“What if there isn't any?”
“Then I will never tell you something I cannot prove.”
Michael stared.
Fury rose.
Then subsided.
Ruth’s letter.
Do not be brave.
Put everything in writing.
She had wanted evidence.
Not revenge.
Michael sat again.
“Fine.”
That word became a discipline.
Fine.
Keep going.
The state arrested the county assessor first.
Not Erica.
Walter Pritchard.
Sixty.
Thirty-one years in county government.
He altered parcel maps.
Digital audit logs showed his credentials performing changes outside normal review.
At first he denied.
Then investigators showed payments to his sister.
He requested counsel.
Two days later, he began cooperating.
Pritchard described the scheme.
A developer representative approached him six years earlier.
Small boundary changes.
Old surveys ambiguous.
Few people noticed.
He rationalized it.
Then money.
Then more.
Sheriff Mullen became involved after an heir named Carl Bell complained aggressively and threatened to contact state authorities.
According to Pritchard, Erica visited Bell.
Not officially.
She convinced him to drop it.
“How?”
Voss asked.
Pritchard looked away.
“She had ways.”
“What ways?”
“Traffic stops.”
“Code complaints.”
“Pressure.”
“Threats?”
“I never heard direct threats.”
“Did you benefit?”
“Yes.”
“Did Sheriff Mullen?”
“I don't know.”
“Her brother did.”
Pritchard closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
“Did she know?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“She introduced him.”
That was enough for warrants.
State investigators searched Erica’s home.
Sheriff’s office.
Brother’s business.
They seized phones.
Computers.
Paper files.
One notebook from Erica’s home contained parcel numbers.
Thirty-eight.
Ruth’s parcel listed.
Beside it:
Brother asking too many questions?
Michael’s stomach turned when Voss told him.
“What does that mean?”
“We don't know yet.”
“My sister’s brother is me.”
“Likely.”
“So she knew I was coming.”
“Probably.”
“Before I arrived?”
“Possibly.”
Phone records showed Erica called the county clerk the day after Ruth died.
Asked whether an estate representative had contacted them.
Then called again after Michael’s first courthouse visit.
The pattern established surveillance.
Then came deleted texts.
Recovered from Erica’s phone.
To her brother, Nolan Mullen.
Ruth won’t stop.
Nolan:
Then scare her.
Erica:
Already tried.
Another text three weeks later:
Brother came back.
Nolan:
From Baltimore?
Erica:
Yeah. Same questions.