“He didn’t disguise the names much. The list starts with Delphinus and Company and ends with Trey Delphis Antiquities out of California. He might as well have put a neon sign on his trail.”
“Since you were right about the land squabbles, I think he did it so ownership would be easy to trace. Look.” He scooted his chair closer to mine and thumbed through the stack to pull out another sheet. “I summarized this, but the transactions show you started with the equivalent of one hundred acres. As the island developed progressively southward, Triton sold off pieces.”
I followed Saber’s finger down the column of dates. “I see it. Most of these sales were in the late 1970s and ’80s.”
“Then another chunk in the early 1990s. I figure as the property values rose, Triton sold land and put the proceeds in trust to help pay the taxes.”
“That’s good. At least it won’t take a Fort Knox fortune to pay him back.” I looked over at him. “Is there any land left other than the three lots?”
“No, but I have to hand it to him. He must’ve studied the plots, because he not only saved beachfront land for you, he kept the part where an access street dead-ends. You have a wide buffer between your property and the next one.”
“Score points for Triton.” I sipped on my tea and leafed through more papers but didn’t see what I was hunting for.
“Did you find out who built the house?”
“You mean that shack? No. Those records aren’t online.”
“I guess it doesn’t matter who built it, but what am I going to do about it?”
Saber snorted. “Wait for the next storm to blow it down.”
“Come on, be serious. Now that I know about”—I waved a hand at the papers—“all this, I can’t ignore it. If nothing else, I owe it to the neighbors to spiff up the house.”
He pushed his plate away and crossed his arms on the table. “I have a feeling you want to make that place a project.”
“Well, the thought had occurred. It would look fantastic on my design résumé. Plus, you’re looking for a house, and that one is just sitting there.”
“No, Cesca. No way.”
“You wouldn’t have to buy it. You could rent it. Cheap. And then it would be occupied.”
“It’s barely tourable, never mind livable.”
“But it could be if I fixed it up and expanded. I could build an office for you, and another bathroom. Or I could put on a second story, make the whole upstairs a master bedroom suite.”
“Even if the county will approve any plan other than razing the place, as soon as you improve that property, your taxes and wind and flood insurance will be astronomical.”
“Maybe not. Besides, even if you don’t want to live there, I’ll be able to move away from Maggie in four years.”
He shrugged. “Being that you haven’t bitten a human in centuries, the VPA would probably approve you to move whenever you wanted.”
I raised a brow. “Really?”
“Yes, but you’ve just decorated this place exactly like you want it. Why trade down?”
I gazed around my funky retro kitchen. I had put months of time and effort into decorating the cottage, and I loved it. Too, the cottage was twice as big as the beach house, so no way would my things fit in the smaller place. Besides, I loved being close to Maggie, and I could walk to my job.
The rub was that I didn’t own the cottage. Maggie did. I was glad to pay her rent. I insisted on it, in fact. But someday, I wanted my own space. Why not turn the sow’s ear of a shack into—Well, okay, maybe making it a silk purse palace was stretching the laws of probability, but the beach house could look a lot better.
“You have a point,” I admitted, and saw him relax a little. “But, even like it is, I could use the house to stow my board and surfing gear. Besides, I’m itching to tear out all those bushes and vines just to get a better idea of what the house could look like. With vampire strength, I could demo the landscape in the flash of a fang.”
He grinned. “Yeah, you could. I’ll even help you when I can. But,” he said, holding up his hand when I squealed with excitement,
“I’m not living there. In fact, I’m thinking of buying Neil’s house.”
I blinked. “No kidding? When did you see his place?”
“When I picked up the fireworks for the party last week. For the price he said he’s asking, it’s in better shape than anything Amanda’s shown me.”
“Saber, that’s great.”
“We’ll see if it works out,” he said around a yawn.
I got up and took his arm. “Come on, let’s get you to bed.”
“I need to ask you about one more thing.”
“Ask me,” I said, leading him through the kitchen door, “while we walk.”
“Do you know where Triton is right now?”
“No. I’ve tried to talk to him telepathically, but he’s as mysterious as Pandora. He’s in hiding from some big, bad evil, but I never get a sense of where he’s holed up.”
“Have he or Pandora given you anything solid about what’s going on? Anything other than that vague message about betrayal and treachery?”
“No, just that there’s danger. Why?”
“You’ve been shot at twice in a week, and you ask why?”