Page 58 of Finding Home

His grandfather had built things and then left them behind when life moved him elsewhere. Not because he hadn’t cared, but because his circumstances had always carried him forward before he could put down roots in any one place. Cole had spent thirty-five years doing the same thing.

He looked where the shed had been and thought about what this ground would become. A terrace, eventually. Somewhere guests would sit on summer evenings with their drinks and their conversations, looking toward the lake without knowing anything about what had stood here before.

That seemed right.

Cole turned when he heard footsteps on the gravel behind him.

“I’ve just heard from the insurance company,” Noah said excitedly. “They’ve settled the claim for the full amount. The money will be in our account within the week.”

Cole’s eyes widened. “Are you sure they’re paying all of it?”

“Excluding our excess, every last cent.”

Cole exhaled. The full claim had been in doubt since the meeting with Randall Voss, when the security protocol question had been raised. Madeline had been working on it, sending documents and arguments and revised assessments. Cole had told himself not to count on the outcome until there was one.

Now there was. “Call Madeline. She’ll want to know,” Cole said.

“Already texted her. She’s relieved.”

So was Cole. “We’ll need to let our investors know. The bank wanted us to call them, too.”

Noah placed his hand on Cole’s shoulder. “I can do all that. Go and tell Julie. You know she’ll take all the credit for pushing the insurance company to review their decision, don’t you.”

Cole smiled. “I wouldn’t expect anything less, especially when her articles helped us. I’ll call her, then come and see you before I leave.”

Noah nodded. “Sounds good.”

Cole walked back to his truck and picked up his phone. Julie answered on the second ring.

“You went to the site,” she said.

“This isn’t a video call. How did you know?”

Julie laughed. “I know you almost as well as I know myself. You’ve been trying to find any excuse to go to Finley Point for the last week. I’m just surprised you stayed away this long.”

“You kept me busy,” Cole told her. A pair of geese flew low over the water, following the shoreline north. “I promised the doctor I was only going to look.”

“And did you?”

“Mostly.” He paused. “The foundation work is further along than I expected. Dave McGuire told me his crew has been giving it everything.”

“That doesn’t surprise me.”

“It surprised me,” Cole said. “Maybe it shouldn’t have.”

A moment of silence came through the line, the easy kind.

“Noah just heard from the insurers,” Cole told Julie. “They’ve settled the whole claim.”

He heard the small intake of breath on Julie’s end. “That’s amazing, Cole.”

“I know.”

“It’s everything you could have hoped for.”

“It’s almost everything,” he said. The police had arrested Harmon, but there were other people who worked for him that were just as dodgy.

Julie sighed. “My final article comes out this week. I don’t see how the Sargeson Group will continue once their shareholders realize how corrupt their senior management team has become.”