Page 23 of Collin: Episodes 13-15
“Never,” Katharine drew in a deep breath. “Neither of us needed to do that. Now, what’s this about a hospital?”
By evening, the media attention had gotten intense, but Collin was able to put his head down and ignore most of it. They took a back way to the car when they left and a service entrance to reach The Residency.
As soon as they entered The Residency, Mr. Reevesworth put his phone on silent. “Anyone who has to reach us can,” he said. “Stand down, boys.”
Damian let out a huge sigh and leaned against the door. “That went better than expected.”
Collin dropped to his knees and started taking off Mr. Reevesworth’s shoes. Mr. Reevesworth looked down, brows rising for a moment, but then he nodded and let Collin serve him.
“Today was mostly about letting the pieces fall,” he said, stepping into the living room.
Collin hurried to take off his own shoes, hat, and coat. He trailed Damian after their dom.
“Tomorrow they’ll start thinking,” Damian muttered.
Mr. Reevesworth nodded. “Not that they’ll have much time.”
“What happens tomorrow?” Collin caught up with them as they all entered the hallway to their rooms.
Mr. Reevesworth paused at the junction where Damian turned off toward his bedroom. “Tomorrow is when round two hits. A few more of their employees will quit, they’ll start to realize which stocks I am buying, and their business partners will start getting notices. Certain entities will have to choose between doing business with us,or doing business with people like Bernstein, who go after private people’s lives.”
“It’s still hard to think this is all legal.”
“Very legal,. Damian chuckled. “Lots of small, innocent things, just done at a massive scale. Who knew that Barker’s favorite coffee shop is closed for repairs tomorrow?”
Collin shook his head. “How petty did Paulsen get?”
“It’s not petty.” Mr. Reevesworth smiled at Damian. “It’s called being a good trial attorney. Don’t give the other side time to get grounded.”
“But how did you get a specific coffee shop to close?”
“Oh,” Damian said, “someone might have notified them that if they didn’t get that oven vent repaired before the health inspectors arrived, they’d lose a lot more than one day’s worth of business. But if they were willing to close for repairs this morning, they had someone willing to do the work on short notice.”
Collin shook his head. “Please tell me you didn’t do that personally.”
Damian’s grin was gleeful. “Absolutely not. But someone from the mayor’s office might have. Honestly, the repair is real. A disgruntled employee just happened to complain to the PI assigned to Barker last week. We got lucky on that one.”
Collin groaned. “This is why I just want to research things and build things. I will leave the cloak-and-dagger up to you two.” He threw up his arms and headed to the bathroom to wash his hands.
Tuesday morning, Collin went to his team room right after Chinese lessons. If he was needed in the office on phones, he’d be called in, but nothing big was expected until that afternoon. The media had enough other stories like the divorce filing and the possible board resignation in Bernstein’s company to feast on. Especially now that Barker’s wife had taken herself, their nanny, and their two children to Italy, her home country. Since Barker’s affair had been with said nanny, that was the talk of the airways.
Collin tuned it out and settled down to review the roadblocks Veronica had highlighted on the passenger rail project.
“What’s this?” He pointed to the first red spot on the map, starting at the southern end.
Katharine scooted her chair over and took a look. “That’s the Gaelic bar. The owner also owns the building, and so far, she’s been resistant to any changes. Right now, the choices are to build around her or to get the city to agree to some sort of eminent domain.”
“What would be the ideal?”
Katharine grimaced. “We want her to be part of the new promenade inside the station. German-style shopping and dining options. Well, think of it like an airport, but the gates are right by the entrances to the trains, so you don’t have to be using the airport to shop or meet up at the cafés or, in this case, a bar. Like a mall. Here, let me show you. There’s some really good videos of the Hamburg train station in Germany that shows what I’m talking about. Her bar would be perfect for it especially since people could take the train home after drinking. Our architects will put in a beer garden for her on the roof and everything. It’ll have a wonderful view.”
“What’s her resistance then? Money? Can she afford it?”
“We’re offering a joint ownership deal so businesses can buy into the mall and own their own spaces, like a condo. No rent, just dues. Her building value and land would be her initial buy-in price. That’s what we’re offering.”
“What about the time she doesn’t have a building to operate out of?”
“Tentative deal with the city would allow temporary street housing of affected businesses for two years in and around the building. Our initial research says her business should do very well with the foot traffic generated by construction.”
