a hike to sit and read while they wait for the rest of the group? Or a lending library?”
“Sure, that’s –” Brogan said.
“You’ll need a gift shop, as well. You could sell prints and some of Gracie’s all-natural tonics and creams.”
“Right.” Brogan sat back and exhaled.
“Have a drink, mate.” Liam gestured to Brogan’s pint.
“Ladies, these are all great ideas. But first, let’s focus on a few things we need to discuss, and then we can help Brogan with a name and a logo. Why don’t you two spend some time thinking on that while we discuss a few matters?” A natural manager, Dylan delegated tasks quickly.
Fi and Gracie pulled out a sheet of paper and bent their heads together over it, while Kira sat back and took a sip of cider from the glass Cait had placed in front of her. She could just picture the nature center in her mind, a happy little hub of education and exploration, another tourist draw for this part of Ireland. It would be good. Really good, Kira thought, and pulled her mind back to the conversation at hand.
“Brogan, I’ve been able to track down who’s behind the housing development. It turns out it’s a Dublin-owned company named McCarthy Investments. They’ve taken to doing these types of developments all over Ireland – building up new housing with cheap materials, charging too much for the places, and not paying much attention to any sort of zoning laws. They’ve already several lawsuits against them, so we’d be adding to it. However, because we’ve an in with the local law enforcement, we could actually physically stop the construction here. I’ve taken the liberty of speaking with the Gardaí in regard to that and they said they would be willing to stop construction so long as we can supply the appropriate papers.”
“Aye, I’ve just received the surveyor’s report today. They’re on a large corner of my land.” Brogan pulled a cardboard tube from his side, and slid rolled papers from it. Together the men bent over the drawings to look.
“Sure and they’re cheeky, aren’t they? They’re clear onto your land.” Liam stroked his beard as he studied the lines of the map. “That’s going to cost them.”
“The good thing is that from what I can see they’ve only dug up the land; they haven’t actually started building yet. It looks like that’s the next phase.”
Liam and Dylan glanced at each other.
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking, mate?” Liam asked.
“Aye. Emergency fencing. We’ll have David on it by morning.”
“Emergency fencing?”
“It’s basically a temporary permit restriction with police backing on it. When we put it up, if construction continues, we can triple our fines which will cost the firm a pretty penny in fees.” Dylan smiled.
“Plus, I had a chat with the lads working on the Community Center in town,” Liam said. “Seems that they do know a few of the men working on the project. Apparently, the employer isn’t on site and doesn’t pay a fair wage. Which means…”
“The workers won’t risk getting in trouble with the police to push through on the construction,” Brogan said.
“Right, boyo. I think we’ll get this locked up in short order. But Gracie said something about otters?”
Gracie looked up at her name and then nodded at Kira.
“We need to see how the construction has diverted the water source to the pond that’s closer to your place,” Kira said.
“I had a look at it, actually.” Brogan pointed to a spot on the map. “It’s just here. One of the few spots they have built on my land. They put up drainage pipes and a wall. It looks like they were going to redirect or filter the water for some purpose. Either way, if we can break it down and smooth it out, we should be able to redirect the natural flow of the river down the hills once more. It looks like it’s gone almost completely dry in the riverbed. A few dry weeks and Fergal’s pond will dry up as well.”
“Fergal?” Liam asked.
“I named him,” Kira laughed.
“Well, ’tis a fine name for an otter.” Accustomed by now to the whims of the women of Grace’s Cove, Liam just smiled at Kira.
“He says he needs our help, so we’ll do what we can,” Brogan muttered, still looking down at the map. All eyes at the table turned to Brogan and then landed on Kira.
“Did he say that then?” Liam asked lightly.
“Oh, well, um…” Brogan looked up, a faint blush heating his cheeks as he