Page 49 of Ghost
“The former mayor who wasthe vet’s father, Ronald?” Ghost asked.
“One and the same. Alongwith the former patriarch of the Berry family, Joe Berry’s father,Prosper,” Harris answered without taking his eyes off his computerscreen.
“Okay, now that we knowthat the Crosses and Berrys have been buying up land in Marshallfor over two generations, the question is why?” Strykerasked.
“That’s what we need tofind out,” Brick said.
“Wait,” Ray said. “Jakementioned that some of the land wasn’t willingly sold and that, inthose cases, things happened. Can we look into each specific landdeal? Get a better picture of what exactly went down.”
“Yes. We can search out thehow now we have the who,” Spencer said. “It’ll be much easier nowthat the groundwork is done.”
“Good. You two carry onwith that while we go have a look around the ranch,” Brick said.“Bryan and his grandfather are expecting us.”
“Before you guys go, I havesomething interesting we found in one of the boxes yesterday,”Julia said as she pulled out a faded file. “It’s Jericho Miles’swill.”
“Why would Sophia haveJericho’s will?” Ray asked.
Brick opened the file and scanned thepages while the team waited.
“It appears to be datedbefore Jericho shipped out to Korea. It names Sophia as his solebeneficiary.”
“He was trying to make sureshe was cared for if he didn’t make it back,” Julia said with aslight hitch in her voice.
“They were in love. Itmakes it even more confusing that they didn’t end up together afterhis return. What happened?” Ghost asked.
“War affects people. Yousee and do things that you never thought possible. It’s ugly andviolent, leaving its mark on the people involved,” Brick explained.“If Jericho returned a different man, then all bets are off, andSophia might not’ve been prepared to handle that.”
Ghost wanted more than ever to knowthe full story, and he hoped if there was an afterlife, Sophia andJericho would find each other there.
***
Ray
“This is the area they’dmarked off on that map you showed me,” Bryan said as he droveBrick, Ray, Ghost, Shaw, and Isaiah, Bryan’s grandfather, acrossthe ranch.
“What’s special out here?”Brick asked.
“This is the back forty, aswe like to call it. There’s not much here. It’s rocky and has a fewsharp elevations. Not good for pasture lands or buildings,” Isaiahsaid. “We don’t come out here too often.”
“Have you ever had anyincidents out here?” Ray asked.
“No,” Bryansaid.
“Wait,” Shaw said.“Remember when we first started dating? You had some action backhere. At the time, we thought it had something to do with Kyle andthe traffickers he’d help stop wanting revenge.”
“Right. Yeah,” Bryan said.“I found tracks back here, and then there was that day when Kyleand I were out for a ride, and we came across some men withbinoculars. They took off before we could identifythem.”
“Can you take me to whereyou found the tracks?” Brick asked.
“Sure.”
Bryan changed directions and headedtoward a much hillier area covered in rocks and a large grouping oftrees that stood out among the more barren grasslands.
“Why are there so manytrees in this one area?” Ray asked. He’d grown up in Marshall butwasn’t a farmer or rancher.
“There’s a natural springthat begins over there and feeds a couple of ranches in the area,”Isaiah said. “It’s a major source of water in theseparts.”
Bells began sounding in Ray’s mind ashis instincts kicked in.
