Twilight in Kuta

on between he and his wife, Yossy, but I felt something was up. He had informed me that Yossy was pregnant with their second child but according to my rudimentary grasp of mathematics, the months didn’t add up and I didn’t see how she could have conceived his child in the time span being talked about. That in itself was none of my business, but I had to be sure that he wouldn’t let this interfere with the business. Of a slightly more pressing concern was the reports I was getting back from Evie that Neil could be a little bit of a flirt and perhaps a bit of a budding ladies man. According to my erstwhile Business Manager, Neil enjoyed a good chat with some of the female staff and the older female students. For example, we had a few Housewife Conversation Classes in the mornings and Neil taught these personally, and from the reports I was hearing Neil employed a ‘cheeky chappie’ persona in these lessons. Nothing necessarily wrong with that of course, and there were even possibilities to turn that into an advantage, but again, precautions and care would need to be taken.

The other consideration to bear in mind, of course, would be the immigration status and work permit situation. As EPLC was sponsoring him, he should not by rights work elsewhere, but as long as we did a bit of tap dancing and I called in a few favours, that too should be no problem.

I called on him bright and early one morning and directly I cut to the chase. ‘Neil. How would you like to make some real money?’

‘Doing what?’

‘Working for me.’

Neil looked confused: ‘I am working for you.’

He had me there. I grinned: ‘I mean, really working for me. For real money.’

He looked interested so I outlined what I had in mind for him. When I had finished he looked at me some more.

‘How about EPLC? Would I still work here, too?’

‘Yes, at least in the beginning. It would be good for appearances if you were here in the school at least some of the time, but we both know that this place practically runs itself now you and Evie have got it up and going.’

We chatted a bit more and discussed how things would work and also his personal terms. I offered him a three-fold increase on what he was currently earning as well as a profit-sharing scheme that had the potential to make him rather a wealthy man in a few years if he worked hard and kept his nose clean.

‘Keep my nose clean?’ he played innocent. ‘What do you mean?’

‘Nothing, Neil. Not at the moment, anyway.’

I didn’t say anything more; I didn’t have to. He knew, and he knew I knew that he knew.

So, I started Neil of as General Manager of a small and rather dingy bar our consortium had bought in Kedoya in the south of Jakarta called Club Mexicanas. I told him that he would be working with my associate Yusuf who would be his right-hand man. Yusuf was an extremely large gentleman with a propensity for mindless violence if pushed too far, and extreme amiability if not. He would get on perfect with Neil, I surmised. I told Neil that as he was now technically a partner in the business it would be perfectly acceptable, indeed preferable perhaps, if he were to let on to others that he was indeed the full owner of the place. Neil looked a little confused at this point, but didn’t question matters.

Neil worked closely with Yusuf, even though the big man was a chap of few words, and soon showed an aptitude for running the bar. It was a bit dark and gloomy there when we bought it and certainly not the sort of place I would frequent – either as a patron or even as an owner if I could help it – and so I was very happy to take a back seat and move onto frying bigger fish. I let Neil and Yusuf have their head there and make the changes they wanted to within reason, and by all accounts they did a good job in making the place a bit more presentable and appealing to a slightly higher class of customer.

The reports I was getting back on Neil from people at both EPLC and Club Mexicanas was that he was a considerate boss who was learning to be a bit stricter and a little less naïve. He was able to show a bit more steel over this time than he had before and this included moving people out in the two businesses if they were not performing up to scratch. I had worried a bit that he was too nice and that he wanted to be liked rather than respected, but over this period of a couple of years or so, he was happily proving me wrong.

The school was doing well, the club was doing well, I was doing well, The Group was doing well, and Neil was doing well. We were all doing well.

This period saw more investments undertaken and more loans procured and facilitated. We diversified into leasing and freeholds on apartment buildings, hotels, boutiques and further restaurants and clubs, and in doing so undertook more debts – on paper at least. It would have been easy and indeed a cliché to have Neil be responsible for signing the paperwork on such deals and therefore becoming responsible for loans and debts incurred, and indeed the thought did occur to me, but I resisted the temptation to do that. I didn’t exactly need Neil as such, as I could have got any number of people in to carry out the role he was doing, but I had known him for some time now and I did feel a degree of affection for him, I guess. I knew that he was struggling with his home life, and I knew he was devoted to his little daughter, Tess,