After a weekend of lurve (as Patty would call it), I can’t stop smiling. I have re-established myself as the juicy temptress of Manchester and I feel completely re-energised. I am glowing with gorgeousness and I’m sure it isn’t just that the fake tan hasn’t worn off yet (though I have scrubbed it several times in an attempt to look less Oompa-Loompa like). Today I feel like I can do anything at all. I am woman, hear me roar and all that rubbish. And the first thing I’m going to do as mistress of my own destiny is sort Josie out. There is no way that bundle of rude health was ever ill and there’s equally no way that she’d just resign, especially not via email. If she really were unhappy she’d come in and tell us to stick our job where the sun didn’t shine. Nope, this is just not the Josie we know and love.
I know in my bones Lorenzo has something to do with her resignation, so I get up early and park opposite his shop before he opens up. I lie low in the car as if I’m on a stakeout and wait. Sure enough, within half an hour Lorenzo walks up the street dragging a reluctant looking Josie behind him. I hold my breath, poised for the pounce until I’m sure she’s going into Launch. They both look around to see if anyone’s watching, then Lorenzo takes some keys out of his manbag and starts to open the locks. I slam the car door and rush across the road yelling her name.
A couple of years ago, I was driving to the shopping centre to get some tights and news broke on the radio of a military coup somewhere or other. It was a very dramatic report. The rebels had roused a crowd, they were well funded and organised and all the while I was parking the car, the reporters were very excitedly telling us that they were going to witness the birth of a new nation.
In the time it took me to select a pair of tights (to my defence, they didn’t have my usual colour so I had to keep taking the boxes into the sunlight), the rebels had broken into the Presidential suite, declared sovereignty, been attacked by loyalists, had a huge battle, lost the war and been imprisoned. And all of this happened while I bought a pair of ten-denier nearly nudes.
It feels like my own uprising today.
I reach the door and try to grab hold of Josie. Lorenzo blocks me, pushing me away and frantically trying to get all the locks open. He finally gets the door open and tries to push Josie inside. I get hold of her sleeve and pull her the other way. She’s being torn between the two of us and just starts sobbing. She breaks away from me and runs into the shop.
‘What’s happened, Josie, tell me what’s happened?’ I shout through the glass door. ‘I know you wouldn’t just resign, this isn’t like you.’
‘Please Angie, just let me go, it’s better for you if I go,’ she replies.
‘No, don’t say that. We need you and you can’t prefer this place to Mercury.’
‘It’s not that, just go, please. I’m begging you.’
‘If you don’t leave my employees alone I’ll call the police – again,’ snarls Lorenzo before shutting the door on my face.
Like a Victorian urchin I stand for a while with my face pressed up to the glass. I watch as Lorenzo pushes Josie into the back room out of my view. He comes out once more to tell me he’ll have me arrested if I don’t leave, so stunned and confused I retreat back to Mercury.
Charlie is already there and stares at my dishevelled appearance.
‘What on earth have you been doing? You’re bright red.’
That’ll be the combination of fake tan residue and frenzied warfare, I think to myself.
‘Josie’s working over the road,’ I tell him. ‘I tried to get her back but she wouldn’t come. I don’t know what hold Lorenzo has over her but I really don’t believe she’s there of her own free will, she was in bits.’
‘What exactly did she say when you asked her?’ asks Charlie.
‘That we’re better off without her.’
‘Do you think she’s done something illegal? Maybe her visa has expired and he found out.’
We both shake our heads and sit in silence. We smile politely at the handful of customers who walk through the door but I can see Charlie’s heart is as heavy as mine. Last week ended so well with the bid win and everything, but with him over the road, we always seem to have to pay for any moments of joy. I don’t know how long I can keep this up. Or whether I actually want to. Maybe Zoe’s wrong and there is a moment when you simply have to stop pedalling and park your bike up against the wall. I love Mercury but maybe it’s time to call it a day. If we sold the business, Charlie could use the meagre proceeds to invest in the island, anyway; he could move over there, his dream would be safe. I’d still have the apartment and Michael and as it says in the song, ‘two out of three ain’t bad ’. Maybe I should retire and spend my days lunching with Patty. Lots of businesses fail when there’s new competition. I’d just be another statistic. Even Richard has closed businesses; I don’t think Virgin Brides lasted long, which is a shame really as we could have partnered up. That’s the thing though, I’m always thinking of ideas for the business. I don’t want to let it go, especially not because of some upstart toerag. I wonder how Charlie’s feeling.
‘Come on let’s go and get a coffee or something,’ I say to Charlie. ‘We need to talk.’
Closing up while still desperate for business isn’t the best idea in the world but I need to get out of here. We stick the ‘out to lunch’ notice up and head to a coffee shop. We don’t talk until the cappuccinos have been served, and after a sip of froth, which seems to soothe my soul, I sigh, ‘So how are you feeling about all this?’
Charlie pauses then begins. ‘We’ve had some great times together…’ he starts and I go cold as this is sounding distinctly like a break-up conversation. If he suggests it, I’m not sure I’ll have the strength to protest.
‘I remember when you first joined Mercury,’ he continues. ‘You were really smartly dressed but you had on these amazing pearlescent stilettos. I remember thinking you might be some sort of eccentric – sensible on the outside but glamour puss underneath.’
‘Trust you to notice the shoes,’ I reply. ‘I’d put on sensible shoes for the interview but five minutes down the road got my heel stuck in the kerb and the whole thing came off. Those stilettos were the only clean pair I had but they crippled me with every step.’
‘So you were grimacing, not smiling.’
‘Have been ever since,’ I laugh and he punches me.
We both fall silent and then I pull myself up.
‘So what are we going to do about Lorenzo? How are you feeling – honestly?’
‘If he were playing fair,’ says Charlie, ‘I’d fight. No one has a right to customers and so we’d just have to pull our socks up and compete. But this is plain nasty and I don’t know what he’s going to do next.’
I nod throughout as he expresses my feelings exactly.
‘If we hadn’t lost Josie, it would feel different. It’s as if he’s picking us off one at a time,’ he continues. ‘Sometimes I wonder if we’re in actual danger. I don’t want to wake up one day and find he’s taken Peter just to spite me.’
‘You know that would never happen,’ I tell him, but I know what he means, it does feel very personal.
‘Do you still want to invest in the island?’ I ask after a few minutes of silence.
‘It’s probably the only thing I’m still sure about,’ he replies. ‘It’s the only thing unsullied by all of this.’
I nod, knowing exactly how he feels.
‘Shall I see if Josie will talk to Patty and tell her what’s going on?’ I ask.
‘If she’s up to it now, it can’t do any harm,’ replies Charlie finishing his coffee. ‘We’d better get back to the office and try to make it through the day.’
I drop Josie a text wishing her every success but asking if she’ll meet with Patty. I don’t expect an answer and I don’t get one.
We walk slowly back arm in arm and as we turn into the high street the first thing we see is a police car screeching to a halt outside Lorenzo’s and an angry mob surrounding the shop. Josie is trying to hold back the furious group of people who yell and push her. She looks tiny and defenceless against their efforts. Without thinking, I rush to help her, picking my way through the crowd until I can grab her hand and pull her to me.
‘What’s going on? Where’s Lorenzo?’ I ask her over the shouting.
‘He’s gone,’ she replies.
‘With our f-ing money,’ says one of the mob, ‘and she must’ve known about it.’
‘I didn’t, I didn’t, I promise,’ whimpers Josie.
One of the policemen eventually parts the crowd and gets to us. He asks Josie to open the door and pushes us in. Charlie squeezes in with us while the other policeman gets the crowd to calm down. I find a glass of water for Josie and then we’re asked to state what we know, but Charlie and I have to shrug our shoulders; we’re as confused as everyone else. Josie shakily takes a sip and then tells us through the tears:
‘I didn’t want to work here,’ she says, ‘but he said he’d bankrupt you if I didn’t. He said I’d committed a huge crime sending out those email addresses to everyone and then even worse with the road signs. He said he’d sue Mercury but it wouldn’t be me that would go to prison even though it was my mistake; it would be you as directors. I couldn’t risk that happening to you guys, I care too much about you and he’s such a bastard I thought he’d really do it, so I eventually agreed. I thought if I just came into the shop and didn’t do any work, he’d get fed up and let me come back.
‘Then today, a customer came in to check their booking. They’d bought one of those long-haul offers and paid the full amount to get a bigger discount, but when I went on the system I couldn’t find it. I asked Lorenzo and he fudged it saying the system wasn’t up to date, but I knew that it was. I promised to call the customer when things were updated and left it at that.
‘Then I started checking a few more and I even rang the hotels, but they hadn’t heard of him or Launch. I found over a hundred customers who’d paid the full amount and for whom he hadn’t even reserved a place.’
‘What did you do?’ Charlie asked.
‘I confronted him,’ replied Josie. ‘I mean there could have been a logical explanation but with him I just had the feeling there was something dodgy going on. I thought I had found some leverage to get back to you, but he’s a crook and as soon as he realised I’d caught on to him, he scarpered.’
‘With how much?’
‘Over a quarter of a million pounds I think.’
I sink my head into my hands. This isn’t our problem but we’re travel agents and we’re here, in his shop, when the fraud is about to be announced. Outside, the local press have got wind of a commotion happening and have a photographer trying to take pictures of the people inside. Whichever way you look at it, we look involved. The crowd outside are getting restless and the one policeman doing his best to hold them out eventually loses control and someone gets through; he’s followed by the others.
‘We’ve a right to know what’s happened,’ he says with the calmness that usually precedes a storm.
Josie chooses her words carefully and tells him that it looks as if Lorenzo has taken their money but not made the bookings. The storm erupts when they hear this. The crowd starts grabbing the iPads, the computers and even the espresso machine as some form of recompense. The police try to grab them back and it’s starting to turn nasty, when Charlie stands on a chair and calls order – literally.
‘Order, order,’ he shouts. ‘Look, this is bloody awful but no one in this room had anything to do with it.’
There are a few shouts of ‘Yeah, right’ and ‘All right for you’, as Charlie continues.
‘Honestly, we don’t work here but we’ll take your names and I promise you, when we get back to Mercury, we’ll check exactly what’s happened and we’ll see what can be done. We’re not going to solve anything here this afternoon. Please let us try to help.’
Fortunately, the ringleader accepts this and holds out his hand to thank Charlie. The mob form an orderly British queue and start giving Josie details of the holiday they thought they’d booked.
‘So he didn’t just play dirty with us,’ I say as the last of the crowd leaves the shop.
‘We have to help sort this out,’ says Charlie.
‘But why? We had nothing to do with it,’ says Josie.
‘Because right now, all people will remember is that a small high-street travel agent went bust and took customers’ money,’ Charlie tells her. ‘If we don’t help sort it out, they’ll never trust us again.’