Chapter 15
Silence.
Small.
Sharp.
Rachel smiled without warmth.
“How did you know?”
“I assumed.”
“Why?”
“Because Mountain Crest is being surveyed.”
“On your eleven hundred acres.”
“Yes.”
“Mine isn’t yours.”
“Obviously.”
“Is it obvious?”
“Rachel, what do you want?”
“My eighty-two thousand dollars back would be a nice start.”
“That’s marital money.”
“Correct.”
“Then stop calling it yours.”
“You took all of it.”
“My attorney is handling that.”
“Then let’s talk about your project.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because you don’t understand it.”
“Your planned reservoir sits below Black Laurel Creek.”
Nothing.
Rachel continued.
“Interesting location.”
Daniel’s breathing changed.
Only slightly.
But Rachel knew him.
“Who showed you the plans?”
“They’re on your construction sign.”
“That doesn’t show utilities.”
“I didn’t mention utilities.”
Another mistake.
Daniel said, “Rachel, you are playing with something you don’t understand.”
“Then enlighten me.”
“I’m coming up tomorrow.”
“You said you were busy.”
“I changed my schedule.”
“Bring your lawyer.”
“I’m not bringing a lawyer to talk to my wife.”
“Then don’t come.”
“Rachel.”
“And Daniel?”
“What?”
“Stay off my property.”
She hung up.
That evening Thomas drove to the cabin.
Rachel showed him digital copies of Book 204, the letters, and her mother’s photograph.
Thomas read in silence.
Then he asked for the water instrument again.
He read it twice.
Finally he removed his glasses.
“How bad?” Rachel asked.
“For Daniel?”
“Yes.”
Thomas leaned back.
“Potentially catastrophic.”
Walt, sitting near the fireplace, grunted.
Rachel said nothing.
Thomas pointed to the old instrument.
“If valid—and I want a water-rights specialist to confirm—the priority language is extremely strong.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning downstream development requiring impoundment could need consent from the senior right holder if it interferes with those rights.”
“The right holder being me.”
“The estate currently. You after transfer.”
“Could Daniel build around it?”
“Possibly. New water source. Different reservoir design. Municipal connection.”
“Can he?”
Thomas looked at Mountain Crest’s map.
“That depends on economics.”
Rachel knew something about that.
“Municipal water would require a twelve-mile extension.”
Thomas glanced up.
“You know?”
“I costed it four years ago.”
“For Daniel?”
“For a project he claimed was in Tennessee.”
Walt laughed once.
Rachel remembered the spreadsheet.
Pump stations.
Elevation.
Rock trenching.
Estimated cost: $18.4 million.
Daniel had rejected it as impossible.
“What about wells?” Thomas asked.
“Geology studies were poor.”
“You remember that too?”
“I did the invoice coding.”
Thomas stared at her.
“How involved were you in Bennett Ridge?”
“More involved before Daniel started introducing me as a homemaker.”
Thomas nodded slowly.
“So the reservoir may be essential.”
“Yes.”
“Then Black Laurel may be worth considerably more than six hundred thousand.”
“How much?”
“I’m not going to speculate tonight.”
“That much?”
“That uncertain.”
Rachel accepted that.
Thomas turned to Susan’s letter.
“This is different.”
“Yes.”
“Have you contacted your father?”
“No.”
Robert Harper Bennett lived in Charleston.
Retired.
Seventy-one.
Rachel spoke to him every Sunday.
He had called that morning.
She had not answered.
“You should,” Thomas said.
“Not yet.”
“Why?”
Rachel tapped her mother’s sentence.
Never give it to Robert.
“My mother told me not to trust him.”
“Thirty years ago.”
“She also told me she was alive after I buried her.”
Thomas could not argue with that.
Rachel continued.
“There’s a missing black ledger.”
“Evelyn may have moved it.”
“Or the person who searched the cabin found it.”
Thomas glanced toward the disturbed room.
“That’s possible.”
“Daniel knew Evelyn had something.”
“Likely.”
“And someone has been searching.”
“Yes.”
“Then the ledger matters.”
“What do you think it contains?”
May you like
Rachel looked at the letter.
“The names.”
