Operation Power Play Read Free Page A

then Connie again. “I’m guessing you’re the one with the problem?”
    Aunt Connie blinked. “What?” She glanced down at the dog now sitting at her feet staring up at Brett, then at the man himself. “You mean he knows?”
    “I have a feeling that’s why I’m here. Why he led me here.”
    Clearly startled, Connie put a hand to her throat. “Oh, dear. My problem isn’t anything like that. No one’s missing, and certainly not one of those cold-case things.”
    “She’s having a problem with the county,” Sloan explained. “A permit problem.”
    “We need to build a new house,” Connie said, “a single-story, up the hill in back. My husband isn’t well, and the stairs are too much for him now.”
    “So what’s the problem?”
    “They’re saying we can’t subdivide the acreage,” she said.
    He frowned. “You own the property?”
    Connie nodded. “Twelve acres. And we can’t afford to build unless we sell this house.”
    Brett turned to look at the tidy Craftsman-style two-story. “Beautiful, isn’t it?” Sloan said. Uncle Chuck had maintained it immaculately, and the yard was a showplace cottage-style garden.
    “Yes. You should have no trouble selling it.”
    “It will be sad,” Connie said. “This was our dream house, but needs have changed.”
    Brett looked back at her. “Could you sell it all and build what you need somewhere else?”
    Tears brimmed anew in Connie’s eyes. “It’s already breaking Chuck’s heart that we have to move out of this house. It would just kill him if we had to leave this land altogether because of him. His family has owned it for five generations.”
    “I’d rent this house from them,” Sloan said, “but that doesn’t get them the money they’d need for building.” She put her arm comfortingly around Connie’s shoulders. “It’s awful. She’s dealt with so much since my uncle’s heart attack. And they’re just being ridiculous about it. The standard for this entire area is a minimum of two-and-a-half-acre parcels. But she’s suddenly not allowed to break up twelve?”
    “What’s their reason?” he asked.
    “Some nonsense about the entire area being under study for possible changes, and everything is frozen in the meantime.” She knew her voice was rising, but it was so unfair it just made her angry.
    “Sounds typical,” he said.
    “Except,” she snapped, “that they decided to study it only after my aunt and uncle put in their application. It’s a specious technicality, at best. County bureaucrats.”
    She realized suddenly that the man she was talking to worked for that same county.
    “Sorry,” she said hastily. “I didn’t mean anything personal.”
    He gave her a crooked smile that again reminded her of her thought when he’d first laughed: he looked like a man who didn’t do it very often.
    “I’m not one of them,” he said. “And sometimes I get as angry at them as you are.”
    She felt even worse. “I didn’t mean to imply you were. It’s just that the whole thing is so unfair.”
    “It certainly doesn’t seem right,” he said. He glanced at his watch, a complicated-looking thing like the one Jason used to wear.
    “I’m sorry—we’ve truly spoiled your run,” she said quickly.
    “I’m sure you have other, more important things to do than talk about my little problem,” Connie added.
    “It’s not little to you,” he said, and Sloan thought she could have hugged him for that. When she caught herself wondering what that would feel like, she nearly jerked back in shock.
    “I was just checking the time to see how long before they’d be in at the county offices,” he said. “I know somebody over there. Maybe I could make a call, find out more about what’s going on.”
    Sloan stared at him. Connie took an audible breath and again put her hand to her throat.
    “No promises,” Brett said hurriedly. “I may only find out that what they told you is right.”
    “Of course,” Connie said, “but that