Meltdown Read Free Page A

it’s fine.’
    ‘It does sort of seem like insider trading.’
    ‘But inside what? I don’t know anyone who works for Granite and nor, I imagine, does Roop.’
    Monica didn’t reply and Jimmy stared into his fruit salad for a moment. Insider trading? The thought had not even entered his head. Money just flowed towards him and he grabbed it, that was all. That was how it had always been for him. It wasn’t as if he’d mugged anyone or put his hand in a till.
    ‘Look,’ he continued, ‘I know it’s a leeetle bit Dodgy Brothers, babes. I’ll admit that, not saying it isn’t. But that’s the way things work. Knowledge, information. It’s the petrol in the engine. Everybody does it. Sometimes you get lucky and pick up a tip, sometimes you don’t. This morning we got lucky. Nobody died. The world’s still turning. Yee-ha! That’s Rock ’n’ Roll. Don’t knock it, dahhhhlin’.’
    He could always make her laugh and she laughed now, but he could see that she wasn’t convinced.
    ‘I think you should give the money to charity,’ she said suddenly.
    Jimmy stared at her.
    ‘Give it to charity?’ he repeated. ‘A hundred grand?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘We give loads to charity.’
    ‘Not that much, and anyway we should give more,’ Monica said. ‘After all, that hundred K isn’t really our money, is it?’
    ‘What do you mean it’s not our money? Of course it’s our bloody money. Whose else is it?’
    ‘If Rupert hadn’t tipped you off you’d never have sold those shares and they’d now be worth as little as everyone else’s. The money never would have existed.’
    ‘But he did tip me off, Mon, and the money does exist.’
    ‘Keep your initial investment then,’ Monica said, ‘and give away the profit. That’s fair, surely.’
    ‘Fair? Fair to who? We’d still be giving away over fifty grand.’
    ‘I know,’ Monica insisted, stroking her stomach, ‘but we have another baby coming.’
    ‘What, may I ask,’ Jimmy said firmly, ‘has that got to do with anything?’
    ‘I just think it would be good karma. That’s all.’
    ‘Good karma!’ Jimmy laughed. ‘Giving away fifty grand! I can’t do it.’
    ‘Jimmy, I want you to do it.’
    Jimmy could see that it was pointless to argue. Monica had her superstitious side and it was clear to him that after making the connection between a charitable act and her unborn baby she was going to stick to her guns.
    ‘Give it away,’ she said firmly, ‘or I will.’
    ‘Oh all-bloody-right,’ Jimmy said. ‘But I’m not going to just give it. That’s too painful and boring. I’ve gotta make it interesting. You know, something fun.’
    ‘O- kaaay. ’ Monica sounded suspicious. ‘And how will you do that?’
    Jimmy thought for a moment while spooning a glob of neat Nutella into his mouth.
    ‘Tell you what, I’ll stick it on a horse!’
    ‘Tell you what back,’ Monica said, ‘ no !’
    But now Jimmy was off on one, his imagination fired up with exactly the sort of idea that appealed to the eternal adolescent in him.
    ‘I mean it,’ he said. ‘That’s what we’ll do. Some real long-shot bet. If it loses then nobody’s any worse off, but if it wins . . . Now that will be a contribution worth making.’
    ‘Fifty thousand pounds is a contribution worth making!’ Monica exclaimed. ‘I slave for months to raise that sort of money with my appeals.’
    Monica worked very hard on her charity appeals. In fact people had no idea how hard she worked on them, something which Monica found just a little bit hurtful.
    She always suspected that because she didn’t actually have a proper job , her career-minded friends thought that she did nothing at all. They thought that she was a ‘lady who lunched’. That really her ‘charity work’ was as much an excuse for social networking, meeting celebrities and having lovely meals in the restaurant at Harvey Nichols as it was for making a difference.
    But Monica felt that she did make a difference. And