Party Games

by E J Greenway

  Colin sucked in his cheeks, frustrated. It was all Richmond, Richmond, surrounded by those who either had no idea how to think for themselves or were too busy seeking solace in a whisky bottle or gay lover to care. How dare this correspondent, whom he hardly knew and looked about half the Deputy’s age, make out like it was a done deal before a contest had even begun.

  “However, the still-current Deputy Leader Colin Scott, who is holding a much anticipated press conference later this morning, has received a surprising number of backers within the last twelve hours despite the Government’s defeat, including the twenty names to launch a challenge. A number of MPs supporting Mr Scott, however, have chosen to remain anonymous – and, of course, the ballot itself is secret. There are also a few dissenters within the 1922 Committee; Rodney Richmond certainly isn’t out of the woods yet.”

  A twitchy smile found itself temporarily onto Colin’s face. He still needed that one big hitter. Sharkey. He could yet be persuaded, a deal made involving a healthy dose of mutual agreement; bribery, back-scratching, whatever they wanted to call it.

  “Henry, we’re just getting in some breaking news.” The newsreader said. “We are receiving unofficial reports that Rodney Richmond is going to...err...resign this morning, but, as I say, this has yet to be confirmed by Mr Richmond’s office. It appears that the as yet unsubstantiated rumour is coming from a Labour source. If this is true, Henry, what do you think would be Mr Richmond’s thinking behind this move? Won’t this be a huge blow to the Conservative Party?”

  Colin felt as if he had received a thump to the stomach. “Shit!” He cursed, snatching up his BlackBerry and making a call. “I bloody knew it!”

  “Well, I’m just receiving news of this myself, Kirsty, and it appears that Mr Richmond will be making a statement at around 9.30, half an hour before Colin Scott’s scheduled press conference. It is frankly bizarre that Labour would be the source of this leak, and for it to be quite so detailed, but it appears to be a race to resign, which is quite extraordinary....”

  “Matthew, are you hearing this? Are you fucking hearing this bollocks?”

  “...Mr Richmond will, I am sure, be forcing a leadership spill, gambling on the support of his colleagues, and the party membership, to bring him back, if Mr Scott’s challenge should fail. I have also just been handed a confidential Tory document, also leaked from Labour sources, an obvious smear campaign against Mr Scott called, astonishingly, ‘Scott of the Anarchic’...”

  “What the..? Fuck! Get here, now, Matthew! We need to bring the press conference forward to 9am. Well, you’ll just have to be able to do it, abandon County Hall, we’ll do it outside on College Green, make it a bit more...visceral. Start making calls and get me a copy of that fucking document!” Colin felt utterly infuriated and not just because his coffee was now stone cold. He had never felt grateful to Labour until now. Richmond was in a greater mess than even he imagined and the personal attacks would be seen as desperation.

  Snatching up his resignation letter he rubbed his temple. How he wished Alice was here for support. Those words of encouragement she had uttered to him on their wedding day remained engraved on his heart: “You’ll be the man they all aspire to be”. He stared at the wording; maybe one more re-write was needed.

  *****

  7.30am

  Anthea swept out of Millbank after a Today programme interview which, although tough, added severe insult to Harvey’s injury – until her glory was cut horribly short. She had been caught on the hop, had to use all her intuition to get her through, when privately she felt deceived. He hadn’t told her, not even hinted. All the time they stood alone together on the Terrace, not a word. He had obviously made up his mind, that he would resign to fight Colin; perhaps he was simply testing the water when he said he would give it all up. Maybe Jeremy knew; Heidi, Deborah and Robert... It was all so much worse than the betrayal over Cornwall, and she had to find out on air and made to look a fool.

  “It’s a Labour leak, apparently.” Tristan said as she entered her flat, throwing her handbag on the sofa. “God knows how, but they knew everything, the timing of his press conference, the lot. The Leader’s Office was going to keep schtum on what it was all about, but now Colin will resign even earlier, I bet. Richmond’s going to be livid.”

  “He’s not the only one livid! I take it you listened to me?” She walked behind him and leant down, spreading her arms down his and burying her face in his neck. His smell was so familiar she immediately felt content. “On air as well, I could kill him! And doesn’t he want me to be his campaign manager again? He didn’t even ask my advice.”

  “Of course I listened to you.” Tristan replied, tossing the Bulletin off his lap. “You were brilliant, I couldn’t tell that you didn’t know, so don’t worry. I’m sure Rodney has his reasons, he probably thought you’d try to talk him out of it. Just let his office handle it all for now.”

  Lifting her head up Anthea scanned the newspapers around him and snatched up a piece of his toast. She bit into it and chewed slowly as she honed in on a full page colour photograph, although grainy, plastered across the open Bulletin.

  “God, is that Martin and Laura?”

  Tristan nodded. “Sure is. On a beach somewhere. Can’t blame the chap though, that woman’s got a great body in that bikini.” His blue eyes narrowed and swivelled to gauge a reaction from her but Anthea simply pursed her lips as she ignored his bait.

  Licking butter from her fingers she snatched up the newspaper which had the scoop on Harvey which tipped the balance:

  ‘SEX PEST HARVEY BULLIED ME’ Below was a picture of a grim-faced young female Labour MP whom Anthea had barely heard of.

  “Christ! Have you read this?”

  Tristan nodded as he poured her a coffee from the cafetiere. “Yes. Ian Harvey sounds even more despicable than I thought he was. The stories I would hear about him - none of that in the paper surprises me.”

  “He’s horrendous, gives us all a bad name.”

  “Anthea, I think we should go public.”

  Anthea stopped chewing. She gulped down the last mouthful of toast then sat next to him, looking surprised. “Public?”

  “Well, you know, I don’t mean place a full page advert in the House magazine, but I thought as I haven’t treated you over your fabulous win I could take you out to dinner tonight without being shy about it this time. I have no idea why the story about us hasn’t made it into the Bulletin yet, but we should beat them to it. I don’t care anymore.”

  “You’re right, why the hell shouldn’t we? Sod everyone, we can be the gossip round here for a while longer, we shouldn’t hide.” The photographs – the disgusting, lurid photographs taken of her and Tristan together by a slimy voyeuristic so-called private detective – were still out there somewhere, but she saw little point in dwelling on it.

  “I need you just as much – no, make that more – than Rodney Richmond does.” Tristan stroked her hair. “I know you’ll help to get him re-elected, but please, please, don’t forget about me.”

  “Forget about you? Tristan, I...I want us to move in together, and soon.” Leaning forward she kissed Tristan gently, quite taken with his ruffled hair and slight stubble. She pulled him close, ignoring her ringing mobile. Rodney – and the rest of the world- could wait a few more minutes. Tristan muted the television then swept the papers behind her onto the floor. He couldn’t have agreed more.

  *****

  8am

  It was still reasonably early, but as Colin left Matthew Gaines’ office, a finished resignation speech in his pocket, the smothered ringing of a telephone and the chatter of voices along the corridor indicated that the day had sprung into life. A few steps down the corridor alone, Colin came to a halt. Someone had approached him, hovering so close that he felt drawn into a communication he hadn’t anticipated. He turned quickly, his eyes meeting those of his sudden companion, and he felt an icy shiver grip his entire body. It was obvious. She knew.

  “Can we
talk?”

  “Linda – how are you?” Colin was stumbling over his words, an awkward smile finding its way on to his lips. His gaze flicked from Linda Cheeser’s impenetrable stare to her stomach, then back again. He felt queasy, his early morning coffee churning horribly in his own belly, a slow spread of acid creeping its way up his oesophagus. “How’s...not long to go now, then? I’m sorry, but you may have heard, I’ve got a press conference to get to.” Colin glanced along the corridor. It had fallen silent, except for the telephone, still ringing with banal urgency.

  “I won’t keep you, Jeremy’s waiting for me.” Linda’s voice was calm, but with a sour undertone. Colin felt a surge of anger. “Make it right, Colin. The girl.”

  It was a forthrightness Colin hadn’t come to expect from his old university acquaintance and it left him momentarily speechless. There was guilt in his body language which he lacked the skill to hide, and although he tried to think of a retort, his mind was gripped by a strange mental paralysis. Linda was still talking, her mouth opening and closing furiously, a look of confusion enhancing the lines on a face worn from lack of sleep and the knowledge of a secret which was obviously weighing heavily upon her but was certainly none of her business.

  “Jeremy has tried to help you over the years. He is a good man, a loyal man, who has always had great respect for you, although I’ve never really figured why!”

  Colin shook his head furiously. “Don’t pretend to know me, you’ve never known me! All I ever got from you was sympathetic looks after Alice died, until that sympathy turned to ...well, smugness, once you and Jeremy married!”

  “That’s just it, Colin. I know more than I certainly want to know about you. And I care very strongly how you treat my husband, and my friends, and...well, do I need to spell it out?”

  If Linda felt at all intimidated by him, she failed to show it. Colin’s jaw was clenched so tightly he could feel a painful pressure begin to build inside his head and his heart beat so vigorously he thought his ears might burst.

  “I honestly have no clue what you mean.” He stepped closer and Linda recoiled slightly, but not enough to be put off her stride. “I have a busy day ahead and no time for games.”

  “Oh, you have every clue.” Linda said as calmly as possible. “I should have known you’d have the gall to deny it. All I am saying is, all I am suggesting, is that you do the right thing.”

  Colin felt his best defence was ignorance. “Jeremy and Rodney don’t need you babysitting them, Linda!”

  “You know what I mean.” Linda lowered her voice to a hiss. “I mean a vulnerable young woman, of whom you have taken the most hideous of advantages, a young woman who may have even thought she loved you...”

  “Shut up, will you?” An instinctive urge to grab Linda’s arm overwhelmed Colin and he reached out, but something stopped him and he quickly lowered his hand. His move hadn’t gone unnoticed by the Chairman’s wife, but yet she remained in front of him, anger rather than fear clouding her features.

  “I pity you, Colin, I really do. I know you can stoop to some pretty low things, but this - this is just wrong. You need to make it right, that’s all I’m saying. I don’t mean marry her, just provide what she needs. She wants to set up home with you, you know, play happy families, but I didn’t have the heart to tell her just how bad Jeremy says your reputation is around here. Make her comfortable, so she doesn’t have to carry on with...with her current lifestyle, so she can continue with her studies. She is scared of the situation, and of you.”

  “I still don’t know what you mean.” Colin felt robotic in his response, but he had to compose himself. If he kept denying it, then she would have no ammunition later. How was he to know she wasn’t taping his every word? He wanted to shake her, demand to know who else she had told, whether her perfect husband knew as much as she. However, Colin needn’t ask.

  “I haven’t told him, you know. It wouldn’t be fair on him, in his position. But all it takes is one word from me. And who would he believe? Me, his wife, mother of his children, or you, a man hell-bent on ruining the only people who ever wanted to help him?”

  “I don’t know what you...”

  Linda had obviously heard enough. “I just don’t understand how you can be so cold, so disconnected from a situation which you have created. Make it right with her, help her with the baby you’re trying to force her to give up, and I will keep your little secret. I have her details, I will be checking on her. Abandon her, and, well, things can get said to one’s husband late at night, and I can’t guarantee his silence after that!”

  Colin’s mind was spinning. The bitch was trying to take everything away from him, everything he had worked towards all his life, just like that. He was about to resign, within the hour, how dare this woman threaten him! Loathing and blind rage swelled up in him like a giant tsunami ready to sweep away the last thread of self control he had. “I completely deny anything you may be insinuating, Linda. I don’t know what...”

  Matthew Gaines stepped out from his office and stopped short, a fleeting look at Linda. Colin swallowed hard, his mouth dry, unaware what he may or may not have heard. Perhaps it was all over, perhaps he should call off the press conference...

  “Just think about it.” Linda said to Colin, her voice now inscrutable. She barely acknowledged Matthew before walking away, casting a last glance over her shoulder at the man she had just broken.

  “Go ahead to College Green, take David with you. Do your usual stuff with the press.” Colin said to his media manager, coughing, his throat tight. He needed to think. “I’ll see you there shortly, I’ve just got to...I won’t be long.”

  Time was tight, so with a frown, Matthew nodded and left.

  Colin stood alone. He was experiencing a curious sense of loss; anger had subsided and instead the feeling of defeat flowed over him like an invisible, airborne weight. Colin’s phone bleeped, reminding him of a message he had yet to open. Somehow he knew it was her, and before he could stop himself, he opened Kathryn’s message. His breath caught in his throat and his eyes pooled, the emotional shock at the image overwhelming him. The scan of the unborn child blurred as the tears fell. Standing in the corridor, he sobbed quietly, wondering if the high emotion of the day ahead had brought it on, hating himself, loving Kathryn, suddenly and unexpectedly realising what he had wanted all along. His hot eyes remained glued to the image, the tiny body, although developing, unmistakably a child – a person, over which Colin had decided to play God. Why had he denied himself these feelings for so long? The clarity of the situation was such he paced aimlessly in the corridor, the first thing he must do clear as day, despite the need for him to be elsewhere, despite his face being over all the newspapers and the rolling news channels. There wasn’t much time. It would be perfect, she would be perfect. She already was perfect. He was in love, and he needed her by his side for the coming fight.

  Shaking, he made a call.

  *****

  8.15am

  “So much for a watertight ship! We’ll find the source of the leak, I promise you, Rodney. I’ve no idea, I mean...only you, me, Jeremy and Robert knew, and I for one didn’t discuss it with anyone else, and that’s the God’s honest truth, and as for the document, there were only two copies...”

  “Don’t worry, Deborah, I believe you.” Rodney said flatly. He had no reason to doubt her, or to doubt either of his other two close colleagues. His immaculate appearance, in dark suit, crisp white shirt and carefully chosen teal tie, betrayed his deep, personal regret. He felt used and cheap. Jenny had conned him again, and he had fallen for her. She had been such an obvious Labour mole, and she had called his bluff. He had known at 6am that something was horribly wrong, when the document was gone from his case.

  “Fergus McDermott’s on his way up.” Valerie said, placing a pile of letters on the table and looking at her boss with concern through thick spectacles. “Rodney? Shall I organise coffee?”

  “Sorry, thanks, Valerie.” Rodney looked up f
rom his resignation statement as Clare hurried in, juggling her mobile and a large stack of papers. “No, no coffee, I don’t want Fergus getting too cosy, this can’t take long.”

  “Indeed.” Valerie mused as she swept out of the office. “I know you’ve got a busy day but please sign those letters, the constituents must be kept happy!”

  Rodney grumbled. Signing correspondence wasn’t exactly at the front of his mind. Clare was thrusting more newspapers at him, articles mentioning ‘Colin Scott’ and ‘leadership’ circled in angry red pen. He waited until she left to greet McDermott before he spoke again, in quiet voice, to Deborah.

  “Look, I’ve got a confession.”

  “So have I.” Deborah said suddenly. “Robert and I, well, we’re seeing each other. I just thought I should be the one to tell you, it’s been in today’s Engager diary column.”

  “I guessed.” Rodney found himself smiling. “I’m pleased for you, really I am. Just be careful, pleasure and business, it doesn’t always...work.”

  “What’s your confession?” Deborah eyed the door. Rodney knew she was itching to investigate the leak and he simply couldn’t let her.

  “I, err...I know who the leak is.”

  Deborah watched him silently, her expression incredulous.

  “In a way, it was me. Last night – Jenny came over, unexpectedly, to apologise, but...well, I won’t say it. She must’ve heard us talking, sneaked into my bag. Look, we’ve got to bury this thing, the two of us; I just hope she didn’t hear much else.”

  “There are only so many times we can blame an intern.”

  “I know. I messed up, in more way than one, so nobody else will get the blame. Please, don’t tell Robert. I need complete discretion – something I was definitely lacking last night.”