Water problems

Merry-Go-Round
Sometimes it feels like I am on some kind of amusement park ride. The kind that you know you are going to get sick on but it just won’t stop. Yesterday was just such a feeling.
A man from the water company stopped by. He had a clipboard with him. I thought he was just here to read the water meters. And he was, sort of. He was here to check out the meter on the cabana we own next door.
Normally, we pay $4.90 a month for water. This is the minimum charge per month. We rarely exceed that, even when we have guests staying there. As I found out yesterday, this is 92 units per month. Evidently something is wrong and it flagged our meter at the water office. On Tuesday this week, our meter said we were still at the 92 unit mark. By Thursday, just two days later, we were up to 230 units! And nobody is there so no water is being used! Trouble somewhere in paradise!
The water guy told us that in just two days we had used $400 worth of water! Yikes! This just can’t be right. As we stood around and watched the meter spin like a dervish, passing the 243 mark, we suggested that something must be wrong with the meter. He suggested that we had an underground leak somewhere. I don’t see how this can be possible because the pipes are buried less than 8” underground and water would surely seep to the surface. Especially at the rate the meter showed it was flowing! We turned off the supply from the street and, after some discussion, he agreed to return on Friday and change the meter to see if that was the problem. Let’s hope.
Otherwise I have to arrange for the plumber to come out and dig up the whole yard, trying to find a leak somewhere in the pipes. More money. And if it is the meter, I am going to have to contest the bill and, of course, they will shut off my water if I don’t pay the bill, even if I am contesting it!
Somebody please stop this ride. I am getting dizzy!