Chapter 19

So. One door had closed. I needed a period of reassessment. I no longer had the threat of a prosecution hanging over me. That actually came as a surprise. Up until that moment, it hadn't occurred to me that I could have been taken to court. That rocked me for a moment. But it was over. I needed to take stock.

The first thing I realised was that I was still simply responding to events. I had been so busy juggling everything that I had just gone with the flow. There were some things I needed to take in hand, and one I had to stop taking in hand.

As they say, when one door closes, another opens. Closing that door allowed me to open one. I was now in the position to buy the house off Diane. She wanted one hundred and fifty five thousand, so I thought I would give her what she asked. It would close the deal quickly, but more importantly give her the money she needed to buy the share of the boutique. That would keep her busy and out of my hair. From what Harry was suggesting, that would also put a little more pressure on the relationship between her and Peter.

Thinking of Diane and relationships made me think of the children. We still had social services hanging over us. Zoe my have wound down the inspections, but the whole idea still rankled with me. I would have to speak to Milla about that one too.

Next was the gym. I needed to check with the agency about the management positions. I wanted them filled as soon as possible. In particular I wanted at least one filled so I could get on with advertising, processing memberships and general administration. That should introduce a little more stress into paradise.

My job was also on the agenda. Whilst I hadn't dropped anything, I hadn't been giving one hundred percent, what with so many office call with Camilla and the police. I had made as many as possible while I was on site calls and late afternoons. But not all. No-one was rattling my cage, mainly because I had put the hours in on the preparation and had my crew well on-side. I had to be seen clock punching.

Finally, I had been so busy with all the above and my domestic duties, my social life had been severely curtailed. Golf did not count. It was time I got on the circuit.

Monday was very busy. Two projects had moved into the installation phase, and I had to brief the team on all the systems testing to be done. Additionally, a subcontractor ripped up a geothermal installation on a private residential project we had running. Since it was intended to be a showpiece for expansion into that market, I was called to a site meeting after lunch. As usual every man and his dog turned up. While everyone was getting their two penn'oth in, I took the manufacturers rep to the side.

"Tell me about it?"

"Clear back about six feet either side of the damage, and joint in new pipe."

"Is it a big job?"

"About two minutes per joint. You'll spend more time clearing the top covering, simply because you don't want to damage more pipe. Take the top of with a digger and then the last bit by hand. We designed it with this in mind."

"When can you get a jointer onto it?"

If you have everything cleared back this afternoon, I'll have him here at eight in the morning. Then as long as it takes you to backfill. I should be re-instated by lunchtime. It's really not a big deal."

"OK, I'll get the foreman onto it." Which I did.

We returned to the group, and the Ivan, project manager button-holed me. "Right Jack this falls into your perview. How do we get round it and how long is it going to set us back."

"I've spoken to Bill, the manufacturers engineer. We clear back. He'll have a jointer here tomorrow morning, and we should have it backfilled by lunchtime."

Ivan looked at Bill. "Jack has his boys on it now. This part of the system is really no different from a mains water supply."

Ivan looked nonplussed. "Right, excellent, well, thanks everyone for attending. I think we've resolved everything."

Bill and I headed back to the cars. "That can be put in pretty much anywhere can't it?" I asked.

Yes, if you have enough ground to extract heat from. The only technical bit is the heat transfer. It's a piece of piss really."

"I might just be contacting you about a couple of installations."

"For yourself?"

"Yes."

"The price will be right, especially if we can use it in promo literature."

"But of course."

There was no way I would get back to the office before five so I phoned my P.A. and let her know everything was sorted and I would see her in the morning. Then I called in with Milla.

"I hope I'm not interrupting?"

"Not at all. What can I do for you?"

"A couple of things. Once the money comes through from the police I'm going to buy the house from Diane. I'll phone her tonight to agree the price. Can you get the conveyencing sorted out?"

"No problem, I would imagine she'll use Alan. What else?"

"Can we get the social services off my back?"

"That shouldn't be too much of a problem, now the police have dropped the charges. It would help if they charged Diane with false reporting, but I doubt you want to put in a complaint?"

"No I just want the whole thing over and done with."

"I'll get hold of Sam Willis, the inspector, and see what is happening. It might take a day or two depending on his shifts."

"Fine. It's about time I kick started the rest of my life so how about a night on the town?"

"Sounds good to me, how about David?"