Chapter 15 - No More Private Rooms
The hallway stayed lit. Only the Ash Room went dark, followed by a startled yell and the scrape of chairs. Someone had killed power to the meeting room, not the building.
I moved Ada and June away from the doorway and asked Evelyn to take them to the main ballroom. People were safer in numbers, with cameras and exits nobody could seal without witnesses.
"Pike will try to keep them apart," I told her.
"Then he'll need to explain himself in front of three hundred guests," Evelyn replied.
Graham emerged holding his phone flashlight. Frances followed, furious. "I'm not conducting a vote in the dark."
Pike came around the corner. "Electrical issue. Maintenance has it."
"You have access to that control cabinet," Evelyn said. "I gave you the contractor map this afternoon."
"Are you accusing me of something?"
"I'm asking you to step away from the cabinet until my engineer gets here."
The two officers approached. One stayed with Pike; the other asked the engineer to document what he found. Pike no longer had an empty hallway in which to make demands.
Back in the ballroom, Vanessa was at the microphone beneath a screen displaying smiling families. "We will not let a smear campaign steal this evening from the people we're here to help," she said.
Ada's grip tightened on my wrist. "Can I say something?"
"You can," I said. "You don't owe anybody a speech, though."
"My husband painted our apartment himself. He'd want me to fight for it."
Evelyn brought a second microphone to the floor. Ada stood beside her daughter and looked toward the stage.
"My name is Ada Mercado," she said. "I live at Oak Point. I didn't vote to sell my home. And neither did my neighbors."
Applause started near Omar's table. Then someone else stood.
"I'm an Oak Point donor," the woman said. "I want to know where my money is going."
Vanessa opened her mouth, but Talia held up a newly received escrow notice.
May you like
The purchaser's ownership disclosure named its controlling beneficiary.
Vanessa Sterling.
