Never Mind The Botox: Rachel Read online

  Rachel wasn’t sure what to say. ‘Well, I’m sure he did, at that moment, but it’s all a bit different in the cold light of day.’

  Shali didn’t say anything.

  ‘Anyway, I think it was a pretty crap thing to do. He’s not a free agent, so you need to forget about him and move on, okay?’

  ‘Guess so,’ said Shali.

  ‘I mean it, Shali. It’s not going anywhere.’

  ‘Fine, fine,’ said Shali. ‘Is that it? Lecture over?’

  ‘Yes, that’s it,’ said Rachel.

  ‘Well, I’d better get on then,’ said Shali.

  ‘Me too,’ said Rachel and left the room.

  She headed off in the direction of Carl Stephen’s office. He was just walking along the corridor back to his office as she arrived.

  ‘Hi, Carl, how are you?’

  ‘Oh, you know, alright,’ he said, smiling at her.

  Not too bad a reaction, thought Rachel. She took a deep breath. ‘Look, Carl, I’m really sorry about Saturday night and my brother being a bit stumbling drunk. He’s really not usually like that. He was just a bit, well, overtired.’

  ‘Oh don’t worry about it,’ said Carl. ‘I remember when we had our first baby, bit of a culture shock.’

  ‘Yes, I think it has been. It all just caught up with him a bit. Did your wife enjoy herself?’

  Rachel looked at Carl’s face: not a flicker of a reaction.

  ‘Yes she did, thanks. It’s always nice for other halves to be able to put faces to the names they hear about so much.’

  Rachel was relieved. It didn’t seem like Rowan’s comments had caused any big problems.

  ‘Good, I’m off to lunch soon − not that far away from Beau Street, actually. Maybe I should pop in afterwards and have a look at the latest version of our report?’ Carl asked.

  ‘Oh gosh, I’m not sure we’re quite ready for you yet. Maybe in a couple more days. Going anywhere nice?’

  ‘The Brook Hotel. Do you know it?’

  Rachel was a bit taken aback by the mention of the hotel. She tried hard not to show it. ‘Er, yes, a bit. Quite good I’ve heard.’

  ‘Yes it is, one of my favourites actually.’

  ‘Oh right,’ said Rachel. She had no idea how else to respond.

  ‘Anyway, let me know what time works for you and I’ll start having a look through the report,’ said Carl.

  ‘Yes, I will,’ said Rachel.

  Carl went into his office and Rachel went back to her desk. Was he meeting Audrey again? Maybe she should find out.

  Chapter 9

  It was nearly lunchtime by the time Rachel got out to Beau Street. As she arrived, the security guard stuck his head out of his office.

  ‘Morning, Ms Altman. How are you today?’

  ‘Yes, fine thanks. You?’

  ‘Mustn’t grumble,’ he said. ‘Mind you, forecast is for rain later. Make sure you have a brolly with you when you leave.’

  What was it with him and the weather? Rachel thought. It was probably just his way of making conversation. She didn’t have an umbrella with her but thought it best not to mention it.

  ‘Thank you for letting me know. I’ll make sure I do that,’ she replied.

  AJ and Rosa were in the project room working on a draft of their report.

  ‘Hi, guys. How’s it going? Did you enjoy the summer party?’ Rachel asked.

  ‘Yes, we had a great time, thanks,’ said Rosa. ‘Really good night. The disco was fab. You couldn’t get old AJ here off the dance floor.’

  ‘Luckily I was surrounded by people who couldn’t dance either, so it wasn’t too obvious I was rubbish,’ said AJ.

  ‘Yes it was!’ said Rosa. ‘You were the only one sliding across the dance floor on your knees playing an air guitar.’

  ‘Hey, that’s a cool move. Everyone loves a bit of air guitar.’

  ‘I heard there was some gossip too,’ said Rosa.

  ‘Really, what?’ Rachel asked.

  ‘Well apparently someone overheard one of the bar staff saying that they’d seen a couple from our party sneaking off into one of the side rooms. They were all having a right laugh about it.’

  ‘Who was it?’ said AJ.

  ‘I don’t know. Everyone’s dying to find out,’ said Rosa.

  ‘You know, the partners take a really dim view of that sort of thing at work events. After all, they’re paying for everything. Hardly professional. I bet they’ll want to know who it was,’ said AJ.

  Rachel sat down. God, Shali would be mortified; she was bound to hear the story. Rachel wasn’t going to be the one to tell her and there was no point telling Rowan. She really didn’t need to get embroiled in some office scandal but it was a bit hard to avoid when one of the people involved was her brother.

  ‘That’s awful,’ said Rachel, thinking aloud.

  ‘It’s not awful; it serves them right,’ said AJ. ‘They should pay for a room like everybody else.’

  AJ and Rosa both laughed.

  Rachel thought she’d better change the subject. ‘I saw Carl in the office this morning and he was talking about reviewing the report. When shall I tell him it might be ready?’

  ‘I need at least a few more days,’ said AJ.

  ‘Me too,’ said Rosa.

  ‘Okay, I’ll tell him next week, but we need to crack on. He needs to agree everything before we present to Equinox.’

  Rachel felt a bit guilty that she’d spent all morning trying to paper over the cracks from the summer party and not working on her part of the report. ‘I had a few things to sort out in the office this morning from one of my other projects, so I’ll stay a bit later this evening to catch up,’ she said.

  The others nodded.

  ‘But I’ve just got a couple of things to follow up on from my meetings last week, so I’m going for wander to see a few people. Back in a bit,’ said Rachel.

  She wanted to see if Audrey Fox was in. She walked down towards her desk; it was empty. One of the other nurses was working at a nearby desk.

  ‘Excuse me, is Audrey Fox in, do you know?’ Rachel asked.

  ‘She’s out for lunch,’ replied the nurse.

  ‘Oh, okay. What time is she expected back?’

  ‘I think she’s picking up some lab results after lunch, so she said she’d be back in around four o’ clock. Can I take a message for you?’

  ‘No, that’s okay. I’ll pop back later.’

  I bet she’s with Carl, thought Rachel. Now what should she do? She really had no idea.

  Not much was said that afternoon as Rachel, AJ and Rosa worked hard assimilating the information they’d been given and drafting sections of their report.

  ‘My section reads pretty well,’ said AJ. ‘The business has been doing well, plenty of growth in some of these newer procedures. The doctors I spoke to were all pretty confident that the market for this sort of cosmetic surgery was on the up. You’ve only got to pick up a newspaper or magazine to see what they mean − it’s everywhere.’

  Rachel’s analysis looked good too. Lloyd Cassidy did stand out as being a bit of a star, but there was nothing wrong with that. The buyers would be delighted to have a doctor whose reputation meant he could charge more than everyone else.

  AJ and Rosa started packing up their things shortly after six o’ clock. Rachel stayed at her desk working for another hour. She finished writing quite a long section and decided to get a cup of coffee. Most of the offices were empty as she wandered down the corridor. The coffee machine was in the same room as the photocopier, a small room crowded full of boxes and notices reminding people to keep the sink clean. The machine spat out a sludgy looking drink in a brownish-yellow plastic cup. Rachel stood for a few minutes warming her hands on the cup, reading a poster about the charity fun run that Beau Street were having later that month. As she did, she heard voices and a door bang not far away. Who was still here? she wondered.

  Rachel w
alked down the corridor in the opposite direction to where she’d come from, towards the doctors’ offices. The offices were separated by glass partitions and she could see a light on in Lloyd Cassidy’s office. As she got closer she could hear Lloyd talking to someone.

  ‘She’ll be here in a few minutes. I told her to ring my mobile when she’s outside, so then you can pop down and get her,’ said Lloyd.

  ‘Yes, no problem,’ said a smooth voice that Rachel instantly recognised as belonging to Audrey Fox.

  Rachel walked quietly into an office not quite opposite Lloyd’s. The light in that office was off and she could see quite clearly into Lloyd’s. She was pretty sure they wouldn’t be able to see her but she stood behind the coat stand just in case. Why am I hiding? she thought. She didn’t know why; it just seemed like the right thing to do. After a few moments, she heard a mobile phone ring.

  ‘Lloyd Cassidy.’ There was a short pause, then, ‘Ah, Francesca darling, well done, you found us. My assistant will be right down to let you in.’

  Audrey hurried off in the direction of the lifts. After a few minutes Rachel heard the lift doors open and two female voices talking. She could tell one was Audrey but she also recognised the other voice. Surely it wasn’t going to be someone she knew; that would be too weird. As they walked past her and into Lloyd’s office Rachel tried to get a good look at the other woman. She was wearing a white trench coat with the collar turned up and sunglasses. Her long, brown hair bobbed from side to side as she walked. Rachel was sure she knew her. Francesca, that’s what Lloyd had said. She racked her brains. Who did she know called Francesca? She couldn’t think of anyone.

  She watched as the three of them sat down in Lloyd’s office. Audrey shut the door so she couldn’t hear what was being said but she could still see them quite clearly. After a few minutes of the woman talking, Lloyd took off her sunglasses and began examining her face. Rachel watched as he spun her chair round to the side so he could look at her profile, putting her face into full view. Rachel’s hand flew to her mouth. Oh my God! It was Francesca Hart, the actress. How could she have been so stupid! No wonder she looked familiar. She was only one of the most photographed women in the world. Wow, not a hint of a celebrity anywhere and now suddenly a serious A-lister!

  By the looks of it, she was booking in for a nose job. Lloyd spent a few minutes taking photographs of her face and then Francesca opened her bag and took out a large brown envelope and handed it to Audrey. As Audrey opened it, Rachel could see it was full of cash. Lloyd got up from his desk and took a key out from under a small square vase on his mantelpiece. He used it to unlock one of the large drawers in his pedestal desk and took out a black leather book. The three of them were deep in conversation and there was lots of nodding as Lloyd carefully wrote things down in the black book. That book must be some form of manual record, thought Rachel.

  Eventually they finished talking and Lloyd put the book and the envelope of cash back in the drawer. He locked it and put the key back under the vase. Francesca got up to leave and Lloyd opened the door.

  ‘You’re welcome, my dear. It’s no trouble at all,’ he said.

  Audrey disappeared with Francesca, presumably to show the actress out of the building, and then came back. Lloyd and Audrey stood talking for a few minutes. They spoke very quietly and Rachel couldn’t hear what they were saying. Then they put their coats on and left.

  Rachel sat down on the desk chair in the office she was in. She really wanted to see what was in that black book. But what if she got caught? She had no right to start sneaking around people’s offices. She walked up and down the corridor a few times. There was nobody in any of the offices. It would only take her a couple of minutes to have a look at that book.

  Before she had time to think about it too hard, she slipped into Lloyd’s office. She took the key from under the vase and opened the drawer in his desk. Her hands were shaking as she opened the book. On each page were several columns of neatly written information. The first column contained a name, as did the second column. The next three columns contained details of different procedures, dates and amounts. She turned to the latest entry. It read: ‘Francesca Hart, Sarah Riley, rhinoplasty, 25 May, £6,500’.

  So they were recording that Francesca Hart was having a nose job in May costing six and a half grand, but who was Sarah Riley? Rachel couldn’t make the link. Perhaps it was another client who’d recommended Lloyd, or maybe it was someone else at Beau Street who was going to help. She would need to check both the client and staff records in the morning.

  She quickly ran round to the photocopier and copied a couple of pages of the book so she had a few more entries to check out. Then she put the book back, locked up and scarpered back to their project room. She sat down, caught her breath and then looked at the photocopied pages. Was there anything wrong in keeping this sort of record? She couldn’t think immediately that there was, but she was sure that something wasn’t right. She packed up and headed to the lift. She pressed the lift button, but nothing happened. She then noticed the card reader at the side of the lift with a notice that said ‘Please use out of office hours’. She put her temporary pass against the card reader. It didn’t work. Shit!

  She decided to try the stairs. There was no card reader on the staircase. As she trotted down the stairs she could hear the rain outside. The security guy had been right: she was going to get soaked. She got to the double doors at the bottom of the staircase where there was a large sign saying ‘For emergency use only’. Did that mean the door was alarmed? She’d better not go that way.

  She turned round, went up one floor and left the stairwell. There must be another way off the floor. She found another staircase and headed down that one. At the end she got to a single door with a push bar on it. There was no emergency use only sign. She put her hands against the glass and peered out of the door into the rain. The door led into the central office courtyard. Was there a way out from there? She couldn’t remember.

  She gently opened the door and nothing happened, so she wedged her briefcase in the doorway to stop the door shutting and sprinted round the courtyard looking for a way out. The puddles splashed water over her legs and the rain hurt her face. Where the fuck was the way out of this place! There were no external doors in the courtyard, so she came back inside. This was a nightmare. How hard could it be to get out of a building? She would just have to go out of the emergency doors. To hell with it.

  She went back to the main staircase and through the double doors. She pushed the handle and the instant she did so the alarm went off. She felt an overwhelming desire to run but instead she shut the door behind her and walked slowly out into the car park. She was at the back of the building, so she started walking round to the front. She was cold and her hair was beginning to drip. She was just thinking that things couldn’t get much worse when she saw the security guard running towards her with a torch. Shit!

  ‘The alarm’s gone off!’ he shouted.

  ‘Yes, I can hear it,’ said Rachel, trying to look calm.

  ‘You’re working rather late.’

  ‘Got a deadline to meet. You know how it is,’ said Rachel, waiting for him to ask her how she’d got there. He didn’t.

  ‘And look at you, you’re soaked. I told you that you needed a brolly,’ he said.

  ‘Yes you did, and as usual you were absolutely right.’

  The security guard beamed. ‘Well, truth is, I’ve always wanted to be a weather man, like one of those ones on the television. I read up on the weather all the time. This job just pays the bills. One day I’m going to get there.’

  Rachel suddenly understood all that theatrical waving by the location map when they’d first arrived. He’d been practising! He had no chance of ever becoming a weather man but this didn’t seem like the time for giving out career advice.

  ‘I’m sure you will,’ said Rachel, squeezing his damp arm.

  ‘Right, better go and see what’s set this dam
n alarm off before the police get here,’ he said.

  The police! Rachel hadn’t thought about that. She’d better get out of there before they arrived. It had clearly not occurred to the security guard that she’d set the alarm off. The police were unlikely to be as stupid.

  ‘Well, good luck sorting out the alarm. See you tomorrow,’ said Rachel.

  ‘Good night, Ms Altman,’ said the security guard. ‘And it should be sunnier tomorrow.’

  God, I hope so, thought Rachel.

  Chapter 10

  The next evening, Rachel was sitting down in a wine bar not far from Beau Street with a bottle of wine and two glasses when Rowan arrived.

  ‘You look exhausted,’ she said.

  ‘Not sleeping well,’ Rowan replied.

  ‘Naomi still waking you up?’ Rachel asked.

  ‘Actually, she’s sleeping quite a bit better now,’ said Rowan. ‘I’m just having problems getting off − you know, lots on my mind. Typical, isn’t it? Just as Naomi starts sleeping better, something else comes along to stress me out instead.’

  Rachel resisted saying that he only had himself to blame. But he’d sounded pretty stressed when he rang, which is why she’d agreed to meet when she should have been working late.

  ‘Has Laura noticed anything?’ Rachel asked.

  ‘Only me falling over myself to be nice to her,’ said Rowan. ‘Sometimes I think she should be able to smell the guilt on me, it feels that obvious. But she just thinks I’m making an effort, which I guess I am.’

  ‘So you haven’t told her?’

  ‘No, not yet anyway. I’m going to see how it goes. Hopefully I can get things back on track without having to.’

  Rowan didn’t look that optimistic.

  ‘I’m sure you can,’ Rachel said. ‘Did you speak to her about going away?’

  ‘Yes, actually I did. She was surprisingly positive about it. In fact she seemed totally amazed that I’d even suggested it and when I gave her the spiel about wanting to spend more time with her on her own she was totally bowled over.’