Chasing a Story

"This is fucking bullshit! Wait here while I access my bank records and have the money transferred to wherever you want it placed." He read the papers closely, especially where it told him where he needed to lodge the funds, and stormed ashore, heading for his hotel. He caught sight of Naomi. "You fucking bitch, I suppose that you're behind this!" He screamed at her.

"No, the responsibility is entirely yours, if you'd paid your debts on time this would never have happened.

His mood got even worse when he arrived back at his hotel to be met by the Manager. "Mister Fairchild, I'm afraid that you have been removed from your room. When we processed your credit card it was dishonoured. We have been told to take it from you and destroy it."

"Just wait until I contact my bank, all of this can be sorted out in minutes." He stormed over to where his luggage had been stacked waiting for his return and grabbed his laptop. Finding a vacant table he fired it up and accessed his Caymans bank account. His mood nosedived even further. "What the fuck is this?" He stared at his account balance that now consisted entirely of zeroes. He took out his phone and dialled his father's number. "Sir, I have just accessed my bank accounts to find that I have been wiped out, I need money in a hurry, can you wire me a hundred thousand dollars immediately? What do you mean no?"

The voice on the other end was loud enough for those at the next table to hear. "Because you arsehole, I have no money, you've wiped me out, I do not have one dollar to my name, and whose fault is that?"

His crew walked into the hotel, each of them with angry scowls on their faces. "We have nowhere to stay, apparently your credit card has been dishonoured and the hotel has kicked us out. They told us that they had a waiting list a mile long of people looking for accommodation for the regatta. When we went to our banks, hoping to raise enough to pay for our rooms ourselves, we found that the money that was supposed to go into our accounts, money that you promised us, has not gone in because your bank has not paid it in. We have no money and nowhere to live, so what do we do now? Oh, and by the way, our return airline tickets have also been cancelled."

"Just let me think for a minute will you? There was plenty of money in my account yesterday, more than enough to cover all the expenses of this trip and any contingency that the weather might throw up, but today it's all gone, every fucking dollar of it. Someone has tapped into my account and removed the money, but who could have done this?"

It was time for my grand entrance. "Hi guys, is there a problem?"

"You, what are you doing here?"

"I came over for the yacht races, I'm not just a motoring writer, I cover other rich bastard's past-times."

"Did you have anything to do with my money being taken from my account?"

"What money? Oh, you mean the money that you've been stealing from friends and family over the years? Nah, I didn't touch it, but I did encourage others to act to retrieve it. The guy that you borrowed money from using your collection of Bentleys is, as we speak, negotiating their sale to recover the loan money that you've defaulted on. Your father is unhappy because he's just been told that he has to vacate the family mansion that your ancestor built all those years ago. Your sister's not happy either, she's looking at having to go to work to survive because you have no way of paying back the money that you've borrowed from her, money that she inherited from your grandfather's estate, and that was enough to allow her to live quite comfortably for the rest of her life. But more importantly this is about revenge, my revenge for the loss of the woman that I was going to marry the week after you had her killed. Does the name Elena Martin mean anything to you?"

The colour drained from his face as the realisation took hold. "Should it?" He was trying to brazen it out. The others in the room were curious, a new name had been thrown into the ring.

"She was an Australian investigative journalist who was doing a piece on you and your quest for money, not a very flattering piece as it turned out. You obtained a copy of that before it went to air and had her murdered in such a way as to suggest that she was using her sexuality to gain information from one of your staff. I have proof of your involvement in her death. You might not have actually killed her, but you were directly responsible for her death and will be charged with two counts of murder. The suggestion that she used sex to gain information from your staff member is also untrue and I have proof of that, she had never met the man. You also took out an injunction against the network stopping the broadcast of that programme. That injunction has been overturned on the basis that the network was able to prove conclusively that all of the information contained in the report was the truth. You cannot sue for libel if the information is the truth, so the murder was for nothing, the programme is scheduled to air in Australia tomorrow and has been syndicated world-wide and will air in the US next week."

"How much do you want? I can give you millions."

"You do not have millions to give. This is your problem, you have spent your life chasing money. But your problem is that your judgement has been driven by greed, not need. If you'd been satisfied with having your needs met this would never have happened. You have been brought up believing that you are invincible financially, but things haven't been going well for you since the GFC, easy money is harder to come by. Where once the banks and insurance companies were throwing money at you and people like you, there's now very little money to throw around. The quick buck now takes longer and you don't have the patience to wait, you have to have it now, and because of this slow-down in your finance stream you decided to syphon off as much money as you could get into an offshore account so that you'll have enough to ride out the storm in luxury. But even that wasn't enough, you borrowed money against your cars in the hope that things would pick up and you could redeem them, but that hasn't happened, so you're about to sell your yacht. You were hoping for a good showing in this regatta to push up the price rather than take what you could get as it was. Even that backfired on you because you now have repairs to carry out and no money to do them, so you'll have to sell at a loss. I'll bet that you haven't paid the boatyard that carried out the recent refurbishments. So you see mate, you're up shit creek without a paddle, and no-one that you can turn to, not even your father."

"You bastard!" He launched himself across the room at me. He didn't make it, one of his crew grabbed him and wrestled him to the ground. The hotel receptionist led a police Constable into the room and pointed to AMF4. "That's the man Constable, he just tried to attack this gentleman." He pointed to me.

"Come with me sir." The Constable took his arm and went to lead him from the room. AMF4 tried to break free but to no avail. "Come quietly sir, or there may be further charges laid such as resisting arrest."

He caught sight of Naomi as she walked into the room. "Have I missed anything?"

"You fucking bitch, what are you doing here?"

"Just making certain that you get what's coming to you." She walked over to me and kissed me. "How did it go Darling?"

He struggled against the strong hands of the law. "I'll get you, you fucking bitch! I'll get the both of you! You can't do this to me!" It was then that the realisation set in, we had done it to him. "You can't do this to me, I'm your brother." He sobbed.

"What happens now?" The yacht's skipper asked. We've got nowhere to stay, no way of getting home, and no money."

"That's all been taken care of, your hotel bill has been paid, you can go back, the yacht is being repaired as we speak and will be ready to race tomorrow, if you're interested that is. And when this is over you will be paid and your airfares have already been settled. What do you say, can we go out and win this race?"

"We can give it a bloody good shake. Sorry for the language."

"Don't be, I didn't hear any fucking swearing." She smiled at him. "You might have a couple of new crew members if you need us."

"Welcome aboard Ma'am, Sir." He shook both of our hands. "Be on the dock at seven in the morning, and you'd better get some sleep, it's going to be a busy day."

"I don't know what you mean." Naomi said as she hugged me and kissed me.

We both slept well, eventually. It wasn't so much that we had made mad passionate love non-stop for hours, it was only about half an hour, it was more that our minds were racing about the events of the day, and what would happen when we returned to New York.

Naomi had spoken to her mother. Her father was taking the news badly and had locked himself in his study, refusing to admit anyone, including staff with his meals. "Everything is under control." Naomi told her. "Andy is in gaol here and, with no-one to post bail, he'll stay here until he appears before a Magistrate. He has called the Embassy to try and arrange to get home when he's released, but we don't know the outcome of that yet. Ben and I are going sailing tomorrow in 'Fair Winds' out to somewhere called Fastnet and back, it happens every two years and is something of a 'must do' for serious yachties."

She paused for the expected question from her mother. "Ben is the man who had come out to interview Andy last Saturday, he and I are, sort of together. You'll love him Mother, he's so much not like my odious brother."

Another pause. "We'll see you in a few days. We have some things to tie up here and we'll be busy in town for a couple of days so it will probably be a week before we can get out to be with you. 'Bye Mother." She finished the call.

We both learned a lot about sailing over the next few days, firstly it's hard work, it can be cold and wet, and depending on the seas, can be as rough as guts. But I have to admit that it was fun. We were in a large fleet of yachts and finished somewhere in the middle of the pack, which, according to Rod, our skipper, was acceptable given the rush to get her ready for the start and the super-maxi status of most of the yachts that finished ahead of us.

"So what was supposed to happen now?" I asked him.

"The plan was to put her on the market and sell her so that we didn't have to ship her back home. I guess that it's up to you two to decide what we should do with her."

"What do you think?" I asked Naomi.

"I don't want to sell her, I had so much fun, but then finding the time to sail her is a problem, it cost money just to have her sitting somewhere doing nothing. I don't think that we have a lot of choice."

"I have one suggestion."

"And that is?"

"We ship her to Australia and have her surveyed for charter work. In the southern winter we can base her in Queensland as a crewed or bare-boat charter out on the Barrier Reef, while in the southern summer we can offer coastal and harbour charters in and around Sydney. It will mean us living in Australia."

"Are you saying that you want me to move to Sydney?"

"If you want to live with me, yes that's exactly what I'm saying."

"I will do it on one condition."

"And that is?"

"That we're married, and if you want that you'll have to ask me." There was a twinkle in her eyes.

"Let me think this through, will you marry me?" She didn't say anything in answer to my question, she launched herself at me and just about knocked me off my feet with the force of her enthusiastic answer.

"We have a lot to do before any of this happens."

"Who cares? I just want to get the marriage out of the way."

"Don't you want your mother to be there? I want my parents to be in attendance."

"Oh alright, I'll let you delay proceedings until we can gather the clans together. Where are we going to have it?"

"I thought at your place. I will draw the line at inviting your brother."

"What about Father?"

"We'll see what happens when we get back to New York."

I broke the news to Mum, who answered in her usual 'call a spade a shovel' manner. "This is all a bit sudden isn't it? You haven't got the unfortunate girl pregnant have you?"

"No Mum, she's not pregnant, and yes it is sudden. But when you meet her you'll understand."

"Is she there with you now?"

"Yes."

"Put her on." It was an order that I could not disobey.

"Hello Mrs Walsh."

"Of course my son forgot to tell me your name."

"Naomi, Naomi Fairchild."

"No relation to the Fairchild that Ben has been obsessing about ever since Elena was murdered?"

"Unfortunately yes, he's my brother, but apart from our name and parentage there is nothing in common between us, as Ben has found out. It should be on the news services by now, but my brother has been arrested and charged with a whole range of offenses and that is just the start of it. We are finishing up our work in retrieving the money that he has stolen from a lot of people and liquidating his assets to pay off what he owes. When we've finished we want you and Ben's father to fly to New York for the wedding, we'll organise it for you. As soon as we can organise it we'll contact you and get you over there."

"You sound like a very sensible young woman Naomi, just what my son needs. You do what you have to do and we'll be ready to jump on the first plane. Now can I speak with Ben?"

Naomi handed me the phone. "She sounds like a nice girl, now you do the right thing by her or you'll have me to answer to."

"Yes Mum." I sounded just like a school kid in trouble with the headmaster of his school.

It turned out to be a hectic couple of weeks. We arrived back in town to be greeted by devastating news. The loss of face was too much for Naomi's father, and he had taken his own life. Her mother was calm about the whole episode and I got the impression that she had seen it coming for some time. We paid out the mortgage and the title to the property was placed in her name. We redeemed the Bentleys before the intended fire sale saw them sold for a fraction of their worth. I began to arrange for them to be spread around several classic car auctions around the world, concentrating on the UK where they would fetch the highest price. It would take some months for them to be sold.

'Fair Winds' was on her way to Sydney and we were looking forward to sailing her again. A honeymoon trip from Sydney up to the Hawkesbury and sailing around Pittwater, Cowan Creek, and providing we can squeeze her under the Hawkesbury River bridges, to Berowra Waters and up to Wisemans Ferry. If not we'd just moor her somewhere and find something else to occupy our time.

It took all of two weeks before I made the call to Mum and Dad to come over. Naomi and I met them at international arrivals at the airport. They smiled their way across the concourse towards us. "So this is Naomi." Mum said as she hugged her.

"I'm impressed." Dad said to me as he waited his turn to be greeted by her.

"I don't see why you should be, he's handsome enough to attract even the most discerning female. I've seen Elena on a DVD he has and she was gorgeous, better looking than me."

"Don't put yourself down my dear." Dad hurried to say. "You are every bit as good looking as she was."

Mum took charge when we arrived at our car. "George, you can ride up front with Ben, I want to get to know Naomi, we have a lot of girl talk to get through." She commandeered the back seat and dragged Naomi in with her. "Now my dear, tell me how you two met and how it was that you fell for him."

"I met him when he came out to the house to interview my brother. . . "

"You mean the one that's in the shit up to his neck."

"Mum, a little decorum please, this is your future daughter-in-law you're speaking to."

"She'll just have to learn that I can be quite blunt at times. If she can't handle that, then you've got problems."

"Yeah, the one that's in shit up to his miserable fucking neck. Is that blunt enough for you?"

"You and I are going to get on fine." For the rest of the journey there was a lot of mumbling and laughing coming from the back seat while I concentrated on driving and Dad sat in the passenger's seat with his usual long-suffering expression.

I turned off the road into the driveway of Naomi's family mansion. "My, this must take some looking after." Mum commented.

"Yes, there's an army of gardeners at work all the time."

"It's lucky that you've plenty of money then." I got the impression that Mum already knew about the financial problems the family has faced of late, she was watching for Naomi's reaction.

"We came very close to having nothing. If it wasn't for my Darling future husband, I would have been on the streets and sleeping in subways or something. He rescued Mother and I from abject poverty. But that's not the only reason that I'm in love with him and can't wait for the wedding."

"You don't mean to tell me that you've been waiting for the wedding."

"Mum."

"No we haven't, I had to check him out in that department, and I have to say that I am very satisfied."

"Here we are." I stopped outside the main entrance.

"And not before time." Dad commented. "She does go on, doesn't she?"

A couple of household staff came out and were instructed to take the baggage up to the guest bedroom. Naomi's mother came out the door. "Mother, this is Ben's mother and father, George and Elizabeth Walsh. And this is my mother Margaret Fairchild."

"G'day, Maggie, pleased to meet you." Mum hugged her.

"Pleased to meet you too Elizabeth."

"You can call me Liz."

Dad shook Margaret's hand. "I'm afraid you can't shorten George. It's good to meet you Margaret."

"I think you can call me Maggie as well." This was all new stuff for her, this lack of formality, but that was Mum and Dad and their philosophy on life, they were George and Liz to everyone regardless of status or wealth.

We quickly brought them up to speed on what was going on in the Fairchild household, from AMF4's incarceration to AMF3's suicide and the financial dramas that both had precipitated. The State Department had applied for AMF4's extradition from the UK to stand trial on a range of charges from fraud to first degree murder. The murder charge was plea bargained down to an accessory before the fact charge on the basis that he confessed and gave up the perp, as they say. This betrayal would ensure that any sentence that he served would be hard time. I smiled every time I thought of him bending down to pick up the soap.

The wedding plans were fast approaching fruition and this caused some dramas at Naomi's bachelorette party. One of her bridesmaids commented on how uncouth my mother was and Naomi leapt to her defence. "How can you support that woman, she has no class?"

"That woman is about to become my mother-in-law, and as for her lack of class, I'd rather spend time with her than all of you stuck up bitches, she is the genuine article, there is no pretence, no snobbery, in fact the lot of you can get the fuck out of here. I don't want you at my wedding."

"You're drunk Naomi. Just calm down and think about what you have just said. You have more class in your little finger that that woman has in her whole body. How can you defend her, she's so . . . . common."

"Just because she doesn't put on airs and graces doesn't mean she has no class, she can be as snooty as you or anyone else if she wants, she doesn't want to, and do you know why? It's because she considers everyone from, how did she put it, the garbo (garbage collector) to the Prime Minister, deserves to be treated alike, and I have come to see that she could be right. If you want to be respected, you must respect others. If you can't handle that, then good-bye. And if you think that I'm saying that because I feel sorry for her because she's poor, at this point in time she has more money than my family, and probably yours, she just doesn't flaunt it."