Minnie Chase Makes a Mistake Read online

  ‘You’re in shock,’ soothed Angie. ‘I’ll get you a blanket.’

  James George’s penis puppetry performance was tattooed onto Minnie’s mind. She knew she would be forever haunted by the exhibition. Talk about the night from hell, she thought despairingly.

  She brought Angie up to speed starting from the moment she flung open the bedroom door.

  ‘The noise…‘ she bent over the dog bowl as her stomach heaved dramatically although she wasn’t actually sick. ‘…The woman… was a… screamer.’

  Angie looked momentarily alarmed. ‘Are you sure she was okay?’

  Minnie groaned. ‘More than okay. She was ecstatic.’ Minnie pictured the scene. ‘Even though she was making that horrendous sound that reminded me of a guinea pig being eaten by a fox.’

  ‘Don’t be silly, how would you know what that…’ said Angie fearfully, her voice tailing off.

  Minnie nodded. ‘Next door neighbour’s pet.’

  Angie paled. The evening was going from bad to worse.

  The two friends sat in stunned silence for a moment.

  ‘James George, really?’ Angie’s shock was understandable. It was completely out of character. James was a code breaker not a heart breaker.

  ‘Yes. Really,’ cried Minnie. She sat with her head in her hands, inches from the dog bowl. ‘He was punching way above his weight, too. She was absolutely gorgeous.’

  ‘You’re gorgeous,’ said Angie, crossly. ‘Don’t put yourself down.’

  ‘I’m barely average,’ reasoned Minnie. ‘I’m sensible not flexible.’

  ‘Minnie, stop this.’

  ‘This was proper gorgeous.’

  ‘Really?’ Angie looked doubtful. ‘Perhaps he paid this for sex.’

  ‘Is this supposed to make me feel better?’ asked Minnie miserably, suddenly suffocatingly hot underneath Angie’s blanket. ‘Because it’s not working.’

  ‘Damn, men should be given out in sample sizes,’ ranted Angie. ‘Like those small tubes of toothpaste. It would be good to trial them first before we invest in the real thing. Save so much time and trouble later.’

  Minnie didn’t respond, too stricken to voice an opinion.

  ‘You should cry,’ urged Angie, looking concerned. ‘Let it all out.’

  ‘I harden and freeze, remember?’ sniffed Minnie, shocked and dry-eyed. ‘Quantum rules of physics.’

  Angie raised an eyebrow and said, ‘Really? Because it looks like you’re sweating profusely to me.’

  Minnie continued to talk Angie through the bedroom scene in graphic frame-by-frame detail – ‘James George and Medusa: The Director’s Cut’. She needed to expel the words as forcibly as one would exorcise an evil spirit. She could feel a leaden lump in her gut. Minnie ploughed on, desperate to rid her body of the images from the adulterous horror show. She knew she had to do this, now, before they became a part of her and she felt possessed and demonic herself. Angie listened, horribly fascinated but visibly shocked as Minnie recaptured the scene in painstakingly excruciating detail from distinguishing birth marks to hair extensions.

  Angie frowned, furious. The more she heard, the angrier she got.

  There was a moment’s silence as Minnie ended the description with her fleeing the scene, shoeless and breathless, into the silvery-grey summer night.

  Angie jumped to her feet scattering animals. ‘I’m going round there,’ she seethed.

  ‘No! Please,’ begged Minnie. ‘It will make it worse.’

  ‘Worse? What could possibly be worse than what you’ve just been put through?’

  ‘No more drama. Please.’

  Angie flounced around the room. ‘I just hate it that James George did this to you. I could bloody kill him.’

  Minnie started to speak but the words came out as a gurgling sound.

  ‘It’s not right,’ continued Angie. ‘It’s despicable behaviour.’

  ‘Please don’t go,’ begged Minnie.

  Angie sat back down, lips pursed. ‘What the hell was he thinking?’

  Minnie shivered, face still hovering over the dog bowl.

  ‘Did you recognise the woman?’

  Minnie shook her head.

  ‘What if I phone James George instead?’

  ‘And say what?’

  ‘You don’t need to know the details.’

  ‘What’s the use?’ said Minnie wearily, suddenly exhausted.

  ‘Death threats are often effective.’

  ‘Let him suffer in silence,’ pleaded Minnie. ‘For now.’

  Angie opened her mouth to suggest more immediate cut-throat action but Minnie looked so incredibly sad and weary that she couldn’t put her friend through any more misery.

  ‘I’ll stay right here,’ Angie soothed. ‘It’s okay. And I promise I won’t phone him.’

  ‘Thank you,’ whispered Minnie.

  ‘But I do hate to see how much he has hurt you.’ Angie was fiercely protective over her friends, and her animals.’

  Minnie’s eyes welled up. It was the closest she had come to crying in a long time. ‘Why did he do it?’ she asked. ‘I don’t understand.’

  Angie shrugged and said, ‘He didn’t plan on getting caught.’

  There was a sad silence until one of Angie’s latest rescue dogs exhaled noisily as he nuzzled his head under Minnie’s hand. He was a cappuccino color with tight curls and long ears; a large, unrecognisable crossbreed, possibly half poodle, probably half wolf, with the saddest eyes in the world.

  Angie tried to take Minnie’s mind off her recent horrors. ‘Meet Colin,’ she said. ‘Recently divorced from his family of four years when a brand new baby arrived on the scene.’

  Angie continued, ‘Colin has Irritable Growl Syndrome. Whenever he sees a pram or glimpses a baby, it brings out the worst in him. He does this rumble growl that sounds alarming but it never gets more aggressive than that. He’s a good dog but you don’t take chances.’

  Minnie rubbed behind the dog’s ears and he moved closer to her, his entire dead weight slumped against her leg. ‘Hello Colin. You look how I feel,’ she said.

  Colin’s head sank further onto his chest. Minnie slid off the sofa and sat on the floor beside him, arms around him so he could lean more comfortably into her.

  ‘The nanny tipped me off in the park,’ explained Angie. ‘She told me that Colin was heading to the…’ she dramatically drew a finger across her throat and her tongue fell from her mouth.

  Horrified, Minnie tightened her grip on the depressed dog.

  Angie read her thoughts. ‘So much for working through our problems.’

  Minnie closed her eyes and thought about James George. ‘How could I not know? I must have been too wrapped up in work.’

  ‘Excuse me,’ snapped Angie. ‘How is this your fault?’

  Minnie prayed that what she had witnessed was only a one-night stand but she imagined the worst. ‘Maybe he’s in love with her.’ Angie could hear the desperation in her voice.

  ‘Or maybe he’s just a loser?’ responded Angie, making an L shape with finger and thumb.

  Minnie rested her chin on Colin’s head. ‘I want to hate him…’

  ‘Stop thinking, Minnie. Unplug your head for a minute.’

  Minnie looked up, stricken. ‘Oh, Angie, there’s more. I haven’t told you what happened at The Savoy.’

  ‘Sweet Jesus, there’s more?’ Angie immediately marched to the fridge and grabbed a bottle of wine. She balanced it between two large glasses and returned to the sofa, sitting down heavily. Immediately a cat gracefully jumped onto her lap and a carpet of small dogs formed around her feet.

  Then Minnie relived the horror show with Greene. She flashed back to the start of the evening at The Savoy. Her voice was now becoming hoarse, a result of all the talking and the screaming over the course of her terrible, disastrous evening.

  ‘Angie, he was devastated,’ whispered Minnie. She pictured Ashton Greene’s stricken face. His poker face had suffered a five-second delay during wh
ich time hidden horror beamed out from his eyes, lighthouse bright. It confirmed to her that she had been right about the Parkinson’s. He knew. She knew. No one else did. Until now.

  Angie glugged at her wine while she listened. ‘Holy shit. That’s what I call a big reveal.’

  ‘The worst.’

  ‘Did he say anything?’

  ‘Not a word. He left the table.’ Minnie remembered how Greene had vanished in an instant with sorcerer speed. ‘It happened so fast.’

  ‘But it’s not exactly scandalous though, is it?’ Angie reasoned. ‘It’s not like he fathered a love child or had a sex change and forgot to mention it to his famous fiancée. It isn’t a crime to get sick.’

  ‘People like Greene are supposed to be invincible.’

  ‘Shit happens.’

  ‘I’m responsible.’

  ‘Mother Nature is.’

  ‘He could have been hiding the disease for years.’

  ‘You don’t know that.’

  ‘Would you like the people in your life to find out before you had talked to them about it? ’

  ‘Hell, no.’

  Minnie nodded. Angie was always honest with her.

  ‘What happened next?’ asked Angie, encouraging but clearly intrigued.

  ‘I was forcibly removed by security. Then I couldn’t get home fast enough.’

  ‘And found James George?’

  ‘Yes. Divine retribution.’

  ‘Night from hell.’

  ‘Sleep here tonight. Tomorrow. Forever. Do whatever you want to do.’

  Minnie dug her knuckles into her eyes. ‘James George doesn’t love me. The wedding is off. I’m going to lose my job.’

  Angie leaned over and gripped Minnie’s shoulders. She couldn’t put a positive spin on James George so she said instead, ‘You haven’t been fired.’

  ‘I will be.’

  ‘Go into the office tomorrow and put up a fight.’ Angie warmed to her theme. ‘You are brilliant at what you do.’

  ‘No one is irreplaceable.’

  ‘You need your job, Minnie,’ said Angie softly. ‘Not just financially. The structure, the routine… it has taken you seven years to get to a good place in your career, in your life. Please don’t give up.’

  ‘I was on my final warning,’ explained Minnie, helplessly. ‘I’ve blown a multi-million dollar deal. What normal person would do that? How do you come back from that?’

  ‘You didn’t do it deliberately.’

  ‘It makes no difference.’

  ‘Don’t give up.’

  ‘I don’t feel well.’ She wasn’t used to alcohol. The wine was now an acidic, fluttering kite turning somersaults in her stomach.

  ‘Bed,’ ordered Angie. She returned from the kitchen with a glass of water and two paracetamol. ‘Sleep, wake, then we’ll work out a plan of attack in the morning.’

  ‘Thank you,’ whispered Minnie and she went to the bathroom, took the tablets, cleaned her teeth and then headed for the bedroom. To her surprise she found Colin lying across the bottom of her bed.

  Someone else didn’t want to be alone tonight.

  At first light, Minnie left the house dressed in some of her best friend’s clothes, the taffeta dress discarded in a heap at the bottom of the bed. Sleep had taunted her from a distance, forcing her to lie awake until dawn seeing faces in shadows cast from Angie’s bedroom furniture. The tortured faces reminded Minnie of the double nightmare from the night before. There would be no waking up from this bad dream.

  She reassured Colin before she left the house that Angie would be good to him. The dog listened intently, head to one side and seemed less distressed than the night before, which is more than could be said for Minnie.

  She arrived at work at 6am to find A.A Jones and Ross Brown already in the office, like a two-headed bull shark waiting to devour her.

  Ross Brown was buzzing about, peering at documents on people’s desks and no doubt looking at stuff that didn’t concern him. He was over-caffeinated and hyperactive, appearing at Minnie’s desk the minute she sat down. His slick, pet robot moves as drone-like and automatic as ever.

  ‘Didn’t you die and go to hell last night?’ he asked, eyes over-bright. He scooted back and forth in front of the desk, a hungry crow about to peck her.

  ‘I do not wish to discuss this with YOU,’ yelled Minnie, nerves bringing out an uncharacteristic bad-tempered outburst. She stood up and elbowed him out of the way as she marched in the direction of A.A Jones’s office.

  ‘Do not disturb her!’ Brown danced after her, hissing out his command. ‘She doesn’t want to see…’

  Minnie wasn’t listening.

  Then she was standing in front of A.A Jones’s desk once more. So much had happened since yesterday.

  A.A Jones continued to look at her computer screen with the quiet intensity of someone staring into a crystal ball watching an apocalyptic future unfold.

  ‘I will contact Greene. I will go to his hotel at once and apologise,’ said Minnie hurriedly, even though A.A Jones still refused to acknowledge her presence. Minnie could feel her gut twisting but she managed to keep her voice on the level.

  A.A Jones’s left hand balled into a fist. The first outward sign that she was aware of Minnie’s presence.

  ‘I’ll arrange a breakfast meeting. I’ll go… over the next stages… the deal…’ continued Minnie before chugging to a stop because A.A Jones was now looking at her – a symbiotic connection between the thoughts inside her head and the narrowing of her eyes. She generated enough hot hate to ignite Minnie and start a fire in the room.

  Then A.A Jones spoke through tight lips. Her speech was slow and glacial, at odds with her incandescent glare.

  ‘There. Is. No. Deal. Greene has gone to ground. He has disappeared off the face of the earth. I’ve been up all night trying to contact him.’

  Minnie’s eyes flickered shut, worst fears confirmed. Greene didn’t sign the paperwork. She felt lightheaded and nauseous but forced herself to maintain focus knowing she had to retain control. ‘I can fix this,’ she said.

  ‘You can’t fix this,’ whispered A.A Jones, large pupils turning her tired eyes black. ‘Jones & Sword has spent months and months on this project and you have singlehandedly destroyed the hard work and efforts of everyone in the team.’ The words dripped with sulphurous rage. A.A Jones was turning white again, this time with undisguised fury. ‘I warned you, Miranda. I told you to keep it on the level. How could you be so unbelievably stupid?’

  Minnie swallowed helplessly.

  ‘Do you know what else?’ A.A Jones paused a beat, a silent drumroll. ‘Someone captured your conversation with Greene on their smartphone and uploaded it onto the Internet. It’s gone viral. Your Parkinson’s outburst is trending as we speak.’

  ‘Please, no…’ gasped Minnie, visibly stricken.

  ‘Hell, yes,’ snapped A.A Jones. ‘One of the world’s most high-profile CEO disappears overnight amid serious speculation about his health and Greene Inc shares go into a catastrophic meltdown. Well done, Miranda. This is quite spectacular even by your standards.’

  Minnie reached out to grab the chair in front of her; the chair she was never invited to sit in whenever she set foot in A.A Jones’s office. Gripping the sumptuous leather upholstery, she forced herself to rebalance and rethink the situation.

  ‘This natural gas deal is too good to dismiss,’ said Minnie. ‘Greene is smart.’

  ‘Thanks to you, the world thinks Greene is sick,’ snapped A.A Jones. ‘People see this as a weakness.’

  ‘He is a phenomenal business man. People will be sympathetic.’

  A.A Jones actually snorted, an ungraceful hoot that reverberated around the room. ‘It is not about the sympathy vote. It is about the money.’

  Minnie refused to back down. ‘I’ll find him. Talk him round.’

  A.A Jones stood up. ‘Forget it.’

  ‘What about the fiancée? If we get to her, we get to Greene.’

&nbs
p; ‘You have no idea, do you?’ screeched A.A Jones losing her customary cool. ‘Are you a complete moron? Parker Bachmann is the acting mayor of the city and county of San Francisco. She’s not some gold digger we can “get to”. She’s not going to give up information in exchange for a pair of the latest Louboutins.’

  Minnie flinched.

  ‘Bachmann bailed out on Greene. Gone. Disappeared,’ continued A.A Jones. ‘Her personal assistant informed me that she is on a flight back to San Francisco.’

  ‘But why would she leave without him?’ asked Minnie, shocked. ‘She is about to get married to him.’

  ‘Perhaps she doesn’t like the secrets he keeps.’

  Minnie dropped her head onto her chest. ‘I… I… can still make this right.’

  ‘No. It’s over. You’re no longer part of Jones and Sword.’

  ‘No… wait… I love my job. I’m good at it. Don’t fire me,’ pleaded Minnie. ‘Give me one more chance.’

  ‘No more chances,’ exploded A.A Jones.

  ‘But… but the natural gas programme. You need the algorithm otherwise…’

  ‘Someone else will work on the missing piece.’

  ‘But I…’

  ‘GET OUT.’

  ‘Please,’ begged Minnie. ‘I need to be here. I can’t go home. James George… my boyfriend… he… I caught him in bed, actually our bed, with another woman last night.’ She didn’t mean to share this information but she was desperate. In this do-or-die situation she had no problem going for the sympathy vote if necessary.

  A.A Jones looked Minnie up and down. It was a vindictive and triumphant stare. She said, ‘Has it occurred to you that it’s not a coincidence that no one wants you?’

  At that point, Minnie knew it was over. She wasn’t going to get her job back.

  A.A Jones continued, ‘How dare you bring your own personal life into this. You got what you deserved! Spare a thought for Ashton Greene and Parker Bachmann. Her political career was affiliated with Greene’s success. You ruined their relationship and partnership. You have quite possibly crippled his business not to mention mine. What next, Miranda – a total eclipse of the sun?’

  Minnie started to back out the office, not wishing to turn her back on her boss out of fear that her pointed words would pierce her between the shoulder blades.