Читать книгу Legacy - Jeff Edwards - Страница 15

With the morning sun shining in her eyes, Suzie Ryan rolled over and reached out to find the bed beside her was empty. Yawning, she sat up and stretched, her naked breasts glowing in the early morning light.

Throwing on a silk dressing gown, but not bothering to tie it, she walked from behind the screen.

Toby was at his work bench, wearing just the bottom of his pyjamas as he applied a last coat of wax to the large oak piece depicting the tree, child and pet.

Suzie moved behind him, kissing the back of his neck, before running her hands over the hard muscles of his back and then over his flat stomach while her bare breasts pressed into his back.

‘How can I get any work done around here with you doing that to me?’

‘You don’t need to work. I work hard enough for the both of us. I’ll keep you,’ she whispered as she sucked on his earlobe.

He laughed. Suzie had never asked, and he had never told her, just how much he was really worth. It would be worth seeing the expression on her face when she finally found out.

The logo finished, Toby let her have her way as she drove him wild with her mouth and hands. Reaching behind, he ran his hands over her sides, down her legs, lifting her on to his back. He piggy-backed her back behind the screen and threw her on to the bed. Laughing, Suzie watched as he untied the knot of his pyjamas and let them fall about his ankles. She opened her arms to him as he fell into her.

Mrs Green unlocked the front door of the gallery and entered. She walked through the gallery, checking that nothing was amiss, and placed her large handbag on the desk along with the mail she had collected from Toby’s post box.

She knocked at the door between the gallery and Toby’s workroom. Toby hadn’t come home last night so he was probably in there with Suzie. She smiled at the thought.

‘We’re decent,’ called Suzie.

Mrs Green entered and found Suzie making tea for two, while reaching for a third cup for Mrs Green. Suzie’s silk robe was wrapped tightly around her, showing all the luscious curves of her extraordinary body. Toby was such a lucky boy these days.

Toby seemed to appreciate how much his life had changed for the better. His smile was as animated and natural as it could possibly be. He had just showered and was dressed in jeans without a shirt.

‘Lovemaking certainly agrees with the pair of you,’ observed Mrs Green.

‘It’s all the fault of Toby’s juice,’ said Suzie, giving Mrs Green a cheeky wink.

‘Oh, I’m sure the love you two have for one another has a little bit to do with it as well.’

‘You could be right,’ conceded Suzie.

Mrs Green sipped at the tea that Suzie handed to her. ‘What are your plans for the day?’

‘I’m taking the logo up to the city for that fund,’ he replied.

‘I’m going up with him,’ added Suzie, ‘I want to check these fund people out on their home turf and make sure Toby gets paid the balance he’s owed. We’re also going to buy some clothes for our honeymoon.’

‘Knowing you two, I don’t think you’ll need to buy too many clothes, but I like your idea of checking the fund out. Those people are no more ecologists than I am.’

‘I would have thought you’d be a very good ecologist, what with your gardening skills and all,’ said Suzie.

‘I don’t think gardening makes you an ecologist. No matter what sort of rubbish that pair came out with.’

Mrs Green moved to the workbench and studied the completed work, running her hands over the outlines of the figures. The grain of the timber and the polish brought them to life.

‘This is wonderful. It’s much too good for that pair.’

‘They’ll be paying a top price for it,’ commented Toby.

‘That’s not the point. I don’t think either one of them is capable of appreciating it. Be careful when you’re up there with them. Keep your eyes open and don’t believe a word that comes out of their mouths.’

Sam and Bree had been out early. They needed more environmental ‘supplies’ for the shop. ‘Borrowing’ from the major organisations had boosted their supply of pamphlets and posters. They had hung the posters throughout the office and the pamphlets and fridge magnets were spread over the counter.

They had learnt to keep the door locked for most of the day. It kept people from wandering in and asking silly questions. Simple questions about ecology that neither one of them could answer.

However, because Toby Brown was expected, and because Brown expected to find a fully operational group of environmentalists, they were forced to open the shop, if only for the morning.

Finding it open at last, a pair of dowdy, old ladies from the neighbourhood, and a goth with a face drawn in black makeup, to offset her bloodless, white skin, had wandered in. They all looked determined to examine everything the shop had to offer.

‘Some people have just too much time on their hands,’ thought Bree as she eyed the goth. Bree had just seen her slip one of their purloined Greenpeace fridge magnets into her bag and wondered what else she was stealing from them.

At that moment a mud spattered and dented truck pulled up outside. Toby Brown alighted, accompanied by Suzie Ryan. They stood on the footpath and studied the façade. If not for a hastily written sign in the front window, a passerby would have had no idea of the shop’s contents. The Save the Country Fund would certainly have a great deal of trouble attracting donations judging by their current efforts, thought Suzie.

Bree went to the door and welcomed them. As Sam had never met Suzie, Bree performed the introductions.

Sam said to Toby: ‘Can I help you to bring it in?’

‘No. It’ll be fine. Where do you want me to set it up?’

Sam looked at Bree, who shrugged.

‘Why don’t you put it in the front window, instead of your hand-made original,’ offered Suzie.

‘I suppose my work of art does leave a lot to be desired,’ said Sam. ‘Bree is the artistic one. I’m more the practical one.’

Toby untied the logo from its cushioned resting place on the bed of the truck.

Lifting the large piece of wood with ease, he carried it into the shop and set it up in the window.

The logo, with Save the Country Fund etched in large letters beneath, filled the small window space, making it seem larger than it actually was.

The four of them stood outside the shop and were impressed with the effect.

‘It’s stunning,’ enthused Bree. ‘I had no idea it would turn out so well when I saw the original sketch.’

‘You’ve really given the fund a focus,’ agreed Sam.

Several passing pedestrians stopped to look and a young girl in outlandishly coloured clothes, smiled at it, and entered the shop.

‘Well you’ve certainly earned your money, Mr Brown,’ said Sam. ‘Come inside and I’ll make you out a cheque for the balance.’

While Toby was being paid, Suzie made a tour of the shop, studying the posters and picking up a selection of the pamphlets. She noted the lack of anything vaguely resembling office equipment. No computers, no cash registers and just the desks and chairs behind the counter. There was not a pen or paper to be seen on the desks and Suzie wondered how work got done in this strange organisation.

Suzie also noticed the girl in gothic outfit as she slipped a fridge magnet into her bag and wondered if she should mention it to the would-be ecologists. Bree had also noticed and moved over to whisper to Suzie. ‘I don’t know how much fridge magnets bring on the black market, but that’s the third one she’s stolen so far.’

‘Perhaps she’s trying to affect a cure for bloodless skin through magnetism,’ was Suzie’s whispered response, and they both laughed.

The sound of their laughter caught the girl’s attention. She turned towards the women and realised she was the topic of conversation. Swiftly grabbing another magnet, she ran to the door and made a hurried escape.

‘What was that about?’ asked Sam, as the girl rushed by him.

‘We’ve been robbed by a serial fridge magnet thief,’ Bree advised him.

‘And you didn’t chase her to get them back?’

‘You’re kidding. We want the ecological message to get out don’t we? What better way than through the black market in fridge magnets,’ she replied with a cheeky grin.

They all had a laugh at Bree’s whimsy. All except the brightly coloured girl, who regarded them all with a cold eye.

The old ladies had left just after the goth, nodding and tut-tutting to each other as though disappointed there were no free trips to save the Brazilian forest on offer from the newest member of the ecological fraternity.

With his final payment in his pocket, Toby and Suzie said goodbye and made their way back to the truck.

‘Let’s get that money straight into the bank and make sure it doesn’t bounce,’ said Suzie.

‘There should be a branch around here somewhere. It is a business district, even if it is a bit rundown,’ replied the practical Toby, as he put the truck into gear and pulled away from the kerb.

They found a branch just around the corner, in the street running parallel to the fund’s shop.

‘The bank must be almost directly behind their shop,’ said Toby.

‘There’s probably just an alleyway separating them.’

A sign advised the public that this branch would be closing permanently in several weeks time and that the building was for sale, giving the address of the nearest alternative branch.

As Toby read the sign, he said: ‘It’s probably too old fashioned for the bank’s management. They probably wanted to tear it down and build something modern but found out that it’s a listed building.’

‘Thank heavens they can’t tear it down. That would be sacrilege. It’s a beautiful building.’

The bank was in the style of the early twentieth century and built to resemble an ancient Greek temple, with columns supporting the roof of a short stoa and fancy carving on the sandstone surrounding the wooden window frames.

Inside, the bank was fitted out in Italian marble, looking very grand and resembling an Egyptian tomb. The main banking chamber rose two storeys to a high vaulted ceiling above a balustraded mezzanine level of offices.

Toby made out a deposit form and went to wait in line.

Suzie carefully studied all the intricately carved marble and mentally calculated the worth of the property while assessing its place in the neighbourhood and what other uses it could be put to.

‘I’d love to be able to do something with a place like this. It has so much potential.’

Toby looked around: ‘I suppose it would make a good funeral parlor.’

‘You have no vision at all. I can see lots of uses for a place like this.’

Toby moved forward to the next free teller and deposited the cheque. ‘Doesn’t the bank want this building anymore?’ Toby asked the teller.

‘Businesses in the area have been closing up because of the big shopping mall they’ve opened just down the road. The bank has opened a small branch in the mall, so we’re redundant. They’re making me move to a branch about three suburbs away. It’s going to take me forever to get there and home again.’

As they left the bank, Toby said to Suzie: ‘Don’t get too carried away. This place will probably end up being a bingo hall.’

With business finished, Suzie took charge. She knew how reluctant Toby was to spend money and thought it was because he didn’t have too much of it to spend.

She took her credit card out of her purse and waved it under his nose.

‘Now, my love, we are going to experience the magic of plastic to turn you, the rustic Adonis, into a suave and urbane gentleman-about-town.’

‘I can buy my own clothes,’ he protested.

‘You can buy your own work clothes, but I am not having my handsome husband escort me to frightfully expensive restaurants in work boots and jeans, even if you do look so utterly sexy in them.’

‘But I don’t want you spending money on me. I want to pay you back.’

Suzie slipped her hand between his legs.

‘You will, my love, you definitely will.’

Hours later, they returned to Walton village with a truck cab filled with shopping bags.

Toby was quiet as he concentrated on the driving, happy to have spent the day with the love of his life.

Suzie had enjoyed herself as well. She thought Toby looked adorable in the outfits she had bought for him.

Excited at the prospect of their future life together, her mind relaxed and she told Toby what she could have done with the bank building and how it could be reborn, if only she had her way.

Sam and Bree had a problem. The girl in the ill-matched, colourful clothes wouldn’t leave. She wandered around, studying everything for about the tenth time.

The agents stood behind the counter and watched her. They needed her out of their way. Plans had been made and they needed to catch flights that would eventually enable them to reach Hannah Post. This strange girl was slowing them down.

Finally, Bree had had enough: ‘Can we help you with something?’

The girl turned to them: ‘It’s all wrong.’

‘What is?’

‘All of it. You don’t seem to have the least idea about what you’re doing. It’s all mixed up and goes nowhere.’

‘Well that’s our problem, isn’t it?’ asked Bree.

‘It could be so much better. It’s a worthwhile cause but you’ve done it all wrong. Haven’t you done this before?’

‘What’s it got to do with you?’ asked Bree, becoming annoyed.

‘I’ve worked for Greenpeace since I was a child. I saw you come in and steal those posters. Why would you need to do that? Don’t you have any of your own?’

Sam and Bree looked at one another. The girl could prove to be a problem, especially if she decided to speak to the wrong people. An investigation of their fund wouldn’t reveal anything illegal. However, people snooping into their cover would cause an unnecessary detraction to their mission.

‘We could always kill her,’ whispered Sam, only half seriously.

‘It’ll take too long to get rid of the body,’ replied Bree, objectively.

‘Stick it in the fridge till we get back?’

‘That’d make the milk turn.’

The girl continued to wander, showing no sign of leaving. To make matters worse, other people were stopping outside, studying the logo in the window and looking interested. If they decided to come in and browse as well, it would throw their timetable completely out.

Sam wandered out from behind the counter, moving towards the door with every intention of locking it in the faces of the people outside. He didn’t make it. A couple entered and proceeded to wander around, studying the posters.

Bree decided to take a different tack. ‘What would you do to fix it up?’ she asked the girl.

‘It wouldn’t take too much. Just a little work. You need to define your aims a bit better and then to put it all in writing. Get posters that reflect your aims. Sell yourselves to the public. You’ll never get donations the way you’re going. The logo is a great start though. I’ll give you points for that. It’s brilliant. Now you have to work on that theme.’

‘I don’t suppose you’d like to help us out? My partner and I have to go overseas today to attend a conference in Africa. We’ll be back in about a week. If you bring your ideas back to us then, we’ll be able to go over them.’

The girl’s face lit up. ‘You’d let me do that? Greenpeace never let me do more than post out requests for donations. I’d love to help you. I know just what you need around here. It will be just brilliant.’

Bree ushered the girl towards the door. ‘Well, the sooner you get started the better. We’ll see you, and your work, in a week’s time.’

The couple had left and Bree finally managed to get the girl far enough out the door for Sam to close and lock it. The girl turned away, disappointed that she couldn’t discuss her ideas further.

Bree and Sam headed quickly upstairs, grabbed their flight bags and headed out the back door, from where they took Bree’s car to the airport.