Hot Property

by Susanne O’Leary

  Silence.

  Megan peered through the half-open door. She could see Dan’s back. Two hands sneaking up to his shoulders. They were hugging.

  “Oh, Danny, I hate this,” Maria said. “I hate that you have to flirt with that bitch just to get her out of the house.”

  “All for a good cause, though.”

  “You’re not sleeping with her?”

  Dan laughed. “Of course not. She’s not my type. You know I don’t like beefy women with big hips.”

  Megan had heard enough. Her knees shaking, she sneaked back down the steps to leave. But not before she heard Maria say, “Sweetheart, when all this is over, we’ll take a long break together.”

  “Oh, yes,” Dan said. “When we’ve sold that house and the land. Alistair is paying us quite a lot. Plus the commission for the sale. We could go somewhere really nice.”

  “Yes,” Maria purred. “If I can get some time off from the dreary welfare office.”

  ***

  “Shit! Shit, shit, shit, shit,” Megan sobbed, walking blindly to the harbour. “The fucking BASTAAAAAARD,” she shouted into the wind that was now roaring into her face, so strong it drowned her screams. She marched to the end of the pier and flung the cardboard box with her carefully prepared little picnic into the heaving, black water. The box bobbed on the waves, releasing two cupcakes that floated, like two pink breasts, until the sea swallowed them.

  Megan looked into the water and felt it pulling her down. It would be so easy… Such a neat ending. No more pain. She pulled back. No, not that. I can’t. I have to fight. I have to show the bastard he’s not going to win.

  The burning pain in her chest was so bad she could hardly breathe. She staggered to her car and got in. She sat there, staring into space. Not thinking, just hurting, fighting to stay sane. Fighting to not go back and plunge a knife into Dan Nolan’s chest. In her imagination she did just that and enjoyed the pain and terror in his eyes. The grimace of fear, his mouth open, his eyes staring. Oh, what pleasure to hear his screams for mercy…

  She gripped the steering wheel, fighting to get her calm back, to stop the screaming in her head. Revenge, she thought. I will get it. But not yet. As they say, it’s a dish best served cold. Oh, yes. It will be cold. Like ice.

  She calmed down. Her brain began to function again. She knew what to do. She had a plan. Or the beginning of one, anyway.

  Chapter 17

  “O’Mahony Solicitors, how can I help you?”

  “Could I speak to Jean O’Mahony, please? This is Megan O’Farrell.”

  “Megan! How are you?” the secretary said. “Jean just said she was wondering if she should give you a call.”

  “I’m fine. I have a little problem I was hoping Jean could help me with.”

  “Yes, of course. Hold on, I’ll put you through.”

  Megan looked up as Paudie came into the kitchen. “Hi,” she mouthed. “I came to bring Denis back. Just making a phone call.”

  He nodded and held up the kettle.

  Megan smiled. “Yes, please,” she whispered.

  “Megan, hi,” Jean O’Mahony’s voice boomed on the phone. “How are things with you? Did you get the final divorce papers? I sent them—”

  “Yes, thanks. Ages ago. And thanks for the support during that horrible time. Meant to tell you but—”

  “Oh, that’s all right. Glad everything worked out so well. Or as well as could be expected, anyway. So, what can we do for you today?”

  “Well…” Megan hesitated. She looked at Paudie’s broad back while he made tea. The mere sight of him gave her courage to go on. “It’s about… I inherited a house a few months ago. In Kerry.”

  “You did? Jean chortled. “That’s terrific. And great timing too. That two-faced bastard won’t be able to get his hands on this asset. Where in Kerry?”

  “Dingle peninsula. On Tralee bay. The house is right on the beach, practically. I’m there now, actually.”

  “That’s a lovely part of the country,” Jean said. “Wish I was there instead of a stuffy office in Dublin. But you didn’t tell me. Did you need any legal assistance at all?”

  “Not really.” Megan smiled at Paudie as he slid a mug of tea across the table. “Not then, anyway. It was all very straightforward. The local solicitor took care of everything. But I’ve been thinking that I’d prefer you to keep the deeds for me and to handle anything concerning my property from now on.”

  “Of course.” Jean paused. “Maybe you could get the solicitor in Kerry to send me the deeds? He should have the original in safe keeping.”

  Megan took a sip of her tea. “Actually, I have the original. He must have the copy.”

  “What? You have the original? They must have made a mistake. The solicitor always keeps the original. Safer that way.”

  Paudie said something.

  “Just a sec, Jean.” Megan put down the phone. “What?”

  “I’m going out to do some fencing.”

  “Okay. Where’s Bunny?”

  “Gone into town.”

  “Right. Okay, I’ll let myself out.”

  Paudie waved and left through the back door.

  Megan picked up the phone again. “Sorry, Jean. I was talking to someone. Anyway, you were saying?”

  “If you have the original, send it to me by registered mail, and I’ll put it in our strong room for safe keeping. And then I’ll write to the Kerry solicitor and ask him to give you the copy. Or you can ask him yourself when you tell him I’m handling your affairs from now on.”

  “Um, okay. I’ll deal with him.” Megan took a deep breath. “One more thing, though. I want you to find something out for me…”

  ***

  “Trouble in paradise?” Paudie asked.

  Megan jumped. “What? I thought you had gone.”

  “Forgot my working gloves.” He picked them up from the dresser. “So… You okay?”

  Megan took another sip of her now cold tea. “Yes, sure. Why?”

  Paudie hesitated by the back door. “You’re a little pale. And there’s a look in your eyes.” He shrugged. “Oh, never mind. None of my business. I just don’t want to think that bastard Nolan isn’t being nice to you.”

  Megan assumed an innocent air. “Of course he is. Why would you think—” She gestured at her phone. “Oh that. I just felt I should let my Dublin solicitors handle all my affairs. Being personally involved with one’s solicitor isn’t a good idea. A bit of housekeeping, really.”

  The phone rang again. It was Jean O’Mahony.

  “That was quick,” Megan said.

  “Yes, took no time at all. And here’s what you wanted to know—the planning permission expires in exactly one year’s time. It’s for a small caravan park and one building. Like a shop or restaurant. So anyone wanting to act on that should get going pretty soon. I doubt they’d get it renewed, as they’re really tightening up on this sort of thing countrywide. But if you’re a local, it’s a different matter, of course. Or if you have connections. Those things are easy to fiddle if you know the right people.”

  “I see,” Megan said. “And that old debt?”

  “Doesn’t exist. Your solicitor must have made a mistake. Or the probate office did. The property is unencumbered.”

  “Thought so.”

  “So, what are you going to do? I mean, it looks like a pretty hot property to me. A house in that location with land around it. You’d get a good price right now. You might want to think about this.”

  “Oh, I don’t have to think. I know exactly what I’m going to do.”

  “Now, that’s what I like to see,” Paudie said when Megan hung up. “A look of determination and a cheery smile.”

  “Determination?” Megan said. “You bet.”

  ***

  “Hi.” Megan smiled at Daniel’s secretary.

  The girl stopped chewing gum and her nail polish brush froze in the air. “Hi. Daniel’s gone to a legal conference in Killarney.”

  “I know.
I don’t want to see him. I dropped in to ask if you could help me with something.” Megan pulled a large envelope from her bag and started to speak very fast. “I have the deeds to my property here. I think you made a mistake and gave me the original. So I thought you must have put a copy in your safe instead.”

  The girl’s face fell. She blew on her nails. “Oh. Right. But I’m not supposed to open the safe when Daniel isn’t here.”

  “I’m sure he won’t mind if you do it for me.” Megan winked. “Lovely shade, by the way. What’s it called?”

  The girl glanced at her nails. “Pink Cloud.” She got up and held out her hand. “I’ll take that and put it in the safe.”

  “No. I’ll go with you and make sure it’s put in there safely. Sorry, I’m a bit of a control freak that way.”

  The girl laughed. “Okay. Come with me, then. The safe’s in Daniel’s office. We don’t have a strong room like most solicitors. This office is too small.”

  They walked together into Daniel’s office. The girl tapped in the code and opened the safe. She flicked through documents and envelopes until she found the one she wanted. “Here it is. Megan O’Farrell. It has some other stuff in it too, papers you signed about that will and your birth certificate.”

  “Oh, great.” Megan paused, still holding her envelope. “Hey, listen, I’ll take the whole lot and go through it. And I’ll give it back to you when I have switched the deeds.”

  The girl looked uncertain. “Yeah, okay, if you sit out there with me while you do that.”

  “Brilliant. Then you can finish your nails at the same time.”

  It didn’t take long to arrange the papers to Megan’s satisfaction. Sitting on a visitor’s chair, she pulled out the copy of the deeds out of Daniel’s envelope. She glanced at the girl, but she was absorbed in her manicure. Megan replaced the copy with similar blank papers. She also took her birth certificate and put it with the others she was going to keep. Then she sealed the envelope and beamed at the secretary. “There! All done. Now you can put it all back.”

  The girl shook her hands in the air and blew on her nails again. “I’ll put it in the safe right away. When I’ve checked the papers.”

  Megan handed her the envelope. “No need to open it. You’ll only wreck your nails anyway.” She stopped. “Oh, and just one more thing…”

  “Yes?”

  “Did you scan the deeds into your computer?”

  The girl’s face fell. “Oh God, no. I didn’t. Dan told me to but I forgot. I’ll do it later today.”

  Megan felt like laughing out loud but managed to hold it in. She smiled at the girl. “Yes, you do that.”

  “I will. Thanks for reminding me. And, listen…”

  Megan stopped on her way to the door. “Yes?”

  “This is between you and me, right? No need to tell Dan about all of this, is there?”

  Megan winked. “Of course not. No need at all.”

  ***

  The decision not to tell anyone about what was going on weighed on Megan’s mind. Although tempted to share her predicament with Beata, she decided against it. Beata would be too biased and aggressive. Paudie hated Dan already and might have done something rash and spoiled the secret. She didn’t know Diana well enough to confide in her. That left her with nobody at all which was difficult. But keeping her own counsel was probably the safest bet in the end.

  She sent the deeds and all the other papers to Jean O’Mahony in Dublin, confident Dan’s secretary wouldn’t say a word about Megan’s visit. The fact that Dan now had no records of the house, the will or anything else concerning her affairs was a huge relief. Now she was free to do whatever felt best and the support of the Dublin solicitor felt like a solid brick wall.

  Despite her anger, she sometimes stopped to ponder about Dan. She found it hard to believe his plotting against her was driven only by money. There was something during that conversation with Maria that didn’t ring quite true… Something he said and the tone in his voice. And that sad sigh. It’s his dad, she told herself. That must be very upsetting. He’s probably hoping to pay the money back, save his father and clear the family name…

  Megan turned and twisted in bed. I can’t go on like this, she thought. I have to end it somehow.

  ***

  In bed with Daniel, Megan discovered hatred and revenge a powerful drive. She had thought she wouldn’t be able to face him or stomach him to touch her after finding out about him. But, driven by this inner force, telling lies came easy and acting as if she wanted him even easier, as the desire for revenge burned constantly in her mind. She would pretend undying love for him if she needed, just to get to her ultimate goal.

  “Ooh, yess,” she moaned, meeting his thrusts with her own. “Right there, sweetie.”

  “You’re amazing,” Dan whispered.

  She looked at his contorted face and closed her eyes. She imagined burning his hair, branding his chest with red-hot barbeque tongs and tying him up, sticking her mascara wand into his eyes repeatedly.

  “Oh, yesss!” she screamed and woke up, drenched in sweat.

  Phew. Just a dream. It didn’t happen. I didn’t have sex with him like that. How could I? She got up, wrapped a sheet around herself and walked to the open window to cool off in the breeze. She stared far out to sea and the white dot of a sail, just visible on the horizon. “Sailing away,” she said to herself. “Away from all the hassle and pain…”

  “What was that?” Dan said from the door. “What did you say?”

  Megan whipped around. “What are you doing here at this hour?”

  “I know it’s very early.” Dan put his arms around her from behind and kissed her shoulder. “But I came with some good news. What would you say if I told you the house in the Maharees is for sale? That you could buy it if you sold yours?”

  She turned her head to look at him. “Really? But it would go for a lot more than mine, wouldn’t it? Such a unique spot. Especially if it goes to auction.”

  He wrapped his arms tighter around her and leaned his chin on her shoulder. “It won’t. The owner won’t put it on the market yet. So, if you came in with a good offer, the sale could go through without the cost and trouble of having to advertise.”

  “Oh...” Megan waited for what was to come. She could nearly read his mind.

  She wasn’t disappointed. “But, of course,” Dan said, “the best thing for you would be to sell yours first. Then you’d be a cash buyer. Not many of those around these days.”

  “I suppose.” She could nearly hear his next words before he said them.

  “Yeah.” He let her go and walked to the bed. He sat down and looked at her with that little smile she used to find so beguiling. “And…”

  “Yes?”

  “I have a surprise. You know that English contractor? The one who barged into your house?”

  “Oh, yes. Alistair something. I still have his card somewhere.”

  “That’s right. And you won’t believe this. He came in with an offer this morning. Three hundred K.”

  Megan had enough. “Stop it right there, Dan.”

  He stared at her. “What?”

  Megan took a deep breath. “I can’t stand anymore of your lying and cheating. I’ve had enough of your charm and smarm. Enough of everything about you. So you can take those lovely eyes with the long eyelashes and the cute smile and the gorgeous body and get out of here and never come back.”

  His jaw dropped. “Excuse me?”

  “You heard.” Megan tightened the sheet around her as if that would help her stay upright. “I know everything. The slurry and the report to the dole office. The lie about the debt. The stupid haunting and the fire in the tower.”

  He blanched. With his mouth hanging open and a stupid look in his eyes, he wasn’t even vaguely attractive. Megan wondered how he had ever seemed like the hunk she had imagined.

  “Wwwhaa..?” he stammered.

  “That’s right. I know. About everything. Trying to get me to se
ll so you’d get your hands on it with your English partner. And your little romance with Maria Slattery. And all the rest,” she added, not even knowing what ‘all the rest’ was, but she was sure there was more to it than she had just said.

  “The rest?” he stammered. “You mean my dad and—”

  “Yeah. That too,” Megan snapped. “And Paudie’s brother. What a lovely family you are.”

  Dan rubbed his face. “I don’t understand what’s going on here. If you know about my dad, then surely, you’d understand why I did what I did. Why I desperately need to make some money.”

  “Of course. But not that you had to go to such lengths to try and wreck my life. You used me, Dan. You lied and cheated, so you’d get your hands on my house.”

  “It wasn’t like that,” he started. “It was because—”

  “Get out,” Megan snarled.

  He shot up from the bed. “Don’t you stand there looking so self-righteous. You’re no saint yourself. And you used me too.”

  “What? I used you? How?”

  “For sex.”

  Megan burst out laughing. “Yeah, right. That’s very funny, considering—”

  “What?”

  “I wasn’t going to say anything but hey, why should I be kind to someone who’s done what you did to me? I used you for sex?” She laughed again. “If I was going to use anyone for sex, don’t you think I’d pick someone who was good at it? And someone with a little more than that shrimp you call a penis?”

  He gasped. “But we… You enjoyed it. I made you come every time.”

  “No you didn’t.”

  His eyes narrowed. “You faked it?”

  Megan nodded. “Every time.”

  “You bitch.”

  “Ha, ha, yeah right. Coming from a shit like you, that’s a compliment.” Megan suddenly felt so sick of him she wanted to scream. “Get out of here, I said. Just go and don’t ever contact me again.”

  He stood up very slowly, as if his legs were too weak to carry him. “I see. Okay, I’ll go. I’ll send you all your papers. I don’t want you as a client if you have that kind of attitude.”

  “Ha, I already have them. Got them from that nitwit you call a receptionist the other day. I’d hire someone with a few more brain cells if I were you.”