No Place in the Sun (20 page)

Tom joined Harry in the boardroom and pulled the weekend’s sales sheets from his briefcase. Harry was already working, the laptop was open and he was inputting details from the master sheet. He motioned to Tom that he wanted to finish the spreadsheet.

‘Well?’ Tom sorted the customer sheets in alphabetical order. ‘How did we do?’

‘Exceptional weekend, I’m not sure where this is going to end but we are making serious money, Tom. Seventy two sales in Playa Verde and six in the small project; that’s the one that surprised me, I never thought that people would actually pay more for the same apartment.’

‘I always thought that we could sell a few of the dearer one, but I didn’t think it would be more than the odd one. One woman bought two of them, can you believe it?’

‘To be precise, she didn’t so much buy them, more a case that she was sold them.’ Harry laughed at the thought of the snobbish lady being convinced that dearer was better. By the way, any contact with Tania Sherry?’

Tom grimaced. ‘Don’t remind me of that bitch, I called her a dozen times but I keep getting either her voicemail or ‘may have their unit powered off’ message. My feeling is that she’s gone, she just wanted a free trip to Spain.’

‘But surely she didn’t go to all that trouble just for two days away? I mean, she didn’t get a few days on the beach or anything. Fair enough, she got well looked after, but nothing out of the ordinary.’

Tom put his head in his hands. The memory of the night in Mesa Bella and in his apartment was embarrassing in the extreme. It might have been worth it if she had bought the block, but now.

Harry looked at him in amazement. ‘You didn’t, did you?’

‘I don’t want to discuss it.’

‘You mad bastard, you did, it’s written all over your face. I don’t believe the things you will do for a sale, you worry me sometimes. Fine looking woman though, don’t blame you in one way.’

‘Drop it Harry, I’m not in the humour for talking about it.’

‘Ok, ok, I won’t mention it again. What about block five, we’re going to have to start selling it next week, there’s only about twenty left in block four.’

‘I’ll leave a message on her phone that we can’t hold it beyond the middle of the week, but my gut feeling is that she has done a runner on us.’

‘Ok, in any case we need product, and if we haven’t that we’ll have to start selling some of the new project that Henry has, plus whatever’s left in Playa Hedor.’

‘Only a handful there, can you believe that people paid so much over the odds for a few apartments?’

‘I can’t help thinking sometimes, are we selling stuff that is a bad investment? The Playa Verde project will make money for buyers for sure, but will that little block down the road ever be any use as a resale punt?’

‘You worry too much Harry, that’s the buyers’ problem. It’s our job to sell it, but it’s their job to buy it if you know what I mean.’

‘Maybe so, but I don’t want a pile of manure hanging over my head. Keep it clean, Tom; don’t get too carried away and get us get a bad name over a few extra sales.’

‘You’re the boss, Harry.’

‘I wonder sometimes.’

Tom poured a cup of coffee and popped another slice of bread in the toaster. It had been a busy weekend and he wasn’t going to rush into the office; time to have a leisurely breakfast for once. They had done well again over the few days of the exhibition; they had cleared the fourth block and moved on to the fifth, the project would be sold out in a couple of months by the look of it. Harry seemed to be still anxious to carry on with the business, even thought his original idea had been to make a quick killing on the Playa Verde job and to retire with a nice nest egg. Marco had bought another project that was ready to go, and they could start selling it almost straight away if they sold out Playa Verde. It was time to take stock.

Things had worked out well since he had moved back from Spain; Harry’s promise that he would make a lot of money had proved right, and to be fair Harry had always paid him as soon as the contracts were signed. The new apartment was great too, Walter had found it for him and made all the arrangements, and he had moved in a couple of weeks ago. The old apartment was rented through Walter too, as were the other two that he had bought for investment. The rising property market meant that he looked set to double his money in a couple of years if the upward trend continued, and the apartment in Spain was now rented full time to somebody who wanted a Spanish base until the Playa Verde project was complete. Everything was moving along nicely, no problems on the horizon and all well with the world. Tom was still the right side of thirty and he was already a millionaire, not bad for a fellow who couldn’t pass an exam and whose teacher always said that he would amount to nothing. She used to joke that he would make a great artist, ‘drawing the dole’ was her punch line. Who had the last laugh now?

The only cloud on the horizon was the problem in Pueblo Alto Blanco; meeting up with the two elderly women had upset him more than he had thought possible. It was easy to sell things to people when you didn’t have to deal with the consequences, but when it came back to haunt you like this, it was hard to handle. He felt really sorry for the two women, but what could anyone do? He understood why Harry was so insistent about not over selling, but then again you could be too careful and you would never sell anything.

He didn’t think he would get arrested or anything, he had always been paid in cash by Alan and his name wasn’t on any records that he knew of. As long as he kept away from the Pueblo site he would be fine; it had been a mistake going there but he had managed to talk his way out of it ok. The image of the two old women sitting on the step was still fixed in his mind though, and it would be hard to forget it. Every time he made a sale to an older person from now on, he would remember those two. He hoped it wouldn’t put him off his game too much.

It was ten o’clock when he picked up the coffees from the deli and sat in the chair opposite Harry’s desk. He tore the ends from the sachets and stirred the sugar into his cup, but it was clear that Harry was in a very bad mood. He was reading the morning paper and swearing, and it wasn’t like Harry to swear, at least not like this.

‘The fucking bitch, I’ll kill that bitch if I ever set eyes on her. I‘m sick to my stomach; can you believe what she has done?’

‘Calm down Harry, can’t be that bad. Who did what to you?’ Tom was still in a good mood after the successful weekend. ‘Drink your coffee and calm down, maybe I should have brought you a decaf, relax you a bit.’

‘I’m as sick as the plane to Medjugorje; I never thought a woman could be that devious. She wasted our time and money, and now she wants to take the bread out of our mouths.’ He threw the paper across the desk to Tom.

Tom turned the broadsheet around and looked at the half page advertisement that glared back at him. A photo of white houses and blue skies, overlooked by a smiling picture of Tania Sherry, promised buyers the best value ever in Spain. ‘Why buy overpriced apartments when you can own your own villa on its own grounds for less? Trust Scorpio Properties to find you the best value overseas properties in the best locations. Trust Scorpio, your partner in Spain.’

Tom was stunned into silence. He felt used, like someone who has been conned out of his money by a three card trick merchant. He read the piece over an over. ‘Make the move now to a better value investment in Spain, forget the rest, buy from the best. Scorpio works for you.’

‘I’ll kill the bitch.’ Harry was very upset; Tom had never seen him so angry about anything. ‘Can you imagine? The cheek of the bitch, going to buy a block no less, and too fucking tight to pay for her own ticket even.’

Tom put his head in his hands and thought of his trip to Spain. He was mad with himself for falling for the lies from that mad bitch, he had even given away the commission levels that they had managed to get from Marco; no doubt she had squeezed the same deal out of the developer in wherever she was selling these bloody villas. To think that he had ended up in bed with the sly old bitch, and even worse that a lot of people knew about it. He looked at the paper again, no mention of where the properties were located, just a freephone number. He angrily punched the number into his phone and got up from the desk.

‘Are you going to ring her? I wouldn’t give her the satisfaction of knowing that we were mad with her. Don’t ring her, Tom, forget about the bitch and let’s get on with selling apartments. The last thing we want is for her to put us off our stride. Let it go.’

‘I just want to find out where they’re selling, I won’t talk to her.’

Tom retreated to the quiet of the boardroom with his coffee and closed the door. He was very annoyed with Tania Sherry, and even more annoyed with himself for not spotting that she was a phoney. Marco had spotted it straight away; anyone who was going to buy an apartment block would have no problem paying for their own ticket. The fact that she was a woman made it worse if anything, if a man had tried that stunt they would have spotted it. This devious bitch had pulled a fast one on them and it was a bitter pill to swallow.

He called the number and a female voice answered. ‘Hello, Scorpio properties, how can I help you?’

‘I’d like to have some more information about the Spanish villas that you have in the paper today.’

‘Certainly sir, if I can take your name and details please.’ The bitch had her contact staff well trained; get all details at the first call

‘Before we go there, I just need to know where you are selling. I might not be interested in the area you are dealing with.’

‘Of course, I’m Catherine, we are selling in the South of Spain but we will be expanding to cover most of the Spanish coast. What do I call you? Just your first name, it’s hard to talk to someone unless you know their first name.’

‘Ok, Catherine, I’m Tom.’ They were well trained right enough, very persistent.

‘Ok, Tom, we are initially selling a development of villas near Alicante, about an hour from the airport. Private villas on their own grounds with pools if required, for less than anything you have seen on sale before now.’

‘Where exactly, and how much?’

‘Tom, I’m just the receptionist, I don’t have all the details, would you like to speak with an investment advisor? I just need your second name please and I will put you through to someone.’

‘Tom Jones.’

‘And may I have a contact number for you, Mr Jones?’

Tom thought for a second and gave her his personal mobile number, no point in giving her his company number, it was too well known.

‘I’ll have someone call you back in a few minutes, Mr Jones, would you like me to have some information emailed to you? If you would like to give me your email address I can have you added to our mailing list and you will get automatic updates of all our properties.’

There was no doubt that they were well prepared, trained to get as much information from callers as possible. Scorpio was going to be a hard sell operation.

Tom had barely finished his coffee when the phone rang. ‘Tania Sherry here from Scorpio, Mr. Jones, I understand that you have an interest in some of our Spanish offerings?’

He was shocked to hear her voice, he had expected a salesman. Maybe she was still recruiting and didn’t have her full sales team in place. For a moment he was unsure as to how to proceed.

‘Mr Jones, I see from the note that you want to know where we have properties for sale.’

‘Yes.’

‘We have a fabulous development at a place called Montana Fea, about an hour from Alicante airport. Villas in their own grounds; two, three, and four bedroom houses with sun terraces and optional pools, fabulous properties.’

‘Well, Tania, congratulations on your new venture.’ Tom tried to hide the irony in his voice.

‘Tom Murphy, is that you? The call note says Tom Jones, that’s naughty, pretending to be something you’re not.’

‘That’s good, coming from you.’

She laughed loudly. ‘Can you not take a joke, lover boy, it was all in good fun, and didn’t we have a great few days?’

‘I’m not impressed at the way you did things, Tania; a bit more openness would have left me with a bit of respect for you maybe.’