That was a problem.
His intent was to speak to him before they had dinner, to reassure him that everything was good between them.
There was no reason to be upset about what had happened.
They had a good partnership, and there was trust there. To Alex, that was the most important thing.
“Well, here goes everything,” he joked. “No pressure,” he said, trying to keep it light.
As soon as he was done, since she’d mentioned downtime after dinner, he was going to go find his partner.
When he went to speak, the waitress arrived.
And he had to stop.
Elizabeth went there.
“Everyone order dinner. It’s on me,” she said. “Get anything you want. I suggest you fuel up. Again, long day tomorrow.”
They all went, and she ordered a steak as did her partners. Uriel got a big plate of pasta, no cheese, and Alex got shrimp alfredo. When Tora and Mac ordered, they opted to share a charcuterie board, and got bowls of baked potato soup.
When the waitress left, Elizabeth pointed at Alex to clue him in that he was still up to bat.
He began.
“We hit the city council, and spoke to Trenton Balkin, Elizabeth. He was a piece of work.”
Both detectives laughed as if there was some private joke that only they were in on.
“What?” Elizabeth asked.
Tora was to the point.
“He’s a dick. The man is like that annoying HOA president that drives around trying to find things wrong with your property. He shows up at the office to annoy the hell out of us all the time. We call him building code Jesus. He’s always fixated on everyone’s mission in life.”
Elizabeth listened, already knowing some of the information from reports Corbin had sent in.
“Yeah, I can confirm,” Alex said. “The man literally only cared about a few things—the rules and meeting you. We didn’t give him your number because he just came across like he’d be someone to text you in the middle of the night to tell you that you were snoring too loud from miles away. He was too douchey.”
She appreciated that.
The fewer people with her number, the better.
“What did you find?”
Alex updated her with the report that he’d worked on when Corbin had been sleeping.
“Well, our impression, well, mine, since Corbin isn’t here, is that he’s not thrilled with the building, but he wants it to stay how it is—minus the dead bodies. He’s got a boner over historical things. He’s riding roughshod over the owner.”
That was an understatement.
It also explained why he was cockblocking the new owner from tearing the building down.
Apparently, Devon Slater hadn’t been exaggerating. His hands were legitimately tied.
“We tried to get anything out of him, but he was fixated on that one issue. When he insisted on seeing you to discuss this‘travesty’, we bounced.”
Elizabeth sipped her coffee that the waitress had brought out.
