn't want to upheave these communities, but finally he had no choice. The communities were just too much of a strain on the government. Tuckamore Bay is the only community that has made any effort to become self sufficient and no strain on the government."
"And we are," Bill snapped.
"I mean what the fuck else do they want from us. I have spent millions of dollars and have taken on the responsibility of employing the entire village."
He let out a quick sigh and drew on his cigar.
"What more do they fucking want?"
"Its not the government Bill. You have to realize that this is the workings of one man and his accomplice. Calvin Parsons and this Simon Hirst."
"But can they stop this? I mean haven't we come far enough?"
Frank thought for a moment.
"They can't stop it Bill. But ..."
"Always a fucking but," Bill sighed.
"Exactly," Frank agreed.
He took some more papers from his briefcase.
"Now what?" Bill quipped.
"Read it," Frank instructed, as he stood.
Bill scanned the top document.
"This is fucking bullshit. How can this even be happening?"
Frank started toward the liquor cabinet, in the living room.
"You want another scotch?"
Bill nodded.
"Night as well bring the bottle."