Good thing, because I don’t make much. A lot less since the Mondamin lawsuit.’
‘Oh?’
‘People in Barron think I’m a traitor. They didn’t like me representing the families in St. Croix. Fortunately, there are still enoughpeople who want to dump their spouses or who get DUIs doing 105 miles an hour on Highway 7 to keep me in business. I’m about the only game in town, and my rates are cheap.’
‘Did you grow up around here?’
Rollie took another bite of his hamburger. ‘In other words, why would I be practicing law in a town of five thousand people if I’m not a native? Yeah, I still live on the family farm a few miles south of town. It’s all weeds now. My mom was pretty upset when I chose law over farming, but I could read the writing on the wall. Farming was a dead end. Plus, these hands weren’t meant for manual labor.’
‘It’s just you and Tanya?’
Hearing his daughter’s name made Rollie smile. ‘Yeah, it’s her and me. I met her mother when I was in law school at Billy Mitchell in the Cities. It was one of those relationships that should have fizzled after a couple months, but she got pregnant, and we got married. It didn’t take her long to figure out that she hated small towns, hated being a mother, and hated me, not necessarily in that order. Tanya was only two, and I wanted custody. Sarah didn’t put up a fight.’
‘Are you still in contact with her?’
‘I don’t have a clue where she is, and that’s fine. Tanya does okay with me as a Dad and Mom rolled into one.’
Chris wondered if that was true. He thought about Olivia growing up without him for the last three years. Rollie Swenson didn’t have any trouble reading his mind.
‘What’s the deal with you and Hannah?’ Rollie asked. ‘If you don’t mind a personal question.’
‘Hannah’s roots are here. When her mom died, she wanted to come back and make a difference.’
‘She’s done that. There aren’t many people in this region without an opinion about your ex-wife. They love her or hate her.’
‘What about you?’ Chris asked.
‘Me?’ Rollie took another French fry and chewed it bite by bite. ‘I wish I had her passion. Somehow she held onto her idealism about this part of the world, and I lost mine a long time ago.’
‘You took the case against Mondamin,’ Chris pointed out. ‘That’s pretty idealistic.’
Rollie smiled. ‘Hannah was relentless. She had Glenn Magnus and the other parents who had lost kids sitting here in my office. I told them the suit was a loser, but she said they didn’t care about money. They wanted discovery. They wanted to get past summary judgment and tear open the company’s records and start interviewing their scientists. She was pretty sure that we’d find plenty of dirt once we started looking.’
‘What kind of dirt?’
‘Environmental violations. Questionable science. Bad actors. There was one scientist in particular they had suspicions about, a whack job named Vernon Clay who lived near St. Croix. He disappeared, and we tried to find him. No luck.’
‘The whole thing sounds like an uphill climb from a litigation standpoint.’
‘Well, I was hoping we could prompt a settlement offer to make us go away,’ Rollie admitted. ‘Florian was in negotiations to sell the company, and I figured he didn’t want bad publicity to screw the deal. But he’s a hard-ass. I got out-lawyered and out-resourced. The Bible may say different, but most of the time, when David goes up against Goliath, David gets his ass kicked.’
‘Causation is almost impossible to prove in these cases. That’s not your fault.’
Rollie shrugged. ‘In my line of work, I don’t have too many opportunities to be on the side of the good guys. I really wanted to come through for those people, but I let them down.’
The younger attorney finished his burger and dumped the empty foam container into a wastebasket under his desk. He sucked up his Coke through a straw, until there was
‘Oh?’
‘People in Barron think I’m a traitor. They didn’t like me representing the families in St. Croix. Fortunately, there are still enoughpeople who want to dump their spouses or who get DUIs doing 105 miles an hour on Highway 7 to keep me in business. I’m about the only game in town, and my rates are cheap.’
‘Did you grow up around here?’
Rollie took another bite of his hamburger. ‘In other words, why would I be practicing law in a town of five thousand people if I’m not a native? Yeah, I still live on the family farm a few miles south of town. It’s all weeds now. My mom was pretty upset when I chose law over farming, but I could read the writing on the wall. Farming was a dead end. Plus, these hands weren’t meant for manual labor.’
‘It’s just you and Tanya?’
Hearing his daughter’s name made Rollie smile. ‘Yeah, it’s her and me. I met her mother when I was in law school at Billy Mitchell in the Cities. It was one of those relationships that should have fizzled after a couple months, but she got pregnant, and we got married. It didn’t take her long to figure out that she hated small towns, hated being a mother, and hated me, not necessarily in that order. Tanya was only two, and I wanted custody. Sarah didn’t put up a fight.’
‘Are you still in contact with her?’
‘I don’t have a clue where she is, and that’s fine. Tanya does okay with me as a Dad and Mom rolled into one.’
Chris wondered if that was true. He thought about Olivia growing up without him for the last three years. Rollie Swenson didn’t have any trouble reading his mind.
‘What’s the deal with you and Hannah?’ Rollie asked. ‘If you don’t mind a personal question.’
‘Hannah’s roots are here. When her mom died, she wanted to come back and make a difference.’
‘She’s done that. There aren’t many people in this region without an opinion about your ex-wife. They love her or hate her.’
‘What about you?’ Chris asked.
‘Me?’ Rollie took another French fry and chewed it bite by bite. ‘I wish I had her passion. Somehow she held onto her idealism about this part of the world, and I lost mine a long time ago.’
‘You took the case against Mondamin,’ Chris pointed out. ‘That’s pretty idealistic.’
Rollie smiled. ‘Hannah was relentless. She had Glenn Magnus and the other parents who had lost kids sitting here in my office. I told them the suit was a loser, but she said they didn’t care about money. They wanted discovery. They wanted to get past summary judgment and tear open the company’s records and start interviewing their scientists. She was pretty sure that we’d find plenty of dirt once we started looking.’
‘What kind of dirt?’
‘Environmental violations. Questionable science. Bad actors. There was one scientist in particular they had suspicions about, a whack job named Vernon Clay who lived near St. Croix. He disappeared, and we tried to find him. No luck.’
‘The whole thing sounds like an uphill climb from a litigation standpoint.’
‘Well, I was hoping we could prompt a settlement offer to make us go away,’ Rollie admitted. ‘Florian was in negotiations to sell the company, and I figured he didn’t want bad publicity to screw the deal. But he’s a hard-ass. I got out-lawyered and out-resourced. The Bible may say different, but most of the time, when David goes up against Goliath, David gets his ass kicked.’
‘Causation is almost impossible to prove in these cases. That’s not your fault.’
Rollie shrugged. ‘In my line of work, I don’t have too many opportunities to be on the side of the good guys. I really wanted to come through for those people, but I let them down.’
The younger attorney finished his burger and dumped the empty foam container into a wastebasket under his desk. He sucked up his Coke through a straw, until there was
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