Scandalous Desires

Chapter 17

"Good morning ladies and gentlemen," he began. Russell, who was probably also in his fifties, stood almost motionless as he looked towards the live news cameras, with speech in hand.

"On behalf of South City's Waste and Water Management team, I want to again, apologize to the people of South City for the terrible and unforeseen circumstances that we are dealing with now as a result of the South City water system contamination."

"Is he apologizing because he knew about the contamination?" whispered a reporter behind Micah.

"He said it was unforeseen," replied another person.

"As many know, I have been the head of Waste and Water for 10 years," continued Russell, "and I, along with my team, have consistently maintained a safe and healthy environment for South City.

"To our knowledge the water was not contaminated, as seen in the publically released water testing results. As mentioned by Mayor Valentine, further investigation of the company that did the water inspection is still underway and findings will be released to the public.

"These remain to be the facts of the case. The claims of anything otherwise, by my former secretary, Ms. Gooding, or any others are unfounded, and will be addressed in court next week."

The statement that the secretary's claims were unfounded caused a stir in the room. There was a buzz of whispers among the crowd of reporters.

"Does that mean he also didn't cheat on his wife?" Micah heard the whispers behind her.

"These alligations against me only further underscores the need for justice, not just for myself, but for the citizens of South City, who have suffered too much for too long.

"I will end here and take questions," he said finally.

"Well that was brief!" whispered Micah to Rick. He gave her an affirming look.

The mayor's secretary stepped forward to announce that questions would be answered now, and journalists were pointed at to speak.

"First question!"

While Sheila sat prominent at the front with her hand raised first. The secretary pointed at the back towards a male reporter, and Micah also recognized him. He was a seasoned reporter from North City Times, Andrew Simmons.

"This question is for both the Mayor and Mr.Russell. There was mention of justice by Russell and compensation by the mayor. I'd like to know how the needs of the citizens of South City are to be addressed, especially health concerns. And what are the intentions of the government for those who lost loved ones to this tragedy?"

While it was Russell who stood at the podium, the mayor quickly stepped forward, almost nudging Russell out of the way, to speak.

"We have budgeted out a substantial stimulus package for all citizens of South City to help address loss of finances due to inability to work from illness. We have free healthcare, utility bill waivers and funeral reimbursement for those who apply.

"While we have sufficiently done our job to ensure clean water is now available to our citizens, we also wanted to address the concerns of those who wanted to either leave South City or have housing not connected to the South City piping system. In response to that we have provided subsidized housing in Boundaries district, on the outskirts of South City. The current brand new housing project contains over 1,000 housing units."

"And the water source for this housing?"

"It's piped in from the Central City pipe system, and will be handled by its Water management company" he replied.

There were some oohs and aahs, as Central City along with North City had high quality water. But Micah couldn't help but wonder how they had been able to develop brand new housing - which should have taken at least two years to build - ready for people so soon, as if they anticipated moving people there way before the water problem began….

"Next question!" said the secretary. Before anyone else could be called on, Sheila stood and looked at the crowd with her steely gaze. Reporters quickly put their hands down, leaving only Sheila's hand raised for the secretary to call on.

The secretary, who seemed annoyed at this point. Looked at Shiela and pointed at her to ask a question. She tugged her jacket and cleared her throat.

"According to Mineral Springs the plans to take over the city's fresh water was agreed upon 2 years ago, is that correct?" asked Sheila, who watched Russell with her piercing eyes as she held up her recorder.

"Uh, I cannot confirm the specific date, when the contract became binding. But I can say it was before this year. Next question," replied Russell. His demeanor seemed unwaveringly impenetrable to her gaze.

Sheila quickly raised her hand again and looked around the room with beady eyes daring any reporter to speak. "The document released on the water inspection shows when the contract was signed, but not when the actual inspection was done. Is it not true that the inspection could have been done at least two years prior to the switch over?"

"Wow… hadn't thought of that!" whispered the same reporter behind Micah. A few other reporters also whispered. Sheila was definitely on to something, thought Micah. If the water inspection was done over two years ago, that would mean the results were outdated and useless. Sheila watched Russell daring him to say something that she could use to drag him down.

But Russell stood almost appearing annoyed before responding. "I'm not at liberty to discuss discrepancies in the water inspection. As Mayor Valentine and I mentioned, an investigation is underway, and findings will be released at a later date. Next Question," he replied smoothly, looking out for other reporters to raise their hand. Sheila squinted harder before blurting out her next question.

"Why didn't the city conduct it's own inspection instead of -" began Sheila before Russell pointed at Rick, who had raised his finger to speak.

Rick ignored the evil eye that Sheila threw over her shoulder at him and began.

"This question has two parts: Were you aware that one of your fellow Mineral Springs board members, Mr. Howard White, is the father of Alice Gooding, the same secretary accusing you of knowing about the contamination? And, that Mr. White has controlling shares in the three companies who were vested in this water switch over and possible contamination cover up; ChemCo, Water Inspector, and Mineral Springs?"

There was a roar of chatter in the room. Even Sheila turned in her seat fully to look at Rick with wide eyes. Clearly she was unaware of the connection. Rick nudged Charles who snapped a picture of her shocked expression as he winked at her. Micah gave Rick a questioning look being that he started with one of the questions she had written in the folder she shared with him the day before.

Meanwhile, Russell tried to maintain a cool demeanor but his brows wrinkled and his mouth gave a slight frown before he straightened his face again.

"No, I was not aware. Next," he said looking into the crowd. But no reporter raised their hand, only more chatter followed.

Rick began fumbling through his phone and then he searched Micah's face, as if at a loss for what to do next.… So much for him handling it all by himself she thought with a frown. Sheila eyed them both as Micah immediately leaned over and whispered to Rick, "He needs to clarify… did he not know about their relation or the controlling shares?"

"Please clarify," yelled Rick towards the stage over the chatter of reporters, "You were not aware that they are related or that he had controlling shares?"

"Err… both," he replied.

"But both of you are indeed on the Mineral Springs board of directors, are you not?"

"That's correct."

Looking at his phones again, Rick asked, "Why do you think White and secretary may have implicated you specifically in this possible cover up?"

This time not only was Sheila squinting at Rick, but so was Micah. She realized why Rick didn't want her to speak today, because these were all of her questions that he was asking. Rick stole her questions and was passing them off as if they were his!

"I don't know. But these findings of yours are worth looking further into. I will definitely have my people check into it before next week's deposition. Last question!"

Rick turned to Micah and gave her a wink as if to say everything was going well. Micah gave a smile that barely reached the corners of her mouth. She was livid and doing her best to hold it in, as she noted that Sheila was watching them; her glances going back and forth between Rick and Micah. Finally she gave them a knowing and icy look before she turned back around to hear Russell's answer to the last question.

"What has the City done to assure citizens that there's now clean and safe water?" Asked another reporter.

"We can assure that the water is now safe because the current water has been switched back over to the fresh source. The city's pipes were drained and pumped with chemically treated water to remove toxins from the pipes for three days. Finally, the fresh source was checked by three independent companies, of which results have been available for public view on the waste and water management website" replied Russell followed by a "Thank you!" as he swiftly stepped back from the podium to allow the Secretary to speak again.

"This concludes our press conference. Any further updates will be posted on the South City government website. Thank you all for coming!" said the secretary with a smile that suggested to Micah that he was happy that this conference was over.

At least someone was happy, thought Micah. She was angry, yet again caused by Mr Rick "the d**k" Dickson. But this time he took it too far and she wasn't going to keep quiet. She was going to let him have it on the way back to Center City.