Page 87 of Long Gone

“Two thousand a month,” Floyd said.

“Two thousand?” Malcolm asked with a dark laugh. “No wonder you have empty offices.”

Floyd gave him a haughty look. “Quality costs, not to mention the prestige our tenants get from having their offices here.”

Malcolm opened his mouth, and considering the look in his eyes, he presumably intended to argue with the man. An argument would do nothing for us, so I quickly asked, “How long has this building rented out office spaces?”

“Oh, well,” Floyd stammered as his shoulder sagged into the doorframe. He stroked his chin with a faraway look. “I came on about fifteen years ago, but these offices have been leased for longer than that. I’d say about thirty years.” He dropped his hand to his side and gave me a small smile.

“I’ll bet you’ve seen some interesting tenants,” I said. “You seemed worried about us having a criminal enterprise. Has that been an issue before?”

He lifted his chin. “There was someone, several years back. He ran off with a bunch of people’s money.”

I gasped. “You mean Hugo Burton had an office here?”

“He sure did,” he said, his expression going from surprise to pride. “I guess everyone around these parts has heard of him.”

“I heard he was getting investors for a land project,” I said. “But that was up in Wolford so I’m surprised he had an office here.”

“Like I said earlier,” he said, his haughty tone returning, “there’s a certain prestige that comes with having an office here.”

“So you don’t mind illegal businesses setting up shop here,” Malcolm said with a hint of a smile.

Floyd’s eyes widened. “That’s not what I meant. I had no idea he was doing anything illegal. He was a good tenant. He was quiet, and when he had customers stop by, they never caused trouble.”

“Because none of them fell down that deathtrap of a staircase,” Malcolm said.

“We haven’t had a fall in nearly two months.”

Malcolm shot me an amused look, then turned back to Floyd. “What’s your rent payment policy?”

“Rent is due on the first of the month. We use to take checks but now we prefer to set up an automatic withdrawal.”

“How’d you handle it before?” Malcolm asked. “Say five or six years ago.”

If Floyd was starting to figure out we’d come here to ask him about Hugo, he didn’t let on. “We hadn’t gone to automatic withdrawal then. We only started that about three years ago.”

“So they paid with a check?” I asked.

“Yep.”

“What’s the policy if someone doesn’t pay their rent?”

“Well, the law says we have to give them thirty days, and if they haven’t paid we have to give them thirty more days before we serve an eviction notice.”

“That sounds disruptive,” I said. “Does it happen often?” I glanced at Malcolm, hoping I was coming off as worried and not constipated.

“There’s no need to be concerned,” he said. “We’ve only had to evict one tenant in the entire fifteen years I’ve been here.”

“Was it Hugo Burton?” I asked. “I heard he had all kinds of money trouble.”

“Oh, no. Hugo always paid his rent on time.”

I didn’t hide my surprise. “So he was still renting his office when he ran off?”

“Yep.”

“What happened to his things?”

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