Undercover Rose
Chapter 101

Copyright© 2013 by carniegirl

Both of the bait dogs were female Brittany Spaniels. They were also both Brown and white long hair beauties but very troubled with sad eyes. I adopted them both instantly. They were damaged ladies much like myself.

The first day they wouldn't eat at all. The one I called Lady limped and the one I called Tramp was covered with scars. I wanted to cry every time I saw them. I didn't even ask what the vet said about their injuries. I knew they were more damaged inside than outside. How I knew I didn't understand, I just did.

"I wish ghost were real, I would hunt that bastard down in hell and make sure he suffered even more than his crimes called for," Liam said.

"Too bad," I said.

The second day they ate at the little food station I made for them in tool shed. I did that because they wanted to be totally alone. They wanted nothing, but to be left alone.

"Give them a few more days, then we will try to civilize them again," Sterlin said.

"No, if they never want to come out, we won't force them. They have had enough terror in their lives. Let them do whatever they want as long as they are not harming themselves," I said.

"Rose, we have to be able to put a leash on them. They need to learn we are not the enemy. They need to learn that all people are not bad," he said.

"Sterlin, we can't teach that. They have to just see that we love them, unconditionally. They have to feel that. Then we can try to get them to interact with us. In the mean time, move their houses into the shed. Put a little dog bed inside the house. Something to ease the pain of Lady's joint and something they can cuddle with," I demanded.

"They only need one house. They sleep huddled together even on warm nights," Sterlin said. His voice was gentle when he spoke about the dogs. Much more than when he spoke about people. I had the feeling he only tolerated people. I could certainly understand why he might feel that way.

To be honest Lady and Tramp kept me on the farm longer than I planned. I would have loved to take them on walks, but they didn't seem interested in any of us. They kept to themselves.

Every morning since their first full day, I had brought them an egg biscuit from the Dairy Queen. I walked into the shed and sat on a small milking stool. I would have sat on the concrete floor, except Lady and Tramp were not house trained. They usually went outside but not always. After the first week they were curious enough about their surrounding to venture onto the grounds.

By the second week they walked along the fence line where the fighting dogs were constrained. The new kennels were complete, so only two of the huge Rottweilers roamed there. The spaniels almost seemed to be saying they forgave the Rotties. I know that is silly, but it seemed that way.

After a week Lady and Tramp came to the back of the cabin for their biscuit without being lured. I knew then that it was time I put my plans into action. I had the Williamston lawyer set up the finances to match the plan.

It was four weeks and one day after Sylvia's wake when I called the two men into the cabin. "Well I see you have already returned Andrew's travel trailer."

"We moved out of it the week after the memorial service," Steve Explained.

"Good let me explain something. I am going to move off the farm. I have three choices. One is to sell it to that mega farm corporation. The second is to stay here and run it from town, while you manage it Steve. The third option is to sell it to you two. So, would you be interested?" I asked.

"You know I don't have that kind of money to buy this place," Steve said.

"Me neither," Sterlin said.

"Well I have a plan, I'm going to lease it to you. The big boys offered me five million.

I propose to hire you two until the next harvest. Then I propose leasing it to you for a percentage of the profits. You will have to pay it off before I sign it over to you. You will have no equity in the farm until it is all paid off. On the other hand, if you walk away, you owe nothing. You will have it in writing that as long as you are working the place, and paying the percentage you can't be turned out," I explained. "In other words the place will be yours from the first lease day. Run it anyway you want. I think I ran it efficiently, but if you can do better, more power to you."

I added, "There is one condition. Those dogs we have here are to be cared for. Their food and other expenses are to be considered operating expenses. They will be deducted before we figure profit or lease payments. If you agree, I'll have the contracts drawn," I said.

"I can't for the life of me see a downside to this," Sterlin said.

"Remember this, you accumulate no equity until the five mil is paid in full. If one of you walks away, then the other one gets his share of the equity. You two are going to have to get along for this to work. You will have to work together," I said. I knew it would do them good to be forced to work together. Each understood the night terrors of the other one. They had the land and the dogs to help them work through their fears. I should work, I thought.

"Have your shyster draw the papers," Sterlin said looking at Steve who nodded.

"Good, I will be a tenant on the farm till I get a place to go. I'm going to stay in Mossberg, I just don't know exactly where. I will arrange for the lawyer to count a reasonable rent toward your five million.

If Mossberg had a town square there would be four blocks on it. The tea factory on one side, the three semi attached buildings were across from the tea factory. A block of three attached building on a third and a vacant lot on the forth.

However there was no square, so the Tea Factory and the vacant lot were on the north side of the main street. On the south side of the street sat the building I renovated. Running beside that building was an alley then two attached buildings. One of those building was the Cafe. The old timers said it had always been a Cafe. Beside the Cafe was a two story building of about the same size and age. Since Bart and I did our things to the downtown the owner decided to covert it to indoor storage areas. He had installed fences of chain link and a security system including a code lock on the outside of the front door.

Across the street that paralleled with the river, and cut through main street, sat the forth block. It contained three attached buildings with a half block of parking on the river side. The river was two more blocks away from downtown. On those blocks were smaller businesses in much smaller and newer buildings.

You guessed it I bought the last empty block. I got the three rundown building and the parking lot for seventy five thousand cash. I think I was paying seventy four thousand for the building and one thousand for the parking lot. Since there was almost no downtown traffic, the parking lot had no real value to me. The building had on street parking, so I could have done without the parking lot. I guess the owner figured it was his only chance to dump it on some fool, so he bundled it with the buildings.

I bought it knowing full well that the real money would be in renovating the buildings. The buildings had been occupied by different offices over the years so they were in different stages of deterioration.

The corner building had last been a variety store or thrift shop nobody knew quite what to call it. The center building had been home to the small county newspaper. Then it had been the office of the phone co-op, and finally a land survey office and storage facility. The building on the parking lot side was in the worst condition of the three. It had been some kind of small hometown bank, then just sat empty for years. It had been rented out now and then as a temporary headquarters for everything from a national produce buyer, to a State Representative's campaign office.

First of all I hired a structural engineer to inspect the building. He informed me, "They just don't build them like this any more and it's a damn good thing. The foundation is solid but the mechanicals are shot all to hell. The Elevator is toast and the roof structure is still solid, but the deck and all the roofing is going to have to come down on all three buildings."

"Of course your windows are a mess but they probably can be re-caulked and painted. The wooden trim seems solid but there is no guarantee. It looks like the owner took some steps to protect his investment but not enough." That was the engineer's verdict.

"So securing that roof is the first thing to do?" I asked.

"Yeah then get the electrical redone so you can work on the buildings. I would say after that you have time to make good decisions on how you want to spend your half million bucks," he said.

"God, I hope you are quoting Mobile prices," I said.

"Good luck with this thing. It is definitely worth bringing back to life," the engineer suggested.

After he left I walked the three blocks to the river and gave it some thought. I decided I would replace all the roofing material at one time. Then once I had stabilized them I would work on one building at a time.

I sat by the water to call the only three roofers in my online phone book. I also called the man who six years before had worked on the tea factory's roof. Only the man who replaced the roof on the factory showed any real interest. He was interested because we had a history. He knew I paid in cash and on time. That brought him over on the third day.

"So take a good look at that roof. I want you to give me a price for the work on the combined roof repair. Tell me what it needs and then what you will charge me to fix it right," I said.

It was Friday before he got back to me but he did one more thing for me. He told me where I could get someone to remove the elevators for the parts. Rehabilitating an old building is like a spider web. Every crew knows another crew. Sometimes that second crew is good, sometimes not so much.

"So you got two elevators, I guess the last building didn't want an elevator," he said. "Okay we can take the elevator cage out and the motor. Those are about the only things of value. The cables are good but worthless. We can't removed the rails, they are part of the building's structure. The elevator is on the first floor now. We can dismantle it where it sits. We can also take the doors out. Let me make a suggestion. If you are sure you don't want the expense and hassle of an elevator. I can rig it so that you have a dumb waiter in both buildings. You will be able to load heavy or awkward stuff on the dumb waiter then go up upstairs and call the dumb waiter. Since lives aren't involved, they aren't so complicated."

 
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