“See?” She handed the phone to the woman and watched her as she scrolled through the announcements.
Leslie’s scroll reversed and she tracked back to the top, this time reading through the announcements slowly, stopping to look at her spreadsheet again, and then scroll through Bekki’s phone again. “This is highly irregular. Do you know what the announcement was?”
Bekki shook her head—one thing she’d learned over the years was never to tip her hand. “No, I’m doing a report on fiscal responsibility at City Hall. But you said the work order and the money was received, right?”
“Oh, yes, absolutely. We have it all here in the spreadsheet. I’ll look into this right away. I’ll contact the clerk’s office as soon as I have an answer.”
“That won’t be necessary. I’ll let them know you’re looking into it and they’ll contact you if it’s actually a problem. It could be me chasing my tail.”
“Well, Walter said you were like a pit bull with a steak when you were on a story.” Leslie actually smiled when she spoke.
Bekki closed her notebook and agreed, “Walter is a wonderful mentor. I take it he called to let you know I’d be stopping by.”
Leslie’s smile widened. “Oh, yes. Walter is a good friend, a very good friend.” Her soft, wistful tone held a truckload of meaning. Leslie was obviously enamored with Walter, who was a self-professed and confirmed bachelor. Maybe they were hooking up. Hell, sex at any age was a good thing. Especially after not having any for a long, long time. Her mind drifted back to Killian’s kiss last night.
Yeah, snap out of that, woman. She was so not daydreaming during an interview. Bekki stood and thanked Leslie again for her time and left. So, the ads were received and sent to the floor to be put in the paper. She took out her phone and called up the notes section and tapped in:
Someone in the ad department is working with whoever is buying the land.
She walked through the lobby and glanced at the old-fashioned white-plastic letter on black velvet push board listing the HCJ’s department heads and staff. A quick picture of the board and she had a starting point. Under Marketing and Advertisements, there were five names. Who had a reason or motive to hide the announcements? Another knot to untangle but not now. She glanced at her phone and smiled. Now it was time to head over to the Pinnacle construction site. She had a thermal picnic basket in the trunk. No dessert tonight because Killian was what she wanted after the meal.
There were considerably fewer cars in the parking lot tonight when she pulled in. Several men were making their way out of the build site as she hefted the picnic basket out of the trunk of her silver Three Series BMW. Her phone rang in her purse, so she set the basket on the gravel and fished it out of her bag.
“This is Bekki.”
“You want answers about the ads?” A man’s voice carried a slight growl.
“What ads?” She leaned against the trunk of the car and waved at a couple workers as they passed.
“Don’t play stupid. You want answers, be at the Tipsy Tavern tomorrow night. Ten-thirty. Come alone.” The line went dead. She hit up her recent call list and rolled her eyes. Of course, it said unknown. It wouldn’t be that easy, would it?
“Hey.” Garret walked over toward her.
“Hey, yourself. Why is everyone leaving?” She motioned to the men that were pulling out of the parking lot.
“Boss drove us like a madman today. We finished with the last of the foundation for the first building. Cleaned up and now we’re off for the night. We’ll be back tomorrow and prep for the storm, but we are ahead of schedule. You bring dinner again?”
“I did.”
“He’s in the trailer with Duke. I’ll let you through and then lock up behind you.”
“Thank you.” She glanced down at her heels. “I forgot flats.”
“Just stick to the right side, the gravel is compact on that side and should keep you from breaking those fancy shoes. Good to see you out and about. I watched that man shoving you around on television. Believe you me, those types of men aren’t welcome where real men live. I’d like to have skinned that man alive, but I’d lay odds I’d need to get in line behind the boss man.”
“Well, I don’t need anyone to skin anyone, but thank you for the thought.” She picked her way