Antonio Santamaria

“It was good of you to come in so promptly, Mr Ashton.”

“I had to be in the city today, so I thought I should fit you in, and besides, it’s not every day that I get a summons from my accountant.”

“Not exactly a summons, Mr Ashton, surely?”

“Better call me David. After all, I feel like I put your kids through private school, and summer camp, and that school trip to Austria for the skiing.”

“You’re referring to our fee structure — I’ve heard all the jokes. We are the best at what we do, and that’s why you employ us. We save you way more in tax than we charge you.”

“I know you do. I’m just feeling good today, and I thought I would take it out on you.”

Mr Ashton’s accountant seemed to relax slightly. He sat back in his chair and dropped his shoulders. He was wearing his suit jacket which David Ashton took as a sign of foreboding. Nithiyan Nathan, on the other hand, saw the wearing of the suit jacket in the presence of a client as a sign of respect.

These two men were from different worlds and only crashed into each other around tax time. Nithiyan saw things in black and white — numbers never lied to him. David saw the world as an opportunity full of risk and reward.

“So, what’s the problem? Did I allow too big a deduction for my mistress?”

Nithiyan Nathan looked perplexed, an emotion he did not enjoy.

“Relax Nithiyan. I can call you, Nithiyan?”

“Yes, of course. You were being light-hearted? I get it.”

He didn’t get. Light-hearted was for less serious people.

“I don’t have a mistress. Not that I couldn’t afford one, mind you.”

Wealth, and people knowing you are wealthy, was essential to David Ashton.

“I do your books, Mr Ashton ..”

“David.”

“Yes, of course, David. I do your books, so naturally, I know you could afford a mistress.”

In his head, Nithiyan was calculating the cost of keeping a moderately priced mistress.

“So, if it isn’t my non-existent mistress, then what is it?”

“Your night watchman. You pay him approximately,” Nithiyan hated being approximate, “$183.47 per hour — based on an eight-hour shift, five days a week.”

“He works seven nights a week, and I fly him and his family to Sicily once a year for a three-week vacation. He has family there. It costs me a fortune for those three weeks because I have to employ a team of security guards to cover for him.”

“I was going to ask you about the security guards,” said a confused and intrigued Mr Nathan.

“So, now you know. Is there anything else?”

Nithiyan Nathan sat forward in his seat, putting his hands palms down on the glass-topped surface. He wanted to raise his voice, but that would be as bad as unbuttoning his coat.

“$183.47 per hour. A night watchman would be lucky to earn $18 an hour even if you factored in superannuation and a meal allowance. Is this man blackmailing you? Is he a member of the Mafia? Is he a ghost employee? These are all questions the Australian Tax Office are likely to ask, so I’m asking you before they do.”

“Do you watch a lot of TV cop shows, Mr Nathan?”

It was true that Nithiyan Nathan watched a lot of TV cop shows. It was his release from the world of numbers and clients who were determined to hide their real income.

“That isn’t the point,” said Mr Nathan.

“Okay, you’ve been a good sport, I’ll tell you why I pay him so much, but I warn you, you are going to find my reason difficult to believe at first. But I know you are a man of logic and once I explain the numbers, you will believe me even though you won’t want to.”

“Is this explanation going to take very long, I have another appointment at three o’clock, and I am charging you $500 per hour.”

“It will be worth the cost just to see your reaction. Do you remember the war, it was in all the papers?”

“Yes, I remember,” said Mr Nathan.

“Well, I spent some time playing poker with a bunch of American soldiers during the occupation. There wasn’t much else to do. They were well paid and inferior card players. My wife started to worry about where all the money I was sending home was coming from.”

“I never play cards, but I can see it would be a good way to stave off boredom.”

“We were all prone to telling ‘tall stories’, but there was one story that kept cropping up whenever Americans spoke about their time in Sicily.”

“Where your night watchman’s family comes from?”

“Exactly. The stories talked about certain houses in villages that had been destroyed by American shelling. Certain houses were untouched.”

“Probably pure luck. Just like the scenes you see after a bushfire sweeps through a country town and one house is still standing amongst all the devastation.”

“That’s exactly what I said, but they argued that it happened too often, and on each occurrence, the inhabitants were from an ethnic group known as Daemons. Sicily isn’t far from Greece where the stories about Daemons originate — I looked it up.”

“You are telling me that your night watchman is a demon?” said Mr Nathan, who’s eyes were wider than usual.

“I didn’t say demon, I said ‘day -mon’. Having a demon for a night watchman might be counterproductive. Think of all the slime and debris.” David Ashton smiled at his own witticism.

“It seems that Daemons can protect an area of land from all harm. If they have a strong connection to an area, nothing bad can befall it. In each of the primitive houses in the bombed-out areas that survived, there was a family that could trace their heritage back to this ancient tribe. They are said to exist somewhere between humans and the gods.”

“It was my experience that American soldiers were quite naive and not to be taken seriously. ‘All mouth, no trousers’ our sergeant used to say,” said Mr Nathan.

“My thoughts exactly, ‘all hat no cattle’, as my dad used to say, but there’s another saying about there being fire where there’s smoke. I had nothing else to do, so I did a bit of digging. The more I dug, the more interesting it got.

After the occupation, I went home and was glad of it. Australia was into its most significant immigration phase, and there were lots of men and families from Italy among them. I’d forgotten about the stories because I did my best to put my war experiences behind me.”

Nithiyan Nathan looked at his watch.

“I’m nearly there,” said Mr Ashton.

“It’s your money, go on.”

“I did quite well after I got back. Built up a large manufacturing concern, as you know. Making stuff means having somewhere to store materials and product and the best place for all that is industrial zoned land. Unfortunately, those areas are often run-down, and they attract the wrong sort of people. People with bolt cutters and old beaten up vans. They like to break in and carry off whatever they can carry.”

“You have insurance?”

“Yes I do, but it’s the inconvenience and the annoyance and the fact that I don’t like to lose,” said Mr Ashton, who realised that he was raising his voice. He took a moment to gather himself.

“As sometimes happens, I woke up one morning and remembered the stories from my time in the occupation. I know it sounds crazy, but I put an advertisement in the positions vacant column of The Age – Daemon wanted. Security work. No questions asked.”

“What happened?”

“As you would expect, I got a bunch of crank calls. They all made the same assumption you did. Billy Demon here, just got out of Hades, and I’m looking for work, followed by inane laughter. But in amongst the nut bags, there was Antonio Santamaria. I interviewed him personally, which annoyed our Human Resources manager. Antonio had been out of work for some time. His English was rudimentary, and it was holding him back. I was worried that he was too desperate and would not answer my questions truthfully.

I asked him about his ancestry, and he was guarded in his response. I asked him if the rumours were true and he just shrugged.

It occurred to me that even if it was true, his protection may only extend to where he lives, his family home. Maybe it didn’t cover his place of work. I asked him, and he shrugged again.

I explained to him that we’d had three night watchmen hospitalised in the past year and that we were not allowed to issue him with a firearm so he would be taking his life in his hands if he took the job.”

“What did he say?”

“He shrugged.”

“Did it work? Did he protect your warehouse?”

“I offered him double the hourly rate, and I could tell that he was going to take the job. We never had a break-in after that. I have video of deadbeats trying to cut the chains on the front gate and giving up. I have video of other deadbeats cutting through the wire fence at the back of the warehouses only to get tangled up in the wire until the police came and collected them. One bloke, who was found wandering around the streets with burglar tools, told the police he forgot where he was supposed to break in to. I could go on, but I think you get the idea.”

“So you think that Antonio developed an affinity for your land because he needed the money?”

“Buggered if I know, but I do know that businesses in our area rent space, at a premium rate, to store their goods with us. They think we have some space-age security system that is way ahead of theirs. I’ve even had security companies come sneaking around trying to figure out our system.

I keep up appearances with lights and cameras and all that stuff, but in the end, it’s Antonio.

I’ll admit that I get a few strange looks when I tell people that we have a night watchman. Most properties have roving armed guards with dogs and fancy uniforms.”

“You do understand that there is no way I’m going to tell this story to the Tax Office if they come calling, don’t you?”

“I don’t blame you. I wouldn’t tell them that story either. Tell them he saved my life during the war, I don’t care.”

“I’m beginning to wish that I hadn’t called this meeting Mr Ashton, thank you for coming in. You’ll receive my invoice in the usual manner.”

“I know I will, Mr Nathan, and thank you for listening. I’m not Catholic, so I don’t have anyone I can tell things to who can’t repeat them under threat of eternal damnation. You are the next best thing. I hope my story is not too disturbing. There are more things in heaven and earth.”

“Go in peace Mr Ashton and may we never speak of this again.”