Never Mind The Botox: Rachel

by Penny Avis

  ‘What? No, not at all. I have no idea what you’re talking about,’ said Lloyd, raising his voice slightly above normal as if to emphasise the point.

  ‘Perhaps we can jog your memory,’ said Charles. Rachel thought he sounded rather like a detective in an old movie.

  Tom looked at Carl and Rachel. ‘Could we have your files, please?’

  Rachel got up and walked round to where Tom was sitting. She opened the files and quietly showed him where the copied pages from the black book were. Tom took them out of the file and gave them to Charles. He pushed them across the table towards Lloyd.

  ‘Would you mind explaining what this is?’ Charles asked.

  Lloyd looked at them and for the first time seemed very uncomfortable.

  ‘Where did you get these?’

  ‘From your office,’ said Tom. ‘Or rather, Rachel did.’

  Rachel waited for the inevitable rebuke from Lloyd, but none came. He just stared at the pages in front of him and said nothing. Eventually he looked up.

  ‘This has nothing to do with Audrey,’ said Lloyd.

  ‘What doesn’t?’ asked Charles, surprised at his unexpected response.

  ‘All of this.’ Lloyd waved his hands over the papers. ‘She shouldn’t be here.’

  Audrey sat impassively beside him as he spoke. Other than still looking slightly flushed, she didn’t show any reaction to Lloyd’s comments.

  Rachel couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She looked at Carl but his face was emotionless too.

  ‘Perhaps if you explain to us what’s been going on, then we can decide who should or shouldn’t be here,’ said Tom.

  Lloyd glared at him angrily. ‘I’m telling you that she knows nothing. I haven’t involved her. Please let her leave.’

  ‘Is this right, Audrey?’ asked Charles.

  Audrey looked slightly pained, as if she thought the answer should be obvious. ‘I’m afraid I have no idea what you’re all talking about. I simply do Lloyd’s paperwork for him as he instructs me. No more.’

  ‘Do you recognise those records?’ asked Tom, pointing at the pages in front of Lloyd.

  Audrey looked at them. ‘No, I’ve never seen them before.’

  Rachel’s jaw dropped. What an outright lie! She had been in the room when Lloyd had taken the book out. But she probably couldn’t prove that Audrey knew what was in it, as it would be her word against Audrey’s.

  Charles and Tom looked at each other.

  ‘We will discuss this matter with Lloyd in the first instance then,’ said Charles. ‘But if we find any evidence of your involvement…’

  ‘You won’t,’ said Audrey before he could finish his sentence.

  How could she be so sure? Rachel was astounded. And why was Lloyd so intent on protecting her? Maybe they were having an affair as Tom had suspected.

  Audrey got up and left. After she’d gone, Rachel noticed Carl seem to visibly relax. Had he warned her what was coming?

  Charles leant forward across the table towards Lloyd. ‘So, let’s start again, shall we? Have you been taking money out the business or not?’ he asked.

  Lloyd’s face started to go red and he suddenly leapt out of his seat, making everybody jump. ‘Only what was rightfully mine in the first place, you miserable old bastard!’

  Even Carl looked shocked at his outburst.

  ‘I beg your pardon?’ said Charles.

  ‘I always wanted this business to take on more celebrities − you know, maximise our reputation, raise our profile. But you’ve always been dead against it.’ Lloyd paced up and down the room, only stopping now and then to point an accusing finger at Charles. ‘You and your old-fashioned views have left the business stumbling about in the dark ages. Thanks to me we’ve had far more clients than we ever would have done if we’d listened to you! You really don’t have any idea what you’re doing. Our strategy is pathetic.’

  ‘Our strategy has been agreed by all the doctors here,’ said Charles. ‘It is our plan, not mine.’

  ‘Rubbish!’ shouted Lloyd. A few drops of spit flew out of his mouth as he spoke and his grey hair flopped down onto his forehead where it stuck to the beads of sweat that had started to appear. ‘You’ve got them all in your back pocket! None of them are brave enough to stand up to you, that’s all.’

  Rachel looked at Charles. His kindly, round face and slightly forgetful manner hardly made him the most frightening person she’d ever met.

  ‘Lloyd, please stop shouting and sit down,’ said Tom.

  ‘I bloody well will not,’ said Lloyd, glaring at Tom again. He clearly didn’t like him. ‘You people, you have no idea,’ ranted Lloyd to no one in particular. ‘It’s my reputation that keeps the clients coming in. Yes, I have charged them more than the list prices. But why? Because they wanted me. Not Beau Street, but me, Lloyd Cassidy.’

  He looked at Charles. ‘You would never let us promote ourselves, never spend any money on advertising in the right places. So I built the business myself, never mind what you thought,’ said Lloyd. He tossed his head angrily.

  Rachel sat very still in her chair. God, Lloyd was really losing it.

  ‘Our clients want a discrete service. They don’t want some practice that has been splashed over the tabloids and gossip magazines,’ said Charles. ‘You don’t understand the difference between reputation and fame, and that’s always been your problem.’

  ‘Well, you don’t understand how to make money and that’s always been your problem!’ Lloyd shouted back.

  ‘You were one of the first partners in this business with me, Lloyd. I have trusted you every step of the way and this is how you repay me. You’ve driven a coach and horses through our professional practices, put the business massively at risk and stolen from your fellow partners. You are a disgrace!’ Charles was livid.

  ‘I am the best doctor here,’ said Lloyd, jutting out his chin. ‘It’s the rest of the business that’s a disgrace.’

  Charles stood up and banged the table hard. ‘Right, I’ve had enough.’

  Rachel felt slightly panicked. It was getting nasty. Should she do something? Calm and professional at all times, that was what Carl had said. She looked at Carl and he shook his head slightly to indicate they should both stay quiet.

  Charles picked up the phone. ‘Linda, can you ask Fred to come in, please.’

  Fred? What did they want with Fred? It was hardly the time for a weather forecast.

  A few seconds later the door opened and a very stern looking Fred came in followed by a much younger and burlier security guard that Rachel didn’t recognise. They must have been waiting outside.

  ‘Lloyd, you are suspended pending a full investigation into your actions. Fred, could you escort Dr Cassidy to his office so he can clear his desk and then off the premises. Please make sure he does not remove anything except personal items,’ said Charles.

  ‘Of course, Dr Sutton,’ said Fred. ‘This way, sir,’ he said to Lloyd.

  Lloyd stepped backwards away from Fred, his eyes flashing with rage.

  ‘Don’t make me call the police,’ said Charles. ‘It’s bad enough for you as it is; please don’t make it worse.’

  ‘Let me tell you, Charles, you will be hearing from my lawyers,’ said Lloyd.

  ‘And you will be hearing from ours. This investigation is not over yet,’ said Charles resolutely. ‘Now please leave.’

  ‘Fine, if that’s the way you want to play it, then on your head be it,’ said Lloyd.

  And with that he marched out of the room, quickly followed by the two security guards.

  There was a stunned silence after he left.

  Charles got up and stared out of the window, occasionally shaking his head. He sighed deeply and turned round. ‘I’m very sorry that you had to see that,’ he said to Rachel and Carl. ‘Lloyd has always wanted to push the boundaries in search of the glamour clients. But I never thought he would go this far.’

 
‘Neither did I,’ said Tom. ‘What a mess.’

  ‘I’m also very grateful to you that you found out,’ continued Charles. ‘Although I have no idea what it means for our sale process. Tom, will you let Equinox know? I guess you need to do that through Clinton Wahlberg?’

  Tom nodded.

  ‘Well, can you ask them to let Lawson Green know that I’ll ring him over the weekend? Hopefully I can reassure him that the rest of our business is not made up of cheats and liars.’

  Lawson Green was the CEO of the Equinox Practise. Rachel was meant to be presenting to him next week. If they were going to be able to show them the numbers for the business without Lloyd, they needed the black book.

  ‘Would it be possible for us to take Lloyd’s manual record book from his office now? Then we could try to work out how much money he’s been taking,’ said Rachel to Tom.

  She also wanted to look for some link that would prove that Audrey was involved. There was no way that she should get off scot-free.

  ‘Yes, of course. Shall we look for it now?’ Tom asked.

  Rachel looked at Carl, who nodded.

  Tom and Rachel headed off towards Lloyd’s office. Rachel was pretty worried they might bump into him, but by the time they got there, the office was empty.

  ‘Where do you think this book is then?’ Tom asked.

  ‘In the left-hand desk drawer,’ said Rachel.

  Tom tried the drawer; it was locked.

  ‘I wonder where he keeps the key,’ said Tom.

  ‘It was hidden under a vase,’ said Rachel.

  Tom raised his eyebrows at her.

  ‘I saw them one evening when I was working late,’ said Rachel.

  She looked at the mantelpiece. The small square vase was gone and there was no key to be seen. They both searched the office for a few minutes but found nothing.

  ‘We’ll have to break the lock,’ said Tom.

  He rang down to Fred. ‘Fred, could you come up to Lloyd Cassidy’s office and bring some tools? We need to open a desk drawer that’s locked.’

  After a few minutes Fred arrived.

  ‘Has Dr Cassidy left the building?’ Tom asked.

  ‘Yes he has, Mr Duffy. We made sure of that, and we’ve taken his pass away. Terrible business.’ Fred shook his head gravely, but Rachel had no doubt that he was secretly relishing all the excitement.

  He took out a small piece of wire and fiddled for a few moments with the lock. After a few goes he turned the lock and the drawer opened.

  ‘Wow, Fred, where did you learn how to do that?’ Tom asked.

  ‘Misspent youth, Mr Duffy,’ said Fred, grinning, and he winked at Rachel.

  Rachel looked in the drawer and, to her huge relief, the black leather book was there. She took it out and flicked through the pages.

  ‘These records only go back about three years. That’s fine for our presentation as we’re only focusing on the last few years, but it won’t give us the full extent of the money that he may have taken. Shall I have a hunt for some more?’

  ‘Yes, thank you, that would be helpful,’ said Tom. ‘We’ll need to catalogue everything that’s here as part of our investigation, so don’t take anything away, will you.’

  ‘No, of course not,’ said Rachel.

  ‘I’ll be in my office if you need me,’ said Tom.

  Rachel felt very odd going through Lloyd Cassidy’s desk, even though this time she had permission to do so. She quickly searched the other drawers to see if she could find any other record books, but there were none − just medical journals, research papers, patient notes, that sort of thing. She really wanted to find something that showed Audrey had known what was going on, but she didn’t really know what she was looking for, which didn’t help.

  She opened the filing cabinets and started working her way through the hanging folders, all neatly labelled by Audrey. At the back of the second drawer she found a file marked ‘miscellaneous’. Inside was a confidential memo to Lloyd Cassidy from Charles Sutton on the possible tie up with Equinox and copies of three different proposal documents from PR companies, including one from Cavanaugh PR. On the front covers were scribbled notes in Audrey’s handwriting, comparing the fees from each one. On the cover of the Cavanaugh document Audrey had written ‘needs to drop £5k’. So slimy Clive had been given a helping hand! Rachel bet that Audrey had told him exactly what was in the other proposals and what he needed to do to win the work. She wasn’t sure exactly why Audrey would want to help Clive, but she bet that it wasn’t simply because they were old friends.

  She took the file down to the photocopier and took copies of all of the notes. They would be good insurance in case Clive started getting a bit too chatty about his days as a university governor.

  Rachel finished going through the rest of the files but could find nothing else that grabbed her attention. Unless she found records going back further they wouldn’t be able to tell how long Lloyd had been taking cash bookings or how much he’d skimmed off over the years. And she also couldn’t find anything that showed that Audrey had known about it. Damn it!

  She sat down and rubbed her forehead. She was sure that Audrey was up to her neck in it. They just had to prove it. She bent down to pick up her bag and noticed that her phone was flashing. Yet another text message from Harry. Thought you were going to ring me? He had then typed sorry so many times that Rachel got tired of scrolling down to read them.

  She didn’t reply and she had neither the time nor the energy to call him. She needed time to think, time when she wasn’t flat out lurching from one work crisis to another, if that was possible on this project.

  Chapter 20

  Rachel left Lloyd’s office and walked wearily back to the project room. As she entered the room, Carl stood up to leave. She looked across at AJ and Rosa, who both looked a bit tense.

  ‘I have to go,’ said Carl. ‘Do you have what you need to redo the presentation for Monday?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Rachel and waved the black book at Carl. ‘That was all pretty unpleasant, wasn’t it?’

  ‘Yes, very,’ said Carl.

  Much to Rachel’s frustration, he seemed reluctant to discuss it further. She had so many questions. Should they try to find the link to Audrey?

  ‘There are a few things I could do with talking through with you, if you have a minute,’ said Rachel.

  ‘Sorry, I can’t stop now. I have another meeting to go to. Perhaps you could call me later?’

  ‘Oh, okay, no problem,’ said Rachel as Carl walked out past her.

  Rachel shut the door.

  ‘Has Carl told you what happened?’ Rachel asked AJ and Rosa.

  ‘No, he’s hardly said a word. He seemed really stressed when he came back and just paced up and down. He just said that Lloyd had been suspended and we needed to get on and prepare for Monday,’ said AJ.

  ‘We didn’t dare ask him any questions; he seemed too cross,’ said Rosa.

  Rachel looked at her watch. It was just gone four p.m. She was sure when she’d spoken to Carl’s PA to arrange the meeting she’d said that Carl was free all afternoon. So where was he going? Could he be meeting Audrey? Should she follow him?

  When she’d seen Audrey leaving earlier she’d been too slow to react and she was determined not to make the same mistake again.

  ‘I think I’ll just grab some fresh air − bit of a headache coming on. Won’t be long,’ said Rachel, and she walked quickly out of the project room after Carl.

  She caught up with him as he waited for the lift and they got in together.

  ‘Just popping out for some fresh air,’ said Rachel.

  Carl just nodded.

  ‘It was a real shock to see Lloyd Cassidy shouting and swearing like that, didn’t you think? I thought Charles handled him pretty well,’ said Rachel.

  ‘Yes, he was very calm considering,’ said Carl, shifting slightly uncomfortably. Rachel got the impression that he really didn’t
want to talk about the meeting anymore.

  As they left the front of the offices, Rachel said goodbye and walked away in the direction of the nearby park. She looked back over her shoulder to see Carl walk off in the other direction. If he was going back to the office he would have got in a cab. She turned around to follow him.

  As she darted in and out of doorways and peered into shop windows trying to look inconspicuous, she decided she would make a rubbish private detective. Fortunately, Carl was marching ahead with hardly a backward glance, making him pretty easy to follow. They walked for about ten minutes until Rachel realised they were getting close to The Brook Hotel. She hung back a little further and watched as Carl crossed the road and headed into the hotel. A minute or so later, Rachel followed.

  As she entered the foyer she quickly checked the reception desk. A tired looking business man and a Japanese tourist stood waiting patiently in the queue for the next available receptionist. Carl wasn’t in the queue or at either desk. Rachel looked towards the sofa area and she couldn’t see him there either. She walked tentatively across the foyer towards the bar, conscious of the fact that if she wasn’t careful she’d probably walk straight into him. She looked into the bar and there he was, sitting with Audrey Fox. Damn him. She’d been right!

  She went over to the sofas and chose a seat where she could see into the bar and sat down. She picked up a magazine and pretended to read it while watching Carl and Audrey.

  They were sitting face to face at a small table covered by a white tablecloth. At Audrey’s side was a bottle of wine in a silver wine cooler. The waiter poured Carl a glass of wine as Audrey put her hand across the table towards him. He took it and they sat for a few moments holding hands and talking. Carl then leaned across the table and kissed her. Not for long, but long enough for Rachel to know for certain that they were definitely not just old friends.

  Rachel felt furious. Carl had lied to her and made her feel terrible for questioning him. What a shit! And no wonder he’d found that meeting so difficult.

  She put her magazine down and openly sat watching them together. She didn’t care now if Carl saw her. If he did, she would give him a piece of her mind. However, they were far too engrossed in each other to notice her sitting out in the foyer and the conversation seemed to be getting heated. Audrey was sitting back with her arms folded and was shaking her head, looking really quite unfriendly all of a sudden. Carl, on the other hand, was leaning forward with his hands outstretched towards her, almost like he was pleading with her. What was going on?