Excellence at Work Page 2
After exactly half an hour she woke up and went to the very small attached bathroom at one side of her office. She splashed water on her face and then decided that she had better wash her face which she did. Brushed her shoulder length red hair. Retouched on her make-up and she was ready to roll.
She looked down at her attire. She was wearing a cream coloured suit with a maroon shirt to go along with it. She smiled and changed her shoes from the flats she always wore in her office to the maroon high heels to match with her dress. She was in the habit of keeping a couple of pairs of shoes in the cupboard in her office bathroom.
Back in her office she picked up her hand-bag and proceeded to exit the not so small office. She locked her office door and went to the elevator at the far end of the corridor and pushed the call button. Almost immediately the gates yawned open. In she walked and pushed the button for the first floor.
After exiting the elevator, she went out of the building. She hailed a cab and was on her way to the Logan International Airport. It took her ten minutes to reach there. She moved to Terminal C to board her flight to New York.
It took her flight almost 4 hours to reach its destination – John F. Kennedy International Airport. Sitting in her seat in the business class (after all, the expense was on the agency’s books), she dug out a book that she had wanted to read for some time now. It was Inferno by Dan Brown. As soon as she read the first word she was lost to the world around her. It has always been like that for her. She was not a fast reader by any stretch of imagination – when she was reading anything for pleasure. She believed in absorbing every word to grasp the true meaning behind them. That was the way she supposed that one could experience the world one was reading about.
Finally, her flight landed and she deplaned. She proceeded to move out of Terminal 3 for domestic arrivals. Outside the airport as she waited for a cab, she was pushed by someone with enough force that made her feel as if the man behind her had lost his balance and was falling on her. The man’s hand landed on her hand in which she was holding her handbag. She had her handbag one moment and in the next she did not. She turned abruptly and saw the man running away from her. He was clad in blue jeans paired with a long sleeved plain white shirt. Amanda ran after the man for a long distance but lost him in a crowd at one corner. The man had escaped.
Amanda was panting. She bent down and held both her knees in her hands and took huge gulps of air to provide sustenance to her almost burning lungs.
Amanda could do nothing. For the first time in her life the situation was out of her control. And though she did not like it one bit, she knew she had to somehow get back to Percy. He was probably the only one who could help her. She straightened and looked around. She was surprised to see that she was just a block away from the hotel where she had to stay for the day. She walked the distance seeing that she could do nothing else without money –either real or plastic.
She checked in at the hotel. Collected her key card. Took the elevator to her floor and went to her room.
She freshened up and took her mobile phone which luckily was not in her handbag but her pants’ pocket. The procedure to contact Percy (officially) had many obstacles which she had no problem skipping and calling him on his personal number which she had from days gone by.
She dialled the number and could hear the dial tone.
“Pick up the phone Percy,” she kept on murmuring.
After five rings, when she almost gave up hope that he would even pick his phone, she was about to disconnect herself when she heard.
“Ms Watson.” He was definitely not happy for her to call on his private number. She gritted her teeth and consciously reminded herself that the man is her friend irrespective of what he chose to believe.
“Mr Smith, this is urgent.” She probably did not even have to put that in words as her voice was conveying that quite completely. She couldn’t remember her voice coming out so desperate ever before.
“What’s the matter Mandy?” She was shocked. Mandy. He had called her Mandy a long time back. Before she had started working for the agency. It has been Ms Watson since then. He must have heard the urgency in her voice. Or probably the desperation. But still, she could not bring herself to speak for a complete five seconds.
“Mandy? Mandy are you there? Are you alright?” His voice was all concern for her. She could not believe how happy she was to get a glimpse (or rather listening to) of the little boy she had befriended. Of the man he had become.
“I am...,” she swallowed. “I am fine Percy. It’s the file?
“What file?”
“My file,” she replied. “Our file.”
“You’re not making any sense. Stop and take a deep breath.”
She did as she was asked.
“Now begin at the beginning.” His voice was very reassuring and she smiled despite herself.
“As I walked out of the airport, I was mugged.” Everything was wrapped in the ten words that she murmured.
“No.” The word was uttered reflexively. And then silence. She could practically see Percy tightly closing his eyes.
“No problem.” He said after a minute.
“What? I worked on it for half a month!” If she were not good at controlling the pitch and frequency of her voice, she would have shouted the last sentence. She was incensed. It was her hard work that was stolen.
“Again Mandy. Take a deep breath and let me speak while you do that. There’s something that you must know. And before you start again, I’ll have you know that I found this out only a couple of minutes before you called.”
“Come to the point.” No one would have believed that she was talking to her boss if they would have heard her tone.
“How patient of you.” She knew that he was being sarcastic on purpose. She remained silent. That was answer enough for him. He sighed. “I was just informed that Star Chemicals did not only have us investigate their suspiciously fraudulent employee, they also gave the same case to Detectives For Hire”.
She could not understand how that was relevant to her mugging and said so without any hesitation.
“I was also informed,” he continued as if there has never been an interruption. “That the detective who was assigned the case is the new kid on the block. Doesn’t know a thing about being a detective. There are rumours that he is in the habit of taking credit for others’ work”
And it clicked. The man who had snatched her handbag did not look destitute. He seemed... well, he seemed as he was part of the polite society.
“So, you’re saying...,” she left the statement unsaid.
“Now, knowing you, you must have made a copy of your report or saved it on your computer at least.” He had no idea that this was one time that she had not done either. That was not exactly true because she had saved the file on her computer. It was not her fault that there has been some problem with the hard drive and she had lost all her data. All of it.
Her silence was her admission of her guilt. Could it even be called guilt? She was not the one who had done something criminal like stealing or anything even remotely wrong for that matter.
“Why did you have to choose this moment to change your habits?” And she did not have any reply to that and therefore she remained silent.
“OK Ms Watson...”
“So I am Ms Watson again? You...,” she would have said something had he not copied her and interrupted her.
“Mandy then. Now listen to me carefully. Relax. You don’t need the report in its physical existence to prove yourself. You would have every point memorized.” He sounded completely sure of himself. “So don’t worry. Relax. Rest. Do whatever you want to do. And go to Star Chemicals’ offices and tell them what you have found out.”
“But what if that other detective,” she stopped for a second. “What did you say his name was?”
“I didn’t. But his name’s Albus Grint”
“OK. What if this Albus Grint shows up with my report and
claims it to be his work?” He laughed. She did not think that she has said anything funny.
“You don’t need me to tell you that.” And he disconnected the line.
She did as instructed.
Nearly two hours later, when it was time for her meeting, she was standing right outside the conference room. She could hear someone speaking. The voice was muffled and she could not make out the words. She pushed the door open and heard a man speaking.
“...ning ladies and gentlemen,” he was saying. “My name is Albus Grint and I am from Detectives For Hire.” He picked up a file but there was a flash of... blue?
Her heart was racing. Maybe she’ll get to get the credit of her own work.
Before the man could say anything else, she started into the room and introduced herself at the same time while keeping her gaze on Albus Grint.
“And I am Amanda Watson from P. Smith’s P.I.” she practically yelled it across the room. Someone from Star Chemicals’ management gestured her to take a seat which she did and said, “Thank you.”
She took a deep breath and everybody waited for her to begin again. But before she did that she looked around herself. The floor was of oak brown marble and the walls were painted in a shade that was five tones lighter. The table was oval shaped and sat in the centre of the room around which were cream colours chairs.
“I apologize for yelling across the room, but I wanted to stop this man from speaking any further,” she said. “I want you all to know