The Fracking War by Michael J. Fitzgerald

Author:Michael J. Fitzgerald
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-62652-595-5
Publisher: Mill City Press

The first thing Jack noticed when he and Eli pulled up near Rockwell Valley High School was the bigger-than-life-sized photo of Anne Kovach, the 26-year-old chemistry teacher shot to death earlier that year by one of her students, Roy Bonder, Jr.

Bonder was still in a psychiatric facility, his mental state still an issue that needed to be resolved before the district attorney’s office would move ahead with a murder trial.

But Anne Kovach was a centerpiece because Bonder Jr. shot and killed her in an apparent pique over Kovach’s insistence that hydrofracking fluids were toxic.

Jack made a mental note to check and see if police had any leads on the boy’s father, Roy Bonder, Sr., a GES employee who was still missing since driving a tanker truck loaded with fracking wastewater to an injection well site in Ohio.

The photo of Anne Kovach was a studio shot and showed a beautiful dark-haired woman with a smile that was heartbreaking to see. The photo and a table with cards, flowers, and other memorial items were at the far edge of the parking lot, where students were clustered in two groups. One was dressed in a style best described as hippies, the other looked like athletes, some wearing Rockwell Valley lettermen jackets.

But beyond them, in a large field, the actual anti-hydrofracking protest and rally was set up with a big stage in front and a sound system that looked like a rock concert was on tap.

Several second-tier musicians and groups were slated to be part of the event, but speeches were the mainstay. Nearly 3,000 people were already milling around the site, shooed away from the actual school grounds by local and state police and what looked like a dozen private security guards dressed in dark blue almost-military style uniforms. They carried batons, radios and canisters of what looked like pepper spray, but no guns.

They also were all wearing mirrored sunglasses, making them look more like Mexican Federales than private guards.

“Take some photos of those security guards when you get a chance, Eli, okay? And some close-ups of their ID badges if you can. I’m going to ask the Rockwell Valley PD who hired them. I’ll bet it was GES.”

Jack and Eli parked Eli’s SUV and headed into the throngs. It was almost a carnival atmosphere with lots of music here and there, tons of people carrying signs, and hints of marijuana smoke in the air.

Jack hoped the Rockwell Valley Police and state troopers would cut the protestors some slack today.

As they approached the stage, they saw a tall sturdy-looking man in his forties bustling about, his hair tied back in a ponytail. Jack recognized Noah Webster Wilson from photos, though in person he was much taller than Jack expected.

Even from 200 feet away, Jack thought he could almost feel Webster’s nervous energy.

“There’s Wilson, Eli. Walter said to be sure to get a good mug shot of him besides the action shots.”

Eli rolled his eyes as he looked back at Jack, waving as he walked off into the crowd.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.