Read Online No Place in the Sun by John Mulligan - Free Book Online Page B

they were very expensive here but it was good to catch up on the news from home. Nothing new from the home front really, just the usual parochial stuff. When you looked at it, a lot of the so-called news was just quotes from politicians who were saying nothing new, it all seemed a bit irrelevant from this distance. The property pages showed an increasing amount of expensive houses that seemed to be getting smaller and smaller as their prices climbed steadily; it was great to be away from it in a lot of ways.
    He folded the papers and poured another cup of tea. The sun was hot but his terrace faced West and was shaded in the mornings. He never tired of the view from his breakfast table; this morning the air was exceptionally clear and he could see the rock of Gibraltar to the West, counterpointed by the blue shadow of the Rif mountains just across the Straits in Morocco.
    Three weeks gone. He stretched back and admired the deep brown colour on his arms and legs; he had been working on his tan and now he didn’t look like a tourist, more like one of the expat workers in the area’s tourist trade. Time I was looking at doing something other than lying on a sun lounger, he mused.
    It was hard to know what to do; the local English language newspaper had lots of small adverts looking for staff, but most of them were for bar and catering staff, a euphemism for pot wallopers and kitchen porters, and he wasn’t prepared to go there. Not yet, anyway.
    A two-line ad caught his eye in the middle of a page. A car dealership was looking for an English-speaking salesman; he called the number and got an answering machine that advised calling to the garage during office hours. It was in Calahonda, not too far away if he remembered rightly. He shaved and put on his suit, might as well make the right impression from the outset.
    The Owner was apologetic. ‘Terribly sorry to have put you to the trouble, we filled that job last week but I forgot to cancel the advert. Really sorry, Senor, I apologise very much.’
    Tom was annoyed, a morning wasted. Sure, he hadn’t been doing anything anyway, but it was a bit of a pain coming all the way to Calahonda when the bloody job was gone. He was warm in the suit, and the car was parked a half a mile away, no parking anywhere near the bloody garage. He slung his jacket over his shoulder and started to walk back to the car park.
    ‘Hello, sir, would you like to enter a free draw for a camcorder?’ The girl was attractive, slim and blonde, neatly dressed and in her early twenties.
    Tom wondered what the scam might be; nobody gave you anything for nothing. Normally he would walk on, but the girl’s smile was open and warm and she didn’t look too hard-bitten. If she was a crook, she didn’t look it.
    ‘How are you? Now why would a beautiful woman want to give me a present of a free ticket in a draw?’ A bit of flattery might drop her guard and find out the truth faster than an antagonistic approach.
    ‘It’s a genuine offer, we are promoting some property in this area and we are giving tickets in a limited draw to anyone who views the project. We also give a free bottle of wine to anyone who attends a presentation about the project, no strings attached, just goodwill by the promoters.’
    Tom still had doubts, but she seemed to be respectable enough. She proffered a brochure showing a very nice looking apartment complex with landscaped gardens with palm trees and a huge swimming pool. It looked good, but he was curious.
    ‘So, what’s the catch, are you one of those timeshare outfits?’
    ‘Absolutely not, this is a respectable company with thousands of satisfied clients. We run a holiday club, a club made up of property owners who benefit from cheap flights and low cost holidays when they swap their properties with other members worldwide. I’m Kathy, by the way.’ She sounded like she might be Dutch, maybe German, but her English was perfect.
    Tom still wasn’t sure about the setup, but