Amanda asked, ‘How will this be financed?’
‘We have several private investors whose names I’m currently not at liberty to release.’
‘And foreign investors?’ Amanda prodded.
Goldfinger smiled. ‘A project of this scope requires many, many investors, some of whom wish to remain behind the scenes.’
‘Including yourselves?’
He smiled back a non-answer.
She said, ‘The construction company is LK Totalbyg A/S, based in Denmark.’
‘That is correct. As you know, Atlanta is an international city. We reached out to international investors. It’s a win–win for everyone involved.’
Will thought about the people who actually lived in Atlanta who would be investing whether they wanted to or not. The perks that the government handed out for these kinds of projects were phenomenal. City-funded bond initiatives, decades-long state and local tax deferments, new roadways, new infrastructure, new traffic lights and cops to keep the area safe—basically all the cold, hard cash that always made these developments possible for the rich guys who touted the glories of private enterprise and talked about pulling themselves up by their bootstraps.
The American Dream.
‘Deputy Director.’ Dr No leaned toward Amanda as if they weren’t separated by an ocean of hardwood. ‘As both the mayor and governor have repeatedly expressed, both the city and state are very excited about the development. The proximity to the Georgia Dome, Georgia Tech, Centennial Village and SunTrust Park means the complex will be a mecca for tourists.’
Will thought that Chattahoochee Avenue was a bit far out to be a mecca for anything, but he had to assume these guys had seen a map.
Goldfinger said, ‘We’re hoping that the All-Star Experience will rival downtown’s College Football Hall of Fame. I don’t have to tell you what it would do for the city’s economic opportunities if we could secure more vital slots in the March Madness rotation.’
‘Sounds impressive.’ Amanda didn’t have to know about sports to understand that this was big business. She looked down the table, expectant. ‘And?’
Dr No took over. ‘And we would hope that you would understand that this is a delicate undertaking.’
Pussy Galore chimed in. ‘It’s not just the nuts and bolts of building such an impressive complex. We’ve put a lot of time and effort into making the announcement about the project’s existence. You only get one opportunity to make that first big splash. We’ve got all of our all-star investors lined up to attend. We’re flying in reporters from New York, Chicago and LA. We’ve booked suites and restaurants. We have a massive two-day party planned, culminating in a ground-breaking at the site. We’ve worked the press into a frenzy. It’s very important that none of this is tainted by lingering doubt about any of the investors.’
Goldfinger added, ‘Or about the site.’
Amanda said, ‘If that means you’re worried we’re going to charge your client with rape again, I can put your minds at ease.’ She smiled. ‘This is a murder case, so if we make any charges, it will be for murder.’
The room lost all of its air.
Goldfinger smiled, and then the smile turned into a laugh.
Dr No joined in, his hands still below the table so that he looked like a lemming caught in a blender.
Amanda asked, ‘When is this party planned?’
‘This weekend.’
‘Ah,’ she said, as if she finally understood, but Will would’ve bet his life that she knew about the launch before she walked through the door. The mayor and the governor would’ve both been pressuring her harder than the lawyers to wrap up the investigation so the project could get under way. The city needed the jobs. The state needed the money.
Amanda told them, ‘The fact remains that a dead man was found inside the nightclub. We’ve got a large crime scene to process. Even with overtime, it will take at least until Saturday to catalog and photograph all of the evidence.’
Not for the first time, Will admired Amanda’s lying skills, because there was no way that crime scene would take that long to clear. She was playing the long game here. He just couldn’t see the end point.
Goldfinger said, ‘This is the problem at which we have arrived. Saturday is a bit of a difficulty for us.’
‘Not just a bit.’ Galore supplied, ‘We promised an early peek of the club to the LA Times. They’re scheduled for first thing Friday morning. They want to do a before-and-after kind of thing with Marcus, take some photos of him behind the bar, maybe standing on the balcony, then the later photos will show the same shots after the club is finished.’
‘Can’t you postpone that?’ Amanda asked.
Galore wrinkled her nose. ‘The word postpone is catnip to reporters. We’d be looking at a lot of bad press.’
Amanda told them, ‘I was inside that club this morning. It looked more like a crack den than the anchor to a two-point-eight-billion-dollar project.’
None of them seemed to notice that she had the price tag at her fingertips.
Galore supplied, ‘We had cleaners scheduled to go in this morning to start making the club more presentable. Obviously that was well after your crime scene people arrived.’ She added, ‘But still, we’d need at least two days, balls to the walls, to get that place spiffed up.’
‘You realize the press has already gotten wind of the murder?’ Amanda said. ‘They know that a body was found inside the club.’
‘Yes, they know that a body was found,’ Galore said. ‘They don’t know that the man was anything other than a vagrant.’
‘Both the GBI and the Atlanta police were on scene. The media is going to assume that we wouldn’t put that much effort into solving the murder of a vagrant.’ She smiled at them. ‘Not that any death isn’t a tragedy, but the local police normally don’t ask the state for help in such circumstances.’
‘So it’s a drug deal gone bad, or two homeless men fighting over a forty,’ Galore suggested. ‘That would only serve to highlight another positive aspect of the All-Star development, taking an area that is prone to crime and turning it into a safe, clean, family-friendly neighborhood.’
‘But he wasn’t a vagrant. He was a retired Atlanta police detective.’
No one had an answer for that.
Amanda said, ‘I’m sorry, folks, I understand the dilemma, but I can’t rush a murder investigation for your grand opening. I have to think of the victim’s family. The detective had a wife. She’s only twenty-two years old.’
Will worked to keep the surprise off his face. Because of the age, he had to assume that the wife was Delilah Palmer. He had no idea why Amanda hadn’t shared this detail with him. There was a big difference between Harding being Delilah’s guardian angel and being her husband. Wives knew things. They had access to information. If Harding was targeted for knowing too much, then Delilah would be the next person on the list.
Amanda continued, ‘Harding and the girl were married for only a few months. I already had to tell her that she’s a widow. Am I supposed to go back now and tell her that her husband’s death takes a back seat to a press event?’ Amanda shook her head as if the very thought made her sad. ‘And speaking of the press, Mrs Harding is incredibly photogenic. Blonde hair, blue eyes, very pretty. The press will be all over her.’