No Place in the Sun (33 page)

‘But how will you persuade him? Harry found him very difficult.’

Tania smiled knowingly. ‘You know that I can get what I want when I want, Tom; I’ll take care of Mickey Macken. After all he used to be a jockey, didn’t he? I’m sure he hasn’t lost the knack.’

The Bulgarian business was going well; for a place that nobody had ever heard of a few weeks before, suddenly everyone was an expert on Bulgaria. The Scorpio team had shifted three hundred apartments to small investors who were excited about the prospect of a guaranteed rental return on their properties, and the newspapers were full of information on this emerging economy. Tom’s contacts within the newspaper business were providing almost all the facts in the marketplace, and Tania was now a regular contributor to a succession of radio and television shows.

He reached for the remote control and turned up the sound. The well-tanned breakfast show presenter was finishing off an interview with a woman who had several elderly greyhounds to re-home; the piece featuring Tania and Mickey Macken was just about due.

‘So, coming up next, we have two experts on the overseas property market and the fantastic opportunities that are to be found for Irish investors in beautiful Bulgaria. Join us after the traffic report when we will be talking to Doctor Tania Sherry and our own Mickey Macken about the superb value that is to be found in that part of the world, and be in with a chance to win a trip to Sunny Beach. See you after the break.’

Tom flicked on the kettle again and made another cup of tea. The traffic was getting worse by the day; the booming economy that was driving the overseas property business was also grinding to a halt as more and more people got jobs and bought more cars to add to the numbers already crowding the roads. It was time to get to the office, but not until he had seen how Macken would handle this slot.

The traffic report finished and the programme returned to the studio where Tania relaxed on the couch as though she owned the place. Macken sat beside her, his short legs dangling over the edge of the brightly coloured sofa. He looked self conscious in his casual attire; Mickey preferred the tweedy look that went with his more usual racecourse environment.

‘So, Doctor Sherry, welcome to the show, and of course Mickey Macken, no stranger to the viewers.’ The presenter was treading carefully; this had the potential to become a serious piece, not what was expected this early in the morning.

Tania gave her broadest smile straight to the camera. ‘Delighted to be here, Anto.’ It seemed to Tom that her breasts had got bigger; she was showing a lot of cleavage and the camera operator was making the most of it.

‘So, Doctor Sherry, you own the largest overseas property company in Ireland, and of course we see Mickey here on our screens a lot, promoting your developments in Bulgaria. Why Bulgaria?’

Tania never stopped smiling. ‘Well, Anto, as you know we sell beautiful properties in Spain, but unfortunately not everyone can afford them, so we had to look for an alternative where Irish investors could get real value for money as well as the fantastic weather that they have come to expect in Spain.’

‘So is Bulgaria similar to Spain, climate wise?’

‘Yes, Anto. Beautiful climate, fabulous weather, and of course when they join the EU all the property will double in price. It really is too good an opportunity to miss, and investors have been voting with their feet for the last few weeks since we launched our project at Sunny Beach North. This is the only game in town, Anto, when it comes to investment overseas; welcome to the New Spain as we say.’

So, Mickey, would you say that Bulgaria is a good bet? It is a good each way shot, great weather and great investment?’

Macken grinned at the camera. ‘Better than a safe bet, Anto; you get your money back and lots more with it, and a guaranteed return of five percent for the first two years after completion. This is the bet that never loses, Anto. No fallers or non-runners here, Anto.’

‘Excellent. That’s the kind of news that we love to bring to our breakfast viewers. Looks like everyone who can scrape up a few bob should get to your investment seminar at the weekend. And if you want to win a trip to Sunny Beach, text your name followed by the word Scorpio to the number on the top of the screen right now. Calls cost one euro per text, network charges may vary.’

The camera zoomed out to show Tania and Macken on the couch, Tania was still smiling broadly and Macken swung his short legs to and fro. The presenter leaned towards Tania; Tom had a terrible moment when he thought that she would let him have a piece of her mind for staring at her cleavage, but her smile never wavered.

‘So, Doctor Sherry, thanks for coming in this morning, and we’ll see you at your investment seminar at the weekend, details in all the national press?’

‘Thank you, Anto, anyone who wants to make some money from foreign property needs to be well informed; we have an investment seminar every weekend, get there early for the best choices and before prices get too high.’

‘We’re having a lovely week here this week, nobody would ever go abroad if we had weather like this, but of course we don’t, so that’s where you come in. So, what’s the weather like in Bulgaria right now; is it as nice as here?’

Tania looked flustered; she glanced down at her notes. The smile never wavered but it was beginning to look strained. The silence seemed to Tom to go on for ever, but eventually she looked straight at the presenter. ‘It’s like here right now, but nicer.’

Tom was leaving the car park when he got the first call of the day. He clicked the phone into the cradle and answered on hands-free.

‘Good performance, Tania.’

‘Fuck you, Tom, you left me out on a limb there, you know I’ve never been to bloody Bulgaria. Why didn’t you brief me about the weather, the stupid prick nearly caught me out.’

‘Come on, Tania, how was I supposed to predict a low ball like that? Anyway you finessed it ok, nobody noticed that you were lost for words for a second.’

‘Not good enough, Tom, you’re pulling serious money out of this company every month; I’m not paying you that kind of money to half do a job. I don’t need another slipup like that, ok?’

Tom sighed. ‘Ok, Tania, next time I’ll try to predict the fucking future.’ He punched the phone into silence.

It rang again; Tom swore at the instrument. ‘Fuck off, Tania, I’ve heard enough shit for one morning.’ He pressed the green button.

‘Tom, Tom.’ Ehud’s voice was excited, panicky. ‘Bad news, Tom, big problem for us.’

The tone of the Israeli’s voice startled Tom; there was clearly something badly amiss. He pulled in to the side of the road and plucked the phone from the holder. ‘What’s wrong, Ehud? What’s up?’

The Israeli was slightly breathless, as though he had been running. ‘Sorry to call you so early, but this is very urgent, my friend.’

‘What’s wrong, Ehud?’

‘Is Andon, he is dead. This morning, half hour ago.’

‘Andon, the mayor, the developer?’

‘Yes, Andon.’

‘What happened, was it a car crash?’

‘No crash. One bullet, in the head. He step out on the balcony for cigarette, bang!’

Tom almost dropped the phone. ‘Fuck. How? Who killed him? Why?’

‘Some persons, you know of who I speak, they do not like that we are making so much business so quickly I think. They do not want another big developer in this area. Maybe if we had started with the Kukova project it would have been better.’

‘How did it happen?’

‘They invite us to meeting on their site this morning; they tell us that they want to buy us out of our development, to amalgamate all projects in that area. Andon says no way; we don’t need to make a business with them, we doing ok. He walks out on the balcony for his cigarette, then we heard rifle shot from one of the buildings across the street. He is dead; one shot through the head, looks like was a military person, good shot, very good shot.’

Tom felt sick in his stomach; this was the worst possible outcome. ‘So what happens now? What about the sales we’ve made? Will Petar be able to finish the project?’

‘Sure, Petar will finish, but they will take over the project anyway, we will have to pay them some money to stay in the game.’

‘Money? How much money?’

‘They say ten percent. Is not for discussion you understand. They know how much we are making, they want us to make money so we will keep selling, so we have an incentive.’

Tom felt a slight sense of relief, but he was still shaking. ‘So they take ten percent of the price we are selling at?’

‘Exact. You make less, but still a lot of money.’

‘So you’ll be taking a hit as well?’

‘Of course, but is better than what Andon takes.’

‘So what do we do now?’

‘We do nothing. We continue as before but I think we forget about moving on to the Kukova project for now, look for something else away from here, away from the coast maybe. Maybe we look across the border in Romania, or maybe in Sofia, I don’t know right now, I need to think.’

Tania was white faced. ‘Jesus, Tom, this is fucking serious stuff. What kind of shit are we in?’

‘We’re not in any shit as far as I can see; apart from having our margin trimmed a bit. These guys are relying on foreigners to buy this stuff; nobody in Bulgaria can buy these properties, especially at these kinds of prices, so they won’t do anything to spook the foreign companies working there.’

‘But if this ever gets out? We won’t sell another apartment.’

‘It won’t get out. Only you and I know about it, it won’t make the papers here, don’t worry about that part of it.’

Tania took a few deep breaths. ‘So what do we do now? Do we just continue as if nothing had happened?’

‘That’s the plan. Just keep selling and pretend that all is normal. Ehud reckons that he’ll come up with an alternative away from the territory that these guys control, and we can ease ourselves slowly out of Sunny Beach North and into the new location. We can keep selling on the coast, but at a reduced rate, and concentrate our sales on somewhere where we are getting the full margin again. It’ll be ok, we’ll be fine.’

‘What about the man that was killed? Was he one of the guys you met?’

‘Just on the first day; he was the Mayor. Nice kind of fellow, mild mannered, well spoken, probably corrupt as hell but he didn’t deserve to be shot like a dog.’

Tania went to the cabinet and took out a bottle of vodka and two tumblers. ‘Do you want one?’

Tom shook his head. ‘I could use one, but I’m trying to stay on top of this problem, so I’ll pass for now. Thanks.’

Tania poured a large vodka and added some tonic. She sat down heavily and drank half the contents of the glass. ‘So what do we do next?’

‘We haven’t much choice, just continue with this week’s show; keep the sunny side out and keep selling. Ehud is working on getting an alternative, somewhere away from there altogether, and I’ll go out there on Sunday night or Monday morning and get that end of things up and running.’

‘Ok, be careful, Tom; don’t get yourself shot out there.’

‘No real danger of that, Ehud reckons that they won’t touch a foreigner. It would bring too much heat on their heads, and anyway they need foreigners to generate the cash flow for their own developments.’