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“I don’t think that’s necessary, Miss Kerrigan. My client is very motivated to buy and would prefer to remain anonymous, which is why he’s assigned me to work out a mutually beneficial arrangement. Please, trust me when I say, my client is able and willing to compensate you generously.”

His presumptuous and patronizing tone grates on me.

“With all due respect,” I start, doing my best to stay polite. “As I indicated earlier, I will forward your information to my attorney, but I really have to go. Have a good day.”

With that I end the call. Then I find a piece of paper to jot down the name and number.

Weird.

Chapter 15

Rick

* * *

“New owners?”

I take in the polished appearance of Tim Saunders, the owner of Saunders Realty. I was able to catch up with him over coffee at Strange Brew, where he apparently always makes an appearance after his Sunday morning workout. I’m not sure what his workout consists of, but the man doesn’t have a fucking hair out of place, and his expensive athletic wear looks like it came straight off the rack.

I met the man only once before, when I was looking for a place to rent when I first moved to Silence. He sailed into the office when I was meeting up with Rowan to sign the papers on my apartment. He didn’t make much of an impression on me then either.

But today he’s caught me off-guard with his announcement Missy Gentry no longer owns the quarry.

“That’s right. Now you’ll have to talk to Ms. Gentry to get the ins and outs of the deal, which was privately arranged without my involvement, but it shouldn’t be hard to get the particulars from the County Auditor’s Office where the transfer of ownership would’ve had to be filed. The only reason I was informed was because Ms. Gentry no longer needed my services, but I was sworn to secrecy.” Saunders studies his manicured nails. “Of course, when the law comes calling, I can’t lie.”

I have a feeling he can lie just fine, he simply doesn’t want to. Something tells me the man wasn’t happy about being sidelined in what would likely have been a lucrative deal for a realtor. This was an opportunity to spill the beans without losing his professional credibility.

Either way, this information provides an interesting new direction to look into. We haven’t been getting very far with this case, so I’m hoping this’ll give us something to put our teeth into.

“Well,” I start, getting to my feet. “I appreciate your time and your candor. Have a good rest of your day.”

Grabbing my to-go cup and with a chin lift to Lola—Beth’s second-in-command, who is manning the shop this morning—I head back to the office.

The County Auditor’s Office likely won’t be open till the morning, but I’m hoping I can get access to the database back at the office. With this information of new ownership, I may be able to make a little more sense out of those papers Tessa found in the quarry office building.

Some of them looked like they were part of a geological survey or something. It appeared to have been done fairly recently, which didn’t make much sense at the time since the quarry has been closed for a few years, but it would be something new owners might want done. It makes me wonder why one would buy a property like this.

Savvy just comes out of her office when I walk into the station.

“Ah, there you are. I was just coming to look for you,” she announces. “I just got off the phone with the lab, and they’re putting a rush on the evidence you guys collected up at the quarry. But more importantly, we have a hit on some of the fingerprints lifted from that ATV, and it confirms what you already suspected. They belong to Cody Withers.”

I’m not surprised, but it burns even more I gave the guy room to take off. I mutter some choice words under my breath.

“Quit beating yourself up,” Savvy orders. “You had no cause to hold him at the time. At least now we have enough to get an arrest warrant issued.”

“I doubt it’ll help find him.”

“Maybe not, but if he so much as gets pulled over in a traffic stop, the warrant will be flagged.”

True, but there’s no guarantee that’ll happen anytime soon, and I’d really like a second chance to talk to Withers. Still, it’s progress.

I fill in Savvy on my chat with Saunders, and she’s as surprised as I was about the change in ownership.

“Let’s have a look,” she suggests immediately, pulling me into her office.

A few minutes later she has the title for the property up on her computer screen. The name of the owner is listed as HDLink.

“Ever hear of them?” Savvy asks, even as she types the name into her browser search bar.