Chapter 161 The Final Destination

Chapter 161 The Culprit

The man behind Hartwell Commercial Development Group was someone Ethan had put in hospital seven years ago.

He did not find this out from Richard.

He found it out from Jake, who found it out from a client who worked in commercial property and mentioned the name casually over an oil change on a Wednesday morning, the way people mentioned things they did not realise were significant.

Jake called Ethan before the client had even left the forecourt.

Ethan was halfway down the east quarter street talking to the owner of the dry cleaning shop when his phone rang.

He saw Jake's name.

He picked up.

"Tell me," he said.

"Marcus Webb," Jake said. "The journalist who wrote the article about you last year."

"Yes," Ethan said.

"He is not just a journalist," Jake said. "He is a silent partner in Hartwell Commercial Development Group. His name is not on the public registration. It is his wife's company legally. But the money behind it is his."

Ethan stopped walking.

"How do you know?" he said.

"The client in the bay right now," Jake said. "He works in commercial property. He knows the east quarter development application. He recognised the company name when I mentioned it and he told me who was actually behind it."

"Webb," Ethan said.

"Webb," Jake said.

Ethan stood on the east quarter pavement and looked at the garage two doors down and thought about a journalist who had written an article designed to damage the garage's reputation and had failed, and who had apparently decided that if he could not destroy the business from the outside he would buy it from underneath.

"Call Richard," he said.

"Already dialling," Jake said.

He ended the call.

He stood there for a moment.

The dry cleaning shop owner had appeared in the doorway behind him, sensing that the conversation had shifted.

"Everything okay?" she said.

"Yes," Ethan said. "I will be back in ten minutes."

He walked to the garage.

\---

Lily arrived at one fifteen.

She came through the garage door still in her hospital lanyard and found Ethan, Jake, Priya and Richard on speakerphone all in the same room, which meant the situation had moved faster than she had expected.

"Tell me where we are," she said.

Ethan told her about Webb.

She sat down on the nearest stool.

She thought about Marcus Webb. The article. The source from Connor's former operation. The specific, deliberate framing designed to make Ethan's cooperation look like criminal connection.

She thought about a man who had tried once with words and failed and had gone away and found a different approach.

"He has been planning this since the article," she said.

"Probably longer," Richard said through the phone. "The planning applications for the east quarter development were submitted eight months ago. The article was nine months ago."

"So the article was the first attempt," Lily said. "Damage the reputation. If the business is struggling financially and reputationally it is easier to buy."

"Yes," Richard said.

"And when the article did not work," she said.

"He moved to direct acquisition," Richard said. "The print shop sale was six months ago. He has been building toward the garage specifically."

"Why specifically?" Jake said.

"Because the garage is the anchor business on that section of the street," Richard said. "The development application cannot work practically without that building. The footprint of what they are planning requires it."

"He needs the garage," Ethan said.

"He cannot build without it," Richard said.

The room was quiet for a moment.

Priya was looking at the planning application documents she had printed that morning. She had been reading them steadily since nine AM and making small precise marks in the margins.

"The access," Priya said.

Everyone looked at her.

"The development plan requires a service access point on the eastern side of the building," she said. "The only viable eastern access point on that section of street goes through the garage's rear yard." She looked up. "Without the garage they have no service access for the development. The whole plan fails building regulations without it."

Lily looked at Priya.

She thought about a woman who had been reading planning documents since nine AM and had found the one thing that mattered.

"They do not just want the garage," Lily said. "They need it. Specifically. The development cannot be approved without it."

"Yes," Priya said.

"Which means we have more leverage than we thought," Lily said.

"Significantly more," Richard said.

"Which means the offer they made was low," Lily said. "Not just undervalued relative to the future worth of the business. Low relative to what we are actually worth to them right now."

"The offer was approximately thirty percent of what the access right alone is worth to their development plan," Priya said.

Ethan looked at her.

"How do you know what the access right is worth?" he said.

"I called a commercial property surveyor at eight this morning," Priya said. "Before I started reading the planning documents."

Jake made a sound.

"You called a surveyor before you knew about the access issue," Lily said.

"I suspected there was an access issue," Priya said. "The street layout made it likely. I wanted a number ready."

Lily looked at Priya.

She thought about all the times Priya had been ahead of every situation by exactly the right amount.

"Priya," she said.

"Yes?" Priya said.

"You are extraordinary," she said.

Priya looked at her.

"I am efficient," Priya said.

"Those are the same thing," Lily said.

"Yes," Priya said. "I know."

Richard cleared his throat on the phone.

"The question now," he said, "is what you want to do with this information."

"We have three options," Lily said.

Everyone looked at her.

"We decline the offer and say nothing else," she said. "They come back with a higher number. We gain time and money but the development eventually proceeds around us if they find another access solution."

"Option two," Ethan said.

"We go to the planning authority," she said. "We submit a formal objection to the development application on the grounds of character and impact to existing independent businesses. We make it public and we make it loud."

"That draws attention to Webb's involvement," Jake said.

"Yes," she said. "And to the article he wrote. And to the connection between the two. Which raises questions about whether a journalist who holds a financial interest in acquiring businesses should be writing articles designed to damage those businesses."

The room was quiet.

"That is not a small allegation," Richard said carefully.

"No," Lily said. "It is not. Which is why I said it is an option and not a decision."

"Option three?" Ethan said.

"We negotiate," she said. "Not from the position they think we are in. From the position we are actually in. Which is that they need our specific building more than we need to sell and they have been trying to obscure that fact since they started."

"We tell them we know about the access issue," Ethan said.

"We tell them through Richard," Lily said. "Formally. With documentation. And we tell them the number we actually want."

"Which is?" Jake said.

Lily looked at Priya.

Priya said a number.

Jake's eyes went wide.

"That is four times the original offer," Ethan said.

"It is eighty percent of the access right's assessed value," Priya said. "Which is still a discount to them because they avoid a contested planning process and the delays and costs that come with it."

"They will not pay that," Jake said.

"They might," Richard said. "If the alternative is a public objection process that delays the development by eighteen months and draws press attention to the relationship between their silent partner and the article written about the garage."

"Webb will not want that attention," Lily said.

"No," Richard said. "He will not."

Ethan looked at the floor.

He looked at Jake.

He looked at Priya.

He looked at Lily.

"You want to negotiate," he said to her.

"I want us to decide together," she said. "That is what we are doing right now."

"If we negotiate and it works," he said. "We take the money and the garage moves."

"Or we use the money to buy a building rather than lease one," she said. "Somewhere the location is ours permanently and no one can make this offer again."

He looked at her.

"You have thought about that," he said.

"Since Richard said they needed the access right," she said. "Forty seconds of thinking. The money from this deal, at the number Priya quoted, covers a purchase rather than a lease for a comparable space in this area."

"A building we own," Jake said slowly.

"That nobody can buy out from underneath us," Lily said.

Jake looked at Ethan.

Ethan looked at Priya.

Priya had already opened a new tab on her laptop.

"I am looking at available commercial properties within five hundred metres," she said.

"Of course you are," Jake said.

"There are three," Priya said. "One is suitable."

"You have looked at it for ten seconds," Ethan said.

"I can assess a floor plan in ten seconds," Priya said. "Come and look."

They came and looked.

The property was two streets from the current location. Slightly larger. East-facing. A yard at the back with proper vehicle access that did not depend on anyone else's goodwill.

"The bones," Lily said.

"Good," Priya said.

Ethan looked at the screen.

He looked at Lily.

He thought about a garage he had built with Jake in a south side space with a framed lease on the wall. He thought about the fire that had taken it. He thought about rebuilding. He thought about what it meant to own something rather than borrow it.

"Richard," he said.

"Yes?" Richard said through the phone.

"Draft the formal response," he said. "The number Priya quoted. The documentation on the access right. Make it clear we know exactly what we have and what it is worth to them."

"And the Webb connection?" Richard said. "Do we reference it?"

Ethan looked at Lily.

She looked at him.

"Not yet," she said. "Put it where they can see we have it. Do not use it unless they make us."

"Understood," Richard said.

"Richard," Lily said.

"Yes?" he said.

"Thank you," she said. "Again."

"Go back to work," he said. "All of you. I will have the draft response by morning."

The call ended.

The garage was quiet.

Outside the east quarter afternoon was doing its ordinary thing, entirely unaware that something had shifted in the room.

Priya closed her laptop.

"The viewing for the new property," she said. "I have booked it for Saturday morning."

Everyone looked at her.

"When did you book it?" Ethan said.

"While Richard was talking," Priya said.

Jake looked at the ceiling.

Lily looked at Priya.

"You knew we would say yes," Lily said.

"I knew one of you would say yes," Priya said. "I calculated it was most likely you."

"Why me?" Lily said.

"Because you thought of it forty seconds after the access right came up," Priya said. "And you are the one in this room who plans around permanence rather than around what is available right now."

Lily looked at her.

She thought that was the most accurate thing anyone had said about her in a long time.

"Saturday," she said.

"Nine AM," Priya said. "Do not be late."