Roskov book 14, p.20
Roskov, Book 14, page 20
‘There are plans to build a few attractions now, some later on, so that the first five hundred residents will not be walking around cafes and shops designed for twenty thousand people.
‘Land will be prepared and left with Astraturf on top, just a few cafes and shops opening first, the main lido swimming pool, a nice restaurant.
‘The entire promenade will be made ready for walking, the beach cleaned, shelters on the beach, so that the first Phase One residents can stroll at sundown.
‘Eventually there will be three large swimming pools behind the promenade, and several beach clubs -’
‘Beach clubs? Full of drunk eighteen-year-olds?’ I teased.
‘Full of sedate pensioners. Each club will have a café, plus a pool, no loud music playing. And there will eventually be a concert hall and laser show, when there are more residents.’
‘Would each place cover its costs?’ I wondered out loud.
‘Most of the places will charge a few Euro, to help with costs - and they will charge for food and drink of course, but we will own and operate them. We will be supplying the food and drink for twenty thousand residents and being subsidised by the French Government at the same time, a huge profit.’
‘How about a small golf course?’ I posed.
‘We had considered that, yes, and they plan a few golf putting greens, as with our hotel, and holes that are under a hundred yards.
‘And for the ladies there will be hair salons, several, and a pet centre; residents will be able to take a dog for a walk.’
‘Sounds nice, but it will be a small town by time we finish so we need to think of everything they’ll need. Is that cemetery finished?’
‘Yes, but it is just terraces with white stone coffins above ground, Israeli style, two hundred residents.’
‘Two hundred? We’re not open yet!’
‘They are local people, a shortage of burial plots on the island,’ Rolf explained.
‘Well at least they have a sea view,’ I noted.
Rita shot me a look. ‘Crazy man, they are dead.’
‘It’s all about the perception when still alive, a nice place to be buried,’ I told her. ‘Graves are for the comfort of the living.’ I faced Rolf. ‘I should go down there and chat to Dave Maurice -’
‘As I said, he has a staff now, with Lars, and they have local girls on the phones and entering enquiries. A few enquiries for our hotel go there by mistake and are sent to Michelle, and she no longer gets so many wrong enquiries.
‘If our apartments and villas in the new holiday complex were open we could fill them ready for May -’
‘Are we taking advance bookings?’ I asked.
‘No, we need the license first, after inspection. But Ross Daniels did organise for an auction in Paris, of the apartments in Phase One and Two in the first home.’
‘If they pay too much then the residents might complain about the quality when they arrive!’
‘They will have a detailed brochure, and can visit first, which is the plan. The apartments will not be listed as executive, but listed as basic and clean.
‘Those people bidding must have a doctor’s letter and pre-approval as a resident, a recent medical, a criminal records check, and they sign a legal form not to sublet the apartments - we will allow in no investors.’
‘No investors, we need to keep a tight control,’ I agreed. ‘And a few apartments held back for rentals?’
‘Yes, twenty. And two staff apartments. But the architect did alter the design and we shall have less office space and four small rooms with twin beds for night staff.’
‘Where can we get cheap golf buggies, for residents to get to the beach?’ I asked him.
‘Lee Tong can supply them, as well as suitable charging units.’
‘Order a thousand and store them ready, we’ll have a need soon enough. When will Frances house open?’
‘It could be ready in a month, so staff are being recruited now. First the managers, then those managers will recruit the staff. There are many doctors and nurses applying as well.’
‘Do we have enough carers on the island yet?’ I worried.
‘Many women do the courses now, and the basic course is just six weeks. Our carers will have time off for other courses, and many on the island have done courses One through Seven.
‘But Ross Daniels has a list from Marseille, three hundred staff, and it seems that they may be needed. But it may be the case that a few years from now there are enough local people trained.’
‘Do we have uniforms?’
‘Ross Daniels has a basic blue uniform for nurses, purple for carers, and they have badges to sew on showing qualifications and rank.’
‘Rank?’ I puzzled.
‘Carer, Senior Carer, Group Carer, Chief Carer. Oh, and Assistant Carer.’
‘Assistant?’
‘If they have not worked in the industry before they are an Assistant for two months.’
I nodded at that. ‘We need to make sure that we have good staff, our reputation depends on it; smiling faces and professionalism. But I’ll make a film soon, to advertise the homes, all of them in one go, a short thirty second advert.
‘But for that I’ll need some sunshine and a shit load of very old extras -’
‘Perhaps we open the first home and then make the advert there, there is no shortage of people wanting to go there.’
I nodded at that idea. ‘We need the advert when enquiries slow up.’
‘Many Parisians have taken a holiday to Corsica and are keen to retire there, just that the houses are very expensive, so is private medical care. We offer a better alternative.’
‘Your Government wants a home there, they may even supply building crews,’ I told them. ‘Then we’ll need Swedish speaking carers – which would be expensive.’
‘Yes, expensive, but I would think that just our well-travelled citizens would apply to go there, and they all speak English.’
‘And … if we had an exclusive nursing home with its own beach, executive apartments?’ I posed.
‘It would be full, and popular,’ Rolf suggested. ‘There are many rich people retired there and with carers on hand, but with no neighbours on hand.’
Ingrid suggested, ‘The island suits rich people more than ordinary people. When you first planned the nursing homes I think it would be rich people only.’
I told her, ‘The nursing home apartments are not good enough for rich people, but some people with money may accept them.’
She suggested, ‘If you make a better quality nursing home it will be full, the first two of them at least.’
Rita asked, ‘What about Mandoch’s nursing home?’
‘Rooms for a hundred residents only,’ I explained. ‘Exclusive. But we could find some land and create a few nursing homes for rich people.’
Rolf began, ‘There is land for sale, not huge, between our hotel and Mandoch Valley.’
‘How big?’ I asked.
‘If we built up the slope, we could host a thousand residents. The beach is nice but not huge, the road is OK, and there is a stream in winter.’
‘Make some enquiries then.’
‘It is us, so they would hand over the land at a good price.’
‘The council owns it?’
‘The council owns the land around it, a small section was to be a villa but the owner went bust and disappeared.’
‘Make a firm enquiry then - with the bank or the liquidators I guess, and we can design some expensive apartments, two bedrooms en suite, a big balcony.’
‘Six hundred metres away is a small village, perhaps thirty houses.’
‘So they’ll be glad of some work and some money,’ I suggested. ‘And if they object we can buy their houses, make them staff houses.’
‘What did you do with the Mandoch water which Ted took?’ Rolf asked.
‘We drank some, and … it makes me dizzy and I feel good afterwards, same for Bonza. And I feel a bit fitter and stronger.’
‘Is it possible,’ Ingrid began, ‘that the water was meant for you and your followers?’
‘The water has been there two thousand years,’ I pointed out.
‘Yes, but … did you land by ship there, before?’
‘I recognised Mandoch Valley, yes, but I don’t know from what time period.’
‘And if you landed, and if these Followers of Mary assisted you against Broderic, then they were your army of followers, the water to make them healthy…’
I exchanged a look with Rolf. ‘Special water … for those fighting good over evil? It may have saved the lives of those who landed there and were stuck, and later … the Followers of Mary might have taken the water and lived to a ripe old age.
‘Someone hid the treasure there, someone hid Broderic there, so … did that secret group take the water? They could hardly miss the writing on the wall about the water. Have you taken any?’
‘Some, yes,’ Rolf admitted. ‘But we don’t go crazy for it, our health is OK, and the angel cured my hip pain.’
I shook my head. ‘It would be selfish of me to take it, not hand it to the sick, but it does have an effect on me. I would have thought it was neutral, not affecting me in a good way.’
‘You, and the others reincarnated, might benefit from it the most, and are meant to do so,’ Rolf suggested.
I turned my head. ‘Bonza, drink more of the Holy Water, it may make you fart less.’
The Rasmussens laughed as Bonza stood and grabbed more water to sip.
‘It gives me a nice buzz,’ Bonza admitted.
‘Do some press-ups,’ I suggested.
Bonza got down and started to push away, and at fifty he stopped and got up. ‘That was fifty, which is about thirty more than I used to be able to do.’
Looks were exchanged.
Jacket and jumper off, I got down and started press-ups, and at a hundred and twenty I halted, jumping up. ‘A hundred and twenty, and … that used to leave me red in the face and gasping for air.’
Ingrid insisted, ‘The water helps you and your army of followers.’
‘Perez took some, so he can now do some press-ups if someone threatens him at gunpoint,’ I quipped. ‘But the water will go to the sick, not least because my army of followers includes just Bonza and Perez – and Perez is a priest!’
Sat, I told Rolf, ‘I want to open a nightclub in Belfast but also in Dublin.’
‘Lucas has found a place in Belfast, large enough, and the council will offer a low rent,’ Rolf informed me. ‘I will ask him to look at Dublin. And they already start to make this film in a school.’
‘I read the book, and it’s brilliant, but you need good English and to know our slang words for it to be funny.’
‘I will watch it, since I am familiar with your slang,’ Rolf insisted. ‘And Ross Daniels reports that the Kudulov film has started filming, in Slovenia, a wartime concentration camp.’
I stared past him and sighed. ‘I wonder if there’s a link, him to my family?’
‘They have found none so far, but there was a Kudulov in this house.’
A knock at the door, and Bill and Ted moved cautiously towards it, the police outside in their car. Bill and Ted returned with a heavy chest and placed it down.
Ted explained, ‘The old lady sent it over, it says “Roskov” on it.’
I stood and stared at the old chest. ‘Albert Roskov was here, not a Richard Roskov, but she may have read the newspaper stories.’ Kneeling, I opened it, no bombing going off in my face.
First item out of the packed chest was a large book of sketches, my sketches, so I handed it to the twins.
Second item was a small portrait painting, twelve inches square and torn, my family, my image seen in the painting. I handed it to Rolf.
Third item was a dusty old Bible, just a plain Bible, placed on the table.
Fourth item was a ledger, and in Swedish, so I handed it to Rolf to translate, and because he thought that accounting was exciting.
He gasped. ‘This details the treasure that was here.’ He flicked to the first page in the dated ledger. ‘First entry, 1876, delivery taken, no payment made. But then there is a payment from “The Followers”, for food.’
He ran a finger down a faded yellow page of dated writing. ‘Treasure items were donated, some purchased, a few payments made for transport here. But the details are mostly coded, just the initials of people donating treasure.’
I told them, ‘You only donate treasure if you’re a follower in a cult, the cult of: waiting for someone like me to be born.’
Rolf jumped to the last entry. ‘This is 1905, and tapestries were moved here from somewhere else. Here, it says that “Roskov” has arrived and is being tutored.’
‘Albert Roskov,’ I sighed out. ‘Not me. Keep the ledger, study it, or hand it a local historian to study.’ I returned to the items, pulling out a silver teapot, something inside it, hopefully not stale tea. Opening the lid I found a pouch, and in the pouch I found diamonds. ‘Fuck me.’
I showed Rolf, and he carefully emptied the diamonds onto the ledger’s pages, the twins and Ingrid gasping. ‘How much are they worth?’
‘If they are genuine, more than the treasure that was here,’ Rolf responded.
‘So … how do we sell them and hide the money?’ I asked.
Rolf puzzled that. ‘You would not declare them?’
‘They were meant for me to sell - and to use the money to build nursing homes. They’re not stolen, and if they were stolen then they were stolen a hundred years ago at least.’
‘Lee Tong could take them,’ Rolf suggested. ‘He could take a sample first and check them.’
‘The stock market,’ came from Bonza, and we turned. He was sat staring at the fire.
‘What?’ I asked him.
‘Lee Tong can invest in the stock markets, which … goes up till October then crashes, then goes up again.’
I glanced at the fire, then back to Rolf. ‘We turn them into shares and trade the markets, till October apparently.’
‘Most market crashes are in October,’ Rolf noted. ‘I often sell before then.’
‘We can contact Lee Tong, have him send an expert in diamonds.’ I helped Rolf put the peanut-sized diamonds back in the pouch after we had counted them.
Rolf began, ‘Lee Tong can make the money look like investment capital, no tax for us, just that we don’t send it back to him.’
‘Make sure that we’re inside the law, just … stretching it a bit,’ I told him. ‘Let Lee Tong take the risk.’
‘The authorities there will never question his accounts,’ Rolf insisted.
Ingrid suggested, ‘Why not just buy from him what we need in Corsica at a lower price, that way it is hidden.’
I turned from Rolf to Ingrid. ‘Did you read one of Rolf’s dog-eared accounts books?’
She shot me a look. ‘No one will question a lower cost spread over many years.’
‘Rolf, she’s way too smart to be your wife.’
‘I picked a good one,’ Rolf quipped. ‘Now please take my daughters off my hands.’
The twins squinted at Rolf.
Smiling, I told him, ‘I can’t marry both, so one would be spare parts.’
Now they were squinting at me.
Face back in the chest, I pulled out a ledger, Rolf translating.
‘My god,’ he gasped. ‘A ship’s manifest, to collect the special water in Corsica! They did use it for the followers, who must have lived a long time in good health.’
‘This chest is no coincidence, to be handed to us today after talking about the water!’ Ted loudly insisted.
‘Make sure that no one sees that ledger,’ I warned Rolf. ‘But study it, for clues about who the followers were, some could still be alive, some may have sons alive.’
He jumped to the last entry. ‘1903,’ he said, disappointed. ‘And it is in code again, the names.’
Grabbing for an item, it seemed to be too heavy. I lifted it out, a silver tin, and forcing it open with a hammer we found roughly made gold coins, faded in colour, maybe a hundred.
‘The old lady had this all these decades,’ Rolf noted, the twins examining the odd coins.
I picked up one. ‘That’s … King Herod.’
‘My god,’ Rolf gasped, soon studying a coin.
‘These are, technically, Israeli coins, albeit they were occupied at the time.’ I called the Israeli Ambassador as they listened in, and insisted that he drop everything and rush over.
‘You will hand them over?’ Rolf asked.
‘What would happen at auction?’ I posed.
‘They would be disputed, yes,’ he admitted.
I counted out ten. ‘We keep ten, the rest handed over. We can sell them through the Government again.’
We all debated the gold coins, Ted suggesting we send them to Lee Tong as well. But they would be hard to sell, and be noticed by the Israelis straight away.
Face back in the chest, I pulled out something wrapped in a cloth, the twins soon gasping at the gold crucifix, but it was old style, two horizontal bars and one small bar at an angle, and it appeared to be very old, the gold’s surface dulled in most places.
‘The Vatican will like this, and owe me a few quid.’
Rolf pointed at it. ‘The Vatican dislike this type of cross, they shun them!’
I nodded at that. ‘They do, so … we’ll try and sell it at auction here.’ I handed it to the twins, but Bonza moved in and grabbed it.
‘I’ve seen this before,’ Bonza told me.
‘Maybe one like it,’ I suggested.
‘No, this one.’ He turned it over. ‘Jehovah on the back, spelt wrong.’
‘Jehovah?’ I loudly queried, and had a look. ‘That word is Latin, which came later.’
Rita had a look. ‘Jehovah, spelt wrong in Latin.’
‘Who the hell would put a Jewish god on a crucifix!’ I loudly asked.
Bonza answered, ‘Broderic.’
‘Broderic!’ came from many mouths.
Bonza added, as he studied it, ‘Some trick. The word was carved on after it was heated up, I recall … somehow.’
