'"H&F Investment Group, LLP,'" he read aloud. 'The mailing address is a PO box in New York.'

He looked at me.

'Who the hel is the H&F Investment Group?'

I shrugged.

'What's LLP?'

'Limited liability partnership,' I said.

'You could try the deed room.'

We both turned to Dorothy. A touch of pink had sprouted on each cheek.

'You could look up the date that H&F bought the property, and the name of the previous owner.'

'They'd have that?'

She nodded.

===OO=OOO=OO===

We found the register of deeds around the corner from the tax office. The records room was situated behind the obligatory counter, through a set of slatted swinging doors.

Shelves lining the wals and filing free-standing cases held deed books spanning hundreds of years. Recent ones were square and red, their numbers stated in plain gold lettering. Older volumes were ornately decorated, like leatherbound volumes of first editions.

It was like a treasure hunt, with each deed sending us backward in time. We learned the folowing: The H&F Investment Group was an LLP registered in Delaware. Ownership of tax parcel number four transferred to the partnership in 1949 from one Edward E. Arthur.

The description of the property was charming, but a bit loose by modern standards. I read it aloud to Ryan.

'"The property begins at a Spanish oak on a knob, the corner of state grant 11807, and runs north ninety poles to the Belingford line, then up the ridge as it meanders with Belingford's line to a chestnut in the line of the S. Q. Barker tract—"'

'Where did Arthur get it?'

I skipped the rest of the survey and read on.

'Do you want to hear the "party of the first part" bits?'

'No.'

'"… having the same land conveyed by deed from Victor T. Livingstone and wife J. E. Clampett, dated March 26, 1933, and recorded in Deed Book number 52, page 315, Records of Swain County, North Carolina."'

I went to the shelf and puled the older volume.

Arthur had obtained the property from one Victor T. Livingstone in 1933. Livingstone must have purchased it from God, since there were no records before that time.

'At least we know how the happy homeowners got in and out.'

The Livingstone and Arthur deeds both described an entrance road.

'Or get in and out.' I was stil not convinced the property was abandoned. 'While we were there Crowe found a track leading from the house to a logging trail. The turnoff at the trail is obscured by a makeshift gate completely overgrown with kudzu. When she showed me the entrance I couldn't believe it. You could walk or drive past it a milion times without ever seeing it.'

Ryan said nothing.

'Now what?'

'Now we wait for Crowe's warrant.'

'And in the meantime?'

Ryan grinned, and his eyes crinkled at the corners.