Meg frowned. ‘What do you mean? Have you had other problems before this?’
‘Er, sure. A few nuisance complaints have been coming our way. They seem trivial, but we have to address them, or our business licence renewal is under threat. It’s been a headache, but it’s not been a problem. Some animal activist who doesn’t like us working with farm animals, perhaps, wanting to stir up a bit of trouble.’
‘You want to tell me why this is the first I’m hearing of it?’
‘We were frustrated, sure,’ said Hannah, ‘but we didn’t think anything illegal was happening, so we didn’t think to call the cops.’
‘Harassing law-abiding people in Hanrahan is always my business. The fire just makes it more so.’ Meg looked down at her notebook. ‘I’ll have to investigate the claim that you torched your own building. I’ll need alibis, a copy of your planning permit and so on. What about these nuisance complaints, have you got copies of those?’
‘I can drop them round to the station.’ A thought struck him. ‘I’ve just remembered something. When the refusal came in, I rang a mate, an experienced developer. He’s working on my objection letter for me. He told me—but I’d forgotten about it—that objections to a development proposal are public documents. Somewhere at the council office there’s got to be a letter in from someone with a name on it.’
Meg nodded. ‘It’s a start, and until we get forensics back on the clinic fire, it’s the only lead we’ve got. You get the name, and if they give you any grief, you call me, all right?’
‘Will do.’
He kept his eyes on the policewoman as she strode off back to her car. She was pursuing the arson investigation, his mate Frank was writing up his objection to council’s refusal, but what was he doing? Sitting here like a shag on a rock in a park in the middle of a workday with the charred ground floor of his building mocking him from fifty metres away.
His eyes wandered from the Cody building, along Dandaloo to the art deco cinema, back to Salt Creek Flats Road where the stately three-storey Victorian buildings glowed in the midday sun.Holy sh—
He cut his eyes across to his sister. ‘I’ve just had an idea.’
‘I hope it’s a good one.’
It was. It absolutelywas.
‘Some dickhead objects to our reno on the grounds of it being out of character.’
‘Yeah, I know this, Josh.’
‘Hear me out. I’m going to gather some ammunition of my own.’
‘Like what?’
‘Between us, we know a lot of people in this town, right? Let’s speak to them. Let’s walk around the town park and ask the other business owners what they think of our plans. We’ll ask tourists, couples eating out at the winery, the people down by the lake queueing up for sunset cruises on the steamboat. I’ll show them my sketches of the restoration we’re planning, and ask them to send intheiropinions to council.’
‘Sure, that’s going to help with the building permit, but is it going to stop this vendetta someone has against us?’
He leaned forward and squeezed his sister’s arm. ‘That’s why we go public.’
‘I don’t understand.’
‘What’s the one thing about Hanrahan that I was worried about when I came back here to live?’
‘Being outclassed in veterinary skills by your bad-ass little sister?’
‘Besides that.’
‘Gossip. Everyone knowing your private business and blabbing about it.’
‘Correct. And I was right to worry; the Hanrahan Chatter has splashed my personal life all over its column, and god knows what else. Well, guess what?’
‘I dread to think, but that evil smirk you’re wearing isn’t boding well for anyone in your path.’
‘I’m calling Maureen.’
‘Mrs Plover? Condom guardian and gossip columnist?’
He gave his sister a wink. ‘The very same. I’m going to invite her to do an article on me and my mad heritage restoration skills currently being volunteered to restore the ceiling of Hanrahan’s community hall.’