James Chase - What's Better Than Money

‘Why not? He and my father were at col ege together.’

He lost his aggressive look.

‘What did you say your name was?’

‘Jeff Gordon.’

‘Just hang on a moment.’

He went into the reception office and talked on the telephone. He came out after a while, unlocked the gates and waved me in.

‘Ask for Miss Weseen.’

At least that was one step forward.

Dry mouthed and with my heart thumping, I walked up the drive to the imposing entrance hall where a boy in a sky blue uniform and brass buttons that glittered like diamonds, conducted me along a corridor lined on either side by polished mahogany doors to a door marked with a brass plate: Mr. Harry Knight and Miss Henrietta Weseen.

The boy opened the door and waved me in.

I walked into a large room decorated in dove grey where about fifteen people sat around in lounging chairs looking like the legion of the lost.

I had no time to concentrate on them before I found myself staring into emerald green eyes that were as hard as glass and just as expressionless.

The owner of the eyes was a girl of about twenty four, a red-head with a Munro bust, a Bardot hip line and an expression that would have frozen an Eskimo.

‘Yes?’

‘Mr. Shirely, please.’

She patted her hair and regarded me as if I were something out of a zoo.

‘Mr. Shirely never sees anyone. Mr. Knight is engaged. Al these people are waiting for him.’ She waved a languid hand at the lost legion. ‘If you will give me your name and tel me your business I’l try to fit you in at the end of the week.’

I could see the lie I had told the guard wouldn’t cut any ice with her. She was smart, wise and lie-proof.

If I couldn’t bluff her I was fixed.

I said carelessly, ‘A week? Too late. If Knight can’t see me right now, he’s going to lose money and Mr. Shirely will be annoyed with him.’

Feeble stuff, but it was the best I could do.

At least everyone in the room was listening, leaning forward and pointing like gundogs.

If they were impressed, Miss Weseen wasn’t. She gave me a small, bored smile.

‘Perhaps you would write in. If Mr. Knight is interested he’ll let you know.’

At that moment the door opened behind her and a fat man, balding, nudging forty, in a fawn coloured seersucker suit, looked around the room with a hostile air and said, ‘Next,’ the way a dentist’s nurse calls to the flock.

I was right by him. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a tall youth with Elvis Presley sideboards drag himself out of an armchair, clutching a guitar, but he was much too late.

I walked forward, driving the fat man back into his office, giving him a wide, confident smile.

‘Hello, there, Mr. Knight,’ I said. ‘I have something for you to listen to, and when you’ve heard it, you’ll want Mr. Shirely to hear it too.’

By then I was inside the room and had shut the door with my heel.

On his desk was a tape recorder. Moving around him, I put the tape on the machine and turned the machine on.

‘This is something you’ll be glad to listen to,’ I said, talking hard, and fast. ‘Of course, it isn’t going to sound so hot on a machine like this, but hear it on an electrostatic speaker and you’l hit the ceiling.’

He stood watching me, a startled expression on his fat face.

I pushed down the start button and Rima’s voice came out of the speaker and hit him.

I was watching him and I saw the muscles of his face tighten as the first notes filled the room.

He heard the tape right through, then as I pressed the re-wind button, he said, ‘Who is she?’

‘My client,’ I said. ‘How about Mr. Shirely hearing her?’

He looked me over.

‘And who are you?’

‘Jeff Gordon’s the name. I’m in a hurry to do a deal. It’s either Mr. Shirely or R.C.A. Please yourself.

I came here first because R.C.A. is just that much further away.’

But he was too old a hand for that kind of bluff. He grinned, and sat down behind his desk.

‘Don’t get so intense, Mr. Gordon,’ he said. ‘I’m not saying she isn’t good. She is, but I’ve heard better voices. We might be interested. Bring her around towards the end of the week. We’l give her an audition.’

‘She’s not available, and she is under contract to me.’

‘Wel , al right, then when she is available.’

‘The idea was for me to get a contract from you right away,’ I said. ‘If you don’t want her, I’l try R.C.A.’

‘I didn’t say we don’t want her,’ Knight said. ‘I said we want to hear her in person.’

‘Sorry.’ I tried to sound tough and business-like, but I knew I was making a poor show of it. ‘The fact is she isn’t wel . She needs toning up. If you don’t want her, say so and I’l get out of here.’

The door opened on the far side of the room and a small, white haired Jewish gentleman wandered in.

Knight got hurriedly to his feet.

‘I won’t be one moment, Mr. Shirely…’

There was my cue and I didn’t miss it. I pressed the play back but on on the recorder and turned the volume up.

Rima’s voice filled the room.

Knight made to turn the recorder off, but Shirely waved him away. He stood listening, his head cocked on one side, his dark little eyes moved from me to Knight and then to the recorder.

When the tape finished and I had stopped the machine, Shirely said, ‘Exceptional y good. Who is she?’

‘Just an unknown,’ I said. ‘You wouldn’t know her name. I want a contract for her.’

‘I’ll give you one. Have her here tomorrow morning. She could be a valuable property,’ and he started for the door.

‘Mr. Shirely…’

He paused to look over his shoulder.

‘This girl isn’t wel ,’ I said, trying to keep the desperation out of my voice. ‘I need five thousand dollars to get her fit. When she is fit, she’l sing even bet er than that record. I’ll guarantee it. She could be the sensation of the year, but she has to be got fit. Is her voice, as it is, good enough for you to gamble on a five thousand advance?’

He stared at me, his small eyes going glassy.

‘What’s the mat er with her?’

‘Nothing a good doctor can’t fix.’

‘Did you say five thousand?’

The sweat was running down my face as I said, ‘She needs special treatment.’

‘From Dr. Klinzi?’

There seemed no point in lying to him. He wasn’t the kind of man you could lie to.

‘Yes.’

He shook his head.

‘I’m not interested. I would be interested if she was quite fit and ready to go to work. I would give you a very good contract, but I am not interested in anyone who has to go first to Dr. Klinzi before they can sing.’

He went out, closing the door behind him.

I took the tape off the recorder, put it in its box and dropped the box into my pocket.

‘There it is,’ Knight said awkwardly. ‘You played it wrong. The old man has a horror of junkies. His own daughter is one.’

‘If I can get her cured, would he be interested?’

‘No doubt about it, but he would have to be sure she was cured.’

He opened the door and eased me out.

When I finally got home, Rima was out. I went into my bedroom and lay on the bed. I was completely bushed.

I hadn’t felt so depressed in years. From the Californian Recording Studios, I had driven to R.C.A.

There they had admired Rima’s voice, but when I began to talk about a five thousand dol ar advance they eased me out so fast I hadn’t a chance to argue with them.

I had gone to two of the bigger agents who also showed interest, but when they heard Rima was under contract to me they brushed me off in a way that made my ears burn.