Within days of Gord's departure, the landlord agent arrived to greet The Guardian again.  Though this time she brought not a message of hope and joy, but rather a message of despair and concern. She claimed that the store not only owed tens of thousands in unpaid rent (a total equivalent to 70% of the rent bill over 3 years), but that because The Guardian was running the store while The Gord was overseas that the debt now fell to him.  Further still, she threatened that this amount would be forcibly collected by the landlord taking everything that the Guardian owned or had ever touched.

Greatly concerned, The Guardian spoke to The Gord about this. The Gord noted that the rent claim was false as it would have meant that rent was not paid for over 2 years, but that even if such a debt did exist that it would be Gord's responsibility. Gord briefly explained contract law and how The Guardian had nothing to fear, and even if the landlord agent pushed the issue the only thing they could do would be to evict the store as they could not do a seizure as no lease agreement was in place.  

"If they honestly believe that I owe that much money, they can bill me." 

Legally, the only options open to the landlord should such a debt exist were eviction (in which no seizure could be made as the lease agreement had long expired and provincial law only allows for a seizure of assets for rent arrears when a lease agreement is in place that has a definite starting and ending date) or citing abandonment of the premises and doing a seizure.  Obviously tossing Gord's stuff out onto the street wouldn't really accomplish much for anyone as it would simply reduce the rental income from the store to zero in a building that was already half empty, but if a seizure could be orchestrated successfully it would be payday for everyone involved.

Gord returned to his riding and exploring.

But back in the homeland, things continue to spiral downward. In the past, The landlord himself had met Gord only once. The reason for this was that he was suffering from a degenerative disease and had departed to California to a hospital in the hope that they could help him. But all was for naught, and his condition slowly worsened. As he was out of the country, the landlord agent was hired and given free reign to run the building. And free reign was the order of the day as rent money given to her failed to arrive in the bank account of the landlord for the full amount. She had been taking cash for rent and writing a receipt, then creating a new receipt for the rent ledger and pocketing the difference.

Around the time of Gord's departure, the family of the landlord had taken an interest in the finances of the building  and noticed that a certain game store that appeared to have a lot of games and other inventory appeared to be some 2 years behind in the rent.  They requested that something be done.

Undaunted by the rule of law, The Agent pushed the lie that they were getting ready to seize the store and sue The Guardian for money owed. The Guardian was ignorant of how the law works in such matters, and upon the advice of others also not versed in law decided to capitalize on the moment. 

But to orchestrate such an event, it would take an organized conspiracy.  Thus a fine conspiracy involving three was born.  The Guardian, The Landlord Agent, and The Assistant to The Guardian.

All while Gord continued to ride his mountain bike on the far side of the world.