I looked at the pond. "You're talking about selling fish?"
"Breeding stock, juveniles, specialty fish, possibly processed products later."
"How much?"
Tom gave me a conservative estimate: "$150,000 to $250,000 a year."
I stared at him. "From this pond?"
"From the business this pond could support."
That was the first time I realized what Karen had accidentally done. She hadn't dumped junk onto my property; she had dumped the starting inventory of a potential business into it. But I wasn't going to build anything until we understood the legal situation.
Daniel requested every record related to the fish. Three days later, the county sent us another batch. One document stood out: an old aquatic breeding and distribution agreement signed in 1994. The agreement allowed certified operators to maintain registered breeding populations on designated private water sites.
And one clause caught my attention. Daniel read it aloud: "'Transfer of registered breeding stock requires written consent of the receiving landowner.'" He looked at me.
"I never gave consent."
"I know." Then he pointed at another paragraph: "'Commercial offspring remain the property of the registered operator unless otherwise transferred under a recorded agreement.'"
"So the fish aren't automatically mine?"
"No."
That was important. I wasn't going to pretend otherwise. But there was another clause: the receiving landowner could enter into a new commercial management agreement if the stock had been unlawfully transferred and the original owner could not be identified or located.
Daniel looked at me. "That's where this gets interesting, because Riverstone is gone."
"Exactly."
Then we found the name of the original breeding program's successor: Riverstone Genetics Cooperative. It wasn't a company; it was a cooperative. And according to state records, it had been restructured decades earlier. The cooperative had transferred certain breeding rights into a conservation and agricultural trust. That trust still existed, and it had a representative.
Daniel called him. The man's name was Martin Cole. He came to the ranch two days later. He was in his 70s and had spent most of his life around fisheries. The moment he saw the tagged fish, he knew what they were.
"Where did you get these?"
I pointed toward the pond. "Silver Ridge put them here."
Martin stared at me. "They did what?"
I explained everything. His expression changed. "They weren't supposed to have those."
Daniel asked him why.
Martin sat down. "Because that breeding line was never transferred to Silver Ridge."
"Then why did they have it?"
Martin looked toward the HOA houses in the distance. "That's what I've been trying to find out for years." He explained that the old Riverstone facility had been partially abandoned when the surrounding land was developed. Some of the breeding stock had escaped into drainage channels; others had been illegally relocated. But the most valuable registered fish were supposed to remain under controlled management. Martin had suspected someone was trying to erase the records.
Then he said something that made the room go silent: "There was a proposal."
"What proposal?" I asked.
"To convert the old fish corridor into residential development."