Bitter Root (21 page)

She made it to the offices of JB Dulac Transport by ten thirty.
The place was really state-of-the-art. The building felt organic to the space
it occupied. The design was modern but had the feel of belonging to its
environment. She wasn’t surprised to see it was designated a green building by
the USGBC. The natural lighting and wood used in the construction made the
place feel warm and welcoming.

“Hello, my name is Jacob. May I help you?” A young man entered
through a half door and greeted her.

“Yes, hello. I’m Griffith McNaulty. I have an appointment with
Randy Pecot at a quarter to eleven.”

“Ah, yes, ma’am. You’re welcome to wait here. Can I get you
anything?”

“No, thank you.”

“Great. I’ll be right in my office if you change your mind. Feel
free to look around. The fishing boats are docked out back, if you’d like to
see them.”

“Thanks. I might do that.”

He nodded and went back to his work. She wandered around the
pleasant lobby, looking at various displays and photographs. There was a model
of the pier for the JBN Sports Fishing boats. Apparently, they were also touted
for their green design and energy efficiency. The boat engines were designed to
use less fuel, and that fuel was much cleaner than industry standards. She
wondered if his helicopters ran on biodiesel. She made her way out the back
door onto the dock. It was impressive. The entire structure was lined with
reused materials. The covered boardwalk used photovoltaic cells cleverly
camouflaged as ceiling structures. She had to admit that Nerbass truly seemed
dedicated to environmental responsibility. That was a fresh point of view on
the Gulf Coast.

“Ms. McNaulty?”

Griffith turned to see Jacob at the door.

“Ms. Pecot is ready to see you now. If you will follow me,
please.”

Ms. Pecot?
Griffith had fallen for the old gender trap and assumed Randy Pecot would be a
he. That was a mistake she rarely made. She followed Jacob down a hall walled
in silver metallic cork strips, with a bamboo floor. The office was fronted
with glass and with a smaller glass wall facing the Gulf. The woman seated at
the desk smiled warmly and stood as they approached.

“Ms. McNaulty, what a pleasure. I’m Randy Pecot.”

“Hello, Ms. Pecot.”

“We aren’t that formal here. Feel free to call me Randy.”

“Okay, Randy, I’m Griffith.”

“Nice to meet you. Go ahead and have a seat. How can I help you?”

Griffith sat on the comfortable overstuffed couch Randy
indicated.

“I’m not sure if you can help me. I’m actually hoping to get an
appointment with your boss.”

“So I understand. You have to know, Griffith, J.B. is a very busy
man.”

“Clearly.”

“He’s also not quick to give interviews to reporters. He has been
vilified in the press often enough to want to shield himself.”

“Oh, I understand that. Believe me. I’m writing a story on how
losing a child affects people. I’m trying to pinpoint why people react so
differently by interviewing a wide range of people, from those in difficult
economic circumstances to those in more fortunate circles. Mr. Nerbass is an
excellent example of overcoming grief and honoring his child with his success.”

“So, you know about Merley?

“Yes. I came across that sad fact in my research.”

“That’s a very touchy subject, Ms. McNaulty. J.B. never recovered
from the loss of his daughter. It devastated him. He actually began his green
building and sustainable energy plans in her honor.”

“So he considers the loss of his daughter a reason to build in a
sustainable way? That’s admirable. When did he give up on finding her? I think
that would be the hardest thing, not knowing.”

“She’s been missing eight years. He searched everywhere for
Merley after she disappeared. He finally resigned himself to the fact that she
was gone. If she had been alive, I am certain he would’ve found her.”

“So you worked for him even back then?”

“Well, no. I’ve been with the company for five years. Back then,
JB Co. didn’t really exist. He started with a small bait shop in Dulac. After
he lost Merley, he started the helipad transport business. That took off like
crazy, and he expanded again and again. The sports fishing branch developed
once he was headquartered here. So I’ve been in this office about four years.”

“You mean he’s built this entire empire in the past eight years?
That’s pretty remarkable. He must have had some strong investors.”

“He’s completely self-made. He purchased the first helicopter
secondhand with a loan from a good friend. I have a pamphlet here somewhere
with his whole story. Hold on a second.”

She rummaged around in her drawer, finally handing Griffith a
slick brochure with the J.B. Nerbass story inside, but something about it felt
shady. It was possible for a person to build a business from the ground up in
eight years, but it was unheard of for someone to reach the heights that
Nerbass had so quickly, especially from a small dock with no capital to invest.
She had already checked his net worth. He was listed as just under $70,000,000
in assets. Unheard of growth, even by LA standards.

She had assumed there had been substantial investment in the
company by others to help create such a balance sheet. To hear it was done with
virtually no help in such a short time period had all her alarm bells going
off. Nerbass wasn’t a part of her story, unless he did have something to do
with Adi, but she might make him the center of her next piece.

“Thank you. I really would like to sit down with him and talk
about how losing his child changed him.” Griff hoped like hell she wasn’t
drawing attention to Adi, just the way Adi’d been afraid she would. It was too
late now, though. If this was the person responsible for Adi living in fear,
she’d damn well find out why and help put a stop to it.

“I wouldn’t hold your breath, but I’ll check his schedule and
find a time for you to meet.”

“Thank you, I really appreciate that. Would you know approximately
when the meeting might be? I need to arrange my schedule as well.”

“He won’t be in town this week. He’s at a conference in Mexico
City. He should have some time next week, before his trip to China.”

“He’s going to China?”

“Yes, he has some new ventures in development with the Chinese.”

“But you think I’ll be able to have a moment of his time, don’t
you?”

“I’ll do my best to find time for you.”

“I appreciate your help with this, Randy. I’m covering quite a
few families who have lost children, and I think his story would be an
inspiring addition.”

“I’ll be in touch as soon as I have something confirmed.”

“Thank you.”

“I’ll walk you out.”

She led Griffith to the door and politely excused herself. This
new information about J.B. Nerbass had Griffith excited about doing a piece on
him. She could always use this time in Louisiana to develop a storyline for
Nerbass. She could multitask and maybe do a new piece off the back of the
cooking article, one she could use for her next step back up the ladder. If it didn’t
have anything to do with Adi, of course.

The swift rise of his company was really tweaking the
investigative journalist inside her.
Time
to get to work.
She needed to know more about Nerbass. If he had
anything to do with Adi’s fear, she could expose him, help Adi, and get her
story. It could be a major win, as long as she didn’t screw anything up.

She left the waterfront and drove directly to the local library
to use their Internet access. She logged on to the public library system and
pulled up Hoover’s Online. She searched JB Co and found the preliminary
information she needed. J.B. Nerbass was the principal partner and president.
His wife was listed as a board member and CFO. There were a total of five board
members, including the Nerbasses. The other three names were interesting:
Senator Ruben Landry, of the news article photograph; Ramon Zuniga, owner of a
Mexican oil and gas exploration company; and Gao Feng, president of Lumera New
Materials, a Chinese chemical company.

The company had been established as a limited liability
corporation five years ago. Prior to that, J.B. Nerbass was the Sole Proprietor
of JB Dulac Transport. Something big had happened when the switch to LLC had
been made. Nerbass had been gaining steadily with his transport company and
fledgling sport fishing charter company, but things grew exponentially when he
added Zuniga and Gao to his board.

She noted the dates of each incorporation, then dug further back,
to the purchase of the first helicopter for JB Dulac. The sale was registered
from a group called Controller. It appeared to be a cash sale of a used
Sikorsky S-76C. The listed sale price was just over two million dollars. Where
had Nerbass acquired that amount of cash?

He had been a bait shop owner, running shrimp and mullet out of a
fair-sized store on a private pier in Dulac. He still held ownership of the
pier and the shop. How could such a small enterprise give him access to that
size of an investment?

Randy Pecot had mentioned a loan from a friend, but what kind of
friends had the ability to loan two million dollars? She thought about the
board members. Had one of these men lent the cash for the purchase of the
Sikorsky? She brought up a page on Senator Landry.

He was born in a suburb of New Orleans, son of a restauranteur.
Landry had begun his political life while still in school at LSU. He had
campaigned on and off campus for then Democrat Trent Foster. He was an active
and vocal campaigner, and when Foster won his seat on the state senate, he
brought Landry along as a political aide. Landry followed his mentor into the
Republican Party in the early nineties. He won his first elected office as
comptroller of accounts for the city of New Orleans in 2002. His political rise
was marked by questions of ethics and concern over misuse of funds, but he
weathered the storm and came out of the 2006 elections as state senator.

Griffith checked her time line. The purchase of the Sikorsky was
dated June of 2009. Two years after Adi arrived at the Boiling Pot. She had no
proof that Landry was the source of Nerbass’s loan, but she had a suspicion.
Loaning someone money wasn’t illegal, in and of itself. But their motives and
what they used the money for certainly could be.

Next she looked up Ramon Zuniga. He was born into wealth, the son
of Emilio Suarez Zuniga, the president of the state-owned oil company. He was
educated in the U.S. in petroleum engineering, graduating the same year as
Landry from LSU. He had begun his own state-sanctioned exploration company only
a year after graduation. His company was responsible for most of the recent
discoveries of oil, including the Macondo reservoir. He had made the state and
himself extremely wealthy with his discoveries and his powerful gift of
persuasion.

From the outside, Zuniga was spotless. No whisper of corruption
or back room dealing touched him. If he had a connection to Nerbass before his
appointment to the board in 2010, she couldn’t find it.

The last in the cast of characters was Gao Feng. He had assumed
the role of director of Lumera New Materials when his father, Gao Jin, retired.
There wasn’t a great deal of information about Mr. Gao online, but there was
plenty about Lumera. The corporation fabricated metals and precision oil
drilling parts as well as chemical processing and supply. It was the single
largest exporter of Chinese chemicals. There had been six major stories
involving Lumera in the past three years: A leak of toxic gas at their plant in
Guangxi Province; a huge story about misappropriation of funds, resulting in
half of the upper management of the company being replaced; a massive fire and
explosion at a plant in Fujian Province; a clash with protestors near Beijing
over the planned building of a new plant that made news worldwide; and two
other unfavorable stories about the basic management of the corporation.

Griffith wasn’t sure when Mr. Gao entered the radar of Mr.
Nerbass, but somewhere the two had connected and since 2010, Gao had made
regular trips to the Louisiana Gulf Coast. It still didn’t explain how Nerbass
had created his empire so quickly before the other people got involved, though.
And why was he tied to these three powerful men? Where did they connect before
2010? She had to get out there and talk to people who held some knowledge of
Nerbass prior to 2010. She knew right where to start, with Mabel Baptiste in
Dulac.

*

The drive to Dulac was interrupted only by a stop at Façon’s
bakery for éclairs.
Might
as well have a peace offering.
Griffith could tell that Mabel was
home as she neared the house. The porch door stood open to the wide deck. She
cautiously made her way up the staircase.

“Mrs. Baptiste? I’m sorry to bother you, but I have a few
questions.”

“Shhhh! Quiet. Come on up off the stairs and be sure nobody sees
you.”

“Okaaay?” Griffith climbed the remaining stairs, happy she wasn’t
being ordered off the property.

Mabel was standing at the door waving her inside. “Hurry up, and
duck down.”

Griffith obliged and bent down to hurry through the door. The
blinds inside the house were all closed, making the small room even less
inviting. The stale cigarette smell had increased since yesterday.

Mabel followed her in and quickly closed the door behind her. She
pulled aside the blind on the door, as if expecting someone to be outside.

“I promise you, it’s just me, Mabel. I didn’t bring a team of
assassins with me.”

“Well, aren’t you the funny one, Miss High and Mighty. It
wouldn’t be the first time someone crept up my steps to cause trouble. Why the
hell are you back here, anyway? I told you to get yesterday.”

“I know you did. I had to come back, though. I need some information
I think you can help me with.”