and using the pool, and she and the children became friends in jig time. Debbie would pick up the kids from school and take them home and then stay on to lunch with Julie. Julie must have liked her because she put off her trip to Florida until Billy came back.
As for me, I was damned busy. I rousted Jamieson, the chief accountant, who fairly set the computer smoking as we figured the net worth of the company as at the end of that month. I wanted to have all my ammunition ready and dry for Billy when he came back because I had the notion he would be ready to talk turkey.
One evening after Julie had put the girls to bed I told her about Billy’s proposition and asked what she thought of it. She was ambivalent. She saw the possibilities for expansion, but on the other hand she said, ‘I don’t know if it would be good for you – you’re too independently minded.’
I knew what she meant. ‘I know I like to run my own show and that’s my problem – how to extract forty million bucks from the Cunninghams without losing control. I have a few ideas about that and I might be able to swing it.’
She laughed at me. ‘I always knew I married a genius. All right, if you can do that then it won’t be a bad thing.’
I had to consult my sisters, Peggy and Grace. Both had stock in the West End Securities Corporation, enough for them to have a say in any decision as big as this. Peggy lived on Abaco with her son and daughter and her husband, Bob Fisher, who ran the Abaco Sands Hotel for the corporation. Grace had married an American called Peters and lived in Orlando, Florida, with their three sons. It seemed that the tendency of the Mangans to produce girls was confined to the males. It meant some flying around because this was not something that could be settled on the telephone, but I had written agreements by the time Billy came back.
He returned to Grand Bahama after eight days, having gone through the Bahamas like a whirlwind. He was armed with so many facts, figures and statistics that I wondered how he had assembled them all in the time, but that was like Billy – he was a quick student.
‘You were right,’ he said. ‘The Bahamas have potential, more than I thought. You didn’t tell me about the Hotels Encouragement Act.’
I laughed. ‘I left you to find out yourself. I knew you would.’
‘My God, it’s like stumbling across a gold mine.’ He ticked the points off on his fingers. ‘No customs duty on anything imported to build or equip a hotel; no property taxes for the first ten years; no company taxes for the first twenty years. And that applies to hotels, marinas, golf courses, landscaping – anything you can damn near think of. It’s incredible.’
‘It’s why we’re going to have two million tourists next year.’
He grunted. ‘I’ve been thinking about that. I was talking to that tourism guy, Butler. He told me that eighty per cent of your economy and two-thirds of your population are supported by tourism. That’s a hell of a lot of eggs in one basket, Tom.’ His voice was serious. ‘What if something happens like war breaking out?’
Something told me I had better come up with the right answer. I said lightly, ‘If World War III breaks out everybody’s eggs get broken.’
‘I guess you’re right at that.’
‘Are you ready to talk business yet?’
‘No. I’ll be speaking to Billy One and Jack today. I’ll let you know the decision tomorrow.’
I grinned. ‘I promise I won’t bug the switchboard. I won’t be coming in to the office tomorrow. Julie is leaving for Miami and I like to see them off. Why don’t you come to the house and bring Debbie along?’
‘I’ll do that.’
So Billy and Debbie arrived at the house next morning at about ten o’clock. Debbie joined the girls in the pool and I winked at Julie and took Billy into my study. He said, ‘I think we’re in business.’
‘You may think so, but I’m not so sure. I don’t want to lose control.’
He stared at me. ‘Oh, come on, Tom! Forty million bucks swings a lot of clout. You don’t want us busting in as competitors, do you?’
‘I’m not afraid of competition. I have plenty of that, anyway.’
‘Well, you can’t expect us to put up all that dough and not have control. That’s ridiculous. Are you joking or something?’
‘I’m not joking,’ I said. ‘I’m perfectly serious. But I’d like to point out that there are different kinds of control.’
Billy looked at me speculatively. ‘Okay, I’ll buy it. What’s on your mind?’
‘I take it you’d be setting up a corporation here.’
‘That’s right, we would. I’ve been talking to some of your corporate lawyers over in Nassau and they’ve come up with some great ideas, even though they’d be illegal back in the States. This sure is a free-wheeling place.’
‘Rest easy,’ I said. ‘As an offshore tax haven we’re positively respectable, not like some others I could mention. What would you call your corporation?’
‘How would I know? Something innocuous, I guess. Let’s call it the Theta Corporation.’
I said, ‘I run three hotels with a fourth building for a total of 650 rooms. That’s a lot of bed linen, a lot of crockery and cutlery, a lot of kitchenware and ashtrays and anything else you care to name. Now, if the Theta Corporation is going to build and equip hotels it would be better to consolidate and keep the economy of scale. You get bed sheets a damn sight cheaper if you order by the 5000 pair rather than the 500 pair, and that applies right down the line.’
‘Sure, I know that.’ Billy flapped his hand impatiently. ‘Come to the point.’
‘What I’m suggesting is that the Theta Corporation take over West End Securities in return for stock.’
‘Ha!’ he said. ‘Now you’re saying something. How much stock?’
‘One-fifth.’
‘We put in $40 million, you put in West End and take a fifth of the stock. That makes it a $50 million corporation, so you estimate West End as being worth $10 million. Is it? What’s the book value?’
I said, ‘Jamieson and I have been working it out. I put it at $8 million.’
‘So you put in $8 million and take stock worth $10 million. What kind of a deal is that? What do we get for the other two million bucks?’
‘Me,’ I said evenly.
Billy burst out laughing. ‘Come on, Tom! Do you really think you’re worth that?’
‘You’re forgetting quite a few things,’ I said. ‘If you come in here on your own you come in cold. I know you’ve picked up your facts and statistics and so on, but you don’t know the score – you don’t know the way things get done here. But if you come in with me you begin with a firm base ready for expansion, eager for expansion. And you don’t only get me, but you get my staff, all loyal to me personally. And don’t forget the Bahamas for the Bahamians bit. Call it goodwill, call it know-how, call it what you like, but I reckon it’s worth two million.’
Billy was silent for a long time, thinking hard. ‘Maybe you’re right,’ he said at last.
I gave him another jolt. ‘And I get to be President of the Theta Corporation,’ I said calmly.
He nearly choked. ‘Jesus, you don’t want much! Why don’t you just pick my pocket of forty million bucks and have done with it?’
‘I told you. I don’t want to lose control. Look, Billy; you’ll be Chairman and I’ll be President – the Cunninghams retain financial control but I have operational control. That’s the only way it can work. And I want a five-year contract of service; not a cast iron contract – that fractures too easily – an armour plate contract.’
Billy