The next morning, Daniel arrived before sunrise. He didn't even take off his coat. He walked straight into my kitchen, placed a thick county file on the table, and said, "We have a problem. " I poured him coffee. I thought the problem was the fish. The fish are the problem.
He opened the file. But they're also the evidence. I sat down. Daniel pointed to the 1991 document we'd found the night before. Remember the company listed here?
Yeah. Riverstone Fisheries. It's gone. Bankrupt. Dissolved.
He slid another page across the table. 24 years ago. I stared at the paperwork. So, how did they authorize a transfer? They didn't.
That answer changed everything. Daniel had spent most of the night digging through county records. What he found was worse than either of us expected. The fish weren't simply expensive breeding stock. They were part of a selective breeding program that had been operating in the region for decades.
The program developed fish with unusually fast growth, strong survival rates, and resistance to several diseases common in commercial ponds. The fish were registered, tracked, and in some cases individually tagged. Their breeding records were valuable, very valuable. But there was something else. Daniel turned to a map.
Look at this. It showed Silver Ridge estates, then the old riverstone property, then my ranch. A blue line ran through all three. What is that? Water transfer corridor.
I frowned. Meaning Silver Ridge's storm water system eventually connects to the old riverstone drainage channel. So Daniel tapped the map. The original fish facility was downstream from the HOA's retention ponds. He paused.
After Silver Ridge expanded, they started having a problem. What problem? Fish? I looked at him. He explained that several years earlier, fish from the old breeding facility had begun appearing in the HOA's drainage ponds.
Rather than dealing with the issue properly, Silver Ridge had apparently been trying to remove the fish and close the old aquatic facility. But there was a catch. The breeding stock had never legally belonged to the HOA, and according to the county records, the fish were connected to a private commercial operation. So, they moved them here. I said, "That's what it looks like without asking me. " Exactly.
I leaned back. So Karen dumped a commercial fish population into my pond because she didn't want them in hers. Daniel nodded. But that's only half of it. I knew there was more.
There was a transfer agreement, he said. From who? That's the problem. He turned the page. The signature belongs to a former Riverstone manager who died 12 years ago.
I stared at the document and Karen used this. Apparently, 2 days later, Karen returned. This time, she didn't come alone. Three men from Silver Ridge's Property Management Company followed her through the gate. I met them at the pond.