“What are you going to do with that hammer, you old codger? You wouldn’t dare!” The gardener remained resolute and silent.
Terry was outnumbered, so pushed the old lady violently in the ribs and made her grunt and stumble, then spat into her face and turned tail to go to Henrietta who stood wide eyed, motionless and petrified in the gothic stone porch. He spoke to her as he advanced:
“Inside now woman and get your cheque book out or the old lady gets it next time!” Henrietta did exactly as she was told.
Meanwhile the gardener helped Grandma to her feet and watched as she ran towards and disappeared inside her barn, wiped her face with kitchen paper and began to shake and swear with anger as she banged her fists on her wooden counter top. She would have to tell the Police, they would have to do something, this could not go on. She poured a large glass of brandy and telephoned a couple of her closest friends to confide in them and tell them about Terry’s recent behaviour but the ladies advised her to keep her own council, stay out of his way and give Henrietta plenty of space to sort the problem out on her own.
Terry did not appreciate the gardener’s intervention but as the man was nowhere to be seen when he got in his car to depart, he was confident that no one would report the assault to the police. He had already threatened and conditioned Henrietta well enough to know she was under his absolute control. He understandably felt comfortable to return to the farm several times to extract funds from Henrietta and maintained his control and continued threats to hurt her, her son or her mother unless she wrote out a number of cheques or brought cash to his shop. He bled her dry.
July 2006.
Henrietta was saddled with large mortgage and no income to facilitate it, she also felt failed as a daughter, as a mother and as a woman without any prospects of ever being a wife. She ignored phone calls from her friends and wanted to hide every time she saw anyone in the street who asked her about Terry or why she was selling her home. She was embarrassed to confess that she had been overpowered and extorted, she felt worthless and wanted to run away with Oscar where no-one knew her circumstances. She thought of a temporary solution; to hide in the holiday property she had bought off- plan before her relationship with Terry. She broached the idea of an extended holiday to Oscar and explained the need to escape to her mother who was unhappy about being left alone and about the prospect of not seeing her grandson for a while. Henrietta promised to stay in touch by phone and explained that she had arranged for her mother to live in the barn, even after the proposed new owners had completed the purchase of the farmhouse.
She transferred £200,000 to the international money exchange which Aiden had introduced her to and sent a letter of instruction to the bank manager giving details of her Spanish account for its ultimate deposit. Then she employed a removal company to help her pack and wrap her belongings for container storage, but the over-zealous team picked up her address book and packed that too, which meant that when she arrived in Spain she had no contact details for her friends other than the ones etched in her inadequate memory. Consequently friends whom she had previously nurtured for many years felt dumped and resentful towards her.
By September she had not returned to the UK and enrolled Oscar in the International School where he was instantly accepted and popular amongst his peers and gave Henrietta the satisfaction she needed that she had at least done him a good turn. Oscar flourished in the sunshine into a confident and happy young man, so she endured her self-made reclusion in the Costa del Sol. She returned her hired car and bought a new one in which she felt safe to drive on the Spanish roads. She put on a brave face and tried to make friends with other mothers from Oscar’s school and with English speaking neighbours but missed her real home, her Mother, her absorbing career and her true friends.
October 2006.
It was a typically pleasant but uneventful continental autumn afternoon until Henrietta’s home phone rang and an English speaking woman introduced herself as an ambulance paramedic who said she had been asked by Terry, to inform her that he had been attacked and was en-route to hospital. She told Henrietta not to worry and assured her that her patient would phone in person after an assessment of his injuries at A&E.
Two and a half hours later he called:
“Hi, sorry to worry you earlier, but the paramedic said I should inform my next of kin.”
“But we aren’t together anymore, besides, how did you get my phone number?”
“It is like a banner above your Mum’s phone for emergencies and this is one.” Henrietta realised he must have been to the farm and seen the number through Grandma’s kitchen window. Terry continued;
“I sacked my woman sales assistant and her husband came in demanding her wages and beat me up. He was like a cage fighter!” Henrietta was relatively disinterested in his story but felt sorry that he had no-one else to care. He went on:
“Now I’ve been attacked, I now know how it feels. I‘ve been a bad man, I lost my way with the business, I was under such pressure to perform, I lost my temper and my sanity, please, please forgive me.” He seemed to be crying. “I love you and I want to see you to apologise properly and give you my assurance that I’m sorry and will also pay back every penny I’ve taken from you. I am so ashamed. Let me make amends, please!” She listened to what sounded like a truly contrite man begging. “Hetty, please come home? Please come back to me, I’ve got two cracked ribs, black eyes and bruises all over my body.”
“I can’t just forget everything like it never happened. Besides I have Oscar and his schooling to think of and he must always come first.”
“Then I will come to you. Being with you is critical. I’ve got an assistant to cover for the shop, so I will get this broken body onto a plane. I’ll text you the flight details.” He rang off and Henrietta was left holding the vacant phone with an equally vacant expression on her face.
Two days later he arrived in Malaga and she reticently collected him from the airport. He complemented her on her unusually extravagant choice of car and on her new townhouse and it did appear that he was a changed man; he was polite, grateful and thoughtful and once she let him near her and he did everything he could, during his week-long stay as a guest, to woo her back and charm the lonely woman once more. He encouraged her to try various restaurants and bars with him, which she had avoided as a singleton. He bought expensive tickets to a Dinner Dance at a glamorous hotel on the beach in Estepona, where he tipped the waiter to give him a table on the edge of the dance floor. He took a surfeit of the extra strong painkillers given to him by the hospital, danced her socks off all night and made her smile again.
During his stay he also looked in several estate agents windows and cajoled her into the prospective ‘fun’ of viewing a few villas with him and said that he still desperately wished to provide a perfect home for her and their children. He talked about selling his own business and setting up another alternative company in Spain and had apparently discussed various opportunities with the director of a large phone concession in Spain. Henrietta was not convinced that he could make a success of any business in Spain and was equally un-enthralled about living together again but decided to hide her reticence towards the reformed lover. However she could not hide her personal and professional curiosity to see inside the villas she usually only observed through the large gates she passed each day.
Terry arranged for them to spend two whole days in the company of an enthusiastic and genial estate agent who leisurely entertained them and drove them around several unoccupied villas in Sotogrande. Henrietta knew she could not and would not put any of her own money into any proposed villa purchase but enjoyed looking around the glamourous and superbly appointed houses. Terry on the other hand was hooked on the dream and became utterly determined to find a way to live the life he saw others living.
On his last day in Spain, Terry returned a missed phone call to an old friend named Valario who coincidentally was also in Spain to see his cousin in Puerto Banus. Valario suggested that they, the boy
s, get together for drinks. Henrietta was happy to take him to the port as it gave her an opportunity to shop for a while whilst the men socialised. She liked Puerto Banus by day when she could walk around the clean and sunny streets and enjoy a drink or ice cream and people-watch from the overpriced waterside bars as the super-rich carried umpteen bags from the elitist boutiques back to their parked super-cars or moored yachts. She was fascinated by the impossibly beautiful women who dripped in diamonds but had tiny white scar lines hidden behind their ears and knees in the relentless desire for eternal youth. Night time was entirely different, as the elegant people deserted the Port and the holiday party revellers swamped the overpriced bars and the exquisite prostitutes turned out onto the streets in their designer clothes and high heels to make a sordid living.
Her mobile rang and Terry asked her to join his new friends at Sinatra’s Bar. When she arrived the manager bowed his head politely and directed her through the narrow opening into the white washed windowless room beyond, where Terry introduced her to six casually but immaculately dressed men between the ages of twenty five to forty and finally introduced her to Dom.
Dominic was a small, slight man in his mid-fifties with smoothed dark discreetly dyed hair, a tanned and botoxed face and piercing hazel eyes. He dressed entirely in Versace with casually rolled back linen sleeves and wore sunglasses perched on the top of his head. She could not help but notice his ostentatiously jewelled belt and oversized diamond encrusted Vacheron watch in comparison to his discreet wedding band. Dom appeared supremely confident as he relaxed against the navy blue cushions of the white plastered banquette and invited her to sit beside him whilst almost everyone else stood, most of them with their backs to the wall. She felt awkward but smiled and accepted a champagne cocktail.
During the course of the conversation Dom told her that he travelled extensively with his minder and when he moved on, he left his used clothing behind. Henrietta was fascinated and disgusted at the same time and questioned his extravagance.
“Your wife would go mad if she knew, you wicked, wasteful man!” She slapped his thigh as a friendly reprimand which had a most unsettling effect: all the men visibly bristled to attention and moved forward slightly. Hetty’s terrified heart missed a beat but Dom raised his hand no more than a couple of inches and the men relaxed again and slumped against the white washed walls. Henrietta did not want to show her fear, so she grinned at Dom with a coquettish smile.
“I like you Hetty, you’ve got spunk, I’ll give you that. As for my wife, she understands that I must spend long periods away from home to provide for my family, but I never return with a mountain of washing.” He had a winning smile.
“But she surely misses you. Could she not travel with you?” Hetty enquired further.
“My business is not suitable for women, besides she has our little ones to take care of. I make sure she has everything any woman could ever want. She has a home and staff and is cared for when I am away. She in turn does not question me or my authority.” He made a point to Hetty who nodded to agree that she would do the same. Dom returned a friendly slap to her leg and stood up.
“Now you will come for dinner with me and my friends. I insist!” He offered her his arm but afforded her no excuse as they walked out, without paying, into the fading evening sun and down the street to the Italian restaurant followed closely by his minder Chua and Terry who grinned with delight at the impression his fiancée had made.
Chua who was a huge lump of muscle and at 6’7” must have weighed in excess of twenty stones, had olive skin and a long dark ponytail tied back in a small black leather knot. He abstained from alcohol whilst in public with his charge and did not smile. He begrudgingly accepted Henrietta’s presence and allowed her to sit between Dom and himself, which seemed to be an honour and a show of trust. Terry continued to grin with delight but Henrietta desperately wanted to go home to Oscar as soon as possible and remove herself from the surreal and preposterous situation.
The tall lean man named Frank who sat opposite Hetty, was obviously high on some illegal substance as his pupils were enlarged and his fidgeting, distracted manner and limited conversation was most unnerving. He was Russian but now lived in Banus with his girlfriend and child and fronted a designer shop which had been funded by Dom, whilst it seemed his real job was in collecting debts and presumably killing or threatening people. He opened his shirt slightly to impress Henrietta with a glimpse of his newly acquired, top of the range, slim-line bullet proof vest, as he was ‘doing a job for Dominic’ later that evening.
Until Terry and Henrietta were able to leave without seeming impolite, she passed the evening on autopilot with niceties and pleasantries and she tried to understand the hierarchy of the group of men with perfectly manicured hands, as though soap and water was not enough to remove the stains from their sordid trade. As they returned to the car park Terry said:
“What do you think of Dom and his pretty boys then?”
“Never mind him, what about the enormous Indian and mad eyed Frank?”
“I know. What was he on? Did you hear him offer to get me a vest like that?” he chuntered.
“I would rather forget tonight if you don’t mind. At least I‘ll never see them again. How on earth did you get involved with them?”
“That might be tricky. I gave Dom your phone number, for when he’s over here next time.”
“You did what? Oh no, please tell me you’re pulling my leg.” But he was not.
The following day Terry caught a flight to England and promised to work hard to repay her in any way he could, including the option of selling both his flat and his business. He asked that she marry him once he had kept his word and said he was prepared to move to Spain. Henrietta promised to try to forgive his previous behaviour and also promised to see the local estate agent and put her property on the market. Terry was delighted that Hetty appeared to want to buy a property with him in Spain but secretly she had decided that if he came to Spain, then she would go home to England. She wanted her money back but could not live with him; his behaviour was unpredictable, he could be cruel, her friends didn’t like him, the people he knew were scary and she did not trust him as far as she could throw him. She decided to carry on with his façade and delude him for the sake of her financial position, her pride and seemingly for the sake of her safety.
November 2006.
Once back in England Terry felt re-charged with enthusiasm and met with Aiden for a beer to confide his most personal, financial and social needs to his friend and included his desire to live and work in Spain and spend the rest of his life with Henrietta, even though she infuriated him with her financial propriety. The two men began to formulate an elaborate and detailed plan and Terry networked hard to find a way to sell his business and put his apartment back on the market at a lower price. He also found a respected law firm in Sotogrande and introduced himself, on line, to the partner and informed him of his intentions to sell his telecommunications company and move to Sotogrande. He communicated with him via e-mail and asked for preliminary advice on the process of transferring money to Spain, buying a house in the area and he sent a requisite fee of three thousand euros to secure his services. Terry scoured the local papers, found a Spanish teacher and began private lessons twice per week. He trawled the internet and made Spanish friends. He also continued to call Henrietta regularly and cling on to his relationship with her as best he could via a phone line and realised how much he needed her in his future life. He had identified the opportunities for a man with his talents in Spain and could not wait to sell up and move there himself.
Over in Spain; Henrietta took Oscar and his school friend Jack to the Saturday market near Puerto Banus and then treated them to lunch at a busy café. On the way home she called in at the supermarket for supplies. As Hetty put her euro in the trolley and pulled it from the stack, she noticed four men loitering suspiciously in the car park.
“Oscar, have you left your game boy on the back seat?�
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“I think so.”
“Here, take the keys and go over there now whilst I watch you and hide it in the arm rest , then lock the car and come back here please.” She spoke clearly and firmly. He did as instructed then offered the keys to his mum but Henrietta manoeuvred her boys inside the shop and suggested that Oscar keep the keys in his pocket.
A few minutes later, the men who were stalking Henrietta, came into the shop behind her and snatched her bag. Henrietta screamed loudly and pointed at the men who ran out of two different doors in different directions. The manager came to her assistance but spoke little English. He took Hetty and the boys into the office and they checked the CCTV footage to establish who had taken the bag, in what direction it was taken and whether the pixels of their faces were clear enough for the police to identify the men and make an arrest. The police were called and officers checked all the local dustbins for her bag and purse. They were gone, as were her credit cards, cash and minor incidentals. Fortunately her mobile phone was in her pocket, the house keys were in the car and the car keys were in Oscar’s pocket. Henrietta was asked to make a formal report at the police station in Estepona with the assistance of Jack who was bi-lingual.
As they left the police station Oscar offered his pocket money to his mother who was moved to tears and kissed his tan forehead. She had only a limited supply of cash in the house safe and her Spanish bank had not yet received the money transfer from Barclays. Henrietta hugged both boys and took Jack home where he relayed a much more exciting tale to his parents who filled and refilled Henrietta’s glass with wine and made sympathetic noises.
The Unsuspecting Housewife Page 7