Roskov book 3, p.5
Roskov, Book 3, page 5
‘The local council will make it open to small groups visiting, and school children, and there will be a guide available, the radio to play wartime messages and music.’
‘I’d love that, so I’ll go visit it,’ I told him.
With his family gone, we sat as a family and as a company, modelling work to discuss, as well as the nightclub.
I told them, ‘Wednesday should be Asian food, Indian and Thai, spicy. We can try it and see how many people attend. Once a month, police event, midweek, once a month a medical staff event, a cover charge that goes to a listed charity.’
Rolf made a note.
I added, ‘In the summer, events on the roof, and … what about weddings?’
‘Yes, of course,’ Rolf responded. ‘Hotels do weddings, so we can tie up with the hotel next door maybe. But some weddings here are on a Saturday, and we don’t want to hire out the building for a Saturday unless it is afternoon only.’
‘Sunday weddings mostly?’ I asked.
‘A mix,’ Rolf told me. ‘But here it is not so religious. You can get married any day of the week, and not in church.’
‘So we can offer a Monday wedding package,’ I suggested. I nodded. ‘I’ve made some progress with the film script, but what I’m doing is creating threads, so a thread would be a funny old man who’s lost and he witnesses some strange things - the other threads.
‘A thread would be the twins chasing after Jacqueline, a thread would be me trying to get the jewels, a thread would be Olesya in the bar and being surprised by things going on around her.
‘One thread will be a school party of Mongoloid kids.’
‘Mongols?’ Rolf queried.
‘Kids with learning difficulties. They get dirt on themselves a great deal, caused by our lead actress, and finally take their revenge on her. So the film is made up of many threads that intersect and come together at the end.’
‘And that lead actress?’ Rolf nudged.
‘Yet to be found,’ I told them.
‘A professional actress?’ Ingrid asked.
‘No, it can be an amateur, but someone with a great body.’
‘We have model magazines,’ Rita told me. ‘Some act as well, you can look.’
I nodded. Facing Rolf, I asked, ‘Professional film crew?’
‘Mercedes know one, with stunt men and women, I have already spoken to them.’
‘I don’t mind us having a director, we need one, but so long as I can get what I want done in the filming.’
‘This we can discuss, but he knows that you call the shots and that Mercedes will listen to you. This is not a Hollywood movie with big egos.’
‘Let’s hope not,’ I quipped. ‘Do we have a contract for the nightclub?’
‘Shares, and a letter of intent and business plan,’ Rolf explained. ‘To be witnessed and notarised. His business has been in place for more than a year.’
‘And the name?’
‘The name “Valentines” he wants to keep, which came from the road outside, Valentina Street. Also a Valentina Hotel and a Valentina Square.’
‘As far as names go it’s not terrible,’ I agreed. ‘So how do we advertise it without wasting money?’
‘Celebrity visits,’ Rita suggested. ‘Like Jacqueline. You find more.’
‘How about … a male celeb, he gets drunk and starts a fight … in the newspapers the next day.’
They laughed.
‘That would certainly be free publicity, yes,’ Rolf agreed with a disapproving look.
To Ingrid I said, ‘Let’s have him hit your brother.’
They laughed, Ingrid scowling at me. ‘So long as he is not hurt,’ she firmly stated.
At bedtime, it was somehow Olesya’s turn, yet I had seen her in London without the twins.
In the morning we sat for a few hours going through usage statements, costs and forecasts, and our company accounts, just to be sure that everything was in order and that we all understood it.
We would be spending a hundred thousand Euro for 49 shares in the nightclub operating company, and once it was a done deal Rolf would make a director’s loan into the business and buy the booze upfront – saving up to 30%.
He would also restructure the staff pay so that the staff got a little more - and that we paid a little less tax.
But the family that owned the building would not lose out, they would get their enhanced rent, but they would also get a percentage of the profits, 7.5%, so they would make more if we made some money.
When the Rasmussen family headed out I worked on my script, and I had emailed the MS Word document to Rolf, I had also brought a CD with me.
That evening we dressed up smart and headed to the club, Rolf carrying a digital camera, and once inside we choose a few strategic places to be snapped in, the images to be used for Press Releases and for some advertising in the near future.
Behaving as a manager might, I made a point of greeting people and saying hello to the pretty ladies, and there were plenty of pretty ladies, all dressed smart - and most of them were quite tall with it.
‘Idiot!’ came a loud call behind me, and I turned to find a tall lady with shoulder length brown hair in a white figure-hugging outfit, the lady now glaring at the bar staff.
Her shoulders were square and wide like the twins, her back straight like the twins, but her hips were a little wider, more of a curve, the boobs bigger and pointing outwards, not squashed up by a bra and creating some cleavage.
And she was very good looking, but not in a happy way; this was a lady to avoid upsetting. I could not say that she had a kindly face or pleasant mannerisms.
Sizing her up, a glance down at the small heels, and she was maybe an inch taller than the twins.
In German, she told the barman, ‘This bank card works today, no problem. It is your stupid machine, or your stupid eyes, or your stupid brain!’
I smiled widely, the barman turning to me for some help, even though we had not bought into the company yet. In German I began, ‘Can I help?’
She turned to me, hands on hips, and fixed me with a look. Then her eyes widened. ‘You!’
I took the bank card. ‘I often have problems with these.’ I faced the barman. ‘How much is it?’
‘Thirty-six Euro, sir.’
‘On my tab, please.’
He nodded as I handed the card back to her. ‘I am buying fifty percent of this business, and … we need our best customers happy.’
‘You buy this place?’
‘Yes. Are you … visiting Stockholm?’
‘Yes, from Frankfurt, I buy clothing lines, my mother’s business.’
‘Mother’s business? Not father?’
‘She divorced him. And women are clever, you know!’
I nodded, amused. ‘The twins are way smarter than me, they speak five languages, play piano. And what about you, what do you do besides buy clothing?’
‘I have done some modelling, but … I lost two agents. One I punched.’
I tried not smile. ‘I’m making a movie soon, and I have a part you can play.’
‘Me? Act? I don’t know how to act!’
‘You don’t need to act, just … be yourself.’
Her eyes narrowed. ‘What does that mean, be myself?’
‘It means … you keep the same attitude and tone of your voice, and then do as asked. Simple. It will not pay so much, but … everyone in Europe and America will see you.’
Her eyes widened.
‘Then you can do some modelling work for us, which pays well, and you can be in a Mercedes car advert.’
‘My god, I would love to do a Mercedes advert.’
‘Come with me. Oh, what’s your name?’
‘Claudia. Claudia Schapp.’
I led her to the family. ‘I just found our lead role for the movie. This is Claudia.’
Rita gripped Claudia’s shoulders. ‘Good shoulders, square, straight back. You were born for modelling. I’m Rita, the evil twin, this is Frieda, the almost evil twin.’
Claudia laughed. ‘Not so evil I read.’ She politely shook hands with Rolf and then Ingrid. ‘You are Olesya, the piano player…’
‘Yes. Do you play?’ Olesya asked.
‘I did, when in school, not for many years. Long fingers.’
I asked her, ‘Any tattoos?’
‘God, no.’
‘Birthmarks?’
‘No. You want to see me naked?’
‘Yes,’ I told her, meaning someplace other than here, but she shocked Rolf and Ingrid by pulling her dress up and off. Luckily, she did have knickers on.
And luckily for the men around us she had no bra on, the boobs big and firm-looking and pointing out at an angle, her stomach perfectly flat
She walked a few steps, turned and came back, the young manager staring wide-eyed at us.
‘Please, put your dress back on,’ I said with a grin.
‘Very good,’ Rita commended, Frieda nodding. ‘But big boobs for catalogue work, great for posters.’
Dress back on, people staring, I told Claudia, ‘I want you in our movie this summer, a lead role. You will play a Belgian policewoman, on the trail of Jacqueline Dupont and some stolen jewels, but you are … accident prone. Can you ride a scooter?’
‘Yes, of course.’
‘Driving license?’
‘Yes.’
‘Swim?’
‘Yes, for my school.’
‘Then the question is … do you want to do it?’
‘I wanted to model, but … the agents were idiots.’
‘We find this as well, idiot agents,’ Rita put in. ‘We do it for ourselves.’
Claudia continued, ‘If I’m with you I become famous, so then I can get modelling work.’
‘We can get you all the modelling work you will need,’ I assured her. ‘But in this movie, you don’t mind being in a bikini or topless?’
She shrugged a shoulder. ‘If my boobs make me money, good. In summer I go to the nudist beaches in France.’
‘Married? Boyfriend?’
‘I … suffer violence in relationships,’ she admitted.
‘They hit you?’ Rita asked, horrified.
‘No, I hit them. Some … police problems.’
‘You … hit them?’ Ingrid puzzled.
‘I don’t suffer idiot men!’
‘And me, as boss and director?’ I posed.
‘You are not an idiot.’
‘How old are you now?’
‘Twenty-three.’
‘You look older,’ I noted. ‘And you’re tall. That’s good for the movie, we don’t want you to look too young for a policewoman.’
‘But how will people see me, afterwards, if I try to do this character you want?’ she asked me.
‘They’ll love you, don’t worry. Can you come to the house tomorrow, a photoshoot? We’ll then send Mercedes your photos.’
‘Sure. But do I need acting lessons?’
‘Some, just to avoid looking at the camera, how to speak clearly, things like that. I’ll tell you what to do, what to say, and then the film director will control you.’
‘It is easy,’ Rita assured our new friend, and Rita bought Claudia a drink, soon chatting in German near the bar with Frieda.
‘She is … definitely suitable,’ Rolf noted.
‘You struggled to find the right word there,’ I teased. ‘She is … magnificent.’
‘She looks very sexy,’ Olesya noted.
‘I am always surprised what your eyes see and mine don’t,’ Rolf complained with a sigh.
‘That’s because you’re old and married,’ I told him with a cheeky grin.
An hour later, and a few drinks later, a local Swedish man made a play for Claudia.
She loudly asked him, ‘Would you like to put your cock in my mouth?’ She waited. Before he could reply she added, ‘Because I’m hungry, and I like Danish cow’s heart raw, so biting off your cock and eating it would be a small tasty snack!’
Thirty people had heard, and were now looking our way as I stood grinning at the man’s discomfort, Rolf stood wide-eyed as the man glanced at the people staring at him. He backed up slowly, not a word said, his friends backing up as well – all looking worried.
Behind Claudia, the twins were trying and failing to hide their grins. They eventually grabbed Claudia and led her towards me. ‘We like her,’ Rita told me.
Using the digital camera, quality set high, Rolf took snaps of myself with Claudia, no one else in shot, and he would send them to my London snapper, some gossip to stir. And I had staged the shots to be sexy.
When it was just myself and Claudia at the bar, I told her. ‘You will treat Rolf and Ingrid like they’re your favourite aunt and uncle at all times, and you treat Olesya very gently, she had a very hard childhood.
‘And there’s only one boss here directing things, and that’s me, so if you upset me you lose the chance to make a few million Euro. Are we clear?’
She studied me, and her features softened. ‘I respected you before we met, you were my idol. You know how to treat a lady, and you’re not about the lying and the bullshit. I saw the TV interviews in Germany, and you were like I imagined after the Mercedes adverts. And I saw Letterman.’
‘And women accusing me of rape?’
‘Ha, stupid sad bitches; they can’t be with you so want to hurt you. I see this before, same for men that attack me because I don’t want to be with them.’
I nodded. ‘Always make sure that you’re big sister to Olesya, never too drunk, no drugs. When you make the film you’re a professional, always on time, and you relax when we finish.’
‘This I like about you, you know what you want. When I meet men they don’t know how to treat me.’
‘You’re tall, good looking, great body, and that must be intimidating for some men. And they must worry about satisfying you in bed.’
‘And you..?’
‘And me what?’
‘You could satisfy me…’
‘Easily, but that’s not what I want you for. I see you as a great addition to our company.’
‘But the other girls in this company get massages, yes,’ she pressed.
‘There’s only three of them,’ I pointed out.
She looked like she wanted to add something else, but held off saying it.
At 10am our new star player turned up at the house, and with a bag of clothes and some make-up. I chose a dress that showed some cleavage, and she stood in front of the screen as Rolf snapped her with the 120mm camera.
I took snaps with the digital camera set to High Quality, and we would email them to Mercedes. I soon had Rolf emailing the images from last night and today to his friend the local British journalist, with a tag line: “New Mercedes advert model, to be in the upcoming movie.”
We also sent the images to Bob Turnball in the UK and Pete Granton in America, as well as Trish - to try to find some modelling work for our new sign-up.
Ingrid had a modified contract from the agency that the twins used, and it had been altered to be non-binding, so that a model could come and go. Mostly it listed expenses incurred in photoshoots and insurances paid during travel.
Claudia read it and found nothing to object about, soon signing it, a copy made for herself.
‘What about your work for your mother?’ I asked her as we sat with coffee.
‘I do it to help her sometimes, it is not what I want to do.’
‘And in college?’
‘I studied computers. Sometimes I wear glasses to use a computer.’
‘You have an apartment, or live with her?’ I asked.
‘I have a house, a big house, designed by my father. It was his gift to me. He’s rich, an architect. It is like this house. He says that when he dies I get nothing, but I know it is not true, he always helps me and sends me money.’
‘We need you to study self-defence, so that you can grab someone, move like a genuine policewoman,’ I told her.
‘I know a girl, from college, now in police. I can study with her.’
‘And learn how to fall down without hurting yourself, fall and roll, things like that. Then get a scooter and practise, we’ll get you a stunt man to teach you – you fall off the scooter a great deal.’
Plans made, our new employee headed back to her hotel to collect her luggage and to head home to Frankfurt. I followed her to the airport with the family, hugs exchanged, soon on my way back to a cold and blowy Birmingham Airport.
Bonza picked me up, talk of the documentary making, and we made plans.
After checking with my uncle, and checking all the emails and making a great many calls in the following days, I packed a bag with Bonza – now my new right hand man and bodyguard, and we joined the documentary team of Terry and Thomas, soon flying to Italy, but we would not be near Jacqueline.
Minibus hired at the airport, and Terry was adept at driving in Europe, a two-hour trip in the sunshine to a picturesque coastal village. Booked into a hotel, we walked to the restaurant where Sophie the chef worked, soon sat eating a meal – cooked by Sophie the chef.
On her break we discussed what she would say, and she would make notes overnight.
In the morning, we negotiated a million stone steps down to the beach and had a look, soon walking back up and sweating some. And cursing some.
Sophie turned up at 11am, the day bright and sunny, but I placed on my trademark suit, the same umbrella held.
‘3 … 2 … 1 … go.’
‘This … is not Barnsley, this is Positano on the Amalfi Coast in Italy, and … the weather is a bit better than Barnsley,’ I said as I lowered my umbrella.
I stepped to a café, Sophie sat down. I sat. ‘Sophie, you had few prospects back in Barnsley, and you decided to make the move. What was it that made you get on your bike?’
‘I wanted to be a chef, but a chef like on the TV not in some drab café in Barnsley, not in a hotel back in England, I wanted to work in a café with authentic food, and … I had always loved the images of Italy I saw as a kid.
‘I had a little money saved up, some money borrowed from my mum, and I came down here on the bus, took three days, slept on the bus - no showers for three days!
