Chapter Three: An Eighteen-Million-Dollar Ruin

Salt filmed the lobby of the Bayview Hotel. A hurricane had torn open its east wing seven years earlier. Insurance disputes and an inheritance lawsuit had exhausted the owners, leaving the community bank with $4.6 million in bad debt. Even at a $1.2 million auction reserve, no one wanted it. Lena placed her hand on the marble reception desk. Gold raced through twelve floors. The rooms should not all return as hotel inventory. Floors four through six wanted long-stay apartments; the lower floors could reopen as a hotel, and the roof could host events. The fatal defect was not the roof, but a salt-corroded fire main in the basement.