CHAPTER 17
Hollywood stars Spencer Torres and Afric Brooks took time out of shooting for their new movie last week, to enjoy a Guinness in The Tin Whistle – Linford’s local village pub – a short distance from where the movie is being made.
Afric brought her Toy Poodle, Diva – and publican Páidí O’Grady served the dog a freshly cooked piece of chicken.
An Irish Inheritance is being shot in Mayo’s four- hundred-year-old Linford Castle, normally open to the public as a five-star hotel.
The movie is based on a book by Irish author, Deb Considine, who also wrote the screenplay. She said she was ‘determined not to let her fans down’, so it will ‘remain true to the novel’.
Spokesperson for the movie, Lisa Greensmith, told the Daily Journal that filming is going well, and that the cast and crew are delighted to be staying at Linford Castle. She added that as Linford village has a population of just 1500 people ‘many of the locals will participate as extras’.
This is the first time the historic castle has been hired for the making of a movie.
It’s also the hotel’s first major event since reality TV star Chelsea Deneuve and casino owner Leo Dinardia hired Linford last July for their lavish nuptials.
After the drama of their almost-wedding, the Charleston Group, who own Linford Castle, must be banking on the success of its current venture to relegate the unfortunate ‘Linford Curse’ to the history books.
“Jess, you’re not going to believe it!” Emily caught up with Jess when she arrived at Linford that morning. “I got that part I auditioned for! I’m the housekeeper’s daughter. I’ve got seven lines – I’m psyched!”
“That’s amazing.” Jess hugged her. “Congratulations! Have they told you when they’ll be shooting your scene?”
“I’ve got two scenes where I talk.” Emily beamed. “Mel Winters told me this morning. I’m going to study the part carefully, you know? Really get to know the character’s motivations.”
“Oh, yeah, fair enough.” Jess hid a smile. “So, who got the other parts?”
Emily shrugged. “There’s an older local woman who’s going to play my mother, and then some actor from Ballina, so not really local.
He’s going to be the gardener or the stable guy, or something.
” She bit her lip. “I feel a bit bad for Holly’s mam because she went for the housekeeper part and didn’t get it.
But Holly said she wanted it because she’s got a thing for Spencer Torres. ”
Jess grinned. “Are you still up for taking Afric into one of the tunnels?”
“Totally.” Emily thought for a moment. “Can we use the one in the honeymoon suite?”
“Well, that’s the one Mel suggested.”
“I kind of want to believe this place is haunted, you know. Like, I know our official line is that we just tell people what happened in 1937 and leave it up to their imagination, but I think the public really wants to believe that Lady Helen is here, sort of helping people out.”
“I’m not sure why anyone would believe that, to be honest,” Jess said. “She didn’t die here. She escaped and probably lived ‘happily ever after’ with her maid.”
“I know, but it’s a cool spin on the Linford Curse.”
Jess’s phone vibrated and she checked it quickly. “It’s Mel,” she said. “She just texted to see if I can take Afric into the tunnel when they take their lunchbreak today.” She looked at Emily. “Does that suit you?”
“Sure.” Emily beamed.
Jess sent a quick thumbs-up to Mel. “It’ll be fine,” she said. “Nothing can actually go wrong.”
Emily was chatting with a tall, dark-haired man at one of the food trucks when Jess went to find her at lunchtime.
“Jess, this is Dermot.” Emily gave her a meaningful look.
It was the same guy she’d seen Afric with that evening in The Tin Whistle, Jess realised, as she shook his hand. “You’re one of the camera crew, right?”
“Yup.” He gave an easy smile. “And you must be Jess Bradley. Emily has been telling me how you helped rescue the big celebrity wedding here last year.”
“I didn’t do very much, really.” She’d kill Emily. “So, are you local or …?”
Dermot shook his head. “Donegal man, myself.”
Emily had told her that. “What do you think of it so far?”
“It’s cool.” He nodded enthusiastically. “I don’t think a movie like this can go too far wrong, to be honest. They’ve a great script and a first-class cast. So, yeah, happy days.”
“So you think it’s going well?” Jess said lightly.
He shrugged. “There’s a few hiccups but I’m sure they’ll sort them all out. Doug is one of those hands-on directors. To be honest, the most important thing about any movie is that it doesn’t run over budget.”
Over budget translated to running over time, Jess knew. And the hotel had already taken bookings for the week after filming was due to finish – it’d be a disaster to have to cancel them. Although, she supposed, even movies made on location could be wrapped up in a studio.
Afric looked furious when she met with Jess and Emily a short while later.
“I’ve agreed to try this, but I’m not promising anything so they’d better have a Plan B.”
Jess flashed Emily a quick glance. “Look, let’s see how it goes. The Lady Helen suite tunnel was checked out fairly recently and it’s completely safe.”
Afric glared at her. “Whatever.”
The three women walked through the hotel to the lift for the south tower – discreetly hidden behind an ornate mahogany door – and stepped inside.
Jess pressed the button for the top floor. “You know the Lady Linford is our official bridal suite,” she said, in an attempt to break the tense silence. “I think it’s quite a romantic design.”
Afric folded her arms. “It’s also a room with a tunnel. Creepy as fuck!”
There was that! So why had Afric insisted on having the Lady Linford Suite when there had been two other available suites without tunnels? Probably because it was the best, she reasoned.
The lift stopped and they stepped out onto the small, semi-circular landing. “I have the master key here, unless you’d prefer to use your own?”
“Can we just get this over with?” Afric said tightly.
Jess unlocked the door, and she and Emily followed Afric wordlessly through the lavishly decorated sitting room to the bedroom.
“Look,” Afric said, turning to them, “why don’t we just pretend we’ve done this? Nobody has to know. Are you guys going to say anything? I know I won’t!”
Jess suppressed a sigh. As much as she hated making Afric do something like this, it was part of her job description! Plus, it’d be worse for Afric when it came to shooting the scenes if she’d never even seen inside the tunnels.
“Sorry, Afric, I wish I could, but Mel asked.” Ignoring Afric’s death stare, she cleared her throat.
“Right, let’s figure this out.” She took a moment to examine the panelling to the right of the huge fireplace.
“This one.” She pushed the panel and, as it slid to one side to reveal the old escape route, icy-cold air rushed into the room and she shivered as uncomfortable memories flooded back.
Afric stepped further away. “Tell me there’s a light switch in there?”
“Sorry.” Jess flashed her a look of sympathy and pulled two small torches out of her pocket. “I brought you one each.”
“This is so cool.” Emily took one of the torches.
“Wait!” Afric frowned at Jess. “Why aren’t you going in?”
Excellent question! Because Emily is braver than me. That’d go down well. “I’m going to be here, making sure the door stays open. And, er, I only brought two torches.”
“Why can’t she stay here, then?” Afric gestured to Emily. “I’ll go in there if you go first!”
Shit! Right now, Jess wanted to cower in a corner – a spacious, brightly lit one. But she’d no choice except to brazen it out. She managed a tight smile.
“Well, I suppose it doesn’t matter which one of us goes in.” Jess took the torch from Emily, peered into the dark passageway and took a deep breath. “Follow me!” Before she lost her nerve, she stepped inside.
Christ, it was freezing, a damp cold that clung to her immediately. And there was a strange smell. Suppressing a shudder, she bent her head and took a few, tentative steps, before turning to check that Afric was behind her. There was no sign of her.
“Afric?”
“She’s going in now!” Emily called back.
“You won’t be able to stand up straight, Afric! ” Jess warned.
After a long pause, Afric appeared. Despite not being able to see her face properly, Jess could tell by her breathing that she was nervous.
How was it so dark? Even with the torches and the light filtering through from the bedroom, it was eerie.
Chelsea would have had only the light on her phone to guide her through to the outside last year, she thought.
She’d been incredibly brave – and incredibly desperate!
“I don’t feel well.” Afric’s voice echoed behind her.
“You’re doing great,” Jess managed, hoping Afric didn’t faint or throw up on her.
In the light of her torch, she saw something on the stone floor.
“Hang on.” She reached down and picked up a hard plastic disc, turning it over in her hand.
It looked like a camera lens cover. And it was pretty clean, considering that it had been lying in an old tunnel. In fact –
“I’ve had enough – I’m going back.” Afric’s voice was carefully controlled, as if she was fighting to contain her panic.
Jess turned around. “Okay, just wait until –”
But Afric had already turned back.
Jess slipped the lens cover into her pocket and shone the torch along the ground to check there was nothing else. She remembered Ian saying that the Lady Linford tunnel was the longest in the castle. This was definitely as far as she was going to go.
A scream pierced the darkness and Jess realised it was Afric. Shit, what now? Turning back towards the entrance, she moved as quickly as she could back into the bedroom.
Afric was sitting on the bed, while Emily was running in from the bathroom with a wet hand towel, which she pressed gently against her forehead.
“She hit her head on the way out,” Emily said, worriedly, moving the towel to one side to reveal a rapidly growing lump.
Shit! Jess took out her phone. “I’ll ask Mel to send up the medic.”
Jess dropped into Anthony’s office on her way home.
“Oh, Jess.” Anthony beckoned her in. “I heard about that incident in the tunnel. It’s a bit unfortunate, I know, but try not to worry about it. I’m sure it wasn’t your fault.”
Jess said nothing. It didn’t matter whose fault it was, she knew. The studio would hold her and the group accountable for their star getting hurt like that.
“I checked in with Afric a while ago,” she said. “The swelling is going down and the medic said she’ll be fine. She panicked and stood up too soon in the tunnel. Even I had to crouch over in there, and Afric’s a lot taller than me.”
Anthony nodded. “It should all be forgotten about in a few days.”
“I found this when we were in there.” Jess fished the lens cover out of her pocket and put it on his desk.
Anthony picked it up and gave her a questioning look.
“I didn’t even need to clean it up. By the looks of it, it hadn’t been there that long.”
“But they haven’t done any shooting in the tunnels yet.” Anthony frowned. “Of course, we did have men go in to check they were completely safe – but they hardly had a camera.”
“Maybe one of the camera team went in to have a look?”
Anthony sighed. “The problem is there’s too many people around the place.”
“Is there any danger someone else could have got in?” asked Jess. “Like, a member of the press?”
“Highly doubtful,” Anthony said. “Everyone working on the film and every single person who’s supposed to be here, including all of our staff, were given security passes before filming began. Plus, you can only access the tunnels from within the castle.”
“Hm.” It was a double security measure Jess had almost forgotten about.
“I’d love to be able to lock them again.
” Anthony massaged his temples. “In the meantime, I’ve decided to meet with all the staff today.
For our own sake, we need to be more accountable and transparent.
So, until all this is over and our guests have left, I’m going to make it a rule that none of the staff are allowed to be anywhere near the filming, no matter where it’s happening.
They also won’t be allowed to go to their lockers to check their phones during the day.
If there’s a family emergency, there’ll be somebody available to answer one of our landlines. ”
Jess took a moment to absorb this. “Do you think one of the staff is behind the leaks?”
“God only knows, Jess.” He looked at her. “I can’t afford to rule out the possibility. The sooner this is over, the better, though.”
Jess was halfway down the main driveway when she spotted Robert coming across the field towards her.
“Hi, I didn’t know you were here today. I didn’t see you earlier.”
He grinned and fell into step beside her. “Ah, I’ve only been here about half an hour, I’m on my way home. So, what was your day like?”
“Interesting.” Jess rolled her shoulders. “I got to spend time in one of our tunnels.”
“You and those tunnels!” He laughed and Jess forced herself to smile. “Listen, there’s a new restaurant in Kilshanley. Do you fancy trying it out some night this week?”
“Sure.”
Jess felt herself relax as he reached over and briefly squeezed her hand. She loved how uncomplicated Robert was. In fact, she loved how uncomplicated her life was right now. It was the perfect antidote.
To everything.