Page 81 of Small Town Sizzle

A few moments later, my phone buzzes in my hand, the screen lighting up with “No Caller ID.”

“Garrett here.”

The voice on the other end is low and cautious. “Garrett, I need to stay anonymous for now, but I think you’ll want to hear what I have to say. It’s about Plum Lane.”

I sit down in my desk chair, opening my laptop and turning on the voice recorder as I switch the call to speaker.

“I’m listening.”

“I own a hundred acres of land near the ocean,” the man begins. “It’s the kind of place you’d see on a postcard—rollinghills, protected forest, even wild mustangs roaming free. I’ve had developers and companies approach me for years, offering me obscene amounts of money to sell. I’ve always refused.”

“Okay,” I say, leaning back in the seat. “What’s this got to do with Plum Lane?”

“Let me get there,” he says, his voice tightening. “A few years ago, I met a woman on a dating app. We hit it off. I’m a single dad—a rancher—so I don’t get out much. She seemed perfect. She even needed a job, and since I was looking for a nanny for my daughters, it felt like fate.”

I can hear the tension in his voice as he continues. “She moved in quickly.Everythingmoved quickly. I fell for her hard, and I thought she felt the same way.”

“But something didn’t add up,” I guess.

“Exactly.” He pauses. “My oldest daughter started telling me that she’d catch Nicole, that’s the woman, in my office all the time, going through papers. Then people in town started talking, saying they’d seen her meeting with a man, acting… familiar. Like they were together. At first, I ignored it. I wanted to believe the best of her.”

I’m quiet, letting him gather his thoughts.

“She told me she was pregnant,” he continues, his voice hard now. “We were planning to get married. But then I got a call—from someone at the circuit clerk’s office. They told me, off the record, that she’d been trying to file paperwork to sell all of my land. She signed the paperwork with my last name.”

I sit up straighter, the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end. “She was going to sell your land out from under you?”

“Yes,” he says sharply. “To a company called Plum Lane. That’s the name that came up on the paperwork. When I confronted her, she broke down and denied all of it. She swore that she had beef with a woman who was always spreading liesabout her when she came to a new town, but I didn’t buy it. I told her to leave and never come back.”

“And you didn’t press charges?” I ask, incredulous.

“I just wanted her gone,” he admits. “I had my daughters to think about. I thought it was over. But then I started digging because if she did this to me, who else has she done it to? Turns out she works for Plum Lane. She’s an employee there, and I’m pretty sure she was planted in my life to get access to my land. And I’m not the only man who’s had a similar story.”

I let out a low whistle, the pieces clicking into place. “Why are you telling me this now?”

“Because I know you’re asking questions about Plum Lane. You’re not the only one they’ve targeted, Garrett. They’re bigger than you realize.”

I take a deep breath, my mind racing. “Do you have proof? Documents? Anything I can use?”

“I have everything,” he says firmly. “Emails, contracts, even pictures of her meeting with the guy in town. I’ll give it all to you—but only in person. I don’t trust phones or email for this.”

“Fair enough,” I say. “When and where?”

“There’s a diner just off Route 7. The Beacon. Meet me there at eight tonight.”

“I’ll be there,” I say without hesitation.

“These people don’t play fair. They’ll come after you if they think you’re a threat.”

“Thanks for the warning,” I say grimly.

The line goes dead, and I sit there for a moment, staring out the window.

Plum Lane isn’t just a shady company. It’s a spiderweb, and I’m starting to see just how many people have been caught in it. But if this guy has the proof he says he does, I might finally have a way to tear it down. At least, with the photos of the man andthe woman involved, I’ll be able to see these people before they come.

I stand up, my thoughts swirling. Whatever this is, it’s bigger than I expected. And I’m not backing down.

I walk out of the office and back outside to my car.