Stephen Leather - Take Two

Terry laughed. ‘You don’t. You’re not talking to anyone. It’s just you.’

‘But how do I know what he’s supposed to be saying? What do I do?’

‘That’s what acting is,’ said Terry. ‘Don’t worry, you’ll be fine. Come on.’

‘You’re good to go,’ said Tracey. She removed the tissue paper from around Jenny’s neck.

Terry took Jenny along the corridor to the main studio. He pushed open the double doors and she followed him into a cavernous space with bare concrete floors and a roof criss-crossed with metal beams. Facing them was a wall of cheap wooden panels. There were numbers written in red paint on some wooden supports holding them upright. It had the look of a shanty town, but when she followed Terry around to the right she found herself looking at a modern kitchen, full of stainless steel appliances and black marble worktops.

Around the next corner was a hairdressing salon. The camera had been set up facing a chair next to which stood a pretty blonde girl dressed all in black. Phillippa was sitting on a camp stool looking at two monitors and talking to an earnest young man who was making notes on a clipboard. Phillippa saw Jenny and hurried over. ‘Did you have a chance to look at the lines?’ she asked.

‘Sure,’ said Jenny.

‘I’m sorry it’s such short notice, but we can do a rehearsal first. And what we’ll do is try to shoot you from the side and back so if the worst comes to the worst we can redub the dialogue later.’

‘Okay,’ said Jenny. She took the bag and the phone from Terry.

‘Now, what we’ll do is have the bag on the counter there,’ said Phillippa, pointing to the mirror. ‘You do the dialogue with the coffee, then you talk to Rachel here.’ The blonde waved a hand and mouthed ‘Hi’.

‘Once we’ve got that out of the way, we’ll move the camera to the side and shoot the second part of the scene, when you’re on the phone to your lawyer.’

‘Okay,’ said Jenny, but Phillippa could hear the uncertainty in her voice.

‘You’ll be fine,’ said Phillippa. ‘Just don’t look at the camera. When the girl brings the coffee, look at her. When you talk to Rachel, look at her. Just speak as if it was actually happening. Don’t think of it as acting.’

Jenny nodded. ‘Okay. It’s just that there are so many people here.’ She gestured at the crew, more than a dozen people, mainly men, all standing looking at her.

‘Don’t worry about them, pretend they’re not here.’ She smiled. ‘And try not to look up at the microphone if it swings over your head.’

‘There’s so much to remember,’ said Jenny.

‘Relax and enjoy it,’ said Phillippa. ‘You’re exactly where thousands of actresses would give their right arms to be.’

Jenny sat down in the chair as Phillippa went over to her monitors. The sound man swung the large microphone about three feet above her head and she forced herself not to look up. She looked over at Andrea and Andrea winked. Jenny smiled and breathed out. ‘I’m really nervous,’ she said.

‘You look so like her, you really do,’ said Andrea.

‘Right, everyone, let’s get started,’ shouted Phillippa. ‘Dougie?’

‘Rolling,’ said Dougie.

‘And, action!’

A petite brunette appeared at Jenny’s right with a mug of coffee on a tray. Jenny looked at it and raised her eyebrows. ‘Coffee? Darling, coffee’s the last thing I need. Be a love and get me a glass of champagne.’

The girl turned to walk away.

‘Cut!’ shouted Phillippa. She got up off her folding chair and hurried over to Jenny. She put her hand on the back of the chair as she leaned in to whisper to Jenny. ‘You’re still sounding very Australian,’ she said. ‘Can you try to make it a bit more English.’

‘I’m sorry,’ said Jenny.

‘No, you’re doing great. Your timing was spot on, your eye contact was perfect. I just need you to get the voice more in line with Carolyn’s. Don’t worry, we’ll get there.’

She went back to her chair and sat down. ‘Places again, everyone!’ she shouted. Jenny took a deep breath.

Richards was pouring himself a coffee when the door entry phone buzzed. It caught him by surprise and the mug slipped from his fingers, spun through the air and shattered into a dozen pieces on the kitchen floor. Scalding hot coffee splattered across his bare feet and he jumped back, cursing, before hurrying over to the entry phone. It was Halpin. ‘What are you doing here at this time of the morning?’ asked Richards.

‘It’s nearly ten, boss.’

‘Yeah, well that’s sparrow’s fart for me, mate. What do you want?’

‘A quick word, boss. Didn’t want to do it over the phone.’

Richards buzzed him in and went over to the lift doors in his hallway. The lift only stopped on two floors — the flat and the ground floor. The lift door rattled open and Halpin walked out. ‘Do you want a coffee?’ asked Richards.

‘Cheers, boss.’

Halpin followed Richards back to the kitchen. Richards jerked a thumb at the broken mug and spilled coffee. ‘Do me a favour and clean that up, will you?’ he said. He went over to his Bosch coffeemaker and began making two cappuccinos while Halpin used pieces of kitchen roll to mop up the coffee.

‘So what’s so bloody important you’ve got to disturb my morning?’ growled Richards.

‘Two things, boss,’ said Halpin, gingerly picking up the bits of broken mug and putting them on the wet kitchen roll. ‘First, there’s no record of a Jenny Castle. Or a Carolyn Castle.’

‘You sure?’

‘Sure, I’m sure. The guy I’m using is a pro. At first he thought it was because Castle was one of her married names but he checked all her husbands and none of them were Castle.’

‘It could be an acting name,’ said Richards. ‘Lots of people change their name when they start acting. Michael Caine was Maurice Micklewhite. And Marilyn Monroe was Norma Jean something or other.’

‘I thought that, but we checked on the internet and she’s always been known as Carolyn Castle. There’s never been a suggestion of another name.’

‘That’s a bugger,’ said Richards.

‘Be handy if we could get a look at her passport,’ said Halpin, dropping the broken mug and wet kitchen towel into the rubbish bin.

‘Seeing as how she’s at the bottom of the North Sea, I don’t see that’s going to happen,’ said Richards.

‘I meant the sister. Jenny. If you can get her passport we’ll have her name and her date of birth. Even if the sister has changed her name we’ll have the date they were born and I can look for twin girls born on that day.’

‘Let me see what I can do,’ said Richards. He finished making the coffees and handed one to Halpin.

‘And the other thing was the truck driver. He’s up in Scotland tomorrow. I’ll go up and do it myself.’

‘You’re not planning to use me as an alibi, are you?’

Halpin shook his head. ‘Sorted on that front. I’ll be playing poker with four other guys.’

‘Be lucky,’ said Richards.

‘I always am. Just make sure you’re in the club all tomorrow night, early until late.’

Richards raised an eyebrow. ‘You wouldn’t be trying to teach your grandmother to suck eggs, would you?’

‘Wouldn’t dream of it, boss.’

Day ambled into the studio, his hands in his pockets. He found Phillippa on the set that was used as Seb’s office, deep in conversation with the lighting director. She looked up as he walked over. ‘How’s it going?’ asked Day.

‘We’re on schedule,’ said Phillippa.

‘And Jenny? How’s she holding up?’

‘She’s fine.’