Chapter 5: A Business Proposal and The Wall

I pulled the car into the parking lot behind number 7 Divitt Street, the gates were opened for me by our security firm, Pulling in there at 9.30 am brought back so many childhood memories, of coming here with my dad and Terence. My dad use to collect all of the rents in cash, monthly back then. I had no idea how much money he carried around with him, but he always took us both with him and he showed us all the buildings the family had collected over time. Who was in there and how much they were paying us to stay there. Then he gave us the golden rule. Never sell any of them and they will keep you well-fed and a roof over your head as long as we own them. That has stayed with me ever since, Terry as well, on more than one occasion we two have stood firm against our family when we were all in need of cash for one thing or another. But we never sold one piece of property we have bought more.

I found the key for the back door and let myself in. Turning lights on as I went, in the short time it had been empty, it had a stale musky smell to it, and again memories came flooding back. I took a deep breath and went to the front of the building.

Opening the front door I looked outside and saw Erica and Anita pulling up just down the street. Street parking was at a premium these days. I looked down the other way and sure enough, the local council traffic warden was earning his keep, writing out tickets for expired parking meters. I looked at my watch and it had just gone 9: 40 am. I pulled my phone out of my bag and sent Emily a text message, to pull around into the rear car park. I didn’t get a reply.

I waved to the girls out the front, and they waved back and started walking towards me, I sensed they had been up to something, by the way, Erica was smiling and nudging Anita as they walked side by side. No doubt it was over some petty attempt by Erica to sneak a little bit of PSA and Anita’s strict nothing in public attitude.

There are two small steps up into the building, the steps are made of the original blue slate used as ballast from one of the earliest settler’s vessels, and the glass front door is solid timber-framed and adorned with art deco brass fittings. From some update that was done in the 1920s. It still looked very stylish. I had to stand back to let them in, the front door opening isn’t at all wide, and they had to let their eyes adjust to the dim light inside.

It was still a very elegant building, some temporary partition walls had been put up over time, but nothing that couldn’t be quickly and neatly brought down. The timber floors needed some work. That was all I noticed in the 5 minutes that I had been there.

Erica looked around and started to take it all in, “WOW, I knew this place had a good feeling about it but this is so big and with a little paint job, you could make this look, well even more luxurious.” She exclaimed.

Just as we started to look around, we heard the girls come in the back door, “Hello, anybody home?” Emily said in a raised voice, “Need a hand here.” I looked down the side towards the back door and notice she was struggling, with a whiteboard, and beyond her, I saw Mia unpacking a small van.

“What, you two planning on moving in?” I asked her.

She rolled her eyes, and said quietly, “Mia’s idea, I said just run through the figures for you but no, she wanted to do the whole big presentation thing.”

“I’m not deaf Emily, I heard.” Mia chipped in, from just outside the back door where she was also putting a projector and a screen by the back door, to take in later on. Emily grimaced and smiled as she kissed her lover on the cheek.

“Sorry babe, just explaining to Aunt Kathy, what our plans are.”

“Fibber,” she said in reply, “I heard what you said,” as she slapped her backside. They were both smiling at each other in a playful manner. I loved it.

Behind me, Erica was watching on as was Anita. Erica turned to her Annie as she said, “See, a little public show of affection can be a good thing.”

To which Anita turned her head and gently slapped her arm. “Don’t start again.”

“Don’t start you two or I’ll send you to your bedroom,” I warned them jokingly.

“OH Promises, promises,” Erica replied.

Mia brought two more of the blueprints in last of all.

“What are these?” Anita asked inquisitively.

“THESE.” I said loudly, “These are a bit of Ambrose’s family history, the original blueprints of this place. Mia has kindly cleaned them up and made them featured pieces of wall art. To liven up the dreariest of office spaces.” I told them both at once. “Retailing around the ten thousand dollar mark, but to close business associates of the Ambrose family, a mere five thousand dollars. These are not your normal knockoff prints, each is personally autographed by the artist and is unique, a one-off.”

I saw Emily’s eyes burst wide open, While Mia didn’t bat an eyelid.

Erica looked at it, and without hesitating, said to put her down for two. “One for the front office and one for home.” She told me.

Anita said that she’d take one as well, would look great in her board room.

I turned to my two girls and smiled at them. Mia smiled back and nodded, while Emily held her hand over her mouth.

“But these two are going to your Grandfather Emily, you two should ring him and arrange to drop them off,” I told her in a matter of fact tone.

“Right let’s get started, shall we? But before I let you get into your spiel, let’s do the grand tour. I think we’ll start at the top and work our way down into the cellar.”

As there wasn’t a lift, I turned to Erica instinctively and asked. “How much for a lift in these old places?

Without hesitation, she said that if it could be done, start at 10k and up to 25k. I asked if she thought it was worth it.

“For such a small building and only two floors, I would say no.”

It was then that Mia cut in, and politely but in a tone that said she knew what she was talking about, asked “Kathy, if I may, can we discuss that later during the presentation, I have made some enquiries about that, and it’s 3 floors.” As she looked at Erica. Who was a little taken aback!

“OK, I will keep my questions until then.”

We slowly made our way up to the top floor, which was bare. The windows needed washing from a build-up of dust and grit. It looked as if the place hadn’t been used for ages, when in fact it was less than a month.

Anita looked at me and asked, “Who did the final inspection Kathleen, and what did it say?”

I nodded in the general direction of a rental real estate brokerage firm across the road, Anita raised her eyebrows and said “Really, what did they say about the state of the building after the tenants left?”

“I can’t recall being honest but nothing like this. That would have rang a bell.” I thought of calling in to see them after we had finished here. I looked at Erica and she in turn looked down at Anita but out of her line of sight.

Emily and Mia were holding hands as we walked around the top floor, “Aunt Kathy, can I ask what’s wrong with this?”

“What do you think sweetheart?”

“Well it’s dirty and grubby, but no one’s been here for a month, have they. Is it really that bad?”

Anita stepped forward and said, “It’s a commercial rental agent’s job to make sure every property is ready for an inspection at a moment’s notice, I would be ashamed to show this to a potential client!”

“OK, we are not here to pick holes in anything, just to let Mia and Emily see the building so they can visualize things for their presentation. Let’s move on shall we?”

“What are your first thoughts, Mia?” I asked as we descended the stairs.

“I think it has tremendous potential and I am even more convinced now that what we will show you will convince you this could work.” She sounded excited and very convincing.

Emily came up next to me, holding my hand tried to whisper in my ear but had to tug on my arm to pull me down to her lips. “Why did you charge your friends so much for the blueprints.” I smiled and whispered back “I didn’t I gave it to them at half price. Besides they are worth every cent.” I told her.

Mia was walking a little way in front of us, turned back and asked with the movement of her hands and arms ‘what are you saying’ to which Emily mouthed the words, “I’ll tell you later.”

We went past the ground floor and down to the cellar, I hit a switch at the top of the stairs, purely by instinct and the old lights dimly lit up a large empty space. It had a smell of dampness and mildew. The floor was rough cobblestones, as I remembered them, I smiled, as once again childhood memories came flooding back to me.

Mia went into the center of the area and looked around. Erica and Anita looked but didn’t appear too interested as it was just an empty space to them. Not quite the 12 foot ceilings as there were in the two floors above, more like 10 feet. But still a large space.

Mia turned to me and said, “Something is not right. That wall over there shouldn’t be there!”

It was a statement, not a question.

I smiled to myself, the arrogance of the young I thought. “Mia, that wall has always been there as far as I can remember. We haven’t built a wall down here since I have been around, and I am pretty sure my father never mentioned it to us.”

“Oh I don’t doubt it Kathy, but it isn’t the wall on the original drawings, I’m certain of it.” As she walked over to it. Pulling out a penknife, she scraped at the mortar between the brick joints. It crumbled and she caught some debris in the palm of her hand. Put it to her nose, then held it out for Erica to sniff, Erica wetted a finger and collected a small sample on the tip of her index finger and tasted. Then spat it out. “Not the mortar that was used in the original building I’m certain.” She told me.