Smoke and Mirrors

36

The land-transaction records for the county were kept in the basement of city hall. A clerk who looked like a Jessica Tandy impersonator located the plot and its corresponding numbers on a county map and wrote them down. Armed with the scrap of paper, Alexa placed the book the clerk had pointed out on the table, opened it and ran her fingers down the columns, looking for the numbers for the southwest corner of the county.

She found the entry where Jacob Gardner had transferred title of the plot to Leigh nine years before. Checking the adjoining plots, she quickly discovered that a corporation named RRI Limited had systematically purchased the surrounding land over the past eighteen months.

Alexa decided the best way to check out this RRI corporation was to see whether the kind of people who would resort to violence might be connected to it. She dialed an extension at FBI headquarters and asked for Louis Sykes with the Organized Crime division.

“Louis, it’s Alexa. I need a favor.”

“Name it,” he said. “Anything but my peanut butter cookie recipe.”

“Can you check your files for a corporation named RRI Limited? All I have is the name on some land transfers.”

“Sure.”

“I’ll be waiting for your call.”

Alexa put the books back and went outside, where Winter and Brad had just parked. After Winter got out and opened the back door, she climbed into the backseat of Brad’s truck.

“A company named RRI Limited has been buying up the land around Leigh’s parcel.”

“It could be a hunting deal like Jacob told us,” Brad said. “But I wouldn’t believe Jacob if he said tornados scatter dirt. Who’d kill to put together a duck-hunting club?”

“Twenty-nine hundred acres so far,” Alexa said. “I assume that since RRI now owns all of the surrounding land, they’d want Leigh’s. I’m having OC look to see if there are any red flags associated with their name. Then we can look them up on the Internet and I’ve got friends who can get us the pertinent information.”

“I bet Jacob is aware of RRI’s purchase, and thinks he’ll make serious bucks on the deal,” Winter said. “If RRI can’t do whatever they have planned with their land unless they have hers, that’s a motive.”

“If anything happens to Leigh, the kids inherit the land,” Brad said, “but it would be tied up in probate for a long time.”

“Unless a judge sped that up for the right person or group,” Alexa said.

Winter said, “We could check to see if there are plans to improve the roads, deal with utility upgrades, power, sewage, water pipes, that sort of thing.”

“I haven’t heard anything,” Brad said. “Anybody starts pulling permits from the county, people talk. Maybe they’re waiting until they have the land sewed up to start that process.”

Alexa said, “I don’t know, Leigh, but I got the impression that something was eating at her.”

“Like her babysitter getting her head blown off?” Winter said. “Her daughter going AWOL?”

“Just a feeling I’ve got. You know her, Brad. Do you think Leigh is telling us everything? Is it possible that she knows more about the land than she’s letting on?”

“I’ve known Leigh most of my life. She’s a tough cookie and she pinches a dollar until Washington pees his pants, but if you’re insinuating…”

“I’m not casting aspersions on her character,” Alexa said. “But I’ve got a sense there’s things she isn’t telling us. I could be wrong.”

“My mother had this old adage. ‘Have more than you show, pay as you go, and tell less than you know,’” Winter said.

“That sounds like it was written about Leigh,” Brad said.

“What do you guys say to having a look at this land?” Alexa said. “I’d like to see what three thousand acres of worthless land looks like.”