Read Old Chaos (9781564747136) for Free Online

now, which is what I need. Bow hunters on weekends. Otherwise it’s just me and Bellew—he’s the manager. When I get tired of wrestling with data, we play pinochle or watch DVDs. I introduced him and his lady to the Coen brothers.”
    Meg glanced out the window. “Fargo?”
    “They liked Raising Arizona. ”
    “What kind of data? You said something about a dissertation.”
    “I’m almost finished with it.”
    “Geology?” Meg ventured.
    “Yeah, I want the doctorate and the license. That takes time, but I should be done by June.”
    “Why are you here?” Obviously not to bond with Rob.
    “The department gave me a couple of sections of Geology 102 to teach at the Vancouver campus spring semester. I may rent a place in Vancouver or commute. I haven’t decided. I have a community ed class already under way here at the high school. Next session’s on Tuesday.”
    “Let’s hope we thaw out by then.”
    “Amen, sister.” He shoved the bowl away from him.
    “Coffee?”
    “No stimulants, no booze, according to her ladyship.”
    Meg smiled. Kayla, maintaining a professional persona. How long would that last? He was an attractive man.
    “I suppose you wonder why I was looking for Robert.”
    She set her cup down. “Something about a lost report?”
    “My supervisor filed the site analysis with the state, and the state was supposed to send an LHA notice to the county—Landslide Hazard Area notice.”
    “Where?”
    “Prune Hill. That’s what Robert called it.”
    Meg let out her breath in a startled whoosh . “But that’s where the sheriff has his house. We ate dinner out there last week.”
    “The sheriff?”
    Meg described the McCormicks’ new house and watched Charlie’s face.
    Candlelight flickered on lines and hollows. He was frowning. He rubbed the spot between his eyebrows the way Rob did when he had a headache. “If the sheriff’s in on it, the last thing he’d do would be to buy a house there.”
    “In on what?”
    “Suppressing the warning notice.” He drew a long breath. “Maybe there’s no fraud involved. Maybe some clerk in Olympia forgot to file it. No, that won’t fly. The builder has to have a geological survey done before the county approves his plans. There has to be a survey.” He peered out the window. “It’s unrealistic to expect him to do anything about it today, I suppose.”
    “By him, you mean Rob.” Meg’s mind skated in circles. “I ought to call Beth McCormick to warn her.”
    “Whoa! D’you want the developer to file a lawsuit? We have to find out what went on first.”
    “We.”
    “Robert. Somebody.”
    “You say landslide. What can happen exactly?”
    He was silent awhile, frowning. “At best, rocks are going to fall on the road, rocks and mud if it rains a lot. I’m willing to bet it’s been closed before, probably more than once.”
    Meg relaxed a little. “Inconvenient.”
    “That’s the best case. This area is geologically mixed up.”
    “What else?”
    “The worst case would be mass wasting. The whole hill could slide. It’s a cinder cone sitting on top of layers of ash, over silt and mudstone and rafted boulders and God knows what. Water percolates through to the sandstone beneath it all. The hill has already slumped several times. The Wind River slide area isn’t far from here, and there’s another huge slide upriver that’s constantly in motion. A landslip at Prune Hill would be a slide on top of a slide.”
    Meg gave a nervous laugh. “And it’s twenty-five miles south of an active volcano.” In the decades since the disastrous eruption of Mount Saint Helens, whenever the mountain burped, the small eruption was preceded and followed by moderate earthquakes, usually in swarms.
    “You’re from California?”
    “LA. I survived the Northridge quake. People live with hazards all the time.”
    “I think you’ll agree they should be warned, though.”
    “Yes. If the state hadn’t enforced high standards, that quake would have