Different buildings.Different decades.Different contractors.
Same approving signature with the same last name.
Every single one involved foundations, basements, utility corridors, or abandoned access points.
The front door opened, and Twister walked back inside.
“Find anything while I was outside?”
Goldie didn’t answer immediately.She simply turned every permit toward him.
Twister stepped closer and read the signatures she had highlighted.“Kettler.”His expression changed, and he pointed at one of the Hollis Kettler signatures.“Gramps and Swift dug up this guy’s name already.This fucking confirms that this asshole, and I’m assuming his son Gene, are part of, if not all of, The Ledger.”
Hell, we had been on the right track this whole time.
Goldie looked up first.“I think...”She swallowed.“I think Hollis Kettler spent decades approving permits that erased every official record of the underground tunnel, and when he took off to Oregon, his son took over.”
This wasn’t a scheme that had started last month.Or last year.
It had been carefully built, one permit, one signature, and one hidden corridor at a time.
For decades.
And somewhere along the way, the Kettler family had helped bury an entire piece of Madison beneath the city.
Twister looked at me and then at Goldie.Finally back down at the permits.“Just what the hell is so important about those tunnels that The Ledger wants to erase it?”
Chapter Twelve
Goldie
By the time the sun disappeared behind the buildings outside, my eyes had started crossing.
I’d spent the entire afternoon and evening sitting at the long table with everyone else, flipping through page after page of deeds, permits, inspection reports, tax records, handwritten notes, and copies of copies that somehow raised more questions than they answered.
Unfortunately, they didn’t provide any answers.
I found more signatures from Gene and Hollis Kettler.More paperwork connecting properties.More names.More dates.
Nothing that explained why people were willing to shoot at bikers, burn buildings, or threaten anyone who got too close.
The Ledger still had us beat.
Twister finally called it.
“We’re done for tonight.”Nobody argued.Even Method looked relieved.
Podge stacked papers into neat piles while Rev closed another notebook.Sully rubbed both hands over his face.Cord let out a groan loud enough to make everyone laugh.
“I never thought paperwork could kick my ass,” he muttered.
“It didn’t,” Gramps said as he stood.“Goldie did.”
Everyone looked at me.“What?”
“You read twice as fast as the rest of us,” Plug said.
“And remember where everything is,” Chewy added.
