Monty wavedhis hand in concession. “I’m not arguing about family ties. The problem lies in the rest of the statement. Val’s land was lost long ago. We hold the deednow.”
Sam’s stomach tied in knots, but this was why she had to put everything out in the open. Walker had professional reasons to keep quiet. She didn’t. “Walker has had men investigating me, and in the process, they have searched theproperty office. This is public information. You can look for yourself. The farm is owned by a trust. He says the documents he’s located show Val and I are the beneficiaries of thattrust.”
Mariah looked stunned. “How is that possible? No one even knew you existed! What if you hadn’t found your way up here? Who would get the land then? Are you sure Walker isn’t perpetrating somescam?”
Monty shook his head. “Sorry, not to demean Walker in any way, but that’s dreaming. The condo company has the deeds or they wouldn’t be spending money to draw up development plans. My father set it all up long ago, but we’ve tried to stay out of it until now. I don’t doubt Walker’s done his job, but there is apparently a missingpiece.”
“And that’s me,” Sam said quietly, thinkingabout what Mariah had just asked about who might get the land if she hadn’t showed up. “As long as I didn’t exist and Val barely clings to reality, there might have been some hope of fighting forownership.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Monty said. “No respectable company spends money based on wishfulthinking!”
Sam shook her head. “Cass knows, she’s just not talking. I think she’s afraidmore people will die if she does. She raised my father as her son, and losing him must have hurt very much. I don’t know what it cost her when my mother sent me away as an infant. You and Kurt were just kids and wouldn’t care. I think everyone simply kept quiet after your father’s death and the threat of development fadedaway.”
Monty glared as if he’d like to snap logs. “I’ll call my lawyer.This is ridiculous. Too many years of planning went into this development to believe this Lucynonsense.”
“Your lawyer and mine probably ought to look into this together,” she agreed, putting her executor’s business card on the desk. “But if what Walker has uncovered is truth, and he has no reason to lie, then someone worked very hard and sacrificed a lot to keep you from ever developingthe farm. It may be time to locate my birthmother.”
Mariah was still looking stunned. “How is any of this possible? How can land sit there for twenty-five years and no one own it? The taxes alone would ensure the county movedin.”
“If the trust works like the one my father inherited, then an executor is handling it. He has no authority to sell while we’re alive, but there was apparentlymoney involved in the settlement suit. I don’t know how much is left, but if someone intended no one to develop that land, the money must be invested to produce enough income to covertaxes.”
“And executor fees,” Monty added. “And this is all highly improbable. I was too young to know the details but Alan assured us that the court favored the bank, the foreclosure was allowed, and his companytook over. The Ingerssons died shortly after the suit was settled. I vaguely remember them stubbornly refusing to leave and living in a tent after fire wiped out the farmhouse. But I was only five or six at the time. I don’t remember their deaths. I’m sorry Val feels as if she was cheated out of her home, but the past ispast.”
“Could you call your development people and ask to see a copyof the deed?” Samsuggested.
The land meant nothing to her, but the town was important to her friends and the condos were important to her family. She was damned no matter which way sheturned.
Monty scowled but picked up his landline and dialed a number he apparently knew by heart. “Is Gump there? Fine, then tell him I need to see a copy of the deed on the old Ingersson property.”He listened for a minute and his scowl deepened. “I want to frame photos of the land as it is now and include deeds as part of the montage. Right. Let me know when they’re available.Thanks.”
He hung up and glared. “There’s no one in the office who can produce them right now. They’ll get back tome.”
Mariah stood up, looking militant. “Hitch up the lawyers, folks, it’s time to visitthe courthouse. Someone, somewhere is lying, and my bet is onyourdevelopmentcompany.”
Monty stood, frowning formidably and looking at his watch. “It’s too late now, but I’ll call my lawyer in the morning. A deed to a trust is meaningless without looking into ownership of thetrust.”
He nodded at Sam. “Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I’ll see if Kurt has done his homework,but we’re not lawyers. We rely on the people we work with to be trustworthy. I have no reason to doubt a company that has spent years and hundreds of thousands of dollars on planning this development, but it’s good to double check. You need to do thesame.”
“I intend to, but I didn’t want to do it behind your back. I’d really like to make Hillvale my home, but I can’t if my families areat war. I’ve lived without a home for six years. I can do it again. But I’d hoped there might be a place for me here,” Sam said wistfully. She stood and wished she had the right to hug her uncle. He looked unhappy. But she didn’t think he’d appreciate thegesture.
Since she may have just destroyed his hopes for the future as well as her own, sheunderstood.
Instead of taking thedoor they entered, Mariah opened a panel in the office wall, exposing what appeared to be the bluff. “This way. I’ll show you a shortcut. Amber said you need to lie low, and this might be a good time to listen. Dinah needs to do without you until all lawyers have checked in. Half the town could be out there waiting anxiously for goodnews.”
“They saw you come in,” Monty grumbled. “You oughtto go out and facethem.”
“I’ll tell them we held a sit-in protest all night but you crawled out a rat hole,” Mariahretorted.
“Then I’ll go out the front and let them believe I killed you, give them something to meddle in,” he snapped. “You can’t keep hiding who youare.”
Sam waited for that enigmatic argument to be explained, but Monty merely waited as Mariah led Sam outto a narrow protected area where a Tesla concealed a set of steps carved into the bluff face. Skirting the car’s hood, Mariah started up the stairs, saying, “You might as well know how to get to your farm from everydirection.”
Her farm.Sam actually thrilled a little, for the first time, at the possibility that she might own land here, but she forced herself to stay practical. “Walkerwill be coming up after he gets off duty. How much time will thisshortcuttake?”
“Not much,” Mariah assured her. “Fifty years ago, the Ingerssons—and their tenants in the commune days—didn’t have a lot of vehicles. They walked to town for their groceries and supplies. This is pretty direct, just really steep. Daisy can’t walk it, but Val can. She grew up here. She knows all the nooks andcrannies. It’s how she gets around with no one seeingher.”
Western sun lit the way up the first set of steps, but then the path turned behind a wall of rock, and they walked in the shadows of the bluff. It was easy to see why people talked of ghosts. The wind whistled through this narrow canyon, and the light shifted uncertainly. Above, Sam could see the tall pines she guessed were theones she’d seen from the farmhouse foundation. They probably provided awindbreak.
“If Daisy is up here, we should have brought her food.” Sam started to turnaround.
