Never Mind The Botox: Rachel Read Online Free PDF Page A

south-westerly earlier, but it’s dropped now. Shouldn’t be any rain either, so that’s good.’
    From inside his room Rachel could hear a radio, a lady’s voice reading slowly what sounded rather like the shipping forecasts but it was probably just the news. The security guard was a twinkly sort of guy in his sixties, the sort who’d probably worked there for twenty-five years and would soon be joining the carriage clock generation.
    ‘Now, who are you here for?’ He spoke to her as if she was a small child.
    ‘Beau Street Group.’
    ‘Ah yes, let me show you where to go.’ He moved over to where there was a map of the building on the wall and stood by it, slightly to one side, facing her. He coughed slightly as if he was about to start a speech. ‘Now, you are here,’ he said, waving his arm in a theatrical manner towards a large red ‘You are here’ arrow on the map. ‘You need to proceed across the lobby to the reception desk, where you can sign in, here.’ He turned his hand and ran the back of his fingers across the map and then tapped his finger on the square box marked ‘Reception’.
    ‘What, that reception desk over there?’ Rachel asked, pointing to the reception desk that was in full view about twenty feet away.
    ‘Precisely,’ said the security guard.
    ‘Thank you very much,’ said Rachel, rather bemused as to why they had needed the whole map on the wall presentation thing. ‘I’ll, er, just walk over there, shall I?’
    ‘Yes, you do that.’
    ‘Thanks,’ said Rachel and walked over to a striking but slightly scary looking receptionist.
    ‘Can I help you?’ the receptionist said, tossing her hair slightly as she spoke. Her smile looked slightly lopsided and Rachel suddenly had an overwhelming urge to leap across the desk and peer at her face for signs of surgery. She resisted.
    ‘Yes, thank you. I’m Rachel Altman from Payne Stanley, here to see the finance director, Tom Duffy. He should be expecting me.’
    ‘Take a seat. I’ll let him know you’re here.’
    ‘I’m just waiting for two colleagues,’ said Rachel. ‘They should be here in a few minutes. I’m slightly early.’
    She sat down and looked around. If the reception was anything to go by, the offices were going to be lovely. The surfaces were adorned with opulent flower arrangements and the decor was deep red with heavily textured wallpaper. The seats in the waiting area were a mix of finely upholstered chairs and soft leather sofas. Small boxes of leaflets advertising various miracle treatments sat on the coffee table, next to a neat pile of beauty magazines. Rachel sat and flicked through one, listening to the quiet hiss of the air conditioning while she waited for the other two to arrive.
    AJ arrived first, shortly followed by Rosa. By the time they’d all signed in, Tom Duffy had arrived in reception. He walked over to them and looked at each of them in turn. Rachel could see that he wasn’t quite sure which of them was in charge, so she quickly stepped forward and held out her hand.
    ‘Hello, Rachel Altman, very nice to meet you, Tom. Can I introduce my team: Alistair James, but everyone calls him AJ, and this is Rosa Castelli.’
    ‘Hello, welcome to the Beau Street Group,’ Tom said, smiling at them and gesturing towards the small lift behind reception. ‘Let’s go up, shall we.’
    The three of them followed Tom into the lifts, up and into a meeting room.
    ‘Can I get you some coffee?’ Tom asked.
    ‘That would be great, thanks,’ said Rachel.
    After the obligatory tea party, they all eventually sat down.
    ‘I understand that you and Carl Stephens have known each other quite a long time,’ said Rachel.
    ‘Yes, probably ten years or more now,’ said Tom. ‘We’ve worked together a few times before. How much has Carl told you about this job?’
    ‘He’s given us the basic briefing and we’ve seen the email you sent, but it would be great to hear it from you directly,’ said