He looked at her.
“I know.”
Gerald called next morning.
“Warren, I don't enjoy these conversations.”
“Then stop having them.”
“I can't.”
“You can sell.”
“No.”
“Think about the entire farm then.”
Warren went silent.
Gerald continued.
“Sell voluntarily while there is enough equity.”
“Retire.”
“Pay debt.”
“Keep the house on a life estate if you want.”
“I’m seventy-four, not dead.”
“That isn't what I meant.”
“It is what you are pricing.”
Gerald sighed.
“You lost eighty productive acres.”
“Funny.”
“What?”
“You're suddenly very interested in exactly eighty.”
“It’s the affected ground.”
“It’s also the acreage your affiliate tried to buy last year.”
Silence.
Gerald answered carefully.
“Those are separate matters.”
“Are they?”
“Yes.”
Warren looked toward Casey.
She was listening.
“Who owns the development tract above me?”
“Larkspur Development.”
“Who financed it?”
“I don't discuss other clients.”
“Cornerstone?”
“I said I can't discuss it.”
Warren’s jaw tightened.
Gerald ended the call soon after.
Warren took the bank letter to Harlan Boyette.
Harlan had represented farmers for thirty years.
He was sixty-eight.
Desk covered in paper.
No interest in dramatic theories.
Warren laid everything out.
“They flooded me.”
Harlan held up one hand.
“Maybe.”
“They changed drainage.”
“Likely.”
“The bank wants the land.”
“Apparently.”
“So?”
“So you are combining facts and motives.”
Harlan said.
“We separate them.”
He pointed.
“Fact one: drainage was altered.”
“Fact two: water entered your property.”
“Fact three: crop loss occurred.”
“Fact four: lender is pressuring you.”
“Fact five: some bank-related entity previously expressed interest in acreage.”
Then he looked at Warren.
“What we do not yet have is proof that the bank caused the drainage change.”
“Or intended the flooding.”
“Or coordinated either with foreclosure strategy.”
Warren frowned.
“You sound like Gerald.”
“No.”
“I sound like somebody who wants the claim to survive.”
Harlan hired Renata Cho.
Hydrologist.
Forty-two.
Former engineering consultant.
Precise to the point of irritation.
Renata began by asking Warren for everything he did not have.
Old drainage maps.
Tile diagrams.
Historic aerials.
Development permits.
Outlet design.
Elevation survey.
Rainfall records.
Construction dates.
Casey saved the meeting by bringing her monitoring notebooks.
Renata flipped through them.
“You did these?”
“Yes.”
“Fixed locations?”
“Yes.”
“Same measuring reference?”
“Mostly.”
“Mostly?”
Casey winced.
“First week I changed one stake.”