Frank leaned back.
“You should.”
She stared at him.
“You know what Roy told me?”
“What?”
“He said this garage was never really his.”
Maggie frowned.
“He said it belonged to the person who needed it most.”
Frank smiled.
“Sounds like him.”
“He used to say I was the better mechanic.”
“Was he right?”
“Yes.”
Frank laughed.
“Good answer.”
The next day, trouble arrived.
Two men in a pickup parked outside.
They were not customers.
One entered the garage.
“You Maggie Carter?”
“Yes.”
“Name's Wade.”
“I don't care.”
The man smiled.
“You're getting a lot of business.”
“So?”
“So that's good.”
Maggie returned to her work.
“Congratulations.”
He leaned against the toolbox.
“Silver Basin wants this property.”
“Then Silver Basin can talk to me.”
“They already have.”
“I said no.”
Wade's smile disappeared.
“You should reconsider.”
Frank stepped between them.
Wade looked him up and down.
“This isn't your business.”
Frank smiled without warmth.
“Everything on this road becomes my business when someone threatens an old woman.”
Wade glanced toward the motorcycles.
“You people like trouble?”
“No.”
Frank's eyes hardened.
“But we don't run from it.”
Wade left.
Maggie watched his truck disappear.
“Who was he?”
“Don't know,” Frank said.
“You know exactly who he was.”
Frank sighed.
“Debt buyer, maybe. Property investor.”
Maggie frowned.
“Why would they care about my little garage?”
Frank looked at the old building.
“Because somebody thinks the land is worth more than you do.”
That night Maggie found a note taped beneath her windshield wiper.
SELL NOW.
She tore it in half.
Then she went inside.
For the first time, the foreclosure notice no longer frightened her.
It made her angry.
The next morning, Maggie found Frank waiting outside.
He held two cups of coffee.
She accepted one.
“Too much sugar.”
“You complain about everything.”
“That's because you're wrong about everything.”
Frank smiled.
Then he noticed Maggie's hand trembling.
“You sleep?”
“No.”
“Why?”
She looked toward the garage.
“Because I know why they want the property.”
Frank waited.
Maggie sighed.
“Roy knew.”
“Knew what?”
“About the land.”
She led him inside.
Behind a row of dusty cabinets was a faded map.
She unfolded it across the workbench.
The property was larger than it looked.
A narrow strip of land stretched behind the garage toward an abandoned rail line.
Frank studied it.
“What's there?”
“Water rights.”
He looked up.
Maggie pointed to a handwritten note.
“Roy discovered an underground aquifer twenty years ago. He had the land surveyed. It was never publicly recorded because he didn't trust the development companies.”
“Why not?”
“They wanted to build a distribution center here.”
Frank understood.
The highway had moved.
But the new highway was not far from the property.
If the land could be acquired cheaply, it could be worth millions.
“And the mortgage company?”
“Silver Basin bought the original loan.”
“Then someone knows.”
Maggie nodded.
“Roy believed they would wait until I was too old to fight.”
Frank stared at her.
“Why didn't you tell anyone?”
“Because Roy told me not to.”