Under the greasewood and mesquite the tall valley grass was a thick pelt that signaled summer rains had arrived at exactly the right time. Otherwise the grass would be yellow and stunted, the sandy soil dried out and cracked.
The big sky, the mountains, the desert so deceptively serene, the scarcity of anything man-made in the valley, pleased Kerney and gave him hope that maybe ranching could hold on and survive for a few more generations.
Nine miles south of Playas all those thoughts passed from Kerney’s mind. The smelter sat on the east side of the valley between two dry lakebeds with the Little Hatchets looming over the complex, dwarfing the towering smokestack. The gate was open, and Kerney parked in front of the administration building, where a sign directed him to a side entrance.
Inside, he found fully equipped offices, conference rooms, and a reception area devoid of people except for a lanky, middle-aged man dressed in a Western shirt, jeans, and boots, who was filling out paperwork at a counter in front of an enlarged, framed photograph of the smelter.
“Can I help you?” the man said.
“I’m with the film company,” Kerney told him, extending his hand. “Name’s Kevin Kerney.”
“Ira Dobson,” the man replied, shaking Kerney’s hand. “I had a whole slew of you movie folks through here a couple hours ago.”
“I missed the tour,” Kerney replied.
“You didn’t miss much,” Dobson replied with a laugh. “About all I showed them was where we used to unload the copper concentrate, the building that houses the flash furnace, and the acid plant.”
“Acid plant?” Kerney asked.
Dobson nodded. “Yep. We used to produce more sulfuric acid than copper. Time was, we shipped twenty-five tank cars of acid and up to forty semitruck loads a day. Most of it went to make fertilizer.”
“Where did you get the water to run the acid operation?” Kerney asked.
Dobson studied Kerney more carefully. “Sounds like you know something about the process.”
Kerney shook his head. “Not really. But I do know it takes water to make sulfuric acid.”
“Lots of water,” Dobson agreed. “We used two hundred fifty thousand gallons a day when the plant was running, just on acid production alone. At peak capacity our wells can produce four million gallons a day.”
“That’s a hell of a lot of water to pump out of the ground.”
Dobson nodded. “The company owns or controls almost a half-million acres of land in the Bootheel, plus about seven thousand acre-feet of annual water rights. The day could come when the water may be worth more than the land.”
“Do you run the show here?” Kerney asked.
Dobson chuckled. “Nope, I run the water system for the smelter and the town site. We’ve got wells spread up and down the valley. Some are used by ranchers who lease grazing rights from the company, some are for wildlife habitat. In the more remote areas we use solar power to pump the wells.”
“The job must keep you jumping,” Kerney said.
Dobson snorted. “At least I’ve got a job, for now. But once they tear this smelter down, I’ll be looking for work.”
“Is that going to happen anytime soon?” Kerney asked.
Dobson shrugged. “That depends. We’ve got some groundwater contamination issues to deal with, along with some other environmental cleanup problems. The lawyers are fighting it out with the federal and state regulators.”
“Do you live in Playas?” Kerney asked.
“I sure do. Me and about fifty-some other folks, give or take a few. The deal is that when the town got sold to become an antiterrorism training center, the residents could stay. Some have been hired on as maintenance and upkeep personnel.”
“Mind if I take a look around the smelter?” Kerney asked.
“Go ahead,” Dobson said. “But keep out of those areas posted for employees only. That’s most of the plant. But you can walk or drive around the perimeter, if the gates are unlocked. Watch out for rattlesnakes.”
He opened a counter drawer and handed Kerney a packet of general information about the smelter. “There’s some interesting stuff in there about the valley and the company.”
Kerney thanked Dobson for his time and went outside. High above him the warning beacon on top of the smokestack flashed brightly in the afternoon sunlight. At nightfall, if Officer Flavio Sapian was right, the Star of the North would guide another group of illegal immigrants across the border. Kerney wondered how many Border Patrol officers were on station, ready to pounce on the coyotes who’d be hauling illegal human cargo into the States. The Border Patrol was stretched tight from lack of funding, and the increase promised after 9/11 had never fully materialized.
Behind the administration building, at the end of a large, virtually empty parking lot, was the main employee entrance to the smelter, festooned with fading painted signs that promoted safety and noted 698 consecutive accident-free days at the plant. Parked near the entrance were several vehicles, including a panel van that looked like the one that had passed Kerney earlier in the day just before he found the dying Mexican lying on the pavement.
He couldn’t be sure if it was the same vehicle, but it was a close enough match to make Kerney pull out Flavio Sapian’s business card and call him on his cell phone.
“Have you been able to ID the victim?” Kerney asked, when Sapian answered.
“Negative, Chief. He had no papers on him at all. The body’s en route to Albuquerque for an autopsy. Maybe his prints will ID him, but I doubt it.”
“I’m down at the copper smelter south of Playas, looking at a vehicle that’s similar to the one that passed me on the highway,” Kerney said. “Same color, same make. You want the license plate number?”
“You bet I do. Read it off.”
Kerney gave him the info and said, “Let me know if anything comes of it.”
“Ten-four.”
Sapian disconnected and Kerney continued his walk. He didn’t know the first thing about copper smelting, but the handout Dobson had provided told him a lot. The flash furnace Dobson had mentioned once produced eight hundred tons of cast copper daily. In its heyday the smelter had operated around the clock, processing two thousand tons of copper concentrate every twenty-four hours.
Kerney eyed the buildings, many of them two or three stories tall. Several were connected by what looked like covered chutes or conveyers. To the north the rail spur ran to what appeared to be a loading dock abutting a storage silo. To the south a series of large steel storage tanks defined an area that Kerney took to be the place where sulfuric acid had been produced. Near the tall smokestack in the center of the complex stood another silo and the largest structure on the grounds, which Kerney figured held the furnace used to mold the copper castings.
He could see why Malcolm Usher, the director of the film, would want to use the smelter in the movie. The stark, utilitarian industrial complex rose out of the desert on a grand scale, in sharp contrast to the raw, knuckled mountains, the soapweed yucca flats, and the ruddy white soil of the dry lakebed, creating a visually stunning effect.
Back at the employee entrance the panel truck was gone and the administration building was locked. Near his truck a young diamondback rattlesnake slithered slowly across the pavement, soaking up the heat of the day, and disappeared under a boulder in a landscaped bed of crushed red rock that fronted the entrance to the building.
In late summer or early fall female diamondbacks laid their eggs, giving birth to upwards of two dozen young. As a precaution Kerney checked around his truck carefully before climbing on board and driving away.
Over twenty years ago Malcolm Usher had started his career directing country music videos, gradually working his way up the food chain. After a successful stint directing episodes for a number of sitcoms, he’d moved on to made-for-television movies, one of which had been nominated for an Emmy.