Page 177 of The Billion Heirs Boxed Set

That matches the paperwork we found in the old garage.

“A couple of your father’s companies hired them to haul what turned out to be barrels of hazardous chemicals across the border into Canada.”

“So he was hauling freight into Canada,” Sadie murmurs.

“Why?” Chance asks. “Are the laws for hazardous chemical disposal less stringent in Canada?”

“I’m not an environmental lawyer,” Shankle says. “But according to my associate who looked into this matter, the United States and Canada have an agreement regarding the transboundary movement of hazardous materials.”

“Then why was our father transporting the stuff to Canada?” Austin asks.

“Because Canada has something the US doesn’t,” Shankle says. “Lots of vast vacant land. From what I understand, Ms. Hopkins, your brother didn’t know he was transporting hazardous chemicals across international lines. But he was given explicit instructions about where to cross the border and which border agent to deal with.”

I shake my head. “A border agent who had been paid off.”

“Give the boy a—”

Austin’s cheeks burn red. “If you say give the boy a silver dollar, I’m going to fly across the table and pound on you, Shankle.”

I can handle Shankle, but after what went down with Carly, Austin has zero patience for the guy. I have to admit, he is a patronizing fucker.

“So my brother’s innocent.” Sadie heaves a sigh of relief. “Although in the eyes of the law, he was the one committing the crime.”

“That’s true. As far as we know, he didn’t know what he was hauling.” Shankle makes some notes on his yellow legal pad.

“This doesn’t explain how he ended up on our property,” Chance says.

“There will still be an investigation,” Shankle says. “Apparently Racehorse Hauling was shut down a few years back. Your father was never implicated in anything, until recently.”

“The whistleblower who came forward after he died.” Austin glares at Shankle.

“Give the boy a Benjamin.” Shankle lets out a gravelly laugh. “There. I just gave you a ninety-nine dollar raise.”

Austin seethes across the table.

“Did your associate find anything else out?” Chance asks, keeping Shankle moving so Austin doesn’t kill him.

“Something that would get you off the hook for this?” Shankle shakes his head. “I’m sorry, son.”

“I’m not your son,” Chance says. “You did my father’s dirty work all those years. How do we know you’re not behind all of this?”

“You’re well within your rights to request another lawyer.” Shankle scoots his chair back and crosses his legs. “But I’ve told you before, I only took care of his ranching business, and I swear to you everything there is legit. Besides, if I’m aware of a crime, I have to report it.”

“Doesn’t mean you will,” Austin mutters.

“Chance makes a good point, Shankle,” I add. “There’s got to be someone at your firm or another firm who might be a better fit for this particular case, especially since everything points to your dead client.”

“We had this discussion already,” Shankle counters. “I’ve got one of my partners who is experienced in white-collar crime work looking at this. As for me? All I can say is look at my track record. I took care of Jonathan Bridger for several decades. He had his faults for sure, but I never saw any evidence of malfeasance in my dealings with him.”

“So you’re sure he operated his ranch on the up and up?” Austin taps his fingers on the table.

If he didn’t, it could impact our inheritance. I didn’t want dirty money, especially any that might have been involved in killing my woman’s brother.

“To the best of my knowledge. I knew he had outside interests, but he never commingled any of the funds with this ranching business. Now, that doesn’t mean that his estate is exempt from the fines and civil penalties with regard to the EPA violations.”

“Don’t they have to prove it first?” I say.

He nods. “Yes, but in a civil case, the burden of proof is much lower.”