“So, what do you suggest I do? The mayor will approve it. Hell, he pretty much already has. See, it won’t hurt his business. He will be up and running for only a few weeks, before they offer him money and he will just sell out.”
“Yeah, it won’t hurt him, but what about the businesses in the surrounding area that will be affected? The ones that have been there for years? Just because it doesn’t pass through that particular spot doesn’t mean the re-route of traffic and cluster-fuck that comes with road construction isn’t going to hurt them. I’m just saying.” I watched as she wrote in her diary, noting that she looked like a schoolgirl with her hair in a ponytail.
“What if I put a school there?” I asked, thanking all that is holy that she had decided to put her hair up, or else the idea might not have ever occurred to me.
“A school? You can’t just build a school,” she said, shaking her head at my ignorance. I ignored the remark and chewed on the corner of my lip.
“What about an after-school kind of place. We can use it as a community project or something. We can let kids go there, even arrange public transportation for them.” I was getting excited about the idea. Not that I really gave a shit about the program, but because I wanted to see the mayor fail.
“You would have to get that approved by the city and the mayor would never let that happen. He would find every reason possible to shut you down. The city wouldn’t go for it. They would claim they couldn’t afford it.”
“Well, what would you do, genius?” I snap, immediately regretting my outburst. Shit, what had gotten in to me? Lindsey looked at me, with a raised eyebrow.
“I would convince him to invest in properties he couldn’t afford to lose. Like a boutique that catered to the wealthy, an expensive spa, a celebrity-themed restaurant, and a popular coffee shop chain. Hattiesburg could use another Starbuck’s. Target the business of the people that put him in office. They live in the elaborate subdivisions out there, anyway.” She really was a genius. I was losing my touch. Lindsey’s three weeks as CEO was really paying off.
“That just became top priority. Get me lined up with some investors. I want a meeting with someone from each business by Friday. Contact people from out of state, if you have to. Reassure people that they can’t fail. Pitch them the pipeline proposal. Let them know that if it doesn’t work out, they will be reimbursed once the pipeline takes over, and if it does, they will be more than compensated for the time their business is down. Send them appraisals of houses in the nearby communities. Assure them their targeted customers are in the same area. People will shop there just so others will see them. There are still people willing to pay top dollar for good quality products and envious friends who will go without lights to keep up with society. Wear that necklace proudly, Lindz. People who shop Pinterest are a dying breed.”
Chapter 8
Dallas
It was another late night at the office, but the day had been successful. I had sent Lindsey home early, and told her not to return until next week. Joanna and Kylie, the assistants Lindsey had temporarily hired while I was unavailable, would be coming in to help out. Lindsey had done more than her fair share of work around here, and a vacation was much-needed, and well-deserved. As the day progressed, my thoughts kept drifting to Stacy and what had really happened that night in Tupelo. Did he really try to kill me? If so, why was I allowing him to keep his job? I had been avoiding the situation for too long, mostly in fear of finding the truth. Stacy and I had been close for many years. He was the uncle I never had. We had grown apart over the past few years, but I didn’t believe he would ever be capable of doing something so terrible. If he had needed money, all he had had to do was come to me, and I would have given it to him. If Frankie did have a bounty on my head and had offered it to Stacy, the sum of money would have to be astronomical to make it worth his while. Was it out of greed? Was he jealous that he didn’t inherit anything when my father died? Was I being selfish by just offering him a job at the bed and breakfast, or should I have offered to sell it to him? The Abbey was my business, but it governed itself. The only time I had anything to do with it was when I was in the area. I had never had any reason to intervene in the way they handled things. The business was old and simple, and made enough money to pay the staff and keep the place going, but not much more. It just didn’t make sense.