Chapter 10 - The Orchard Agreement
The meeting location was the old Miller orchard.
Grant chose midnight.
Daniel insisted Mara should not go.
“If he truly wanted an exchange, he would meet in public.”
“If I involve police, he destroys the letters.”
“We have Ruth’s recorded evidence.”
“But not the Orchard Agreement.”
Daniel paced across the cottage kitchen.
“Your brother may be connected to Lily’s abduction.”
“Which is why I need him talking.”
Mara showed him the small recording device she had purchased that afternoon.
Daniel was not convinced.
“Grant warned you about people more dangerous than Walter.”
“He may have been trying to frighten me.”
“He may also have been telling the truth.”
Mara looked toward Lily, asleep in the next room.
“I spent my whole life leaving rooms whenever my family told me I didn’t belong. I’m done leaving.”
Daniel reluctantly agreed to remain nearby with Frank and two state investigators who had begun reviewing Lily’s case.
At eleven fifty, Mara drove to the orchard alone.
Fog drifted between the rows of dead apple trees.
Grant stood beside a black SUV.
He looked older than in photographs, with tired eyes and expensive clothes that did not suit the muddy field.
“You came.”
“You threatened to burn Grandma’s letters.”
Grant held up the bundle.
“Do you have the reservoir records?”
“Copies.”
“I asked for the originals.”
“You don’t get to ask for anything.”
Grant laughed softly.
“You sound like her.”
“Grandma?”
“She always spoke as though being morally certain made her untouchable.”
“Did you help Dad forge her signature?”
“I was seventeen.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“No. I didn’t forge it.”
“But you knew.”
“Eventually.”
“When?”
Grant looked away.
“After she died.”
“And you said nothing.”
“What was I supposed to do? Turn in our parents?”
“Yes.”
“You always believed choices were simple.”
“They become simpler when a child is abducted.”
Grant’s gaze snapped back.
“I didn’t order that.”
“You hired Cal Rainer.”
“For security.”
“He locked Lily in a warehouse.”
Grant’s face lost color.
“He was only supposed to retrieve the box.”
“From a nine-year-old?”
“You weren’t supposed to bring her to the reservoir.”
“So it’s my fault?”
“No. I’m saying Cal acted on his own.”
“Just like Mom lies on her own? Dad forges documents on his own? Dalton ignores crimes on his own?”
Grant stepped closer.
“You think this is about a farmhouse. It isn’t.”
“What is it about?”
He held up the letters.
“The land.”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.”
He pointed beyond the orchard toward the distant hills.
“North Vale didn’t lend money to acquire forty acres of failing farmland. There is something beneath it.”
Mara remembered Ruth’s words.
Protect the creek.
“What?”
“Lithium-bearing clay. Possibly one of the largest deposits in the region.”
Mara stared at him.
Grant continued.
“A geological survey was conducted twenty-two years ago. Grandma refused to sell exploration rights. Dad wanted the money. They fought for months.”
“Where is the survey?”
“Missing.”
“The Orchard Agreement?”
“That was a private mineral option.”
“Signed by Grandma?”
“Forged by Dad.”
“Who was Thomas Reed?”
Grant lowered the letters.
“A witness.”
“Did Dad kill him?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did he kill Grandma?”
Grant looked toward the darkness between the trees.
“I don’t know that either.”
Headlights appeared at the far end of the orchard.
Grant swore.
“You brought someone.”
“I came alone.”
“That’s not Daniel’s car.”
The vehicle accelerated.
Grant grabbed Mara and pulled her behind the SUV as a gunshot shattered the rear window.
Glass rained across the ground.
A second shot struck the door.
Grant crawled toward the driver’s side.
Mara caught his sleeve.
“The letters!”
They lay in the mud several feet away.
Grant reached for them.
A shadow moved between the trees.
Then Grant cried out.
Blood spread across his shoulder.
Mara dragged him behind the wheel.
The approaching vehicle stopped.
May you like
A man stepped out.
Even in the fog, Mara recognized Sheriff Dalton.
