Chapter Thirty-Six #2
Ellen had liked Jeanne when she was first elected—she was from Gainesville, had ties to the community, and her grandparents had gone to the same church as Penny and Milton.
But over the years, she had become less accessible and more slimy. John once said that good people go into public office, but the system corrupts them. She wasn’t that cynical, but she was getting there. Especially once she learned that Mitchell Robinson was her biggest supporter.
“I’ll bet there is some deadline on Monday for funding,” Travis said. “If Mitchell doesn’t own the land free and clear, with all the rights delineated, he’s going to lose tens of millions of dollars.”
“But why?” Ryan asked. “Wouldn’t he have to pay to put in the pipeline?”
“No,” Avery said. “In my current events class we’ve been talking about infrastructure and economics. The government will either give him the money to do it, or lease the rights and put in the pipes themselves. Right, Uncle Travis?”
Travis nodded. “Yep. If the government decided to put the pipeline in through this area, even if they used eminent domain, it would be years of haggling and lawsuits because most of us don’t want it here—it’s too disruptive to the land, as John has always said.
It would divide parcels and make it more difficult to farm and raise livestock.
We could win—there have been cases in other areas where small and medium-sized farms have banded together to avoid eminent domain, often the government just drops it because of PR issues.
But if Mitchell, through Verdacorp, owns the land, he can lease it without consulting any other farmers.
And that’s why this”—he pointed to the two-hundred-acre square of McKenna land that Mitchell was desperate to have—“is so crucial for him. It’s either this corner or buying out Sudduth on the other side of Privett, and Sudduth is bigger than we are. So, he came after us.”
“That bastard.”
Ellen thought about the sabotage of her barn, but before she could say anything, Jake brought it up. “Do you think that Mitchell is behind the sabotage on the farm?”
“What sabotage?” Travis asked. “What’s been going on?”
“Someone cut narrow holes in the barn parallel to the gutter, then filled the drainage pipes with expanding foam,” Jake said.
“So, the gutters flooded into the barn. The entire west wall is wet from the inside, and we lost most of the stored hay. And that’s just one of several odd things, but the most obvious because it was intentional. ”
Ellen reached out and took Lyla’s hand. “Someone sabotaged the barn generator by wrapping copper wire around part of the engine. When Lyla tried to start it, she got a shock that was strong enough to knock her down.”
Travis looked from Jake to Ellen. “Why didn’t you tell me?” He sounded hurt, and Ellen realized she should have said something earlier. “Anything else?”
“Small things, nothing I could say was deliberate until the barn,” Ellen said.
Jake nodded. “A couple months ago we lost a week’s supply of milk when the refrigerator in the barn went out, and that damaged our reputation with our main customer.
And we had to replace it because the circuits were fried.
And the cattle got out on Privett Road last month as we were in the middle of planting, so we had to hire a couple extra laborers for a few days—we couldn’t delay planting—so Mateo and I could get our livestock back.
We lost one who got trapped in barbed wire on the Sudduths’ property.
I thought I hadn’t secured the gate properly.
But … Mateo wondered if someone was playing a prank. ”
“That doesn’t sound like a prank,” Travis said.
“No, it’s deliberate to damage our business,” Ellen said.
“All of it costing money, but not enough so that our insurance would kick in. I can withstand losing the crops—we have crop insurance. But it’s the small repairs that are killing me.
And if I have to replace the barn, we have a huge deductible, not to mention we have to find a solution for the animals while it’s being repaired. ”
“How can we prove it?” Lyla said.
Ellen didn’t know. All she had was the word of two criminals.
“Maybe we can’t,” Ellen said. “But I can stop him from achieving his goals. He’s not getting a square foot of land from me.”
“Mitchell has proved that he is willing to break the law to get what he wants,” Travis said. “We can’t assume anything. I might have an idea.”
“I’m listening,” she said, because she was out of ideas.
“Clive came over to do the hard sell on me, to convince you to do the trade. What if we go over there tomorrow and, I don’t know, try to trip him up. Texas is a one-party consent state, so we can record the entire conversation.”
Ellen shook her head. “Do you really think that he would just admit to anything?”
Jake caught her eye. “Mom, do you remember last year when Dad and I were taking the cattle to market and the hitch broke off?”
“Of course I do, that was so dangerous, I could have lost you both, and we could have lost all the cattle. Oh.” Now she knew what he was thinking. “You think that was deliberate.”
“I didn’t at the time, I thought it was old equipment. But Dad was … I don’t know, he didn’t say anything specific to me, but he said something like, things like this don’t happen.”
She nodded. “It could have been the first time. That was in February, right?” Four months before John’s accident.
Her chest tightened. The accident. She caught her son’s eye, eyes that looked so much like John’s it brought tears to her own. “You think—”