Chapter 36

When the air failed at home and the installer couldn’t get parts for a month ... we moved to the skate palace. Our home HVAC unit was manufactured 27 years ago in the United States, and it was cheaper to wait than install a new unit. A magnitude cheaper. The unit on the roof of the skate palace was just ten years old but had less tha 100 hours run time.

Mr. Make A. Bucksqueek wouldn’t spend the ready to replace the heatpump.

Mrs. Morris heard it through the bridge club that we were hiding out in the palace ... because ‘he’s too cheap to buy a new pump.’ She stopped to check. That’s how I know about the unit.

Mrs. Morris said, “Up until I stopped paying the ‘rates’ I started the air once a month ... just in case. Keeping the seals lubricated mostly.”

“Why?”

“Did I stop? Getting a little of my own back. Robert hated that I was awarded the building ... and his rates bills reflected that ‘his’ building was a ‘heat sink.’”

“What?”

“I got the building ... he got the bills.”

“That’s outrageous ... How did you get that decree?”

“It’s my money ... it was always my money. Every ‘adventure’ was my money. He had such grand plans,” she leaned a little closer. “He’s so ... pretty ... all the girls wanted him. There’s more to Robert Morris than pretty.” She held her hands about a foot apart.

“Oh ... OH!”

“A trumpet flare to go with it.”

I blushed. I’ve been tried ... just not that often. My experience with erotic shapes is limited.

Although ... I really like chordee (curved upwards) for scratching that itch. Chordee and flare would be ... personally ... tremendously satisfying. Chordee is ... fine.

“Why did you stop?” I realized what I said. Hurriedly, I added, “padding the bill.”

“I got over it. My banking has restored itself to prior levels. I was being petty.”

“Sorta like when I quit talking to dad.”

“What?”

“He wouldn’t introduce me to mother’s cars.”

That brought a remembrance.

“I was there the Saturday afternoon your mom won.”

“And?”

So ... she gave me a lap by lap ... Blue Hell has these turns on the downhill. “She won on the final turn ... it was so exciting.

“I hear you’re driving. You keep up. Why don’t you ‘compete?’”

“I’m in it for the thrill,” I said. “I have too much in my life to reorganise it.”

“What are you doing?”

“The Utes ... the airplanes and the mine.” I waved my hand on ‘airplanes,’ there were three SNJs over in the rebuild area. One was almost ready ... one was still lacking wings and glass, the last had the empennage bolted to the fuselage but it was still in the shipper.

She glanced at the aircraft ... eh. No spark. The utes drew her eye ... but she said, “Mine? What mine?”

“Gold,” I said.

“Oh ... a hobby?”

“Elizabeth sent her grand nephew to find what happened to her thirty percent. Government shenanigans. The investigation is ‘ongoing.’”

“Elizabeth? THAT Elizabeth? Thirty percent?”

“She was ... well ... her accountants ... were missing the seventy million pounds a year.”

“Thirty percent ... SEVENTY MILLION POUNDS!”