by Lulu Taylor
They found the games room, with its full-length pool table, its collection of eighties arcade video-game machines, bar and jukebox. They found a vast nightclub-style dance floor with DJ decks and lights. In the house, they wandered through more large luxurious rooms: a dining table that sat at least twenty; a huge sitting room with pure white sofas and chairs, and a great fireplace Coco couldn’t imagine ever needed a fire burning in it.
‘Hey, look at this.’ Xander had found another staircase leading under the house and he disappeared down it. A moment later, laughter floated up the stairs. ‘Oh, wow, this is so cool! Coco, come and see.’
She went down after him into the darkness and then stopped, astonished. In front of her was the entrance to a cinema. Over it was a big red sign rimmed with sparkling lights with the words ‘Picture Palace’ in flowing dark script. On the walls were classic movie posters: Casablanca, The Godfather, Raging Bull, Gone With the Wind and Pulp Fiction among them. There were gum-ball machines and jelly-bean dispensers sitting brightly by the entrance, next to an old-fashioned ticket booth, where, to Coco’s surprise, a woman in a candy-striped uniform and jaunty hat was sitting smiling at them from behind the glass. As Xander approached, the woman turned her head stiffly towards him and said, ‘Hi, what movie do you want to see today?’
Xander laughed again. ‘Fantastic. It’s a dummy.’
Coco saw that he was right: the woman was a plastic model, programmed to respond to movement and sound.
‘We’d like to see … Star Wars,’ Xander announced.
‘Star Wars,’ the model repeated, lips moving slightly in the ever-beaming face. ‘Your movie choice – Star Wars – will begin in five minutes.’ Two tickets emerged from a slot in the counter. Xander picked them up and turned to Coco.
‘Come on, we gotta see this.’
‘Please collect your snacks and drinks on the way in,’ said the ticket girl, then froze as her animation came to an end.
Coco followed Xander into the cinema lobby where there was an almost perfect replica of a snack counter, although she was glad to see there were no eerily realistic models to start shovelling popcorn or loading cheese on to nachos.
‘This is crazy,’ she murmured.
‘Yeah – but fucking great,’ Xander said, taking in the hotdog machine that was turning gently, keeping the hotdogs sizzling under the grill, the striped dispenser of popcorn and the stack of boxes next to it. A freezer held ice creams and popsicles, and a fridge a selection of cold drinks. Another stand held bags of sweets and chocolate bars. ‘Come on,’ he urged. ‘Let’s get something.’
‘How long have those hotdogs been there?’ Coco said suspiciously. This was all a bit too freaky for her tastes.
‘Don’t spoil the magic, Coco. Have the popcorn.’ Xander shovelled some into two boxes and got them each a drink from the fridge. ‘Come on, I bet the movie’s about to start!’
A pair of red baize doors evidently marked the entrance to the cinema. Inside, there was a gently sloping floor and five tiers of red velvet seats facing a pair of crimson curtains. Each seat was larger and more cushioned than a usual cinema chair, with a drinks holder and a small fold-out table for snacks. There was also a discreet control set in the seat handle so that the film could be paused, rewound or forwarded.
They’d just sat down in the middle of the centre row when the lights dimmed, the curtains went back to reveal the screen, and the 20th Century Fox music boomed out of the sound system, followed by the opening words of Star Wars, and the great fanfare that began the theme.
‘Cooooool,’ said Xander, stuffing a handful of popcorn in his mouth as he settled back and prepared to enjoy the movie, while Coco wondered what the hell they were doing in that crazy place, and unable to forget that somewhere above them was Will.
55
DAISY CLIMBED OUT of the taxi, looking up at the tall imposing building. It was years since she’d seen it, but it still looked exactly the same. The wind blew her hair over her face as she looked up at the many storeys and the endless panes of glass. This place had meant so much to her when she was a girl: it had been a symbol of her father’s might and success, a physical manifestation of his great importance in the world. She had been the pet and darling of everyone who worked here – although she wondered now if they had really liked her as much as they all pretended. And today she was back, all grownup and sleek in her Prada suit and Louboutins.
The difference was that today she hadn’t come prancing in holding her daddy’s hand, to be worshipped and adored. She had worked her way up to this point. And now she thought she might have the key to unlock the door into the Dangerfield Group itself.
She felt nervous as she walked into the grand foyer, almost as though someone would stop her, grab her arm and say, ‘Oi, we know who you really are!’ and take her straight to Daddy.
Her imagination stopped short at what might happen next but images of firing squads kept floating through her mind.
After signing in and getting her badge, she rode the lift to the eighteenth floor. Just the ordinary lift this time, not the executive one she once used. Butterflies flew about in her stomach and her mouth felt dry with fear. What if she ran into Daddy? Would he recognise her? Here she was, in the lion’s den. She’d been forbidden from ever having anything to do with the Dangerfield family, and now she was deep in their lair.
What the hell am I doing? she wondered, almost in disbelief. All this time, she had barely questioned what she was planning. She’d been driven on to do it, to prove to Daddy that he’d been wrong about her. That even though she might not be his biological daughter, she was good enough to be a Dangerfield and didn’t deserve to be cast away like a piece of rubbish. But perhaps that had been a stupid idea which might cost her more than she had already paid. Was it really worth it?
Are you crazy? Daisy smoothed down her skirt, shook out her hair and straightened her shoulders as the lift doors opened. Of course it is. There’s no way I’m stopping now.
‘Darley, hello. Good to see you again.’ She walked forward, hand outstretched and a welcoming smile on her face. He has no idea. He really hasn’t.
‘Ah, Miss Fraser.’ Ross stood up and came round his desk to shake her hand. His expression was not exactly friendly and the formal greeting did not bode well.
He’s probably deeply regretting ever speaking to me, she thought as they sat down, Ross behind his desk. Now that he’s not well-oiled on champagne. His posture and attitude seemed to indicate that he was going to pull rank on this little nobody from the Craven Group. After all, he was Managing Director of the entire division, wasn’t he? Why was he sitting here with this chit of a girl, about to discuss confidential company business? She could see the irritation deep in his eyes.
‘What can I do for you?’ he said, with a forced smile that verged on the condescending.
Daisy smiled back at him, taking in his silk tie, handmade shirt and tailored suit. She wasn’t nervous. After all, I fired a main board member when I was fifteen years old.
‘Mr Ross,’ she said in a light upbeat voice, ‘it’s very simple. I’ve come to tell you that you’ll be giving me a job here at Dangerfield HQ.’
Ross continued smiling but his manner turned even chillier. ‘Sorry – what did you say?’
‘You are going to appoint me as your executive assistant. I promise you, you won’t regret it. I’m going to get you out of all the difficulties you’ve got yourself into. Then, at some appropriate time, you’ll go on extended sick leave, and I’ll step into your shoes.’ She poured herself a glass of water from the carafe on the desk, sipped it and put it back on the table.
The director seemed stupefied for a moment as he took this in, laughed, stopped, and frowned again. ‘I’m sorry, I don’t understand. Why on earth would I do that? I don’t have an executive assistant. And I’m not sick.’
‘Well, you’re going to have one now. And I think you’re going to be feeling considerably less well when I tell you what I have in my bag.’
‘Is it a gun?’ he said jokily. ‘Look, young lady, I was under the impression we were going to have a serious conversation. You don’t seem entirely with it. Why don’t you go off and have a lie down somewhere and perhaps we can talk later. You see, I’m very busy—’
‘I expect you are, Mr Ross. You’ve plenty to keep you busy, after all. I mean …’ She raised her eyebrows. ‘What about the fact that you’re now propping up a seven-hundred-and-fifty-million-pound investment that can’t even get off the ground? You’re in serious trouble, aren’t you? That little fisherman in Scotland is causing you all sorts of grief, but it seems you’ve been concealing the extent of the losses you’re incurring every day that he stops the work beginning. In fact, the debts you’ve got could be called in by the lenders if they suspect that this project is never going to be completed … and that collapse could bring down the entire company, couldn’t it?’
Darley had turned paper-white as she spoke. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about!’ he blustered.
‘I think you do,’ Daisy replied calmly. She couldn’t help enjoying playing with him, watching his mental processes firing as he made connections and tried to anticipate what she might say next. ‘I’ve been doing some detective work and I’ve followed a couple of very interesting trails, ones you’ve done your best to conceal. And you’ve done well – no one is actually asking the important questions yet, are they? But you’ve mysteriously found funds to keep your division’s hefty losses hidden. A five-million bonus appeared from nowhere at all. And you’ve made some fascinating purchases too … one of them in roubles.’
Darley looked frightened. He began to stutter. ‘How … how … what …?’
‘I think you’re beginning to understand now. I really do know what you’ve been up to.’
There was a long pause as Ross stared at her. He looked as though he was desperately trying to think of an explanation but couldn’t. Then his face changed, fury contorting it. ‘You don’t understand!’ he spat, banging his hands on the desk suddenly. ‘The pressure here is extraordinary. I’m not allowed to fail, none of us are. My division was haemorrhaging money. I was terrified of the debts being called in. I had to do something.’
‘So you’ve borrowed more money, haven’t you? And it looks as though you’ve done it without authorisation.’
Ross drooped and nodded slowly. ‘You seem to know all about it, God only knows how. I thought I’d covered my tracks very well.’
‘Something like that will always be found out eventually,’ Daisy said softly. She felt sorry for him in an obscure way. He was in a hole and had tried to get out of it. There were plenty of people who were so frightened of Daddy’s wrath they’d have tried similar desperate measures. ‘The paper trails are always there if people know what they’re looking for.’
Ross put his head in his hands and groaned. ‘I know, I know,’ he said, his voice muffled. ‘Do you think I don’t know that? But I hoped that by then, I might have worked something out, some kind of solution.’
‘But you haven’t. And I’d like to know what this Russian investment is all about. You’ve paid out a substantial sum there. What is it?’
Ross looked evasive. ‘A hotel investment. I saw a wonderful opportunity to go into business with a man building a luxury hotel in an up-and-coming area, and so I decided it was something the Dangerfield Group ought to be a part of.’
‘But you haven’t put it to the board, have you?’
Ross shook his head.
‘Why not?’
He didn’t answer for a while. His jaw was set hard and his eyes were now burning with something like anger.
‘Mr Ross, you might as well tell me. If you do, I’ll think about other options. If you don’t, I’m going to go to the board, and I wouldn’t want to be in your shoes when that happens.’
‘But,’ he said icily, ‘that’s exactly what you claim you want. To be in my shoes.’
‘Hmm.’ She smiled at him. ‘Actually, you’re right. I do. I want you to appoint me, just as I’ve said.’
‘But … why?’ He looked puzzled. ‘Why do you want to be here?’
‘I want to work here, and fast. You’re my way in. And I’ll sort out this mess for you, how about that? You’ll be able to resign with all of your benefits and your pension intact. You can go on a long, well-paid sick leave. Imagine all the golf! Come on, Mr Ross,’ she urged, leaning forward. ‘Remember all those nights you’ve lain awake, wondering how the hell you’re going to get out of this mess? I’ve just opened the perfect escape route for you. In a few months you’ll be out of here and then you’ll never have to think about it again.’
Ross stared down at his desk for a long while. When he finally looked up to meet Daisy’s gaze, he said slowly, ‘You know, maybe there’s something in that. Very well, I’ll tell you what you’re so desperate to know. Maybe we can work something out.’
56
COCO STOOD BY the pool in her red bikini, looking at the turquoise water flashing in the late-afternoon sun. The sky stretched away in its infinite blue, and beyond the palm trees bordering the terrace the city lay below her, its grey mass glittering in the sunlight. The pool was as immaculately kept as everything else she had seen here and spotless white cushions made the sun loungers very inviting. Not so much as a leaf was out of place. She watched the water ripple and glint for a while, then put a toe into it. It was warm and gently refreshing. Her red nail-polish looked distorted by the water. She pulled her foot out.
Will’s office, she remembered, overlooked the pool. She wondered if he could see her, or if he was even looking out of the window. Thinking that made her suddenly selfconscious. How did she look? Was she sexy? Did she measure up to his girlfriend?
She laughed at herself. I’ve danced in a bloody bikini every night in front of random blokes for half my life! What the hell am I nervous about now? I know I look all right. And who cares what he thinks anyway?
With that, she went to a lounger and lay down to soak up the LA sun.
She must have dozed off because when she opened her eyes again, someone was sitting near her. She turned her head, blinking. ‘Xander?’ She hadn’t seen him since they’d discovered the cinema.
‘It’s Will,’ came the answer, just as her vision cleared and she saw that he was sitting on a nearby lounger, an open beer beside him. He smiled. ‘So, feeling a bit more rested?’
‘Oh, yes, thanks,’ she said, blushing. Had she looked an idiot, asleep? ‘It’s fantastic here.’
‘Yeah. I know. I’m lucky.’ He smiled at her and lifted the bottle to his lips. She felt a tremor of lust travel through her and wished she were not so undressed. She worried that he might be able to see the way her skin was reacting to him, or the muscles in her stomach tense with desire.
‘So, Coco …’ He looked straight into her eyes, as though her soft brown breasts in the red bikini top, and her long legs, didn’t interest him. ‘How do you know Xander?’
‘Oh …’ They had this story planned out. ‘We met in London. Through his sister Allegra. Do you know her?’
Will nodded.
‘We just hit it off. He’s such a funny guy. Anyway, I was coming to LA and Xander was planning a trip, so we thought – why not go together?’
‘So you two aren’t …’
‘Oh, no. We’re not. Just friends.’ She smiled at him, wondering if she was transmitting her eagerness to be available to him without even realising she was doing it.
‘I see.’
‘We’re in separate cottages,’ she added.
He laughed. ‘I would hope so, if you’re not together. There’s plenty of room. You only have to shack up if you want to.’
‘And … your girlfriend is away?’ she said.
‘Megan. Yeah. She’s an actress, away in New York doing a play.’ He stared at his bottle of beer for a moment, and then took another swig from it.
‘Don’t you get lonely here, in this big house all by yourself?’ she vent
ured.
‘Lonely? Nah.’ He shook his head. ‘Actually when you came by yesterday, it was unusually quiet. There’s almost always something going on, someone turning up. People drop by, just like you guys. In fact, there’s a party tonight.’
‘Really?’
‘Uh-huh. We’ll have some drinks, barbecue some steaks … people will swim, play some games, maybe dance.’ He shrugged. ‘The usual thing. You’ll enjoy it.’
‘Yeah,’ Coco said. ‘It sounds good.’ But, she was thinking, what about you? Will you enjoy it? There was something closed off about Will, as though he was shut away somewhere in his own mind. How would she be able to reach him? It was hard to imagine ever being so intimate with him that he’d start telling her his private thoughts.
‘Hey, guys!’ It was Xander coming across the terrace towards them, loping easily, though he looked pale again. ‘What are you up to?’
‘I’m just telling Coco about our party tonight,’ Will said, looking over at his friend with a smile.
‘Party? Terrific.’ Xander sat down on a lounger. ‘That pool looks good. Who’s up for a swim?’
Will stood up. ‘Not me. Back to the office for a couple of hours. Then I’ll be able to party with a clear conscience.’
Coco examined her reflection in the mirror of her cottage. She was sure all the LA girls were going to be super-glossy and amazingly trendy, but she was well equipped to hold her own against them. She was wearing wide-legged white trousers that fastened high at her waist, emphasising her hips and flat stomach. With them she wore a white cropped vest top and over that a gauzy printed poncho-style top with a giraffe-skin print all over it, the wide boat neck dropping off one brown shoulder.
She looked good, she knew that. Good enough? Well, that was another question.
While they were at the pool, Xander had told her that he thought Will liked her, but she wasn’t so sure. Besides, she didn’t want him to like her. She wanted him to like her. And what about this Megan, the actress? He hadn’t smiled when he’d talked about her. Maybe he was cross with her for going off to New York and leaving him alone.