Chapter 4

Having been away from the office for two days there was quite a lot of correspondence to deal with. As with everything in this life nowadays, much of the mail was junk. A company offering insurance was typical. They claimed that they could beat all the opposition, although just three months ago when I was looking for a good deal on Landlord Insurance they could have reduced their premiums by a third and would still not be in with a chance. That letter and the other junk was filed in the waste bin. I dealt with most of the genuine mail and sent replies. I could type and understood how to set out a business letter although Tina refused to mail anything that I had written until she had read it through. Only with her approval would mail go out of this office. Today was different. My Pit-Bull Terrier was completely absorbed with the B.M.D. online; so I was able to sneak out some correspondence that was my original concept.

One letter was of great interest. A developer had been given planning consent for a local supermarket. The interest was because six of my houses were slap bang in the middle of the land he wanted. The property had been a tranche I had bought at auction. A Housing Association had got into trouble and the Bank wanted their debt cleared quickly. I bid low to start and stayed in the bidding. I was surprised when the hammer went down on my last bid and I got them at about sixty percent of their market value. Now was my chance to re-fill my coffers. I sent the developer an email suggesting that I might be interested. At this point I was interrupted by a knock on my door. "Come in." I shouted. My visitor was Aleksy.

"Mr. Chandler. I believe you have some work, yes?"

"How in hell did you imagine that? Did a little bird tell you? Tracey! Coffee for two." I shouted the last words.

"Coffee for three." She yelled back. I shrugged my shoulders, she was obviously intending to sit in on the conversation.

"Sit down." I told Aleksy. "I would like you to look at a property. It hasn't been occupied for quite a few years so I believe it is really a top to bottom job. It's an old Victorian build and will have to be restored sympathetically, else the local planning department will be jumping all over us. Do you think you can do something like that."

"Yes he can." Tina came in with the coffee and answered the question.

"That's very good Aleksy. You answered that without moving your lips."

"My English is not too good, Mr. Chandler, so Tina sometime answer for me while I am thinking words to use."

"Your English is perfectly adequate. You know that I have tenants who have no English at all and what is more do not believe they have to learn."

"I would make it a condition for them coming here. They don't come find work, they come live on benefits for life. Your government is stupid to let them in."

"Let's not get into that else I will get into a really bad temper. About this house. Do you think you can help me?"

"I need to look first. See what needs doing. But I am sure I can do something. I took courses in Poland before coming here. I can show you certificates, if you can read Polish. My brother, Stanislaw is good on plumbing and electrics, he too has certificates."

"O.k. I'm convinced. When can you go and look?"

He looked at Tina who for some reason had up to now little to say. "I want to be here for another couple of days to finish this research. We could go on Thursday." She decided.

"Hang on, what's with this 'we' could go. Who is paying your wages? Tracey."

"I will make notes. You will want a full list of what needs doing, won't you?" She gave me a sweet smile, although the tone of her voice was sardonic.

"You had better book a couple of rooms. There appeared to be a good pub in Great Yeldham."

"Who is the second room for?" She teased me, at the same time subtly letting me know that Aleksy was enjoying those wondrous breasts.

"Whatever. I will probably drive up on Friday, just to take a look. Now! Back to work. We need to make money."

The developer had emailed back to me, suggesting we meet to talk. I emailed him inviting him to call on me at my office. My position was that he wants my property, I don't really want to sell, so he has to persuade me with a generous offer. The houses were typical terraced property with three bedrooms. I had a good deal when I bought them, but even then their value was much less. The East End had always been the poor area of London; consequently property values had been low, something that I took advantage of when I started. Now with London becoming short on accommodation, even the East End was enjoying the surge in value of property. Another factor was the horrendous cost of commuting. On the market these days each of these properties would sell for half a million, more if they had been improved. They were bringing me rental income of six hundred and fifty pounds per week each so I needed big bucks to give up that sort of money. My computer sounded a ping. There was an email from the developer. A Mr. Geoffrey Anders would like to call tomorrow. Now that was quick! Perhaps they needed to complete quickly. That gave me a little bit more elbow.

Tina came into my office with a sheaf of papers. "Daniel, your father was Dennis, wasn't he."

"Yes. Is that as far as you have gone?"

"No, you impatient boss. Your grandfather was a Douglas Chandler and he lived in Colchester. The further you go back the more difficult it becomes. I am getting to the time when documents were hand-written, and some of the handwriting is atrocious. Your dad's father was Douglas. Do you know how many Douglas Chandlers there were? Seventeen! And I have to look at all of them to find which Douglas married Mary. That was your grandmother's name by the way, I got that from your dad's birth certificate. Marriage certificates give you a date of birth but not the parent's names. Douglas was born in nineteen twenty-three so I have look for his birth certificate to find who his parents were. Unless he had a very unusual name I shall probably have to go through more names to find the correct one. Once I have his birth certificate I get his parents names, then I look for their marriage certificate to find out when they were born."