Peter’s jaw tightened. “Whoever is involved in graft and corruption should be investigated,” he said.
“Knock yourself out, Detective,” Natalie said. “But don’t hold your breath. The demo got rubber-stamped and any arguments were ignored. The Left Coast Bridge isn’t historically designated at the federal level, it isn’t on a protected register, and it’s ‘functionally obsolete.’”
Vivien winced.Functionally obsolete.“Like a flip-phone,” she muttered. “What can we do? Mitigation? Documentation? Something?”
Natalie nodded once. “We’ve tried a lot of those tactics, but we can’t even get the paper to do a story or get put back on a city council agenda. The salvage company pushed everything through so fast, we haven’t had time to even look for a loophole, let alone find one. I got labeled a squeaky wheel early on, and they’re ignoring me.”
“Has anyone else taken up the fight?” Vivien asked. “Do we have other allies in this?”
“Not really.” She shook her head. “The people with power in this town are those who cater to tourists. That’s our life’s blood, right? And tourists don’t care about the history—they want pretty pictures, busy bars, and white Destin sand.”
Natalie leaned back, flipping a lock of silky dark hair over her shoulder. “To be honest? I gave up the fight. When I found out about the plans, I spearheaded a petition, a delay, a second review. All of it. We brought photos. We brought the story. We brought a retired commercial fisherman who cried at the lone city council session when they let us present our side.”
Vivien blinked. “That sounds…persuasive.”
“Itwaspersuasive,” Natalie said. “But the approvals are done. The contracts are signed. The equipment is scheduled. The public hearing already happened.”
Vivien’s stomach dropped. “When was the public hearing? I swear, if I had seen it announced, I’d have gone.”
“You missed it?” she asked with a dry laugh. “I don’t know how. It was announced in a ‘Notice of Public Hearing’ on the bottom of the city website. You don’t go there daily to find out what’s happening?”
Vivien smiled at her sarcasm.
“Yeah, you missed the meeting on some random Tuesday at eight a.m.” She rolled her eyes. “It wasn’t well attended, which I’m sure was Quinn Hargrove’s plan.”
“Do you think he did anything illegal to make this happen?” Vivien asked.
“Define ‘illegal.’” She chuckled and looked at Peter. “I guess you do that for a living.”
“Generally,” he agreed, his expression calm and strong.
“Well, for the record, I’m not saying that’s what happened,” she continued. “I’m saying I wouldn’t be shocked. Quinn has…friends. Friends who like their boats and trips and second homes. And he’s been weirdly insistent that everything be fast. Fast is where mistakes happen.”
Peter nodded once, the motion minimal. But Vivien saw the way he filed that tidbit.
“If there was an error or a law broken, would it matter now?” Vivien asked, grasping at hope.
Natalie’s expression turned apologetic again. “It could, but I doubt there’s anything to find. Even if you discovered some random misfiled paperwork, you’d be fighting momentum. The machine is moving, the demo is scheduled, the salvage company is ready to make a killing.”
“I can’t believe something couldn’t be done,” Vivien said on a sigh.
Natalie shrugged. “The fact is, we’re outgunned and trying not to get sued into the next century. The museum is a small nonprofit. Hargrove is a man who thinks a lawsuit is like breathing and has legions of lawyers ready to make sure we get suffocated. I’m sorry, I really am.”
“I believe you are,” Vivien said, looking around at the proof of all that.
“So...different subject?” Natalie asked. “You mentioned that you came to Destin as kids?”
“We did,” she said. “My family came for summers and stayed in an old cottage on Gulf Shore from the late eighties to 1995.”
“Ah, then Opal hit. The beginning of the end, my dad used to call it.”
Vivien nodded, understanding that the storm was truly a turning point in Destin’s history.
“But my family was able to buy the property before that,” Vivien added, not prepared to get into any of the complicated story surrounding that purchase. “A few years ago, we demo’d the old house and built a new one.”
Natalie made a face. “Do you have pictures of the old one?”
“Somewhere,” she said. “I have diaries. Why? You need more for this room?”
