No Place in the Sun (19 page)

‘I don’t, really. I only worked here; I’m as shocked as you are. What happened?’

‘You must know. All the apartments in the first block were sold twice. They had been sold originally to various people and then the developer went bankrupt, but the people that bought them still owned them because they had paid for them and the ownership was registered. You and your friends sold timeshares in them, but you had no right to sell them, and we lost our money. I can’t believe you didn’t know.’

The woman sat down heavily on the steps and started to cry. Her shoulders slumped and she looked old and beaten. Her sister put her arms around her shoulders and looked up at Tom.

‘May the good Lord forgive you all, you greedy people. Do you not care about ruining people’s lives?’

Tom was shocked at what Alan had done, but he knew that he needed to talk his way out of this situation as quickly as possible. He was going to take the rap for Alan Merchant’s shady dealings if he didn’t think fast.

‘I really knew nothing about all of this, I just worked here and I was laid off a few months ago. I came back today to see if I could get my wages. I wasn’t paid for my last two months. I thought that there would be someone here today, they’re usually here about six o’clock every evening.’

They were wavering; he could see that they wanted to believe him. A little more of the sales pitch and he would be able to get out if here before the police were called and he found himself in a Spanish jail.

‘It’s nearly five o’clock now; I’m hoping they’ll be here in an hour. I have a dentist’s appointment in ten minutes, but it would be great if you could hang on here until I get back, delay them for a few minutes so that I can tackle them about my wages. And your money too of course.’

They cheered a little at his words; the woman looked up at him gratefully.

‘I’m sorry for attacking you; you’re as much a victim as we are. Will you really help us to get our money?’

‘Of course, just delay them for me in case I’m not back at six. I’d better rush off or I’ll be late back.’

‘You do that, get moving and hurry back. You’re a good lad.’

Tom’s legs were shaking as he ran to the car and headed off down the hill. He looked in the mirror to see if they had taken his number, but there was no sign of them looking in his direction. The two elderly women sat forlornly on the steps of the apartment block, looking lost and bewildered. It was impossible not to feel sorry for them, but he needed to get out of there and catch his flight. He felt his stomach heaving; just before he joined the motorway he pulled over to the side and got out of the car, and vomited on the verge. He didn’t know if it was the shock of the meeting with the two women, or the amount of drink he had consumed the night before, but he didn’t feel good at all. He got back in the car and headed for the airport.

Harry was sceptical. ‘Playa Hedor? Why did you take on such a small project? It’s hardly worth our while and it only diverts buyers from Playa Verde.’

‘We had no choice. If someone like Sean Simpson got hold of it and started selling it at the price that Juan Carlos wanted for it, we’d look bad.’

‘You’re right, never thought of it like that, it’s too close to Playa Verde and people would make comparisons all right.’

‘Apart from that, we needed a project on our books that would make Playa Verde look cheap, and by persuading him to raise his prices to twenty percent above ours we make our stuff look like it’s great value.’

Harry raised his hands. ‘I should have known better than to question your call on it, it makes sense to me when you put it like that. Do you think we’ll sell any of it though? You only have six months exclusivity on it and he’ll start to sweat even earlier than that if we don’t deliver a few sales.’

‘I reckon we can sell a few no problem, people always want the more expensive option. Anyway we can always invent a few sales to keep him happy; we’ll be out of Playa Verde in well less than six months, especially if Miz Sherry comes across. Once we’re out of the big project, Juan Carlos’ problems won’t be my problems.’

‘What about the client, do you think she’ll deliver, did she like the project?’

‘She liked it all right, but she was bloody hard work. Next time you can do it, or send Walter, I’m knackered keeping her entertained for the last couple of days.’

‘Do you think she is serious though?’

‘I did, but Marco put a doubt into my mind when he asked if she paid her own way to Spain. He was a bit dubious when he heard that we picked up the tab. We’ll have to wait and see; if she hasn’t got back to me by the weekend I’ll call her Monday morning.’

‘That’s all we can do, in the meantime let’s try to clear out block four this weekend. Life goes on.’

The client sitting across the desk was new, but the type was familiar enough. Tom and Walter had started compiling a list of buyer types to pass the quiet periods that seemed to hit the shows from time to time. It was usually ‘a feast or a famine’ as Harry described it; they were either overrun with buyers or the ballroom was quiet. It did give them a chance to grab a sandwich and a coffee before the crowds descended on them again, and it allowed them to share a joke or two, usually at the expense of the buyers.

Walter had started it; he had devised a categorisation system that could be used to describe every client that came into the room by putting them into half a dozen different categories. Everything from ‘The Quiet Man’ who was reluctant to part with any personal details to ‘Johnny Cash,’ who wanted to use his Spanish property purchase to launder a large wad of cash.

This one was definitely a ‘Dirty Sanchez.’ He sat in front of Tom but seemed to be focussing his gaze at a spot on the wall some distance behind the salesman; he didn’t want to look anyone in the eye.

‘What’s the story in this place, is it worth buying there for the, you know yourself?’

Tom wasn’t going to humour him, but a sale was a sale. ‘I’m not with you, worth it for what exactly?’

‘Ah you know, is there good pickings around there?

‘Pickings?’

‘For birds like?’

Tom looked him over. The buyer was a florid faced man, probably in his mid fifties, and with black hair slicked down with oil and combed over to cover a bald patch. Tom decided to humour him; he leaned forward conspiratorially. ‘Oh yes, best part of Spain for women, the place is full of them.’

‘And is there a good few birdhouses around there?’

‘Birdhouses?’ Tom was not too sure what he meant.

‘Ah you know, birdhouses.’ He dropped his voice even lower. ‘Jiggy jig houses, you know yourself.’

The penny dropped with Tom, he had never heard either term before, but it was clear enough what the man wanted, a home in the sun with a few brothels nearby. If that’s what he wants, that’s what he’ll get, he mused. ‘Of course sir, the place around there is wall to wall em, birdhouses. Yes, lots of birdhouses in that area, you wouldn’t have to go too far for some jiggy jig.’

The man relaxed a bit. ‘I have a few quid, want to buy something out foreign, and I heard the birds in Spain were, you know yourself.’ He sniggered knowingly.

Tom wondered if this old fool had any idea of what a ridiculous figure he presented. Overweight and middle aged, his comb-over hairstyle crowning a bright red face, he was hardly some woman’s ideal man. Still, he had ‘a few quid,’ and Tom would now separate him from it as quickly as possible.

‘These properties will be ready in less than two years, but you might like to make a few visits between now and then to check on progress. I’m sure Mrs…’ he looked at the sheet where he had written the details …’Mrs. O’Reilly will understand that you will need to make a few business trips to the area.’

The old fool was on the hook, he figured that Tom was a man who understood. ‘Inspect a few birdhouses as well, hehe.’

‘Yes indeed, you could do that for sure. The Spanish girls like Irish businessmen.’

‘Do they, is that a fact? I heard that all right. You’re a man of the world, I can see that. Can you advise me maybe what’s the best value in this place?’

Tom flipped through the floor plans, looking for the special unit. Every development had what they called a ‘special’ apartment, one that would never sell once the place was built but which might just possibly be shifted off plan. He found it on the ground floor, the apartment that bridged the underground ramp to the parking garage; anyone living in that place would have to put up with the constant noise of the automatic gate opening and closing.

‘Look at this one.’ Tom put on his most friendly tone. ‘Great apartment, ground floor and east facing, gets the morning sun. Always buy east facing if you can, easier to resell. Great place to bring an auld bird as well, you know yourself.’

‘Is that the best one in it?’

‘There are others, but none of them as good as this one; there’s no point in me offering anything less to a businessman like yourself. It’s definitely the best one that’s left; will I put your name on it?’

‘I like your style, I’ll take that one so. Let the good times roll, what?’

The woman was reluctant, he knew that he almost had her but she was holding back. You got customers like this some days; they wanted a property in Spain, and they had the money, but there was never a good time for them to make a final decision and they would happily go from agency to agency for years without committing. They had to be given a huge push to dislodge them from their positions, and Tom had a few weapons in his armoury that usually could be counted on to shift them. This one though would need a fairly hefty prod.

‘The next phase will cost fifteen percent more, so in other words you can save money now and the property will be worth at least fifteen percent more when it is complete.’ That often worked.

‘I’m just not sure, I mean they seem like good value, but how do I know that they are worth what you are asking? They might seem cheap by our standards, but they might be very expensive over there.’

It was the opening he had been waiting for. ‘We know that they are very reasonable by Spanish standards, there is a development down the road, not half a kilometre away, exact same apartments more or less and twenty percent dearer.’ He pulled out the brochure for Playa Hedor.

The woman was suddenly very interested. ‘Why is this one more expensive? It looks like the same size apartment, and as you say it’s on the same road.’

‘No reason, the Playa Verde project is very keenly priced of course, maybe the other one is smaller and has that bit of exclusivity about it, but hardly makes it worth over twenty thousand euros more. No, Playa Verde is just amazingly good value.’

‘I’m curious about the smaller development, where can I buy it, do you sell it?’

‘Yes of course we do, we are agents for it but to be honest we don’t bother much with selling it because it is expensive compared to Playa Verde. It sells itself anyway; it’s a great place and closer to the beach as well.’ Tom sensed an opening for the smaller project; this woman fell into Walter’s ‘superior intellect’ category, someone who knew that she was a cut above the herd and didn’t mind paying to prove it.

‘I’m definitely interested in this Playa Hedor place; can you show me the layout of those ones?’

Tom opened the file and took out the drawings. All the apartments were south facing, no ‘special’ units anywhere in the building. ‘These are all excellent, all looking over the gardens and the pool, sun for most of the day on the terraces. It’s a great project, even if it’s a little bit more expensive.’

‘Do you think that they will appreciate?’

She was on the hook. Time to land a killer punch.

‘I just bought one myself, this one here.’ He pointed out one of the apartments that had already been sold by Juan Carlos.

‘You must have a lot of faith in the development so.’

‘I have, I mean I bought in Playa Verde too, but I bought one here for investment, I think that they will do very well.’

‘I would like to buy two of these please; can you pick out the best two, maybe the two next door to your one?’

‘Those are still free, won’t be there for long, wise choice madam. Can you come over here and meet Miguel, he is an independent Spanish lawyer and he can advise you on how to proceed.’