‘Okay,’ he said eventually, ‘I’ll do it.’
Dan breathed a sigh of relief. Having the project in Johnny’s hands meant more to him than he could say.
‘But there are conditions,’ Johnny said. ‘I want total control over content, I want a watertight contract, and I want a good writer, not some fucking hatchet man with a pen who doesn’t get the music.’
‘Sounds fair enough,’ said Dan.
‘In fact,’ said Johnny, thinking on his feet, ‘I want to choose the writer. You sort out a bunch of candidates and Colin, Paul and I will interview them and pick the one we want to work with.’
‘I don’t think that’s—’
‘That’s the deal. Take it or leave it.’
***
‘I’ve never interviewed anybody before, have you?’ asked Colin Carson the following week. He, Paul Scott and Johnny were drinking in the George and Dragon, Johnny’s local.
Paul shrugged. ‘Not really. Not properly.’
‘I’ve never had a proper job interview, either.’ He laughed. ‘Come to think of it, I’ve never had a proper job.’
‘Doesn’t matter,’ said Johnny. ‘It’s our show, we can do what the hell we like.’
‘Yeah, I know, mate,’ said Paul. ‘Trouble is, we don’t know where to start.’
‘We start by making a list of what we want in our pet monkey with a keyboard.’
‘Well, we don’t want anybody boring,’ said Colin. ‘And nobody religious, for Christ’s sake.’
‘Fair enough,’ said Johnny, speaking as he wrote the words down, ‘must not be boring or religious.’
‘They need to know about music,’ said Paul. ‘Our sort of music, not the shite that’s in the charts. And they have to like it.’
‘Must like rock and blues,’ said Johnny, writing.
‘And they have to be able to hold a drink,’ said Colin, as Gerry Edwards, the landlord, set a tray of drinks on the table. ‘We don’t want some teetotal tosser turning their nose up at us.’
‘Good call,’ said Johnny, adding that to his list.
‘How the hell are you going to find out in an interview if somebody can hold his drink?’ said Paul. ‘If they twig it matters, they’ll just say they can.’
Colin grinned. ‘We’ll hold the interviews in a hotel and get pissed with them on the night. That way we get to see them in action. Nowhere to hide.’
Paul laughed. ‘I hadn’t thought of that,’ he said.
‘What are you lot up to?’ asked Gerry.
‘We’re interviewing writers, Ger,’ said Colin. ‘We need somebody to write a book about the band.’
Gerry looked at Johnny and raised an eyebrow. Johnny rolled his eyes. ‘It’s not my idea, mate,’ he said.
‘I didn’t think it would be.’ Gerry loaded the empties onto the tray. ‘I’ll leave you to it.’
‘How many names is Dan getting?’ asked Paul.
‘He’s aiming for about half a dozen,’ said Johnny.
‘No problem, then. We’ll book a hotel in town, bus them in and put them up.’
Johnny nodded. ‘We can interview them in the afternoon, then socialise in the evening.’
‘Do we get them all in together on the same day?’ asked Paul.
‘No,’ said Colin. ‘Twos or threes. We need to be able to get a proper look at them.’
‘Sounds like a good idea, but it’ll take longer. What’ll Dan say about that? I got the impression he wanted things done sharpish.’
‘Leave Dan to me,’ said Johnny. ‘This is important, it takes as long as it takes.’
And the longer it takes, the better
, he thought but didn’t say.
Chapter 3
The interview
The instructions had specified ‘casual dress’ so Alex had worn one. There was another writer present, John Egan, and he and the band were in jeans, although Dan Cross, their manager, wore a suit. He seemed to be trying to organise proceedings, but was failing as the band took over and did their own thing. The whole affair teetered on the brink of chaos, albeit of the good-natured kind. Alex was having a great time: even if she didn’t get the job, meeting the surviving members of her favourite band was a trip.
The first exercise was a music quiz, something Alex hadn’t anticipated but thoroughly enjoyed. John Egan was less pleased. He wore a blank look for the majority of the time and his answer sheet showed a lot of empty spaces.
‘God Almighty, I wasn’t expecting that,’ he muttered to Alex afterwards. ‘I like music, but I had no idea who most of that lot were. Mind you, you seemed to do all right.’
‘Yes, it’s my kind of stuff,’ she said. ‘Why, who do you like?’
‘Bit of Beyoncé, Coldplay for the heavier stuff.’
She didn’t get the chance to respond as they were called into their first interviews. Alex was in with Paul Scott and Colin Carson, and John Egan was with Johnny Burns and Dan Cross. Afterwards they would swap, so they all got a chance to talk.
Her first interview was more of a friendly chat about music, sussing out what she knew and who she listened to. The second one with Johnny and Dan was a little more structured, a little more serious. She told them about the projects she had completed so far, books she had written, people she had worked for.
‘We anticipate whoever gets the job will be working with me for a month or so,’ said Johnny. ‘I should think you’d get back home at weekends if you wanted to, but would being away from home for so long be a problem?’
‘Well, no, but I normally—’
‘I gather from others we’ve spoken to that our approach with this is a little different,’ said Johnny. ‘Rather than work in one short, intensive burst, I want to limit the writer’s time with me to a couple of hours a day tops. That’s all I can really spare. That’s why I need someone who’ll stay nearby for a period of time.’
‘Well, it’s an unusual approach, but you’re the boss,’ said Alex.
‘So that wouldn’t be a problem?’
‘Not at all.’
Not any more
, she thought.
In fact, it might be better all-round if I’m away from home for a while.
‘We’re keen to get the project underway. How soon could you start?’ asked Dan.
‘Actually, I’m going on holiday next week.’
‘How long for?’
‘Just a week. Is that a problem?’
‘No, not at all,’ said Johnny, shooting Dan a look. ‘And you’ll probably need a week or so after that to get sorted out, won’t you?’
‘A day or two would do,’ said Alex.
‘But longer would be better, bearing in mind you’ll be away for a while afterwards,’ said Johnny. ‘Right?’
‘Okay, thanks, Alex.’ Dan looked at his watch. It was almost five o’clock. He stood up and shook her hand. ‘See you in the bar at six.’
***
Alex was awake but had her eyes tightly closed. A bright light was searing her eyelids, showing her amoebas that swam through the red sea of her vision. She felt shaky, dry-mouthed and disorientated, and John Bonham’s evil twin was rampaging around in her skull with a bass drum and a mallet.
She cracked one eye open just a fraction to identify the source of the torture. Curtains. That was all, curtains that hadn’t been fully closed. Curtains, in fact, that had been carelessly yanked together in the early hours by someone not fully in control of her movements. Someone very drunk. Someone who by now would be feeling pretty damn miserable.
The effort that would be required to stand up, walk to the window and fully close the curtains was currently beyond her. Instead, she grabbed a spare pillow and hugged it to her face.
Next time she woke up, things weren’t quite so bad. She discovered that she was capable of sitting up and, having done so, reached out towards the large glass of clear liquid that sat on the bedside table. Her hand stopped short as she remembered and she slumped back against the headboard with a groan.
It had been one hell of an interview, the first and undoubtedly only time when her ability to play pool, skin up and hold her drink might prove useful in winning her a job. If she hadn’t dumped so much vodka into the fake foliage, God knows what state she’d be in. Probably as bad as John Egan, her fellow interviewee, who had been carried to his room by Paul Scott and Colin Carson by ten o’clock. When, at around midnight, she’d been presented with a pint of vodka, light on the lemonade, she’d had just enough wit left to announce she was taking it to bed.
Getting up, she tipped the vodka down the bathroom sink, rinsed the glass and filled it up with water from the tap. She was about to drink it when she spotted the mini bar. Remembering that the room was all expenses paid, she ambled over to it and broke the seal.
Ten minutes later she had demolished both bottles of mineral water and the Toblerone she found in there, and was feeling much better. She rang room service after she’d showered and felt better still after coffee and toast.
On her way out of the hotel she bumped into Kevin Hollister, a fellow ghost, one of that band of writers who see other people’s names on the fronts of the books they write.
‘Hey, Kevin, how’s things?’
‘Hi, Alex. You up for this one as well?’
She nodded. ‘Interview yesterday. Just heading home.’
‘Took the chance for a lie-in, eh?’ It was past noon.
Alex grinned. ‘Found I needed one. Brace yourself, Kev, you’re in for a hell of a ride.’
Chapter 4
First day
Three weeks later, rested and relaxed after a week in the sun followed by another at home, Alex pulled her car to a halt outside a large, elegant country house, the driveway alone longer than the street she had been brought up in. Extensive lawns and gardens surrounded the old, honey-coloured stone structure. As she opened her car door to get out, the door of the house flew open and a Louis Vuitton suitcase sailed down the flight of steps that led to the entrance, skidding across the gravel at the bottom. It was followed by a second, and a squirming twenty-something in designer shades and a short dress, being firmly ejected from the house by a tall, skinny guy in jeans and a faded denim shirt. Alex stretched to get the kinks out of her spine after the long journey, then folded her arms and leaned back against her car to watch the show.
‘Just go, Sonia. Face it, it’s over. Time to move on, love, find yourself another meal ticket.’
Sonia wrested her arm out of the man’s grasp and huffed, but she evidently knew when she was beaten. She threw her hands up. ‘All right, you win, but you’re making a big mistake. You’re gonna miss me. I give it a week tops and you’ll be on the phone begging me to come back to you.’ She flounced down the steps, collected her bags and dumped them into a BMW convertible with the top conveniently down. ‘That’s my prediction, honey, and you know I’m never wrong.’ She stopped and gave him a hard stare over the top of her Ray-Bans before climbing into the car. Seconds later, the wheels spun and the gravel flew as she exited via the long, curving drive.
Johnny Burns ran his hands through his hair and stared after her.
Alex strolled over towards him. ‘I seem to have come at a bad time,’ she said, by way of introduction.
‘No, she’s gone. That makes it a very good time.’ Johnny grinned. ‘Although I could have hoped you’d turn up ten minutes later. Come on in, I’ll put the kettle on.’
He led the way to a spacious, sunny kitchen and Alex took a seat on a bench behind a large scrubbed pine table. As Johnny busied himself filling the kettle and getting the tea things together, Alex took in her surroundings. The room was huge and yet homely, a spacious cooking arena forming the stem of an ‘L’ with the dining area where she sat at right angles to it. She felt nerves starting to build, took hold of them and firmly squashed them down again. This was just a job. She’d write the book and he’d put his name on the front cover, it was business as usual.
‘So,’ she said, as Johnny put steaming mugs of tea on the table and sat down, ‘what was that all about?’ The question was as much to test the water as to find out the facts; if this was to work there was no room for him to be coy.
Johnny opened his mouth to speak, blinked twice and then shut it again. He traced a line on the table, following the grain of the wood. Then he looked up and met her gaze, his eyes the same faded denim blue as his shirt. ‘That,’ he said, ‘was Sonia. What you saw was the tail end of an argument that lasted about three days. Christ, I can be an idiot sometimes. She chatted me up at a club in town a couple of months ago and moved in a fortnight later. I bought her the car she was driving and the clothes she was wearing.’ He shook his head. ‘What should have been a bit of fun turned into a sodding nightmare. She was a control freak. She tried to manipulate me and everyone around me and when people wouldn’t play ball, she got nasty. Despite that, there were times when she made me feel bloody great.’ He shot Alex a rueful little smile. ‘That’s why I let her get away with moving in and why it took me so long to throw her out.’
‘I see.’ Alex sipped her tea. She was pretty sure he was being straight with her; she just hoped he could be as open and honest about some of the things in his past that they would have to talk about.
Three chairs stood opposite the long bench on which Alex sat. Johnny had taken the right hand one, opposite her. A large marmalade cat popped up on the middle chair, yawning and stretching. Johnny scratched the cat’s head while the animal lazily blinked large, gold-flecked green eyes.