“What?”
“Weren’t you warned to get those homeless people out of the building?”
“Yes, but…”
“You can’t get away with this, Lara. There’s an old adage: ‘Don’t fight City Hall, you can’t win.’”
“Are they really going to arrest me?”
“You’re damn right they are. You were given notice by the city to get those people out of there.”
“All right,” Lara said. “Let’s get them out.” She turned to Keller. “Remove them, but don’t put them out on the street. That isn’t right… We have those empty rooming houses that we’re waiting to convert in the West Twenties. Let’s put them there. Take all the help you need. I want them gone in an hour.”
She turned to Terry Hill. “I’ll be out of here, so they can’t serve me. By the time they do, the problem will be solved.”
The intercom buzzed. “There are two gentlemen here from the district attorney’s office.”
Lara motioned to Howard Keller. He walked over to the intercom and said, “Miss Cameron isn’t here.”
There was a silence. “When do you expect her?”
Keller looked at Lara. Lara shook her head. Keller said into the intercom, “We don’t know.” He flicked the key up.
“I’ll go out the back way,” Lara said.
Lara hated hospitals. A hospital was her father lying in bed, pale and suddenly old. “What the bluidy hell are you doin’ here? You’ve work to dae at the boardinghouse.”
Lara walked into Kathy’s room. It was filled with flowers. Kathy was sitting up in bed.
“How do you feel?” Lara asked.
Kathy smiled. “The doctor said I’m going to be fine.”
“You’d better be. Your work is piling up. I need you.”
“I…I don’t know how to thank you for all this.”
“Don’t.”
Lara picked up the bedside phone and put a call through to her office. She spoke to Terry Hill.
“Are they still there?”
“They’re still here. They intend to stay until you return.”
“Check with Howard. As soon as he clears the street people out of the building, I’ll come back.”
Lara replaced the receiver.
“If you need anything, let me know,” Lara said. “I’ll be back to see you tomorrow.”
Lara’s next stop was at the architectural offices of Higgins, Almont & Clark. She was ushered in to see Mr. Clark. He rose as she walked into his office.
“What a nice surprise. What can I do for you, Miss Cameron?”
“Do you have the plans here for the project on Fourteenth Street?”
“Yes, indeed.”
He went over to his drawing board. “Here we are.”
There was a sketch of a beautiful high rise complex with apartment buildings and shops around it.
“I want you to redraw it,” Lara said.
“What?”
Lara pointed to a space in the middle of the block. “There’s a building still standing in this area. I want you to draw the same concept, but construct it around that building.”
“You mean you want to put up the project with one of the old buildings still standing? It would never work. First of all, it would look terrible and…”
“Just do it, please. Send it over to my office this afternoon.”
And Lara was gone.
From the car she telephoned Terry Hill. “Have you heard from Howard yet?”
“Yes. The squatters have all been cleared out.”
“Good. Get the district attorney on the phone. Tell him that I had ordered those squatters out two days ago and that there was a lack of communication. The minute I heard about it, today, I had them moved out. I’m on my way back to the office now. See if he still wants to arrest me.”
She said to the driver, “Drive through the park. Take your time.”
Thirty minutes later, when Lara reached her office, the men with the warrant were gone.
Lara was in a meeting with Howard Keller and Terry Hill.
“The tenants still won’t budge,” Keller said. “I even went back and offered them more money. They’re not leaving. We’ve only got five days left before we have to begin bulldozing.”
Lara said, “I asked Mr. Clark to draw up a new blueprint for the project.”
“I saw it,” Keller said. “It doesn’t make any sense. We can’t leave that old building standing in the middle of a new giant construction. We’re going to have to go to the bank and ask them if they’ll move back the start date.”