She shook her head. “Nope, sorry.” The light lingered on a section of wall with what looked like a huge map of the county. “But come over here and look at this. I’m guessing it’s important, but I’m not sure what the heck it means.”
Liam stood behind her, close enough to feel the heat from her body, like magnetic north’s tug on a compass needle. The map she was looking at was covered with pushpins, maybe as many as two hundred of them, some crowded close together and others spread well apart. The pins were in four different colors: red, blue, yellow, and green.
“Huh,” he said. “That’s interesting.” He pointed to a three-by-five card with notes in a precise hand, delineating the meaning of each color. The card was taped to the wall under the map. “I love organized people. This says that red stands for ‘Yes—lease signed,’ blue stands for ‘Definite no,’ yellow is ‘No—but persuadable,’ and green means ‘No—but vulnerable.’”
“What do those mean?” Baba asked, a wrinkle creasing the skin between her brows. “I understand the lease-signed ones, and the definite no’s, but what about the other two? The yellow and green pins?”
Liam took her glowing hand, not without some trepidation, and aimed the light downward toward the file cabinets underneath the map. The drawers were as neatly labeled as the chart above, and he pulled open the one with a large red dot on it first. He got a sinking feeling as he perused the names on the folders within.
“Shit,” he whispered, sliding the drawer shut again.
“What’s the matter?” Baba asked, glancing around with concern. “Did you hear something?”
He shook his head, then had to push his damned hair out of his face again. “No, nothing like that,” he said. “I didn’t expect to see that so many of the folks who’ve signed drilling leases live near me. Truth is, according to these, my property is pretty much surrounded. If the county votes down the drilling moratorium, I’m screwed.”
He was a little surprised to realize how much he cared. He never talked about it to anyone. Most days, he even managed not to think about it for whole hours at a time. The house had mostly been just a place to sleep and occasionally eat since the baby died and Melissa left. If you’d asked him yesterday, he would have said it could burn to the ground for all he cared. Apparently, that wasn’t quite true. He ground his teeth together, thinking this was a damned inconvenient time for his heart to finally come back to life again.
Baba’s slender hand rested gently on his shoulder for a moment. “Sorry,” she said. “Hopefully we’ll find something to stop them.”
Liam nodded wordlessly and opened the next drawer. There weren’t quite as many files with blue tags on them, but there were enough to be heartening. His own name was written clearly on a label that sat between Landry, Frank and Meadows, Charles and Felicia. He’d said “no” loud and clear from the first time one of Callahan’s flunkies had come knocking on the door. In fact, it was distinctly possible he’d said, “HELL, no.”
The yellow-tagged drawer was next, and it was considerably more revealing. Liam cursed under his breath.
“What?” Baba asked. “More people who own property near yours?”
“Worse,” he said through clenched teeth. “These are folks who want to say no, but Callahan has found ways that he thinks they can be persuaded.” He pointed at a file labeled “Johnson, Clara.”
“See this one? Clara is a widow, whose husband died suddenly last year with no life insurance and a pile of debt. It says here that her kids are pressuring her to sell and move into a nursing home.” He flicked another file open. “This one is the Mulligans. They’re in the middle of an ugly divorce. Callahan has apparently convinced the husband to sign the lease, and is helping him out with an expensive lawyer so he can get an advantage in the court battle.”
“Nasty,” Baba said, looking more disgusted than shocked. “Are they all like that, the yellow ones?”
Liam riffled through a few more. “Pretty much, although some are more sneaky than vicious. Here’s one where a couple wants to retire to a warmer climate. Callahan apparently paid their real estate agent to convince them that their property will be worth more with a signed drilling lease in place.” He shoved the drawer shut, stopping it from slamming at the last minute. “But the files all look like they’re full of actions that are at the very least morally repugnant, if not out-and-out illegal.”