for the deal advisers, bankers, lawyers, et cetera. You guys need to be there to give us an update on your progress. I’ll email you the details. Is that alright?’
‘Yes, no problem,’ said Rachel.
‘Good, I’ll see you then.’ And he left, shutting the door behind him.
‘Why on the earth did you tell him that wedding story?’ AJ said. ‘He’ll think that I’m a right loser now who mixes with a load of druggies!’
‘I’m so sorry, it was just the first wedding joke that came to mind. Anyway, you weren’t exactly leaping in to help and I could hardly tell him that we were laughing at you saying vaginoplasty.’
As she said it AJ winced and they started laughing all over again.
‘Oh dear, we’ve got to get a grip,’ said Rachel, wiping a tear from her eye. ‘We really can’t start laughing every time we talk about these things. We need to be professional about it.’
‘I think we need some practice,’ said Rosa.
Yes, we really do, thought Rachel, with an all-party meeting in a few days’ time.
The rest of the day flew past as they worked through the rest of the information they had.
‘I think we’re just about ready to start interviewing the doctors,’ Rachel said. ‘I still need to go through these papers, but I’ll take them home with me tonight and finish them.’
That evening, Harry was in the kitchen in Rachel’s flat cooking pasta while she was working at her desk. Rachel had the pile of ‘other’ invoices that Rosa had pulled out from the filing cabinets and she was going through them, separating out those that were for breast augmentation. She started putting the cost for each one into the analysis of average cost per procedure that she’d prepared earlier. As she did, she began to notice that the cost of each one was much higher than those she’d taken from the normal records. Some were as high as nine thousand pounds. Rachel took out her notebook and checked the list prices for breast augmentation. The highest list price was five and a half grand. Why would they be charging so much above the list price? These were just records that hadn’t been coded properly. There would be no reason for them to have different prices to any other records.
Harry peered over her shoulder. ‘What are you doing?’ he asked. He picked up an invoice. ‘Breast augmentation? I assume that’s a boob job. Eight thousand seven hundred quid! Wow, that’s not cheap!’
‘Put that down,’ said Rachel. ‘And yes, it is expensive, which is a bit odd actually. It’s more than it should be.’
‘And they paid in cash,’ said Harry, putting the invoice down. ‘Flash gits.’
Rachel picked the invoice up and looked at it. He was quite right. In the method of payment box it simply said ‘cash’. She picked up a few more invoices and looked at them. They were all paid in cash too. How often did people pay for this sort of thing in cash? That didn’t seem right. Rachel sighed and leant back in her chair, stretching her neck and back. It was gone nine p.m. and supper was ready. She’d look into it in the morning.
The first thing Rachel did when she got into Beau Street the next day was to look at the other sales records that had the procedures properly noted on them. Not a single one had been paid in cash. Maybe this was another computer glitch caused by the new system. Rachel took a couple of cash paid invoices and headed to the accounts department. Tom had introduced her to most of the team and she was pretty sure which one of them looked after the cash books. She approached a smiley lady in her fifties who was sitting at a desk near the window.
‘Hi, Chris,’ said Rachel in a friendly tone. ‘I’ve got a couple of invoices here that say they were paid in cash. We’ve had a few bits of information missing that may be down to when you moved onto the new computer system. I just wanted to check whether these were actually cash payments. Can you have a look for me?’
‘Sure,’ said
‘Yes, no problem,’ said Rachel.
‘Good, I’ll see you then.’ And he left, shutting the door behind him.
‘Why on the earth did you tell him that wedding story?’ AJ said. ‘He’ll think that I’m a right loser now who mixes with a load of druggies!’
‘I’m so sorry, it was just the first wedding joke that came to mind. Anyway, you weren’t exactly leaping in to help and I could hardly tell him that we were laughing at you saying vaginoplasty.’
As she said it AJ winced and they started laughing all over again.
‘Oh dear, we’ve got to get a grip,’ said Rachel, wiping a tear from her eye. ‘We really can’t start laughing every time we talk about these things. We need to be professional about it.’
‘I think we need some practice,’ said Rosa.
Yes, we really do, thought Rachel, with an all-party meeting in a few days’ time.
The rest of the day flew past as they worked through the rest of the information they had.
‘I think we’re just about ready to start interviewing the doctors,’ Rachel said. ‘I still need to go through these papers, but I’ll take them home with me tonight and finish them.’
That evening, Harry was in the kitchen in Rachel’s flat cooking pasta while she was working at her desk. Rachel had the pile of ‘other’ invoices that Rosa had pulled out from the filing cabinets and she was going through them, separating out those that were for breast augmentation. She started putting the cost for each one into the analysis of average cost per procedure that she’d prepared earlier. As she did, she began to notice that the cost of each one was much higher than those she’d taken from the normal records. Some were as high as nine thousand pounds. Rachel took out her notebook and checked the list prices for breast augmentation. The highest list price was five and a half grand. Why would they be charging so much above the list price? These were just records that hadn’t been coded properly. There would be no reason for them to have different prices to any other records.
Harry peered over her shoulder. ‘What are you doing?’ he asked. He picked up an invoice. ‘Breast augmentation? I assume that’s a boob job. Eight thousand seven hundred quid! Wow, that’s not cheap!’
‘Put that down,’ said Rachel. ‘And yes, it is expensive, which is a bit odd actually. It’s more than it should be.’
‘And they paid in cash,’ said Harry, putting the invoice down. ‘Flash gits.’
Rachel picked the invoice up and looked at it. He was quite right. In the method of payment box it simply said ‘cash’. She picked up a few more invoices and looked at them. They were all paid in cash too. How often did people pay for this sort of thing in cash? That didn’t seem right. Rachel sighed and leant back in her chair, stretching her neck and back. It was gone nine p.m. and supper was ready. She’d look into it in the morning.
The first thing Rachel did when she got into Beau Street the next day was to look at the other sales records that had the procedures properly noted on them. Not a single one had been paid in cash. Maybe this was another computer glitch caused by the new system. Rachel took a couple of cash paid invoices and headed to the accounts department. Tom had introduced her to most of the team and she was pretty sure which one of them looked after the cash books. She approached a smiley lady in her fifties who was sitting at a desk near the window.
‘Hi, Chris,’ said Rachel in a friendly tone. ‘I’ve got a couple of invoices here that say they were paid in cash. We’ve had a few bits of information missing that may be down to when you moved onto the new computer system. I just wanted to check whether these were actually cash payments. Can you have a look for me?’
‘Sure,’ said
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