“We’ll behave ourselves,” he said before quickly kissing Apollo and following the others out of the house.
As he heard the truck pull away from the compound, Apollo joined Ace and Jagger at their computers.
“Show me what you’ve got.”
***
Rocko
The drive to Levy Construction didn’t take long, and Rocko was surprised by how uneventful it was.He’d expected Griffin to take a few shots at him for sleeping with Apollo or any number of other things the guy found disagreeable about him.However, over the last few days, the typically gruff, angry guy had ceased his verbal attacks on Rocko.
“Levy Construction opened its doors in late 1986 by Ronald Levy and is now operated by his son, Gerald,” Hendrix said as he relayed the information Ace was sending through to his laptop.“Ronald died in 2022, but there’s no cause of death listed.Weird.”
“Maybe it was natural causes,” Griffin said.
“Could be, but the guy was in his fifties,” Hendrix said.“Just seems young.”
“Definitely interesting that they didn’t list a cause,” Rocko agreed.“Any other family members?”
“Nope.Apparently, Gerald’s parents divorced when he was a kid, and he grew up with his father,” Hendrix continued.“The company financials look bleak as hell, man.Like, close to bankruptcy kind of bad.”
“How were the financials of the business when the father was running things?”Rocko asked.
“The business seemed to have been thriving up until last year.”
“Wonder what happened,” Griffin said.
“Something serious.It could have been the fallout of the pandemic,” Hendrix suggested.
“True, but they were fine in 2022 when the father died through to the middle of 2025.If the business was going to fail due to the pandemic, wouldn’t that have occurred earlier or at least shown some cracks, considering businesses shut down around March 2020?”Griffin asked.
“You’d think so,” Rocko agreed.“We need to have a closer look at their books because something doesn’t feel right about their sudden decline.”
“Ace is digging deeper,” Hendrix confirmed.
“How many employees do they have?”Griffin asked.
“At their height, thirty-six, but recent reports state only six.”
“Shit, that’s one hell of a drop,” Griffin said.“Something went south fast.”
“We need to figure out what that was,” Rocko stated.“It could be key to what’s going on around here.”
“Okay, we’re coming up on their headquarters,” Griffin said as he slowed their truck.“I’ll drive by first, and then we’ll find somewhere to set up and lay low.”
“Sounds good,” he agreed.
It was a quiet rural community, with lots of trees and space, and Rocko wasn’t sure what he’d expected when they drove by, but the run-down building they passed wasn’t even close.
“Are we sure this is the right place?”he asked.
“Yep, that’s where Levy Construction’s head office is registered,” Hendrix confirmed.
Rocko took stock of what he was seeing.A single-story warehouse structure with a chain-link fence reaching out around both sides and back into what had to be the yard where the work trucks and machinery were kept, though he could see neither.The front of the building looked worn, faded, and unkept, with patches of long grass growing wild and dirty windows closed up tight.
The sign over the front door had cracks, and whatever stenciling had been under the name plate had long since peeled away.The “vy” in Levy was almost transparent.The sign looked ready to fall to the ground with the next slight breeze.
“Looks abandoned,” Griffin said.
