The documents he had brought me would have transferred my interest away. His ten-thousand-dollar check was payment for a home and property he had no right to demand.
I closed the record and studied the photographs of the survey stakes. Dale had arranged the survey before Luke’s accident. I searched the Montana business registry and found Tolliver Land Partners, a company Dale had created nine weeks earlier. He was listed as its manager, with a mailing address at his car dealership in Bozeman.
Why would he create a land company if he didn’t own our property?
A search for the survey company brought up an article about a proposed luxury ranch development nearby. Its map showed plans extending almost to our creek. The article didn’t identify Dale as being involved, but the timing made me uneasy. I saved copies of the company filing, the article, and every property record I had reviewed.
As I spread them across the table, I remembered a Sunday afternoon a few weeks before Luke died. He had walked through the far meadow and returned unusually quiet. During dinner, he asked whether we could finally complete the conservation easement we had discussed for years.
