Page 38 of Go Alone

“Thank you.”

He got to his feet and started for the elevator, his escort close by. When he reached the end of the desk, he stopped and turned back to Kate. His jaw was set, and grief seasoned with righteous anger filled his eyes. “Whatever he did, he didn’t deserve what happened to him. He might have made mistakes, but he was a good man.”

Kate would have to reserve judgment about the last sentence, but she agreed wholeheartedly with the first one. “We’ll find the person responsible for this. You have my word.”

Dennis nodded at Kate. Then he left.

Kate took a deep breath, then steeled herself for another victim of their latest Commandment Killer.

The location might be a departure from the previous two cases, but the theme was consistent. You can’t escape your past. Howard had left his wealth behind to become a quiet, small-town gentleman. Deborah Holt had driven away the people who knew enough about her past to bring it to light. Raymond Brannigan, if Dennis was right, had mended his ways and insisted that the lawyers he mentored behave with integrity.

Punishment had found them all the same. One of Cox’s guiding precepts was that you couldn’t run from sin. There was no forgiveness. There was no making it right. There were only the wages of that sin.

Death.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Marcus got to his feet and rubbed his eyes. He wasn’t tired, just frustrated. He really shouldn’t be frustrated, or at least not surprised. Brannigan & Associates didn’t have incriminating records on their computer, and of course the most successful property law firm in the region would know how to hide any gaps in their records that might give discerning people pause.

So his hour of searching had turned up nothing.

He walked to Kate, who was sitting at the table of the conference room, several seats down from the body of Raymond Brannigan, who was currently still slumped over with his ass in the air. He gestured at him and said, “Can we maybe let them take him out of here? It’s bad enough he was killed, but we don’t need to leave him mooning the universe while we work.”

Kate looked at him in mild surprise, and he sighed. “Sorry. I’m a little worked up. Not your fault.”

“I know,” Kate said, her tone suggesting she was a little worked up herself. She softened it and said, “And yes. I was just waiting for you. Since you’re worked up, I’m guessing you didn’t find anything.”

He shook his head. "No, but there are other places to check. Even devious law firms leave a paper trail. I'll check with city records, get the property history, and check with the courts to get the case history. These guys are big names in property law, so it's almost certain they crossed paths with Howard Greer at some point. Deborah Holt is anyone's guess, but if we have a connection to one, we don't necessarily need a connection to the other."

“I agree,” Kate said.

He thrust his chin at Kate’s notebook. “That the cipher?”

She flinched. Just barely, and she quickly disguised it as a casual movement to turn the page. But why would she turn the page? What didn’t she want him to see?

“Yes,” she replied. “Check this out.”

She showed him the notebook. Marcus scanned the page while she read aloud. “‘A person who lives and maintains property and represents himself as the owner through word, deed, and lawful adherence to all encumbrances and responsibilities of an owner is an owner. If the legal deed belongs with a neglectful person who has not deigned to exercise and fulfill all encumbrances and responsibilities thereof, then the deed is forfeit to the person who has fulfilled those obligations’. Wordy.”

Kate rolled her eyes. “Yes. It’s a direct quote from the land covenant document that Gabe sent me.”

“Yeah, I figured that part,” Marcus said. “What could that mean here?”

“It’s something called adverse possession.”

“What’s that?”

“Squatters rights. It’s a little more involved than just live in a place and you own it, but the basic principle is that if you demonstrate for a legally appropriate period of time—usually five years or more—that you have been maintaining, occupying, using, and representing yourself as the owner of a property, including complying with all applicable laws and paying all property taxes, then you’re the owner.”

“Even if the legal owner is someone different.”

“Exactly. The idea is to keep people from buying properties and just leaving them to rot. There have been issues in the past where people would own property and use them as tax shelters.”

“How?”

“No idea. I didn’t look that deeply into it.” She tilted her head. “Although I now wonder if that might be what Brannigan’s sin was.”

“Kicking out squatters?”