Emily felt cold despite the afternoon sun.
"Get off my property."
Crane's smile thinned. "The offer remains open thirty days."
"It can remain open in your car."
He walked away without argument.
As his sedan left, Emily noticed something Puit had said almost word for word.
Thirty days.
That night she spread every insurance paper she had across the shelter bench.
The final determination had not arrived yet, but a preliminary coverage letter cited a file number she had not noticed. It began with PAF, followed by digits. Emily searched the acronym using the weak cellular signal on her aging laptop and found Prairie Adjustment Field Services, one of several private firms subcontracted by Prairie Mutual during catastrophe response.
She kept searching.
Prairie Adjustment Field Services was owned by MidStates Claims Group.
MidStates Claims Group's public corporate filing listed two management entities.
One of those entities used a registered-agent address in Oklahoma City.
That address was in the same office suite as a company called Red Plains Asset Services.
Red Plains Asset Services, in turn, shared a principal with Crane Land Holdings.
Emily sat very still.
A shared office did not prove fraud. Shared registered agents were common. Companies used the same law firms, accountants, and service addresses all the time. Daniel had taught her enough about engines to distrust any diagnosis built from one symptom.
So she looked for more.
She searched property records for recent Crane acquisitions.
Three stood out.
All were storm-damaged properties purchased below assessed value within two months of insurance disputes. Two had claim files processed through Prairie Adjustment Field Services. The third had been adjusted by another company later acquired by MidStates Claims Group.
Emily wrote the names down.
Helen Porter.
Samuel and Diane Brooks.
Martha Keene.
The next morning she started calling.
Helen Porter answered first. She was seventy-four and lived with her sister outside Anadarko. Her property had suffered hail and wind damage the previous year.
"They said the siding was already deteriorated," Helen told Emily. "Then this man from a land company appeared saying he heard we might want to sell."
"Was his name Gordon Crane?"
Silence.
"Yes. How do you know that?"
Emily wrote faster. "Did you know your adjustment company had any corporate connection to businesses using Crane's registered office?"
"No."
"Did anyone disclose a referral relationship?"
"No."
Helen's voice became quieter. "We sold. We could not fight them. My sister needed medication and the bank was calling. I thought I had failed her."
Emily's throat tightened. "You did not fail anybody."
The Brooks family told a similar story. A denied roof claim. A low offer. Time pressure. A sale.
Martha Keene had refused to sell, hired a lawyer, and eventually forced a partial reassessment, but only after spending nearly fourteen thousand dollars she could not recover.
"Do you have a lawyer?" Martha asked.
"No."
"Get one."
"With what money?"