The Vet from Snowy River by Stella Quinn
CHAPTER
28
Josh stared at the name. He’d marched down to the council office and asked Barry O’Malley to show him the objections council had received to his renovation proposal. Now here it was in front of him.
Pamela Hogan.
Why, oh why, was that name ringing a bell?
Sandy hadn’t known the name, and there were no Hogans in their client list. ‘Want me to google her? Stalk her on social media? I’ve got mad skills online, Josh,’ the receptionist had offered.
‘Drop your weapons back in your holster, Kojak. Let me ask Hannah first, okay?’
‘No problem. But refilling kitty litter trays isn’t my only skill. Just saying.’
‘Understood.’
Sandy had insisted on coming to work even though the clinic was shut and cordoned off with crime tape. She was neck deep in sorting paperwork in the back office, determined to do something useful. He’d not had the heart to say no—single mums with growing sons needed their wages same as any other parent.
He tracked Hannah down in the old shed out back, where she was looking into the engine of her car with a cranky look on her face. He moved in next to her and looked down. ‘Problems?’ he said.
‘Besides our livelihood going up in smoke? Yeah. My fan-belt’s screaming every time I start her up, the heater doesn’t work, and there are so many rust spots now, some days I feel like I’m driving a dalmatian.’
He pulled the oil stick from the engine, inspected it, and shoved it back in, thereby exhausting his knowledge of all things mechanical. ‘Maybe it’s time to say goodbye to the old beast and fork out for a new one.’
‘Says moneybags himself.’
He laughed. ‘Han, if you could see my bank balance, you’d know just how ridiculous that sounds. The bulk of my savings went into buying building materials for this place.’
‘We’re going to be broke before long if we can’t open up. There are the repayments on the ultrasound machine, the haematology unit.’
‘I’ve put a call in to the insurer. I’m waiting on them to get back to me.’
‘Yeah. You think they’re going to be paying us a single dollar if the police are investigating us as the potential arsonists?’
‘One anonymous Crime Stoppers phone call is not a police investigation.’
‘It’s pressure, Josh. It’s pressure on our business.’
‘I wonder …’ he said slowly. ‘Hannah … do you think that could have been the plan all along? Is someone trying to make us walk away from our business?’
She whacked the support strut out of its lock and slammed her bonnet shut. ‘You mean, one of the other vets in the region? That’s a big claim, brother, and you don’t know them like I do. We help each other out, we don’t sabotage each other’s businesses.’
‘Sorry, Han. You’re right, you do know them, but if we’re not being harassed by a competitor, who is behind this? Here, read this.’ He handed her the copy of the objection letter he’d picked up from council.
‘What’s this?’
‘The objection. Signed by someone called Pamela Hogan.’
‘Bloody hell.’
He looked at his sister’s arrested face. ‘You know the name?’
‘I sure as hell do,’ she said. ‘Quick, to the back office.’
His sister ran across the flagged rear yard of the building and through the side door like the hounds of hell were after her. What on earth?
By the time he’d followed her into the office, she was on her knees in front of the filing cupboard, hauling out a jumble of manila folders.
‘You’re messing up my good work, Hannah,’ said Sandy.
‘Sorry. I’ll fix it. Okay, here it is.’
She slammed a green folder on top of the desk. ‘Pamela Hogan. You remember the offer we got to buy the building, way back, after we’d just officially become the owners?’
‘Um, sort of. I didn’t really take much notice, to be honest, Han. Walk me through the details.’
‘Okay, so the first offer came when you were on your final internship at the Dalgety Flats Stables. You hadn’t graduated. It was a letter in the mail, I think. I put it through the shredder with the rest of the junk mail and lined the cages with it.’
‘And there was another offer?’
‘Some guy from Lake Realtors over at Jindabyne. He’d received a generous offer, one we “couldn’t refuse”. He came during clinic hours. Sandy found him wandering through the first floor taking photos on his phone. I said we weren’t interested and told him he’d better have a sick pet with him next time I caught him wandering around my property.’
Josh nodded. ‘Nice.’
Hannah grinned. ‘I’m not a total coward.’
‘You’re the bravest person I know.’
She cleared her throat. ‘Where was I? Right, so then the emails started. I printed out a few and kept them.’
‘These emails, are they from Pamela Hogan?’
He opened the folder and rifled through the pages. Pamela Hogan, Solicitor from an office in Cooma whose unnamed client had apparently authorised her to send increasingly persistent offers to acquire the Cody and Cody building, month after month.
‘Nothing for the last few months, though,’ he said. ‘Nothing since I’ve been here.’
‘I had the computer guy block her email account.’
He had a thought. ‘You know how Barry O’Malley wouldn’t tell us who was behind all the trivial complaints we were getting because of some privacy law?’
‘Mmm.’
‘Maybe we get that cop, Meg, to ask. She may be able to convince him there’s a greater good here. And if it’s the same person, it’s starting to paint a pretty big picture, Han.’
‘Call her,’ she said.
‘I’ll make copies of all these so you can give her the file,’ said Sandy.
‘Thanks, Josh,’ said Hannah. ‘Thanks, Sandy. I’m not sure I could be the one who … it’s just … dealing with stuff isn’t really my special skill.’
‘No big deal, Hannah Banana. I’ve got your back.’ Yet another reason he’d fought so hard to come home: he didn’t want to leave Hannah on her own when their parents decided their retirement involved circumnavigating the country in a motorhome.
She butted her head into his shoulder so her thanks came out muffled against his shirt, but he got the gist.
She lifted her head. ‘Maybe I shouldn’t have just ignored the first letter. If I’d been more proactive and told them to rack off, they’d have got the message and stopped harassing us.’
‘We’re too nice. That’s the problem,’ said Josh.
‘Correction. You’ve been too nice. I’m bitchy as hell, but only in the privacy of my own bathroom. I can’t take this on, Josh. I can’t do conflict.’
He put down the letter and his coffee and wrapped her in a hug. ‘I know. Hannah, I’ve got this.’
She didn’t need more pressure in her life. And damn it, he’d worked too hard to get tripped up by some crackbrained vendetta against the Cody vet business.
He’d sort this. Somehow.