The Mist of Time Ch. 09-10

"We should write to all the farmers, politely! Explaining that I am now the owner of the estate and that in future they should pay their rent as usual but to me at this address. You should put in a paragraph asking them to confirm the land they rented. "

"Is that all?"

"For the moment. What if they write back and we find that they are paying rent on land which Huddingtons have not revealed to us merely pocketing the extra rent. Let's not accuse anyone before we have proof. Anyway it's not us they have allegedly swindled; it's Brian and that old lady in Harrogate. I am not about to go into battle for Brian and a woman who's now dead."

"You can be devious, Boss."

"Perhaps sometimes. Trust but verify. That was President Truman's approach and it's a good maxim. When I chatted with Mr. Somers he told me he farmed sixty acres, but didn't say exactly where it was, nor did he admit that it was my land he was farming. I would say that Reggie Somers was a charming rogue."

"Well." Tina said with a smile. "He's up against another rogue, but one who is not so charming."

"If you are referring to me, then you are fired again."

"Ok, ok. I will retract the rogue part."

"So you are saying that I am not charming?"

"You can't be. Dirty old men can never be charming."

"Oh thanks." I replied dryly.

Friday afternoon Tina went off for her weekend tryst with Aleksy. "Is there anything you want me to do while I am there?"

"Apart from the obvious, not really. Flower of my dreams."

"Dirty dreams I am sure." She smiled and left.

My friendly bank manager had alerted me to a sale of re-possessed property in Ipswich. That would take place on Monday the following week. He mentioned that much of the property would be small two or three bedroom terraced homes. Now that was exactly the sort of property I would normally look for. I decided to go, not to bid but suss out the prices and how fiercely the bidding was. This was the downside of the housing market. Banks and Building Societies encourage young couples to get into the market. Unfortunately it is young couples who often fail in their re-payments. They lose a huge amount of the capital tied up in their investment and the usual result is that as defaulters they can never buy again. I felt some pity for them, yet it was their misery that allowed me to make a lot of money. Life isn't fair!

I took the train from Liverpool Street station and arrived in Ipswich in just over the hour. A taxi took me to the auction. I met one or two who I recognised. They didn't seem pleased to see me until I explained that I wasn't bidding. That alleviated some of their worry although the fact that I was there was cause for concern that I could be taking a stake in the area soon. I mentally shrugged my shoulders. If you can't take the competition then you shouldn't be in the game. My research had indicated that prices would be lower than London. A property that would cost on the open market at £450,000 in East London was selling at less than £100,000. If I were to bid I wouldn't be offering that sort of money. When one property, a re-possessed two bedroom terrace was knocked down at sixty thousand I was interested. I had to investigate the market for rental before making my decision. I had much to think about on the journey back to London.

Tina welcomed me back to the office on Tuesday. "Mr. Anders is not happy."

"I doubted he would be happy." I agreed. "Any coffee going?"

"I'll bring it through."

Tina was in happy mood when she brought the coffee. "He thinks you are being unfair by threatening to re-negotiate." She smiled very happily. "Isn't it good when smarmy bastards with an inflated idea of their importance are brought down to reality? He phoned yesterday."

"And what did you say?"

"I told him that another property company had offered even more for the houses."

"Now that was naughty, Tina"

"I know, but I couldn't resist it." It wasn't unknown for rival property developers to attempt to get hold of land that their competitor needed. They could then hold them to ransom. The problem with that tactic was that it could rebound on them in the future. "Mr. Anders said that we had a deal. I told him that the deal was for completion within a reasonable time. Six months was not a reasonable time, nor had he indicated that completion would be in six months when negotiating." She paused. "He didn't like that."

"You enjoyed that, didn't you?"

"You bet. Boss."

Our busy life went on. The mundane always took more time than planning ahead. Tenants would fail to pay their rent. They always had an excuse, they were laid off, or Aunty had died, the children needed new clothes for school. The many reasons why they couldn't pay the rent. Once, in the early days I was sympathetic, but being taking for a fool on many occasions taught me that their excuses were just a cover for their having spent the rent on a new television, or a car or anything else they deemed more important than paying me what I was owed. Nowadays I was the unfeeling bastard. Why should I allow them to live in the house I owned without their paying rent? Tina liked to get involved and would fire off threatening letters, whilst I would go round and face them. She was incandescent on one occasion. Tina had sent letter after letter without reply. I went to confront the errant tenant and brought back with me all the letters that Tina had sent. Not one of the letters had been opened. The tenant knew what the letters were about, but had convinced himself that if he didn't open and read them, they didn't exist. Why did he keep them? I have no idea.

It was four weeks later when Tina arrived back from her weekend with Aleksy. The first thing she did was make coffee and having brought it in she sat down. I looked up. "Is there something?"

"Yes. Aleksy hasn't seen you for a month. The work is going on but he needs to see you regularly so he knows he is doing it right."

"If he wasn't surely you would say something."

"I could, but I'm not the boss."

"You could have fooled me."

"Don't make fun of it, Daniel. For all his confidence Aleksy is still uncertain, first for his English and second how you operate. He thinks you are a very clever man. I don't disabuse him of that, because we know who the clever one is." She smiled. "He needs to know that you think he's doing it right."

I thought about it. "I haven't been up as I trust Aleksy. However I'll go up this week and show my face. Are you coming?"

"Yes, you bet."

To be continued...