Chapter 6 - The Land Under the HouseThe title records went back thirty-two years.
Gideon’s father purchased the estate in two adjoining parcels.
The first contained the mansion.
The second contained most of the gardens, greenhouse, service road, and orchard.
Seven years later, the second parcel transferred to a family land company.
Ten years after that, ownership moved again.
To Rowland Land Management.
Victor’s company.
Gideon stared at the deed.
“Why would Dad do this?”
Rebecca examined the signature.
“Maybe he didn’t.”
“Forgery?”
“Don’t jump.”
Gideon forced himself to breathe.
Verify.
The transfer had been notarized.
Recorded properly.
Taxes paid for years by Rowland.
Victor’s ownership was not secret in the legal sense.
It was simply something Gideon had never checked.
“That makes me look ridiculous.”
Rebecca shook her head.
“It makes you someone who trusted family management.”
“That’s a polite way to say ridiculous.”
She ignored him.
The transfer date mattered.
It occurred eleven months before Gideon’s father died.
Around the same time his father had been fighting privately with Victor.
Gideon remembered arguments behind office doors.
He had never asked what they were about.
Elise apparently had.
Her calendar contained another note:
Ask Thomas why garden parcel moved.
Thomas was Gideon’s father.
A name Gideon had avoided speaking recently because each discovery changed how he remembered him.
Rebecca traced the deed preparer.
The attorney had retired but was still alive.
His name was Martin Hale.
They met him two days later.
Martin was seventy-nine and immediately uncomfortable when shown the transfer.
“I wondered if this would ever come back.”
Gideon leaned forward.
“What happened?”
“Your father wanted temporary financing.”
“Against the land?”
“Yes.”
“Why transfer it to Victor?”
Martin frowned.
“That wasn’t the instruction.”
Rebecca became alert.
“What was?”
“Create a special-purpose entity jointly controlled by Thomas and Victor. Hold the parcel for two years. Refinance Orchard Ridge. Transfer it back.”
“But Rowland Land Management was Victor’s company alone.”
“Yes.”
“Did Thomas sign this deed?”
Martin stared at the signature.
“I witnessed him sign a deed.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
Martin took off his glasses.
“The document I prepared listed a company called T&R Land Partners.”
Rebecca looked at Gideon.
“This recorded deed lists Rowland Land Management.”
Martin’s face drained.
“Then this isn’t the final document I prepared.”
“Did you keep a copy?”
“My firm archives were transferred when I retired.”
“Where?”
He gave them the storage company.
Detectives and attorneys obtained records properly.
The archived file contained a draft deed.
T&R Land Partners.
Fifty percent Thomas.
Fifty percent Victor.
And a separate agreement requiring return of the property once a loan was repaid.
Gideon stared.
“What happened to the final?”
Martin shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
“Who collected it?”
He remembered.
“Victor.”
Rebecca asked, “Not Thomas?”
“No.”
Another piece.
Not proof of criminal fraud.
But a serious discrepancy.
Gideon called Victor.
“What did you do to the garden parcel?”
Victor laughed.
“So now we’re rewriting thirty years of property law?”
“The archived deed names T&R.”
“Drafts change.”
“Where is the signed joint-ownership agreement?”
“Ask your father.”
“He’s dead.”
“Yes.”
The cruelty in the answer made Gideon grip the phone tighter.
“You’ve been collecting rent from a company using part of that parcel.”
“It belongs to me.”
“The family greenhouse?”
“Technically mine.”
“The garden where Piper was buried?”
Silence.
Gideon’s voice became low.
“Mrs. Dalton said you told her today was the last chance.”
Victor responded calmly.
“You’re recording this, aren’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
Victor hung up.
Rebecca advised seeking an injunction preventing Victor from selling or mortgaging the disputed parcel.
The judge granted temporary restrictions while title claims were investigated.
Victor responded by calling an emergency meeting of the family holding company.
He wanted Gideon removed as managing director.
Grounds:
Negligence.
Instability.
Conflict of interest.
Gideon read the notice.
“He’s using my old signature.”
Rebecca nodded.
“And the Piper incident.”
“How?”
“He’ll argue you’re making irrational corporate decisions because of a traumatic family event.”
Gideon almost admired the strategy.
Victor had a gift for turning someone else’s injury into his own leverage.
The meeting took place three days later.
Family shareholders attended remotely and in person.
Victor presented Gideon’s signed Orchard Ridge consent.
He presented losses.
He presented Gideon’s failure to notice title issues.
Then he said:
“My nephew is a grieving widower whose daughter has just survived a horrific crime. He needs time away from financial decisions.”
Gideon looked around the table.
Years ago he would have exploded.
Instead he stood.
“Victor is correct about one thing.”
Everyone turned.
“I signed a document six years ago without reading it carefully enough.”
Victor’s expression changed.
“I failed.”
Silence.
Gideon continued.
“That does not grant anyone permission to alter trust ownership or conceal land transfers.”
He placed Elise’s letter, title records, and Martin Hale’s archived drafts into the official meeting record.
“I am not asking you to trust me.”
He looked around.
“I’m asking you to investigate all of us.”
Victor stared.
An independent forensic review passed by one vote.
Victor left without speaking.
That night, investigators recovered deleted data from Mrs. Dalton’s phone.
One message from Victor had been sent the morning Piper disappeared.
Get the original before Gideon comes home. Today is the last chance.
Another message, twelve minutes later:
Use the hydrangeas if you need me to know where you left it.
Gideon read the message.
His stomach turned.
“The flowers.”
Rebecca nodded.
Victor knew.
Maybe not exactly what Mrs. Dalton had done.
But he knew she was hiding something in the garden.
Then investigators recovered Mrs. Dalton’s response.
Just five words.
The girl won’t tell me.
May you like
Victor replied:
Then make her.
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