Chapter 6

Delmer was still arguing with deBoer as Roger, Catalina, and Bonnie made it out the door. Getting out into the sunshine was enough to cool Bonnie's temper, at least as far as Roger could see. "'Counselor?' 'My colleague?'" Catalina laughed. "I didn't know my boyfriend was a lawyer."

"Your boyfriend is just a retired factory rat," Roger laughed. "All you did was introduce me as your friend, and he took it from there. I'm glad he did, though. We had to get out of there before a war broke out."

"I saw that," Bonnie smiled. "That's why I pitched a hissy. Why in hell does Delmer have to have this settled today, after waiting all this time? He's got something else pressuring him to get it done, and knowing Delmer, it's underhanded."

"No fooling about that," Roger agreed as he opened the doors of the Taurus for the ladies. "I may be just a retired factory rat, but even I could see there was a hell of a lot wrong with that offer. Catalina, there's no way you should touch it without talking to a real lawyer."

Catalina shook her head. "What did you see wrong with it?"

Roger got in behind the wheel before he answered. "Two big things," he explained. "First, you remember when deBoer was talking about the taxable value of the land at $2500 to $3000. Catalina, do you know the difference between taxable valuation and assessed valuation?"

"Ohhhhh," Bonnie said from the back seat. "That son of a bitch!"

"See, your mom knows, but she's a property owner and you aren't, so you've never had reason to learn," Roger teased as he started the car. "Taxable valuation is the value the land is taxed on. For whatever reason, probably to fool the general public, years ago the Michigan legislature set the definition of taxable valuation, of land and other real property as half the assessed valuation, or market value. He was trying to railroad you over the difference."

Catalina frowned. "You're saying the land is worth twice as much as he offered?"

"Yep, at least as far as the assessor is concerned," Roger grinned as he pulled the Taurus out onto the street. "I'm not a farmer, either, but I have a brother-in-law who is. One day last summer he was bitching about the fact that farmland had gotten so expensive, like five to six thousand an acre, unless it was real shit land. I don't think things would be that different over thirty miles."

"Why that son of a bitch," Catalina shook her head. "He was really trying to shove it to me, wasn't he?"

"You betcha," Roger grinned. "And that was just the first part. Right off the top of my head I suspect he was trying to get you for half as much again."

"How do you figure that?" Catalina asked, just a little dazed at the revelation.

"Do the math," Roger said. "Unless I missed something, and I don't think I did, he made the offer based on the value of half of sixty acres of farmland at $3000 an acre, or $180,000. That ignored the value of the hundred acres of woods, or figured it at nothing, and even a dumbass retired factory rat knows that just ain't so."

"All right, Roger," Catalina sighed. "Just tell me. I know I'm just a dumbass English teacher."

"You're not dumb by any means, you just haven't thought things through," Roger smiled. "What's the main thing you find in a woodland? Trees, right? Just yesterday, I had a retired sawmill owner tell me that good quality walnut veneer logs are going at up to $2,500 a pop. I don't know what this woods is like, but odds are there are at least some valuable trees there. And even then there's a property value. People like the woods, for hunting, for homes, and not just for the wood. All that tells me that whatever the woodland is worth, it's something more than zero."

Needless to say, the first thing Roger did as soon as they got back to Bonnie's house was to call his lawyer friend Ralph Gerjevic back in Wychbold. If anything was clear at all, whatever happened was going to involve him. Unfortunately, Gerjevic's legal secretary told him Ralph was in court and was going to be there all day. The best that could be done was a 10:00 AM appointment the next day. "Well, if that's the best we can do, that's the best we can do," he told the two women.

"I guess," Bonnie agreed. "I sure as hell would like to know what bug is up that son of a bitch's ass, though."

"Yeah, there's something going on there for sure," Roger agreed, thinking for a minute while the two women exchanged obscenities about Delmer. When he finally got a chance to get a word in edgewise, he said, "You know, it might be interesting to see just what he's so worked up about. Have the two of you ever been out there?"

"If it's where I think it is, I've driven by it but I've never gone in it," Bonnie reported. "As far as I know, it's just a patch of woods."

"I think I was back there once or twice with Cousin Doyce when I was a teenager," Catalina said. "About all I can remember was that it was pretty hilly."

Bonnie frowned. "Catalina, what were you doing back there with Doyce?"

"Making out, of course," Catalina snorted.

"You were making out with Doyce Smith?" Bonnie asked, the disbelief still evident in her voice.

"Hell, I was a kid. I didn't know any better," Catalina replied. "We never did anything other than kissy-face and touchy-boobie anyway."

Sure that this discussion was heading way off topic, Roger butted in, "I wish I hadn't worn a suit and tie, now. If I was dressed for it I'd say that we go out there and take a little hike around. But hell, I could run back to Wychbold and get something. It would only take an hour and a half or so, and we've got plenty of time today."

"Maybe you won't have to head back," Bonnie said. "I'm pretty sure there must be something of Doyle's in the attic that might fit you. That's one good thing about never throwing anything out, you might need it some day."

"Yeah, if you can find it," Catalina shook her head. "There's so much crap up there in the attic I don't know how you find anything."

"Oh, I pretty much know where everything is," Bonnie protested. "It's worth a quick look, anyway."

There was a little discussion one way and the other before Bonnie headed up the stairs. "I have to admit," Roger told Catalina with a headshake, "Your mom is a real pistol, but she seems to be good people."

"She is good people," Catalina replied. "But 'real pistol' doesn't even begin to describe it. You haven't even seen her warmed up, yet. A lot of people consider her to be a nutcase, and I'm not so sure I'm not one of them. That's one of the reasons Delmer is such a bastard toward us. No one in that family was very happy when Dad married Mom, and she didn't have it in her to suck up to them. The story I always heard is they had Dad all lined up for the next thing to an arranged marriage with some gal in their church, which is a weird bunch of dudes. Then when Mom got pregnant and Dad married her it loused that up, and this other family, whoever they are, got real pissed with the whole family."

"Yeaahhh," Roger smiled slowly. "I think I already got the impression that there's not a whole lot of love lost between you two and this uncle of yours."

"I think that's a fair statement," Catalina nodded. "When you get right down to it, this is just another shot in a war that's been going on for over forty years."

Roger smiled and nodded his head. "Well, that explains a lot about why Delmer's doing this to you."

"Why's that?"

"Because he can. Or at least, because he thinks he can."

It only took Bonnie about five minutes to come back down the stairs carrying an armload of her late husband's clothes. Roger stripped out of his suit and tried them on. Doyle Smith must have been a touch shorter and heavier, since the pants were too short and loose in the waist, but not so bad that a belt wouldn't take care of the problem. The shirt was also loose, although the sleeves were short but wearable. The same could be said for a medium-weight jacket; the well-broken-in pair of classic Red Wing hunting boots fit like Roger had worn them himself for years. Since Roger expected they'd be walking around a bit, that was fine with him.

While Roger had been changing, the women had also been getting into clothes more appropriate for woods walking. In a few minutes they were in the car, heading for the quarter-section, which proved to be about eight miles out of town to the east on a poorly paved side road. A somewhat better paved road crossed at the northeast corner of the property. The tillable farmland was all in the east section of the property, facing the roads on two sides. They didn't need to get out of the car to see that it all had been planted to corn that year, since the field was all corn stubble. For their purposes farmland was farmland, and they could see it had been profitable enough to have planting done this year.

"Anybody want to bet the estate didn't see a dime of whatever the profit or lease was on that land this year?" Bonnie scowled.

"Shit, no bet," Catalina agreed.

"Something else to mention to Ralph tomorrow," Roger said, trying to keep the bitching down to a dull roar, and changed the subject. "The real mystery to me is the woods. With the leaves down we should be able to see pretty well, but it's nothing like an open field, either."

After a little bit of searching they found a faded two-rut lane running back into the woods. Roger wasn't too sure about it, so he pulled the car to the side of the little-used road and walked back up the lane for fifty yards or so. "We can drive back enough to get off the road, anyway," he reported to the women. "The ground seems pretty hard for a little bit, but there's a hole a little farther back I don't think I want to risk with a road car."

The Taurus wasn't out of sight of the road, but at least was far enough off it to not be easily noticeable when he pulled to a stop and they got out. "Well, it's a woods, and it's got trees," Bonnie observed.