Never Mind The Botox: Rachel (27 page)

‘Does Lloyd know about you and Audrey, do you think?’ Rachel asked.

‘I doubt it. She’s been enjoying herself far too much, taking both of us old fools for a total ride.’ Carl grabbed Rachel’s wrists across the table. ‘We need to get her, Rachel. Prove that she’s involved, make sure she gets what she deserves,’ said Carl. His bulging eyes and desperate expression made him look slightly demented.

‘Carl, you should really stand down from the project,’ said Rachel.

‘But it’s over now, Rachel, really and truly over this time, so there’s no relationship to report. I’m hardly going to try to protect her now.’

‘Gunning for her so you can get even doesn’t make you independent either!’

‘Do you think she’s involved?’ Carl asked.

‘You know I do,’ said Rachel. ‘I’ve said so from the beginning.’

‘Well, then,’ said Carl. ‘And you’ll be there to make sure we play it straight.’

‘I don’t know,’ said Rachel.

‘Please, Rachel. Let’s just finish the project properly. That’s all I’m asking. I know that if we try hard enough, we’ll be able to show she’s involved. And that’s our job: to investigate things thoroughly. You wouldn’t be doing anything wrong.’

He was right. She had been determined to look into it anyway. And despite the fact that he had cheated on his wife and lied to her, for some reason she wanted to help him. He needed her help. Rachel thought for a few moments and then it suddenly dawned on her − maybe she should get him to help her too, well, Shali anyway!

‘Only if you agree to go easy on Shali with this whole summer party investigation thing. She really doesn’t deserve to have the book thrown at her. It wasn’t that bad, you know. It’s not like she was sleeping with a client or anything,’ said Rachel. Ooh, that was good.

‘Alright, alright, point made,’ said Carl. He thought for a moment. ‘What if I make sure that she only gets a minor warning, no more, okay? I can’t really do better than that. The other partners know too much already.’

‘And keep it confidential? She doesn’t need the whole office talking about it,’ said Rachel.

‘I’ll do my very best,’ Carl said.

That was a pretty good result – the best they could hope for.

‘Okay, let’s get on with it. For now anyway.’

‘Thank you, thank you,’ said Carl. He let out a huge sigh and slumped down in his chair. He looked relieved but exhausted.

‘I’d better get back. AJ and Rosa will be wondering where on the earth I’ve got to.’

‘Start with the invoices,’ said Carl. ‘We need to show she knew they weren’t for the right amount.’

‘Okay,’ said Rachel. ‘We’ll try.’

But she didn’t feel that confident that they would succeed.

Rachel walked back to the Beau Street offices feeling rather light-headed. Two whiskies on an empty stomach weren’t really ideal preparation for working late. She dived into a small metro style supermarket and grabbed a triple-pack BLT sandwich and a family-sized pack of pretentiously named crisps that were really just plain old salt and vinegar.

AJ and Rosa were desperate to hear all about the Lloyd Cassidy showdown meeting, as they were now calling it. Between stuffing sandwich and crisps in her mouth, Rachel told them what had happened. She didn’t mention Carl and Audrey. She was working on a need-to-know basis, and they didn’t need to know.

‘So they threw him out of the building?’ Rosa was astonished.

‘Pretty much,’ said Rachel. ‘He got to clear his desk first but that was it.’

‘Will they involve the police?’ AJ asked.

‘I don’t know. Beau Street are going to do their own full investigation into what he’s been up to. I guess after that they’ll decide whether they should bring the police in or not.’

‘Wow, heavy stuff,’ said AJ.

‘So, here’s the good news. We have Lloyd’s manual records for the last three years so we can work out how much he’s been taking out. The bad news is, we need the presentation for Monday redone to show the business without Lloyd and that will probably mean we need to work the weekend.’

‘Don’t worry, we’d already figured that much out,’ said Rosa.

‘I also want a large sample of these records looked at. Maybe fifty or so. We need to check whether there’s any evidence that Audrey knew what was going on. She claims she was just doing what Lloyd told her to do. The manual books are all written by him, so we can’t prove for definite at the moment she knew what was going on just because she’s his nurse.’

‘Fifty! That will take hours,’ said AJ.

‘Well, you’d better get on with it then, hadn’t you?’ said Rachel, smiling. ‘Rosa, you start on the black book. Work out the total amount charged each year per the book and then work out the total actually invoiced. The difference is then our missing cash. I’ll start reworking the presentation.’

As Rachel flicked through the pages of their presentation she started to feel incredibly nervous about Monday. She didn’t feel at all ready. The whole team would be there, but she’d be the one doing most of the talking. She needed to practice.

She went out into the corridor and rang Natalie − she was good at this sort of thing.

‘There’s a serious chance that I’ll be totally crap unless you save me,’ said Rachel. ‘Could you come round tomorrow evening and help me rehearse?’

‘There’s nothing I’d like more than to spend my Friday night listening to you droning on about face lifts and boob jobs,’ said Natalie.

‘I promise to provide food and wine,’ said Rachel.

‘I should think so! Can Shali come too? Help me out. Hell, we might as well at least try to enjoy ourselves while we’re at it,’ said Natalie.

‘I’ll ring her too and let you know,’ said Rachel.

When Rachel rang Shali, she also told her about doing a deal with Carl over the summer party.

Shali was amazed. ‘Are you sure he meant it?’ she asked.

‘Yes, I’m pretty sure he did, but I guess we’ll have to wait and see to be certain,’ said Rachel.

‘God, let’s hope so. Wow, I owe you, and I mean more than just helping you with your presentation, but I’ll do that as well,’ said Shali.

‘Thanks, you’re a star. Natalie’s coming round at eight. By the way, how was your drink with Rowan?’

‘Yeah, fine. It was bit awkward to begin with, but once we got talking for a bit it was okay. He’s such a gentleman, you know. He really wanted me to know that he’s not some playboy who does this sort of thing all the time and then never calls.’

‘Did he talk about Laura?’ Rachel asked.

Shali laughed. ‘Yes, about every other minute. He was really trying to stress the point that he still cares about her,’ said Shali.

‘Well he does,’ said Rachel.

‘That much I gathered,’ said Shali.

‘Do you feel bad about it?’ Rachel asked.

‘Not really. If circumstances were different then maybe we would be quite a good match. But they’re not, so that’s that.’

Rachel felt relieved. It did sound like that was the end of the matter. At least that was one less thing to worry about. ‘I’m sure there will be another hot man just round the next corner,’ she said.

‘Yup, I’m sure there will be too. See you tomorrow,’ said Shali.

Chapter 21

Shali and Natalie were both in high spirits when they arrived at Rachel’s flat.
Rachel, on the other hand, was feeling totally knackered. Both the stress of her crisis-ridden week and Harry’s continual texting, saying how sorry he was and how much he needed her, had left her emotionally drained. As a result, her promise of food consisted of a series of takeaway menus. She’d at least been to the off licence and bought wine.

Luckily the off licence had a decent selection of wine ready chilled, as Rachel hadn’t been home early enough to chill it herself. She and Rosa had spent the day frantically working through their presentation, changing all the analysis so they could show the results of the business both with and without Lloyd Cassidy, while AJ had patiently worked his way through a huge sample of Lloyd’s false name clients. Much to Rachel’s frustration, though, he hadn’t found any evidence so far that Audrey had known what was going on. They’d had a final debrief at about seven o’clock and then they’d all left for the day as they were back in on Sunday making final preparations for the Equinox presentation on Monday.

Natalie jumped onto Rachel’s sofa and clapped her hands. ‘Right, come on both of you, let’s get this show on the road,’ she said. ‘Where’s your presentation, Rachel?’

‘In my briefcase,’ shouted Rachel from the kitchen as she opened what she was sure would be the first of many bottles of wine.

Natalie rummaged about in Rachel’s briefcase and pulled out the presentation. She put it on the coffee table in front of Shali and herself and started flicking through the pages.

‘Looks pretty smart,’ said Shali as Rachel came in carrying the wine glasses.

‘Thanks. I’ve got Rosa Castelli working with me and she’s brilliant on this sort of document. She made it look really professional. It’s just me that’s going to be crap.’

‘If you start off thinking like that then you probably will be crap,’ said Natalie. ‘Being good at presenting is all about confidence and positive thinking.’

Natalie was naturally confident and also a total training junkie. She’d done pretty much every course Payne Stanley offered and was always reading self-help books called things like
How to Be Better Than Your Boss
or
Negotiate Your Way to Success
.

‘Easier said than done,’ said Rachel.

‘Rubbish,’ said Natalie in her typically outspoken way. ‘You just need to practice a few times, let us grill you for a bit and you’ll soon feel differently about it. So c’mon, up you get.’ She signalled with her hand for Rachel to stand up.

‘God, do I have to stand?’ Rachel asked. ‘I’m knackered.’

‘Will you be standing on Monday?’ Shali asked.

‘Yes, probably.’

‘Then yes, you do,’ said Natalie.

Rachel got wearily to her feet, now slightly regretting that she’d called in the cavalry to help her rehearse.

Shali and Natalie sat up expectantly on the sofa.

‘Good morning, ladies and gentleman,’ said Rachel. ‘I…’ She didn’t get any further.

‘Stop,’ said Natalie, holding up her hand. ‘Are you opening the meeting? Won’t Carl do that?’

‘Well, yes, he will,’ said Rachel.

‘First rule of presenting: start strongly. So you need to practice exactly what you’ll be saying on Monday. Start again.’

Shali laughed and topped up both her and Natalie’s glasses. ‘Slave driver,’ she said to Natalie.

‘If we’re going to do this, we might as well do it properly,’ said Natalie.

‘Thank you, Carl. Good morning, everyone. As Carl mentioned, my name is Rachel Altman and I have been leading our work here at Beau Street.’

‘Better,’ said Natalie.

Rachel carried on, working her way through the first few pages of the presentation. She then turned over to the page with the two pie charts that Rosa had put together, showing the top five most popular procedures on one and the fasting growing new procedures on the other.

‘That slide looks like a pair of tits,’ said Shali, making Natalie laugh hysterically.

‘It does not,’ said Rachel. But the more she looked at it, the more it did. Her mouth twitched as she tried not to smile.

‘See, you think it does too,’ said Shali.

‘Alright, maybe a bit. You bloody kids. Can I carry on now?’ Rachel asked.

‘Please do,’ said Shali.

Shali and Natalie grinned at each other, then set their faces back to serious, ready to listen.

‘Stop it! You’re making me laugh,’ said Rachel.

‘What? We aren’t doing anything,’ said Natalie.

‘Stop pulling those faces,’ said Rachel.

‘What faces?’ Shali asked, pulling in her cheeks like she was sucking something very sour. Natalie followed suit, screwing her nose up like a pig. They then both collapsed on the sofa in fits of giggles.

Rachel grinned at them. ‘Guys, please, get a grip. I’ve only just started!’

‘Sorry,’ said Natalie, gathering her composure. She pulled Shali upright on the sofa and they both sat very still as Rachel continued.

It took well over two hours and a mountain of Chinese takeaway for Rachel to get to a point where Natalie felt that she could stop. She’d been through the whole presentation three or four times with Shali and Natalie firing questions at her.

‘And so, Miss Altman, just to conclude, what are your views on penis enlargement?’ Natalie asked.

‘I’m definitely all for it, particularly after a few glasses of wine,’ said Rachel, picking up the glass of wine in front of her.

‘I’ll drink to that,’ said Shali, raising her glass.

The three of them clinked glasses and then burst out laughing.

‘Well, there’s no doubt that you know your stuff,’ said Natalie, catching her breath.

‘You think?’ Rachel asked, still needing plenty of reassurance.