Naturally, after such a good night, and with goodwill between friends, Tony was assured he would be granted a gambling licence. This was what he wanted. A licence like that was hard to get, and Tony knew it. Even after all these years, his prison record would go against him.
He was already making plans for the casino, and mentally decorating it in the famous Lambrianu pink. He would also make it exclusive, and not just let anyone walk in off the streets. That was one reason the place had gone bankrupt in the first place. Gamblers with real money were what he wanted.
Rich men liked ‘exclusive’. They liked their own men’s club. Tony had realised that early on, with the strippers, and to get that, they were prepared to pay.
A GAMBLERS’ PARADISE
The auction room was packed to the hilt when Tony and Jake walked in. They recognized some of the other businessmen that wanted to buy the casino. There were other properties up for sale, as well, including a small men-only drinking club, not far from Tony’s own club. It had always been a gentlemen’s club; when the owner died, there was no one to take over, and so his widow was putting it up for auction. Tony liked the look of it. It was a quirky place on the high street corner, almost triangle-shaped, and better still, it was to be a quick, cheap sale.
People had taken notice when they saw Tony and Jake arrive; they hadn’t known he was interested in the casino. They didn’t want to offend him, and so approached him in a businesslike manner that they hoped would be acceptable.
‘I didn’t realise you were interested in the old casino, Mr Lambrianu. If you wish, I’ll gladly step down and leave,’ a couple of them had said to him. He had assured them all was fair in love and war, and may the best man win. After all, even if he didn’t get to buy it, they would still have to pay him to protect it. As far as Tony was concerned it was a win-win situation, but he wanted to do things fair and square. There were some real estate businessmen there that wanted to transform the building into separate apartments, not keep it as a casino at all. Everyone had their own dream about the place. The trick was not to look too eager.
Before the big sale of the casino, while the auctioneer had everyone’s attention, he offered up the men’s drinking club. There were a few bids on the property, including telephone bids, but most people were too interested in the main prize – the casino – to pay much attention to the club. They were itching for the sale to be over, so they could get on with the main matter in hand.
Tony was still thinking and deliberating as he saw and heard the bids for the club come in. Then, as the auctioneer was about to bring down his gavel, Tony shouted out a much larger bid than was currently being offered.
Jake looked at him oddly; he hadn’t expected this. Tony hadn’t discussed it with him, it was obviously something done on a whim. He didn’t ask any questions while being watched by the other men in the room, but it did set the cat amongst the pigeons. All the other businessmen were now curious. What did Tony Lambrianu have planned, and what had he seen in the place that they had missed? They had been too interested in the casino to pay any attention to the club. Was that all Mr Lambrianu had come for?
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief when the auctioneer eventually started the bidding on the casino. The auction was a little like a poker game of its own. None of the other bidders wanted to discuss how much their spending limit was. No one wanted to show their cards, as it were.
Tony and Jake didn’t place a bid straight off, they waited to see how eager everyone else was. Tony wanted to see how quickly they would exhaust their spending limit. Obviously, this drove the price higher and higher, and then the room went silent. The auctioneer was giving everyone a chance to think and calculate. Tony and Jake looked around at the crowd. There were only, maybe, half a dozen serious bidders left. Some were consortiums that had put their money together and were going to have shares in the place.
At last, Jake made the first bid, and everyone turned to look at him and Tony. They had presumed that Tony and Jake weren’t going to bid, because up until now they had been silent. The auctioneer seemed to sigh with relief and carried on. The final bid was ten million pounds. The auctioneer looked around, waiting. ‘Fourteen,’ shouted Tony. He knew this was more than expected. The more serious bidders might have gone to twelve, but Tony had gone over that, and that was pushing it too far. He was trying to look cool and nonchalant about it. He didn’t want to look flustered or nervous, though deep inside, his heart was pounding.
Someone on the telephone made another bid. Tony felt angry and frustrated, but he tried remaining calm. ‘Plus one more million, auctioneer,’ he said. At last, the gavel went down; the casino was Tony’s. He had paid sixteen million pounds for a casino that had gone bust. He hadn’t expected that much would be necessary but, hopefully, in time, he would make his money back. He felt like strangling whoever had been on the other end of the telephone. Whoever it was, they weren’t going to steal his thunder.
Suddenly, the auctioneer interrupted the proceedings. It seemed everyone at the auction had had to prove they could afford to bid on this property, to stop time-wasters. It was a closed auction. Everyone who had shown interest in the casino had been shown around the property, and put on the ‘approved’ list after verification.
The auctioneer announced that the telephone bid had been from someone who was not on their list. He then offered the casino to Tony at the original price. Tony’s smile lit the place up; he was in his element. But who the hell had been messing around on the end of the telephone? He would make it his business to find out. He wouldn’t be made a fool of.
‘Don’t worry about it, Tony, whoever it was drove the price up high against the other bidders, and then withdrew it, once they knew they were only bidding against you.’ Jake laughed. ‘They did you a favour; none of these guys were going to pay that, and now they’re seriously pissed off that you didn’t have to pay it, either.’
Tony nodded, it made sense, but he was still curious.
Once the auction room had cleared, it was time to go to the auctioneer’s office and pay his debts. Everything was finalized, and papers were to be drawn up in the name of the new owners. At last, the auctioneer handed Tony the keys to both the gentlemen’s club and the casino.
Tony looked at Jake and then back at the keys; he had won, it had definitely been a gamble, going for the casino, and he had held the winning hand. ‘Who was the telephone bidder for the casino, do you know?’ he said to the auctioneer.
The auctioneer looked awkward and flustered, and didn’t seem to want to say, but said he would check with the staff who were on the telephones. He disappeared out of the office.
‘Leave it, Tony, what does it matter?’ Jake couldn’t understand why Tony was so interested, he thought it was better left alone. Whoever it was had done no harm. If anything, they had turned the bidding events around and it had cost Tony no more than he had been prepared to spend. Was it really worth fighting over?
‘Just interested, Jake, that’s all.’
The auctioneer returned. ‘It seems we didn’t get the bidder’s full details,’ he said.
‘Was it a man or a woman? What name did they give?’ said Tony.
‘Erm … it was a woman.’
‘Called?’
‘The only name we got was “Julie”.’
‘And is this how you usually do business?’ demanded Tony.
‘No, sir,’ said the auctioneer. His cheeks were pink. ‘It seems our systems came up short this time.’
***
They left the auction room and got into the car, and Tony told John, his driver, to take them to the casino. John was full of congratulations; he knew Tony had wanted this, and had heard him making plans for it on many occasions.
‘Why do you want that men’s club, Tony? You never mentioned it before,’ said Jake. He was still surprised Tony had bought that place, as well.
‘A well-known men’s club, in the heart of the West End? It just appealed to me. It would be a good
place for another strip club, don’t you think? It’s already got the reputation as “gentlemen only”.’
Jake nodded his head. The place was small, although the auctioneer had called it ‘intimate’, but it had a good reputation and wasn’t run-down; it was simply being sold off following the death of the owner.
‘Fair point, I see that now. I presume it’ll stay a men’s club, full of beautiful women to make it even more exclusive.’ Jake smiled. Tony had foresight. He had seen this opportunity and got the place relatively cheaply, because it had been overlooked by the other bidders.
John pulled up at the casino and the men got out of the car. Tony took the keys out of his pocket and opened the doors. The place was still in good condition, and it wouldn’t take a lot of work to make it more to his own taste. He would need croupiers he could trust, and knew a casino not too far away that trained them. He liked the idea of new fresh faces, people who would only ever know him as their boss.
The roulette tables were a little worn, but that was easily rectified; in any case, he wanted more tables brought in. He thought they helped to create the authentic casino atmosphere.
Although Tony liked a gamble himself, neither he nor Jake knew anything about running a casino. They would have to learn fast. There were all kinds of strict rules and regulations in force, something a good lawyer would be able to handle.
A lot of the equipment needed updating, but again, there was nothing that would cause too much of a problem. Firstly, the place needed a good overhaul, and then a manager would be needed, someone they could trust who could show them both how things were run.
It was a huge project, Tony knew that he really was out of his depth, but other people had learnt how to run a casino, so why couldn’t he?
Jake was standing at a table in the empty casino, spinning one of the roulette wheels. ‘Do you think we’ve bitten off more than we can chew?’ he said. Even he was starting to wonder, now. It had seemed like such a good idea, but hindsight is a wonderful thing.
‘Yes and no,’ said Tony. He ran his hands through his hair and looked around the huge room; it was truly a gamblers’ paradise – in the right hands, of course. ‘It’s going to take time and a lot of money, but I like a challenge, you know that.’ Tony gave Jake a weak smile.
‘Come on,’ said Jake trying to lighten the mood, ‘let’s go and see the rest of this place. It’s like a TARDIS, it just gets bigger and bigger on the inside.’
At the very back of the main room of the casino was a large bar, and behind that was a large kitchen area, which had provided mediocre food for the small restaurant. The casino had two more floors. The top one contained a room fitted out with safes, for the cash, and an apartment.
The amount of money that would be handled through the casino would be vast, which meant the very best security would be needed, and the money would have to be collected on a regular basis. Tony and Jake had both seen guards with their metal helmets and steel boxes carrying cash to their vans, which would be what they would need. Thinking again, the accountant would know all about that side of things, and so would the croupier training centre. All the tutors there had been working in casinos for most of their lives, and that would possibly be where he would find a manager, too.
‘I want to set up my main office here,’ said Tony. ‘I’ll leave the strip clubs to Sharon. Each one of us needs to be based somewhere, to keep an eye on things. I’ll go to the club when the strippers aren’t there, and I’ll host the club nights.’ Tony thought it was for the best that he gave the strip clubs a wide berth, and not be forever looking over Sharon’s shoulder.
Jake burst out laughing. ‘What you mean, Tony, is that you would rather be known as the casino king, than the king of sin. No, you’re right. Anyway, it’ll add a bit of mystery to the place – all those beautiful exotic dancers in your club and not one of them meets the boss.’ Jake nodded.
It gave the place a little more style and class. Tony had never wanted to appear to be interested in his employees. He had never made any attempt to charm the dancers or even go out of his way to meet them, he had left all of that to Sharon. He was strictly hands-off, and didn’t want to mix business with pleasure.
‘Right, well, I’ve seen enough for now. Next, I want to go and see this men’s club.’ They both walked out of the casino, locked it up and got back in the car. Jake was surprised; this men’s club seemed to intrigue Tony more than the casino. There was obviously something about it that appealed to him.
Although Tony hadn’t been to the viewing of the place, he had imagined what it would look like inside, and he wasn’t disappointed when he saw it. Apart from the long, marbled hallway, which led into lounge rooms furnished with wingback Chesterfield armchairs, club chairs and sofas, it had a large reception and bar area. This is what a men’s club should look like, he thought. Somewhere the elite would come, relax, read their newspapers and be at their ease. They had always had to pay a membership fee, and so that wouldn’t come as a surprise. Tony knew it’d had some form of maître d’ or butler to see to the men’s needs. Most of the waiters and bar staff were also men, and that was something Tony aimed to change.
He knew he couldn’t have a Playboy-style ‘bunny girl’ club, that had already been done, but he would come as close as possible. There were a couple of lounges, so the girls could be in one room and the men who just wanted to relax with their newspapers and talk over the day’s business would have a whole lounge space to themselves – although Tony had a feeling they wouldn’t be reading their newspapers for too long. All men liked to see a pretty woman, unless they were dead! This way, it could be discreetly run, without any kind of advertising.
The members that would come here would be businessmen whom Tony could get acquainted with and, you never knew, he might even earn a few favours by ingratiating himself, and so make some business deals of his own. This was another reason he wanted to be more than just a strip-club owner. He wanted these members to take him seriously.
Upstairs were a few bedrooms. It’s basically a posh bed and breakfast place, Tony thought to himself. Apparently, when some of the members had a few drinks too many, they were known to ‘stay at their club’ for the night. Tony liked it, it all seemed very cloak and dagger. Like some secret society.
All of this was included in the price of their membership. Tony and Jake both agreed, one of the first things they needed to do was gain access to all of the old member’s names, so they could invite them back to their club. The men were probably devastated to no longer have somewhere private to call their own. The staff who had worked there previously were hoping that maybe the new owners would employ them. That had been one of the requests of the widow of the former owner, and Tony thought it was a good idea, as well.
Why spoil a good thing? Tony thought. This butler, or whatever, already knew the members and would have a good rapport with them. He would also know all their little quirky ways and how they liked things done. He would be a real asset.
As he walked out of the club and into the sunshine again, Tony felt happy. Things seemed to be going well, business was on the up, his money-lending business was flourishing, and all of his collectors had turned out to be good, decent guys, just waiting for a second chance. Not once had their collections been short, although how they achieved that was their business.
As he sat in the back of the car being driven back to the club, Tony was mentally making a list of things that needed to take priority. ‘It’s going to be a busy week, Jake, we’ve got a lot to do.’
Jake nodded, he knew this, and hopefully so did Sharon. It seemed they both led their own lives these days. At some point things would calm down and maybe, just maybe, they could get their own life on track – although it seemed whenever he had thought that in the past, Tony had come up with yet another scheme.
‘We need the accountant to sort out the money side of things, and I presume he’ll want to use the casino for his laundering activities, too. Well, he’s got away
with it so far, so let’s see. Those licences need sorting properly and, of course, the decorators need to go in and put our own stamp on both places.’
‘I presume at some point we will eat?’ Jake was smiling to himself; he knew full well when Tony was all fired up like this, nothing else mattered.
‘I want to go and see the widow of the previous men’s club owner; maybe she could contact some of the staff for us, including this butler guy. He’ll be able to put us in the full picture of the place.’
‘Let’s go and see the accountant first, and let him know we’ve bought them, then he can work his magic. Then let’s sort out the lawyers, and they can work theirs. We also need to go to that croupier training school, and see what they have on offer, but firstly, I need a bacon sandwich and a coffee. No arguments.’
John heard Jake and pulled the car into the side of the road, near a well-known greasy spoon – one of those cafés where cholesterol is never mentioned and fried breakfasts are all they have to offer.
Even while Jake was trying to enjoy his extra-large fried meal, Tony was still making lists and trying to work out their plan of action.
‘Tony, give it a rest, will you?’ said Jake. ‘At least until I’ve finished eating.’ With that, he reached over to Tony’s untouched plate, picked up a sausage and put it in Tony’s mouth.
TONY’S EMPIRE
It was a month later, and things were well underway. The accountant had sorted out all the necessary paperwork and the lawyers had been able to obtain the licences that were required. Tony had been promised that the licensing wouldn’t be a problem, and it wasn’t. He liked having friends with influence.
Tony and Jake had both been to visit the croupier training school. The main tutor was a man who seemed to have worked everywhere, in his day – Las Vegas, cruise ships, you name, it this guy had done it. Considering the glamorous world he had chosen as an occupation, he didn’t seem fazed by it. He was now around fifty years old, and had wanted to settle down in London. He said that, even though he had travelled the globe, there was no place like home.
Nasty Business Page 7