Chapter 12 - THE MILL AT FIRST LIGHT
No one thought visiting the mill was a good idea.
I agreed.
We went anyway, with Naomi coordinating with investigators and no intention of entering an unsafe building.
The date on the token corresponded to an annual inspection of the old property records office beside the mill.
Caroline had arranged legitimate access to inspect archived plans and utility easements.
The building smelled of wet plaster and machine oil.
Outside, weeds pushed through the loading tracks.
Inside the records office, a clerk unlocked a cabinet where original surveys had been stored for decades.
Helen's ledger described a false boundary drawn across two adjoining parcels.
The survey showed it plainly.
The line had shifted enough land to change ownership of a valuable water right.
It was the kind of alteration a careful accountant would notice only when the numbers stopped balancing.
I thought of Helen working alone while sick, copying pages so no one could destroy the evidence.
Then the clerk produced an index showing a newer amendment.
The amendment purported to correct the old fraud.
It bore my signature.
I had never seen it.
More astonishingly, the witness was Brian.
Naomi immediately asked the clerk to secure the originals.
At that moment the building's fire alarm sounded.
A security guard opened the outside door and found smoke drifting from a parked delivery van.
We left through the opposite exit and waited for firefighters.
The van's driver was gone.
No records were destroyed, but the incident delayed the inspection.
Caroline looked furious rather than frightened.
“They want us to run.”
“No,” I said.
“They want us to stop thinking.”
The clerk had already copied the index to the county server, creating an independent record of what we had seen.
As officers inspected the van, one found a sealed package inside.
It contained copies of old checks payable to Philip Dane.
The checks were drawn from a company account controlled by the mysterious R. E. B.
The latest check had been issued only six weeks ago.
On its memo line were three words that made Caroline turn pale.
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BENNETT SUCCESSION PHASE.
