Lisa Jamison knew she should be taking in her surroundings, the worn brick buildings with shard-lined windows; graffiti so old the slang was almost retro; the stench from the nearby creek, which many of the deserted factories had used as their own waste dumps for decades; the cigarette butts; the crushed beer cans; the McDonald’s cups; the occasional used condom or syringe.
But she was having trouble keeping her balance on the lifted and broken sidewalk in her leather boots and, besides, she was already familiar enough with these streets. To David Glass, the head of the Seneca Springs Industrial Development Agency, this neighborhood was a treasure, an antique that would become invaluable with restoration. That was the analogy he had used during the press conference just an hour before.
To Lisa, this had been a free hotel room during her teenage years. She’d spent more than enough nights in these abandoned buildings, nights when she’d worn out her welcome on a friend’s sofa and had yet to convince someone else’s mom to feel sorry for her. She shuddered, despite the mid-summer heat. It would take a lot more than a couple of wealthy investors to change her vision of Iron City Heights.
Lisa could see her car from two blocks away, the only car left where earlier television news vans with satellite trucks had parked her in. The TV crews got what they had come for—some good video and a sound bite—and left. That was always the best time to do real investigative reporting, when the television influence was gone. No more Quotable Quotes, no more practiced smiles, no more carefully intoned voices. Guards came down as the cameras shut down, allowing Lisa to get real answers to real questions.
She groaned as she reached in her jeans pocket for her keys. Projects reporters weren’t supposed to have daily deadlines, one of the perks of the job that she relished. But she would have to write something about this press conference for today’s online edition and tomorrow’s Sun Times. She needed deeper information for a newsroom-wide project on the new development, and that meant covering it as if every aspect of the development itself were her assigned, daily beat. Lisa’s job was to look at the bigger picture while examining the tiniest of details for any signs of illegal or unethical activity. Hopefully, there was nothing to find, but if there was any evidence of wrongdoing, she wanted to be the one to uncover it.
Her interview with the project’s developer, Bert Trammel, had gone well even though it was unplanned. She had followed him to his BMW, which he had parked several blocks away where the neighborhoods were a little safer and better patrolled. They had walked with two junior partners from his firm. Lisa wasn’t surprised to find they had left an intern with their cars to keep potential thieves away. Nor was she surprised they had each driven their own cars. She was certain these guys wouldn’t be back until the area was fully sanitized and wrapped up neatly with a bright red ribbon that needed cutting.
But the walk was worth it. Trammel loosened up after Lisa feigned excitement over his work with question after flattering question about his past projects and praise for his performance at the press conference. It wasn’t hard to see he was vulnerable to such tactics with his slightly loosened silk tie, his rolled-up Armani shirtsleeves, his dark hair with just a touch of silver in precisely the right places, his perfectly timed pauses and pronouncements, his constant smile no matter the question or the source. He was smart and he could be intimidating, but he was also an egotist, and egotists were easy to break.
What she needed from him were details of the tax deal and the lease agreement his company had negotiated with the city, details that were included in a contract David Glass had promised her days ago but had yet to produce. She knew the basics—that the city had agreed to keep ownership of the property and lease the land to Trammel’s company in exchange for monthly payments. The monthly payments were likely lower than the potential property taxes that Trammel would have to pay if he actually bought the property. Such deals were not illegal or unheard of. They were a common way of attracting businesses and creating jobs. Developers could save millions in taxes, especially once improvements were completed and property values soared.
But Trammel Enterprises had turned down offers from the county IDA for locations in the suburbs that would be more appropriately suited for its high-end mall, condos and spa. Iron City Heights had once been labeled toxic, a federal Superfund site. Though the EPA had declared the buildings and the river free of contaminants years ago, the neighborhood still carried that stigma along with the possibility that more chemical hazards would be discovered when construction and demolition got underway. It was a big risk for any company, especially when there were other options.
“But here’s the thing,” Trammel said, stopping just a few feet short of his BMW and turning to Lisa. His face had brightened in a way that it had not during the press conference. Lisa would even call his smile a grin. “The city has agreed to take on any further clean-up costs related to toxic waste and to complete any clean-up in a timely manner. People love this stuff—toxic waste dump turned into a place of beauty. They’ll be drawn to it, not repulsed by it. And the county couldn’t even come close to competing with the city’s tax deal. Our payments are ridiculously low, and they never change throughout the course of the ten-year lease. When the lease expires, we get to buy the property at the current value. Couldn’t pass that up, now could we?”
Trammel signaled to one of his junior partners, a tall, thin man who had unlocked his car and was about to step in, urging him to join them. He was young, like most junior partners in Trammel’s firm, and probably single. They had to be, given the long hours and the low pay. Lisa had heard that working for Trammel was like doing a medical residency except these guys were lawyers and could be making good salaries elsewhere. The payoffs for those who succeeded though were enormous. Junior partners were given major financial stakes in the projects they headed up. If the projects failed, they dropped to the bottom rung, giving every waking hour of their lives for the opportunity to try again. But if they succeeded, the junior partners were suddenly buying their own BMWs and catered to by their own interns. It was a gamble most married people with families couldn’t take.
“Robert, give the lady your copy of the contract, would you?” Trammel said without looking at the man, who seemed almost hurt by the request. He glared at Lisa with his dark eyes as he complied, unsnapping his briefcase, and digging through the papers until he found it. She couldn’t help staring at his face. It was long and narrow with a light mustache above his lip. And he was pale—an unhealthy kind of pale—like someone who spent too much time in the office and too little time sleeping. He thrust the contract at her, and Lisa grabbed it, quelling the urge to do a victory dance. This had turned out better than she had hoped.
“You’ll get it eventually anyway and it’s a done deal. I don’t know why the IDA is holding out on you. The deal is good for us and it’s good for the city. With the riverfront and these gorgeous old, brick buildings, this place will be a tourist destination. And this is just the start. There’s no end to what we can do here.”
Trammel took one last look around before he got into his car. The junior partner, Robert, was last to leave. He focused on the road ahead as he eased his vehicle away from the curb, but Lisa could tell he was still fuming by his stiff neck and jaw, and his hard grip on the wheel. She didn’t blame him. Trammel had a dismissive way of treating his employees that was almost humiliating. He could just as easily have asked the guy to email or fax her a copy. This was about power. Making him give up his copy was a way of putting him in his place.
She stood there on the sidewalk for a few minutes after they’d all gone, enjoying the quiet that followed. It was an interesting transition from Iron City Heights and its abundance of vacant buildings to the heart of the city. If she walked even a mile further east, she would reach Toast and Roast, an espresso bar by day and a wine bar by night. Its neighbors included a small independent theater and a vegetarian restaurant. The walk would become even livelier as she continued east with customers frequenting a dry cleaner, a vacuum repair shop and other such businesses—the mom-and-pop kind of places. Eventually, if she kept going, she would reach the newspaper building, the courthouse, the offices of Trammel and others like him, along with all the upscale restaurants, bars and delis that profited from the various hungers of their employees. From vacant to bustling in only about a five-mile stretch. The two worlds seemed so far apart.
There was still life in Iron City Heights beyond the squatters. The area was home to a few scattered businesses—warehouses for stores located elsewhere, a couple of auto shops, a small mattress factory—but most of those were on the western fringe of Iron City Heights, where the landscape transitioned to highway and then to the more blue-collar suburbs. Here, at its center, closer to the riverfront where Trammel had held his press conference, Iron City Heights was hollow, empty, and broken. The homeless took shelter in some buildings at night, cats roamed the streets at all hours and money and bags were exchanged from the open windows of passing cars. Where would they all go when the rich moved in, Lisa wondered as she walked back.
Lisa hadn’t bothered to lock her black Toyota Camry, the same car she’d driven for the past six years. One look at the odometer and even the dumbest of criminals would choose to walk instead. Already, it had one hundred and sixty thousand miles on it from her drives all over the region for interviews and breaking news, and it was full of discarded food wrappers, old newspapers, and ponytail holders in case she needed a spare. She was determined to at least clean it before the summer’s end, though it seemed that was a resolution that kept rolling over from year to year. Still, she wasn’t surprised when she noticed the back passenger-side door was slightly ajar. She’d left a handful of change on the console, more than a dollar, probably. To desperate addicts, every penny counted, and there were probably more than a few people squatting in the old factory buildings here.
She slowed her pace as she approached her car but could see no one inside. She knew better than to catch a drug addict in the act. Addicts could summon amazing strength when their weakened bodies were desperate for more. Lisa steeled herself for the mess she might find—slashed seats, an empty glove compartment, radio wires bulging from the dashboard—and pulled the door open. Then she screamed, dropping her notebook as she raised her hands to her mouth. On the floor was a man—small, curled up and filthy. She leaned in for a better look and, for a moment, she thought he was dead. His fingers were deformed and covered with bloody, swollen gashes. His lips were blistered and dry. His cheek bones protruded from his dark skin. He was thin and drawn. Then he looked at her with dull, pleading eyes and put a finger to his lips, a movement that seemed to drain his last bit of energy.
Lisa was so shaken she hadn’t even noticed the gold sedan that had come around the corner and was now stopped before her, or the driver who had rolled down the window and was asking whether she was okay. His shouts grew louder, and Lisa faintly heard them through her shock, and then pulled herself out of it. The man on her car floor was trembling now.
She saw then what was going on and she should have said, no—that she was not okay. She should have done whatever was necessary to get that man out of her car. But he was pitiful, he was pleading, and he was sick, and the man in the sedan, who had gotten out and was standing inside his open door, was too well-dressed in his expensive golf shirt and silken slacks. For whatever reason, the man hiding in her Camry was afraid of the other guy. His fear should have persuaded Lisa to stay out of it, but she couldn’t do that to him. She would always wonder, always fear, what had become of him, and living with that guilt would be far worse than anything else she could imagine.
“I’m sorry,” Lisa said, trying to still her shaking hands. She silently vowed to call an ambulance and the police as soon as the driver disappeared. “There was a bee in my car and I’m allergic. I freaked out for a second, but it’s gone. I’m fine.”
Lisa slammed the door shut, picked up her notebook and walked around to the driver’s side. She expected the man in the sedan to keep moving, to drive away. Instead, he got back in his car, leaned out his window and looked Lisa up and down. His hand rested on the window frame, and he drummed his fingers as he watched her, tapping a thick, gold ring on the metal. She was suddenly conscious of the fact that she was almost as overdressed for the neighborhood as he was even though she wore jeans and had pulled her long, brown hair into a simple ponytail. Her jeans were too expensive, and her hair was too smooth. Her boots were Italian.
“Not a good idea for a lady like you to be hanging out here.”
The driver smirked. It was the kind of smirk that told her he was used to getting his way, especially with women. She was tempted to show him just how effective her daily runs, her pushups and her kickboxing routine were against men like him. She was nearly killed covering a story two years ago—twice. She wasn’t going to let that happened again, and she would have loved to practice her own moves on him. Instead, she pulled herself together and gave him the flirtatious smile he was looking for. Better to play the game.
“I’m a reporter. I was here for a press conference, but I’m leaving now,” she said. “Maybe you’d better get out of here, too. That’s a nice car you’re driving.”
“I would, but I’m looking for a man,” he said, his expression more serious now. “Maybe you’ve seen him. He escaped from Oakland, the psychiatric hospital, and might have gotten into a fight with some local guys. He’s probably beaten up pretty bad. He stopped taking his meds and he’s dangerous. You know, they’re unpredictable when they do that. He’s a Black guy. Not too tall. Skinny. The last we heard, he was wandering around here.”
Liar, Lisa thought. She’d done enough time on the crime beat to know that if the guy hiding in her car really did escape and really was dangerous, there’d be a patrol car or two looking for him as well. She hadn’t seen any cops in the neighborhood except those who were assigned to the press conference, and they had left the second it ended.
“I haven’t seen him and, like I said, I’m leaving now.” Lisa climbed into her car, turned the key, and started the engine. The stowaway’s stench almost drove her back out—a mix of sweat, blood and rot. She worked hard to keep a straight face and look forward, but the sedan did not move. This driver was not going to leave until she did. So, she did. Lisa left Iron City Heights with the interview in her notebook and a near-corpse in her back seat.
