Chapter Four: Part One
The amigas and their staff had subconsciously started to mark time’s passing by Dominique’s gigs and another three weeks had flown by. The girls shared breakfast, discussing how much they were looking forward to tomorrow’s day of indulgence, starting with a sleep-in and followed-up by a Sunday at the spa and dinner with Alberto and his family. The city’s election cycle was reaching fever pitch and the amigas were ready for a break after working the last sixteen days straight.
Over their regular after breakfast talk-through, the girls reviewed their plans for Dom’s afternoon and evening gig later that day. Two of the guests had medical allergies to peanuts, five were vegans and eight were on carbohydrate-free diets. Meticulous planning was the only way that these seemingly insignificant details remained insignificant.
~~~~~
Between their extra staff and Dominique’s strong boys, the physical setup of Dom’s gigs was almost effortless. As the guests started to arrive, Kate found it a little disconcerting to recognise every guest by name from Edison’s brief. A glance at Dee told her that she was experiencing the same odd feeling of déjà vu.
Kate’s role was to manage the ‘floor’ as maître d'. She watched Dominique’s discreet machinations, marvelling at the skill with which he and Edison shuffled groups of people to keep ideas flowing in a specific direction. She and Dom had formed a natural tag-team rhythm during his first gig. Now in their fourth, they had worked out a number of subtle signals to improve their timing as both enjoyed their wordless dance.
She made sure that she offered drinks to each group soon after Dom joined them. When Dom was ready to move on, she personally offered food to the group, helping him to break away. Kate then had a chance to invisibly gauge the tone of each conversation after he’d left. Dee had begun working with Edison in a similar manner, although his role tended to be a little more background for much of the time.
After she’d helped Dom to diplomatically break away from an infatuated admirer, Edison said to Kate over her shoulder, ‘We are not paying you enough, Catherine. Well done.’ Before Kate could turn to thank him, he was already gone, melting into another group of guests.
Carrie’s spectacular flaming dessert acted as a catalyst for renewed conversations, and Dom’s lads unobtrusively pulled the tables back a bit to open the main floor again as the guests reformed into natural groups.
Dee had noticed that one group in particular were consuming their drinks quite quickly due to the efforts of one man within that group. She mentioned the anomaly to Kate, who drifted over to keep an eye on them. It was a group of engineers discussing a recent building collapse following a sizable earthquake; she listened happily to their chatter of ‘stress loading’ and ‘fracture points’. Her mind recalled many similar types of discussions between her father and his men. Her face softened as her memories took flight. She’d listened to many similar exchanges from her corner of her father’s office as a child.
Kate’s attention snapped back to the present. That wasn’t right! She commanded her face to show nothing whilst offering finger food to a nearby trio and replaying the words, listening intently to the engineers’ ongoing discussion. She heard it again. Twice is no mistake! A minute later, she had no doubt.
She found Edison with her eyes a few moments later. He was already watching her tightened body language with interest and nodded subtly to her before vanishing.
A few seemingly endless minutes later, Dom caught her eye from a doorway as he walked past. Kate finished serving a couple before following discreetly after him. She found Dom and Edison in another small anteroom near the locked library, this one well concealed and virtually invisible from the hallway. Edison closed the sliding door, sealing the small room from the sounds outside as Kate gathered her thoughts.
‘The man, Ashinkata, is not an engineer,’ Kate said. ‘He’s using all the right words but in the wrong way. For a start, he has no intrinsic understanding of the differences between torsion and shear.’
Grabbing Dom’s forearm at his elbow and wrist, she demonstrated, first twisting his forearm between her two hands. ‘This is torsion,’ she said before moving her hands to his wrist and pushed each in opposition to the other, as if to scissor his wrist, ‘and this is shear.’ The men listened silently.
‘Dee noticed Ashinkata’s handler, Rissi, making very sure that the technical people associated with the Myers’ group have been drinking at nearly twice the rate of the rest of the room and he has been collecting their drinks directly from the bar himself. I think that’s why they missed Ashinkata’s mistakes. No engineer would confuse those terms, not even casually. Torsion can lead to shear, but they are fundamentally different things. It’s like confusing kissing and pregnancy. Twice, Ashinkata talked about shear when he should have been talking about torsion.’
She paused for a moment, ordering her thoughts, before she gave her assessment. ‘They were talking about that building collapse last week and Ashinkata doesn’t understand structural steel’s behaviour to different stresses. He was guessing like a second-year under-grad. When he was talking about the water technology earlier, he spoke like an erudite professor. There is no way he could be that knowledgeable in advanced materials and not understand such foundational basics. It would be like a classical pianist not knowing how to read music.’
Both men’s faces clouded over for a minute while Kate remained silent. Dom searched her face, his mind racing. Their faces showed far more expression in the privacy of the anteroom than they ever did in public. Unable to fault her logic or find any likely alternative explanations, they nodded to each other after concluding that Kate had exposed a fraud.
‘Thank you Kate, for everything. You are a surprising lady,’ Dom said warmly.
Edison opened the door with a smile and said, ‘Well done, Catherine. Brilliant.’
Only moments later she was back in the noise and movement of the gig as if she had never left.
A few minutes later, Kate saw that the group of engineers had been joined by Dominique and another, slightly older, exotically handsome couple; both tall and impeccably dressed. She recognised them as Mason and Madison Myers. The false engineer and his promoters were talking to them with increasing fervour and volume.
As was his custom, Dom walked his guests out and farewelled them personally at the end of the evening. He and Mason Myers saw Rissi and Ashinkata’s group away first. They shook hands as their cars were delivered to them. Kate watched on as she and her staff packed up. The Myers departed last, embracing Dominique and Edison with genuine and obvious warmth. Mason saw Kate through the open windows and smiled, nodding to her. He said something to Dom before he got into his car.
Dom found her soon after and said, ‘Catherine, my thanks are to you again. Please rest assured that tonight, you and Ms Danielle have realised every positive potential of our arrangement. I have some calls I must make, so Edison will see you all off. Goodnight.’ Bowing from his waist, he kissed her hand lightly and was gone.
Walking through the house to rejoin the others, Kate’s mind was racing, her imagination running into fanciful scenarios of espionage and intrigue. Shaking her head, she found her friends and staff outside the kitchen entrance, almost finished with the last of the packing already.
‘The extra hands make this so easy,’ Dee said quietly to Kate as Dom’s strong young men carefully slid the last of the cases into its place in their van. Edison was smiling as he walked out of the kitchen entrance to join them. Again, he recognised each person’s efforts by name as he handed each an envelope in turn. When Edison passed Dee an envelope for the three amigas, he had extra meaning in his eyes. Very quietly, he said, ‘This is no mistake and it is well earned. Ms Catherine can tell you why at a more appropriate time.’
Dee noted a subtle understanding between Kate and Edison. Her curiosity was burning, but it was clearly a subject for later. Right now, their evening was over and they said their farewells before everyone drove off, happy and well tipped.
~~~~~
The amigas had developed an after gig routine. Once showered, they would do a quick ‘notes and noticed’ debrief while everything was fresh in their minds. Dee was impervious to the effects of caffeine and always had a bedtime coffee. Carrie and Kate drank herbal teas.
‘Notes?’ Kate asked when they were ready.
Carrie said, ‘Suzette and Giselle are working very well together and move quickly. Todd is still dithering at the pass and holding everything up. Every night we tell him the same things, and he still can’t get out of his own way. I think we need to replace him. He just isn’t getting it and Corey is doing both their jobs.’ Dee added her affirmation to Carrie’s observations.
After a few moments of silence, Kate asked ‘Noticed?’
Dee placed the envelope on the table between them. ‘I noticed this mysterious envelope. You open it.’ Dee pushed the envelope to Kate.
Tearing the envelope open, she found a simple, hand-written note.
~
“Every cent is well deserved. Thank you.
M3 and Dom.”
~
She said, ‘M3, that’s Mason and Madison Myers.’ Behind the note was a cheque written against a company name she didn’t recognise.
Kate looked at it wordlessly before passing it to Dee, whose eyes went wide before she handed it on to Carrie. ‘Holy crap, Katie-J, what did you do now?’
Kate filled them in on the conversation, starting with Dee’s tip off. It took a little longer for Kate to explain the engineering nuances to the girls. Then she made some intuitive leaps for her friends. ‘They were about to sell Dom’s friends a large-scale water purification technology that was probably bogus. At least, I think that’s what was happening.’
Dee took a deep breath, still looking at the cheque lying between them on the table. She sat up and raised her coffee in salute, saying, ‘To Savagewood and his bloody mysteries.’
Carrie added, ‘And to his friends with fat cheque books!’
They clinked their cups, still unsure of what had actually happened. They did know they had an extremely generous tip to deposit on Monday morning. One thing they all agreed on was that life around Dominique Savagewood was certainly interesting.
~~~~~
Dee roused Kate the following morning, knocking on her door and waiting for a grumbled response before telling her, ‘Edison is here with a delivery for you. He said to take as much time as you need.’ Kate thanked Dee through the bedroom door as she started to pull herself together and locate some suitable clothing.
Edison was at their table, laughing and exchanging wisecracks with Dee. A recently awoken Carrie looked at Kate with a sympathetic expression. He stood to greet Kate, hugging her warmly. Carrie dragged Dee from the room, obviously and loudly enough that they all smiled, recognising the unspoken promise of privacy.
Edison began. ‘Dom asked that I give you this in hope that you would attend an evening soirée a week from Thursday.’ Kate opened the envelope and found a brochure for the city’s gala opening night of Madame Butterfly. Already sold out for much of its international tour, the show was playing to rave reviews. Kate also found a card for a high-end couturier, and another for a spa near the couturier’s address. She looked at Edison questioningly.
‘Kate, Dominique understands that this type of event is attended by those who have a great deal of resources at their disposal.’ Looking at the cards in her hand, he said, ‘Simply call those people and your attendance will be without stress or burden.’
Unsure of how she should take the offer, Kate said, ‘He wants to buy me a dress and send me to a beautician?’
Edison recognised the plea for guidance in Kate’s tone. ‘Catherine, you know better than that. May I be blunt?’
Kate nodded.
‘Red-carpet dresses are ridiculously expensive and often take months to obtain. Dom has the means, and his motives are simply to show you a wonderful evening whilst giving those you recently helped a chance to say ‘thank you’ to you in person.’
He continued. ‘Off the record, you are going to meet Mason and Madison Myers, genuinely good people, and the intended targets of Rissi and Ashinkata’s scam. Kate, enjoy the spoiling and enjoy the opera. Have an evening that you will treasure for many years. I’ll also be there with my wife, if that helps?’
Kate paused, looking at Edison’s challenging smile. She loved his cheeky alter ego. ‘Actually, it does. I will say yes if you tell me that you let him buy your wife a dress.’
His widening grin told her she had just lost. ‘He has bought her many dresses. He has bought us both many wonderful things and experiences over the years. He enjoys his good fortune with generosity and it makes him happy for people to accept his gifts, knowing there are never any strings or expectations attached.’
Kate’s look told him that she wanted one more nudge. ‘Please come?’
She nodded her assent. Edison’s answering smile made her feel warm and safe. ‘I will leave you to your day, Kate. The couturier is expecting your call. Please say goodbye to Dee and Carrie for me?’
Kate just needed to hug Edison. He hugged her back warmly and let himself out. They all move like smoke, Kate thought, watching Edison through her window as he stalked his car on the road below. She was sure she saw him wink up at her, but there was no way he could have seen her… was there?
Every Sunday following one of Dominique’s gigs had quickly become a designated full day off for everyone, and a Sunday spa session for the amigas. A huge tip was just another very good reason to celebrate. They had already decided to pay out the loan on their new van; it was their company’s last capital debt. The three amigas had a wonderful day of massages, facials, pedicures, manicures and general pampering.
Kate’s invitation to the opera came up, including the dress and spa, and the consensus was, ‘Are you kidding? Go! Enjoy the heck out of it!’ It was a unanimous vote in favour of taking up his generous offer without guilt of any kind, including the staff at their spa. A fantastic early dinner with Alberto and his family and a silly, romantic comedy on DVD was the perfect end to a completely enjoyable Sunday off.
~~~~~