Chapter 12: Getting down to business!

Gavin once more completed his preparation with his usual thoroughness. He managed to convince Glen that his idea for a project was a sound one and that it could make money. He took Glen to see the apartment building he had been looking at. As they walked through one of the dilapidated apartments, he explained what he planned to do.

"The owners are asking four hundred thousand for the building," he said.

"Look Gavin, I'm willing to take out a mortgage for you, but not for that amount. This place is an absolute mess, you couldn't live here. If your mother sees it she'll have a fit about you even considering it."

"Dad, you're not seeing the potential. Buying one of the apartments and renovating it will increase its value, but it won't be that desirable in the middle of the others if they're still a mess. The beauty is in buying and renovating all of them. When they're finished their value will rocket. Look at the location, it's perfect for the young city gent!"

"But four hundred thousand, I just can't afford a mortgage at that level," Glen complained.

"I've researched this dad. The building has been on the market for over eighteen months and no one has shown any interest. I think we could probably get it for as little as two hundred thousand. There are eight four-bedroom apartments. Once I've done them up they will each go for a minimum of two hundred thousand, possibly as much as three hundred!" Gavin said excitedly.

Glen's eyes widened in surprise at the figures Gavin was throwing at him.

"I figure about twenty thousand to renovate each apartment so if we got two hundred thousand for each of them, we're looking at more than a million in profit," Gavin threw in.

"Okay, tell me again how this is going to work?" Glen asked.

"First we set up a company. The company takes on the liability for the original mortgage. I do most of the hard work to keep costs down. Once the first flat is ready we have it re-valued and hopefully we can then re-mortgage to get more capital. We use part of that to service the debt and we don't sell until all of the building is finished so we realise the best prices," Gavin explained.

He had omitted to explain that the cost of bringing each apartment up to the luxury standard he wanted would actually be closer to forty thousand. His plan was that the labour part of that would be hidden by paying cash, using the money from the drug houses. Everybody knows that labour costs are the biggest element of any job and Gavin planned to use that to launder the money he had.

"So how do we set up a company?" Glen asked.

With that question Gavin knew his father was going to go for his plan.

"That's pretty straightforward. We need to fill in two forms for Companies House and then draw up a memorandum of association - that will set down the company's head office and what its business is. We also need to draw up articles of association. They will set out the structure of the limited company, who the office holders are and who holds shares. We need to get a solicitor to witness the office bearers signing those and the forms," Gavin explained.

"It's that easy?" Glen asked in surprise.

"It really is that easy to set up a company. The difficult bit is making money, dad," Gavin laughed.

"You know, I think you really have a head for this 'business' thing. I'm starting to believe you might just do well at university," Glen said.

The next few weeks were quiet for the police and the Glasgow gangs apart from some further copycat vigilante attacks. These soon dried up when reports surfaced in the newspapers about attempts that had gone wrong, where the would-be vigilantes came off second best.

The same couldn't be said for the Andersons and Gavin. The first order of business was to put a bid in on the apartment building. Gavin advised Glen to put in a bid of one hundred and seventy five thousand, just to see what happened.

The owners didn't take long to reject the bid, suggesting that something nearer the asking price was necessary. Gavin advised they should go back with a second proposal of two hundred thousand and put a fixed date on the offer, giving the owners only two days to consider it. He furnished their solicitors with the dossier he had built-up on the building, showing it had been lying empty for some time with no interest in it.

The solicitors used the information Gavin provided to try and force the sale through and they advised Glen and Gavin that the owners were weakening. The feeling was that sweetening the deal just a little more might secure the purchase. Gavin advised Glen to go to two hundred and forty thousand as a final, final offer.

Gavin could see his dream drifting away as he realised his estimate of how desperate the building's owners might be to sell was off the mark. He jumped when the phone rang and he watched Glen answer it. He could only hear one side of the conversation and that was painful.

"Hello," said Glen.

Gavin strained to try and hear what was being said at the other end of the line without success.

"Okay. No, that's fine. Thanks, that's all we could ask of you."

"What?" Gavin shouted, unable to contain himself any longer.

Glen took his time to hang up and then turned round.

"We've just bought an apartment building. I think you're going to be very busy for the next few years," smiled Glen.

"Yes!" screamed Gavin.

He didn't correct Glen. His own plan was that the renovation work would be completed a lot quicker than Glen thought. Glen didn't need to know that, or where the funding was coming from to accelerate the work.

After the nervous handling of the purchase, the incorporation of the new business was much more sedate. The paperwork was completed easily enough. Gavin had decided to name the company Hedonist Properties and that was what went onto the forms. The registered address for the company was given as 11 Renfrew Street, Glasgow - the apartment building that they had just bought.

Glen and Gavin were listed as the directors of the company with a 45% share each. Gavin insisted that Fiona be put down as the company secretary, with a 10% share.

"She doesn't know it yet, but she's going to be doing most of the interior design work for the renovation so she deserves a share," he told Glen.

Glen wasn't convinced that using Fiona was such a good idea. He knew she was very strong at art subjects at school, but the substantial mortgage he had just taken out tended to focus his thinking now about what Gavin was doing. Gavin assured him Fiona would do fine and it was all cheap labour into the bargain.

The whole family went to the solicitor's office to collect the large bunch of keys for the apartment building and then Christine and Fiona were allowed to have their first viewing of chez Gavin.

"It's a ruin!" exclaimed Christine.

"How on earth can this pile of rubble be worth two hundred and forty thousand pounds?" asked Fiona.

"Well, funny you should ask that," said Gavin, winking at Glen.

When they returned home for dinner, Gavin laid out his plans for the building.

"The first thing I'm going to do is gut out the inside of the two ground floor flats - I'm going to focus my efforts on them initially. Fiona, dad and I have put you down as an officer of Hedonist Properties and the reason for that is that I want you to do all of the interior design work."

He paused at this point to let Fiona recover from the coughing fit that suddenly overcame her. When she recovered she let them know what she thought of their idea.

"You're crazy! The only interior design I would recommend for that place is a bulldozer!" she cried.

"Part of being an officer means that you have a 10% share in the company, sis. The better the job you do, the more money you stand to make. I estimate that we can gross over one million pounds once we've finished," Gavin said.

Fiona's eyes grew large at the sums involved.

"I'm going to enlist the guys from my dojo to knock down all of the internal walls and stuff and clear up all the rubbish. As a reward I'm going to have the company sponsor some equipment for them - it will all be tax deductible. I've already set that up and it should be done by the end of this week," Gavin said next.

No one could argue with this plan to have one of the dirtiest and most labour intensive jobs carried out at little cost.

"Once we have the worst of the debris cleared out, I'm going to move in and stay there so I can put in lots of hours," he said now.

"But son, it's a derelict building! You can't move in there!" his mother complained.

"I'll be fine mom and besides, we need some on-site security to safeguard our investment. I can buy some basic camping gear to keep me going until some of the development work is finished. I'll be absolutely fine."

Fiona gave her brother a hard look.

Glen was content for Gavin to make the entire running with Hedonist Properties. It had been his idea and Glen hoped it really would keep him fully occupied. The articles of association made it clear that both Gavin and Glen had to sign-off on expenditure, but after Gavin approached him the first few times, Glen made it clear he didn't want to be saddled with that. Gavin simply began to sign for both of them, happy that Glen wouldn't see how quickly things were going or the fact that payments wouldn't fully match the work being carried out.

Gavin's first company purchase was a work's van. With his new license, he felt the van would be invaluable and also help him be more mobile. He also realised that the existence of the company opened some other doors too.

With a company behind him he was able to set up trade accounts with suppliers. That gave him access to materials at a much cheaper rate than they were available to the general public. Gavin knew that that would save quite a bit of money and it also allowed him to make quite a few of the purchases in cash to use up some of the drug cash.

Knocking down the existing interior walls was actually quite a fun job. The work was so old that the plaster of the walls had been applied to wooden lathes - predating sheetrock. Gavin had more than twenty willing helpers from his martial arts dojo and they all laughed and joked as they worked, faces covered by masks to protect them from the fine dust that was thrown up.

A huge skip was rented to take care of the rubbish generated by pulling down the old plasterwork and it had to be emptied a number of times given the volume that was coming out of the building. Wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow was tipped into the skip before eventually the job was finished and Gavin and Fiona had two 'shells' to work with on the ground floor of the building.

Gavin was delighted. Less than a week had gone by since they had picked up the keys to the building and already two of the units were ready for work. He made up a list of things he would need to buy so that he could move in and used the new van to do some shopping.

First on his list was a decent mattress to sleep on, quickly followed by a high quality sleeping bag. Although the apartments had no heating yet, it was nearly the beginning of August so it wouldn't be too cold for the next few months. He planned to use the showers and toilets at the pool where he trained for swimming, so the absence of functioning plumbing wouldn't be a major handicap for a few weeks either. A camping stove and basic utensils were added to his growing load, as was a battery powered 'boom box' so he could have music while he worked.

Christine had planned another special meal for what was to be Gavin's last night before he moved out. She worked in the kitchen, worried about her boy leaving home, particularly having seen the mess he was moving into. She worried too about what he had done, what he was capable of. She really wanted her little boy back.

Laying out a chicken breast on the chopping board, she covered it with cling-film and proceeded to pound it with a rolling-pin to flatten it out. The pounding was therapeutic and she quickly repeated the actions with three more. Squeezing lemon juice onto each breast, she dipped them into a dish of seasoned flour and then into a bowl of egg and Parmesan cheese whisked together. The chicken then went into a hot pan on the stove to cook.

Potatoes were roasting in goose fat in the oven and roughly chopped carrots and parsnips were drizzled in olive oil and rosemary before joining the potatoes. Christine steamed some asparagus in readiness for the final touch to the meal. Once the chicken breasts were cooked to a golden brown, she spooned a dollop of double cream onto each and then laid spears of asparagus on top before finally covering the whole in cheese. The chicken went into the oven for a few minutes to let the cheese melt and then she put together a plate for each of the family.

Glen drank several glasses of wine with Christine's fine dinner, perhaps the only one at the table apart from Gavin who was happy about his son's imminent departure. He cheerfully asked Gavin how things were going at the building, oblivious to the sombre mood of the womenfolk. Another couple of glasses of wine after dinner soon had Glen quite drunk and he dozed in his armchair. Christine took the opportunity of having a few words with her son.

"Gavin, you have to promise me you'll be careful. I'm still worried about you moving into that place," she said.

"Mom, I think I've shown I'm more than capable of looking after myself. I just knew you were going to be worried though, so the last thing I bought myself today was this," he said.

Gavin held up an ultra-slim mobile phone. He had added it to his list, knowing that having it would make his mother feel better. It also gave him a phone number now for the new business and he would put the cost of the phone and his calls down as a business expense. Christine smiled at him for being so thoughtful, and then she changed the subject completely.

"Have you done anything about maybe getting some therapy?" she asked, "I know what I said about the rapist, but you can't continue to take the law into your own hands. Your father's right about that."

Gavin frowned. He had agreed that seeking some professional help was perhaps a good idea. Although his conscience remained absolutely clear, he was intelligent and knew that what he had been doing was far from normal. The truth was he wasn't sure he wanted therapy and didn't have the first idea of how he would go about arranging it even if he decided to try.

"I've been too busy, mom. I haven't had any urges to do any vigilante stuff either since I've taken on the business, so maybe I'm going to be okay," he replied, lamely.

Christine let it drop. She didn't want Gavin's last night at home to be a trial and instead she turned to happier things.

"So, this time next year my son the businessman is going to be a millionaire?" she asked, laughing.

"It's no laughing matter, mom. This project really could make over a million. Besides, running a business has got to help with my studies. I'll bet there won't be many of the others in my year who have a real business to practice on," he replied, his smile showing he wasn't upset by Christine's comment.

"Well just don't forget your poor relatives when you're rolling in money, that's all I can say," Christine responded.

"Don't worry, mom. I'll be sure to look after you in your old-age," Gavin quipped.

Christine leant over and ruffled his hair.

"I'm not that old yet, cheeky! Now, I'll get sleeping beauty here off to bed and give you and your sister some time to talk."

Christine roused Glen and ushered him grumbling upstairs to bed. Fiona joined her brother on the sofa.

"I can't believe you're really going to leave me," she said.

"Fi, I'm only ten minutes away, I'm not going to the moon. Besides, you'll need to spend quite a bit of time with me if you're going to do a good job on the design work," he replied.

Gavin put his arm around her and pulled her in close.

"You know I love you, Fi and that's never going to change."