‘He rang last night wanting to know where it was at. I said I’d presented his offer to Jake but he wasn’t interested in any counteroffer other than full asking price at this point.’
‘What did Henry say?’
‘He said something along the lines of that’s what he expected.’
Actually, he’d said it a bit more brusquely than that, and Ella had needed to take the phone a few centimetres back from her ear.
‘Let the pair of them sit on it for a while, chew it around,’ Harvey said. ‘What about you, Bob? Got anything out of the weekend?’
Here it comes, Ella thought. Ring a ding ding. How many sales for Bob?
Bob shuffled the pile of files on his desk, straightening some cut-out newspaper adverts that spilled from the blue manila mouth. ‘Actually, it was pretty quiet. I don’t have much going on.’ He glanced at Ella and added, ‘For once.’
Well, how do you like that.
‘We’ve got some work to do if we want to make budget for the month,’ Harvey said, ticking off a last line of his report and eyeing Ella where she stood in his doorway. ‘What about new listings? Got any prospects there? We’re short of stock, and I don’t like rumours that Leo Vesper and Son are thinking of setting up a new branch here. They’ve got Albany and Mount Barker, and we’re the next logical step, though heaven knows why they think a town this size has room for another real estate agent. Maybe they know something I don’t.’
Ella dutifully huffed at the thought of anyone in real estate knowing something Harvey didn’t.
‘I don’t like those whispers. I don’t like it at all.’ Harvey shook his head. ‘So let’s get on top of it, hey? Let’s do a real clean-up of our contact lists. Get in touch with people. Talk to people. Okay?’
Bob puffed out his chest. ‘I’ve got a few potential listings out there. Caught up with the Deiners at the bowls club on Friday. They’re thinking of selling their farm through the winter while it’s green. Ginger and Dusty Wiseman are talking about a move to Perth to be nearer their kids. Their place on Violet Rise could come up.’
‘Good,’ Harvey said, through the wall between them. Then he looked at Ella.
‘Nothing for me, sorry, Harvey.’
‘What are you doing to try to get new listings, Ella?’
‘I did that business card and letter drop in January, like you suggested. I’ve followed up anyone who ever called about the Honeychurch house.’
‘What about the school? You’re the only one of us with kids at the school … start talking to the school mums, hey? Lots of teachers up there too. Teachers need a place to live.’
Harvey meant well, but if she tallied her contacts with school mums and teachers right now, unfortunately she’d have to report most of her conversations were to do with making Sam apologise for pushing a kid at handball or not listening in the classroom. It wasn’t a great stepping stone for chatting about whether they were interested in buying or selling a house.
She forced a smile. ‘I’ll do that.’
‘Okay, everyone, onwards and upwards, hey? Let’s get to it.’
Ella retreated to her space, and managed this time to get her handbag under the table and pull out her chair. Bob’s office door stayed open and Ella could see him on his phone.
She opened her email inbox, looking for any new enquiries on the Honeychurch house.
She desperately needed a plan C, D and E … and as she rocked back in her chair and gazed up at the fluorescent light glaring at her from the ceiling above her space, hoping for inspiration, plans C, D and E felt as far away as Olympic gold.
C’mon, Ella.
She let the feet of her chair drop to the floor.
This isn’t me. This isn’t how I roll!
She sucked in a deep breath and thought it through.
Henry Graham is a buyer. He has at least $430,000 to spend in or near Chalk Hill and he told me he’s looking for something with commercial zoning, preferably to build a backpacker lodge.
And yes, she did wonder which backpackers by the thousand were flocking to Chalk Hill, but that was not her problem. Her problem was to find Henry a potential site.
She closed her eyes, running through everything they had on the Begg & Robertson books, coming up blank. Then she thought about Mount Barker, their largest neighbour to the east, and Manjimup, to the west.
When she ran out of options, Ella turned to other property websites, putting in her search parameters. A couple of commercial properties came up with other real estate agents. Ella jotted the details down and got on the phone.
Doing something positive made her feel better because it put her back in control. It might not mean she sold Irma Honeychurch’s house to Henry Graham, but it could mean she sold him something else that was suitable for his needs.
And that meant she was doing her job.
CHAPTER
15
Ella felt better about her world when she left the office a few minutes before four. She’d emailed the various property options she’d discovered to Henry Graham and she’d cleaned up her client database, contacting people she’d spoken with in her first three months on the job. Some said they weren’t interested in buying a place anymore, and she’d had to wipe them off her precious (and very short) client list, but a few were still interested and nothing gave Ella a better feeling than hearing one of those people say, ‘I’m so glad you called … I was just thinking that we should get in touch with you again …’
Those were the people Ella could kiss.
Her car was warm from being out in the sun and because she only had a two-minute drive to her house, Ella had buzzed the window down rather than put the air conditioner on. That meant her first action when she saw Jake’s Landcruiser parked outside her place was to run her hand through her hair
