by D J Harrison
‘Not really,’ Alex says. ‘I have seen him though, if he’s the man I’m thinking of I’ll have to watch my diet.’
‘Where would you have seen him?’
‘Oh, at the office, the occasional meeting. He’s the SG chairman isn’t he?’
‘Meetings with Hector?’ I’m feeling very confused. First Peter O’Brian, now Alex: is there no end to Hector Brighouse’s circle of influence?
‘Police liaison meetings mainly.’
‘Why would you be involved in them?’ I pull away and look Alex in the eyes.
‘Who do you think pays for it all?’ Alex smiles. ‘SG, the police, everybody, it’s all government-funded one way or another, or didn’t you know? Security Group operate prisons on our behalf, transport criminals around for the police. We’re their biggest customers by far.’
‘I do know.’ I just didn’t think of Alex in meetings with SG and the police.
I hope they never talk about me.
69
‘Don’t eat anything until the numbness wears off,’ my dentist advises as I leave on shaky legs. ‘We don’t want you eating your own mouth, do we?’ he adds pointlessly.
I think all his cheerfulness is entirely false, that he enjoys the prodding and drilling as little as his patients and that very soon he will gas himself in his Porsche. Meanwhile, he’s fixed my teeth, or rather dragged them out and replaced them with pretend ones.
By the time I negotiate the awkward entrance to my solicitors and sit down opposite Suriya, a painful throbbing is beginning, even though my lips are still floppy and numb. She appears to be in glorious health, eyes bright, big smile. Life as her must be very good indeed. She pushes across a thick document.
‘We need to go through this, thanks for sparing the time to come in.’
‘Well, I need this deal to be completed, so I’m not going to hold it up.’
‘Can I get you something, you look as if you’re suffering?’
‘No, I’m fine, let’s get on with it.’ I know she’s being kind, but I don’t need her for anything other than sorting out the paperwork.
‘Are you sure, can I get you some paracetamol maybe?’
‘No thanks. What are these documents? They’re an inch thick. What is all this stuff, it’s only complicating matters, surely?’
‘These are the warranties. I didn’t produce them. They come from the other side.’
‘Warranties?’
‘Yes. Documents that deal with the information you have supplied on the state of the business. You will be confirming that everything is in order, that there’s nothing you haven’t disclosed. They give SG the right to withhold or take back money if they’re not complied with.’
‘I don’t understand. Why do we have to do this? What about the due diligence exercise, surely it’s up to SG to satisfy themselves they’re getting what they’re paying for?’
‘Yes it is, but this is an additional safeguard for them in case they’ve missed anything.’
‘What if I refuse to sign this?’
‘Look, Jenny, there’s nothing in these documents that need be of concern to you. They only confirm that what you’ve told SG is the truth. That there’s nothing you’re hiding from them. It gives them some comfort in case anything else comes to light, but of course it won’t, will it?’
‘I hear what you say, but as far as I’m concerned, SG can look at the business and make up their own minds. I’m not underwriting any of their mistakes. If it turns out to be a bad deal for them, I’m not giving them back my money.’
‘I’m sure it won’t come to that. SG are a public company, they have to do things properly and that includes insisting on warranties. You won’t get the deal done at all if you can’t agree them.’
‘Okay, where do I sign?’
‘We need to go through the documents, I have to explain what they mean and we should make changes where we’re not happy.’
‘It’ll take hours, look at them, they’re huge. There’s no point in going through them, you said so yourself. If I don’t sign them I lose the deal, so I’ll sign.’
‘But there may be some things you don’t agree to, remember they produced these documents.’
‘Have you read them?’ I ask.
‘Yes.’
‘Then tell me, is there anything unusually onerous about them?’
‘No, not really.’
‘Fine, I’ll sign them. Now please can we get on with making this deal happen, I can’t afford any delay.’
I can tell she’s disappointed in me, that she expects me to show more interest in the detail. If SG ever decide to use these agreements, I hope they’ll find their money long gone and totally inaccessible. I know what I have to do now and can’t be putting energy into arguing irrelevant niceties.
My jaw is aching so much I can hardly see. My eyes are screwed up in defence against the pain. All I want to do is go home, curl up and suffer in peace.
As I stagger out of the office, Suriya says, ‘Oh by the way, I had a phone call from a solicitor who says you’ve agreed to sell GOD Security to a company called O’Brian Construction. I told him he must be mistaken, that we were already progressing a deal and that it was almost complete. He seemed quite surprised.’
She shouldn’t have told them anything. I look at her face and I see she is oblivious to the implication of what she’s done. My face pain is too severe for me to even begin to try to explain to the woman how badly she has let me down.
70
‘What’s happened to your face?’ Tim’s wife asks without a trace of concern in her voice. I consider several rude answers then settle for, ‘I’ve had some trouble with my teeth, needed a lot of work doing, bit painful still.’
I can see from her face that she’s disappointed. How she would love to hear the truth, how I had my head kicked in by Ukrainian policemen. She’d use it as an excuse to keep Toby from me. But even the most errant of mothers is entitled to visit the dentist once in a while.
Toby goes to her, gives her a hug but looks round at me while he’s doing it. We’ve had a good day, my son and I. There’s something settling between us. The tension isn’t so high. We both relax more when we’re together. I suppose it’s me, that Toby has been reacting to my gloomy moods, my desperation, my anger. After my short stay in a Ukrainian prison, I feel better about the situation with Toby, I even find Tim and his wife more amusing than irritating. More pathetic than threatening. Gone are the days when I felt compelled to justify myself to them at every meeting, making up excuses for my slip-shod parenting and haphazard lifestyle. It must be finally getting through to my sub-conscious that I’m no longer married to Tim and that what he thinks of me is irrelevant.
The main thing is that Toby seems to be thriving. He’s unaffected by my absence, safe without my constant attention. I am grateful for what Tim is doing, even to the extent that I have some grudging regard for his wife. At least she seems absolutely devoted to Toby, even I can get that.
Alex has helped. Without him I don’t think I could have changed. My bitterness would have burned right through and destroyed me. Now things are very different and as long as Alex loves me I’m not afraid. With that thought the fear comes flooding back. Of course he won’t love me for ever, nobody ever does that. He could be pretending, but why he should bother is beyond me. He could be run over by a bus, go back to his wife, find someone really pretty and sexy, find someone who has a full complement of ears and teeth. Lots of things can happen. Alex says to live in the now, that there’s nothing else that’s real. All our past and future is imagination, only now has any meaning.
O’Brian’s personal assistant tells me that he’s out of the country, holidaying in the Bahamas, and can’t be contacted. I can try an email but he’s not really got the hang of them yet and rarely remembers to check to see if he’s received any. Maybe that’s the best news I can possibly have. Maybe his lawyer hasn’t told him what Suriya stupidly blabbed. I hesitate to ring Hector to try to spee
d up the deal in case he begins to feel my desperation. There’s also the worrying possibility that his PA will tell me that he’s also on holiday in the Bahamas. Then I’ll really start to panic.
Alex has bought tickets for a concert tonight at the Lowry. It’s some band made up of geriatric musicians from other groups that have either split up or maybe died from old age. He’s very excited about it, he keeps referring to the aging participants as legends. I’ve never seen or heard any of them and, what with my aching teeth and my tiring day with Toby, have no desire to. All I need when I get home is Alex’s gentle hands on my body. He can teach me to breathe, he’s very good at that and I am close to getting the hang of it. He’s even gone to the trouble of booking a table for dinner. I’m very hungry and my sense of dutiful reluctance dissipates in the face of a square meal.
‘What do you fancy?’ Alex asks as we settle down at a nice table next to glass walls looking out onto the canal side.
‘Something soft,’ I answer, ‘and not too hot, otherwise my teeth hurt, and a lukewarm drink please, no ice in my coke.’
His smile lifts me. When he reacts so positively to my moaning, I get a warm feeling that everything is going to be fine. Even the prospect of O’Brian derailing the deal with SG fades into the realm of unlikelihood.
‘I’ll mash everything up for you,’ Alex says. ‘I’ll even chew your meat for you if you like.’
‘I’m not a baby bird, there’s no need to drop pre-digested food down my gullet. My teeth are just a bit sensitive, that’s all. I’ll manage the pasta perfectly well, thank you.’
‘Have you heard from Lottie? What’s happening over in Ukraine?’
‘Yes, she’s emailed me to say she’s okay, that the police aren’t pressing charges now that I’m not there.
‘But she didn’t do anything.’
‘She was with me when I was fighting with the police. I felt sure she’d be put in prison with me, I was so scared for her. If she had been I’d never have left Ukraine, I still can’t believe how that weird man from the Consulate managed to get me out of there.’
‘Why do you call him weird?’
‘Oh there was something very strange about him, Alex. It was as if he knew a lot more than he was letting on. I’m quite certain he’d already arranged to have me released and flown home before he even met me.’
‘At least you should be grateful to him,’ Alex laughs. ‘Calling him weird isn’t very gracious.’
‘Oh I’m grateful all right. I’d do anything to get out of that place. Giving him a blow job was the least I could do under the circumstances.’
Alex’s eyes widen in surprise for an instant, then his face relaxes again. Too late. I got him with that one. We both know it and giggle together, like naughty five-year-olds.
‘Chris is still over there with Lottie for her father’s funeral. He sent me an email this morning with an attachment, showing the journeys made by the trailer I tagged.’
‘Oh, anything interesting?’
‘No, not really. It’s been nowhere near Ukraine, I’m beginning to realise that linking it to Kat’s disappearance was too much of a long shot.’
‘Where did the trailer go?’ Alex asks.
‘Italy, mainly Italy.’
‘I’d like to see Chris’s email, there might be something we can learn from it.’
‘I doubt it. You can have it if you like but I don’t think it’s any use at all. Doesn’t even get as far as Bulgaria, never mind the Ukraine.’
The concert isn’t that bad after all, the lead singer is vaguely familiar and has a wonderful blues voice. It’s very light-hearted but slick and accomplished. I even insist on Alex buying me a CD from the foyer which I know I’ll never play but it makes me feel good just to carry it home with me.
‘There,’ I open Chris’s attachment and leave Alex to look at it while I make some mint tea.
71
‘Can you be in London on the 29th?’ Suriya’s question confuses me for a moment, then I almost drop the phone in excitement.
‘Is it all set for then, that’s when the deal gets done?’
‘Yes, everything’s agreed, all the documents are ready to sign.’
‘So why do I have to traipse all the way to London?’
‘Security Group’s lawyers are in London, also they have certain stock market announcements to make and analysts to brief. It does need to happen in London, believe me.’
My heart is racing. Next Wednesday, less than a week until I get my freedom and my money. A prick of concern catches me briefly when I remember that O’Brian is returning from holiday on Monday. He will have two days to stick his oar in, but maybe it’s too late for him to do anything to stop me now. Maybe he’ll have more pressing things to do with his time than rain on my parade, but I doubt it.
His relationship with Hector is still a worry. Even though it seems that O’Brian hasn’t been told about the impending deal, one phone call to his pal might still ruin everything.
‘You will be there?’ Suriya asks. ‘You have to attend in person, the deal can’t proceed without you.’
‘Of course I’ll be there,’ I say.
‘The meeting’s at ten o’clock. I’ll be going down the day before and staying the night in a hotel. Would you like me to get my secretary to arrange for us to travel together?’
‘No,’ I answer quickly. My abruptness is in danger of being rude. ‘That’s very kind of you, but I’ll make my own arrangements.’ The prospect of a night away from Alex doesn’t attract me one bit.
‘If you intend to go down on Wednesday, you’ll need to get the 7 a.m. train from Piccadilly. It’ll be an early start and a long day.
‘Long day? Surely all I have to do is sign a few papers.’
‘I think you’ll find that there’s much more to do than that. Issues have a habit of cropping up at the last minute, there’s always something to resolve.’
I don’t like the sound of this. O’Brian is still nagging at me. ‘I’ll be fine. I’ll see you on Wednesday then.’
‘The offices are on Bishop’s Square. I’ll email you directions.’
Although I can’t shake off the haunted feeling I have about O’Brian, the prospect of moving out of Salford grips me with greater intensity.
The estate agent’s phone rings out for so long I almost give up. The uninterested voice that eventually answers makes me wonder how the most expensive and most life-changing transaction of my whole life ended up in the hands of a young girl like her. I give her the property address, waiting patiently while she taps it into her computer.
‘Yes?’ she asks.
‘I want to increase my offer.’
‘The vendors have told us that they want the full asking price of five hundred thousand.’
‘Well they’re not going to get it. I’m interested in the house because it’s empty and I can move in right away. Every day they leave it empty they’re losing money. House prices are going nowhere but down, don’t they read the papers?’
‘We’ve had a lot of interest in the property.’
‘But no offers, apart from mine. How long has it been on the market?’
‘Oh,’ she hesitates. ‘A couple of months, that’s all.’
‘More like a couple of years. It was with another agent before you.’
‘Oh, I wouldn’t know about that.’
‘Tell them I’ll pay them four hundred and fifty thousand, that’s my last offer and I want a quick sale.’
‘I don’t think they’ll agree to that,’ she says. ‘The property is marketed at offers over five hundred, your offer is below.’
‘Tell them I’m a cash buyer, they’ll not get another chance. In fact give me their number and I’ll speak to them myself.’
‘Oh no, that’s not possible. All negotiations are to be conducted through us, the sole agents.’
‘Do you really think that they’ll get a better offer than mine?’
‘They might.’
‘Have
they had any other offers at all?’
‘I’m not sure.’
‘That’s a no, then. Look, it’s in both our interests for you to make sure they realise that mine is the best offer they are ever going to get.’
‘I suppose so.’
‘Good, I’ll ring tomorrow. Thanks for all your help.’
The truth is I need this house, this particular house. Okay, it’s a very nice house with a lovely garden and breathtaking views but there are quite a few homes that match that description, but not so many that are vacant, that I can move into right away. My list is down to one, this one. When I factor in the location in relation to Toby’s school it’s a five minute walk to his primary school and there’s an excellent secondary school ten minutes’ walk in the other direction. I’m thinking strategically now, even long term, which is a new experience for me. By being so damned handy, I’m banking on Toby spending more and more time with me. Walking to my house after school, staying over to make the school run easier for Tim. I plan to be nice, accommodating, but not pushy. Toby will come my way, I’m sure of it. Anyway, it sure beats the hell out of the only other option, kidnapping him and trying to smuggle him out of the country to somewhere without extradition arrangements. There’s no way I’d ever put my Toby through that, no matter how desperate I got or how bad I felt. The notion of Toby growing up in somewhere like Argentina is absurd, I can’t believe I once even considered it.
The price is a problem. By the time I’ve split the sale proceeds with Doreen and paid the tax I’ll hardly have enough to buy the house and I’ll not be comfortable until I sell the flat, if I ever do. The most likely prospect is to rent the place out, taking the money in dribs and drabs and hoping against hope for some clean, honest tenants – fat chance of that.
72
It’s Alex’s idea to spend the whole weekend shopping, cooking, cleaning, washing and preparing before a few hours of partying at my flat. By the time the guests arrive I’m almost completely exhausted and all I want to do is curl up in a corner with Alex until they’ve eaten and drunk everything and left. He is bright-eyed, enjoying the small yet select number who I can reasonably label as friends of mine. Either he’s not got any friends of his own or he’s ashamed to show me them. I encouraged him to invite some work colleagues but he hasn’t bothered. Instead he seems to be enjoying himself in my world.
