Long Gone

by Paul Pilkington

  ‘I can see why they were a case study on your degree,’ Penny said.

  ‘I must admit, I’d never heard of them,’ Susie said. ‘Anything else we should know about Diana Saunders?’

  Natalie hesitated, before deciding it was safe to continue, as long as she kept her voice down and one eye on the door. ‘Diana has a reputation.’

  Penny frowned. ‘Reputation?’

  ‘For being ruthless. There is a story about how she poached a client, a young female actress, from under the nose of a fellow agent at a rival agency.’

  ‘Doesn’t sound too bad,’ Susie commented. ‘Par for the course.’

  ‘Except that the fellow agent was her father, who was in hospital at the time, recovering from a heart attack.’

  ‘Oh,’ Susie said. ‘I take it she doesn’t get on with her dad, then?’

  ‘Oh, I think she gets on with him fine. To her it was just business.’

  ‘Nice,’ Penny said. ‘I’d never do anything like that to my family.’

  ‘There’s lots of other stories. She knows what she wants, and she goes and gets it.’

  ‘Sounds like a scary character,’ Susie said, her Scottish accent seeming to become stronger. ‘And we’re going to meet her any moment.’

  And right on cue, her face appeared at the door. She just observed them for a moment, her eyes narrowing, as if she were looking at specimens in a lab. She turned and said something to someone next to her, just out of sight, before entering the room with a flourish that swept a gust of cold air around their ankles.

  ‘Diana Saunders!’ she announced, pushing her dark-rimmed glasses up into her jet-black, tied-back hair. ‘Well?’ she said, looking down at them, ‘aren’t you going to stand up and introduce yourselves?’

  Natalie was the first to get to her feet. She held out her hand, but Diana’s attention had already been diverted to her ringing cell phone.

  ‘Hi, Eddie!’ she gushed. ‘Of course, darling, no, not doing anything important. Always time for you.’ She laughed in a flirty way and placed a hand over the receiver. ‘Ladies, if you wouldn’t mind stepping out of the office for a moment, I need some privacy.’

  ‘I ALREADY SEE WHAT YOU MEAN,’ Susie muttered across to Natalie, as the three were left standing in the corridor while Diana Saunders continued her phone conversation behind the closed door. ‘She’s certainly a force of nature, you can tell that straight away.’

  ‘She certainly is,’ Natalie noted.

  ‘I wonder what our task is going to be,’ Penny said. ‘I’m not sure whether I’m looking forward to working with her or not. I get the feeling it could be either the best or worst experience of my life.’

  That brought a smile from the other two.

  ‘I think we’ll be fine,’ Natalie said. ‘As long as we do whatever she says. Oh, she’s off the phone.’

  The door swung open. ‘Do come in!’ Diana instructed. ‘No time to waste!’

  They retook their seats, this time faced with the imposing figure of Diana Saunders, who was scrutinising them again from her luxury leather swivel chair. At the same time, she was playing with her cell phone, turning it over and over in her right hand, which could have been mistaken for a nervous tic if it had been anyone else doing it.

  ‘Sorry,’ she said, glancing at her cell phone, before placing it on the desk behind her. ‘Had to take that call from Eddie. He’s on set in LA, middle of a shoot, needed to talk to me urgently about some extremely important business we’re currently in the middle of. Can’t really say more than that, as it’s highly sensitive, but everyone will hear about it in the fullness of time. It’s going to be huge. The director was champing at the bit to get back to filming, time being money, you understand, but you know Eddie, he’s his own man and Stephen knows that. He’s too smart to upset his star asset, far too smart.’

  The three of them were too wise to ask who Eddie or Stephen were. It seemed as if Diana just expected them to know, and to admit otherwise and reveal their ignorance would no doubt go down badly.

  ‘Anyway,’ she continued, ‘Eddie might be calling back in a few minutes.’ She twisted around to check her phone, as if she might have somehow missed a call from him. ‘So we’d better get started before my boy calls back – we don’t want any further interruptions, do we?’

  They smiled back.

  ‘So,’ she said, ‘you’re three of Sir Kenneth’s lucky people. And you really are very lucky, have no doubt about it. You’ve been given a once in a lifetime opportunity, I hope you understand that.’

  They nodded.

  ‘I’ve been good friends with dear Kenneth for decades,’ Diana continued. ‘The man is a genius, one of a kind. Intelligent, insightful, imaginative. Our respective companies work very closely together, to our mutual benefit. We’ve had many, many successes in the years, and I can’t speak highly enough of Brand New. They are true boundary pushers. Global leaders. Have you met Sir Kenneth?’

  ‘Kind of,’ Natalie replied.

  Diana arched a tattooed-on eyebrow. ‘Kind of?’

  ‘He appeared via virtual reality. Well, augmented reality I think it was.’

  ‘Ah,’ she smiled. ‘Sir Kenneth does love playing with his technology – especially when it allows him to be in multiple places at once. I think he’s in the Caymans at the moment.’ She thought for a second. ‘Or maybe Hong Kong. Anyway…’ She waved the location issue away. ‘Let’s get down to business.’

  Just at that second, Catharine appeared at the doorway, peering in with a tray of drinks in her hands.

  Diana looked slightly irked. ‘Come in.’

  ‘Sorry to interrupt, Diana,’ Catharine said, handing out the drinks. Diana had a huge cup of black coffee.

  ‘You’ve met my assistant, Catharine,’ Diane said. ‘Catharine started at the company eighteen months ago. I took her under my wing, as she has aspirations of becoming an agent, don’t you, Catharine?’

  Catharine nodded.

  ‘It’s a long, hard road,’ Diana said, ‘to become a stand-out agent, an agent who doesn’t just get the deals done and look after their clients, but truly excels in this cut-throat industry. Isn’t that right, Catharine?’

  ‘Yes, Diana.’

  Catharine left the room.

  ‘She does make great coffee,’ Diana said, sipping at the steaming hot drink. ‘But I’m not sure she’ll make a great agent. I’ve been thinking of letting her go.’

  They didn’t know what to say, but thankfully Diana was obviously the kind of person who quickly filled any silent space.

  ‘So,’ she said, ‘your task for today. Let me explain a little bit of background. Here at EXCEL-ENT, we like to push the boundaries, to lead rather than follow. But, I’m afraid, we’ve been rather caught on the hop over the past few years regarding our literary direction. I’ve recently taken personal charge of our books department, to remedy the situation, and we’ve let a couple of people go, who frankly, didn’t really take the opportunities that had been staring them in the face. A few years ago, I led the development of our own film and TV production company, and we’ve been very successful. We’ve worked with key strategic partners across the industry and have had big hits. You’ll have heard of Future Fears, our groundbreaking dystopian series which recently broke streaming records.’

  ‘I love that series,’ Penny said. ‘Really imaginative, and quite freaky.’

  Natalie knew of it too, and had watched several episodes, although some of them, the more horror-centred, were a little bit too freaky for her persuasion.

  ‘Well,’ Diana said, ‘I’m now turning my sights to the publishing industry, which, quite frankly, needs a bloody good shake-up. I’m sick of being beholden to the big publishers, with their measly contracts and excuses for not promoting our authors in a way that they truly deserve. Which is why EXCEL-ENT are launching our own publishing house. We already have the authors, we have the means of production, both electronic and print on demand, so now we turn to the branding. W
hich,’ she smiled, ‘is where you come in.’

  26

  Previous Saturday morning

  ‘SO, girls, here’s your task. You have,’ Diana checked her watch, ‘just under four hours to create a branding vision for our new publishing house. And then you’ll present your work to the team here at EXCEL-ENT for their assessment and feedback.’ She smiled the challenge at them. ‘Do you think you’re up to it?’

  ‘Yes.’ Susie was the first to reply. ‘We’re up for the challenge, aren’t we?’ She turned to the other two, both of whom nodded.

  ‘Great!’ Diana said. ‘Right, I shall leave you to it. You can have access to a computer each, in the main office. The branding team are moving out for the day, to give you some space. Catharine will be back in a few minutes to take you through.’

  She was halfway out the door when Natalie called out.

  ‘What about the client?’

  Diana stopped. ‘Excuse me?’

  Natalie doubted herself for a second, but shook it off. ‘The client,’ she said. ‘EXCEL-ENT. What are your priorities and values, what are your business goals?’

  Just as Natalie was doubting herself again, Diana smiled and stepped back into the room, closing the door behind her and slipping back into her seat. ‘I thought you might never ask. It’s Natalie, isn’t it?’

  ‘Yes,’ she replied, wondering how she’d known, given that she hadn’t asked their names up to this point. Maybe the list the company had been provided with by Brand New also contained their photographs.

  ‘Well, Natalie,’ she said, seemingly intentionally ignoring the other two, ‘as I said, I’ve had enough of the traditional publishing industry. Sure, I have some good friends there, some very good friends – Mark, Gabriella, Margot. There’s a lot of passion, lots of people who love literature, love books, and love what they do. But it’s not enough, Natalie.’ Her eyes were on fire, burning with an unnerving intensity. ‘I want to take things to a new level. I want our publishing house to be the go-to place for authors, for the world’s top authors. People like King and Rowling, I want them knocking on my door, begging me to take them on.’

  Natalie had pulled out the notebook and pencil that they’d each been provided with. ‘‘Can you describe what you want the publishing house to be, maybe in three keywords?’

  ‘Unique. Daring. Ruthless,’ she replied without missing a beat.

  ‘And the company name?’

  ‘Nice try,’ Diana replied. ‘I’ll leave that to you. So,’ she said, finally addressing Susie and Penny again, who had been watching on rather despondently from the sidelines, ‘have you got any other questions? If so, you’d better be quick, before Eddie calls back.’

  ‘We can access the internet, can’t we?’ Penny said. ‘I mean, at the house, we weren’t allowed to communicate with…’

  ‘You can have access to the internet for research and development purposes only,’ Diana explained. ‘Any attempt to communicate with anyone, for assistance or any other reason, will be reported to Brand New. I hope that’s clear enough for you.’

  ‘Yes, yes, I didn’t mean…’ Penny stammered.

  ‘Good,’ Diana smiled tightly. ‘Any questions?’ She directed this at Susie.

  ‘Is this a real task?’ she asked.

  ‘Sorry?’

  ‘I mean, are we really designing the branding for your new publishing company?’

  Diana laughed. ‘Oh my goodness, no. That will be handled by our branding team. This is an extremely important part of our development, so we don’t want to take any risks by handing over responsibility to anyone less than supremely competent. Of course, any ideas you have will be considered by my team, in the event that there is something of value there.’

  Susie looked to the others after Diana had exited the room. ‘Well, she really knows how to instil confidence, doesn’t she?’

  THE REST of the morning flew by. The three of them worked in the corner of the busy open-plan office, powered by coffee from the swanky bean-to-cup machine that was installed around the corner, as the branding team moved out into some of the outer offices.

  They divided the tasks up between them. Susie was great with graphics, so she took the lead in working on sourcing possible images for the publishing house logo. Penny, whose self-built baby-naming website had won multiple awards, went to work on designing the website concept. Natalie focussed on the company strap-line and mission statement, which could be used across multiple channels.

  Thankfully, they’d decided on a name very quickly. In fact, the idea had been pitched by Natalie and agreed on by the rest of the team even before Catharine had returned to collect them from Diana’s office.

  Black Tiger Publishing.

  It had been a spark of inspiration on Natalie’s part, which was seized upon by the other two. Sometimes things just happened like that. A few weeks ago she’d watched a nature documentary with her housemate, Amy, that had focussed on the mysterious black tiger. It was a rare genetic variant, where thicker than normal black stripes almost obscured the colour underneath. A very impressive animal, it seemed to represent perfectly Diana’s three key words to describe what they wanted their publishing house to be: Unique. Daring. Ruthless.

  They could only hope that Diana and her branding team felt the same way.

  The imagery was another matter.

  They needed something bold but basic. A logo that would work on the spine of a book, as well as on a website and on giant posters. It needed to be simple but original. Fortunately, Susie was good. Within an hour of seeking inspiration from other publishers, and testing out ideas, she had four possible logo designs.

  Of the four, one stood out. It was the head of a black tiger, face on, with bold thick black stripes and piercing yellow eyes, set on a futuristic, metallic silver background.

  ‘That’s perfect,’ Natalie said, as soon as she laid eyes on it.

  ‘I agree,’ Penny said. ‘Definitely the best of four really good logos.’ She looked at Susie and smiled. ‘Nice work!’

  ‘Thanks,’ Susie said. ‘That one was my favourite, too, but I didn’t want to sway you two one way or the other. How’s the strap line going?’ She looked over towards the computer screen where Natalie had been typing and deleting for the past hour or so.

  ‘It’s been harder than I’d thought.’

  Natalie had looked at what other publishers were offering; many of the traditional companies didn’t have a strap line at all. Some of the new players in the industry did, though: mostly the digital-only houses. They were generally savvier, but that was probably because they were new to the game and had to stand out to survive.

  ‘But I’ve got something I think works pretty well,’ Natalie added.

  ‘So let’s see what you’ve got,’ Susie said. ‘And I promise we won’t laugh,’ she added cheekily.

  ‘Hey,’ Natalie joked back. ‘Okay. Here goes. Publishing Reimagined.’

  She looked at the other two with some sense of trepidation as they were both processing it without giving away anything.

  Finally Susie nodded. ‘I like it.’

  ‘Me too,’ Penny concurred.

  Natalie wasn’t convinced. There was something about their reaction that was muted somewhat. She wanted to see a spark of excitement in their eyes, but it just wasn’t there.

  ‘How about this one,’ Natalie said. ‘Publishing Without Fear.’

  ‘I prefer the first one,’ Penny said.

  Susie nodded. ‘So do I.’

  Natalie turned back to the screen. The rest of her attempts weren’t as good, she knew that. ‘Give me a few minutes, and I’ll come back with something better.’

  ‘Honestly, the first one is fine,’ Susie said, looking concerned that Natalie might be feeling rejected.

  Natalie got to her feet. ‘No, it’s absolutely fine,’ she said. ‘I’m just going to take a walk around the building, and I’ll come back with the winner.’

  Susie nodded, reassured that they hadn�
��t hurt Natalie’s feelings.

  27

  ‘Detective Chief Inspector?’ the guy said, approaching Paul Cullen in the middle of a busy Leicester Square. He had stylised boy-band blond hair, gelled up into a high quiff, and very blue eyes. Dressed all trendy, in tight drainpipe jeans and a jacket, he looked as far removed from his old-time journalist friend Trevor Goulding as you could imagine.

  He made Cullen feel very old.

  Cullen nodded and grasped his hand, pumping out a workmanlike hello.

  Was this the kind of person he would have to deal with from now on? Someone who looked like he could be his son?

  ‘Zack Carter. It’s great you could meet, thanks so much for obliging.’

  He was stepping back and forwards on his tiptoes, rather like a sparring boxer.

  ‘Don’t mention it,’ Cullen said, quite put off by the guy’s energy. Maybe he was just nervous and would settle down in a minute or so? ‘But I really can’t talk for long.’

  ‘No worries, no worries,’ Zack said, still moving. He glanced over his shoulder. ‘Fancy a pint?’ He nodded to the bar next to the Odeon Cinema.

  Cullen was about to say no, just to be difficult, but he felt as if he could do with something. ‘Just the one,’ he said. ‘But not there. I know a place around the corner. Better atmosphere. And better beer.’

  ‘Sure, lead on, Detective!’

  Cullen nearly tutted at that, but held himself back, instead mustering up a tight smile. They crossed the Square, dodging tourists out enjoying the spring sunshine, pointing with their smartphone cameras and consulting their guide books. This part of London really was tourist central, and English accents were a rarity, compared with the many North American voices, not to mention the dozens of languages that floated through the air.