“We simply know who owns what.” Evie waved a dismissive hand. “Knowing my family, they’ve owned Witch Hill since the 1600s. Maybe no one had pieces of paper. I never saw tax notices in my mother’s name except the ones for her property in the trailer park and the shop. They had her name on them because she bought them. I doubt that Witch Hill was ever in her name, but it was quite possible she simply went down to the courthouse and handed them a check every year for her family’s plot on the Hill.”
“Without probate, any notices would have been addressed to corpses but presumably delivered to the address on the deed. Except no one lives out there anymore.” He dug into his sandwich.
“But these new notices were addressed to each of us individually. What happens to the tax payments the bank made in the name of the trust?” Evie tried a fry and deemed it acceptable.
“No record of the trust deeds in the registrar’s office, remember? You didn’t let me finish.” He grabbed a fry while he organized his words. “My team hacked the mayor’s realty company’s files. There is no particularly good reason for a normal realty company to keep deeds. That’s for the mortgage company’s records. But for reasons unknown, the mayor has compiled neat spreadsheets of lot numbers, addresses, last known owners—not corpses—and deed numbers. He doesnotinclude the trust as owner of the Witch Hill lots. It’s as if there is an alternate filing system, possibly adapted to your family’s weird way of not doing business.”
“Because the mayor liked knowing who owned what.” Evie sipped her milkshake and pondered that. “He kept a private city file instead of the public county one.”
“Nailed it.” Jax yanked a bite off his sandwich as if starved.
“The tax notices came from themayor’s officeand not the county then. They’re fraudulent?” Evie stroked Psy, who sniffed her fries with disdain.
“Probably.” Jax gulped from his soft drink before explaining. “Someone had to hide the trust deeds at the county office. I don’t think the county can send notices from that old film, so there are computer files somewhere of city lots. If the county is using the mayor’s spreadsheet, then that seems the reasonable place to start investigating.”
“Are we saying the county registrar is in on the mayor’s scheme? I suppose that’s possible. All that crew over there is pretty tight with the town council. It’s a real small county, after all. And now that I think of it, the current registrar is related to the mayor’s wife. She’s probably Toby’s aunt.”
Jax circled his finger to indicate that she wait until he finished chewing. After he’d had another swallow of drink, he corrected her. “Anyonewith access to the registrar’s office has access to those files. You cannot eliminate Emma Blue. And her brother was in the office today. He works for Titan Surveying.”
“Out of Charleston. I looked them up after the run-in the other day.” Evie spun her stool and sipped, her thoughts leaping like gopher frogs. “We may need to have a come-to-Jesus meeting with Mr. Blue. Except my family prefers Witch Hill under a full moon. When’s the next full moon?”
The phone rang before she could look it up. Jax’s phone rang at the same time. Stomach sinking, Evie reached for the receiver while Jax checked his.
“They’re digging the bodies out of the lake bottom,” Iddy informed her without greeting. “La Chusa says there are two.”
* * *
Jax hadn’t knownthe Posts well and was relieved when the sheriff told him the bodies weren’t in any shape for identification other than through DNA and dental records. He gave them the dentist’s name in Savannah that he had found in John’s bank accounts. The sheriff wouldn’t give him any other information, so Jax left Evie to handle Loretta while he sought out his team.
Evie hadknownthere were bodies in the pond. He either started believing in ghosts or that Evie had known about their deaths. He couldn’t cope with the idea of Evie being a killer. Not reporting what she’d seen... That was a better possibility than ghosts but didn’t make sense.
An urgent message from Ariel had him cruising the lane to the rental property where Ariel was settling in. The guys had parked themselves in the woods surrounding the cottage. Reuben hailed him from the charcoal grill they’d set up. “Got any cold beers, by any chance?”
Knowing his men, Jax opened the trunk and removed a cooler of beer. “Does Ariel know you’re out here?”
“We got a system, man.” Roark swung down from the back of the van. “We textHiwhen we arrive andByewhen we leave. She sends us a wave emoji.”
“And what do you use for plumbing facilities?” Jax wasn’t certain he wanted to know. These men had lived rough in mountains surrounded by enemy guns. They could survive anywhere.
“Dude, we use yours when you’re not there. And Evie’s weird cousin has a place just down the road. She’s never home and lets us use the house if we leave her food. Better than scavenging from villagers.” Reuben flipped a burger.
“You have no right calling any kettle black.” As far as Jax was concerned, all Evie’s cousins were weird. “Which cousin?”
Roark jerked his thumb toward the house. “The bébé wit da striped hair sunning herself in your sister’s front yard. Ariel say she’s allowed. I reckon they’ve got some freaky mental thing happening, y’know?”
“Ariel isn’t psychic.” But he should have guessed that Evie’s family would figure out how to connect with his sister. He hoped that meant she might develop a support system here. “There have to be phones involved. Did the cable get set up with wi-fi?”
Jax popped a beer for himself. He didn’t feel right keeping beer in Evie’s refrigerator since the women so obviously didn’t drink it. With Loretta in the house, maybe that was a good thing. Heck if he knew about parenting.
He’d have to return to his own place soon. He had to risk leaving both LorettaandAriel in the hands of Evie and her family so he could go back to work. Leaving Loretta anywhere was a lot harder now that he knew her. And Ariel... He took another drink.
“Your sis hid in da bathroom while they installed cable. She been sending us all sorts of entertainin’ info ever since. Tell us when you ready to hear about your old man.” Roark took a pull on his beer and eyed Jax with jaded eyes.
Half-past never would be a good start, but Jax couldn’t hide his head in the sand. As much as he didn’t want to believe it, Stephen was complicit in this land deal beyond handling the legal paperwork. Had John Post told him about the deed showing he only owned a portion of the land? “Get together with Evie and keep your theories straight. Right now, we have a killer to catch. They’ve found two bodies in the lake. I want to know what the sheriff knows. Can you do that?”
“We’ve been doing that.” Reuben slid a burger on a bun and handed it to Roark with a scold. “And dude, leave the boss alone. He doesn’t want to be bringing down his dad just yet. It’s uncool.”
Mostly, Jax wanted Loretta safe from a killer, and he didn’t think that was out-of-shape Stephen. Killing required physical activity. “So what are they finding in the lake?”