Cold Wind - C. J. Box [77]
“Okay,” Joe said, “but what does this have to do with Earl Alden’s project?”
“I’m not exactly sure yet,” she said, “but this whole thing might fall right into what Marcus Hand said about him, that he’s a skimmer and not a ‘maker-of-things.’ ”
“That’s what I don’t get,” Joe said. “How much does a wind turbine cost to put up?”
She said she’d found the figures, and read them off. The installed cost of a turbine was roughly three million to six million dollars per including the equipment, roadwork, and overhead. The disparity in cost depended on whether the turbine was a 1.5-megawatt machine or one of the newer, bigger 3-megawatt generators.
“Wow,” Joe said. “So a hundred turbines at Earl’s farm . . .”
“I figured it out,” she said, reading, “and came up with an investment of four hundred million dollars.”
Joe whistled.
“For a farm the size of Earl’s,” she said, “Bob Lee would have received at minimum one point five million dollars per year. With all the considerations, he could have generated forty-five million dollars over the first thirty-year lease.”
“Oh, man,” Joe said.
“Lots of people would kill for that,” she said. “Or kill if they were swindled out of it.”
“He doesn’t seem like the killing type,” Joe said. “So tell me about Rope the Wind,” Joe said.
“I’m still researching,” she said. “What I’ve found is pretty interesting. Give me a little more time to dig.”
As if he’d somehow been pulled there, Joe wound up on the two-track public easement that led to the windy ridge and the wind farm on the Thunderhead Ranch. He retraced his route from two weeks before when he’d seen the antelope hunters and later found The Earl’s body. The blades of the turbines cut through the cloudless sky like scythes, whistling, and he drove to the edge of the Lee Ranch and pulled off the road onto a promontory.
He was surprised to find another vehicle on top, a red Subaru wagon. County Attorney Dulcie Schalk’s car.
She apparently didn’t hear him coming, because she didn’t turn around as he drove up behind her. She was out of her car, leaning back against the hood, looking out at the wind farm with her arms crossed below her breasts. She wore a red tank top, snug white shorts, and a ponytail cascaded from the back opening of a King Ropes ball cap.
Joe had never seen her on her day off before. Her long tan legs were crossed one over the other. She looked young, athletic, and undeniably attractive.
So that he wouldn’t scare her by suddenly appearing by her side, he tapped his horn as he pulled his truck in behind her car. The sound startled her and she wheeled around, fear and anger in her eyes until she recognized him. She acted as if she’d been caught doing something she was ashamed of, and he wondered what it was.
Joe told Tube to stay inside and climbed out.
“I didn’t expect to find you out here,” he said, fitting his Stetson on his head and ambling up to her. “I’m sorry I surprised you.”
“I was focused on the windmills,” she said, “and that high-pitched sound they make. It’s like you can’t hear anything else except that sound.”
“You should hear ’em when the wind is really blowing,” Joe said. “You’ll think there’s a truck coming at you.”
“There’s always a downside, I guess,” she said, turning around and assuming the pose she’d had when he arrived.
Joe leaned back against the grille of the Subaru next to her and looked out, trying to see what she was focused on. “Downside to what?”
“Every kind of energy development, I guess,” she said.
He thought about what he’d learned from Marybeth, but decided it wasn’t the time to go there.
“I’m just getting it all straight in my mind,” she said by way of explanation, “since things were pretty crazy that day you found the body. I want to make sure it