Page 79 of Deadly Revenge

He gave her the evil eye. “No. For me.” They ate in silence for a few minutes, then Max said, “We need to find out what company bought up the property before the dam was built.”

“That shouldn’t be too hard—should be listed on Russell County’s Registrar of Deeds website.”

“Yeah, but we’d need the name of the person they bought property from.” Max tapped his finger on the phone.

“How about we stop by the courthouse on the way to the office?”

“That’s probably the quickest way to find out.”

After they finished eating, they walked to the courthouse on the next block and climbed the steps to the main floor. Max searched for the registrar’s office. “Do you see it?”

“No, but it could be on the next floor. Let me step into the Circuit Court’s office.” Jenna disappeared into the nearest office and soon reappeared. “It’s upstairs.”

Halfway up the steps, Max said, “We could’ve taken the elevator.”

“What? And miss all this exercise? Come on, softy.”

The registrar’s office was the last room on the right. Max held the door for Jenna then followed her inside.

“May I help you?” An older woman stood behind the counter that divided the room, her eyebrows raised expectantly. Then she smiled. “Jenna Hart, as I live and breathe! I heard you were back.”

“Seven months now,” Jenna said, eyeing the white-haired clerk.Then her eyes widened. “Mrs. Croft! I didn’t know you were the registrar.” She turned to Max. “This is my fifth-grade teacher.” She turned back to the registrar. “How long—”

“Oh, ten years now.” Her blue eyes twinkled. “I’m so glad you came back to Pearl Springs. Now what can I do for you?”

“We’re looking for the name of a company that bought property in the valley before the dam was built,” Max said.

“Hmmm ... That would have been around the 1990s, and I wasn’t here then. None of the records prior to 2002 are digitalized. Let me think about that a minute.” Then she smiled. “We need to look at the maps. Follow me.”

They pushed through the half swinging door and followed her to a room with all sorts of maps rolled up. She pointed to the wall. “That’s the current map—we’ll compare it to one from the time period you’re looking for.”

She pulled a map, looked at it, rolled it back up, and picked another. “This is it.”

Mrs. Croft unrolled the map and laid it on a table in the middle of the room. “Here’s the Pearl River.”

She traced her finger along the river, occasionally looking up at the current map. Finally she tapped on an area that corresponded to the lake. “This is where the dam and lake are now.”

After writing down the number on it, she walked to bookshelves containing ledgers and ran her fingers over the backs. “Let’s try these first.”

She pulled out two large red leather-bound books and handed one to Jenna and the other to Max. “I believe you’ll find what you’re looking for in these pages. If you don’t find it, look in the books on either side. Feel free to spread out on the other table.”

“Thank you,” Jenna called after her as the older woman left them.

Max took his book to the table and opened it. The first deed was in 1997. “What year should we be looking for?”

“’98 or ’99.”

He flipped over to the middle of the book. The deed was dated March of 1998. This was more like it. Max turned the pages, quickly scanning each for a company name as the landowner on the deed. He hoped Junior was correct and not just assuming a company had bought up the land at a low price and then turned around and sold it to the state.

He was three quarters through the book when he saw a company name. TerraQuest Corporation. Close enough to Todd Donelson’s earth reference.

“I found something!”

“I think I have too,” Max said. “What’s the name on yours?”

“TerraQuest.”

Same as his. “I believe we’ve found the company. What’s the date?”

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