AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“It’s easy enough just to paint over it,” Carl said, pointing to the obscenity spray painted on the finished exterior of my new construction. “I’d recommend we put up extra fencing around the perimeter. I can bring on a few more guards I have on the payroll to patrol the area at night. It’s probably just some bored high school kids. Put some sentries out here and they’ll either get bored somewhere else or scared shitless.”
I agreed with Carl’s assessment. Covington Falls bred bored kids looking for something to do in town. I remember being one of them. There was never anything here to occupy our time in a meaningful or positive way, so we got into trouble a lot. Although, I mostly recalled just trying to keep Leo from earning a juvie record.
“I could make a call and set things up as soon as tonight,” Carl said.
Nodding, I said, “Do it.”
Carl nodded back. “I’ll go back over the budget again. See where we can cut the fat.”
“No! There’s no more fat to cut.Thisbudget accounts for everything we need on this project.“ The vision I had for the office park on the thirty acre vacant piece of land adjacent to Main Street was supposed to attract the best engineers from all over the world to come to Covington Falls and to keep them here. It was supposed to revitalize Main Street and give the people here a reason to gather in the heart of town. “No, we’re keeping everything as is, but don’t worry. I’m going to speak to the mayor about all of this and when I’m done, we’ll have what we need.”
“Okay,” Carl said. “You make that happen. I’ll take care of the rest.”
Healey Construction had forty years of experience building commercial real estate in this region. It’s the sole reason I chose Carl for the project. His reputation was on the line too. “Good,” I said. “I want either new fences or extra bodies out here tonight. As many as it takes to stop this from happening again. Protect our investment, Carl.”
“Consider it done, Mr. Valentine.”
Heading back to my car, I trudged through the slush around the construction site. My boots sank deep into the soup. Mud and melted snow suctioned around my feet and pulling them free kicked up the slurry. The wet dirt landed on my jeans. I could feel the cold goop seeping through the denim and onto my socks. “Dammit, I can’t catch a break.”
From the construction site, I drove down the long road that will soon bear my family name. I should be excited about the achievement. It was a monumental accomplishment, and I was proud of it. But instead of joy, I felt anger. Problems like the ones we’re facing now are precisely why Leo and I abandoned this backwater town as soon as we could.
I parked in the spot next to the one reserved for Mayor Briggs and stomped up to his office. There were never a bevy of people inside town hall, but with just a few days left before Christmas, the place was deserted. Only a skeleton crew remained to work through Christmas Eve.
“Why hello there, Mr. Valentine.” The linchpin of that crew was Mrs. Owen. She greeted me with a broad smile. For as long as I could remember, the woman had served as the assistant for every mayor the town has elected. I bet there was not a piece of paper in this entire building that she didn’t file away in a folder herself. “Is there something I can help you with?”
“Yes, Mrs. Owen. I need to speak with the mayor. It’s urgent.”
“Is this about the spray paint incident at the site?” Mrs. Owen’s wrinkled face wrinkled even more. “You know, I remember that blizzard that shut down the town for a full week. Somehow, you and your brother snuck out of the house and walked through all that snow just to splatter the diner with paintballs. I swear, that brother of yours was a menace at that age.”
The memories from that day rushed back just as Mrs. Owen told the story. Except, it was my idea to sneak out of the house and I was the one who wanted to deface the diner, but Leo took the blame for me because I was up for the citizenship scholarship that year. Come to think of it, Leo saved my ass from a juvie record, too. I grinned at Mrs. Owen and said, “Yeah, we kind of were, weren’t we?”
Mrs. Owen sighed wistfully. “I don’t know how your mother survived the both of you.” She extended her arm out from her side and added, “The mayor’s in his office. You can go right in.”
When I entered Mayor Briggs’ office, he was on the phone, but immediately his face soured. His gaze was fixed on my feet, or rather my muddy boots trampling sludge over the marble floors. “Let me call you back,” Briggs said into the receiver, then hung up. “Lucas, I was expecting to see you. Shut the door.”
I did as the mayor asked and joined him over at his desk. “I hope I didn’t interrupt important town business.”
Briggs sucked his teeth, a somber look on his face. “Listen, I’m not one for pussyfooting around things. I know why you’re here, Lucas. I’ve seen the graffiti and mallet holes on the side of your building—“
“I care a lot less about some kids messing around a construction site than I do about your brother-in-law’s company folding. Trevor, those delays are going to cost thousands to rectify. Not to mention, it might cost me the person I just hired to run the place. I hope you can make that right.”
“Lucas, Covington Falls picking up the tab for all this isn’t going to be easy for me to sell to the alders or the people of this town. For me to pull something like this off is gonna take some creative accounting.”
“Well, unless you want a vacant building rotting on a thirty-acre lot, no new jobs, and a hundred and eighty—no, a hundred and eighty-one fewer taxpayers in the town’s population, you’d better get creative. And fast.”
“Lucas, couldn’t V-Sparks cover the losses?”
We could, but this was Briggs’ fault. He pushed me to use his family for the job. The deal felt ripe with corruption at the time and even more so now, but Briggs and his relations seemed desperate. I justified it, thinking that I’d be doing something good for the guy and that it wouldn’t hurt having the mayor being personally indebted to us. Besides, in small towns, there were only so many people you could call on for a project of this size. Briggs’ brother-in-law’s company seemed capable and even my father vouched for them.
“It’s not as simple as writing a check, Trevor. To fix your mistake, I’d have to go back to my board, the shareholders. I can’t explain to you how much grief I’ll get from my investors for this oversight. They’re going to think we’re a joke if we can’t even manage building a building. Leo’s going to have to ramp up the charm to sell this.”
“I know. I know,” Briggs said. “Of the three of us, Lucas, I know I’m probably the only one who truly wanted that building in this town. Well, me, and perhaps Leo. But Covington Falls needs a shot, Lucas, and like it or not, your new facility is this town’s one shot.”
Mayor Briggs sat pensively in his chair with a look of dread on his face, but he wasn’t hearing me. I’m not in the business of doling out shots at a cost to my company and reputation. V-Sparks isn’t a charity. Our investors won’t like this and our competition might eat us alive.
While I considered what to do, I glanced out the big window in his office. Across the street were tiny shops decorated with Christmas wreaths and giant candy canes. I gazed at the diner that I had vandalized as a dumb kid. It’s covered in twinkling lights, and people exited with broad smiles on their faces. Further down Main Street, my stare landed on the new sign above Doctor Marshall’s clinic and suddenly I remembered Maggie.
“Lucas,” Mayor Briggs said.
