real estate thing? Are you going to commission another famous architect to build another set of estates?”
“Maybe for phase two…” Don Jr. placated her in a way she could tell was meant not to sound completely patronizing, even though it kind of was. “Phase one is all about the river.”
Shea feigned confusion. “There’s a river? I thought people liked to go to the lake.”
Don waved his hand dismissively. “Too much of that property is owned by locals right now. Buying up the lakefront is more like a ten-year play. But the river…”
Shea leaned in at the same time he did, still keeping the phone out of his view. His eyelids lulled a bit and his speech wasn’t slurred but it wasn’t quite sharp. It bode well for her that he’d had a few. Hopefully, it would make his lips looser and his spidey sense for mischief dull.
“…the river is undeveloped.”
“Wait—that river?” Shea asked, her ignorance that any river existed in Sapling suddenly cured. I thought that was an industrial river. For, like, factory runoff and stuff.”
“We’ve been in the process of closing those down for six months. That operation is almost complete. I actually used one of Keenan’s guys for the job. You can tell him that.”
Shea’s heartbeat sped yet again. “One of his guys?” She parroted, all the while wondering internally, what does Keenan have to do with this?
“Asset retention specialists,” Don Jr. smiled in a way that made Shea want to punch him in his smug face. “Tell him they were very helpful when it came to the insurance and that I appreciated his referral. Tell him I’d work with anyone else he recommended again.”
Shea felt nauseous as she deciphered Don Jr.’s code and Duff’s bent body flashed through her mind. So Shea’s theory had been true. The mill accidents hadn’t been accidental, and they hadn’t been theft. They’d been insurance fraud so dangerous, people could have died.
“I still don’t understand—what are you building?” Shea was having a harder and harder time keeping her cool. She needed to get him to confess everything, then wrap it up.
“A brand-new downtown—except this one with its main street on River Road and resort infrastructure to support volume. It’ll be a combination of timeshares and hotels; al fresco dining, live music, art festivals in the summer…it’ll be like off-season Breckenridge, but with a river.”
“Ooh, Breckenridge!” It took effort for Shea to infuse delight into her voice and to respond like he would expect—as if destroying a town and its local economy were everyday stuff. “Shame about the downtown, though. Oliver Street is so cute. Have you tried the morning buns at Delilah’s? You’ve gotta get them to move that bakery to River Road. And have you been to The Grand Lake? It’s the most adorable old theater…”
Shea was working up to a question: what the hell did he plan to do about all the people who worked at the mills?
“Don’t get all sentimental,” he lectured playfully. “This new development will be the best thing that’s ever happened to this town. We’re gonna rebrand it, too.”
“Rebrand it?” Shea parroted.
He leaned in so far, she could smell the alcohol on his breath.
“You know…reincorporate the place—change the name to Packard.”
Then, he threw in a doozie that surprised even her.
“Between you and me, my dad has looked the other way for years. The mills have been hemorrhaging money. You don’t know how many times I’ve begged him to sell. He’s really getting up there in age. Can’t keep track of as much as he used to, you know. But it’s time to do the right thing. It’s time to put this town out of its misery.”
Shea nearly jumped out of her skin when the bartender chose that moment to march up to their table and set down two large bags with stacked containers. It saved her the agony of eking out a civil answer. And, really, what did anyone even say to that? She pocketed her phone but didn’t bother to stop recording.
“Well, I’ll tell Keenan all about it,” she promised as she rose, the warm aroma of buffalo sauce failing to hold the expected appeal. “Give him a day or so to get back to you. This week, he’s got a thing. But I’ll work on him, too. I’ll try to get him out here for the weekend.”
“Great to see you, Shea,” Don Jr. said with emphasis before leaning in to do the cheek kiss thing, you know—since they knew one another now.
Shea called her