Robert Branham

Kern River Crude Robert Branham

The oil patch was all Travis knew. He did after all, grow-up in the trailer park next door to the refinery on Rosedale Highway. His dream job was to be a foreman of a crew like his daddy. Across town in the Highlands, Brandy's house overlooked the industrial municipality of Bakersfield. Her family was a symbol of the American dream, from the perfectly manicured yard, a Cadillac out front to the swimming pool in the back. The scene is Bakersfield, and the date is 1980. Oil rigs are hiring and Roughnecks are cashing checks. You never know just who you will run into while cruising Chester Avenue on a Saturday night, or if that Camaro in your rearview mirror is tailgating to kiss you, or whoop you. Some things you just can't know until they happen, like when you'll fall in love, or getting arrested and doing community service. For Travis, winning the heart of such an attractive woman is no easy feat. But then again keeping her is something entirely different. Travis knows the refinery inside and out. Curiously, he has started noticing some unusual things, but pointing them out could prove fatal. Nobody suspects foul play when an attorney turns up dead or when an entire crew mysteriously is exposed to H2S while working in an abandoned section of the refinery; nobody but Travis. Keeping his beautiful wife and his dream job are two things he never realized would be so dangerous.