Fun in the Snow

"Mmmm, that's nice." She whispered as she pulled herself even closer to me.

Sometime later, after a shower to wash off the product of our carnal endeavours, and breakfast, Bethany broached a subject that I would have liked to not talk about. "Darling, you don't mind me calling you this, do you?" She didn't wait for an answer. "I know that your wife died a couple of years ago, what did she die of?"

"She died of being a kid on a grazing property in the middle of nowhere."

"What do you mean?"

"When she was a kid no-one cared much about sun protection, and she was out in the sun most of the time. Her schooling, up until she reached high school age and came down to a boarding school, was by the School of the Air, the kids would sit around the radio and the lessons would be broadcast from hundreds of kilometres away. That meant it was not full-time schooling, which allowed her and her brothers to spend a lot of time outdoors. During the summer months they spent a lot of time in an artesian warm water spring wearing not much.

She, after we'd been married around ten years, became aware that she had a mole on her back, but thought nothing of it, it was just another skin blemish, something like a freckle. I noticed one day that it seemed to be getting bigger and encouraged her to see a doctor. I was too late. At around that time the contract that I was working on came to an end so I took time off to be with her. In hindsight that may not have been a good idea."

"Why not?"

"Psychologically I wasn't prepared to see the woman that I loved slowly die a horrible death as the cancer took control of her body."

Bethany came around to my side of the table and held my head to her breasts. There was nothing sexual about this, just her way of showing her love for me.

"Why the quantum shift to driving coaches?"

"I needed a job where I could interact with people only on a superficial level, I needed that contact, what I also needed was the ability to walk away from any physical and emotional contact with these people. I certainly wasn't ready to commit to any long term involvement with another woman. That almost changed last year, my feeling of guilt got in the way of that."

"You do realise that without that guilt you and I could be celebrating our first anniversary right now?"

"We can still celebrate that, it was our first meeting after all. There has just been a twelve month hiatus in the proceedings."

"Right, tonight, you and I my darling man, are going out to a fancy restaurant for a slap-up meal with wine and all the trimmings. We are going to book a hire car to pick us up from home, and then bring us back at the end of the evening. That way we don't have to worry about being picked up by the booze bus." (Random Breath Testing Units)

I could not have asked for a better evening. The meal was perfect, the wine while inexpensive was perfect, and the trip home, snuggled together in the back seat of the hire car was better than perfect. Before you jump to conclusions, no we didn't have sex, just some serious emotional bonding. The love making came later.

A month after taking over the business we had our first meeting with the big boss, Bethany's father.

"Well, I need a progress report."

"Progress is progressing." My attempt to lighten the mood fell on deaf ears. "We have consulted with industry bodies and this has given us a direction to travel. We will continue the operations of the coach company while at the same time move to expand into other areas. One of which is to combine with another operator to create a link with his packages." I said.

Bethany jumped in. "This will be a co-promotion that will share the cost of advertising in trade publications as well as tapping in to Tourism industry promotions. While these promotions are not a huge money spinner for us they provide us with substantial exposure to the trade."

"The brochures are being printed as we speak." I handed him the proof copy. "As soon as we receive them we will begin a promotional campaign, beginning with the 5 Star hotels and inbound tourism operators."

The meeting lasted about half an hour, during which time we all tossed ideas around, on our part it was to demonstrate our commitment to making this work, while on his part it was to offer more technical advice on the running of the business.

"One final matter." He looked unsure of himself. "I have been ordered to invite the two of you to dinner tonight. I have been instructed that, if I do not get your acceptance of this invitation, I am not to bother coming home myself."

"I guess that we have no choice." I said.

I had finished dressing and was watching Bethany putting the final touches to her makeup. "Tell me all about your mother, is she as domineering as your father makes her out to be?"

"No, she's fine, unless."

"Unless what?"

"I should warn you that if you try to be someone that you're not, you will be comprehensibly crucified. Just be your wonderful self and you'll impress her."

I impressed her all right, but in the wrong way. The dinner had been going well up until then. "Bethany is going for her bus driver's licence next week." I mentioned it in passing, to emphasise how enthusiastic she was with our business. I received a kick from her.

"What? What foolishness is this? I'll not have my daughter driving a bus!"

"It won't be a big bus." Bethany added quickly. "Just a 20 seater for day trips and small tours, and only when Peter is driving the big coach. It's no big deal, and it will save us money by not having to find a driver at short notice to cover this eventuality. I thought that you would be proud of me."

"And I suppose that you encouraged this folly." She looked at me with one of those 'looks that kills' looks.

"No I didn't encourage her, it was her idea, but I support her fully in anything that she does, and I will not attempt to change her mind."

Bethany reached for my hand. "I came up with the idea because it makes good business sense, and because I love Peter."

"I still don't like the idea of my daughter, who we sent to the right schools, who has a university degree, wasting that education on this, this folly."

"I'm not wasting that at all. I am using the education that you gave me, along with my life skills, to assist Peter and me in this business. We have a viable business that provides a service to the public, to people who are your friends. What can be wrong with that?"

"You are providing a service that you and your friends were brought up to pay for."

"I can't believe that I'm hearing this." Bethany said. "Come Darling, it's time we went home." She stood to leave.

"Sit." Her mother told her. "I had to see how serious you were about this, both of you." She looked at us both. "Your father has been keeping me up to date with what you are doing, and I'm proud of you, both of you. When you first spoke with your father with this scheme I thought that this was going to be another of your hare-brained schemes. But the two of you have impressed your father, and that takes some doing. I needed to know that you are serious and that you have a plan mapped out that will be successful."

"We have." I said. "And Bethany is very much a part of that plan, not because I'm using her background and contacts to build this business, but because we both can see that it will be successful."

"One thing that we have decided on, that will help that success, is that we will only spend enough to meet the needs of the business, not to satisfy our wants."

"Well, you have won them over." Bethany said as we left for home. "I was prepared for a fight there but we've survived unscathed."

"That's good, I was worried for a while, I had visions of your mother placing enormous pressure on your father to break us up and pull the plug on the business. If that happened I really would have had to mortgage the family home."

"Was that how you were going to repay me for financing the trip to the snow?"

"Yes, my father would be spinning in his grave if I was forced to do that, he worked his arse off to build it without having a mortgage."

"I'm glad that you didn't have to do that."

Our love making was even better that night, another area of tension was lifted from our lives, now all that remained was Bethany's divorce. One more week until the hearing, and then we will be free of Roderick Hammond forever. Bethany had gone back to using her maiden name of Saunders as soon as our relationship had moved to the next level.

If we thought that the divorce was going to be plain sailing, we were in for a shock, it was anything but. It began with the property settlement, but we were prepared for that. When it came to the division of joint property, there was nothing to divide, Roderick had mortgaged their house to the hilt to repay his debts. He had been gambling heavily on the financial markets and losing. It seemed as if he had lost the plot and was gambling on hunches rather than researching the deal before jumping in. He lost on pretty much every deal. As a result, he lodged a claim that stated that the joint property was deeply in the red, and would force Bethany to pay him half of her net wealth.

We argued, successfully, that at the time of separation, there was only a small mortgage on the house and that their joint bank account was in the black. Any debts incurred after separation was his responsibility. He was unable to explain how it was that he was able to re-mortgage the property, which was held in joint names, without Bethany's consent. Fraud was a possibility that needed to be investigated. What also needed to be investigated was that, before he had been sacked by Bethany's father, he had managed to trade using funds that he was not entitled to use.

After he had been sacked he had continued to play the money market using another brokerage company. That was until his insolvency forced the company, following a serious of disastrous decisions on his part, to close his account. He began to use other forms of gambling, such as on-line betting on horse racing and football games, to recoup his losses. Like other habitual gamblers, he didn't know when to cut his losses and get out, and as a result his creditors were considering filing for bankruptcy.

He lost out badly on the financial side of the divorce, but he had another shock for us. "So you think that you're smart, don't you?" He smirked at us outside the court room. "But would it interest you to know that I'll get my hands on your money yet."

"What do you mean?" Bethany asked.

"I have been fucking your mother."

"What, you can't be serious?"

"I am, and guess what? She is going to leave your father and as soon as their divorce is finalised, we are going to get married, and I'll get my hands on her share of his money."

"Over my dead body." Bethany told him.

"That can be arranged as well. I'd look over my shoulder if I were you. You never know when something will happen."

"Are you threatening Bethany?" I asked. I figured that if he admitted to threatening her, we could go to the police and take out an AVO.

"You could say that, and while I'm at it, I include you as well." He stormed off, leaving us to decide whether to go to the police or not.

Constable Petraeus looked up from the form in front of him. "So you say that this man, your ex-husband, threatened to kill you, both of you?"

"Yes." We explained the circumstances to him and he walked us through the process of obtaining the AVO.

I went back to the depot to prepare the 20 seater for a day trip the next day, and Bethany went to speak to her mother, to find out what was happening.

It was mid-afternoon when she arrived at the depot. "Well, how did you get on?"

"You'll be relieved to know that Mother has no intention of leaving Father, she has not been having sex with Roderick, and in fact, she has been to see the police to have him arrested for stalking her. So much for his threats."

"I think that you did the right thing when you left him, not just because we are together, but if you'd stayed I hate to think what he would do to you."

The phone rang, ending that conversation. "SA bus and coach, Bethany speaking." Bethany said. "Yes Roger, that Bethany, how are you?" She looked at me and nodded, confirming that it was Roger Bedford. "You want to book a coach for your annual ski trip, is that right?" Another nod. "We'd be only too happy to oblige. Give me the dates and I'll arrange everything for you. Are you staying at the usual place? Good, I'll make the booking for you. No, don't worry about the deposit, I'll arrange that and you can fix me up when everything is confirmed."

"So, we are off for another week of fun in the snow, do you want to join your friends?"

"I'd love to, but we can't really afford to pay for two people, and I would not go without you."

"But you could go. You could be the official tour leader, in charge of the itinerary and the accommodation arrangements. The only downside is that we would probably have to stay in cheaper accommodation, the B&B is way out of our price range."

"I know, I'll think about it."

We closed the office and went home. I was just sliding into her when the phone rang. "Let it ring." Came a small voice from the vicinity of my left ear.

I would have, but something told me that it might be important "Hello."

"Mister Porter?"

"Yes, who is this?"

"I'm Sergeant Johnston of the Arson Squad. We have just been called to a fire at your transport depot. We would like you to attend."

"Sure, we'll be right there."

"What is that all about?" Bethany asked.

"There's a fire at the depot. We'd better get there."

From the questions that he asked concerning our insurance policies, I got the impression that he thought that we might have been involved in the torching of our office building.

"I presume that this building is adequately insured." It was more of a statement than a question.

"We have insurance, yes. Whether it is adequate or not remains to be seen. The loss of the building is not our main concern, it is the damage to that 20 seater bus that was parked next to the building is our immediate concern. We have a tour booked in it tomorrow and we can't afford to lose that business. If you are suggesting that we are involved in this fire then I suggest the there is a more obvious candidate."

"Who do you think could have done this?" He asked.

"My newly ex-husband would be my suggestion." Bethany told him. "I have had to take out an AVO because he has threatened me, us. His behaviour of recent times has been getting increasingly more bizarre by the day. He is angry with me because he thought that he would benefit from our divorce settlement, at least it would go some way towards bailing himself out of the financial mess that he is in."

"But, torching your building is not going to benefit him, is it?"

"No, but then you aren't thinking like he is. He will do anything to stop Peter and me from making a success of our business. I guess that he thinks that if he can't find financial success, then I won't."

"I might not know much about forensics when it comes to fires," I said, "but it would appear as if whoever did this threw something through the window and followed it with an incendiary device, possibly a Molotov cocktail or whatever you guys call them."

"What makes you think that?"

"If the fire was set inside the building, and the heat or explosion blew out the windows, then there would be glass on the outside of the windows. As it is there is no glass on the ground outside the building, meaning that there was no pressure build up from the blast that you would expect from a confined explosion. If you look inside, you will probably find a heavy object and broken glass."

"And you know this how?"

"I am, or was, an engineer, and part of my studies was into pyrotechnics. That isn't an admission of guilt by the way."

"I never thought that it was." He didn't sound at all convincing.

"If you look closely at the sign just inside the fence, you can just make out the lens of a CCTV camera, actually two, one covers the gate and roadway outside it, while the other covers the buildings. The images from those cameras are transmitted to our computer at home. I can download the images from the hard drive, with luck it will give us an idea of the culprit."

"That could prove helpful. When will I be able to look at the images?"

"It will probably be best if you follow us home, we wouldn't want you thinking that we have doctored the vision in any way." I could tell that he had changed his thinking. If we had set the blaze, or even arrange for someone else to do it, we would hardly volunteer evidence that would convict us.

His thinking took a further leap in another direction as he watched the vision from our cameras. "Gotcha!" He said when a man came into view. We clearly saw him throw something through the window followed by a petrol bomb.

"Do you know this man?" I asked.

"I do. I have been trying to get him in court on a number of occasions. His MO is consistent, as is the ironclad alibi that he will have for the time of the fire. He must have been told that there were no surveillance cameras in place or else he would have taken greater care not to be recognised. I think that I am going to enjoy our next chat." He certainly seemed cheerful enough as he left.

"What are we going to do about tomorrow?" Bethany asked as we climbed into bed.

"I'll call a rental firm that we used to use in the past, and see if we can get a bus for the day. I'll do the run, you can get to work organising the trip to the snow for your friends. We also need to lodge an insurance claim on the building and bus."

"I think you mean 'our friends', don't you?"

"They were only my friends because of you. If we hadn't become an item I would have still been sleeping in a cheap room and freezing my butt off because it had no central heating."

"Aren't you glad that I chose you from the thousands of men that were after my body?"

"You got me there. You don't hear me complaining, do you now?"

"Stop talking and make love to me." I didn't need to say anything to show her that I loved her, and agreed with her request.

I picked up the replacement bus in good time to collect the group for their day trip. Some of them already knew of the fire and the loss of our bus. The word spread quickly to the others and I was showered with sympathy, so much so that it was bordering on embarrassing. Having returned the bus to the hire company I drove into our depot only to find the good Sergeant waiting for me.

"I have some good news for you. Not only has your wife's ex admitted to hiring Tony the Torch for the job, but by playing footsies with them I have Tony admitting to doing the job."

"When you say 'playing footsies', I hope that this will not compromise your case."

"No way would I let him worm out of it this time. It was just a matter of getting the two of them at the station at the same time, so that they knew that we were talking to them both, then keeping them separated so that neither knew what the other had told us. We let slip to your Mister Hammond that Tony was trying to negotiate a deal to cough him up in exchange for a lighter sentence, and then telling Tony that Roderick had admitted to paying him to do the job. That got Tony talking, you see he trusted Roderick when he promised to pay on completion of the job, but he hasn't seen any of the promised money, and now it's unlikely that he will. He's not a happy little canary, let me tell you. Times and places we now have. Your friend will probably not see the outside of gaol for some time, seeing as how I also heard on the grape vine that the Fraud Squad is taking an interest in him."

The next day the insurance assessor arrived to inspect the damage. The building suffered superficial damage from the water used to dowse the fire, and scorched paintwork, but little to no structural damage, so a coat of paint, new furniture and carpets and replace the IT connections and we'd be operational within a week. In the meantime we could do all of the bookwork and make calls from home.