The phone rang and Ludo looked relieved to be interrupted. ‘Maybe don’t worry about everyone else. Just focus on what you’re doing,’ he said. What did that mean? Was he telling her to butt out? Or worse still that he had her lumped in the same dishonest pot as Amir?
‘I am fo—’
‘Sorry, I need to take this,’ said Ludo, picking up the phone.
It was clear Blythe still had a lot to sort out.
*
Ludo had valued a particular property as senior valuer but it was on Blythe’s books, so she needed to go out and meet the vendors and get them to sign the paperwork so that Happy Homes could deal with the sale. She liked this part because she was basically nosy and loved to look around other people’s homes. From a professional perspective she was also looking for unique selling points and aspects of the property she would want to highlight to any prospective buyers. From the outside it was a fairly standard Nineteen-Seventies build – solid and conventional but in need of a little TLC – a trimmed hedge and newly painted front door were easy fixes to increase the kerb appeal of a property. She’d had a few clients who wouldn’t even step inside a house because they hated how it looked from the outside.
Blythe rang the doorbell, which triggered loud barking from inside. Eventually the door opened to reveal a man in his sixties who appeared to have just got out of bed. He scowled at Blythe whilst the giant black dog barked ferociously, revealing a vast number of large teeth.
‘Good morning, Mr Smith, I’m Blythe from Happy Homes estate agents.’ Usually at this stage any scowl disappeared but not today. He just stared at her. ‘He’s a good guard dog,’ she said, trying to engage with the man.
‘Bitch.’ Blythe was astonished. ‘Honey is a bitch,’ clarified Mr Smith.
‘Oh, my apologies, Honey. Isn’t she a sweetie?’ she said, raising her voice above the dog’s snarls. ‘I’ve got the paperwork for you to sign.’ Still no response. ‘If I could come in?’
‘Post it,’ he snapped, and went to shut the door.
‘I’d rather not.’ She was almost shouting. ‘I’ve come all the way from town and I think my boss explained that we need to take a few photographs. Listings with internal pictures do sell much quicker. It’ll only take a few minutes.’ She hoped her pleading smile would do the trick.
Mr Smith shook his head and let go of the door. Thankfully he didn’t let go of the dog but towed Honey away by her collar, leaving Blythe to shut the door. Once she was inside the smell was very obvious. Difficult to identify at first – she put it down to a combination of unwashed dog with a hint of mould. The hallway was fairly standard but the midpoint floral border indicated it hadn’t been redecorated since the Nineties. She followed him into the kitchen but only got a brief glimpse as he let go of the dog, making her step quickly out of the way. He shook his head at her. ‘This way.’
The living room was like walking into a cave. She had to blink to get her eyes to adjust to the lack of light. ‘Shall I draw the curtains?’ she offered.
‘If you like.’
Blythe made her way in the general direction of the window, banged her shin on an unseen coffee table but contained her yelp. She flung the curtains open, creating a cloud of dust – goodness only knew how long they had been untouched. Light flooded in, highlighting the swirling dust particles. She stifled a cough as she breathed some in. The windowsill revealed a collection of small dusty horse ornaments, a vase of dead flowers encased in dried-out green slime and a selection of lifeless flies.
She turned around; the rest of the room wasn’t quite as untouched as the windowsill but it wasn’t a pretty sight. Although it was a good size, it was cluttered and her eyes were drawn to a particularly large ominous stain in the middle of the beige carpet. Was that gravy or blood? Oh well, it could be covered up with a nice rug.
‘Right,’ she said, as brightly as she could manage. ‘I can offer you a few tips that will help your house to be seen in its very best light and secure an early sale.’ She glanced around trying to find somewhere to sit. Apart from the small spot on the sofa Mr Smith was occupying every other seat was taken by boxes, papers and in the case of one of the chairs a glass case containing a taxidermy fox. She decided to perch on the arm of the chair next to the fox.
Mr Smith was watching her. ‘I don’t want to sell,’ he said, bluntly.
‘We do get rather attached to places, don’t we? I don’t think I’ve got the details of the sort of property you’re looking to move to. I can do that now as well so we can find you the perfect new home.’
‘I don’t want to move.’
‘Err.’ Even Blythe wasn’t sure how to counter that. ‘Have you changed your mind about selling?’
‘I never wanted to sell. It’s the wife.’
‘Ahh, I see. And is Mrs Smith here?’
‘Huh!’ he said vehemently, almost making Blythe topple off her chair arm. ‘She left me four years ago.’
A lot of things were starting to make sense. Acrimonious divorces were always tricky ones to deal with. The resident spouse could make it very difficult to sell the property and she had a feeling Mr Smith was going to be one of those clients. But then divorce and moving house were two of the most stressful things you could do in life and Blythe saw it as her job to make the process as stress-free for him as possible.
‘I know this all feels a bit daunting right now but Happy Homes will be there every step, and whilst I’m sure you have many special memories of this house, we want to get the best possible price for you so that you can start afresh and find the perfect home to make new memories in.’
‘There are no special memories here,’ he said, and his eyes drifted to the worrying stain on the carpet. She would be earning every penny of the commission on this one.
*
Blythe had put Mr Smith to the back of her mind and had been mulling over Vicky’s suggestion of how to tackle Sam. Not the one about recreating theMuppet Christmas Carolbut the idea that she should try to get to the bottom of Sam’s hatred for all things festive. She knew that confronting it head on would likely not have him opening up to her. She was, after all, not his most favourite person. She needed to be subtle, to coax it out of him almost without him knowing, and she had a plan to do it.
