by Jane Lythell
At lunchtime I bought a roll from the Hub and was passing reception when I saw Pat Taylor, Bob’s wife, giving her name to the security man! I was rooted to the spot as I watched her fill in the form all visitors have to sign. Pat looked unbelievably tense. He handed her a pass on a lanyard. She grabbed it from him and turned away.
‘You need to wear it,’ he said. ‘We’ve got extra security today.’
She pulled it over her head in a fury and then she saw me. I walked towards her.
‘Is she one of yours?’ she said.
‘Sorry?’
‘Lou fucking Gibson. Is she one of your journos?’
‘No, no. She works for a news site.’
‘She turned up at my work. Shoved this in my face.’
Pat was holding the magazine and her hands were trembling.
‘She wanted to know how I felt. How I felt!’
‘She’s a piece of work,’ I said.
But she had pushed past me and was heading towards the dressing rooms with great determination. She knew her way around the station, had been here several times and was a woman on a mission. Nothing was going to stop her from finding Fizzy. I followed her and dived into make-up. I used the phone on the wall and punched in Simon’s extension. He picked up on the second ring.
‘Get Bob down to Fizzy’s dressing room now. Tell him Pat’s here.’
Pat was outside Fizzy’s door. She pulled the door open and flung herself in. I ran up in time to see Fizzy turning towards her and Pat slapping her face with great force.
‘You cheap little marriage wrecker.’
Fizzy had stumbled backwards and was holding her face.
‘You can have him, he’s all yours,’ Pat hissed at her.
Fizzy had put out her hand on the wall to steady herself. Pat turned and shoved past me. Bob had arrived at the end of the corridor to the dressing rooms. He was white-faced as he came towards us, his hands held out in an attempt to stop her.
‘Don’t you dare touch me,’ Pat said.
He pulled back his arms and stood aside as she swept past him.
‘Pat. Please.’
She was charging back towards reception. Bob followed her and so did I.
‘Pat, we need to talk. Please.’
She didn’t even turn to look at him.
‘Don’t think about coming to the house. You stay right away from us.’
She pulled the visitor’s pass off and tossed it to the ground. She had reached the exit. There were paparazzi on the forecourt and when Bob saw them he stopped. He didn’t want to be photographed chasing his wife out of the station. Pat disappeared from view. Bob leaned against the wall and looked as if all the stuffing had gone from him. The security man picked up the pass from the floor and looked over at me with his eyebrows raised. Bob was rubbing his face with both hands. Then he saw me and his eyes blazed with hatred.
‘Bet you’re loving this, you bitch.’
‘It didn’t come from me. You can blame your pal Ledley for this. He’s the leaker,’ I said.
He was shaking his head in disbelief but then he stood still. He was taking it in. I started to walk back towards Fizzy’s dressing room when Bob rushed past me and started hammering on Ledley’s door. It was locked. He banged his fists against the door in a fury. Fizzy came out of her room.
‘Your wife assaulted me,’ she said.
Her cheek was red.
‘Fuck off,’ he said.
Ellen had heard all the noise and kerfuffle and came out of make-up.
‘What’s going on?’
‘Where’s that fucker Ledley? Is he in there?’ Bob roared.
Ellen looked at him as if he was a dangerous dog that needed to be placated.
‘He’s not here. I saw him go upstairs.’
Bob turned and raced towards the stairs as Fizzy fell into Ellen’s arms.
‘Am I going to have a black eye?’ she wailed.
I followed Bob. He had taken the left-hand stairs up to the features side. Lori’s office was on the other side of Julius’s from mine. Like mine it was a glass box and I could see Ledley was in there with Lori. Bob sprinted to the door and burst in, leaving the door swinging wide.
‘You treacherous little shit,’ he screamed at Ledley, heading towards him with his fists clenched.
Ledley leapt up from the sofa and backed away from Bob.
‘What the hell?’ Lori said.
She stepped between Bob and Ledley.
‘He’s the fucking leaker,’ Bob yelled.
That was news to Lori and as it registered with her she looked out of her office and saw me standing there. Ledley had now moved behind Lori’s desk, was cowering there. Lori put both hands on Bob’s chest and pushed him down on her sofa.
‘Get a grip,’ she said.
She slammed her door in my face. But I stood there anyway and watched the three of them hurling abuse at each other. Simon had joined me and we both stood fascinated by the tableau unfolding behind the glass. We couldn’t hear what they were saying but it looked like each one of them was blaming the other with a lot of arms being thrown into the air. Lori was screeching at Ledley now and he was shouting back, his face a picture of outrage. No doubt he was justifying his action. Bob was on the sofa with his head in his hands.
‘Oh dear,’ I said. ‘Team Kerwell seems to be coming apart at the seams.’
Simon burst out laughing and I joined in. Lori swung round and saw Simon and me laughing at them. Her face was contorted as we turned and walked away.
Ellen was waiting for me and followed me into my office.
‘Fizzy’s gone. She was in a terrible state. Said she was booking herself into a hotel. What’s going to happen tomorrow?’
‘I have no idea,’ I said.
Martine had appeared on the threshold and came in, shutting my door.
‘Please tell me what’s going on,’ she said.
I recounted the events of the last mad half-hour and Martine was aghast.
‘What a mess. So bad for the station. And Julius is out. Can you get everyone to calm down, Liz?’
That was my role, to be the company woman and to steady the ship. But I wasn’t going to do it this time. Though I didn’t say as much to Martine and Ellen.
‘You need to brief Julius asap,’ I said.
‘Will Fizzy present the show tomorrow?’
‘All bets are off,’ I said.
After they had gone I realised that I no longer had to keep Fizzy’s secret. There was a relief in that, almost a lightness.
*
Simon came in around five and sat on my sofa.
‘You wouldn’t believe the wild rumours that are circulating out there,’ he said.
‘Enlighten me.’
‘Pat Taylor slapped Fizzy. Bob punched Ledley. Fizzy has a black eye and Ledley will be presenting the show solo tomorrow,’ Simon said.
‘Bob certainly wanted to punch Ledley but Lori denied him that pleasure. I’ve always thought that Bob was a man who wants to punch a lot of people, including me,’ I said.
‘Seriously though, is Fizzy OK?’
‘The thing about Fizzy is that she’s the ultimate survivor and has a core of steel. There’s no way she’ll let Ledley go solo tomorrow,’ I said.
The person Simon should have been worrying about was me. Would I still have a job in a week? Today’s fiasco didn’t change the fact that Julius had asked me to resign.
I locked my door at six and Molly was still working but the others had left.
‘I don’t suppose much got done today,’ I said.
StoryWorld had become an even more dysfunctional place than usual. Yet I’d seen Molly at her desk all day working on her heroic-women series and putting the finishing touches to the third story which was going out tomorrow.
‘So many more important things to worry about,’ she said.
Molly hates the world of celebrity and gossip and some people find her high-handed, even haughty. I’m glad to have her in
my team. Downstairs I saw there were now two extra security men in reception. I put up the hood on my parka and hurried past the lone paparazzo who was lurking in the forecourt.
37
StoryWorld TV station, London Bridge
I went down to Fizzy’s dressing room before the show. She had called me last night and said she would present the show today. She was almost feverish this morning. Ellen had had to apply extra concealer to her face and her eyes were unnaturally bright. She told me she hadn’t dared leave her hotel room and had hardly slept. Loida was holed up at her house with Zac.
‘The hotel let me use the staff exit so at least I got away without being spotted this morning. I don’t know how long I’m going to have to stay there.’
‘How did Saul take it?’
‘He was so weird about it being Bob. He was deeply offended and didn’t say it but I could tell he thought I’d stooped by sleeping with a mere news editor. Things with him are on a knife edge. Men and their bloody egos!’
‘You know he’s into status in a big way,’ I said.
She pulled a face. Saul Relph was the kind of man who treated junior members of staff as if they didn’t count.
‘He said the station could do without the scandal. Does my face look bruised?’
‘No, you look fine.’
She glanced at her reflection.
‘But your line about what a difference he’d made to my life played well and I was the contrite woman, of course. I cried, actually.’
I had only seen Fizzy cry once and it was last year when she decided to have a termination. She had sobbed on my shoulder that having the baby would ruin her career. We had gone to the clinic together, a sad and tense journey, and then she’d had a last-minute change of heart.
‘He was nicer then, said I wasn’t to fret,’ she said.
‘You told him that Ledley is the leaker?’
‘Of course. He said they need proof before he and Julius can take action. But that prick better watch his back, he’s on borrowed time. I can hardly bear to sit next to him on the sofa!’
Yesterday she had been stunned by Pat’s attack but she seemed to have no guilt at the wreckage she had caused. I could imagine the unhappy scene that was going on at Bob’s house, if Pat had actually let him past the front door. I recalled meeting Pat and her daughters in Selfridges. She’d told me their older girl was off to university. How awful for them to learn from the press that their dad had cheated on their mum and that they had a baby half-brother.
‘Time to get to the studio,’ I said.
‘I saw the anthropologist in make-up. He’s hot for an academic, isn’t he?’ she said.
‘Fizzy!’
Molly had booked in an anthropologist whose book on polygamy was proving a surprise big seller. I slipped into the gallery as the title credits were rolling. Fizzy read her opening link faster than usual. The director switched off the shared mic and leaned in to me.
‘Is she OK?’
‘She’s all over the place,’ I said.
There was a manic quality to her reactions as she talked to the handsome anthropologist. He was telling her that a large number of countries allowed a male to have more than one spouse.
‘I bet it doesn’t happen the other way round,’ Fizzy said.
‘It’s much rarer, but there is a group of people in southern India who practise fraternal polyandry. That is when the woman marries all the brothers in a family.’
‘Goodness, how truly bizarre.’
‘The brothers rotate the nights they sleep with her.’
‘It makes my head spin to think about it,’ she said.
‘It’s a way of making sure that the farmland in such a remote area is concentrated in one family,’ he said, matter-of-factly, while I could imagine our many female viewers reeling at the idea.
The next item was Ledley talking to Betty on the sofa. I had watched Betty’s face as she got miked up and caught her looking at Fizzy with thinly disguised distaste. Betty was deeply conventional. She didn’t do social media but by now everyone at the station knew that Zachary had been fathered by Bob Taylor.
The end credits rolled and the best thing about the show had been Molly’s story. I went upstairs to the morning meeting. Ledley, Lori and the director were already there. Julius marched in and sat at the top of the table.
‘Where are the others?’ he said.
No one said anything. Martine came in and I heard her tell Julius that Fizzy had a bad headache and had left the station for the day.
‘I bet she has,’ he said tartly. ‘And Bob?’
‘I haven’t seen him this morning,’ Martine said.
Nobody had seen Bob and there had been no word from him. We all knew the reason for his no-show and I wondered if he was going to survive the scandal. Would he be coming back to StoryWorld?
‘Well, get his deputy in now,’ Julius said irritably.
We waited while Martine walked over to the newsroom.
‘I hear yesterday was like something out of a Wild West bar brawl,’ Julius said. ‘I was disgusted to hear about it. You’re supposed to be ambassadors for StoryWorld and to set an example.’
Martine returned with Bob’s number two who sat down and looked like a rabbit caught in headlights.
‘OK, we’ll start and I’ll draw a line under what happened yesterday but if there is a repeat of it there will be serious repercussions,’ Julius said.
Martine sat down next to Julius and opened her pad.
‘Martine is joining us as I’d like today’s meeting to be minuted,’ he said.
That was unusual. The morning meeting was rarely minuted and it gave me an uneasy feeling that something else was up. Julius asked the director for his technical report and he spoke briefly.
‘Anything to add, Liz?’ Julius was looking at me.
‘A good mix of features today and I thought Molly’s piece was particularly strong,’ I said.
‘I agree. It was first-rate work,’ Julius said.
He didn’t ask Ledley or Lori for their views. He pulled his papers together and straightened them. He waited for a minute before speaking again so that he had everyone’s full attention.
‘Before we leave I want to put on record my appreciation to Liz Lyon for her work. Liz should be commended for fighting to maintain editorial standards at StoryWorld. She knows that if we compromise on quality we lose ratings. We are not, I repeat not, going to become bargain-basement television.’
He was looking at Lori as he said the last sentence and she actually rocked back in her seat, her face frozen. Ledley was looking at Lori aghast, and Martine was noting Julius’s comments down with a small smile. I was amazed, gloriously, deliriously amazed at his words.
‘I appreciate that,’ I stammered.
‘Very well deserved, Liz,’ the director said.
‘In addition, from now on this will be a purely editorial meeting, with immediate effect,’ Julius said.
He was banning Lori from coming to the morning meeting. I cheered inside.
‘With immediate effect.’ He repeated the phrase, looking at Lori.
There was a moment of stunned silence. Then Lori sat up even straighter than usual.
‘Saul will be informed of this,’ she said icily.
‘I’ve already explained to Saul that this is an editorial meeting and you are a salesperson. You’re not needed here.’
‘I need to know what’s going on,’ she hissed.
‘You need to focus on selling ads and leave Liz and me to do our jobs. Please leave now,’ he said.
He went to the door and pulled it open. Lori pushed her chair back, stood up and hugged her lever arch file to her chest. She didn’t sweep out. She had her chin down over her file as she turned towards her office. Martine and I exchanged glances and I tried so hard not to grin. Ledley didn’t know what to do or what to say or where to look. His champion had just been publicly kneecapped and I guessed he was suddenly feeling very alone. Julius left,
with Martine in close attendance, shortly afterwards, and I floated out of that room.
Julius had decided to back me and to take on Lori. Her document was in the shredder and his praise for my work was on the record. He had stood up to Saul on this. I guessed that he had backed me because I had made him see that once I was out of the way Lori would have him in her sights. There was no end to her ambition.
Before I left for the day I drafted a memo to Julius making the case for Ziggy to have a permanent role in my team as a digital technician. She had passed her editing course with distinction. I detailed how it would save us money as we wouldn’t need to hire in freelance editors. I’d got some power back and I reckoned that today was the day I could get what I wanted.
Chalk Farm flat, evening
When I got in I tapped on Flo’s door. She was sitting cross-legged on her bed and Mr Crooks was sprawled across her lap. I sat down and tickled him under his chin and rubbed his cheekbones.
‘That’s his all-time favourite thing,’ she said.
He closed his eyes in ecstasy, opening and closing his paws to show his pleasure and purring loudly.
‘I’ve got the court case tomorrow so I’ll be here when you get home from school.’
‘Great. I’m dying to watch more of The Missing tonight,’ she said.
‘Let’s do it.’
She lifted the sleepy Mr Crooks from her lap and laid him on her bed. He opened one eye and stretched out languorously on the duvet.
‘Hunter Cat is Duvet Cat tonight,’ I said.
We cosied on the sofa and she sat sideways, resting her bare feet on my lap, wriggling her toes now and then to prompt me to stroke her feet. I tucked a blanket round us as we watched episode four of The Missing. Flo’s insight into the character from the other night proved to be right. We started on episode five. My mobile rang and Douglas’s name flashed up and I was startled to see it.