The Stars Shine Down

Lara replaced the receiver.

"If you need anything, let me know," Lara said. "I'll be back to see you tomorrow."

Lara's next stop was at the architectural offices of Higgins, Almont & Clark. She was ushered in to see Mr. Clark. He rose as she walked into his office.

"What a nice surprise. What can I do for you, Miss Cameron?"

"Do you have the plans here for the project on Fourteenth Street?"

"Yes, indeed."

He went over to his drawing board. "Here we are."

There was a sketch of a beautiful high rise complex with apartment buildings and shops around it.

"I want you to redraw it," Lara said.

"What?"

Lara pointed to a space in the middle of the block. "There's a building still standing in this area. I want you to draw the same concept, but construct it around that building."

"You mean you want to put up the project with one of the old buildings still standing? It would never work. First of all, it would look terrible and..."

"Just do it, please. Send it over to my office this afternoon."

And Lara was gone.

From the car she telephoned Terry Hill. "Have you heard from Howard yet?"

"Yes. The squatters have all been cleared out."

"Good. Get the district attorney on the phone. Tell him that I had ordered those squatters out two days ago and that there was a lack of communication. The minute I heard about it, today, I had them moved out. I'm on my way back to the office now. See if he still wants to arrest me."

She said to the driver, "Drive through the park. Take your time."

Thirty minutes later, when Lara reached her office, the men with the warrant were gone.

Lara was in a meeting with Howard Keller and Terry Hill.

"The tenants still won't budge," Keller said. "I even went back and offered them more money. They're not leaving. We've only got five days left before we have to begin bulldozing."

Lara said, "I asked Mr. Clark to draw up a new blueprint for the project."

"I saw it," Keller said. "It doesn't make any sense. We can't leave that old building standing in the middle of a new giant construction. We're going to have to go to the bank and ask them if they'll move back the start date."

"No," Lara said. "I want to move it up."

"What?"

"Get hold of the contractor. Tell him we want to start bulldozing tomorrow."

"Tomorrow? Lara..."

"First thing in the morning. And take that blueprint and give it to the foreman of the construction crew."

"What good will that do?" Keller asked.

"We'll see."

The following morning the remaining tenants of the Dorchester Apartments were awakened by the roar of a bulldozer. They looked out of their windows. Halfway down the block, as they watched, a mechanical behemoth was moving toward them, leveling everything in its path. The tenants were stunned.

Mr. Hershey, who lived on the top floor, rushed outside and hurried over to the foreman. "What do you think you're doing?" he screamed. "You can't go ahead with this."

"Who says so?"

"The city does." Hershey pointed to the building he lived in. "You're not permitted to touch that building."

The foreman looked at the blueprint in front of him. "That's right," he said. "We have orders to leave that building standing."

Hershey frowned. "What? Let me see that." He looked at the plan and gasped. "They're going to put up the plaza and leave this building standing?"

"That's right, mister."

"But they can't do that! The noise and dirt!"

"That's not my problem. Now, if you'll get out of my way, I'd like to get back to work."

Thirty minutes later Lara's secretary said, "There's a Mr. Hershey on line two, Miss Cameron."

"Tell him I'm not available."

When Hershey called for the third time that afternoon, Lara finally picked up the phone and spoke with him.

"Yes, Mr. Hershey. What can I do for you?"

"I'd like to come in and see you, Miss Cameron."

"I'm afraid I'm rather busy. Whatever it is you have to say you can say on the phone."

"Well, you'll be glad to know that I've talked to the other tenants in our building and we've agreed that it might be best after all to take your offer and vacate our apartments."

"That offer is no longer good, Mr. Hershey. You can all stay where you are."

"If you build around us, we're never going to get any sleep!"

"Who told you we were going to build around you?" Lara demanded. "Where did you get that information?"

"The foreman on the job showed me a blueprint and..."

"Well, he's going to be fired." There was fury in Lara's voice. "That was confidential information."

"Wait a minute. Let's talk like two reasonable people, okay? Your project would be better off if we got out of here, and I think we'd be better off leaving. I don't want to live in the middle of a damned high rise."

Lara said, "It doesn't matter to me whether you go or stay, Mr. Hershey." Her voice softened. "I'll tell you what I'll do. If that building is vacated by next month I'm willing to go with our first offer."

She could hear him thinking it over.

Finally he said reluctantly, "Okay. I'll talk to the others, but I'm sure it will be all right. I really appreciate this, Miss Cameron."

Lara said, "It's been my pleasure, Mr. Hershey."

The following month, work on the new project began in earnest.