Stephen Leather - Take Two

Day nodded as he listened to the agent. ‘Peter, is it possible she’s playing some sort of negotiating ploy with us? Withdrawing her services?’

‘Striking, is that what you mean? Carolyn’s not like that. She certainly didn’t tell me she was going to walk out. And she’d have to know there’s no upside to her doing that. She’s a professional, Paul. Grease paint in her blood and all that.’

‘I know she is,’ said Day. ‘Which takes us back to the original question. Where the hell is she?’

‘Let me ring around,’ said Peter. ‘I’ll call you back.’

Day ended the call. As he put the handset down, his office door opened. It was Laura. ‘Sally and Phillippa want a word,’ she said.

Day stood up. ‘They’re not armed, are they?’

‘I frisked them, they’re clean,’ whispered Laura. She stepped to the side and ushered in Sally and Phillippa.

‘I’m sorry about this, Paul,’ said Sally, sitting down on the sofa at the corner of the office. ‘We really need to sort out the Carolyn situation.’ Phillippa sat down next to the TV executive.

‘Absolutely,’ said Day, pulling up a chair and sitting down opposite her. ‘I’m just off the phone to her agent but he doesn’t know where she is.’

‘There are two issues here, Paul,’ said Sally. ‘The first is she’s missing and do we need to inform anybody. And the second is, what are we going to do show-wise?’

‘We’re prepped for shooting her tomorrow,’ said Phillippa. ‘If she doesn’t turn up…’ She shrugged. ‘It’s a nightmare.’

Day held up his hands. ‘Let’s not get into a panic,’ he said. ‘She’s only a few hours late. For all we know, she might turn up after lunch.’

‘Or she might not,’ said Sally. ‘And I don’t want to be paying for a full unit tomorrow if they’ve no one to shoot.’

‘We can shoot around her,’ said Day. ‘It’s not the first time we’ve moved things around if an actor is sick.’

‘But as far as we know she’s not sick,’ said Sally. ‘I mean, do we start contacting hospitals. Do we call the police?’

‘If she’d been in an accident or taken ill, someone would have told the press,’ said Day. ‘And the police don’t worry about missing persons until they’ve been gone for forty-eight hours.’ He leaned forward. ‘To be honest, it’s not the first time this has happened. And she’s always turned up before.’

‘Then I’ll leave it in your hands,’ said Sally. ‘But be careful, Paul. This could easily end up costing a hell of a lot of money and that will be down to you.’

‘I hear what you’re saying,’ said Day.

‘And what about tomorrow?’ asked Phillippa.

‘Can we put back her scenes?’ asked Day. He looked over at Laura who was standing by the door. ‘Can you get me a shooting script?’ he asked.

Laura opened the door and went to her desk.

‘Some of them, maybe,’ said Phillippa. ‘And we can do all the close-ups, but she’s in all the major scenes. We can’t keep doing that.’ She looked across at Sally. Sally flashed her a smile and nodded encouragingly. ‘We did have a thought, however,’ Phillippa said. ‘What about Jenny?’

‘Jenny?’ Laura returned with a copy of the script and handed it to Day. He took it from her but kept his eyes on Sally. ‘Jenny?’ he repeated.

‘She’s the spitting image,’ said Sally. ‘You heard her at the read-through. She can lose most of her accent when she tries. And we can get a speech coach in to smooth off the rough edges.’

‘She’s not an actress,’ said Day.

‘Phillippa thinks she can handle her,’ said Sally.

Phillippa nodded. ‘Her voice is okay and we can work on the hair and the wardrobe. I’ll cut down the number of close-ups and we can get the writers to trim back her dialogue. I think it’ll work, Paul.’

The producer nodded thoughtfully. ‘Would we have a union problem?’ he asked Sally.

‘Nothing our legal department couldn’t fix,’ she said. ‘I’m not saying this is the perfect solution but, as a temporary stop-gap, I think it’ll work.’

‘Word will get out, you know that.’

‘And if it does, we’ll go public. Be a nice story for the tabloids,’ said Sally. ‘Twin sister steps in to save the day.’

‘It’s a great story, if Carolyn turns up safe and sound,’ said Day. ‘But what if she doesn’t? What then?’

‘Let’s not go counting chickens,’ said Sally. ‘Let’s deal with this one day at a time. And the most important thing now is to get tomorrow’s scenes shot.’

The door burst open and Jenny stormed in. ‘Who the hell is that shit in the grey suit?’ she shouted at Day.

‘Suit? What suit?’

‘Martin something or other.’ Jenny glared at Sally. ‘Does that little shit work for you?’

Sally looked flustered. ‘Yes. Sure. Martin Waites.’

‘Well, Martin bloody Waites just put his hand on my arse and offered me a line of coke in exchange for a blow job.’

‘What?’ said Sally, stunned.

Day grinned but stopped when Sally looked over at him.

‘I told him what to do with his bloody cocaine, but I’m telling you now if he comes near me again he’s getting my foot in his balls. Where does he get off thinking he can talk to me like that.’

‘It won’t happen again, darling,’ said Day. He went over and hugged her. ‘I’ll take care of it.’

‘I’ll speak to him,’ said Sally.

‘You’d better do more than speak to him,’ said Day. ‘I want him off the show and away from this studio. That’s sexual harassment.’

‘If he does it again, I’ll be the one doing the harassing,’ said Jenny.

‘I’ll take care of it,’ promised Day. ‘I’m so sorry, Jenny.’

Jenny nodded. ‘Make sure you do. I’ll bet I’m not the only one he tries it on with, the sleazy scumbag.’

Day waved at Sally from his office window as she climbed into her 7 Series BMW. Lisa got into the front passenger seat. ‘Is it just me or do you get the feeling we’re in the middle of a coup d’etat here?’ he asked Laura, who was standing behind him. Martin Waites was standing by his Porsche 911, his face pale and his hands trembling. He seemed to be close to tears. Sally edged out of the car park as if she was unsure how to handle the large car.

‘She did seem a bit forceful,’ admitted Laura.

‘She damn near told me how to run my show,’ said Day. ‘These bloody women, they join as trainees and before they’ve even lost their milk teeth they’re running shows. What has that silly woman ever done? There isn’t a creative bone in her body. But she watches Lisa’s back and Lisa watches hers and together they’ve climbed the greasy pole.’ He shook his head. ‘It’s not the business it was, Laura.’

‘That’s for sure.’

‘We might have to start looking for another show. Something with the BBC, maybe. Or Sky. They’ve still got that maverick mentality over at Sky.’ He turned away from the window and sighed. ‘This is my bloody show, where the hell does she get off sticking her oar in?’

‘She’s speaking for the network, that’s what it is. And the network is run by accountants. It’s all about the money.’

‘They’ve got enough to give her a 7 Series,’ said Day. ‘I was forty before I could afford a car like that, and what’s she, thirty-one, thirty-two?’

‘Twenty-nine, I think,’ said Laura.

‘Bitch.’ He looked at his watch. ‘Is Jenny still around or has she pushed off?’

‘She’s with Terry in props.’

Day nodded. ‘What do you think about Jenny?’

‘To play Diana, you mean?’ Laura pursed her lips as she considered her answer. ‘Yes, I think she could do it. She’s a bit heavier than her sister, don’t you think? Might have to put her in baggier clothes.’