“Sure, thanks. Fred mentioned the Holiday Inn, but I’d rather stay here. Long as he and Sister aren’t at each other’s throats.” Which probably meant we would spend that night at the Holiday Inn.

Haley and Mary Alice came in together about noon. Both were excited, Mary Alice because her wheelchair repo man story had been selected to be read at the writers’ conference that night, and Haley because she had gotten the information on the setup of Blue Bay Ranch.

“You go first, Aunt Sister,” Haley said graciously. “I’ve got some photocopied stuff to show you, some stuff I found at the courthouse.”

Mary Alice was beaming. “Well, they chose a couple of stories and mine was one of them. I came on home because if I’m to read it in front of the whole crowd, I’ve got to go buy something to wear. I think something black so I can wear it to the funeral tomorrow, too. Eight o’clock and everybody is invited.”

We all assured her that we would be there.

“And I’m going to call Berry. He’ll want to know.”

“Major Bissell’s reading, too.” Haley said.

“Oh, I forgot to tell you. He’s the other reader. I just knew it was going to be that impotent man, but he didn’t make it.”

“That’s great. We’ll come cheer you both on.” Haley spread the papers on the coffee table. “Now, look at what I found.”

“What are these? Legal papers?” I asked.

“I’ve been to the courthouse looking up these records.” She rearranged some of the documents. “Okay, here’s the history of Blue Bay Ranch.”

We looked at the legal documents and waited while Haley paused dramatically.

“Tod Abernathy bought the land from a man named Sellers Magee in 1971. Paid him ten dollars an acre for 942 acres of land on Choctawhatchee Bay that nobody figured was worth a dime. When Tod died in 1982, the land still wasn’t worth much. But Millicent hung onto it. I don’t know if she knew how much it would be worth one day or not. She probably just didn’t think much about it.

“Anyway, developers gradually began to build around the bay. They built Sandestin and Indian Bayou. And here Millicent was, sitting on almost a thousand acres of prime land. But she had also seen what some of the developers were doing to it and didn’t want that to happen to her land.” Haley held up a couple of xeroxed papers. “You ought to see the stipulations she put in here.”

“When did Jason Marley enter the picture?” Sister asked.