"Most people don't want to talk to the U.S. Attorney's Office in a criminal investigation. Why do you want to talk to them?"
"I have information that may be useful to the criminal investigation. We knew about the chemicals being discharged at DuPont Fayetteville Works," Harry said.
"But was it us?"
"Yes, we knew," Harry responded.
"But was it us?" he asked again.
"Yes, our agency."
"But was it us?" he repeated for the third time.
Harry paused, trying to make sense of the repeated question. His boss, one of the two bosses that Harry reported to in the Raleigh field office on Barrett Drive, waited patiently for his answer. After more than a year on the job, Harry knew this particular boss to be conscientious, knowledgeable, and respectful to others. For that, he was grateful. He also understood that this boss reported to another boss located several miles away in the Archdale building in downtown Raleigh. And that boss reported to another boss, a division director, in the water resources division in the Archdale building, who in turn reported to the assistant secretary for the environment, located in another downtown location, the Green Square building. The assistant secretary reported to the head of the agency, also in the Green Square building, who reported to the Governor's Office and to the General Assembly. Harry expected this to be a challenging effort, but likely to succeed if he tried multiple paths of communication within the large, multi-layered organization.
"Yes, the agency's Division of Air Quality. I was working in air quality at that time," Harry said.
"But was it us?" his boss repeated for the fourth time.
It seemed much like Sister Lucy asking repeatedly which fourth grade boys had been throwing snowballs at the holy statue in front of the school building. Perhaps she was just trying to find out which boys threw the two snowballs that actually hit the statue. Maybe she was not interested in which boys threw all the snowballs that missed.
"It was the Fayetteville regional office. It was the top management of the NC Division of Air Quality in Raleigh and people located in the agency's Fayetteville office."
"So it wasn't us," he responded with a somewhat reassured tone. Harry wondered what his boss meant by 'us.' However, his boss had another question.
"Where is DuPont Fayetteville Works?"
"Fayetteville. It's located in the Fayetteville region," Harry responded.
"But where is it located?"
There was another pause. Harry stared at the eyes of his boss. It suddenly dawned on him that his boss might be trying to indirectly communicate about another potentially significant factor.
"Actually, it's located in Bladen County," Harry answered.
Now there was a long pause in the conversation. Their eyes were locked in silence. Bladen County is a rural county that is located downstream of Fayetteville.
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