The Billionaire Bid. Leigh Michaels

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      You’re thinking on much too small a scale, Anne Garrett had told her. Well, that was easy for Anne to say, with the resources of the Chronicle behind her.

      It was true, Gina admitted, that the long, narrow strip of concrete next to Essie Kerrigan’s house was not large enough for the spacious, airy galleries she’d like to have. But if they pushed out the back of the house as well, essentially roofing in the entire garden…

      There still wouldn’t be room for things like the windows from St. Francis Church, regrettable though the loss would be. But Gina had to work with the raw material she’d been given, as sensitively as it was possible to do.

      Of course, they’d leave the front facade just as it had been constructed by Essie’s grandfather Desmond Kerrigan—at least as far as they could. It would be criminal to destroy that wide, spacious open porch and corner tower. So long as the addition on the driveway side was stepped back so it didn’t overwhelm the front of the building, it would still look all right.

      Desmond Kerrigan hadn’t been the first of his name to come to Lakemont, and he wasn’t the Kerrigan that the county had been named for. But he had been the first of the family to consistently turn small investments into large ones, so when he’d built his home in what was then the most exclusive section of Lakemont, he hadn’t pinched pennies. He’d built solid and strong—but even so, a century and a half had taken a toll on the house as well as on the neighborhood. The red brick had long ago been darkened by city smoke and fumes. Hailstorms through the years had left behind cracked and broken roof slates.

      In the last years of her life, Essie Kerrigan had not had energy to take care of those things, and so delayed building maintenance was one of the jobs that had fallen to Gina when she’d assumed Essie’s title as head of the museum.

      And as long as they would have to raise money for restoration, why not go the whole way and expand at the same time?

      Essie had understood the need to expand the museum, though she had sighed over the idea of adding modern wings to her beloved old house. Gina wondered what Dez Kerrigan would think of the plan.

      Not that he would have any say in what the museum board did, of course. The house had been Essie’s, and the will she had written couldn’t have made her intentions any clearer. Still, Gina supposed that the other branches of the family might have feelings about the matter. And one who had apparently been named after the distant ancestor who had built the house in the first place might have strong sentiments indeed.

      Gina wondered if Dez Kerrigan had known who she was yesterday. Was that why he’d been staring—looking at her not as a woman, but as the person who had—in a manner of speaking—ended up in possession of Desmond Kerrigan’s house?

      It couldn’t be any more than that, she was certain. If he’d known about her plans for expansion, he might well object—even though he had no real right to an opinion. But the fact was he couldn’t possibly know about that. The plans were still so tentative that the only people she’d discussed them with were the members of the museum’s board and Anne Garrett. They hadn’t even hired an architect yet.

      On the other hand, Gina thought, his reaction yesterday probably had nothing at all to do with the museum. Her first assessment of Dez Kerrigan had probably been the correct one—the man was simply rude. He thought he’d caught her staring at him, and he’d taken it as license to stare back.

      What was it about the man that she ought to remember, but couldn’t? She was certain Essie had said something about him. Not that it was important—but if she had time today when she got to work, she’d dig out Essie’s family history files. Essie had noted down every jot of information she’d dug out, every source and reference, even her every suspicion. Somewhere in there should be the clue to Dez Kerrigan.

      Gina heard three distinct thumps on the front porch—her newspaper, along with those of her upstairs and downstairs neighbors. As quietly as she could, watching out for the creaky stair, Gina went down to retrieve her copy. She spread it carefully on the old trunk which doubled as a coffee table, flipped through the pages once to see if anything leaped out at her, and then refilled her coffee cup and settled down to look at each individual story.

      Million-dollar verdict in civil suit—but it was unlikely the winner was the type to donate money to a historical museum. City councilman challenges mayor—nothing unusual about that. Tyler-Royale expected to close downtown store—five hundred jobs at stake—formal announcement expected today…That kind of blow to the community’s economy wouldn’t make raising money for a museum expansion any easier.

      Gina turned the page, then turned it back and sat staring at the picture of the Tyler-Royale department store building. There were two pictures, in fact—one of a group of clerks beside an old-fashioned cash register, taken when the store was brand new nearly a century before, and a shot from just yesterday of shoppers at the front entrance.

      You’re thinking too small, Anne Garrett had said. And then Be sure you read the newspaper.

      Had she…could she have been…thinking about the Tyler-Royale building as a home for the historical museum? It seemed the only explanation of that cryptic comment. But why hadn’t she just come straight out and said it?

      Because if the announcement wasn’t going to be made until today, not just everybody had known about the store closing—and the last thing the publisher of the Chronicle would do would be to take a chance of the local television station beating her newspaper to the story.

      Gina closed her eyes and tried to picture the department store. It had been a while since she’d shopped there, but if her memory was accurate, the space could hardly be better suited to house a museum. Areas which had been designed for the display of merchandise would be just as good for showing off exhibits, and a soaring atrium in the center of the building brought natural but indirect light to the interior of every floor. The store was big enough to house not only every exhibit the museum currently displayed but every item currently in storage as well. The stained-glass windows from St. Francis Church would be no problem; they could have a gallery to themselves.

      In addition, the building sat squarely in the middle of the downtown area—an even better location for a museum than Essie Kerrigan’s house was. There was even a parking ramp right next door.

      But best of all, in Gina’s opinion, was the fact that nobody in their right minds would pay good money for that building. If Tyler-Royale couldn’t run a profitable store in the center of downtown Lakemont, then it was dead certain nobody else could. No, Tyler-Royale couldn’t sell it—but they could donate it to a good cause and save themselves a wad in taxes.

      And why shouldn’t that good cause be the Kerrigan County Historical Society?

      The newspaper said that the CEO of Tyler-Royale had come up from Chicago to make the announcement at a press conference scheduled for ten o’clock that morning. Since she didn’t know how long Ross Clayton would be in town, Gina figured that would be her best opportunity to talk to him. All she needed, after all, was a few minutes of his time.

      Not that she expected the man to make a spur-of-the-moment decision. This was hardly like making a contribution to the United Way; he couldn’t donate company property without the approval of his board of directors. And even if he was in the mood to give away a building at the drop of a hat, Gina couldn’t exactly take it. She didn’t even want to think about the fuss it would create if she were to call a meeting of the museum’s board of directors and announce that—without permission or consultation with any of them—she’d gone and acquired a new building.

      But a few minutes with the CEO would be enough to set the process in motion. To give the man something to think about. And to give her a hint about whether he might act on the suggestion.

      Her path toward downtown took her past Essie Kerrigan’s house. Gina paused on the sidewalk in front of the museum and looked up at the three-story red brick Victorian. The building looked almost abandoned, its facade oddly blank because most of the windows had been covered from the inside to provide more room for displays.

      Gina