Chapter Seventeen #2
“Tell us what you found out,” Stella said.
“I’ve thought so much about what we could do with that property.
At first, the idea was just sort of daydreaming, but the more I thought about it, the more I could really envision a house big enough for all of us.
When we want to vacation together but don’t have the time to go on a big trip, it would be perfect for us. ”
Stella sounded as if she meant every word.
Harlow found herself nodding in agreement, although she wasn’t so sure they could pay equal shares in the investment.
She had money saved, but purchasing a piece of property she didn’t have much use for, worrying about permits and contractors—she just didn’t deal with those things.
But Stella did. She always managed to have both of her resorts in top shape at all times.
Harlow knew it had taken a tremendous amount of work for Stella to turn the resorts around and make them into thriving businesses.
Harlow could see Stella owning an Airbnb. She had such a good sense of business. She not only had turned the dilapidated resorts around, but she had also helped several of the businesses in Knightly get on their feet.
Harlow nearly groaned aloud. She wasn’t a businesswoman.
At all. She was a good nurse, maybe even an amazing nurse, but her love was her photography.
Her art. The sculptures she was just beginning to think she was able to sell.
Not owning houses and renting them out. But if that was a dream Stella and the others had, she would find a way to help out.
She knew if they purchased the house together, they’d have fun. They always did.
“Tracking down the owner of this property has been a wild ride,” Guadalupe said. “The mystery of finding who actually holds the title has made me feel like I’m following a little bread trail. Just a few crumbs here and there.”
Raine gave her a small, enigmatic smile. “The owner buried his identity deep.”
“Yes, he did,” Guadalupe agreed. “I take it as a challenge. I’m getting closer. There is a very stubborn trustee blocking me at every turn, but I’ll find a way around him.”
“It doesn’t sound as if the owner is going to be very open to selling,” Stella said. She dipped a zucchini stick in sauce. “Yum, Shabina. I love this stuff.”
“Don’t be discouraged,” Guadalupe advised.
“The trustee is Adam Young. He has a small business in Independence. I’ve dealt with him one other time, some years ago.
He’s an older man and very stubborn. It took some persuasion to get him to agree to talk to his client, but yesterday he promised me he would do so.
He also said he was risking his client yanking the trust and all other business from him.
That told me two things. Whoever owns the property has a bad temper and is powerful enough to throw his weight around. ”
Guadalupe had completely dismissed the uncomfortable creeper lurking around her house as if she could just wipe him from her mind. She loved her job, and it showed in her animated features as she gave them the details of her journey to find the owner of the property.
“This Adam Young said his client would yank the trust but also included other businesses,” Raine said, her voice thoughtful. “Would he have included those businesses in his trust? Are they listed as an LLC?”
“We can do a business search for the state,” Guadalupe said. “That would be interesting. The property is here in this county. What other businesses are under an LLC in the county or neighboring ones? It might take weeks, but I particularly like the challenge.”
“I have a program that searches for patterns,” Raine said. “That might cut our search time down. Of course, we don’t know that the owner even lives in this area or has his other businesses close.”
“But,” Stella chimed in, “he used Adam Young in Independence to write up and execute his trust. If he’s such a big shot, why go to a small town instead of some larger company?”
“There’s that,” Zahra agreed. “Do we know if the property was homesteaded? There is no house on it.”
“But there is the barn and evidence of fencing,” Harlow pointed out. “Most of the fence is gone, the wood rotted and lying on the ground, but they had done improvements.”
“The criteria for homesteading a century ago,” Raine said, “which is approximately the time Knightly was established…”
“Did the five founding families travel together and decide to settle close to one another?” Vienna asked.
Raine nodded. “They were young and had families, at least according to the records. They settled down and each chose land to develop. Knightly built up from there. The homesteading rules of 1862 consisted of several requirements. You had to be twenty-one years old or head of a household to apply. You could claim a parcel of land that was usually around one hundred and sixty acres. You did have to build a dwelling and improve the land within a five-year period. A portion of the land was to be used for farming, usually at least ten acres. You finalized the claim with a fee, which was around ten dollars. Here’s the kicker: you had to prove residency and improvements to get full ownership. ”
“Could the barn have been considered a dwelling?” Harlow asked.
“Inside, there are quite a few old tools for farming. There were a few broken pieces of crockery buried in the dirt that I noticed in my photographs, but I didn’t really pay attention to.
There’s some evidence that the land several yards from the barn was used to grow food.
I say that because there are still a few plants trying to survive through all the weeds.
I haven’t spent a lot of time looking around.
Mostly, I boulder when I go there. It could be that the remains of a cabin might be somewhere on the property. ”
“A homestead claim would have been filed,” Raine said. “I can look into that. But it’s possible the land was sold to someone else because the original homesteader didn’t fulfill his obligation.”
“I love a good mystery,” Guadalupe said.
“Thank you, ladies, for bringing me this puzzle. I love my job. I love everything about finding the perfect property for a client, but delving into a labyrinth and trying to unwind the various paper trails adds a lot of variety to what I do. It keeps me from ever being bored.” She stood up, looking at her watch.
“Speaking of which, I have clients coming in half an hour. A young family eager to find a home. They love bouldering and like the idea of being close to Yosemite. I think I’ve found several good possibilities for them. ”
They watched her make her way through the maze of tables. She turned at the door and gave them a little wave.
Harlow sighed. “We didn’t do a very good job of persuading her that she’s in danger. More and more, I’m convinced she was the young girl the senator shoved over the border, pregnant. I want to just come out and ask her, but I’d rather she tell me.”
“I think your instincts are right,” Stella said. “I think it takes her a long time to trust anyone. For her to reveal very personal details about her past, especially if she was trafficked by the cartel, would be extremely difficult.”
“At least you aren’t getting death threats at the moment,” Raine said. “Hopefully, she believed us when we told her about your life with the senator.”
“And how you spent a small fortune on private detectives trying to find your brother,” Zahra added.
Harlow sat in silence, allowing the others to talk around her.
Her mind kept going to the man hiding his identity as he snooped around Guadalupe’s house.
Was it a member of the Delgotto Cartel? Had Guadalupe been hiding all these years in the small town of Knightly, and somehow she’d been exposed?
Or was it the killer Harlow was absolutely certain had been responsible for all the deaths in and around Knightly?
“I’m missing something important here,” she announced. “All of us are. Something is going on here in Knightly, we know that. I believe it absolutely. It suddenly has occurred to me that several things could be connected.”
“I agree completely,” Stella said. “I’m glad I’m not the only one. I swear this toxic venom, or whatever is killing people, has to be related to some of the crazy things happening around us.”
“I’ve looked closely at the victims,” Raine said.
“They have to be connected in some way. The ones from Knightly are easy to link. They all knew one another. Edith Shumaker, we believe, wasn’t the target.
Chelsey Sarten was. She’s from Knightly.
But the last four victims didn’t live here. What did they have in common?”
“They were all from out of town and were going camping,” Zahra said.
“I meant, what would they have in common with those killed that were from Knightly?” Raine explained. “Unless the four were targeted as random killings to throw off investigators, they have to have a connection to the killer.”
“Raine is correct,” Stella said. “Has anyone heard if any of them knew local people?”
They all shook their heads.
Shabina sighed. “So the only connection is that they ate in my café? Not at the same time, mind you, not even on the same day.”
“Wait,” Raine exclaimed, snapping her fingers.
“I’ve got the reports on the accidents as well as everything found at the campsites.
I swear I remember something, one small detail that caught my eye.
It was nothing, and I dismissed it. At the time, I was still taking major painkillers, and they really affected me.
Give me a minute and let me look at my notes. ”
Harlow found herself holding her breath. She knew she had missed something important. She had to get as many pieces of the puzzle as possible and put them together.