Despite this, he’s grinning wildly.
“You alright?” I ask with a raised eyebrow.
“More than,” he says with feeling. “Grant’s on the bar tonight, yeah?”
“Yeah,” I say, growing more confused.
“Good, I can tell both of you at the same time, then,” he says, darting away and into the bar.
I debate whether to follow him. Maybe all the research he’s been doing lately, trying to save the house, has made him a little insane. After a moment, I follow him in with a sigh; whatever has got him in such a mess had better be good.
Liam and Ethan are also at the bar, and Alex is making a beeline toward them. I stump after them as Grant gravitates in their direction, too, curious about the flushed smile on Alex’s face. Nearby, I can see Alex’s feet kicked up on a table, very carefully not looking in our direction.
I snort. The man is about as subtle as an elephant, sometimes.
“So?” I ask. “What’s all this about?”
“The house,” Alex says, looking pleased with himself. “I have him.”
It takes me a moment to figure it out. Then I gape. Because, last week, Alex let it slip to me that he was working on a case involving the corruption of William Burke.
“You have evidence?” I demand.
“Enough to remove him from office, to start,” Alex says smugly. “After that, the police can decide what to do with the rest.”
“What is going on?” Liam asks, exasperated.
“Oh, nothing…only that William Burke won’t be able to cause us problems for much longer,” Alex smirks. “Come tomorrow, he’ll be out of town hall and we can petition
for the house to be donated.” He grins. “After all the trouble Burke’s given us, the trouble they condoned from a criminal, I don’t doubt they’ll be happy to help us out.”
I’ve always known that Alex Howard is sneaky and unconventional, but this takes it to an all new level. In one fell swoop, he took out our enemy and ensured that we would get our house back.
“It’s not set in stone yet,” Alex adds. “I’ll have to talk to the councilman that put me on the case. But…” He shrugs. “It looks like we will win!”
“Awesome!” Ethan cheers. “Now this does call for celebration!”
“What the hell are we going to do with all that money?” Liam laughs.
“Donate it?” Grant suggests.
“Or…we renovate,” I say slowly.
The others look at me, stunned by the suggestion. I shrug.
“The house is falling apart,” I point out. “Soon it won’t be livable anymore and all this will be useless. So why don’t we use the money to renovate?”
I can see the idea dawning on them all, excitement lighting up their features as they consider this. If we could renovate the house, we wouldn’t have broken windows, leaky roofs or holes in the wall to worry about.
“It might almost be cheaper to just knock it down and start again!” Grant says.
“We can decide that later,” Alex says with a nod. “To start with, though, this round is on me, guys, in celebration!” He smiles sheepishly. “Hopefully this works; I don’t have a back-up plan.”
This doesn’t surprise me. Alex, who always makes plans within plans, has been struggling as much as the rest of us to come up with one plan (ones that don’t consist of bake sales, at any rate).
“I might have a back-up,” Ethan says cheerfully as Grant pours our drinks. “Georgia knows some people who might be willing to make up the rest of what we need. So if your plan fails, we’ll just buy it back and find the money to renovate somewhere else.”
“Great,” Alex says, grinning. He gulps at his beer. “We’ll spread the word; one way or another, we fucking did it!”