Two generations ago Adam Slade arrived in Sunset Valley to start a new life and build a lasting legacy, create a Slade dynasty that would be at the heart of the town's life. His granddaughter and heir, Cleo, is discovering something of Adam's life before Sunset Valley.
In this chapter Wanda makes an impression on Sinbad and receives a job offer ...
Wanda had been on the treadmill for about twenty minutes when she noticed someone new settle onto the next machine.
He was focused on his routine which meant Wanda was able to study him without the embarrassment of being seen to stare. He must be pretty fit, it looked like he had set quite a high load on the machine, and the slight sheen of sweat emphasised his taut, smooth, musculature as he tensed and relaxed. Fit and damned sexy, Wanda liked the look of this guy!
When he finished his work-out, Wanda also brought her treadmill to a halt and called across to this handsome stranger, "Hi, good workout?"
"Umm, yeah, thanks", he smiled back at her, "just a little toning up really, like to have a quick session here everyday to keep in shape."
"Well," Wanda looked him up and down, approvingly, "seems to be working"
"Thanks, you look pretty good too, my name's Sinbad, by the way."
"Hi, Wanda. Sinbad? That's an unusual name."
"Yeah, my mam, travelled a lot and apparently I was conceived on a ship somewhere around the Arabian peninsula ..."
"Cool. Look, if you're not in a hurry anywhere, d'ya fancy an end of session drink in the bar upstairs?" Wanda suggested, "and maybe a quick game of table football?"
Table football was something Wanda had become quite skilled at; many pubs and bars in town had a table or two and it had become a reliable way for her to win a few free drinks or Simoleons.
Sinbad wasn't bad, but Wanda's practised eye and quick reflexes gave her the edge.
Despite taking an early lead in one game, Sinbad eventually lost three out of three games.
Conceding defeat Sinbad had to acknowledge his opponents skill, "You said you were good, but that was impressive."
"Sign of a misspent youth." Wanda laughed.
"Misspent youth? But surely you're not old enough to claim that yet?"
"Hah! You charmer! You were pretty good too, though I haven't seen you on the tables round town, all home schooled, eh?"
"Well," Sinbad admitted, "I do have a table at home for when friends come round. But I've only just moved to Twinbrook, so perhaps you'll have to show me around some your favourite places ..."
It didn't take much to convince Wanda that she should get to know this hot new man in town and, with any luck, he would be as generous with his wallet as he was with his compliments.
"I would love to, there's a couple of really good bars that I know, and most of the regular aren't much competition any more."
"Sure, that sounds like fun, though my schedule is pretty random right now, so I'll give you a call."
Intrigued by what he could be doing that didn’t have a regular schedule, Wanda asked Sinbad about his work.
"Well, it's a little difficult to describe in simple terms but it's a kind of 'Personal Services' business." Sinbad started to explain.
"'Personal Services'?" Wanda laughed, "is that why you have to keep so fit?"
"Hah! No, not that sort of 'Personal Service'! It's more like if someone has a problem and they can't find anyone else to deal with it, they'll come to me. Sometimes I help find people, sometimes I can help with security, sometimes courier work. A whole lot of things but it's always personalised for the client."
Now it was Wanda's turn to be impressed, "Wow, how do you do it all, you must be busy round here, like so many service companies don't bother with Twinbrook?"
"Yeah, that's why I came here, there's actually a lot going on but not much," Sinbad paused for emphasis, "in the way of 'personal services'."
"And," he continued, "we're always looking out for new recruits, people who can turn their hand to different things and," smiling, he looked Wanda up and down, "people who like to keep in shape."
-- * --
The following morning, as Adam was completing his homework for the day ahead, his mother was excitedly telling him all about this awesome new man she had met at the gym.
"Y'know he's got his own business, I bet he makes a shed-load of money from all the rich people in those big, fancy, houses. And he is so fit! He was flirting with me all night, he's going to see me again, I know he is. He might even give me a job, he said he was looking for more people ..."
Adam didn't need to say anything, Wanda was quite happy to keep the 'conversation' going on her own. He had heard these tales many times before about many different men, each of whom was going to be the one who would take them out of this shack on the swamp and into some palatial new lifestyle.
-- * --
After having acquired their dog, Sandy, Wanda took very little interest in it but had, inadvertently, made quite an astute purchase.
He was both fiercely loyal and, Adam discovered, quite easy to train. So when they both left the house; Adam to go to school and Wanda to go, well, wherever Wanda went, Adam would instruct Sandy to guard their home and look out for any saleable treasures lying around in the swamps.
From a young age Sandy had proven to have a very good nose for finding buried trinkets. Of course this meant digging a lot of holes, but around Bayou Gulch there were few pristine lawns and landscaped gardens to worry about.
Over the years Adam and Sandy and built up a diverse collection of little relics that didn't amount to much on their own but Adam was certain they would find some missing pieces that would make their collection valuable to one of the big dealers in town.
The one downside to Sandy spending so much time outside, rooting around the swamp, was that he was never really clean and getting an infestation of fleas or some other unpleasant bug was a regular occurrence.
At least once a week Adam would come home from school and have to take his dog into the bath and give him a thorough washing and dousing with anti-flea powders.
Not that either of them really minded; Adam loved looking after Sandy, having someone to care for, and Sandy loved splashing about in the bath and getting attention from his devoted owner.
Although he knew that his mother did love him, she didn't often demonstrate it. Maybe that would change when she found a man who would love her, but, for now, he had Sandy.
-- * --
Having spent the previous day at the gym, Wanda decided to visit the Community Swimming Centre to hang out and see who she might meet.
She had seen this guy before, he was nice enough looking, nothing special, but she'd never seen him at the gym or any of the flashy bars in town so he probably wasn't one of the wealthier citizens.
But, today, there weren't many other guys about, good looking or otherwise, so this was going to be his lucky day!
"Andy Plumber?", Wanda giggled, "so, are you ...?"
"No, I'm not a plumber," he sighed. He had lost count of the number of times people had thought it funny to ask. "I'm in reclamation."
"Err, is that like recycling?"
"Not exactly. We salvage building materials and contents when properties are taken down. We buy up and sell on anything still in a useable, or salvageable, condition or of architectural interest."
Still focused on the 'plumbing', Wanda pressed him, "And would that include old appliances?"
Andy sensed that Wanda's question had a purpose. "Not often, they're usually of too little value, we just ship those straight to one of the housing charities."
"Oh, I see," Wanda tried not to sound too disappointed, "but I guess you get lots of interesting old stuff anyway."
"Oh yes, we do. Amazing thing is how often people try to cover up really interesting features, like putting lino onto a classic wooden floor or painting over beautiful wooden doors or windows. Actually," Andy paused for a second, "just thinking about it, one of the guys has just cleared an old house which had most of the big appliances still installed ..."
"Really?" Wanda’s eyes lit up, "y'know I've wanted to get a new washer for ages, but they're so expensive ..."
"OK, let me check what they brought back and I'll let you know."
Wanda's luck was in, Andy's workmates had recovered a perfectly workable washer so, rather than just handing it over to one of the charities, Andy brought it over to Bayou Gulch and installed it on the back porch.
"It ain't much to look at it." Andy confessed, "But it works just fine and should keep you going for a good while."
Wanda was overjoyed, another successful day in town, now she had her own washing machine. No more washing in the bath or trekking to the downtown Laundromat.
Just as Andy had finished installing and testing the washer Wanda's phone rang.
It was Sinbad, he had some good news. "Hey, Wanda, y'know I said I was looking for people to join my crew ... well, we've just got a job come in that I reckon would be ideal for you. If you’re interested?"
"Oh yeah, for sure, what kind of job?"
"I can't really say on the phone. We promise our clients absolute discretion and, well, you never know who might be listening in on the phone. Come to our office, at 1252 Riverside, tomorrow morning and I'll explain more and you can decide if you wanna join us."
So, that following morning, Wanda made her way to Riverside and the offices of Sinbad’s company.
She was not impressed, it looked like an abandoned warehouse, many windows were broken and the wind was blowing pockets of litter around the site. But, she considered, he did say they were new in Twinbrook, they probably couldn’t afford a big luxury office yet.
As she went to enter the building she met by Sinbad on his way out.
"Oh, Wanda, excellent, great that you could make it. Look, I've gotta be somewhere, but I can give you a quick intro to the job if you're interested?"
Disappointed that she wouldn't be spending more time with Sinbad, nonetheless Wanda decided she'd hear him out, see if working to make money might be her thing.
"OK," Sinbad started to describe the job he wanted Wanda to take on.
"Some of the stuff we do is what you might call corporate competition or investigation, like where one company needs to keep a competitive advantage over another or when a business or executive isn't behaving themselves."
"Like a private investigation?" Wanda chipped in.
"Kinda, we do the fact finding but we also have an 'executive' team that can take action if the client requires it."
"OK ..." Wanda wasn't sure of how she would fit into this sort of role, "I'm no investigator or researcher, what would I be doing?"
"Well, we're not your traditional private eye outfit, we're more, shall we say, 'personal', y'know. We get to know the target, to understand what they're all about so we, and our clients, can make the best decisions about what to do."
"And," he continued, "I noticed how good you were at meeting new people and putting them at ease. Those are exactly the skills we need for these types of job."
Wanda didn't need to think for long about Sinbad’s offer. If it meant getting to meet wealthy business men, she reckoned she could probably make a little extra on the side, in addition to whatever Sinbad would pay her.
"Yeah, I could do that. So what's the job and what's the pay."
Sinbad smiled broadly, "That's my girl, eye on the bottom line! To start you'll get a basic 'retainer' of 75 a day which means you'll be available for work whenever needed plus you'll get a cut of the final client payout."
That wasn't bad as a regular income as far as Wanda was concerned. "OK, that sounds good, what's the job?"
"Excellent. Now, there's an old family business in town that looks to be going where it shouldn't. The CEO has been making deals that would seriously compromise our client and we need to find out how he's been doing it and put a stop to it. What we need you to do is just get close to him, get to know him and learn something about his business dealings."
"But I don't know anything about business?" Wanda asked.
Sinbad tried to reassure her. "Don't worry about that, you just need to get friendly with him and, the man he is, he'll start telling stories of his big successes anyway."
He took an envelope out of the small bag he was carrying, "Look, I really gotta go, but there's a photo of the guy here and all his details; address, schedule and everything you should need. You should 'arrange' to meet him in the next couple of days and I'll give you another call to see how you're doing. I know you'll do great, just have fun with him."
With that Sinbad hurried off and Wanda opened the envelope to extract the photo, a black and white 'pap' style shot of a handsome and well dressed man leaving one of the uptown office blocks ...
Chapter 26: Meeting Walter
