Free Love Remains by Kaye Dacus Page A

harsh, Zarah could not take offense at them—they were too true. At least, in her personal life. The only time Zarah had ever experienced confidence—since Bobby anyway—was with history, with her studies in college and her work in research since. If cutting all her hair off could give her that sensation about herself—if it could make her as confident and vivacious as Caylor—she’d consider it. However, she had a feeling it would take more than just a haircut. And it was going to take more than just a haircut to deal with the Bobby situation.

    Bobby closed his umbrella and shook off as much water as he could while waiting for someone to buzz him into the building. He turned at the sound of footfalls slapping against the wet pavement behind him.
    “You must be Patterson.” The stocky African American man lowered his umbrella in the protection of the awning above and extended his right hand. “Chase Denney.”
    Bobby shook the man’s hand. “Robert Patterson. But everyone calls me Bobby.”
    Chase pulled out his ID badge and slid it over the reader besidethe door. With an electronic beep, the door unlatched. Chase pulled it open and motioned Bobby to enter ahead of him. “We’ll have to see about getting you a key card today, though it’s unlikely with everyone arriving at the same time on Tuesday you’d have to wait out the rain to be let in.”
    From the front lobby, he was pretty sure he remembered his way to the captain’s office, having been escorted there on the several interviews he’d had as well as the meeting Friday to complete his paperwork and migration of information from the California bureau. He was glad he didn’t have to rely on his memory, however, once he followed Chase through the labyrinthine corridors to a small conference room on the third floor.
    The captain and three other men were already seated at the round table when Bobby and Chase entered. Captain Carroll stood to shake Bobby’s hand and introduced him to the others. Bobby shook hands all around and worked to commit the other agents’ names to memory.
    “Agent Patterson’s area of expertise with the CBI was investigating fraud cases with businesses as well as government agencies. A new fraud case has come to my attention, and I believe Agent Patterson’s experience makes him the perfect person to lead the investigation.” Carroll opened the thin dossier in front of him.
    “It has been brought to the unit’s attention that members of a government agency might be misusing their legal oversight abilities in real estate dealings for personal gain. Permission to open a case just came through, and we need to hit the ground running on this one—otherwise I wouldn’t have called you in on a Sunday afternoon.” Captain Carroll began explaining the evidence already collected.
    The case summary piqued Bobby’s interest. It sounded similar to a couple of real estate fraud cases he had handled in Los Angeles. Nothing like starting a new job with something familiar.
    Captain Carroll picked up a remote control. Bobby shifted his chair so he could see the projection on the screen behind him—a land-tract map of Nashville. Along the north side of the CumberlandRiver east of downtown, two large tracts of land were outlined in red. If Bobby remembered correctly, that area was residential with homes at least as old as those in Belmont and Green Hills.
    “This is the parcel that is of most concern to us right now. You’ll need to go back into the agency’s land acquisitions and zoning applications to see if anything raises a red flag.”
    Bobby leaned forward. “What fraudulent activity is suspected?”
    Captain Carroll seemed impressed by Bobby’s simplistic question. “When a tract of land like this comes on the market and is rezoned commercial, someone at the agency requests an injunction against any purchase or development of the land, supposedly to give the agency time to go in and survey the property. The value of these two