“Up until recently, we had almost forgotten about all of the intrigue and wheeling and dealing that gets done for mineral rights,” Ike said. “I had a clerk here who didn’t know what in the hell to do when some land man with a Texas accent walked into the office and wanted to file. But we all got back into the rhythm of it soon enough.”
“Because of CBM?” Joe asked.
“Yes, because of CBM. See, no one realized after the last oil bust that natural gas was down there in the kind of quantity it is. Suddenly, all of those fields that everyone thought were played out or useless were valuable again. Quite a few of the ranches had changed hands since their first leases or sales, and some of the new landowners didn’t even know that other people owned their OG&M rights. A lot of the squawking we all heard from ranchers bitching about the CBM companies on their land was because those ranchers discovered that the mineral rights had been sold years before.”
Joe tried to work it through. “So even if a ranch sells, the mineral rights stay with whoever had them?”
“Right.”
“The Timberline Ranch, for example, has six hundred wells planned for it. Those rights are owned by a mineral company, I assume, even though when they bought the rights they had never heard of coal-bed methane?”
“Right.”
Joe rubbed his face. He was missing something. The incentive to sell, or buy, or manipulate the land value, wasn’t there.
“Why would a company buy mineral rights to a ranch when they didn’t know what was in the ground?” Joe asked.
Ike shrugged, “It happened—and happens—all the time, Joe. Companies speculate. They lock up land, betting that somewhere down the road their investment will pay off.”
“Can I see the OG&M deed for the Timberline Ranch in the county record books?” Joe asked. “It would be interesting to know who has the mineral rights to the place. My understanding is that old man Overstreet sold the rights a long time ago.”
“Of course you can,” Ike said. “It’s a public record. But it might be a bitch to find right away.”
“Isn’t it all on computer?”
Ike laughed. “Not hardly, Joe. The most recent stuff is, of course. But anything older than ten years was indexed in deed books. Anything beyond twenty-five years is in the archives, but completely disorganized. There was a flood in the vault back then, and the deed books all got soaked. Because all of those old deeds and patents were typed on parchment paper, somebody emptied the books and put them into files after they dried out. They never were put back into new books in sequential order.”
“I’d still like to see it,” Joe said.
“May I ask why?” Ike said, lowering his voice.
Joe sighed. “It may be relevant to a sale of the place. Or a murder.” “Really?”
“This is purely speculation on my part, Ike,” Joe said. “Please keep this confidential.”
Ike got up and opened his door. “Millie, can you please find and pull the OG&M file for the Timberline Ranch? Owned by the Overstreet sisters?” Millie reluctantly got down from her stool, and gave Joe a look as she walked by.
“Why’d you ask her?” Joe said in a whisper.
Ike smiled sympathetically. “She’s been assigned to the archives, Joe. She’s the only one who can find any of that old stuff. We’re in the process of going through all of the old county files—which were kept off-site in file boxes for over fifty years—and bringing them in-house to recreate the old deed index books.”
“I heard something about that,” Joe said. “How the old county clerk charged the county rent for storage in his own house.”
“Um-hmmm,” Ike said, raising his eyebrows. The scandal was one of the reasons Ike Easter was elected county clerk.
“We think we’ve recovered all of the old records,” he said, “but every few months we find another box or two. The old county clerk had them in his basement, in bedrooms, and even in a couple of old locked garages in town.”
While they waited, Ike asked Joe questions about the Murder and Mutilations Task Force, and the story in the newspaper. Joe confirmed that there was very little progress, but said that some things appeared to be emerging, although he couldn’t get into them.
“Hold it,” Joe said suddenly, looking at Ike. “What?”
“The old county clerk’s residence, where the old records were kept—
that’s where Cam and Marie Logue live now, isn’t it?” “Yes.”
“Would Cam and Marie have had access to the boxes?”
Ike thought about it for a moment. “I suppose they would have. The boxes were sealed up with tape, but they weren’t locked up or anything. Why do you ask?”
“It’s just interesting,” Joe said.
Finally, Millie returned to Ike’s office, wiping her hands with a wet towel.
“Those old boxes are filthy,” she said, glaring at Joe.
“Did you find the file?” Ike asked, even though she wasn’t carrying anything.
She shook her head. “It must be in one of those boxes we’ve still got in storage. It hasn’t been brought up to the filing room yet.”
Ike groaned, thanked her, and waited for the door to close.
He told Joe, “We’ve got twenty or more boxes downstairs in the boiler room that still need to be brought up and gone through.”
“How quickly can you do it?” Ike said, “Are you serious?” “Yup.”
“Joe, I want to help you out and all, but can you at least give me a better reason so I can justify the overtime hours and feel good about it when the elite Republican Guard turns on me?”
Joe leaned forward on Ike’s desk. “As I mentioned, I think that the murders have something to do with either the potential sale of the Timberline Ranch or the mineral rights. I think if we know who holds the rights, we might know who ordered—or did—the killings.”
Ike swallowed. “Even the cows?” he asked.
“Maybe not the cows, but Tuff Montegue and Stuart Tanner.” “And you feel pretty confident about this?”
Joe sat back and rubbed his face. “Kind of,” he confessed.
oe found Robey Hersig in his office reading the Roundup and looking very sour.
“Tell me something good, Joe.”
Joe sat down and recapped what he knew and suspected. Hersig grew increasingly interested, and began to take notes. When Joe was through, Hersig steepled his fingers and pressed them against the bridge of his nose. “We don’t have enough to arrest anyone yet, or even bring them in for questioning,” Hersig said. “I know.”
“So what’s your next step?”
“I’m going to go see Cam Logue.” Hersig winced. “It might be too soon.”
“Maybe so. But it might break something loose. Or,” Joe said, “Cam may blow my whole theory out of the water.”
Robey sat for several moments, thinking things through. “What can I do to help?”
“A few things,” Joe said. “Intensify the search for Cleve Garrett. We’ve got to find him and make sure the girl’s okay. I can’t see him just blowing out of town like he did, after wanting to get so involved with the task force. Then follow up with Sheriff Harvey and Deputy Cook. They’ve already involved Portenson, so maybe we can find out more about this Eckhardt guy. I don’t know how or if Fort Bragg figures in, but Cook said he thought the army was stonewalling him when he called. Maybe if they heard from you, or the governor, we’d get some answers. Oh, and check up with Ike to see if they’ve located that Timberline Ranch file.”
“I can do all of that,” Hersig said, writing it down on the pad. “But you’re forgetting somebody. What about Barnum?”
“Keep him the hell out of it,” Joe said. “Joe .. .”
“It’s not just about this thing between Barnum and me,” Joe said. “Barnum seems more hostile than usual. He called me at my house and all but warned me off of this thing. I think he’s involved in some way, Robey.”