Chapter 5 - THE MAN BEHIND THE ZONING DEAL
The forty-thousand-dollar commercial deal Julian bragged about at The Argent had not been an ordinary real estate transaction.
Elena discovered that by accident.
She was reviewing old messages when she found a photograph Julian had sent six months earlier.
A conference table.
A zoning map.
A bottle of champagne.
And a name printed across the top of the document:
EAST RIVER RENEWAL DISTRICT — PHASE THREE.
She searched the public planning records.
The redevelopment project included the site where her father had died.
Her heart accelerated.
Then she saw the ownership history.
Eleven years earlier, the land had been controlled by a company called Bellman Urban Holdings.
Three years later, it had been transferred to another entity.
Then another.
The final buyer was a subsidiary of Castellane Development.
Elena stared at the screen.
Nikolai had told her one of his companies intended to purchase the property.
He had not told her his company eventually did.
She called him.
He answered immediately.
"Elena?"
"You bought the land."
Silence.
"The Queens property."
"Yes."
"After my father died."
"Yes."
"You didn't tell me."
"I told you we intended to purchase it."
"That's not the same thing."
"No."
"Why?"
Nikolai exhaled.
"Because I didn't know whether the purchase was connected to his death."
"And you decided I couldn't handle that?"
"No."
"Then what?"
"I was ashamed."
Elena went silent.
Nikolai continued.
"I bought the property after the investigation closed. My lawyers told me it was clean. I wanted the redevelopment project. I ignored the fact that your father had died trying to raise questions about that building."
Elena swallowed.
"You benefited."
"Yes."
The answer hurt.
But it was an answer.
She looked at the zoning map.
"Julian closed a deal involving the same district yesterday."
Nikolai's voice sharpened.
"Are you certain?"
"Yes."
"Who represented the seller?"
"Bellman."
A long silence.
Then Nikolai said:
"Elena, don't contact Julian."
"I wasn't planning to."
"And don't go to the property."
"Why?"
"Because if Bellman is moving the land again, somebody may be trying to erase the last trace of what happened to your father."
Elena looked at the photograph of the champagne bottle.
Martin Bellman was smiling.
Julian stood beside him.
And in the background, almost hidden by the window reflection, was another man.
Older.
Silver-haired.
Wearing a dark coat.
Nikolai recognized him immediately when Elena sent the image.
His name was Samuel Voss.
A retired city building inspector.
The man who had signed the report declaring Arthur Ashford's death an accident.
***
That night, Nikolai sat across from his longtime attorney, Adrian Cole.
"Find Voss."
Adrian frowned.
"He's retired."
"Find him anyway."
"And Elena?"
Nikolai looked toward the rain.
"She's asking the questions I should have asked eleven years ago."
Adrian studied him.
"You're becoming attached."
Nikolai said nothing.
"She's vulnerable, Nikolai."
"I know."
"Then don't mistake protecting her for earning her trust."
Nikolai looked at his friend.
"I don't."
But later, alone in his office, he wondered whether that was entirely true.
Elena Ashford had looked at him with suspicion rather than admiration.
She challenged every incomplete answer.
She refused every favor that felt like an obligation.
And Nikolai, who had spent half his life surrounded by people who agreed with him, found himself thinking about her long after the conversation ended.
May you like
That frightened him more than he wanted to admit.
---
