Chapter 15 - THE BUILDING THEY WANTED EMPTY
The electrical inspector was right to issue a safety notice.
Regardless of who had disturbed the panel, I was responsible for keeping my tenants safe.
Elaine arranged an emergency inspection by a licensed electrician, and we temporarily closed the affected basement area.
I visited every tenant personally.
I explained what we knew, what we didn't, and what repairs would happen next.
Mrs. Alvarez put a warm roll in my hand.
“Your father would have done the same,” she said.
The words nearly undid me.
By evening, the electrician had identified damage inconsistent with ordinary wear.
He documented it and referred the matter to the relevant authorities.
The cause remained under investigation.
Still, the timing was impossible to ignore.
Robert needed the building distressed.
A distressed building was easier to pressure someone into selling.
That was my suspicion, not a proven fact.
Margaret insisted we keep that difference visible.
The following afternoon, Victor Hale requested a meeting through counsel.
He said he had information about the old guarantee and wanted to correct the record.
I didn't trust him.
But we agreed to receive documents through the attorneys.
Victor provided a correspondence archive showing Robert had submitted versions of the same guarantee years apart.
The signatures did not match.
In one version, the notary block had been left blank.
In a later version, a seal appeared.
Victor also provided an email in which Robert asked whether the paperwork could be accepted without contacting Dad directly.
Margaret treated the archive as evidence requiring authentication.
She also asked why Victor had not raised these issues earlier.
He answered through his lawyer that he'd been afraid of implicating himself in the transactions.
Cowardice, I was learning, could be as expensive as greed.
That night, I received a call from a tenant named Jeremy Cole.
He rented the second-floor office above the bakery.
“Clare, a man offered to buy out my lease,” he said.
“Who?”
“He wouldn't give a company name.”
“What did he offer?”
“Six months' rent if I moved before the end of the month.”
I asked Jeremy to preserve any documents and tell Elaine.
Before hanging up, he said the man had used a strange phrase.
“He told me the building was changing hands whether you liked it or not.”
By the next morning, two more tenants reported similar offers.
I was furious.
But anger did not repair the wiring or pay contractors.
I took money from my separate savings to fund the necessary work while our lawyers sought appropriate remedies.
That afternoon, Margaret called with a new discovery.
The shell company making the lease-buyout offers had a registered address.
It was the same business address used by Riverton Asset Group.
And its listed manager was not Robert or Victor.
May you like
It was Daniel.
