Chapter 3

The following morning Suzanne dropped Andrew off at Drummond’s and he sat with Mhairi.

“How was the first Christmas with Callum?”

“Silly.”

Andrew looked confused.

“What is your earliest memory? What is the first thing you can recall?”

He stopped and thought about this unexpected question.

“Two things. I do remember watching the television for Armstrong on the moon. What was I, four? Yes just after my fourth birthday. I think that is the clearest memory from that time. But I also do have vague memories of waiting for Dad to get home from work. I would lean over the gate and watch for him walking up the street. But it is non-specific, I couldn’t tell you when, how often, anything like that., but I would have been two or more likely three. Why on earth are you asking me that?”

“The production that Christmas Day was, that’s why. Callum won’t be one for another month and will remember nothing of this time. But it didn’t stop us, or Neil’s parents, from going crazy. We had to go and buy another storage unit for his nursery, he got so much stuff. So when I say it was silly, I mean it. So silly that we went furniture shopping on Boxing Day to hold the presents that our not yet one year old son received. And he won’t play with them in a year, and won’t remember any of this.”

Andrew didn’t know how he was meant to respond to that. Sympathise? Mock them? So he shrugged.

“That is what the two of us have had to do as well. Just shrug and try not to get so carried away next year. But who are we kidding. Anyway, you didn’t come here to listen to me prattle on about parenting. There are documents I need you to sign to set up C&D Software Solutions, that is the main purpose of getting you here. I also have your explosives licence for you. You will have it if you want to try some practical experiments for that project of yours.”

Andrew was pretty sure that he wasn’t going to be doing that but it was there if he needed it. Even if he wanted to do a demonstration there were still going to be a whole lot of hoops he would have to jump through. But the option was there.

“Thank you.”

“The last thing is engineering patents are.”

She stopped.

“All over the place is the best way of describing it. Some are very standard, a new design for a piece of equipment for example. But for what you are looking to work on? I am struggling to be able to give you clear and consistent advice, which as your lawyer annoys me. I do not know whether you would be granted a patent for a construction technique. When I reviewed existing patents there are not many examples that I can cite. I talked to you earlier in the year about the importance of patent lawyers in getting a patent granted. I have asked around, and not just to them because it is obviously in their interest to highlight how important they are. But it is a commonly held belief among lawyers both here and down in London that you do need to use them to assist you to navigate through the process. Now they might have done a really good job of getting us all to buy into their propaganda but it does appear to be true. So to take this further I think that you need to hire someone to investigate this further.”

Andrew sat for a moment or two thinking about what Mhairi had laid out.

“So there is only so much that Drummond’s can do as non-specialist lawyers?”

“Yes. You are starting to pay to educate us.”

“Okay. Would you still be involved?”

“Would you like us to be involved?”

“That was singular you not plural. Will you still be involved, Mhairi?”

“I am being slow this morning, sorry Andrew. What do you mean?”

“I would like you to lead the process. This is something that is going to be a single meeting and then leaving him or her to go and investigate further. I want you to be there.”

“Oh. Sorry, in my mind I had assumed that you would take away the list of recommended firms and go and talk to them. Of course I will lead the process if you want. It does not reduce the cost for you Andrew.”

“Oh I know that.”

He stopped and smiled over at her.

“Julian owns 10% of the engineering company, just as I own 10% of his computer company. There is no need for us to do that but it made sense in a way that didn’t even need to be talked about. This is the same thing. Everything that you have advised us on over the years has been successful, wildly successful so why would I change something? You are stuck with me.”

Mhairi beamed with pleasure but it was true. When it came to dealing with legal matters there was nobody that Andrew trusted more. The paperwork was all ready and so he spent the rest of the afternoon signing in all the marked places. The creation of C&D was the one simple thing about it. Once that was all dealt with Andrew thanked Mhairi and headed on his way. He had even remembered to collect his explosives licence.

As Andrew walked up through the New Town and centre of Edinburgh his mind wandered. Here he was still investigated engineering patents when his intentions were to apply to work in Intelligence. It was only looking back on it later that he could make sense of some of these things. Firstly he had the money to be able to do this. Andrew spent a lot of money with Drummond’s over the years. He knew that at the time but didn’t think about it. So having the money was definitely part of it. But the other was how it kept options open. He wasn’t sure he thought about it that way at the time but looking back it was clear. He may have put engineering aside at the time but he was not closing the door to it, the exact opposite.

Suzanne had made a simple healthy dinner and after they had eaten, and Andrew had cleaned up, the two of them were sitting on the couch. Andrew was about to turn the television on when Suzanne asked him a question, in the form of a statement.

“You never talk about the photography business. Both Leslie and I were surprised when Maggie told us that you owned 50% of the business.”

Andrew was clearly expected to respond to this.

“What would you like to know?”

“It feels like I am prying but it is noticeable, and it was to Leslie as well, that it is the one part of your life that you never talk about. Hell we even talked about other women over the weekend. Is it a big secret? And I knew from Leslie that Maggie used to be a nude model, although she confirmed it herself on Friday.”

So instead of watching some mindless rubbish on television Andrew told Suzanne about photography, going all the way back to starting when he was 12. All the history during his teenage years, how the three of them started the photography business together, the new studio, Maggie and Tony’s house, he told her everything. Except about the current arrangements with Maggie and Elspeth.

“It was something where I made my first money, all the way back before I had cancer. Tony is 14 years older than me but he always treated me well. And I learned a huge amount about life from him. Way more than from my own father.”

Suzanne understood Andrew’s need for parental figures.

“I have sat here and listened to you explain nearly 10 years of history. It is very you. Neither of them went to university, Maggie moonlighted as a nude model, yet they both became close friends. Do you think you can spot intelligence?”

Andrew thought about what Suzanne was asking.

“I think I can spot nice people, that is more likely. I don’t know about intelligence. I listened to her, and it was as clear as day she wasn’t stupid. If I can spot it, then with Maggie it wasn’t very difficult.”

“I am trying to figure out how to talk about the fantasy shoots. You so matter of factly tell me that you photograph middle-aged women as they realise a fantasy to be a model. And some of them get naked. Was that what you were doing on Boxing Day?”

Andrew nodded. Well that was how it had started...

“And from that you have built up this business?”

“Maggie and Tony got inspired by what I did with computers. Tony owned the shop and the studio and lived above the store in a flat. It was all his, no bank loans, no mortgage, nothing. So we talked and he converted the flat into two more studios and he and Maggie moved into Julian’s old flat along the road. They are renting off him until the end of the month.”

“I can’t believe you have built a four story studio over in Fife.”

“It was the house. We got the house and land for nothing. We didn’t pay a penny to the guy who owned it, but we had to spend £200,000 stabilising the slope. Now we did that by building the studio. On Monday the 5^th Tony is going to be working from there full time and Maggie is going to become a commuter.”

Suzanne went back over various parts of the 10 years.

“Did you not worry about spending so much money on the business?”

“No I didn’t. Firstly it is very profitable at the moment. But the other thing was when I thought about my money I never factored in the royalty payments from licencing the software. Everyone knows about the initial amounts but we have received almost £2m in royalties. And remember 10% are mine. When Tony and Maggie asked me to go into the business with them Creighton had just let me know I had received more money. When you didn’t know you were getting it, or forgotten about it, then just allocating it over to the photography business was easy.”

Suzanne was jumping about that night.

“There is a sense that you are proud of your working class heritage.”

“I don’t know that is right. I got teased about being part of the establishment last year.”

“Yet you are very close friends with a Maggie and Tony. Neither of whom would fit into the Heriot’s and Cambridge circles of your friends. It is another way that you and Leslie are very alike. I see it with her when she is talking about investment opportunities. But she and Maggie are really close, as close as she and I are. It was interesting that first night the parents met them. It was sneaky that you were there as well. I am not sure that Julian or Christine would have been so friendly otherwise. I doubt they meet many people like them regularly.”

“Yet once they realised how successful Tony had been then they calmed down. I remember thinking that money talked at the time.”

“They could easily send their children to private school. Do you think they will?”

“No idea. Tony’s parents are dead, and have been for more than 15 years. He has a less intrusive family, whereas Maggie is dealing with how to be successful and quite wealthy when the rest of the family is not. She was brought up in a council flat, her parents still live there, yet she has bought a four bedroom house on a bluff overlooking the Forth and Edinburgh. I think she will take a while to deal with that issue. It is not like she is buying a flat in this area. A step up the property ladder. She jumped straight to the top. The house is big, the terrace looking out to Edinburgh is lovely and the views spectacular.”

“You sound jealous. Have you seen it.”

“Yes I was there on Thursday. And no, I am happy for them but it is not for me.”

“You were there on Thursday?”

“I spent the morning doing stuff in the house for them. Tony gave me a key.”

It upset Suzanne to think of Andrew on his own. The conversation dried up and they sat and watched television for a while. Andrew made one phone call but otherwise they snuggled together. When they went to bed Suzanne sat in his lap every time. Neither of them said it to the other person but it was very clearly making love in every meaning of the phrase. Andrew wasn’t sure who held who the tightest.

The call had been to Tony and at 7.30 the following morning Maggie came down to Andrew’s car, wearing her coats and carrying a bag. She whacked him on the arm when she climbed into the car.

“You might have given me a warning.”

Andrew smiled.

“You are naked under your coats and are already excited.”

Maggie didn’t deny Andrew’s comment. They drove back to Torphin Quarry, scene of one of the very first shoots they did outdoors. But Andrew had waited until it was bright enough for the golfers to have teed off already. When they parked the car beside the reservoir they could see golfers on the course.

“Are we going to the same place?”

Andrew nodded.

“Will we not be seen?”

“For sure. I want to time it so we don’t have to talk to anyone but three or four groups of golfers are going to see you walking over to the hiking trail. Not really dressed for hiking.”

It was that nice little sweet spot for Maggie. She was conscious of her naked state under her coat, there were lots of eyes on her, but everyone would be at a sufficient distance for her to be anonymous. And that was before she was naked at the top of the quarry. The spot where it was safe to pose at the top of the quarry face was just beyond a tee box. As they approached it the golfers who were starting to play the hole got distracted. For a moment Andrew thought they might come back to question them. But once the two of them were off the golf course, and hidden by a bank of gorse bushes, they were alone. What Andrew found interesting was that Maggie immediately took her coat off. He was still several minutes from being ready to take the first shot but she took the blanket he was carrying and sat down, about 12 feet away from the tee box. Now she was below it and hidden by the bushes but when the next group of golfers stood on the tee box every word was crystal clear. Maggie smiled and gently squeezed a nipple. Andrew only took one roll of film and would not take any shots when there were no golfers close by. The first 24 frames took 30 minutes to shoot, four groups going past oblivious to the naked lady posing away mere feet from them. The second 24 frames took less than three minutes. Lord Sutch was buried deep in Maggie and it took all her efforts not to scream to the world. But it was ridiculously sexy, and effortless. On the walk back to the car Maggie was smiling, her hips swishing hypnotically.

“It is such a simple scenario. It shouldn’t affect me as much as it does. You didn’t even take any shots when there were no golfers about.”

“If we do it again then Tony should bring his video camera, so that we can hear them at the same time as you are posing.”

“Are we going to do anything else?”

Andrew nodded but gave no details. But Tony had given him the address of the laundromat that they were going to try and use. It was 10.00 and it closed at 1.00 on a Saturday. Andrew handed her the bag, which contained some random dirty clothes.

“Go in and put this lot through the wash. Sit and wait, I am going to wait for one of the two spots outside so that I can use it later.”

“How are we getting home?”

“Tony will be here in an hour.”

So Maggie Brown sat in a quiet laundromat waiting for the washer to finish wearing nothing but her two coats. Andrew was able to snag one of the two spots outside and wound the window down on the old Golf. Maggie saw him taking some shots so she did a quick looksee and then flashed a mile of naked thigh for Andrew to capture on film. Andrew realised he was smiling as much as Maggie.

It was a student who looked after the laundromat on the Saturday morning. She was happy to get £30 to sit in the back and read a textbook for an extra hour. How Maggie dressed for the shoot was a joint effort. All of them made suggestions, but the end result was simple. Everything was tight on her so there were lots of shots of her peeling clothes off. Sweatshirt, jeans, camisole, everything highlighted Maggie’s body. The set up shots were carefully mapped out. Andrew got a whole roll of film of Maggie loading two machines with all her laundry and her taking off her sweatshirt and adding it to one of the washers. 40 minutes later the three sheets blocked the view into the store, other than a few carefully arranged slivers of gaps. But the shots of Maggie stripping down were great and when she sat on the chair, naked, to wait for the wash cycle to run, her nipples were hard and tight. She kept looking over at the front windows, wondering if anyone was peeking through the tiny gaps. The whole shoot ran 15 minutes long but the student was happy for another £10. She had kept her part of the bargain and there had been no sight nor sound of her throughout the shoot. They stopped at Tony’s shop and returned the light stands that they had used to support the sheets. Andrew left the eight rolls of film there as well. It had been a return to simpler times, it hadn’t been as explicit as the morning and there was a lightheartedness to the whole day. But it had still struck a chord with Maggie and Tony was dragged off to the flat for husbandly duties. And privileges. Andrew would see them the following evening at Leslie and Julian’s.