Indian Ocean Drama - 11. Orc Chapter 11

“I have a local lady who cleans the house once a week to keep it clean and tidy” Anita explained, “can you please inform her that she has a permanent weekly job, and that myself and my two assistants, will be moving in on Saturday” I replied, “She will be happy to know that, I will tell her as soon as we return to town” Anita said as she handed over the house keys, that included the two gate remotes.

While Anita head back to town, I walked down to the bay to check out the small jetty, at the point of the property, 500 metres from the house. Facing north into the bay, the jetty is 300 metres long, and made of solid wood pylons, and thick timber planks, with a post and railing along the western side and end, and 6 mooring posts spaced every thirty metres. Laying down and looking over the side, I saw that there is a wall of limestone rocks just one metre above the surface, that helped protect the mooring side of the jetty from waves and the wind.

Once back in town, I headed back to my accommodation suite, and telephoned the charter flight, to confirm the booking for Saturday morning, from Perth to Denham, for two passengers. Once this was done, I drove down to the Shire council building, just two blocks away.

“I am Lewis Shaw, I wanted to introduce myself, and let you know that I will be living on my property at Fowlers Bay” I said to the man at the counter. “Yes, Sir Lewis, it is a pleasure to have you in our small community, welcome. My name is David Morgan, I am the Shire CEO, we have a total of 7 councillors, 5 other office staff, not including me, 2 recreation staff and 6 works staff, please feel free to contact us a during office hours” the gentleman said to me, and we shook hands.

“Thank you for the welcome Mr Morgan, I hope to make this place my permanent home, I have a major airline business based in Broome, and two businesses here in Denham. I would like to request to build an aircraft hangar at the airport, to accommodate two small jet aircraft, that will need to come down here on occasions, and I would prefer to use local builders if you have any” I replied.

“I’m afraid we don’t, the nearest would be in Geraldton, get them to send plans for the aircraft hangar, and I will make sure that it is processed quickly” David said. Thank you for your time, bye for now” I said, before leaving and heading back to the accommodation suite.

I tried to relax a little, but with all the drama happening, I wasn’t having much luck. When there was a knock on my door about an hour later, it was Kylie, “Come in, how are things progressing?” I said as I stepped to one side, “Lewis, it is one hell of a mess that you have inherited, but we have the Parker brothers in custody, and the wife has seemed to have disappeared, even though we have frozen all personal accounts for all three of them.

For the past six weeks, $2000 has been deposited into their personal accounts, which has come from the deposits made to the Parker Accommodation account, which they use to pay all bills and wages from. All up I would say they have skimmed $36,000 plus paid for their living costs, and all travel costs to Perth and Geraldton on a fortnightly basis, which totals up to another $3000” Kylie announced.

We found and employment contract, which states that they are to a receive a weekly wage of $450 each, plus free accommodation, but all services bills and living costs are at their expense. The cleaners are getting a basic casual rate of $18 per hour, with 4 hours of work a day, 6 days a week, while Matthew and Edwin are getting $28 per hour, which is a reasonable rate for both.

Erica is getting $22 per hour for a maximum of 6 hours a day, 5 days a week, and she has informed us that she is averaging 8 to 9 hours a day, 7 days a week, as well as having to look after her younger brothers, and the staff over next door, are all being paid the correct amount” Kylie informed me. “Let Erica know, that she will be paid the money owed to her in wages, for the extra 14 hours a week, for the past 6 weeks” I said to Kylie, before she left.

By the end of the day, every villa that was vacant, was spotlessly clean, and all maintenance issues had been sorted, and I had instructed Matthew to investigate large mature trees, that can be transported to Denham, to be planted in the central open area of the property and asked to get several quotes.

Next door, the 2-administration staff, had followed my instructions to make sure that every apartment is spotlessly clean, and that all maintenance issues are reported to Matthew or Patrick, so it can be fixed quickly.

Over the next two days, I was either checking all the cleaning that had been done, and I was very happy with the results, or I was on the phone trying to get additional staff to come up and work for my company. I had set up a new business account with the bank, and all money would be now going into that account, and I put in $10,000 to help cover costs of staff wages for this week.

I had also refunded all the guests who had been forced to leave, and a painting contractor had been brought up from Geraldton, to so some painting in some of the villas, that were looking a little tired and run down.

When Saturday finally arrived, I packed my luggage, and I headed over to the airport at 11am, to collect Xavier and Wyatt, who were flying in from Perth, and they were very happy to see me again. I informed them that I have a large house, located 22 kilometres south of town, with a magnificent endless view.

Once back in town, we stopped into the supermarket, and I let the lads go ahead and load everything they thought was needed for the new house. About half an hour and $420 later, we loaded up all the supplies into the back of the Trail Blazer and set off towards our new home.

“Kylie is here with a team of AFP officers, and they are using my other vehicle, a Holden Colorado, and that will be yours to use, once they head back to Perth. It turns out that the accommodation managers that the twins had employed, where very dodgy, and were stealing from me, so they are investigating it, and already have two of the three culprits, in custody, who are brothers, and the wife of one has not yet been caught.

Their adult daughter who is not part of this, has been over worked and under paid, and there are two minors that attend the local school, who are caught up in all this mess. I have promoted the daughter, Erica, so she can continue to live in the managers house, and look after her brothers, and she is a very good hard worker, from what I have observed so far” I said as we drove out of town.

“It looks so bare outside, no tall trees, just low shrubs all over” Wyatt commented, “Yes, such a dramatic change from London” Xavier added as they continued to stare out the windows. When we approached the turnoff, I slowed down and turned right, now heading West, and as we drove closer to the coast, the foliage grew browner and thinned out dramatically.

“I don’t like this, can we go back to town please, Xavier said to me, “I 100% agree with my brother” Wyatt added, but I continued on, until we approached the boundary, and I pressed the gate remote, and it opened for us, and I kept going, with the bay now visible to the right, and suddenly the house and trees around it appeared.

“Wow, I was not expecting this” Wyatt said, as I pulled up near the front door, and climbed out of the car, and unlocked the front door of the house, “Grab the groceries, and let’s get you both settled in” I said, as I went to the back of the car, and retrieved two boxes of groceries and headed inside and upstairs.

Eventually, the lads snapped out of their daze and followed me inside, hearing me put stuff away in the fridge, they followed the sounds and found me in the kitchen. “Wow” Xavier said, and they both stood motionless as they looked around the kitchen.

“This is one hell of a house, talk about a remote retreat” Xavier added, “Yeah, I agree with you, bro” Wyatt added. Once they had overcome their surprise, they helped to move all the groceries and supplies into the kitchen and packed away, before retrieving their two suitcases each.

“Where do we sleep Mr Lewis?” Wyatt asked me, “In the dog house out the back” I replied, looking serious as I said it, but that didn’t last long,and I laughed when I saw the shocked looks on the lads faces. “Just kidding boys, go down this hall till you come to a small courtyard, on the other side there is a door that leads to your accommodations” I said to the lads, and I watched them, as they headed towards their bedrooms and private lounge.

About ten minutes later the lads returned and found me sitting in the main living area, and I was reading a book, that I found in the well-stocked library. “This is an amazing house Sir, who designed it?” Wyatt asked when they appeared.

“You will have to ask the Wagner twins, when you speak to them next time, I suspect that it was probably Sebastian who did most of it, as it has small touches of his tastes in the house” I replied.

“Oh, I’m sorry, we will go and explore the rest of the house if that is alright with you sir” Xavier said, “Yes go right ahead, the other side of the house has a library, which you can both use, my office, my private lounge and the master suite” I replied, as I continued to read. After ten minutes, I wondered what the lads were doing, and I found them in my suite, finishing unpacking all my luggage and putting it all away.

“You didn’t need to do that but thank you” I said to them as I stood at the doorway watching them work together, to get the job done quickly. When finished they faced me, “What would you like for dinner tonight sir” Wyatt asked me, “Please stop calling me sir, I don’t like it, just call me Lewis, I am not like my husband, he was used to being given first class service, I am not like that” I said to the lads.

“Very well Lewis, now, what would you like for dinner” Xavier responded, “Anything, surprise me with your talents, oh and by the way, a lady by the name of Caroline come’s here to clean once a week on Mondays, please be nice to her” I replied, and I headed back to the living area to continue reading.

After a delicious dinner, I went to my office to check on any emails that I may have received, and I was shocked to see that I had no internet or phone coverage. “I have to head back to town, as we have no phone coverage here, which I will need to fix tomorrow, I will be back in about an hour” I said as I headed down the stairs and out the door.

Twenty minutes later I arrived in town, and the first thing I did was to call Anita at the Real estate office, “Hello, it is Lewis Shaw here, sorry to call you after hours, but I have no mobile or internet coverage out at the house at Fowler Bay” I said, when Anita answered the call.

“Oh sorry, I forgot to tell you the other day, there is a mobile and internet satellite dish on top of that hill, behind the house, you need to go into the workshop on the ground floor, and locate the fuse box, in there you will find a switch marked Communications, you just need to flick that to on, and you should have internet and mobile coverage” Anita said to me.

“Ok thanks for that, I had to come into town to make this call, because we are so remote down there” I commented, “That you are Sir Lewis, but you have some wonderful views, how have you settled into your new home?’ Anita asked, “Very nicely thanks Anita, I have two personal assistants, that I inherited from my late husband, and they have everything under control.

Can you let Caroline know that I will be in town on Monday morning, but Wyatt and Xavier will be home when she arrives” I said, “Very well sir, she said she is very pleased to be having a regular job, Goodnight” Anita said before ending the call.

I headed back home, and as soon as I entered the foyer, I heard laughter, and I went through to the central courtyard, where the lads where enjoying the swimming pool. “This place is so awesome sir, we have changed our minds and would like to stay” Wyatt said to me, “I am glad that you said that” I replied smiling, as I headed to the workshop, which was kitted out with all sorts of tools.

I soon located the fuse box and flicked the switch marked Communications, and headed back out, and up to my office, where I was pleased to see that I had mobile coverage and internet services again, and I began to look at all of the emails, as my mobile indicated that I had a missed call, which was from Kylie.

“Where the hell are you, it seems you have dropped out of existence” Kylie said when she answered my call. “Calm down my friend, I have moved into my new home which is about twenty clicks out of town, and I didn’t have phone or internet coverage until just a few moments ago” I replied.

“Oh ok, I was just worried that’s all” Kylie said to me, “Ok, so what’s happening?” I asked. “We found the wife, she was trying to catch a flight out of Perth to Darwin, so not only is she being charged with fraud, but also Child Abandonment” Kylie informed me.

“Don’t worry about Erica and her brothers, I will make sure they are well looked after” I said, “Thanks mate, I will talk to you soon, we are heading back to the capital, now that we have all the information that we need, good luck with your new businesses” Kylie said before ending the call.