“I’m sorry, but Mr Sheldon has left the hotel.”
“I’ll wait till he gets back.”
The girl looks nervous in front of this loud and furious man. “No, I’m sorry, sir. I mean he has booked out of the hotel. He’s not staying with us anymore.”
Dave slams his fist down on the reception desk and shouts an expletive before hurtling out of the hotel, leaving the girl trembling. His determination to get his hands on the money and the man responsible for his ‘loss’ is his overriding desire.
He walks back to his car, unsure of what to do to catch up with the man who stole his ticket. Where does Dave start? He gets into his Mercedes and drives off at speed.
The car in front stops suddenly and he bumps into the back of it. He gets out and sees there isn’t much damage, especially to his car. He walks forward to the driver’s door ready to have a go at the idiot who, in his opinion, is at fault for stopping so quickly. Upon reaching the other vehicle, he discovers a female driver.
“Bloody fucking typical. You stupid bitch. You shouldn’t be allowed on the road.”
Unfortunately, the woman decides to answer back. “Don’t speak to me like that,” she says as she makes the mistake of getting out of her car.
When she utters words about exchanging insurance details, Dave sees red and he hits her squarely in the face with a full punch. Then, as she lies on the ground, he kicks her in the face. The sight of blood pouring from her nose only seems to get him more worked up. One final kick to the head and he gets into his car, turns around, and drives off smiling to himself. She certainly won’t stop suddenly again.
Pumped up from the altercation he decides a visit to the gym followed by a relaxing massage will help him let off some steam and lower the blood pressure his doctor had told him was on the high side during his last medical examination.
The gym is part of a leisure complex based on a modern business park less than five minutes’ drive from the hotel. The location means there’s room for a wide range of facilities including tennis, badminton and squash courts plus indoor and outdoor swimming pools.
It is now one thirty pm and Dave is heading for the first floor café bar within the gym complex. He finds a table by the front window overlooking the other buildings across the business park. He watches as a vast range of cars and vans come and go from the wholesale cash and carry warehouse opposite. As he stares out of the window, his mind returns to that fateful day when he visited the convenience store and purchased the Lotto ticket.
He wasn’t even meant to be in the centre of town. He was only there because of his mother’s birthday and the present he had ordered for her online not arriving. If only he had been more careful and checked his ticket after bumping into the tramp.
His line of thought is suddenly broken by the waitress asking if he is ready to order his meal.
After finishing his meal and leaving the gym complex, he decides to make his weekly visit around the three businesses used as a front to launder the money he makes from his illegal activities.
Although one or two of his employees suspect the businesses are a smokescreen for other things, it’s not in their own interest to risk upsetting him and especially today when he seems to be in such a foul mood.
After seeing everything is running smoothly, he returns home and starts on an unopened bottle of Jack Daniels.
The rest of the day will be a blur.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
JAMES
Everything seems to be going really well. Stoneman’s, the solicitors, have confirmed that the Charity Commission have approved the first stage of our application to become a charitable Housing Trust. The name I have chosen is MJA Housing Foundation, the initials of my lovely wife and two kids.
My offer for The Albion has been accepted and is a couple of days away from completion. Once the contract is signed, I have a specialist hotel refurbishment company lined up to go in and establish what can be done to keep the character of the hotel whilst updating the décor and improving any outdated facilities. The budget for the work is estimated to be in the region of three million pounds.
Stevie is now working in the office and proving to be a human dynamo. What’s more, Susan has taken to him and the pair are working really well together. It truly pleases me to see them both getting on and being so committed to the project.
The charity has taken on another staff member. As well as Jill Dean, we have a new Public Relations Manager called Alison Crook who is already putting together plans to promote the charity in its best light. We’ve also engaged the services of a local graphic design company and they are close to finishing all the plans and illustrations of how the completed Asbury Park project will look. It’s very exciting.
From what Susan has been able to discover from her contacts inside the council, it seems the bidding for Asbury Park will be a two-horse race between our charity and a local consortium called DR Social Housing Ltd. Susan’s contacts on the Planning Committee have told us the other bid is in the region of thirty million pounds. Although this is far more than we originally thought, it will be worth it so we’re going to increase our bid to thirty-five million.
The council planning committee meeting to decide which bid will be accepted takes place in two weeks’ time. The press release we put together before Alison joined the team went down very well. We hoped it would attract the attention of the local newspaper and they would run a favourable article
