Read Cam - 04 - Nightwalkers for Free Online

she said. "There's also a community college on the other side of town, and they have an excellent subscription concert program. We locals call it the Chapel Hill effect."
    "Don't tell me suburban growth is pushing its way all the way out here, too," I said, noting the very mixed crowd of diners.
    "Well, you're here," she pointed out.
    Touche,
I thought.
So I am.
My head was buzzing with all the details of our house inspection, and I was glad she'd brought a voice recorder along because I could not possibly have kept up with her.
    "How can I find out who my adjacent neighbors are?" I asked.
    "Courthouse," she replied. "Mr. Oatley can help you with that. You've already met the Lees across the road. The places on either side of you are even bigger than Glory's End. They won't necessarily have anyone living there, though. The really big tracts in this county are owned by just a few local families."
    "Who 'never' sell."
    "Generally, that's true. Everyone was really surprised when Glory's End came on the market."
    "Who's everyone?" I asked.
    "It's a really small town, Mr. Richter."
    "How'd you get here?" I asked.
    "I grew up here, went away to college and then out into the world for a while. Didn't care much for it and came back."
    "Married?"
    "Briefly," she said, looking away. I sensed she'd just as soon not pursue that subject.
    "So what's next in our project planning?"
    "Just that," she said. "Planning. I build a proposed restoration plan, you review and approve it, we set a budget, and then I act as the general contractor and start a bidding process. There's a sequence to these projects."
    "Like doing electrical and plumbing before the wallpaper?"
    "Exactly. First, of course, you have to close. How's that coming? Do you need some bank referrals?"
    When I explained that I wouldn't need a bank, she whistled softly. "Wow. This has to be a seven-figure deal. Police work pays that well in Triboro?"
    "If you let the right people bribe you, it does," I said.
    She put up her hands in mock surrender. "Sorry," she said. "Didn't mean it that way."
    "No offense taken."
    "It's just that, in this county, when someone's considered to be rich, we're usually talking about land rich. Families who have been here since the 1700s, but they're riding around in Ford pickups, not Mercedeses."
    I nodded. Then I told her about seeing the horseman on the ridge.
    She didn't think it significant. "A lot of people ride in this county," she said. "There's even a fox hunt. Horseback's still the best way to get around some of the bigger properties. Do you ride?"
    I told her I did not but might want to learn, among the many other projects I wanted to do on the property over the next few years.
    "Few years?" she said with a smile. "Longer than that, I think. The house alone will probably be a ten-year project."
    "It didn't take that long in that movie--at the end, where the crew comes in and swarms all over it?"
    "The Money Pit?
That's Hollywood. The truth comes in two parts. One, you want to enjoy the process of bringing one of these places back to life. Two, getting the right people and materials takes forever--just the nature of the beast and the folks who do this for a living. Thereal craftsmen don't know the meaning of a schedule, and unless you're buying it to flip it and make money, you should just sit back and watch."
    That sounded like the ground truth to me, and I had said that quality time was the objective. Now I knew why she hadn't mentioned a schedule when she'd described the project planning. I asked if it would take ten years before I could live there. She told me I could probably make a part of the house more habitable once the basics were done, and then just creep along with the project.
    After lunch I went over to the courthouse to try my hand at researching the property title and possibly the surrounding parcels of land. An elderly gentleman wearing a wool suit and a bow tie greeted me in the records section. He gave me the immediate