“Maybe, but that’s hardly our fault that he went ahead to sell it, is it?”
“No, of course it isn’t, but you also know that emotions run strong and deep when it comes to things like this.”
“I do know,” he said. “I thought all their other arguments were thin. We couldn’t find anything that was reasonable in any of their complaints.”
“It doesn’t have to be reasonable,” Tucker said. “It’s more emotional than that. You’re a property developer, and generally you’re looking at the bottom line, whereas they’re looking at all the intangible reasons why this building shouldn’t go up here. But back to the real issue, other than their original threat, what other threats have you had?”
“Well, a lot of letter-writing, contacting the various layers of government, little bits and pieces that we’ve dealt with many times at other projects. Then I started getting these weird letters left on my vehicle,” he said. “They all seemed to be the same. They’re cut-from-the-newspaper type notes, and they all say ‘Stop work on this project.’ No reason given. Nothing. Just stop. I have a whole bunch of them in my vehicle.”
“So obviously somebody local. And I’ll want to take a look at them afterward,” Tucker said. “Did you contact the cops?”
“I did,” he said immediately, “but they didn’t seem to be too bothered.”
“Now that arson’s involved, how do they feel about it?”
“The cops said this was an accident,” he said, “which is why I wasn’t connecting the two events. But then I called in the fire inspector.”
“Well, it’s obviously not an accident,” Tucker said. “The question is why.”
“What? Why burn it? Why try to stop the building?”
“Both,” Tucker said. “I get that they probably got so frustrated by following the legal routes that they realized maybe, if they could bankrupt you, then the building would just follow and lie here unfinished.”
“Is that any better?” Rodney said starkly. “I mean, look at it. It’s not very pretty.”
“But it’s off the highway, and it does give whoever’s doing this a certain sense of power that he managed to stop something. A lot of times people feel very ineffectual because they feel small compared to corporations or government, and they don’t think they can do anything—which is true to a certain extent—but, at the same time, once they do take that next step and burn something down, they need bigger projects because they need to have that sense of accomplishment all the time.”
“I don’t like the sound of any of that,” Rodney said.
“And that’s not the issue right now either,” Tucker acknowledged. “What we must sort out is, what will we do about it?”
“I don’t think we can do anything,” he said. “I mean, look at the place. I’ve got an insurance investigator out here already too, doing a full walk-through, and he did call me and admit that he thought it was arson.”
“Who is it?”
“I don’t know,” Rodney said. “He’s from out of state. The insurance adjuster sent him.”
“No fire inspection here locally?”
“Coming soon, but the insurance companies wanted their person out here.”
“And if the insurance doesn’t cover it, then what?”
Rodney swallowed visibly. “Well, that would not be very good news. Matter of fact, that would be really ugly news for me.”
“Enough to shut you down?”
He thought about it and said, “I’d have to find some new investment money,” he admitted. “Which means, at the end of the day, less money for me, if there’ll be any at this point,” he said, “because I have to pay the workers in order to keep them. Otherwise they’ll find new jobs, and, when I get back to work again, I can’t find anybody.”
“You don’t contract for the job?”
“Well, I do, but, if the job has to stop, what am I supposed to do with my crew? And what are they supposed to do?” he said. “Everybody has to get paid. I can hardly blame them for taking on other work.”
“I get it,” Tucker said with a smile. “It’ll be interesting getting to the bottom of this one.”
“I’m not sure there’s any bottom to get to though,” he said. “Seriously the cops didn’t seem to be too bothered.”
“And mostly because the cops probably don’t see it as arson. But the insurance investigator should be contacting them about that.”
“Maybe. He didn’t seem to care either. Neither did he give me a definite answer.”
“Oh, he’ll care the most, as they have to pay for the damages. So he’s looking for any way to make this something that’s not covered and their liability.”
“Well, I am covered for arson,” he said. “These kinds of ventures are too expensive. I can’t underwrite everything.” He shook his head in frustration. “It’s crappy timing with the wedding and all.”
“But it doesn’t affect the wedding, does it?”
“No, not really, just frustrating.” Rodney looked down at the dog. “What can she do?”
“I’m not sure yet,” he said. “I need to walk her around. Certain commands start her working, and other commands keep her working, but she’s been out of practice, and I don’t know all the commands,” he admitted. “It was still worth a try bringing her.”
“What do you want me to do?” Addie asked.
“Just stay out of the way and don’t distract Bernie,” Tucker said, not sure how this would work. Bernie was looking at him for guidance, but he had little to give. “I’ll walk her around and see if I can get her to signal anything.”
“I’ll go back with Rodney,” she said, and Addie released Tucker’s arm and stepped back. She and Rodney stopped at the front entrance. Tucker reached down and murmured something to Bernie that Addie couldn’t quite hear and then asked Bernie, “You ready to go to work?”
She looked up at him, her ears pointed, alert. He smiled, nodded, and unhooked her leash. He kept the collar on, and, with her at his side, he walked over toward the area where the burn was. Then he stopped and said, “Okay, go find it.”
She looked at him again uncertainly, and he knew it wasn’t the right command, but, until he connected with her previous trainers, it was a little hard for him to judge. Yet she seemed to get the idea, as she turned, looked toward the burned area, and headed over, her nose down, sniffing the entire area. She wandered, while he watched, wondering if this was a complete waste of time.
When she got to the far corner and the far wall that had taken the worst of the hit, she stopped and sat down. She gave a short bark. He walked over and patted her and gave her several treats. “Good girl,” he said. “Good girl.”
He studied the area and realized that, short of anybody taking samples, it would be hard to know just what she had found. He sent off messages to Badger, asking if he had found any military K9 specialist there. Waiting on word from Badger, Tucker noted the flooring had space below it. He removed several of the charred floorboards, as was most of the floor. Down below was what looked like ashes. He called Rodney over.