She did not have to worry because the two alpacas had already captured the scent of the feed in the bucket and trotted over to where she stood. Looking up, she said, “Scott, take the bucket and lead them back into the pasture.” The thought hit her that he might not be able to maneuver the gravel incline with his prosthetic limb, but before she had a chance to voice her concern, he took the bucket from her.
“Don’t worry about us. I’ve got them.” With the two hungry alpacas following the feed, Scott managed to climb up to the broken fence, leading Caesar and Cleopatra.
Knowing he would take them all the way to the barn, she raced to the other side of the road and up the incline. She had no idea where Mark Antony may have wandered, but he must have known his friends were being fed because he came trotting out from a grove of trees nearby.
Seeing him safe, she had to lock her knees to keep them from buckling. Calling out to him, she had no trouble looping the rope around Mark Antony’s neck, leading him back down to the road and across before making the climb back up into her pasture. By then Scott had the others secure in the barn and was hustling back toward her.
“I’ll get my SUV and bring it into your drive,” he said, cupping her face and leaning forward to kiss her forehead before he headed back to the road again.
Grumbling all the way, she managed to get the third alpaca into their pen, securing them carefully before giving them their evening feed. Walking from the barn, she met Scott by the pasture. “I need to see what happened.”
Retracing her steps for what felt like the hundredth time, she approached the broken fence post and knelt to examine the wood.
“Did they push against it and knock it over?” Scott asked, coming up behind her, Rufus on his heels.
Staring in abject horror, Lizzie’s blood began to race through her body at the sight of the cut fence post. It wasn’t old. It wasn’t rotten. It was cut… on purpose.
18
Scott glanced toward the farmhouse, knowing that Lizzie was safely ensconced in the kitchen with Carrie, Belle, and Katelyn. Jack was in the barn, mucking out the stalls and keeping an eye on the animals in the pasture.
Swinging his gaze back to the men in the field, he watched as Colt and Hunter carefully looked over the cut fence and surrounding area as Deputy Robbins took pictures.
Gareth, standing next to him, said, “Luca Giardano has been in the news a lot, so I’ll give you the abbreviated version. Large agriculture on the Eastern Shore had been mostly potatoes until the Great Depression. Slowly, by the middle of the 1900s, vegetable farming became the most profitable crop, and after that, it was tomatoes. By 2000, there were over 3200 acres of tomatoes being grown. Luca’s grandfather bought his first farm not long after he came over from Italy. It appears he had some family money, and during the depression snapped up more and more small farms. He passed everything on to his son, and Luca’s father continued buying more land for more crops. He finagled contracts with some of the big national food processing chains, commanding prices that none of the small farmers around could compete with.”
Nodding, Scott met Gareth’s eyes and said, “So far, I’m not hearing anything untoward.”
“Oh, he’s not a shining star, but what I’m finding doesn’t seem too unusual. I don’t know anything about agriculture, but I’ve been learning. The reason tomatoes grow so well out here was because of something called plastic ground mulch, called plasticulture. It appears as a powerful tool to increase vegetable yields. I won’t go into all the shit I’ve been learning about tomato growing—”
Scott’s snort interrupted Gareth, and both men laughed.
“Oh, yeah,” Gareth admitted. “I learned a lot more than I ever needed to know about fuckin’ tomatoes!”
They allowed the moment of mirth to settle, easing the tension Scott had felt since arriving at Lizzie’s. Sighing, he nodded for Gareth to continue.
“It appears that environmentally, plasticulture has been vilified even though it actually increases the flavor of the tomatoes and the hardiness of the crop. By 2009, environmentalists were complaining because the runoff of the herbicides was affecting the clams and oyster farmers in the area. The problem is, tomatoes are a big business… at a tune of almost a hundred million dollars, and out here, Giardano Farms controls a lot of that.”
Whistling through his teeth, Scott said, “With that much money, why does he want to continue buying up more farms?”
Shaking his head, Gareth said, “I don’t know. I know that the Weston Farm lies between two of Luca’s plots of land. I’m sure it would be easier if he has all of this as well.”
“What about the ecologists? Did farms have to make any changes?”
“Yeah, laws were finally passed in Virginia to regulate plasticulture farming, which, of course, gave a hit to Luca. By then, he had taken over from his own father. About the same time, there was a huge lawsuit when it was discovered that some of Luca’s farms had illegal wells that were irrigating his crops. He ended up having to pay about four hundred thousand dollars in fines and rework his wells so that they were within guidelines.”
“So, he’s hardly a Boy Scout,” Scott commented, watching Colt stand and begin walking toward him.
“Honestly, he’s no different than many other big farms. That’s why it’s hard to see him doing anything illegal to get this farm. He’s got a lot of money and a lot of acreage. He’s had some trouble in the past, but so have the other farmers and has always paid his fines and then met regulations.”
Strangely, Scott was irritated that Luca was not turning out to be a more nefarious individual. If he had been, it would have been easier to see someone working for Luca wanting to force Lizzie to give up the farm.
“Luca is in his fifties. Are there any sons of his that are wanting to become the next tomato king?”
Laughing, Gareth replied, “He’s got one son that’s finishing graduate school in agriculture business and a daughter that’s an accountant working for her dad.” Looking at Scott, he suggested, “Hey, with you being an accountant also, maybe you can get together with her and find out more.”
He had to admit the idea held merit, but right now, the only thought he had was the look on Colt’s face as he approached.
“What have you got?”
Colt growled, “Two of the fence posts were definitely cut. This road has little traffic so there probably was no one coming by last night to see anyone at the fence. Once the fence posts were cut, it took little to pull it down.”
“When was the last time she checked the fence?” Hunter asked.
“She goes around every evening,” Scott explained. “That was something that her grandfather always did, and she does it as well. So, this morning, she had no reason to think that the alpacas would not be safe in that pasture.”
“There’s no distinctive footprints in the area, but the animals as well as the two of you probably would have obliterated them if they were there. The wooden posts appear to be sawed roughly, so I would assume someone had a handsaw, not a chainsaw,” Colt added.
Everyone swung their gazes toward Gareth, and Colt asked, “You’re here, so I’m assuming you’re doing some digging for Lizzie?”