Chapter 4 #5
‘Look,’ Will continued reasonably, ‘I have no problem with the bloke making a living impersonating Owen. Everyone has to pay the rent. But when he tries to pass himself off as the real deal, that’s another story.
And when he poses as Owen to give interviews to gullible journalists,’ he said, ‘I have to put a stop to it.’
The girl eyed him warily. ‘What do you want?’ she asked, eyes narrowed to slits.
‘You to delete the recording.’ Will gestured at her pocket.
‘No way!’
Will eyed her, sizing up the situation. He was relieved that there was no photographer, and no evidence of pictures.
He reckoned she was just an opportunist who had happened to get lucky – or so she thought.
‘That recording is no earthly use to you,’ he told her, ‘so you might as well delete it. You’re freelance, right? ’
‘Actually, I’m on the staff of Rolling Stone,’ she said defiantly, with a toss of her head.
‘No, you’re not.’
‘How would you know?’
‘Because if you worked for Rolling Stone – or any other reputable music paper, for that matter – you’d have gone through our press officer.’
The girl shrugged, but she was obviously spitting teeth at having her bluff called.
‘Won’t stop me selling it,’ she said sulkily.
‘Maybe not. Some rag might buy it, but if you’re hoping to build up any sort of reputation for yourself as a serious music journalist, I wouldn’t advise it. Who do you think is going to be interested in an interview with some wanker pretending to be Owen Cassidy?’
‘It was Owen,’ she said. ‘You know it and I know it.’
‘Prove it.’
Janice’s eyes sparked, but she said nothing.
‘It’s your word against mine,’ Will said coolly, ‘and Owen’s. Believe me, the real Owen Cassidy doesn’t take any more kindly to this sort of thing than I do.’
Janice was pink with rage and her mouth had disappeared into a thin line. ‘I could write about this,’ she threatened. ‘I could write a story about how I was strong-armed by Walking Wounded’s manager into suppressing a damaging story about Owen.’
‘There is no story about Owen, remember? Anyway, I’m not strong-arming you,’ Will reminded her. ‘I’m just trying to stop you making a damaging career move.’
‘Yeah, right,’ the girl drawled, but Will could tell from her eyes that she was defeated. He could see her weighing up her options.
‘What will you give me if I delete it?’ she asked.
‘I don’t have to give you anything. But I’ll tell our press officer to be accommodating if you contact her. Her name’s Martina.’
‘You’ll give me an official interview? With Owen?’
‘Owen doesn’t do interviews – as you’d know if you were legit. With Phoenix, or maybe Rory.’
‘Phoenix,’ Janice said quickly. She had read ‘interviews’ with the notoriously taciturn Rory: the hapless reporters had struggled in vain to get more than a few monosyllabic grunts out of him.
‘I’m not promising anything. You’ll have to discuss the details with Martina. All I’m promising is that I’ll tell her not to hang up on you when you call.’
‘Okay,’ she said, reluctantly showing Will the screen of her phone and pressing the delete button.
‘Good girl.’ Will said and got up. ‘Be in touch.’
* * *
Will found Owen waiting for him outside the bar, head hanging.
‘Sorry, man, I got a bit carried away.’
‘It’s okay.’
‘I gave her an interview, you know,’ Owen admitted.
‘No, you didn’t.’
‘Actually, I gave her some pretty good stuff,’ he said. ‘I was showing her my feminine side – chicks love that.’
‘Right,’ Will said, ‘and then you planned to have lesbian sex with her, I suppose?’
‘Stop it, mate. You’re turning me on.’
They had reached Will’s car. ‘Christ, Owen, you look like shit,’ he said. ‘Come on, I’m taking you home.’
Unshaven, bug-eyed and reeking of alcohol, Owen looked like he hadn’t slept for a week.
Will bundled him into the passenger seat. ‘When was the last time you ate?’ he asked, as they pulled out into the traffic.
‘Uh, dunno,’ Owen said vaguely.
Will sighed. ‘What have you had today?’
‘Nothing.’
‘Let me rephrase that,’ Will said stonily. ‘What have you ingested today?’
‘Uh?’
‘Tell me everything that’s passed your lips, or whatever other orifice you’re shoving stuff into these days.’
‘Well, I had a few hits of E in the early hours. Then I did a few lines of coke this morning, sort of for breakfast. And Janice gave me some more.’
The hell she did, Will thought furiously.
Owen could make enough trouble for himself without that bitch feeding him drugs to get him to mouth off.
It was a good thing for her he hadn’t known about this when he was with her – he’d have wrung her neck instead of making a deal with her.
He was sorely tempted to head back to the bar and do just that.
He would cheerfully have her busted if it weren’t for the fact that she’d bring Owen down with her.
Well, if she came looking for an interview he’d make sure it was with Rory – and he’d warn him beforehand to be wary of her.
Rory was guarded at the best of times. It would be like trying to get blood from a stone.
‘What else?’ he asked Owen. ‘A few dozen bottles of Jack Daniel’s, I suppose?’
‘Well, a few scoops, yeah,’ Owen confessed.
‘I’ll buy you lunch, then take you home. When we get there I want you to go to bed – alone.’
‘You’ll make someone a lovely mum one day, Will.’
Will felt tired. The sooner he got the band to Tuscany, the better.
He needed them out of Dublin, away from their dealers and all the hangers-on.
They’d worked bloody hard to get to where they were, but lately they’d allowed themselves to become distracted by the trappings of fame and wealth.
Italy would be good for them. They could relax, recharge their batteries and focus on the work.
* * *
Rachel had lost no time in calling Lorcan. She had to make sure she got to him before Will did. ‘Lorcan! It’s Rachel.’
‘Hi, Rachel. How’s tricks? How’s married life?’
‘Great. How’s America?’
‘God, don’t ask! My Blanche is the bloody producer’s wife and she’s ancient. I know Blanche was supposed to be going off a bit, but this woman would have to do a lot more than avoid standing under forty-watt bulbs to hide the fact that she’s on the turn.’
Rachel stared into space while Lorcan prattled on, waiting for him to finish. She should have known better than to ask him a simple question about his work. ‘Look,’ she said, breaking in eventually, ‘I’m calling you about Will.’
‘Will?’
‘Yeah. I had this really odd conversation with him the other day. He kept going on about Kate. He was humming and hawing, being very English about it, but basically he kept asking me about her and he seemed pretty upset when I told him she’d got engaged.’
‘Really?’ There was no mistaking the delight in Lorcan’s voice.
‘Yeah. It turns out he really took a shine to her at my wedding and he was planning to ask her out.’
‘Gosh! I’d never have guessed. As far as I could see, he was pretty involved with Tina.’
‘I was surprised too. Anyway, he was pretty shocked when I told him she was spoken for. But I told him that, as far as the family were concerned, he was welcome to lure her away from the Tree-hugger.’
‘Do you think she could be lured?’ Lorcan sounded hopeful.
‘I don’t know, but she always did have a bit of a thing for Will. If anyone can lure her, he can. It’d be pretty great, don’t you think?’
‘Bloody fantastic! It’d be the answer to our prayers.’
God, Rachel thought, Lorcan’s such a prat – can’t he see that Will’s way out of Kate’s league?
In fact, Lorcan had hoped for a long time that Kate and Will would get together. They were his two favourite people in the world, and he’d always thought they’d be perfect for each other.
‘Anyway, I’m calling you because Will’s afraid you wouldn’t approve so he’s holding back. So if he asks, will you give him the green light?’
‘Absolutely!’
* * *
When Will got back to the office after force-feeding Owen a huge lunch and dropping him home, he rang Lorcan.
After they’d discussed Lorcan’s problems with Streetcar, he braced himself to ask his friend what he thought about Grace’s scheme.
He was pretty sure he knew what the answer would be, but he had to ask before he went back to Grace with a firm refusal.
‘Lorcan, the reason I called…’ he began hesitantly, ‘has Rachel mentioned this Kate business to you at all?’
This Kate business, Lorcan thought, smiling. Will really was coming over all English. He was tempted to make him spell out exactly what he was talking about, but his better nature prevailed and he decided to put his friend out of his misery. ‘Yes, she’s told me about it,’ he said.
‘Well… what do you think?’
‘It’s a fantastic idea!’
‘Really?’ Will sounded surprised – shocked, even – and not at all as pleased as Lorcan had expected.
‘Absolutely,’ Lorcan hastened to reassure him. ‘You have my blessing, my son.’
‘Are you sure? I mean, I wouldn’t go ahead if you didn’t think—’
‘Go for it, mate. Anyone who took Kate away from the tosser she’s with would be doing her – and the family – a huge favour.’
‘Well, if you say so.’
‘He was with someone else, you know, at the wedding.’
‘At the wedding? But Kate was there!’
‘It was after she left, when you were dropping her home.’
‘Christ!’
‘Yeah, the minute her back was turned. So—’
‘Right, yeah. I see,’ Will said.
Shit! he thought, hanging up. There goes my out-clause!
* * *
In the outer office, Louise was listening to the recording Will had given her earlier. ‘Chase Ian for the contracts,’ he was saying.
Done, Louise thought. They were already sitting on her desk.
‘And get Clare to contact the people from MTV.’ Louise sighed.
Sometimes she missed the old days when it had been just her and Will, and she’d never known what she might be called on to do from one day to the next.
She had been press officer, tour manager, PA and publicist all rolled into one.
On occasion, she’d even been pressed into service as a driver and roadie.
Now she delegated. Still, it was a mark of how successful the band had become, and she felt proud to have been part of that.
She missed the immediacy of those days, though, and the closeness with the band.
She missed Rory – she didn’t see nearly enough of him now.
Still, maybe it was just as well: she couldn’t bear him being with Tessa.
She wouldn’t have minded so much if she’d thought Tessa really loved Rory – but she didn’t believe it for a minute.
She was convinced that if Rory hadn’t been in the band Tessa would never have given him the time of day.
Will’s last instruction was followed by a clunk. The phone had obviously been thrown onto the desk, and Louise heard Grace and Rachel coming in. Will hadn’t switched off the recording, and she knew she shouldn’t eavesdrop, but she couldn’t help herself.
As she listened, Louise could hardly believe what she was hearing. Grace O’Neill was reputed to be a formidable woman, but this was unbelievable – asking Will to seduce her own daughter away from her fiancé! She couldn’t wait to hear Will telling her where to get off.
‘You want me to seduce Kate?’ Will said, but as she waited expectantly for more, the recording became muffled and then was switched off.