Behind Her Back

by Jane Lythell

  BEHIND HER BACK

  Jane Lythell

  Start Reading

  About this Book

  About the Author

  Table of Contents

  www.headofzeus.com

  About Behind Her Back

  Liz Lyon is a television producer and busy single mum to a teenage daughter. She works at StoryWorld, the UK’s favourite morning show. As both confidante and team leader, she is the person tasked with controlling the conflicts and tantrums that flare up off-air. Having just started dating again, she’s also having to deal with a few conflicts and tantrums at home...

  Following a blissfully peaceful two-week holiday in Italy, Liz has returned to find a new colleague has joined the station. Lori Kerwell has been brought in to increase the show’s profitability. But Liz is not sure that’s the onlything on Lori’s agenda.

  As Lori builds her power base with the bosses, Liz finds herself wondering what’s really going on behind her back...

  Contents

  Welcome Page

  About Behind Her Back

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  A Letter from Jane

  Acknowledgements

  About Jane Lythell

  About the StoryWorld Series

  Also by Jane Lythell

  From the Editor of this Book

  An Invitation from the Publisher

  Copyright

  To Barry, with love

  1

  EARLY AUGUST

  Chalk Farm flat, Sunday, 2 p.m.

  As soon as we got in, Flo looked for Mr Crooks our cat and started to panic when he wasn’t in the flat or our garden. She was straight on her mobile to Janis who reassured her that he’d been fine when she’d been in to feed him this morning. He had probably gone for a wander.

  I stuffed dirty clothes into the washing machine, two weeks’ worth, some of which were still powdered with sand from the beach at Bordighera. For the first time in years, having Simon as my deputy had allowed me to have a complete break from StoryWorld and I had returned with a good tan and a hole in my finances.

  I was heading back to work on Monday and needed a briefing from Simon. I made a mug of tea, black because I’d forgotten to buy milk, and called him.

  ‘Welcome back. Was your flight OK? Heard there were delays at Heathrow,’ he said.

  ‘We didn’t fly. We were on the overnight train from Ventimiglia and it was brilliant, though I didn’t sleep much.’

  ‘Good holiday?’

  ‘Fantastic. Pasta and ice cream to die for and we swam in the sea most days. How have things been?’

  ‘Fine, really, no mishaps to report, and Ledley is going from strength to strength.’

  ‘Glad to hear it. Fizzy is back next month, you know.’

  ‘So I heard. He’s taken to it so well. Maybe he’ll find it hard going back to a weekly slot,’ Simon said.

  Ledley, the StoryWorld chef, has been sitting in for our star presenter Fizzy Wentworth. She’s been on maternity leave and he’s been a hit with our viewers. Fizzy had her baby in late May and is only taking three and a half months off. She’s determined to be back on the sofa at the beginning of September. She’s worried that if she stays away longer Ledley will get too entrenched in the anchor role.

  ‘And Lori Kerwell arrived last week,’ Simon said, and there was something in his voice, the verbal equivalent of rolling his eyes.

  ‘What’s she like?’

  ‘She’s scary; really scary. All pent-up energy and dead eyes.’

  ‘Oh dear!’

  ‘She insisted on coming to the morning meetings and by the second day was commenting on the output.’

  ‘I hope that’s a short-term thing. It’s an editorial meeting,’ I said.

  ‘Yeah, but she said it will help her understand where she can develop business tie-ins.’

  ‘And is Julius OK with that?’

  ‘Not sure. He put her in her place on Friday.’

  The gossip at the station was that Julius Jones, our director of programmes, was not overjoyed at the appointment of Lori Kerwell to develop sales and marketing. She had been appointed by the MD, Saul Relph. He is the money man at StoryWorld. Julius, who is the ideas man, was not involved in her selection and employment. There is often conflict between the editorial and the business sides in television.

  ‘Can you talk me through the running order for tomorrow?’ I said.

  ‘Loula is our celebrity interview of the day.’

  Loula was the latest winner in ITV’s blockbuster talent show.

  ‘That’s a good signing.’

  ‘Harry got her for us. And Molly’s story is on FGM.’

  Female genital mutilation was a challenging topic for my researcher Molly to have chosen.

  ‘How did she cover that?’

  ‘She found this young Somalian woman, Beydaan, very brave. She shopped her parents to social services because she doesn’t want her younger sister to go through what they did to her. Liz, she was seven years old when she was cut.’

  ‘Bloody hell!’

  ‘I know. Molly had to shoot the interview so you can’t see her face. And we’ve changed her name, of course.’

  This was making me uneasy. Ours is a morning show and we have to be careful about the content we put out.

  ‘And who will Ledley talk to about it?’

  ‘We’ve booked the officer from the Foreign Office who runs the FGM Unit.’

  ‘That’s a good call. Are you sure Ledley is OK with this?’

  ‘Molly briefed him at length on Friday.’

  ‘Well, huge thanks, Simon, for all you’ve done. Let’s both sit in the gallery tomorrow and we can go to the morning meeting together.’

  ‘It’s good to have you back.’

  I unlocked the French doors and stepped into our garden. Dead blooms and leaves had accumulated and it needed a good sweep. I have a tiny shed in the corner and I rummaged out the garden broom. My beloved hollyhocks needed water too. I filled the watering can and gave them a good soaking. Their large pale pink and yellow blooms rested against the warmth of the back wall. There is something satisfying about watering plants. The hollyhocks are too big really for our small patch but I love them so much and looking at them lifts my spirits. The washing cycle had finished so I pulled the clothes out and hung them over the drying frame which is a job I hate doing as the frame is not large enough. I wondered if I should call Ledley and talk through the FGM story with him. It is not the easiest subject for a male presenter to deal with. But I had left Simon in charge and I trusted him. The cat flap clattered and Mr Crooks emerged, blinking, into the sitting room. When he saw me he let out an outraged yowl.

  ‘Flo, Mr Crooks is back and he’s got the hump,’ I called out.

&
nbsp; Flo came out of her room. She had stripped down to her panties and a white T-shirt and I admired her long tanned legs as she walked across the kitchen and picked up Mr Crooks. My rosebud was turning into a rose.

  2

  StoryWorld TV station, London Bridge

  I was in the green room with Loula, our celebrity guest of the day, and her father, who introduced himself to me as her manager. He was wearing a navy blazer with brass buttons and a cravat, of all things. He looked more Golf Club Man than Stage Dad. Loula was in high demand so we had done well to get her on the show but she was a right little madam. I took her into make-up and then returned to the green room. Loula’s father was being difficult with Ziggy, my runner, who served the refreshments and booked taxis for the guests. He was complaining about not being allowed to accompany his daughter into make-up. I explained that it was a small salon and we liked guests to have a moment to compose themselves before they went on air and would he like another coffee. I was being polite and gritting my teeth. I recognised the type; a doting father who had sent his daughter to stage school and had entered her into the TV talent competition which she had won. His daughter’s moment of fame had come and he was grabbing it with both hands.

  I returned to make-up. Loula was giving Ellen, our make-up woman, a hard time.

  ‘I hate all that foundation. God, I look like a Barbie doll now.’

  ‘I can tone it down,’ Ellen said calmly.

  I watched as Ellen reached for a sponge and started to wipe Loula’s face. Loula snatched the sponge from Ellen and I felt like slapping her. It is always so revealing how a celebrity behaves with the back-room staff. Her rise to celebrity had been meteoric. She was twenty years old and there was a greediness and a gracelessness about her, like her father. She had a good singing voice but I hoped that her fame would be short-lived.

  When the programme was over Simon and I waited for Ledley at the studio door. As he emerged he gave me a hug.

  ‘Hey, you’re back.’

  ‘That was a terrific interview with Loula,’ I said.

  ‘Thanks.’

  Predictably, Loula had changed her manner once seated on the sofa next to Ledley with the cameras running. She had giggled and flirted and had been charm itself. Ledley and I walked up the stairs together and I was struck again how he looks so much smarter these days. When he became the main anchor in May, the deal was that he had to spruce up. Ellen had overhauled his wardrobe and gone was his street-style look: the faded black jeans tucked into big boots. This morning I had noticed how he’s getting more polished in his interview techniques too. When he started there was a spontaneous, rough-around-the-edges quality which I liked and was sorry to see go.

  We entered the meeting room and I spotted Lori Kerwell straight away. She was sitting at one end of the table with a lever arch folder open in front of her and what looked like tables of figures. Julius was behind me.

  ‘Welcome back, Liz. You haven’t met Lori yet?’

  I walked over and shook hands with her. She looked like she was in her late forties and she was wearing a turquoise suit with a statement necklace. She had fluffy blonde hair, that I think of as poodle hair, which was pinned up with a frizzy fringe shading her forehead.

  ‘Liz oversees all our feature content,’ Julius said.

  She had dark opaque eyes. I recalled Simon’s memorable description of them as dead eyes. Certainly, she gave nothing away as she said: ‘Pleased to meet you.’

  I sat down and Julius opened by saying how much he had enjoyed Ledley’s interview with Loula. He always watches the show on the TV in his office and he makes detailed notes every day. He never misses it when an item goes wrong and criticism rather than praise is the norm from him, so this was welcome.

  ‘It was smart to get her talking about food, Ledley. That gave us a fresh insight,’ I said.

  ‘You learn a lot about people from what they like to eat and boy, did she have faddy tastes,’ Ledley said.

  ‘Rice cakes, pot noodles and Bounty bars and not a fruit or veg in sight; bizarre, but interesting to hear,’ I said.

  ‘Why did we run the FGM story?’ Lori asked.

  The expression on her face was like someone who had eaten something that was off.

  ‘Because it’s a compelling story,’ I said.

  ‘But hardly one that would speak to our demographic?’

  She pointed to the tables in her folder which I saw now were the detailed breakdowns on our viewers’ class and geographical spread.

  ‘Over five thousand cases were reported in the UK last year,’ Simon said.

  ‘It’s a topical story which also has a universal element to it; an older sister trying to protect her little sister from the pain she’d been subjected to. Our viewers can relate to that,’ I said.

  ‘I’m not convinced,’ Lori said.

  I gave her a long look.

  ‘It’s our job to find important and moving stories that our viewers will respond to. We found a brave young woman willing to share her story and I’m proud that we carried it.’

  I had emphasised the word ‘our’. It was her second week here and already she was demanding that we convince her about our output. She was well out of order and I was simmering. Julius said nothing throughout this exchange but he had noted it. Bob, the news editor, looked like he wanted to support Lori, to keep the pressure on me, of course. He hates me because of something I know. But even Bob could see that for the news editor to go against this kind of story would not ring true. Last month, a rival station had run a hard-hitting story on FGM and Bob had praised it. Julius closed the meeting and asked me to join him in his office.

  ‘Good to have you back. You look well,’ he said.

  ‘Thanks. It’s amazing what rest and sun will do.’

  As I said this I wondered how long it would take for StoryWorld to turn me grey and tired again.

  ‘I wanted you to know that the tone of voice of the features has been slightly off the last two weeks,’ he said.

  ‘What do you mean by off?’

  ‘It’s been a bit earnest, a bit feminist, a bit preachy.’

  ‘Is this about the FGM story?’

  ‘No, I thought that worked OK, though it’s edgy for a Monday morning. We’re the home of cheerful stories.’

  ‘Yes, the pastel station,’ I said.

  He narrowed his eyes at that. Last year, Julius had decreed that all our presenters had to wear light, bright colours on camera to cheer up our viewers. Black had been banished as the colour of misery – one of our presenters had defied Julius and been sacked.

  ‘It’s the summer season. Make sure we get the balance right, OK?’

  He has snarled at me so many times in the past but this morning his voice was neutral and he was being reasonable.

  ‘Fair point, will do.’

  ‘I went to see Fizzy yesterday,’ he said.

  ‘How is she?’

  ‘She’s exhausted and also aggrieved.’

  ‘She’s got a two-month-old baby so exhausted is to be expected. Why aggrieved?’

  ‘Says she feels cut off from StoryWorld and that none of us are keeping her in the loop.’

  ‘Before I went on holiday I offered to carry a weekly slot on her and the baby, post up pictures and get viewers to coo over them. She bit my head off; said she wasn’t one of those dreadful celebrities who parade their children for profit,’ I said.

  I had got close to Fizzy in the early months of her pregnancy because she had confided to me how conflicted she was. She had booked in to have a termination and I had gone with her to a private clinic in the country, but she couldn’t go through with it. As her pregnancy advanced she had become irrational and paranoid. She had got it into her head that I was out to get her permanently replaced by Ledley who she felt I favoured over the other presenters. This was nonsense but I hadn’t been able to shift her suspicions.

  I was also the only person who knew the identity of the father of her baby.

 
‘Go and see her. Give her some support,’ Julius said.

  ‘You know I would love to see Zachary.’

  Fizzy had given her baby son a suitably showbiz name.

  ‘Ring her. And I’m on holiday from Wednesday, for a week. Will you chair the morning meeting for me?’

  ‘Happy to do that. You going anywhere nice?’

  He hesitated. Julius is the kind of man who doesn’t even like to share his holiday destination.

  ‘Cornwall,’ he said.

  I called a team meeting and Simon, Molly and Harriet joined me in my office. Ziggy sat outside to field calls for us. I had bought a box of almond biscotti for the team so I offered these to Ziggy and she took one. She is such a thin little thing.

  ‘Take a few more, please,’ I said.

  She scooped up two more and placed them on her desk.

  ‘Did Loula’s father behave himself after I’d left?’

  ‘He was a pain, to be honest, but nothing I couldn’t handle.’

  ‘A nasty little man, but there are a lot of pushy dads like him out there.’

  She smiled shyly at me. ‘It’s nice to have you back.’

  The team sat in their usual places and I passed the box of biscotti round and told them briefly about my holiday.

  ‘And so to work: well done, all of you, it was a good show today. The FGM story was powerful, Molly, but I was glad we had Loula on the sofa to counteract it with something lighter.’

  ‘I pulled strings to get her,’ Harriet said with a small smile.

  Harriet’s father is the editor of a national newspaper and I wondered if that was what she meant. She had had a troubled start at StoryWorld but now she was making celebrity interviews her thing and getting us good guests, as well as overseeing the fashion items.

  ‘Excellent, a real coup.’

  Harriet was pink with pleasure and she glanced over at Simon who gave her an encouraging grin.

  ‘And what’s the response been like to the FGM story, Moll?’

  Molly had a printout with her. ‘Not a huge number of comments but those we’ve had are overwhelmingly sympathetic. Simon told me what Lori Kerwell said.’