Conscious Revenge Read online

  Steven was there when we arrived and I introduced Paul as a friend, they shook hands and Steven led the way into the house. I could see Paul was trying to get my attention but I smiled and said all would be revealed, the plans were all laid out on the table in the study with diagrams and measurements written all over them. As we continued to discuss the pros and cons of the building regulations, I could see the light dawning on Paul as he ‘grasped the nettle’ so to speak.

  I made no attempt to quantify anything to him, but continued with Steven discussing how we would now proceed, It was my intention to hire a project manager as I had no time or the skills to carry out such a task, John Lattimar was the guy Steven recommended and suggested now that we had come to an agreement on the renovations I was happy with, he would notify John that I would be in touch with him as soon as possible. I was happy with that and asked him to send a copy of the drawing to Julia for the approval of the owners and the conservationists. Should they be happy with the changes I would make an offer to buy as soon as I had the go ahead.

  I had given the furniture a great deal of thought and made a decision to keep all of the pieces for the time being, if the owners agreed, when the renovations were completed, should there be anything that I didn’t need I would contact them. The purchase price for all of the furniture as far as I was concerned was well within my budget and any pieces that I did not require I would return to them as I understood their natural need to keep the history for future generations. I had begun to sound like a ‘real gent’. Paul said on the way home, “You never cease to amaze me.” Little did he know I amazed myself most of the time?

  Paul couldn’t stop talking on the way home as I tried to fill him in with as many details as I could, especially the bigger picture which was mainly to get Lorna and the children to join me here, the house was just a part of it. I had no idea how I would be able to approach them after all this time considering everything that had happened but I was certainly going to do everything in my power to make it happen.

  He laughingly took out an invisible piece of paper and began to make an invisible list. “Now look here,” he said, “we already have an A4 sheet of paper listing the potential parts you could now play, the mundane life of a financial investor, husband and father has gone and we now have to add to the list lover, property developer, entrepreneur not to mention millionaire.”

  “I can’t say it hasn’t had its moments,” I said, “but you can take out ‘lover’ as that bit isn’t true.”

  “Quite an achievement for someone so boring before,” he said.

  Most of what has happened to me I would swop for boring any time. The rest of the journey continued with Paul trying to wind me up, little did he know that’s only the half of it after what I discovered on Cayman about Westline. I’m not sure how many other characters he would have to add to the list.

  On the journey back from the house, I made a snapshot decision. I had hired the Audi for two days and this would be the perfect opportunity to catch the ferry to Grand Cayman, there I would introduce Paul to the next part of what now seemed like a saga, never a better time than the present. I would take him to the port and give him an insight into the financial power of Alberto West, who I felt sure he was totally unaware of.

  The only other contact with the Wests I could recall was with the two sons Brandon and Phillip. The younger brother had never taken part in the banqueting that took place on several occasions throughout the year, hosted by G&F plc. “A sprat to catch a mackerel,” Lorna would say. The only good thing as far as she was concerned was that each banquet required a new gown and all the accessories, these I could put down to expenses as they were tax deductible. The auditors called them promotion, alongside the lavish food drink and dancing to the latest band throughout the night.

  The middle brother was my contact when he invested vast sums of money which their company had filtered into Grand Cayman, most of the big players that our company dealt with, would use Grand Cayman to do the same.

  It was fun keeping Paul in the dark about our trip until we were driving onto the Ferry. He said, “Let me guess were going shopping.”

  “Try again buddy,” I said. “Shopping could not be further from my mind.” I laughed and said.

  “I’m now about to show you how the other half live,” he retorted.

  “How the devil do you know that, you would be surprised or should that be will be surprised,” I said, we were approaching the dock as I spoke. “Look to your left,” I said as the ferry docking station got closer.

  “Okay,” he said, “what am I looking at?”

  “The oil tanker,” I began in fact all of the tankers docked in the shipping lanes, take a closer look at the name on the side of every ship docked there,” his face was a study. “Westline

  Shipping Corporation,” he said, with the look of someone who had just been given a life sentence, “you were messing with their money.”

  “Unbelievable, no wonder you were ‘disappeared’, there’s more much more,” I explained. “You see, the Cruise Ship called the ‘Westward’ in its own private mooring, it’s a luxurious floating casino that is also part of their portfolio.”

  His mouth fell open, I wondered if he could take any more revelations, the fact that they also had a range of Hotels all over the World might be just too hard for him to swallow in one go.

  I would save the best bits for when he was worse for wear, a few drinks would definitely be the order of the day to help him take in what I had shown him so far. We both knew that all of our clients were wealthy but the scale of the West’s fortune, as I have so painfully discovered, with their Mafia-style power was, as far as I was concerned, unprecedented.

  We pulled up at a local watering hole. I decided this would be the best way to distract the obvious onslaught of questions he would have for me following these latest revelations, the place was cold inside due to the air conditioning, although the bar was decked out in a Caribbean theme we decided to drink in the garden at the rear, very stylish, wicker furniture and real glasses, this island certainly knew how to treat the tourists, having said that ‘my island’ as I now liked to call it, was far more authentic, the rhythm of the drums and sand in your toes certainly did it for me.

  We drank for a while and decided to have lunch there, as Paul put it, “The totty isn’t half -bad, if you know what I mean.” I knew what he meant alright.

  “The only other thing to distract you from the dilemma I am in, other than drink is women, and not necessarily in that order,” I laughed, “will you never learn.”

  “I hope not,” was his quick reply. We ordered lamb cutlets with mint jus, very sophisticated, and a bottle of their best Wine finished it off; I think we were fitting in quite nicely.

  On the journey home, I wanted to talk to Paul about what possible plan I could put together that would involve getting Lorna and the children back, I knew it was a tall order, how could anyone in their right mind think of a way to accomplish that task after everything that had happened.

  Considering how long it was going to take to renovate the house ‘to a standard that would be irresistible to any woman,’ it seemed very unlikely that he would be able to come up with anything I hadn’t thought of before, but perhaps two heads would be better than one.

  As if my thoughts were on the outside of my head Paul began to speak. “After everything you have been through how do you ever expect to go back in time with Lorna?”

  I stammered, “You took the words out of my mouth, I was just contemplating asking you the same question. I have spent hours trying to work something out, there are so many ends still to tie up such as the house and everything I’m not sure if any plan will work but I must keep trying as I couldn’t possibly think off a life without her.”

  We were quiet for what seemed like an age, several times we looked at each other but words seemed too inadequate for the scale of the problem, but doing nothing was not an option. “What I need is a tick list,” I said sudden
ly, “of all I have to achieve before I can make the first move towards Lorna.”

  Paul began to laugh, “Not another tick list, you will soon have more ticks than an old ram.”

  “Thanks for that intelligent response,” I replied, at least we were still able to see the funny side, that is if there could possibly be one?

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  We arrived at the condo saying nothing more about the day just drinking beer and watching the sunset. Paul received an e-mail from Lorna. “Where are you I need your help. I have been asked to go to a company ‘bonding’ evening, whatever that is, I will be meeting the big wigs but I’m very nervous, I wanted to run it by you as I’m still not sure if it’s too soon after William disappeared, Love Lorna x

  Having read it my first reaction was to tell Paul no way was she going to a Company party without me, but thinking about it that might seem strange for Paul to tell Lorna what to do. I was full of what I knew to be jealousy. I had to leave the condo.

  “I’m going for a walk,” I told Paul. “You must answer as you see fit, but please don’t tell me how.”

  He replied, “Hi Lorna, sorry I didn’t tell you but I had to go check on Aunt again. You must go and enjoy yourself. William would want you to be happy, just watch your back you know what these ‘do’s’ can be like.” Love Paul x

  Lorna replied, “You sound like my mother, ‘Ha Ha’ will do.” Love Lorna.

  I walked for some time along the beach, this time I didn’t notice the wonderful surroundings I was too unhappy. I couldn’t bear the thought of not being there to protect Lorna from what I knew would be a lot of lecherous males. I must have eventually fallen asleep on the beach with exhaustion as the next thing I knew Paul was waking me up, “Come on, old chap let’s get back you’ve got work in the morning.”

  “I need a drink,” I said.

  “Rum or beer?” he said.

  “Both,” I said.

  I was glad I had no idea when Lorna was going to the ‘Ball’ as I was suffering enough. Concentrating on the chickens was the last thing I wanted to do today. It must have shown on my face as when Andy came in for the figures.

  He took one look at me and said, “Can I help, Bill, you look terrible?”

  “Just a bit under the weather, Andy,” I said, “but I’ll be OK in a bit.”

  “Take your time then, nothing spoiling this morning, you can get off early if you like.

  “Thanks, I may take you up on that,” I said. The day dragged on. I must find a way to get past this I felt worse than I had in a long time, maybe I would go back to the condo a bit earlier and take a drive to the house. I rang Paul to explain what my plan was.

  He said, “Go ahead, I’m doing some work for G&F at the moment.” Just for a second, I stopped feeling sorry for myself thinking of Paul on this island connected to G&F via the internet.

  “Glad you’re feeling a bit better, William. I have been worried about you.”

  Paul calling me William made me realise what a good friend I had in him. “Just working from home are we,” I said. Paul laughed. I realised at that moment I must pull myself together, I have a lot of ground to cover before I can get Lorna back so I intend to work hard at it. “See you later for dinner,” I said, “maybe we can eat out?”

  John Lattimar, my project manager, was next on the list of phone calls.

  “Hi John,” I began trying to sound confident and wealthy, “have you got sometime this afternoon? I would like to go over some of your ideas before we commence the restoration on the house.”

  “Sure, Mr Pascal,” he said.

  “Call me Bill,” I replied, “we will be working together for some time so let’s drop the formalities”

  “Fine with me, Bill. I’ll be with you in say twenty minutes if that’s ok. I’m in the local office working on your plan as we speak.”

  “Great, see you then.” I was feeling confident I had the right man for the job he called a spade a spade which was fine with me.

  I picked up the car and made my way to the site. It was already feeling like home. I pulled up and had another look around the grounds. I then rang Julia in Grand Cayman to see if everything was good to go. As far as everyone was concerned she said, the plans were fine and as soon as she had received my offer, the contracts could be drawn up. I didn’t want to waste time going back and forth with this offer. I had already decided that the full asking price would be fine.

  “I intend to pay the asking price,” I told Julia, she seemed a little taken aback as normally $1.5 million was subject to several negotiations. “Time was of the essence,” I said, so I hoped to close the deal as quickly as possible, and begin the restoration work as soon as the plans are passed.

  “I’m sure we can arrange that for you, Bill. I will contact the owner ,the Worthington-Clay family, and tell them the good news.”

  “It shouldn’t take long,” she said “as contracts have been drawn up for this property previously for several other potential purchasers. All we need to do is change the names and some of the conditions regarding furniture etc. and I will have the contract sent out post haste.”

  This was music to my ears. “I will arrange to transfer the money as soon as the lawyers have done their bit,” I assured Julia.

  I had no Idea which lawyers I would use, but the man just arriving on the site I felt sure could help me with that one. “Good day, Bill” John Lattimar said. We shook hands. “Where do you want to begin?” he asked.

  “I wonder if you could help with something else first?” I began. “I’m looking for a good lawyer to seal the deal for me. I would like a local one, as my lawyers would take much too long, more lucrative for them that way,” I said.

  “Of course,” he replied, reaching into his pocket he produced a card. “I carry these for just such an occasion.”

  “Very efficient,” I said. Hope he didn’t read minds as well as project managing as he would just have caught me out in another untruth - ‘my lawyers’ what lawyers?

  “Firstly,” I began, “we have to discuss your fees. Do you wish to give me a ballpark subject to unforeseen events, or would a monthly advance be more to your liking?” I wanted to sound as if I was doing this type of thing all the time. “A bank account in my name would be put at your disposal, two signatures would be necessary for each transaction to cover the building materials and labour.”

  “I will put some figures together when we have had chance to discuss how you wish me to proceed,” John replied.

  “I will look after the drawings, the authorities and also ensure we meet the conservation requirements, reporting back to you as required. I’ll deal with the building contractors, the various utility companies, organise the ground work consulting with you on product qualities. I’ll source the skills we will require to maintain the authenticity and integrity of the build.” I was hoping he couldn’t see the expression the knot in my stomach was having on my face.

  “That sounds fine,” I said with as much gusto as I could. “Would you arrange to have the various quotations sent to my post office box number as soon as possible please, as I was hoping you could make a start as soon as the Contracts were signed?”

  Reaching for the writing pad in my car, trying to look more professional than I was feeling right now, I scribbled my post office box number down for him and suggested we begin by looking around the outside first. We both had a copy of the drawings that Steven had produced.

  “Let’s begin by discussing the type of materials that would be needed for the windows and doors Fascias etc.”

  These he confirmed must meet the local area’s requirements. He added that most of these would need to be bought in from Grand Cayman, as would the skilled people to carry out the work.

  “Just let me know the cost first, but I’m sure if we can keep within my budget,” I said.

  “I will also take care of that for you,” he replied, “and keep you up to date at every step.”

  “Should you need my reference
s, I will be happy to obtain them for you.”

  I tried to put myself in the position of someone who was used to dealing with these situations and said very politely, “Just for the records, maybe.”

  “No problem,” he said. “I will post them to you with the various quotes, if that’s ok?”

  “That works for me,” I said and although he was unable to give me a timeframe as he was relying on other people to respond, in his experience the local skills were out there just waiting for such a project. He could see no reason why I should be kept waiting.

  I followed John’s Land Rover out of the broken down gates. I felt sure John would have the site secured with some urgency as you can’t be too sure. I made a mental note to buy a set of state-of-the-art electric gates when the project is finished. I checked myself, feelings of grandeur were for real millionaires, weren’t they?

  Lorna was still on my mind as I drove back to the condo. At least I had a small respite dealing with what hopefully would be part of the solution and not for dwelling on the problem. If I’m to succeed in getting her back negative thoughts will only get in the way, so I made a pact with myself not to worry about things I could not control, and concentrate on what I could. Easier said than done, I think.

  I arrived just in time for dinner. I had forgotten how hungry I was. I hadn’t felt like eating all day. Going to the house had helped and I felt much better, provided I didn’t get the urge to talk about Lorna again I would get past today’s set back.

  Paul was waiting. “How did it go Bill? Everything ok?”

  I was pleased to tell him, “It had gone better than I expected. So where are we eating, let’s go into town.”

  He laughed, “Are you sure you mean the town, is that the one street that has a sort of restaurant.”

  “Yes,” I replied, “but lots of lovely bars.” We jumped into the Audi and made towards the food.