Deadly Revenge (Pearl River #3)

Chapter 41

41

Jenna took out her phone, pulled up one of the TerraQuest deeds she’d photographed, and examined it. “Says here the deed was prepared by Cal Pipkin. Maybe we can get information from him.”

“I doubt it,” Mrs. Croft said. “He died ten years ago.”

Jenna wanted to growl. Dead ends everywhere they turned. Literally. “Did anyone take over his office?”

“His grandson, Harold, but he may not have kept Cal’s records. His office is across the street.”

Jenna turned to Max. “Why don’t we check while we’re downtown? If we strike out there, Dylan’s computer savvy, maybe he can find the company.”

They thanked the registrar, and Jenna handed her a business card. “If you remember why the name seems familiar, give me a call.”

“I will,” the older woman said as they walked out the door.

When Max suggested the elevator, Jenna shook her head. “I don’t normally avoid elevators, but this one is old. It creaks and rattles.”

They’d reached the second floor when her phone rang. “It’s Alex.” She answered and said, “You’re on speaker and Max is with me.”

“Fine. Just wanted to let you know the two photos of Rick Sebastian have been shown to every retail business in town, and no one has seen him.”

“How about any of his associates?” she asked. “He could’ve had one of them break into my house.”

“We don’t have photos of all his known associates from Chattanooga PD, and no one has seen the ones we do have.”

Jenna didn’t know if the information should make her feel better or more anxious. “As small as Pearl Springs is, if any of them show up, they’ll stick out.”

“Right.”

“How about the file on the wreck my grandfather had?” Jenna asked.

“I found it.” Alex hesitated. “But I would rather discuss it with you in person.”

A chill inched down her spine. “How about in thirty minutes? We’re on our way to Harold Pipkin’s office to check out something.”

When Alex agreed, Jenna disconnected the call. “We need to get my grandmother’s thoughts on the accident, see how it tallies with the report once we get it.”

“I agree, but I have a feeling she won’t want to discuss it,” Max said. “How about Sam or your dad?”

“I don’t know. We can always ask, but let’s start with Granna.”

He nodded and followed her down the stairs. Once they were outside, the same feeling she’d had earlier returned. Someone was watching her. She could feel it. Jenna scanned the area, and everything seemed normal.

“What is it?” Max said.

“Nothing.” She pointed across the street. “That’s the attorney’s office. Let’s go see if he knows anything about his grandfather’s clients.”

No one sat at the desk inside the law office, and Jenna glanced around at the beige walls and the furniture that, while not worn, looked like it’d been there awhile. “Harold must not have changed anything after his grandfather died.”

“Maybe he doesn’t have enough business to afford changes,” Max said.

“It gives me hope that maybe he hasn’t gotten rid of his grandfather’s files.”

A fiftysomething woman stepped into the room and stopped when she saw them. Jenna blinked. She remembered Trudy Mills from church when she was a teenager, and that she worked for Cal.

“I didn’t hear you come in. May I help you?” She did a double take. “Jenna Hart? Is that you?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“I heard you were back in town. It’s good to see you.”

Jenna made the introductions.

“So you’re Harold’s secretary?” Jenna said.

“Make that personal assistant, Missy,” Trudy said, arching an eyebrow. Then her mouth twitched. “That’s a fancy title for secretary, but he insists that I use it. Pays the same.”

Jenna swallowed a smile.

“Is Mr. Pipkin in?” Max asked.

Trudy frowned. “Do you have an appointment?”

“No,” he said. “But we won’t take up much of his time.”

“Time is something he has plenty of, but he’s not here. He usually takes two hours for lunch and...” Trudy glanced at her watch. “He still has fifteen minutes.”

“May we wait?” Jenna asked.

“It’s a free country. I would offer you coffee, but we’re fresh out.”

“We don’t need any,” Max said. “Have you been with the attorney long?”

“He sort of inherited me. As Jenna knows, I worked for his grandfather, although I think young Mr. Pipkin would like to trade me in for a younger model,” she said, giving them an as-if eye roll.

“His grandfather is why we’re here,” Max said. “Maybe you can help us.”

“If it has to do with one of Cal’s clients, I’m sure I can.”

Interesting. She called the grandfather Cal, but the grandson Mr. Pipkin. Jenna had a feeling they would get more information from her than the lawyer. “It’s about a company called TerraQuest. Cal Pipkin wrote the deeds for land they bought back in the late 1990s. It was located where the reservoir is now.”

“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.”