Whispered Secrets by Elizabeth Lennox
Chapter 11
“Get Burt in my office immediately,” Oliver ordered his assistant as soon as he stepped out of the elevator.
Jamie nodded and grabbed his phone, making the call while Oliver walked into his office, tossing some papers onto his desk. He sat down and started clicking through tax information, his lips compressing as he mentally calculated how much Maggie was paying in personal property taxes on that damn piece of land. He looked at it carefully, then clicked on other links to find the tax assessments for the other pieces of land.
By the time Burt, the head of his legal department, entered the office, Oliver was furious.
“What’s up, Oliver?” Burt asked, his easy stride demonstrating the man’s confidence.
Oliver leaned back in his leather chair.
“There’s a small town in Texas that is pressuring a woman to sell her property by increasing her taxes by astronomical amounts.”
Burt took the paper Oliver handed him, skimming the numbers. The man gave a whistle of surprise at the data, shaking his head. “Well, this is an interesting little problem,” he said, taking out his pen and writing something on the paper. “Is this one of your projects?”
“No. We’re not involved in this land or tax issue in any way.”
Burt cocked an eyebrow. “So, if we have no horse in this race, why do we care about this? I mean, yeah, it’s unconstitutional to levy taxes for the sole purpose of pushing someone out of ownership, which,” he looked from the paper to Oliver, “I’m assuming this is what this outrageous tax assessment is all about?”
“That’s my suspicion,” Oliver replied.
Burt nodded. “Okay, so if this isn’t…?”
“It’s definitely for the benefit of this company,” he replied, interrupting Burt. “This is a dear friend who is being punished because she won’t sell to some guy for development purposes. I want you to go down to Texas and sue the county for back taxes, plus interest, as well as punitive damages.”
Burt laughed, startled by this unprecedented command. “Why?”
“It’s personal,” was all Oliver said.
Burt frowned at the numbers again. “If this information is correct, it should be relatively easy to come to a settlement. Most small counties rely on no one protesting their tax assessments because they don’t have the financial or legal resources.”
“I agree. Which is why I want punitive damages. This county had been taxing the owner of this land and hoping that she doesn’t have the resources to fight them. She’s simply been paying the taxes to the detriment of her health.”
Burt tensed. “Do you have proof of that?”
“Yeah. I can get you pictures of her current residence. She doesn’t even have carpeting, just plywood. No furniture. I can get you bank statements too, if needed, to show that she’s been spending the majority of her income on the increased taxes.”
Burt contemplated that for a moment, then nodded. “Okay. I bet I can make a pretty good argument. I’ll get back to you on the documents I’ll need.”
“Good,” Oliver said. “There’s something else.” He pressed on his intercom button. “Jamie, can you get Tom from security in here?”
Burt’s eyes widened, but while they waited for Tom, the two men chatted about an upcoming golf tournament, which Oliver commented that he wouldn’t be attending, not bothering to mention he needed to help coach a girls’ soccer game.
A few minutes into their conversation, Tom, the head of his security department, entered the office.
“What’s up, boss?” Tom asked, nodding to Burt.
Oliver leaned back in his chair as the two men took a seat. “Tom, I want you to dig up whatever you can on a guy named Jerry Trevino. Burt is going down to Texas to file suit against a small town that has been imposing punitive tax assessments against the owner of a piece of land down there. But I need you to look into this Trevino guy, who I know is involved. Find out what he’s up to. Get his financial information and whatever businesses he’s got. He’s trying to develop a swath of land down in Texas and something doesn’t smell right. We have several projects in that area and I want to make sure that there isn’t something bigger going on.”
For the next fifteen minutes, the three men discussed what Oliver knew of the land development project that Trevino was working on and a few other topics.
When the men left Oliver’s office, he leaned back in his chair and contemplated his next move. He had to be patient though. He needed the information from Tom before he could formulate a plan that would destroy the weasel who had dared threaten Maggie.
