Page 151
I gave her a tight smile back. “I’m not here for books. I actually need help with something.”
Marjorie paused before leaning on the counter. “All right, you’ve got my attention. What’s going on?”
“I need records for a sale of land. It’s not on the internet. I already checked.”
She hummed as she thought about it. “Something recent or old?”
“Recent.”
She slowly raised an eyebrow. “Still looking into the STM grant?”
I shook my head. “I didn’t get anywhere with that. This is different.”
“What’s going on?”
“Hugh sold his land.”
Marjorie’s jaw dropped. “Wait, are you kidding me? Why would he sell it?”
“He needed the money, apparently.”
“No wonder he was doing jobs at the library. I mean, it makes sense. Property taxes have gone up because our stupid mayor always wants more money.”
I rolled my eyes at the mention of Mayor Toby. Nobody in Strawberry Springs ever saw him, mostly because he barely even lived here. Technically, he met the bare minimum for residency, but I had a feeling he was lying about how much time he spent in Strawberry Springs.
We didn’t have a choice on who to vote for. He was the only person on the ballot, and a lot of us avoided voting entirely because we didn’t like him. Even without our votes, he somehow still won.
Most of the time he had a hands-off attitude about us. He let us do what we wanted, and that included letting the STM grant basically take over.
He did, however, love raising property taxes, especially as Strawberry Springs had gotten better and better. He always claimed that the money went to schools and road repair. However, I knew for a fact that the STM grant fixed a lot of that for us.
“I’m hoping more official records are filed.”
“What did he say about the person he sold it to?”
“He didn’t give details, but it didn’t sound good.”
Marjorie cursed. “I can’t believe him! That grant would have been a better option than selling land.”
“He doesn’t trust the thing.”
“I do. It got our library back.”
“And it owns it. What happens if the money runs out?”
She paused, her eyebrows furrowing. It was obvious she hadn’t thought about this before. Either that, or she didn’t want to.
“You don’t think it would do that to us, do you?”
“No idea, but Hugh’s land takes precedence.”
Marjorie sighed and it turned into a groan. All of us cared so deeply about this town that we would never want something or someone coming in to ruin it. “The library doesn’t have anything brand-new. We do keep some records, but most of that’s over at town hall. We may have to sneak into the mayor’s office in order to find it.”
“Like that asshole ever uses it. Are you willing to commit a crime with me?”
She leaned in, glee in her features. “Absolutely, I am. Just don’t tell my wife.”
“Don’t tell me what?” Henrietta came around the corner.
