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but the possibilities were immediately evident. It was a surprisingly large room with antiquated facilities and tasteless furniture. Lara’s heart began to beat faster. It’s perfect, she thought.

      She walked downstairs. The stairway was old and had a musty smell. The carpets were worn, but underneath she found the same marble.

      Lara returned the key to the desk clerk.

      ‘Did you see what you wanted?’

      ‘Yes,’ Lara said. ‘Thank you.’

      He grinned at her. ‘You really going to buy this joint?’

      ‘Yes,’ Lara said. ‘I’m really going to buy this joint.’

      ‘Cool,’ he said.

      The elevator door opened and the young hooker and her elderly john emerged. She handed the key and some money to the clerk. ‘Thanks, Mike.’

      ‘Have a nice day,’ Mike called. He turned to Lara. ‘Are you coming back?’

      ‘Oh, yes,’ Lara assured him, ‘I’m coming back.’

      

      Lara’s next stop was at the City Hall of Records. She asked to see the records on the property that she was interested in. For a fee of ten dollars, she was handed a file on the Congressional Hotel. It had been sold to the Diamond brothers five years earlier for six million dollars.

      

      The office of the Diamond brothers was in an old building on a corner in State Street. An oriental receptionist in a tight red skirt greeted Lara as she walked in.

      ‘Can I help you?’

      ‘I’d like to see Mr Diamond.’

      ‘Which one?’

      ‘Either of them.’

      ‘I’ll give you John.’

      She picked up the phone and spoke into it. ‘There’s a lady here to see you, John.’ She listened a moment then looked up at Lara. ‘What’s it about?’

      ‘I want to buy one of his hotels.’

      She spoke into the mouthpiece again. ‘She says she wants to buy one of your hotels. Right.’ She replaced the receiver. ‘Go right in.’

      John Diamond was a huge man, middle-aged and hairy, and he had the pushed-in face of a man who had once played a lot of football. He was wearing a short-sleeved shirt and smoking a large cigar. He looked up as Lara entered his office.

      ‘My secretary said you wanted to buy one of my buildings.’ He studied her a moment. ‘You don’t look old enough to vote.’

      ‘Oh, I’m old enough to vote,’ Lara assured him. ‘I’m also old enough to buy one of your buildings.’

      ‘Yeah? Which one?’

      ‘The Cong essi nal Hotel.’

      ‘The what?’

      ‘That’s what the sign says. I assume it means “Congressional”.’

      ‘Oh. Yeah.’

      ‘Is it for sale?’

      He shook his head. ‘Gee, I don’t know. That’s one of our big money-makers. I’m not sure we could let it go.’

      ‘You have let it go,’ Lara said.

      ‘Huh?’

      ‘It’s in terrible shape. The place is falling apart.’

      ‘Yeah? Then what the hell do you want with it?’

      ‘I’d like to buy it and fix it up a little. Of course, it would have to be delivered to me vacant.’

      ‘That’s no problem. Our tenants are on a week-to-week basis.’

      ‘How many rooms does the hotel have?’

      ‘A hundred and twenty-five. The gross building area is a hundred thousand square feet.’

      Too many rooms, Lara thought. But if I combine them to create suites, I would end up with sixty to seventy-five keys. It could work.

      It was time to discuss price.

      ‘If I decided to buy the building, how much would you want for it?’

      Diamond said, ‘If I decided to sell the building, I’d want ten million dollars, a six million cash down payment …’

      Lara shook her head, ‘I’ll offer …’

      ‘… period. No negotiating.’

      Lara sat there, mentally figuring the cost of renovation. It would be approximately eighty dollars per square foot, or eight million dollars, plus furniture, fixtures and equipment.

      Lara’s mind was furiously calculating. She was sure she could get a bank to finance the loan. The problem was that she needed six million dollars in equity, and she only had three million. Diamond was asking too much for the hotel, but she wanted it. She wanted it more than anything she had ever wanted in her life.

      ‘I’ll make you a deal,’ Lara said.

      He was listening. ‘Yeah?’

      ‘I’ll give you your asking price …’

      He smiled. ‘So far so good.’

      ‘And I’ll give you a down payment of three million in cash.’

      He shook his head. ‘Can’t do it. I’ve got to have six million in cash up front.’

      ‘You’ll have it.’

      ‘Yeah? Where’s the other three coming from?’

      ‘From you.’

      ‘What?’

      ‘You’re going to give me a second mortgage for three million.’

      ‘You want to borrow money from me to buy my building?’

      It was the same thing Sean MacAllister had asked her in Glace Bay.

      ‘Look at it this way,’ Lara said. ‘You’re really borrowing the money from yourself. You’ll own the building until I pay it off. There’s no way you can lose.’

      He thought about it and grinned. ‘Lady, you just bought yourself a hotel.’

      

      Howard Keller’s office in the bank was a cubicle with his name on the door. When Lara walked in, he looked more rumpled than ever.

      ‘Back so soon?’

      ‘You told me to come and see you when I found a hotel. I found one.’

      Keller leaned back in his chair. ‘Tell me about it.’

      ‘I found an old hotel called the Congressional. It’s on Delaware. It’s a few blocks from Michigan Avenue. It’s rundown and seedy, and I want to buy it and turn it into the best hotel in Chicago.’

      ‘Tell me the deal.’

      Lara told him.

      Keller sat there, thinking. ‘Let’s run it past Bob Vance.’

      Bob Vance listened and made some notes. ‘It might be possible,’ he said, ‘but …’ He looked at Lara. ‘Have you ever run a hotel before, Miss Cameron?’

      Lara thought about all the years of running the boarding house in Glace Bay, making the beds, scrubbing the floors and doing the laundry and the dishes, trying to please the different personalities, and keep the peace.

      ‘I ran a boarding house full of miners and lumbermen. A hotel will be a cinch.’

      Howard Keller said, ‘I’d like to take a look at the property, Bob.’

      

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