Ill swap you, I said. Ill give you some nonattributable background if you tell me where the story came from in the first place.
Alexis pulled a face and flicked the nonexistent ash from her cigarette. You got me there, KB. You know I have as little to do with the brain-dead dickheads on the newsdesk as possible. And this didnt actually come as a tip directly to news. The story came through features, from Mack Morrissey who does the showbiz beat. Itll have come from a contact.
Any chance you could find out who?
Alexis shrugged. I dont know. Macks a bit precious, you know. He wouldnt let any of us hairy-arsed hacks anywhere near his valuable artistic contacts.
You could ask him, Chris chipped in.
I could, Alexis admitted. But theres a better way of finding out. I cant believe he got a tale like this for free. Hell have had to put a payment through the credits book.
He wont have stumped up readies? I asked.
Alexis shook her head. Not this amount. Itll have been a few hundred. Im surprised his contact gave the story to us, to be honest. It would have been worth a lot more to the nationals.
Another interesting piece of information to tuck away in the file marked, Makes no sense. When the oddments of data reached critical mass, seemingly unrelated facts collided and rearranged themselves into logical sequences. Its a process normally called womans intuition.
Ill check out the credits book in the morning, Alexis promised. So whats the score with Gloria? Has she really had death threats? And does she really think youre going to throw yourself between her and the assassins bullet?
How else will I catch it with my teeth? I asked innocently. People in Glorias position are always getting hate mail. Recently, shes had a few letters that have seemed a bit more sinister than the usual run-of-the-mill stuff, and Dorothea Dawson threw some petrol on the flames. Bloody irresponsible, but what can you expect from a con merchant? None of these psychics and clairvoyants would earn a shilling if they had to stop preying on peoples irrational fears. Take it from me, Alexis, nothing is going to happen to Gloria Kendal. All Im there for is to put the frighteners on anybody who might be thinking about taking advantage of the situation.
Alexiss eyebrows rose and she ran a hand through thick dark hair recently shorn from a wiry thicket to a shrubby bush less accessible to tiny grasping fists. Another consequence of motherhood. Youve not met Dorothea yet, then?
I frowned. No, but what difference does that make?
I didnt think youd be calling her a con artist if youd met her.
I stared open-mouthed at Alexis. Youre not telling me you believe in that crap, are you?
Of course not, soft girl. But Dorothea Dawsons not a charlatan. Shes sincere about what she does. I interviewed her a few years back, when I was still working for features. Before I actually met her, I was saying exactly the same as youre saying now. And I had to eat my words. It wasnt that she told me anything world shattering, like I was going to meet a tall dark handsome stranger and do a lot of foreign travel. She didnt make a big production number out of it, just said very calmly that I had already met the love of my life, that my career was going to make a sideways move that would make me a lot more satisfied and it probably wouldnt be the fags that killed me but they wouldnt help.
I shook my head. And this revelation turned you into a believer? I said sarcastically.
Yeah. Because she didnt grandstand. She was dead matter-offact, even apologized for not having anything more exciting to tell me. She came across as a really nice woman, you know? And shes not just in it for the money. Sure, she charges rich bastards like the Northerners cast an arm and a leg, but she does a lot of freebies for charity.
Thats right, Chris added. She donated a full personal horoscope to the Womens Aid charity auction last month. And you remember that mental health job I designed a couple of years ago?
I nodded. It had been a major renovation project for Chris, turning an old mill in Rochdale into housing units for single homeless people with mental health problems. I remember, I said.
Well, I happen to know that Dorothea Dawson was the biggest single donor for that scheme. She gave them fifty grand.
You never told me that, Alexis complained. That would have made a good diary piece.
Thats precisely why I didnt tell you, Chris said drily. It was supposed to be confidential. She didnt want a big song and dance about it.
Its a lot of money, I said diplomatically.
So she cant be a con artist, can she? Alexis demanded. They rip people off. They dont donate that sort of cash to charity. Its not like shed need a tax loss, is it? I mean, a load of her earnings must be cash, so she could stash a bundle undeclared anyway.
I held my hands up in submission. OK, I give in. Dorothea Dawson is a sweet little old lady, grossly misunderstood by cynical unbelievers like me. It must be written in my stars.
Anyway, KB, you sure taking care of Gloria isnt just a front? Alexis demanded, changing tack in an obvious bid to wrong-foot me.
For what? I asked, baffled.
Working for the management at NPTV. Theyve got a major mole in there, which is the last thing you need when youre trying to finesse a major deal with the networks. I heard theyve got a mole hunt going on. You sure theyve not hired you to find out whos stirring the shit for them?
I shook my head. Sorry. Youll have to get your follow-up somewhere else.
I thought theyd be happy about all the press stories about the show, Chris said. Id have thought it would increase the ratings. I had to go to London the other day on the train, and the two women opposite me talked about Northerners nonstop.
I think the scandalous stories about the stars whet peoples appetites, I said. According to my sources, what the management dont like are the storyline leaks. They reckon that makes people turn off.
Before anyone could say more, my moby began to bleat insistently. Goodbye, pizza, I said mournfully, grabbing my bag and reaching for the phone. Brannigan, I grunted.
Its me.
My heart sank. Donovan, youve not been arrested again?
Chapter 8
MOON IN TAURUS IN THE 12TH HOUSE
The emotional swings of the moon are minimized in this placing, leading to balance between impulsiveness and determination. She is sociable, but needs to recharge her batteries in solitude which she seeks actively. Imaginative and intuitive, she has an instinctive rapport with creative artists though not herself artistic.
From Written in the Stars, by Dorothea Dawson
This time it was Alderley Edge, the village that buys more champagne per head of population than anywhere else in the UK. Donovan had been there to serve a subpoena on a company director who seemed to think the shareholders should fund the entire cost of his affair with a member of the chorus of Northern Opera. The detached house was in a quietly expensive street, behind tall hedges like most of its neighbors. Donovan had borrowed his mothers car and sat patiently parked a few doors down from the house for about an hour waiting for his target to return.
When the man came home, Donovan had caught him getting out of his car. Hed accepted service with ill grace and stormed into the house. Donovan had driven home via his girlfriends student residence bedsit to pick up some tutorial handouts for the essay he was writing. Hed arrived home to find the police waiting. They hadnt been interested in an explanation. Theyd just hauled him off in a police car to the local nick where theyd informed him he was being arrested on suspicion of burglary.
By the time I arrived, tempers were fraying round the edges. It turned out that at some point during the day, a neighbor of the company director had been burgled. And another nosy neighbor had happened to jot down Shelleys car number because, well, you
The police computer spat out Shelleys address in response to the car registration number, and the bizzies were round there in no time flat. Things were complicated by the fact that the bloke Donovan had served the subpoena on decided to get his own back and denied all knowledge of a young black process-server with a legitimate reason for being in the street.
It took me the best part of an hour to persuade the police that Donovan was telling the truth and that I wasnt some gangsters moll trying to spring my toy boy. Thighs like his, I should be so lucky.
The one good thing about the whole pathetic business was that Shelley had been out when the police had turned up. With luck, shed still be out. As I drove him home, I said, Maybe this isnt such a good idea, you doing the process-serving.
Im serving the papers properly, whats the problem? he said defensively.
Its not good for your image or your mothers blood pressure if you keep getting arrested.
Im not letting those racists drive me out of a job, he protested. Youre saying I should just lie down and let them do it to me? The only places I have a problem are the ones where rich white people think that money can buy them a ghetto. People dont call the cops when you go to serve paper in Alderley Edge, or when I turn up on a doorstep in Hulme.
Youre right. Im sorry. I wasnt thinking it through, I said, ashamed of myself for only seeing the easy way out. The jobs yours for as long as you want it. And first thing tomorrow, Ill get your mother to have some proper business cards and ID printed up for you.
Fine by me. Besides, Kate, I need the money. I cant be scrounging off my mother so I can have a beer with my mates, or go to see a film with Miranda. The process-servings something I can fit around studying and having fun. You cant do that with most part-time jobs.
I grinned. You could always get an anorak and work with Gizmo on the computer security side of things.
Donovan snorted. I dont think Gizmod let me. Have you noticed hes got well weird lately?
How can you tell? I signalled the right turn that would bring me into the narrow street of terraced brick houses where the Carmichael family lived.
Yeah, right. Hes always been well weird. But this last few weeks, hes been totally paranoid android about his files.