<div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote"><a href="https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=107518.msg5250597#msg5250597">Quote from: MistressofPen on 24-09-2011, 06:45:52</a></div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">Irene looked at the book.  "First letter's a F.  Finch?  Fincher?  Flint, maybe," she offered.  Rising, she took the book nearer the window and looked at it in full light.  "Flint.  Lots of swirls...rather feminine writing," she offered.  <br/><br/></blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/>Sam looked up from the third ledger as Irene carried the second to the window to see the writing better he guessed.  He heard what sounded like gunshots.  To him at least one sounded different from the others.  Irene didn’t seem to notice.  Maybe she was used to the sound.  He’d not heard any in the time he’d been in Oasis with the exception of those four.<br/><br/>“Hmmm . . . did you hear that? Oh well . . . the odd thing about what you’ve just told me Irene . . . about the mortgage . . . had he taken one out to buy the cattle?  It could have been a personal note because there’s no bank lien recorded that I or Misses Cruz have found.  The lien that was used to seize the title was the tax issue.”<br/><br/>“Oh darlin’ . . . that sounds horrible.  I’m so sorry you had to live it . . . and now . . . relive it.”<br/><br/>When she squeezed his hand Sam raised them to his mouth and he kissed the back her hand.<br/><br/>“Are Sullivan and the other’s whose names you recognize still around?  It would almost be worth it and ride out to see what’s going on out at your old  ranch.  I think we have enough information for now.  Let’s think on everything a bit more and then come back to this later . . . tomorrow when we can get the posters”<br/><br/>He could see the pain in her face as they were of necessity making her relive it all over again.<br/><br/>“Darlin’ it just seems like too much went wrong to be just bad luck.  That’s just my impression anyway.  We’ve got some names and some decent alternative theories about other factors that could have been in play.  Why don’t we take a break and go up to your room?”<br/><br/>