Chapter 4 - THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE PARCELS
Walter did not let Daniel begin with an apology.
“Mrs. Alvarez first.”
Daniel followed his father across the street.
Rosa Alvarez was seventy-four.
Her husband had died nine years earlier.
She had lived in the same house since 1981.
Northcross initially offered her $218,000.
A week later, an agent told her informally that future construction could make the block “difficult for seniors.”
Another implied she might eventually face increased property taxes.
Neither statement was technically a threat.
Together, they had frightened her badly enough that she had stopped opening unknown mail.
Mr. Jenkins had a different story.
He wanted to sell.
His complaint was the opposite.
Northcross kept telling him its offer expired within days, then returned repeatedly with almost the same offer.
“They wanted me tired,” he said.
Daniel took notes.
At the third house, Walter finally spoke.
“You think writing things down makes you different from them?”
Daniel looked up.
“I’m trying to fix it.”
“You’re trying to understand whether fixing it costs too much.”
“That’s not fair.”
Walter nodded toward the street.
“Neither were the letters.”
Daniel closed the notebook.
“Why didn’t you tell me how bad it was?”
“I tried.”
“You called me once.”
“I called you three times.”
Daniel frowned.
Walter walked back toward his porch.
“The second time, your assistant said Vanessa was handling it.”
“And the third?”
“You answered.”
Daniel searched his memory.
Walter helped him.
“You told me I was getting worked up because neighborhoods change.”
Daniel remembered.
He wanted not to.
He had been boarding a flight to New York.
Walter said a man had come to Mrs. Alvarez’s house twice.
Daniel told him professional acquisition firms had procedures.
Then Daniel had said something that now made his stomach turn.
“Dad, not everybody trying to buy a house is trying to cheat you.”
Walter sat on the porch.
“You built yourself a beautiful life.”
Daniel remained standing.
“I wanted that for you.”
“I know.”
Walter looked toward the hotels visible faintly beyond the neighborhood rooftops.
“But somewhere along the way, you started hearing money louder than people.”
Daniel sat beside him.
Neither spoke for a while.
Finally Daniel said, “I’m suspending Northcross.”
Walter looked over.
“Can you?”
“Yes.”
“What will it cost?”
“A lot.”
“Then Vanessa will fight you.”
“She already is.”
Walter nodded.
“That woman didn’t slap me because she thought I stole a purse.”
Daniel looked at him.
“She slapped me because for about ten seconds she thought there would be no consequence.”
Daniel had no answer.
That evening he instructed Reed Hospitality’s general counsel to suspend new acquisition activity around Riverline pending review.
By morning, the board chair called.
By noon, Northcross’s CEO demanded a meeting.
By three, Vanessa had learned what Daniel had done.
She entered his office and closed the door.
“You froze a hundred-and-eighty-million-dollar development because your father got his feelings hurt?”
Daniel stood slowly.
“No.”
He placed Walter’s stack of letters between them.
“I froze it because I finally started reading what we were doing.”
Vanessa looked at the papers.
May you like
Then at him.
“You approved more of this than you remember.”
