Deluge (The Best Thrillers Book 2) by James Best (top romance novels txt) 📗

there. In any case, the dam presented no real danger, because a small mountain range stood between the reservoir and his city. Through additional web research, he discovered that recently, nearly three billion gallons of water had been released from the earthen dam on Lake Cachuma, despite the reservoir being at twenty percent capacity. The release was meant to refresh groundwater basins that remained dangerously low after the drought. Evarts glanced out at the rain and wondered if the basins still needed additional water. It didn’t matter. Cachuma was extremely low, so plenty of storage capacity remained.

Since his jurisdiction appeared safe, he decided to concentrate on provisional plans to aid districts that might need help. Redeployment with five fewer patrolmen had taken fifteen minutes. Sick call-ins sometimes exceeded that number. But his force needed to cover one hundred and sixty-eight hours per week. Theoretically, three patrol officers could cover all hours for five days, assuming only one officer per shift. But there were seven days in a week, and more than one officer was needed for public safety. Coverage would not be even. Weekends and nights required more officers than early mornings. To figure out the maximum he could loan, he had to determine the minimum force he needed to maintain order. For short periods, property crime investigations, public service activities, and preventive patrols could be reduced, and he could use overtime to fill some gaps. He opened a spreadsheet on his computer and went to work.

In an hour, he had his answer. The skinniest he could run would allow him to loan twenty-five officers, or about twenty-five percent of his force. This assumed an emergency of a week or less in duration. His city wouldn’t be at serious risk if the period remained that short. He closed the spreadsheet and hoped never to open it again.

He called his wife.

“Where are you?” he asked when she answered.

“Back on I-5, approaching Kettleman.”

That was bad. She wouldn’t get into Sacramento until late in the evening. “How’s traffic?”

“Thirty miles an hour. This is the trip from hell. The rain’s so heavy, it’s like driving in a coastal fog. No, that’s not right. Fog is quiet and dull looking. Here, everything’s wet, and bright lights are reflected from every surface. And it’s noisy as hell.” Heavy sigh. “I’m tired.”

“Can’t Ashley drive a spell?”

The phone stayed quiet for a long moment. “You talk to him. Here he is.”

“Hello, Greg.” Ashley said this as if they were good buddies.

“I was asking if you could spell Trish for a while. Not sure why she handed the phone to you.”

“I am nervous about driving a car this expensive. The weather is dangerous, and I do not make the kind of money that allows me to take foolish risks.”

Evarts counted to three. After a deep breath, he said, “Listen, Jon, the car is fully insured, and we wouldn’t expect you to pay anyway. Just try it. The car practically drives itself. If Trish drives the whole way, I’m concerned she could get careless, and the two of you might be injured.”

“Patricia says that the deductible is a thousand dollars.”

“We wouldn’t expect you to cover the deductible.”

“That is what she said, but some of my friends have believed assurances from the rich and ended up being sued. I cannot take the risk. I drive a four-year-old Prius. I do not want to be placed in control of this kind of opulence.”

Evarts wanted to scream at him to not be a prick, but kept control. Barely. Baldwin never would have handed him the phone if they hadn’t already discussed this thoroughly. He decided on another tactic.

“Jon, you and Trish are needed in Sacramento. Tonight. You’ve seen firsthand the damage from this storm. I’m afraid this may become a state-wide emergency. The governor’s people need to hear from you. If you can’t spell Trish, then I’m going to insist you pull into a motel for the night. I don’t want to see either of you hurt. There have been numerous studies that confirm that heavy rain increases fatigue exponentially. Four hours is the absolute maximum without a break. So, you need to drive. Just for an hour. That way you can get to Sacramento tonight and present your expertise and firsthand knowledge to the commission. It’s imperative.”

“I see … there have been studies?”

“MIT and the University of Arizona,” Evarts lied.

“Very well, but I have your assurance that any property damage is not my responsibility?”

“More than verbal assurance. Give me your phone number, and I’ll send you a text.”

He gave it, and Evarts wrote a text assuming all responsibility. After checking his phone, Ashley agreed to drive for one hour. Evarts thought it easier to negotiate his annual budget.

After getting off the phone, he received a text from Baldwin that said thank you. He presumed she wrote it from the passenger seat. A moment later, he received another saying that Ashley wanted him to send links to those studies. He responded that he couldn’t at the moment but would get to it later. Damn. Did Ashley guess he was bluffing? He decided that it would be a good idea to know more about fatigue while driving in the rain. After a Google search, he discovered studies that said rain increased driving fatigue by fifty percent. He would tell the shift captains to remind patrol officers to take their breaks. No study set a four-hour limit on driving, and a fifty percent increase could hardly be called exponential. Nor were the studies from MIT or U of A, but he could claim he got the schools confused. In truth, he didn’t care if Ashley found out he had lied. The man’s intransigency endangered his wife. Tough luck if he was conned into doing the right thing.

He pressed the mayor’s speed dial, intending to give her an update. Before she answered, Cunningham charged into his office.

“The Oroville Dam has blown wide open! Worse than in 2017 … and no warning this time. People are being