Never Mind The Botox: Rachel

by Penny Avis

  ‘I’m totally fine with that,’ said Harry.

  But Rachel knew that Harry would say pretty much anything if he thought it would convince her to have him back.

  ‘I need some time to think,’ she said, not feeling able to just say no to him there and then.

  ‘Okay, I’ll go to the bar and get us another drink,’ said Harry.

  ‘Harry, I need days not minutes!’

  ‘Oh, alright then,’ said Harry and he sat back down. ‘Will you call me?’ he asked.

  Rachel nodded.

  ‘When?’

  ‘In a few days, next week maybe. I’m not sure exactly,’ said Rachel.

  ‘Is there anything I can do in the meantime?’

  ‘No,’ said Rachel and she got up to leave.

  ‘I love you and I want you back,’ said Harry.

  ‘I know,’ said Rachel.

  She turned around and walked away.

  Chapter 17

  Harry’s words were still resounding in Rachel’s head as she got ready for work the next morning. Was she really that dull? She’d never thought so. Her life certainly didn’t feel dull right now. Maybe she did talk about her work quite a lot, but didn’t everyone? After all, it’s where you spend most of your day. It made her furious to think of the hours and hours she’d spent listening to Harry showing off and telling people his ‘oh so funny’ journalist stories. She threw her dressing gown down onto the floor as she dressed. ‘Selfish bastard!’

  Her anger only subsided when she left the house and started focusing on the day ahead, as it was quickly replaced with fear at the thought of meeting Tom Duffy. How was he going to react? Clearly it wasn’t their fault Lloyd Cassidy was on the take, but it was down to her that they now had so little time until the presentation to the buyers next week. What were they going to tell Equinox?

  Rachel sat down on the tube, neatly tucking her legs under her navy skirt suit. She sat forward slightly in her chair so the back of her jacket didn’t crease and tried to relax. The silk scarf she’d tucked inside her shirt like a cravat was too warm for the tube and was making her feel a bit faint. She let out a loud sigh and the man opposite her, who was wearing a rather theatrical looking three-piece suit, smiled and nodded knowingly. The buttons on his waistcoat strained to hold his stomach in as he leaned forward slightly.

  ‘Damn rat race,’ he said. ‘I know how you feel.’

  Rachel forced a half smile and immediately wished that she had a paper to hide behind. She really hoped he wasn’t going to try to engage her in conversation as she really didn’t have the energy. She opened her bag, took out her phone and pretended to study her emails. It seemed to do the trick and the man didn’t say anything else.

  At the next stop a heavily pregnant woman got on as the carriage completely filled up from both ends. The three-piece suit man leapt out of his seat and waved his hand towards it with a deep bow.

  ‘My dear, please have my seat,’ he said to the woman, who took it gratefully.

  What a gentleman, thought Rachel, and then felt a bit guilty about trying so hard to ignore him earlier. Maybe she should be a bit nicer to people.

  As she arrived at Beau Street, she exchanged the usual weather pleasantries with Fred and then said a very pointed ‘Good morning’ to the receptionist as she walked past. The receptionist looked up slightly, startled by the unexpected show of friendliness. Her over-suntanned face creased slightly at the edges as she smiled but her forehead didn’t move at all. ‘Oh, er, yes, good morning,’ she said and then quickly turned back to the gossip magazine she was reading.

  AJ was already in the project room when Rachel arrived. He handed her some files and then paced up and down behind her as she looked at them.

  ‘It’s all in there,’ he said. ‘Draft of the report, all the paperwork we have on Lloyd Cassidy, a draft of the presentation and an agenda for the meeting. Rosa and I stayed late to get it finished,’ said AJ.

  ‘Wow, thank you, this is brilliant,’ said Rachel. ‘Please sit down, though. You’re making me nervous.’

  ‘Sorry, not really had anything like this happen on one of my projects before, that’s all,’ said AJ.

  ‘Nor me,’ said Rachel.

  ‘Really? I would have thought someone with your experience would have dealt with this loads of times.’

  Rachel wasn’t feeling very experienced at that moment. In fact, she felt bloody terrified. She sat flicking through the files as the door burst open and Rosa came rushing in.

  ‘So sorry I’m late,’ she said. ‘Some idiot fell under my train.’

  ‘You’re not late,’ said Rachel, ‘and that’s a bit harsh on some poor squashed person.’

  ‘Sorry, I just really wanted to be in early so I could help you get ready,’ said Rosa.

  ‘That’s okay,’ said Rachel, smiling at Rosa’s bright-eyed enthusiasm. ‘I think we’re in good shape.’

  ‘How long until Carl gets here?’ AJ asked.

  Rachel looked at her watch. ‘Twenty minutes. Plenty of time for a coffee.’

  The three of them went down to the canteen, grabbed a coffee each and sat down.

  ‘I just want to say that this has been a really great project,’ said Rosa. ‘Hard work, but great. I’ve really enjoyed working for you as well.’

  ‘Me too,’ said AJ.

  ‘Ah, thanks, guys,’ said Rachel, touched. ‘By the way, do you talk to your friends about your work much?’

  ‘No, no, not at all. I’m very careful about client confidentiality,’ said Rosa quickly, looking slightly worried by the direction of the question.

  AJ nodded in agreement.

  Rachel laughed. ‘I’m sure you are, but that’s not what I meant. I meant, do you talk generally about what we do, and do your friends or other halves or whoever find it interesting?’

  ‘My girlfriend always says I don’t talk to her enough,’ said AJ. ‘She’d listen to me talk about work all day if I let her.’ He then looked slightly embarrassed, as if he hadn’t meant to disclose such a personal fact.

  ‘My friends think what I do is cool. Sometimes it takes a bit of explaining, you know, that we work on businesses being bought and sold. But mostly they get it,’ said Rosa.

  ‘Why?’ AJ asked.

  ‘Oh nothing. I just worry sometimes that people might find it a bit boring, that’s all.’

  ‘Bollocks,’ said AJ. ‘There’s nothing boring about working out how much a business might be worth.’

  ‘I agree. A company’s numbers are the windows to its soul,’ said Rosa wistfully. ‘They tell us everything. We’re like the tarot readers of the financial world.’

  ‘Very poetic,’ said Rachel, grinning.

  ‘And anyway, it’s not the job that makes things boring,’ said Rosa. ‘It’s the people that do it. It’s only dull if they are.’

  Rachel’s heart sank. She knew that Rosa was right. It was her that didn’t interest Harry enough to listen, not what she did.

  ‘Shit, look who it is,’ hissed AJ.

  Lloyd Cassidy was standing at the counter ordering some breakfast.

  ‘Look at him,’ said Rachel. ‘Standing there without a care in the world, no idea about the bombshell we’re about to drop.’

  They watched as he chatted to the canteen lady behind the till. She giggled like a young girl as he paid, clearly enjoying whatever joke he’d just made.

  ‘He’s coming this way,’ said Rosa and they all sat up and tried to act normally.

  ‘Good morning,’ he said cheerily as he walked past their table.

  Rachel nearly choked on her coffee. ‘Morning,’ she spluttered.

  AJ and Rosa smiled politely at him.

  ‘Bet he won’t be quite so friendly the next time he sees us,’ said Rachel once he was safely out of earshot.

  ‘Let’s get out of here,’ said AJ.

  Carl arrived moments after they got back to the project room. There was a quiet re
solution to his mood that quickly took over the room. Rachel was relieved that he was so calm. She needed that steady influence. They talked through the meeting plan in low voices for a few minutes and then Rachel and Carl got up to go.

  ‘Good luck,’ said Rosa, and Rachel saw the slightly terrified but excited glances that she and AJ exchanged with each other.

  Tom Duffy was in a cheerful mood as they went into his office.

  ‘Carl, good to see you. I must say that your team have been doing a great job, very ably led by Rachel here,’ said Tom. ‘Come on, sit down, sit down.’

  They sat round the meeting table in Tom’s office and he poured them each a glass of water.

  ‘Now, you called this meeting, is that right?’ Tom asked.

  ‘Yes, that’s right. We have a few matters that we need to talk to you about,’ said Carl.

  Rachel’s heart started pounding so loudly that she thought Tom might hear it.

  ‘Oh yes?’ Tom looked concerned.

  ‘We believe that we’ve uncovered a fraud,’ said Carl very slowly and calmly.

  ‘What?! You’re joking?’ Tom blinked several times in what seemed to be some sort of involuntary reaction.

  ‘I’m afraid not,’ said Carl. ‘Rachel, would you mind getting out the relevant paperwork.’

  Rachel jumped at the mention of her name and hastily opened the files. She tried to stop her hands from shaking as she took out the photocopied pages of the black book and the paperwork that they had on each entry.

  Carl carefully took Tom through it.

  ‘So you see, in addition to the breaches in proper record keeping, we think that Lloyd Cassidy has been taking money out of the business.’

  Tom looked like he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. ‘How long have you known?’

  Rachel held her breath. Too long.

  ‘We only worked out the final piece of the puzzle yesterday,’ said Carl.

  Wow. Carl had protected her. She owed him big time.

  ‘Do you know how much money he’s taken?’ Tom asked.

  ‘No, we’ll need Lloyd to give us his manual records in their entirety for us to work that out,’ said Carl.

  ‘The amount of the shortfall for the two months of records we do have was just over forty thousand pounds,’ said Rachel.

  ‘Jesus Christ!’ Tom banged the table with his fist, making both Carl and Rachel jump. ‘He’s worked here for years. He was one of the first partners in the business with Charles. Could you be wrong?’

  ‘We don’t think so,’ said Carl.

  ‘I saw him take a large envelope of cash from an actress on the evening that I, er, found this book,’ said Rachel.

  Tom shook his head in disgust. ‘Is it just him?’ said Tom. ‘Are others involved?’

  Carl hesitated.

  ‘His nurse, Audrey Fox, was with him when I saw him,’ said Rachel, stepping in to answer. ‘She does all his paperwork for him, so we think she must know. We don’t know if she has taken any money as well, though.’

  ‘I bet she has. Those two are as thick as bloody thieves. I’ve been convinced that they’re having an affair for ages,’ said Tom.

  Rachel felt Carl shift uncomfortably beside her.

  ‘Well, we won’t know for certain who’s involved until we look into it further,’ said Carl. His voice sounded tight, as if he was forcing himself to speak calmly.

  Tom got up from the desk and paced around the office. ‘This is a total disaster. I need to tell Charles straight away. He’ll be devastated. He and Lloyd have been friends for years. This business is his life, you know. Christ knows what we tell Equinox. They’ll probably run for the hills when they hear.’

  Tom looked like he could see the money he was going to make on the deal evaporating in front of his eyes.

  ‘If we get enough information, we can probably restate the company’s results without Lloyd’s figures in. Maybe we could present those to Equinox, show them that the rest of the business has been doing really well?’ Rachel suggested.

  ‘Yes, good point, we could do with that as I can tell you that Lloyd will be out on his bloody ear if this all turns out to be true. He won’t get a penny from the sale − if there is any sale, that is,’ said Tom.

  ‘Perhaps we should agree what to do next?’ said Carl.

  Tom sat back down at the table with a thump. He put his head in his hands and stared miserably at the floor.

  ‘Tom?’ said Carl, peering up under his arched arms. ‘Are you okay?’

  Tom sat up. ‘Not really. But I guess we’d better get on with it. I’ll call Charles as soon as we’re done. Then we’d better meet Lloyd − see what he’s got to say about all this.’

  ‘Do you want us there?’ Carl asked.

  ‘Absolutely,’ said Tom. He opened the door of his office. ‘Linda, could you get Charles on the phone, quick as you can, and then can you arrange for Lloyd Cassidy and Audrey Fox to come and see me? We’ll need a meeting room as Carl and Rachel will be joining me. Thanks.’

  Carl would be coming face to face with Audrey! And if he was having an affair with her then it was going to be a nightmare for him. Even if they were just friends, Rachel was sure that Carl still wouldn’t want to see her in trouble. And Tom clearly thought that she was having an affair with Lloyd. Maybe she was seeing them both? Either way, it was going to be an interesting meeting.

  ‘Right, anything else we need to organise?’ Tom asked.

  ‘We need to agree what we’ll tell Equinox and when,’ said Carl.

  ‘It’s probably best that we speak to their advisers, Clinton Wahlberg, first. Let them brief their client. But we’ve got to look into it a bit more first, make sure we have all the facts right,’ said Tom. ‘I’ll call them in the first instance but then I’m sure they’ll want to speak to you and agree how to approach the presentation on Monday.’

  ‘Oh, by the way, Tom, I’ve been in contact with Cavanaugh PR and I’m meeting them at lunchtime today, so we can get them the information they need,’ said Rachel.

  ‘Oh right, good,’ said Tom. ‘Not that we necessarily need a new marketing plan now. Bloody Cassidy.’

  Linda popped her head round the door. ‘I’ve got Charles on the phone and the meeting with Lloyd and Audrey is set up for three o’clock this afternoon, upstairs in meeting room four.’

  Rachel and Carl made their way back to their project room.

  ‘How did it go?’ AJ asked as soon as they came in the room.

  ‘As well as can be expected,’ said Carl. ‘Tom was pretty livid. It’s a real blow for them.’ Carl turned to Rachel. ‘You did a good job, nice and calm, well done.’

  Rachel wanted to thank him for not saying anything about her delay in speaking up, but she didn’t want to raise it in front of Rosa and AJ.

  ‘I’ve got a few calls to make and then a partners’ lunch, so I’ll head off now and come back later, in time for three o’clock,’ said Carl.

  ‘Okay, no problem,’ said Rachel, quite relieved that he wasn’t going to sit with them.

  After Carl left, Rachel sat and recounted their meeting to AJ and Rosa, who both sat wide-eyed, listening avidly.

  ‘So then I suggested we redo the analysis without any of Lloyd’s sales figures, show what the business looks like without him. Tom seemed to like that idea,’ said Rachel.

  ‘Gosh, did you? Well done,’ said Rosa.

  ‘But that will take us ages,’ said AJ, more concerned about their workload than keeping Tom Duffy happy.

  ‘Well, let’s see what happens this afternoon. I’ve got a meeting with the PR guys first. At least that should be pretty straightforward,’ said Rachel.

  As they were talking there was a knock on the door.

  ‘Come in,’ said Rachel.

  It was Alex Fisher from the lawyers. It seemed that they’d also found a few things not quite right with Lloyd Cassidy’s records. Alex explained that they had evidence of a pot
ential negligence claim against Lloyd by a celebrity who’d paid inflated rates for her procedures.

  ‘… and I was wondering if you’d come across any evidence of that?’ Alex asked.

  Yes, and some, thought Rachel. She spent a few minutes sharing what they’d found with Alex. It would be important when they presented to Equinox that all the advisers were on the same page.

  After she’d finished with Alex, Rachel left the project room and headed for the ladies’ toilets. As she walked down the corridor she saw Audrey Fox stepping into the lift with her coat on, talking on her mobile phone. Where was she going? It suddenly occurred to Rachel that Carl had just left too. Was she going to meet him? Surely not. But it was certainly possible. Carl had at least an hour before his lunch appointment. Maybe he wanted to tip her off, warn her about what was happening. Should she follow the nurse? But what if she was wrong? She didn’t want another knee-jerk reaction to get her into trouble.

  As Rachel stood frozen, unable to decide what to do, she watched as the lift doors shut and Audrey disappeared from view. Shit! She ran over to the lifts and pressed the down button. After what seemed like an age, the lift arrived back up. She stepped in and pressed the button for reception, and once there walked briskly across the foyer, resisting the urge to break into a run, and went out onto the street. She looked up and down the street but there was no sign of Audrey. Damn!

  She went back inside and stuck her head around the door of Fred’s small security room. He was sitting in a battered, red leather armchair with gold studs around the arms, listening to the shipping forecast. He jumped as Rachel came in.

  ‘Gosh, Ms Altman, you didn’t half give me a fright. I was miles away, I was. Southeast seven or eight in Wight tonight, you know,’ said Fred, looking concerned.

  ‘Really? Oh dear.’ Rachel had no clue what he was talking about.

  ‘Fred, I was wondering whether you’d seen Audrey Fox go out a moment ago?’ Rachel asked.

  ‘No, sorry, love. Been in here for the last ten minutes. Would you like me to give her a message for you when she comes back?’

  ‘No, that’s okay, thanks,’ said Rachel. ‘I’m seeing her later anyway.’