“I’m not certain how much of the county is digitalized, so you’d probably have to talk to the blue-haired lady in the deed office.” He got his phone out again and took a picture of the notice. “You don’t think it’s the shop?”
“It shouldn’t be the shop. We pay our taxes. The only other thing we pay taxes on is Val’s house, and they’re paid up. Mavis used to own a lot where the parking lot is now but the city condemned that. They surely can’t be charging her taxes on it.”
“Let me put R&R on it. I need to know about the plots around Witch Hill, and I should pinpoint Loretta’s other holdings as well. If there are any computerized files, they’ll find them. The county couldn’t send notices without some kind of list.” He started for the door.
Evie called after him. “Mayor Block’s realty company will have computers. I bet they have copies of every deed ever recorded in town and maybe a few that aren’t.”
Jax raised a dark eyebrow, then nodded and let himself out.
Evie hoped Loretta brought her ghosts home for lunch. She needed a lot more information than she currently possessed—starting with, where were they buried?
Eleven
“Why the devilare you still in that godforsaken hole?” Stephen Stockton roared in Jax’s ear. “Get the kid back into school and get back to work. You’ll never make partner by neglecting your clients.”
Jax didn’t fret too much over the old threat. His adoptive father and boss had the roar of a lion, but he had positioned Jax to take a place in the firm. Jax only needed to build enough cash and credibility for the partnership buy-in. If he kept his nose to the grindstone, he’d be partner by next year.
He knew how to spin this little hiccup so it didn’t stand in his way. “I’m establishing security with Loretta’s family. Boarding school wasn’t working out. I’ll be back in the office as soon as we have a system installed.” Protecting their clients was Jax’s bailiwick.
Land deals and lawsuits were Stephen’s. His father knew nothing about security. “You’re leaving the kid with family in the middle of a swamp? Have you lost your mind?”
“It’s not a swamp. The kid owns half the town. Everyone here will look after her best interests. If you’re concerned about her education, I can call in experts and ask what they recommend. She can pay for anything she needs for less than the cost of boarding school. It’s not expensive living here.” With the phone on speaker, Jax worked his way through the computer files R&R had sent him. Walnut intuition warned not to mention his research into Loretta’s property.
“She doesn’t need to be anywhere near that damned town! Find her a real school, one that will prepare her for college.” The phone slammed—as in actual slammed. Stephen liked the old-fashioned kind that could be heard.
Jax frowned. Why shouldn’t Loretta live with a family in a town she owned? He was pretty damned certain Stephen didn’t believe in ghosts, so was it Loretta’sfamilyshe shouldn’t know?
Since the debacle that had caused him to leave the military, Jax generally avoided defying a direct order, but something about this whole case created an itch between his shoulder blades. He hoped Stephen wouldn’t take out his anger on Ariel. She wasn’t capable of living anywhere else but the rural mansion they called home.
As if she picked up on his thoughts, his sister hit him with a text message full of numbers and a warning:WATCH YOUR BACK.
Swell, just what he needed. Ariel’s cryptic messages usually had teeth. She just never explained. He wasn’t certain if she couldn’t or didn’t want to. Numbers spoke to her, not people.
WATCH YOURShe typed back, because his sister lived on their adoptive father’s charity. She was over twenty-one and not a child anymore and totally at Stephen’s mercy.
Jax shot the numeric part of the message to R&R to translate.
Their parents had died in a car accident when Jax had only been twelve, Ariel, six. He was fairly certain it had been Tricia Stockton who had insisted on adopting them. She’d never had children of her own and had doted on them while she was alive.
After Tricia died of breast cancer, Ariel had simply continued haunting the Stockton mansion, unable and unwilling to leave the only home she remembered. Jax had room in his condo for her, but she refused to move.
He understood. Condos weren’t the quiet haven of rural isolation she needed to function.
When Ariel sent nothing more, he returned to digging through the online deed file his team had found. He’d located Evie’s wi-fi instructions and had internet now. The county’s digitalized deed file didn’t seem to include anything prior to 2007. They were a little late in computerizing. Jax was jotting notes when Loretta popped into the bedroom he’d been assigned.
“Your walnut is cracking,” she informed him. “Want cookies? Evie said you’re buying, so you ought to have some.”
Jax rubbed his brow and fought laughing at his cracking walnut. That almost fit his sick humor right now. “Technically,you’repaying. I set up an account at the grocery that’s billed to your bank. Are you sure you don’t want to go back to the boarding school? Food was part of the tuition.”
She sat cross-legged on his bed to contemplate the question. Evie had tied ribbons in her pigtails before school, but they straggled, undone, now. She chewed on the end of her hair, explaining the frazzled look it developed as the day wore on.
“I’d have to see the numbers, but I’m thinking groceries are a lot cheaper than that school. I don’t want to waste my parents’ money. They’ll yell after I find them.”
“You’re too old for ten,” he retorted, turning back to his computer. He didn’t eat sweets, but if it would send the kid away... “Bring me a cookie, please.”
“Evie says I’m an old soul.” Loretta jumped down. “But my dad said I should understand how money works. I don’t, really. But I can add.” She departed to the kitchen, where she apparently chatted with their hostess.
He should probably hire a nanny as well as a cook. He couldn’t expect the scatter-brained genie to properly look after a kid who wasn’t hers. Then the nanny could live in this room, and he could go home and back to his job. Huh, maybe he could find a nanny who cooked.