Take a Chance on Me

by Debbie Flint

  ‘Taxi?’ she asked the concierge.

  Sadie pulled up at the hospital and raced inside. She was met by Makini, Bill’s assistant, a jolly, mid-forties woman still dressed in her smart but plain office attire, who led her down a private corridor past the hospital staff to a small stark room.

  Sadie walked in, and there was a pale-looking Bill. He was attached to a ventilator mask and a drip. The regular bleep, bleep from the nearby machine seemed reassuring, but according to the last doctor’s visit, it was still touch and go.

  ‘Okay, Makini, listen to me. We have no time to lose,’ Sadie said, and pulled out of her bag something which she hoped would be the solution to Bill’s current condition.

  ‘Are you sure?’ asked the assistant. ‘The specialist said nil by mouth for now.’

  ‘I’ve never been more sure. Trust me.’ And Sadie and Makini went in search of a doctor to try Sadie’s plan.

  Meanwhile, outside the hospital, a black Mercedes pulled up. Its occupant got out, entered the hospital, and then the car drove away again. Through the hospital corridors the feet strode purposefully, until they paused outside a doctor’s office door. After no more than ten minutes the car drew up again at the hospital entrance to pick up its passenger. Then left, at speed, in the direction of the water plant.

  Two hours later, just as Sadie was about to drop off to sleep, her head resting on the back of Bill’s hand on the bed, he stirred.

  ‘Hello, Sadie,’ he muttered, and smiled weakly at her.

  She smiled back.

  ‘What brings you here?’ he asked, taking small, shallow breaths through his mask. ‘Makini, I … sure as hell … need a bed pan.’

  Makini was close to tears as she ran out to fetch the nurse, and Bill groaned a little as he moved to get more comfortable. Hopefully all would now be right in his world. As right as it could be with a son like Peter.

  When Bill had had his checks, and the nurse was satisfied and left them once more, Sadie touched his arm.

  ‘Bill, I have to ask you a few things,’ she said to the old man. ‘Take your time.’ He gripped her hand feebly. ‘Can you remember what you drank and what medicines you took today?’

  Bill looked troubled, as though he was struggling to recall. Then he signalled to Makini and coughed a little.

  ‘Mr Galloway wasn’t able to recall what happened earlier today,’ said the assistant.

  ‘Not yet,’ whispered Bill. ‘Trying.’

  Makini just touched his hand and made a motion as if to say ‘it’s okay’. ‘Sadly, for me, Bill can’t remember,’ she said. ‘However, happily, for you, I can.’

  Not long after a concerned-looking Simon also arrived at the hospital. But the one person who wasn’t there was Mac. He must have gone. Sadie put him out of her mind – there were other more important things right now. Forget and move on.

  ‘So I told the doctor about the latest findings from my colleagues at the university, and the tests from the lab here,’ she was explaining to the kindly face of Mac’s still-suited advisor outside Bill’s hospital room. ‘And we gave it a try. He just hadn’t been responding the way they’d hoped.’

  ‘Well, it seems Bill Galloway may owe you the proverbial “one”,’ Simon said. They looked through the window in the door at the old man, now weakly sipping some soup. ‘How did you persuade the hospital to allow you to administer more of the renegade son’s poisonous potion?’

  ‘You could say I had some inside help,’ she replied, nodding towards Makini. ‘And when I knew that Red Frish was the catalyst, I examined the new findings and they all pointed towards the equal and opposite reactions. Red Frish had to make it better again.’

  ‘How so?’ asked Simon, eyebrows raised.

  ‘So, you know we had already found that it gets into the cells superfast, right?’

  ‘If you say so, Sadie. Science was never my strong point at school. Too busy chasing girls.’

  ‘Oh!’ she said.

  ‘Just introducing a little jocularity into the occasion. Do go on.’

  ‘Right, of course.’ Sadie smiled. Simon was funny. ‘But it also gets … stuff, impurities, contaminants … out of the cells too. I tested it on myself back at the hotel and within half an hour I knew the studies were right. So I rushed here with my remaining bottles to see if it worked. And sure enough the overdose in Bill’s body was speedily cleared by Red Frish too.’

  ‘Faster than anything they’d ever seen, the doctor said,’ Makini added, stepping out of the room to join them. ‘Fast in, fast out.’

  ‘Dangerously fast,’ added Sadie.

  ‘Remind me to try it with my nightly tipple,’ said Simon, with a twinkle in his eye. ‘It may save me a fortune in Special Reserve. And possibly my other little blue supplements.’

  ‘It might be more intense but … endurance, shall we say, won’t last half as long, so maybe not,’ chipped in Sadie, joining in his teasing, and Simon uttered a little polite guffaw.

  The joke was lost on Makini, who was clearly still concerned. ‘I liked Bill’s Frish in my first coffee of the day,’ she said. ‘Extra caffeine hit. But Bill is a man of habit – same drink, same meds, same time of day. How could I have known this red label bottle was so different? I wouldn’t have given him it, but I couldn’t find any of our office supplies of regular Frish.’

  ‘Don’t blame yourself, my dear, the son probably swapped all the other supplies,’ said Simon. ‘There’s more to the machinations of man than meets the eye, and you were not a perpetrator, merely a bystander in the sorry saga.’

  Makini looked at Sadie.

  ‘He means you’re not to blame,’ Sadie told her. Makini nodded. Simon patted her arm.

  ‘He thought he was having a heart attack,’ the assistant added, taking a weary breath and pushing her shiny but untidy black hair back out of her eyes. ‘I came into the office and there he was, collapsed on the floor. It gave me such a fright. It frightened Peter, too.’ Sadie put her arm around the middle-aged lady, and she felt her give in and lean towards her slightly. Bless her.

  ‘I’m sure it did,’ Simon said. ‘But Bill is in good hands, my dear. Both here and when he gets back to the office – with you.’

  ‘If he gets back to the office. It may be some time before he has recovered. Maybe Bill would prefer to take it easy for a while. It may be time.’

  ‘You think so, Makini?’ Simon asked, an interesting look on his face.

  ‘Perhaps it’s just as well his son is taking over after all,’ she went on. ‘Maybe it’s time Bill took a break. A holiday. He hasn’t been away for such a long time. I could go with him. I could …’ and the jolly face quivered a little and she was unable to talk. Sadie handed her a tissue. Then Makini took herself back into the room to tend to Bill.

  ‘Must be wonderful to have someone care for you that much,’ said Sadie to herself, wistfully.

  ‘Now, Sadie, here is that little matter we discussed,’ Simon announced, somewhat officially. He put an envelope in one hand and folded the fingers of her other hand over the top of it, tightly, then paused and looked at her sincerely. ‘And now I have to go. There is a venture capitalist I need to track down,’ he said, and he held out his hand to shake Sadie’s, then while she was fiddling with the envelope, he changed his mind and rested his hand on her shoulder.

  ‘Sadie, I have no idea where our paths will cross again, but I am very aware that this is an important time in Mac’s life. Things are changing around him. Do not think badly of him.’

  ‘I don’t, Simon. He stuck to his principles, you have to admire that in a man. At least he’s honest. But I know he and I will never be more than – ahh – friends.’

  ‘He could do with more friends like you, my dear.’

  ‘Thank you, Simon. He has my number, he knows where to find me.’


  ‘He certainly does, and so do I,’ he said, and leaned down to kiss Sadie formally on the cheek. ‘But I have had one last request from him – that I talk to Mr Philip Tremain. I responded that it’s the least we can do to effect an introduction for you. It’s probably best to deal with the horse, rather than the rear end. I will be in touch.’

  Then with one more squeeze of her shoulder he left, purposefully marching off towards the lift, punching in a number on his mobile phone. Sadie went back in to Bill’s room.

  Bill was sitting up in bed, looking just a little bit brighter. Makini had clearly been apologising again.

  ‘It’s okay, Makini, truly … you weren’t to know,’ he reassured her, in short measured gasps. ‘You see, my boy … he was experimenting for months … with the formula. He told me that Red Frish was only a tweak … It shouldn’t have had that effect … It must have been an accident.’ Bill looked over at Sadie. ‘You know I have to believe that, Sadie, don’t you?’

  ‘I don’t blame you, Bill. You have to do what you have to do,’ she said, covering his hand with hers.

  ‘He is … family. So I can only assume he had no idea what he was doing.’ But speaking just made the old man start to cough a lot. A little blood was in the tissue as Bill continued to cough, and the nurse came rushing in, ushering both of them out of the room. There were so many questions Sadie had bubbling over in her mind, but none of them could be answered here, so she left Makini arguing with the nurse about remaining with Bill, and bid them goodnight.

  In the limo Simon had booked for her, Sadie was churning things over and over all the way back to the hotel. Bill was okay, that much was true. But what would tomorrow bring?

  Sadie returned to her room and phoned home. The girls had just got in from school and the latest instalment of ‘jeggings-gate’ filled her head and made her feel grounded again – back to normality. It wouldn’t be long and she’d be home. She examined the contents of the envelope. Proof of the transfer. More than she’d expected.

  Turner’s Health Store had a reprieve, even if it was only for a while.

  Sadie remembered Simon’s words in his note – ‘ascertain whether Galloway’s promises are more than idle’ and from the hospital ‘I can effect an introduction for you’. But the way Sadie’s luck was going it would amount to nothing. At least the bribe was off the cards now Peter was taking the deal to Tremain anyway.

  Nonetheless, Simon would be true to his word and no doubt let her know once she was back in the UK whether Galloway and Tremain wanted her to help with the studies. She hoped so. But she’d lost the commission for bringing in the investment to FrishCo. And with it the chance of any more school trips in the near future. The girls would not be impressed. Perhaps it’s time their father started pulling his weight anyway.

  Sadie kicked off her shoes, pulled on her comfiest shorts, and suddenly felt starving hungry. She realised she hadn’t eaten since the ‘Red Frish plus senna tablet’ saga. Downing another whole bottle earlier that evening to flush everything out again, just before her dash to the hospital, had left her starving. Sadie discovered that steak dinner was almost as good when you ate it cold.

  As she lay in bed trying to rejig her thoughts to incorporate the latest turn of events, she knew there was nothing more she could do here. A whirlwind adventure, gallivanting halfway round the world, and still she’d be back to arguing with Stuart about seeing the girls at the weekend, selling alfalfa sprouts and searching the Internet for any more tempting marketing competitions with superb prizes.

  Sadie climbed into bed and read one final text that had just arrived, before turning her phone on silent.

  We don’t mind if you can’t bring home the bacon, Mum.

  Really.

  Just come home soon. Please.

  G and A.

  Ps as you always (keep) telling us (LOL) -

  ‘You make your own luck’, &

  ‘You will never know, if you never give it a go’ ; -)

  She shook her head, smiling at the girls and decided she’d take them shopping when she got home. The money from Simon could at least stretch to some new jeggings each. But whatever was in her future, the one thing she wouldn’t have was the one thing she wanted most – the man she loved.

  What was that? Yes, the man she loved.

  Then she set the alarm and turned off the light. Sadie was so exhausted she was asleep as soon as her head touched the pillow.

  Just as the first light of dawn began to dapple through Sadie’s curtains, the shadows of two figures appeared on the pathway leading to the front entrance of the FrishCo production facility. In the early morning sunlight, they crossed the paving stones and reached the door. Then a hand produced a swipe card, and they entered the building. One went to turn on the lights, but the other stopped him. Then they set off towards a door marked ‘Private’.

  A few hours later a note was slowly pushed under Sadie’s door. And another text arrived on her phone. It just sat there flashing away until she awoke the next morning. When all of a sudden everything changed all over again.

  Chapter Seventeen

  ‘I got your text last night,’ said Sadie, looking a bit bleary-eyed having rushed down ‘urgently’ to meet Simon for breakfast. When she’d spotted the note under her door she realised that this man never sleeps. And never leaves anything to chance. He raised his finger to her.

  ‘Oops sorry!’ she said, as she got near enough to see that he was yet again on the phone. But he put the caller on hold while he stood up to pull back her chair.

  ‘Ahh, Sadie, good morning. I took the liberty of ordering you some coffee. Do catch your breath.’

  Sadie plonked herself down on the chair and inhaled the morning breeze. Another day, another twist in this Hawaiian paradise.

  ‘Thank you, Simon. And there was I expecting to be on a plane home by now,’ she said, making herself comfortable at a smart table covered in breakfast paraphernalia. She squinted in the sunshine and pulled her sunglasses down onto her eyes.

  ‘I do hope you’re not disappointed I asked you to postpone your flight?’ he asked.

  ‘I knew you wouldn’t do something like that unless it was “of extraordinary import”,’ she teased, breaking the corner off a warm, crusty bread roll and sipping some freshly squeezed orange juice. He raised an eyebrow and indicated the phone.

  ‘Yes, well I just have to …’

  She nodded. He stood and walked a couple of steps away to finish the call.

  Sadie was usually a morning person but today she felt very heavy-headed. She produced a bottle of Frish with the red label on it and opened it. Simon raised his eyebrows at her, mid-sentence.

  But instead of drinking it, Sadie merely sniffed it.

  ‘Felt a bit crap this morning. Thought I’d give myself a super-strong caffeine hit,’ she explained, but seeing the look on Simon’s face, she put the cap back on. ‘Perhaps not.’ Then she drank two glasses of table water with a squirt of lemon juice in them, to get her system going. That worked.

  Sadie’s cappuccino arrived and she sat back, looking around the fabulous terraced café of the hotel. It was covered in planters filled with multi-coloured blooms like the beautiful fragrant native yellow hibiscus. Lawned gardens stretched into the distance to a golf course, where tiny golfers and caddies drove miniature buggies over manicured greens hundreds of yards away. The weather was glorious as usual and the wonderful aromas of freshly baked breads, grilled meats and fresh coffee filled the gentle breeze. But Sadie’s mind was elsewhere.

  It must be nice to have a father as forgiving as Bill, she thought, downing the rest of her orange juice in one. Four drinks. Made her think of Mac.

  Stop it, Sadie.

  Simon strode back over to her and handed her the phone.

  ‘It seems we have some news. There’s someone who wan
ts to talk to you.’

  Once again her heart skipped a beat … could it be? But it wasn’t.

  ‘Bill!’ she exclaimed as the old man greeted her warmly.

  Sadie listened as he explained what had taken place since she left him last night. Her eyes got wider and wider. Eventually she spoke.

  ‘You’re rescinding the affidavit? It’s really not legal?’ asked Sadie, putting the phone on speaker so Simon could hear and mouthed her thoughts at the incredible news. ‘Oh my God!’

  ‘Correct,’ added Bill, coughing a little. ‘It certainly isn’t legal, not in the way it was signed. And I’m sending out a search party for my poor stupid son.’

  ‘So Red Frish wasn’t an accident, eh? How did you find out?’ asked Sadie.

  ‘Remember the man who showed you around the plant? Kaha’i? Been with me for years. Three days ago Peter asked him to step out of the lab on an errand. When he came back, Peter had created another new batch of Red Frish.’

  ‘The batch he gave me,’ she said.

  ‘And me. Last night Kaha’i was informed about my being rushed to hospital, and went immediately to investigate the records at the lab. He didn’t want to speak up in the past, for fear of trouble.’

  ‘From Peter?’

  ‘Sadly, yes. My son has not been the best boss. But the lab records prove it – together with that useful information from your uni contacts, Sadie. Peter altered the formula deliberately. So it appears he’s not the best son either.’

  ‘I’m so sorry, Bill. So was it his plan all along? To take over the company?’

  ‘It looks that way. Seems he was so desperate to prove that his Red Frish was a far superior product to my Frish that he got rather carried away.’ At that, Bill began to cough a little. Sadie could hear Makini’s muffled voice in the background.

  ‘And now it’s backfired.’

  ‘Yes. Until early this morning Philip Tremain thought he had been in negotiations to take over FrishCo, but little did he realise that Peter has no power – no power at all,’ said the old man, and he began coughing again. When he stopped he apologised.