CHAPTER 17
Fifteen months later when Reece returned home with Courtney from her lawyer, he was a very rich man, subject to transfers of titles and some other routine documentation. He felt pleased, but not elated. In fact, except for a slight feeling that he could now afford to be more decisive in life, it was quite remarkable how unchanged he felt. He shrugged, and went into the office while Courtney busied herself with her thoughts while preparing a celebratory meal for two. Patricia was in Christchurch staying with friends.
Smiling as he sat down, Reece thought of his irrational thought some time ago when he'd speculated that Courtney might be going to tell him that she was about to re-marry.
"She's only fifty-four, and still thinks like a younger person," he said aloud. "She should marry again but this time to a warm, loving man."
Since Matt's death Courtney had told him that three gentlemen as she called them, had come calling, but after a polite conversation with each of them in the sitting room, drinking tea or coffee, they had gone off with, as Courtney put it, "with a clear hint never to return."
"They give me the creeps," she had told Reece. "None of them had called on me in the past when I may well have welcomed the company of gentlemen."
Reece laughed, "And dad would have welcomed the opportunity to plant his boot in the asses of three tom cats."
Courtney had admonished him for being so vulgar but then broke into laughter, the thought obviously amusing her.
Reece was aware his own love life was not firing. There were women, of course, and he and Cilla exchanged visits every eight weeks or so but that relationship appeared stalled because she didn't wish to give up her job right now as she was completing university studies and the company was generous about giving study time to its junior executives.
Reece checked his diary, writing Cilla/7 to indicate Cilla would be arriving on the 7th of next month. He'd received a lengthy letter from her the previous day in which she confirmed her arrival. She only wrote occasionally. Reece had noticed she began the first letter with 'Darling', then that became 'My Darling' start to the second, 'Dearest Darling on the third or fourth and in yesterday letter he'd been downgraded to 'Dear Reece'.
He was an excellent letter writer, according to his mother. But although his prose was descriptive he'd noticed how much more vibrant Cilla's letters were. He deduced the difference lay in emotion; Cilla's letters personified her.
Slipping back into business mode, Reece sat back in the leather chair, his elbows resting on the chair arms and his fingertips lightly touching the point of his chin, very much in the manner of three previous heads of the Curtis family had done over the years. He had access to money now and ought to pay off his gambling debts in Christchurch but he shuddered, wondering what the totals would be like now with those creeps adding interest at ridiculous rates. He had a more immediate use for the money; he'd attend to those debts once he had attended to one important matter.
He selected a quick-dial number from a short list his father's had stuck to the side of the desk phone and Vikki answered.
"Reece Curtis here Vikki. I was wondering if I could come and see you in the morning on business, at a time to suit?"
Vikki sounded apprehensive. Her suggestion of 11:30 was accepted and she was probably left thinking he'd be wanting to rack up her rent now that he managed the holding company on behalf of Courtney.
Sitting opposite Vikki and sipping a cup of her coffee, damn fine coffee in fact, Reece studied his late father's mistress. His first thought was below the belt; he wondered which woman had his father humped the most. He'd pick Vikki; she looked as if she would be big into that sort of thing.
And his mother? Whoa there Reece, he told himself, accepting that it was not the done thing for any son to dwell on his mother's sex life. An image of his mother flicked through his mind and he was relieved that she was fully dressed and smiling as he remembered her when he was quite young.
Vikki's face was lightly lined. He guessed her plumpness had helped to preserve her good looks. These days her red hair had turned to something he thought some people called 'strawberry blonde'. Who knows? His father would have described her hair the colour of a roan, a roan horse that is. Her breasts looked massive, and he'd noticed when entering the café that her ample backside had not gotten any smaller.
Considering the bombshell Reece had dropped on her, Vikki studied him. He's the spitting image of Courtney, thought Vikki, though he carried his head like Matt did and his colouring was very similar. Quite a cute young man really. Some lucky girl will get her teeth into him. Pity he'd never liked her even as a small kid.
Reece had shocked her. A rent increase wasn't on his agenda. He'd tabled a copy of her latest lease agreement with the holding company and a copy of Matt's shareholding in her café.
She cleared her throat. "I gather your mother would have seen that Matt had money in my business and I had a bit in the holding company?"
Reece nodded and said, "Yes she knew and in fact warned me not to get upset when she handed over the books to me."
"Well," Vikki said. "I have money out on short-term mortgages that I can call in and a bank manager who rather likes me and so I guess a big fat loan is likely to be approved. I'll get back to you and thanks for being a gentleman, and giving me first option."
"Matt would have approved of my action Vikki."
Ten days later Vikki and Reece met in the offices of the Curtis family's new legal firm, Crown and Partners. Phil Crown presented them with the documents he'd prepared for signing.
Vikki walked out as the pending sole owner of Southern Star Holdings Ltd and also the pending sole owner of the Riverside Café, subject to routine legalities to be completed. She stood outside the café and looked with pride at the building she now owned. She also smiled. That morning she'd given notice to Chief Fire Officer Merv Arnold after their final bedtime together. He seemed relieved, quite surprised really that he'd gone so long without a word of his affair reaching the ears of his possessive wife.
Two days later his successor, bank manager Archie Hampton, entered the side-door and joined Vikki for lunch in her apartment above the café. They toured the spacious premises and in the bedroom Archie looked interested when Vikki told him that it was a king size waterbed.
"I've not tried one of those, are they any good?"
"Well, Archie," said Vikki, running a finger slowly down the front of her dress between her breasts. "You are welcome to try it out. Before or after lunch?"
Archie began removing his tie, signalling he was intent to find out right then what Vikki had that had attracted Matt Curtis to her side so regularly and loyally all those years.
Vikki began pulling her dress over her head, probably wondering if Archie had a big dick and would be in for the long haul. Being a big woman it took a big dick to give her what she required.
* * *
Drawing money from the farm account, pushing it into overdraft, Reece paid off his debts to gambling syndicates in Christchurch, sending bank cheques by courier. He was called by representatives of both syndicates and declined to meet their demands to pay interest, saying illegally acquired money by syndicates was not legally interest-bearing so they could 'stick it' and the should simply be pleased the slate with him was clean. He was abused and threatened but cut both calls, knowing no one in New Zealand was ever assassinated to non-payment of gambling debts. He didn't bother wondering if that belief was based on fact.
He felt a great weight lift from his mind and wondered who he could take out to dinner and then fuck to truly celebrate. Unfortunately his friends in Miranda were all male. Ah Phil's birth mother Alice was back from Queensland in the summer. She still had a tight body for a women her age and a lively manner. He called her apartment but there was no reply.
* * *
On Phil's desk lay a bank cheque to be paid into the account of Reece's recently formed company, Curtis Investments Limited. It was for $1.376 million. Reece had decided that he wouldn't try to squeeze every dollar he could out of Vikki. The selling price was on the high side of the difference between the figure reached by the assessor he engaged and the lower figure submitted to Vikki's assessor.
"You're a gentleman Reece," Vikki had lied. "I have new respect for you."
When she'd left, Phil said slyly, "Mum (Alice) talked to Cilla on the phone the night before last and is pretty excited to be seeing her so soon again. Only I don't think she's going to see a lot of her."
"She'll do what she wants. I'm only an add-on."
"Don't bet on it buddy. For some reason I just cannot understand, and with Cilla it won't be your money, she has a radar fix on you. She's admitted that to mum, so happy days while they last. Oh, by the way, so that your mother can get some sleep, our place up at the lakes is available to you guys while she's here. Take my spare set of keys. Catch!"
Watching TV that night, Reece told Courtney about the transactions he'd completed that day.
"We no longer have a financial connection with Vikki. What I can't understand is how you tolerated the connection dad had with her all those years. If it had extended beyond a business connection it would have broken your heart."
"It hurt me to think that they were undoubtedly sharing a bed Reece. Matt would probably have married Vikki but I slipped in between before their reunion all those years ago was cemented, Well that's all history and as you very well know she was brilliant in helping me through my grief and we have become good friends."
Reece covered over a developing scowl.
Courtney continued: "I remember my first and almost my only face to face meeting in earlier times with Vikki. I'd expected to be dealing with a small-town tramp. Instead found her to be friendly, intelligent and to my astonishment, totally able to handle me when I confronted her over our wedding reception. Matt had given her the job without consulting me. It was an inspiring performance. I was put through the wringer and hung out to dry so gently that I scarcely realised what had happened. I went home feeling that I'd neither lost nor won. I then felt ashamed that I'd behaved so badly."
"Water under the bridge mother."
"Are you going to start calling me mother again?"
"Sort of slipped out. Sorry mum."
"I believe it will not be necessary ever again to talk about Matt and Vikki in the same breath and rarely have I done so and now it belongs to a bygone era."
"I does indeed. Thinking back I reckon dad belong to a past era whereas I would describe you as being something of a crossover. In some ways you seem to become younger as I was growing up and look at you today. You look young for your years, your painting style is absolutely contemporary and your clothes are quite fashionable."
"Quite fashionable?"
"Ooops, I'm into dangerous territory am I? Tell you what, when Cilla comes over I'll get her to go shopping with you. She's really up with trendy stuff mum, but just don't let her persuade you to buy a thong."
"Matthew Curtis, you disgusting... Oh, what's the use? In that respect you are exactly like your father, an unrelenting tease. Be a good boy and get me another brandy."
"Mum?"
"Yes."
"Are you going to look around for another man?"
