Page 83 of Deadly Revenge

“I don’t remember the name, but if Cal wrote the deeds and recorded them, there should be a file somewhere. Do you know the year?”

Max took out his phone and opened his photo album. “December 16, 1999.”

“It’ll be in the archives. Give me a sec.” She disappeared down the hall and five minutes later returned with a folder. “What do you want to know?”

“Is there any contact information on TerraQuest there?” Jenna asked.

Trudy flipped through the papers. “There’s a PO box in Chattanooga listed for Cal to mail the deeds. But that’s all. I checked to see if there was a TerraQuest file, but there wasn’t.”

“Do you have any recollection of these deeds?”

“Cal wrote so many deeds, and that long ago...” She shook her head. “I’m sorry.”

Jenna’s shoulders slumped. Another dead end. She forced a smile to her lips. “Thanks for taking time to talk to us.”

“Don’t you want to stay and talk to Harold?”

“I doubt he’ll know as much as you’ve already told us,” Max said.

“You got that right,” she muttered. Then Trudy smiled. “Stop by anytime.”

They stepped out into the sunlight, and he walked with her to her SUV. “Well,” Jenna said. “That was...”

“Interesting,” he finished for her. “Let’s go see what the accident report says.”

She nodded. “If we have time, maybe we can start on the list of landowners who had their property taken by eminent domain.”

Jenna had an eerie sense someone was watching her, just like earlier. She turned in a circle, scanning the downtown buildings with vehicles parked out front. A few cars passed by. No one seemed to be paying any attention to them or acting suspiciously. Was she totally losing it?

“Anything wrong?” Max asked.

“Not really ... it’s just I feel someone watching us.”

He scanned the same area Jenna had. “Where?”

She shook her head. “I don’t see anyone ... it was just a feeling. It’s gone now. Ready?”

Max scanned the area again, slower this time. “I don’t see anything.”

“I told you it was probably nothing, just my overactive imagination. I’ll see you at the sheriff’s office.”

She opened her door and climbed in. Max probably thought she was suffering from PTSD again. At the sheriff’s office, she parked and met him at the entrance.

“I was thinking about TerraQuest while we drove here,” she said. “It looks like someone bought up the land knowing the dam was going to be built.”

“Or they gambled that it would be. Holliday at the park said Harrison Carter applied for a grant while he was city engineer—somewhere around twenty-eight years ago. We need to find out when it was approved.”

“That might be in the newspaper archives, or maybe Granna knows.”

“Did you call and check to see if she’s up for another visit today?”

“No, but I will.” Jenna called her grandmother and confirmed that they could stop by her house in about an hour.

“She’s good with it,” she said. “Now let’s see what that accident report says.”

42

Alex was in her office, but before they could ask about the accident report, she said, “I found the file, but I’d like you to sit down before we discuss it.”

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