“The trustee offices are here,” Gray tells me, and it takes a second for the information to make sense.
“Oh.” I narrow my eyes. Nash is kind enough to wander away from the three of us, giving us a little privacy while she pretends to examine a fountain in the courtyard.
“I don’t know if she’s here, I don’t see her often, but—”
“But you wanted to warn me. Admirable, Mayor Hale.”
“Knock it off.” Gray rolls his eyes.
“Do you think I’m going to cause a scene?”
Gray continues to look into my eyes. “No, I don’t want you to feel blindsided.”
“Oh,” I say again, this time with much less sarcasm. “Thank you. I’m glad you told me, and just so you know, I wouldn’t make a scene.”
I would,Percy chimes in.I can put some dead slugs in her desk drawers,he offers happily.
“No,” Felix, Gray, and I all chorus together.
“Come on, we’ve got this, guys.” I give Gray a reassuring smile, then head over toward Nash. “Sorry, living in a small town has its drawbacks,” I tell her once I reach her side.
“No worries,” she replies.
“If we run into someone named Tiffany,feel free to give her the stink eye,” I joke, giving her a little bit of an explanation without going too much into our drama.
“Can do,” she confirms with a tight nod.
As we enter the building, Gray ushers us up a wide wooden staircase to the upper floor. Percy doesn’t even warn me before he crawls down my arm and jumps to the bannister. I’m a little nervous when he disappears down a hall, going in a different direction than we are, but not enough to try and stop him. Knowing him, he’ll just come back with some pilfered items no one will miss.
We pass a few office spaces with closed doors, but Gray ignores them all, heading to a larger area with chairs and tables spaced throughout the room.
There’s a counter height wall separating us from an office area against the far wall. An older woman with tight curls and a bright smile lifts her head up from behind a computer monitor as we approach. “Mayor Hale,” she greets, and it ends up being a cross between a wheeze and gasp.
“Afternoon.” Gray leans his elbow on the counter. “I have a question about some property records.”
The woman picks up and shuffles a few papers that were lying in her workspace while her eyes look everywhere but at Gray. “Absolutely. What can I do for you?”
“I’m interested in a specific area.”
“Do you have the lot number or address?” the woman inquires.
Gray looks over at me questioningly but answers the woman. “It’s the Doby place. I think we have the address.”
Before I can search my phone for the house number, the woman speaks up. “Eugene and Aisling? What do you want that for?” She finally glances up at Gray with her wrinkled brow furrowed, as if her curiosity got the best of her, but then she looks away again and resumes shuffling the papers. “They are out on Route 4. I think I can find it.” She swivels in her chair and makes her way over to a door only accessible from behind the desk area.
“Is she scared of you?” I whisper once the door shuts.
“Probably,” Felix admits at the same time Gray denies it.
Gray scowls and reiterates, “She’s not.”
We don’t have to wait long before the woman returns with a long scroll tucked under her arm and a much smaller folder in her grip. “Would you like to use the records room, or will you be taking these to your office?”
“What do we have here?” Gray asks instead of answering.
“The original survey of the property, and the title transfers throughout the years. It’s not much, the Dobys have held the deed for a long time.”
“How would we find out if there have been any deaths on the property?” Gray inquires.
