I gestured toward the deed index. “He has almost a whole column of listings here, and now I’m tracking down the deeds.”
The man stood up. “Want some help?”
I grinned. “Absolutely.” As I watched, four other people stood from their computer terminals and came over. I divvied out the references to the deed books, and in a minute, all six of us had deed books open and cameras out.
The room soon filled with chatter as we read out names and dates and began to assemble a timeline of Elijah’s land purchases. He did occasionally sell a parcel, but for the most part, he bought lots of smaller acreage all around the town of Octonia.
An hour later, we had assembled a full list of his land holdings, and when we added the acreage, we found he owned over 1,480 acres of land, all in small parcels scat
