Chloe's Rescue Mission (22 page)

‘What do you think, Evan?’ I asked, as we stood outside the condemned theatre. I stared intently at him, trying not to notice three pairs of eyes rolling in the sockets of the crew.

‘I think we’ll end up with a hybrid of a serious documentary and a ghost hunt. It makes a nice little anecdote, but wheeling the likes of Psychic Sally in to justify the theatre’s case…well…’ he rubbed the back of his neck, ‘Sorry, Chloe.’

I screwed my face up and scuffed a stone away with my foot. ‘Guess I could use the story with the local press. Although it won’t be enough. Not at this late stage.’

‘You’ve got two weeks, you say?’

‘Twelve days till we have to reply to the repossession order.’

Evan shook his head. ‘We could finish the documentary in time, but it’s not scheduled for screening till the beginning of July.’

‘I know. Two nights before the variety show. We’ll have to find another venue. Mum’s going to speak to the college about using one of their halls.’

Evan frowned. ‘What does Duncan say?’

Yes, what would Duncan say? I hadn’t screwed up the courage to tell him, yet. I was living in the vain hope I could salvage the situation on my own. He’d already given us so much, it would be humiliating to tell him it was all for nothing. Okay, we might end up with a poignant TV documentary, where the closing credits rolled over a dramatic slow-motion playback of the theatre’s demolition; and maybe the TV network’s income for the documentary would cover costs, but our goal of saving the theatre would be a crushing failure, no matter how noble our efforts. I dodged Evan’s question with another. ‘How about we interview the council and the bank? Do you think we could shame them into holding back on their action? I mean, how might they feel about cameras zooming in on The Suits while you stick them with some probing questions?’

Evan looked down at the ground as if it might hold the answer. He turned to the crew. ‘Listen guys, why don’t you go for one of those all-day-breakfasts at the café over there. I need to rethink our schedule for today. We’ll join you in a minute.’ As the other three crossed the road, Evan put a hand on my shoulder. ‘You haven’t told Duncan, have you?’

‘I really don’t think I need to. It’s not over till the bank manager sings, and I reckon if we put pressure on the bank and the council…’

‘Chloe. It doesn’t work like that. Banks have far more power than a humble independent TV network. And it’s not as if we’re exposing a massive money laundering outfit or child slavery, is it? Even if they were in cahoots with the developer, how would we prove it – and will enough viewers care? I’m sorry, Chloe, if we were on a contract for
Britain Tonight
with that Rottweiler, James Griffin, it might be worth a punt. But we’re not.’

I glanced up at him. ‘Mum knows James. At least, she once met him at a charity dinner.’

Evan smiled and shook his head. ‘I think you’d be wasting your time.’

I nodded but filed the idea, anyway.

‘Come on, love. Why don’t we join the others? We can come back later and finish shooting the exterior shots. Then we can go down and film you by your grandfather’s statue. Duncan thought it would add to the whole story of Joshua being a local hero.’

I smiled. I liked that our little trip to Grandee’s statue had made an impact.

*

Duncan sat at his desk, having just listened to Evan’s summary of the latest chapter in the theatre’s troubled history. ‘So, the bank and the council, with the developer in the background brandishing an open cheque book.’ He knew exactly how devastating the news would be to Chloe’s family. ‘I assume they’re going to appeal?’

‘They’ll try but it won’t pay off the debt. Chloe was hoping to threaten them with naming and shaming in the documentary. I wouldn’t even put it past her to try leaning on James Griffin.’

‘What – get it on
Britain Tonight
?’ Duncan huffed a sardonic laugh. ‘Aye, she would. Fat lot of use that’ll be when the footings have already been dug for two dozen apartments.’ He sighed. ‘Thanks for letting me know, Evan. I’ll give her a call.’

Chloe’s phone clicked through to voicemail. He hung up and rang the theatre. Answer-phone. He dug out the theatre file she’d prepared for him, ran his finger down the Contents page and turned to section six.

*

‘I’m sorry, darling. I did try. James Griffin’s PA was very polite and said she’d tell him I called. I didn’t get the impression she saw it as a matter of great national interest.’ Mum tilted her head towards me, as I nursed my second glass of wine. We sat hand-in-hand on the sofa and it was still mid-afternoon but we both felt the wine was fully justified.

‘We’ve done all we can, Mum. Now we have to sit and wait and pray the appeal goes through.’

Mum squeezed my hand. ‘If it doesn’t, we gave it our best shot.’

‘Did we really do enough?’

The phone rang. Mum leaned over to answer it. I settled back into the cushions.

‘Hello. Yes, speaking. Who? Oh. Oh? Oh!’

I sat up, spilling wine over my chest as I strained to hear the other end of the call. Mum clicked to speakerphone.

There was a hiss of heavy breathing down the line. ‘So, I’m very happy to tell you, the theatre account is now in the black, with a credit balance of five thousand pounds.’

My mouth swung open.

‘Well, thank you very much, Matthew. I assume this means we still own the theatre?’

‘Of course. Unless you have any plans to hand the deeds over to Thorsen Leisure.’

‘Certainly not. Just one more thing. Will you be free for a meeting next week?’

‘Of course, Mrs Steele. I’ll be delighted to see you.’

‘Good. We shall be in to close the account, on Monday. Thank you for calling.’ She clicked off the phone with a flourish and dropped it on the sofa. ‘We can find a much better bank than that lot.’

For a moment, we stared at each other in disbelief until the news sank in and we were shrieking with exultation.

‘My God!’ Mum exclaimed. ‘Duncan’s saved the theatre. He’s a bloody hero!’

‘I don’t believe it!’ I kept saying. ‘I don’t believe it.’

‘We must phone him. Thank him. Oh my goodness, words really aren’t enough, are they?’

‘But, Mum, we’re still in debt. Just to Thorsen Leisure. We don’t even know the terms of the loan.’ I swallowed. ‘Duncan’s a business-man. We might actually be in a worse financial position than before.’

‘We might indeed. But we still have the theatre, and I’ll drink to that,’ she said, lifting her glass. ‘Now, find his number and let’s call him to say thank you.’

*

Duncan was driving when the Steeles called. It was like listening to two giggly schoolgirls. Jennifer was especially bubbly. ‘Duncan, you are an absolute star. Our knight in shining armour. Sir Galahad of the leisure industry. You’ve turned our lives around with your kindness and I for one, can’t wait to see you so I can give you a great big hug.’

‘Mum!’

‘Well it’s true. Duncan you must drop by and see us again, just as soon as you like, then we can all celebrate together.’

‘Sounds like you’ve already started the celebrations,’ he smiled.

‘Oh this?’ Jennifer said. He imagined her holding up a bottle. ‘I confess we started drinking to drown our sorrows. It’s been such a ghastly week, what with the bank, and the closure and Warren…’

‘Shh!’

‘Oh, shush shushing me! But then the bank manager called and our mood has gone base over apex, so here we are. Celebrating!’

‘I’m very glad to hear it. Are you all there?’

‘I’m all here. Chloe, darling, are you all here?’

She giggled. ‘Yes. Beth’s not. But Duncan, on a more serious note, we’ll get our lawyer to contact you about the terms of your loan, and put in place a repayment scheme immediately.’

How very Chloe, thought Duncan, smiling to himself. She’d be earning it from him one day, and paying him back the next. ‘There’s no rush. And don’t worry, I’m not going to impose massive charges. Remember, we’ve scheduled the Theatre Challenge into our autumn season of Business Angel. So I’m not being entirely altruistic.’

‘All the same, thank you for everything.’

‘You’re welcome. See you at the team meeting.’

He didn’t hear her answer, just Jennifer calling ‘Bye Duncan. And bless you!’

Why hadn’t Chloe told him about their predicament? It bugged him that she didn’t trust him to step in and help. Or maybe she’d just been too proud to ask. He shook his head. Did he really put himself across so badly?

Two days later, as I stood in Duncan’s office, I was in for another surprise.

‘The Royal Theatre?!’ I yelped. ‘That’s four times the size of ours, how will we ever fill it?’

Duncan smiled. ‘Well, a London location will draw a larger, more affluent crowd. This is a charity event and you’re more likely to get the big names performing there if they don’t have to trek out to Gloucestershire. We could even crank the ticket price up.’

‘Wow!’ He was so right but it was a pity not to hold the event in Grandee’s home town. I paced over to the window to stare out at the trees of Regent’s Park.

Duncan continued. ‘If we sell every seat, and draw bigger stars, you’ll meet your target figure a lot quicker than if we do a smaller event in Barnworth. It makes better business sense.’

‘I totally agree but what about the people of Barnworth? We’ve promised them this grand event to save their theatre and, well…’

‘Chloe,’ Duncan’s voice softened. ‘The people of Barnworth won’t have a theatre at all if we don’t raise the money.’

I nodded and turned to him. ‘Absolutely. This is a great opportunity.’

It was, but I think my disappointment at not being able to hold it at our theatre must have been evident because Duncan added, ‘We could provide coaches. If anyone in Barnworth buys a ticket to the show, Thorsen Leisure will make sure they get there.’

‘Thanks. But that’s more expense for you.’

‘Hey, we have arrangements with a lot of the travel firms. We’ll work something out.’

‘How did we manage to get the Royal?’ I asked.

‘It’s just in the process of being refurbished, it’s not due to open again till the week after the show.’

‘But, it’ll cost a fortune.’

He shook his head. ‘Someone owed me a favour.’

‘Gosh, it’s so easy in your world, isn’t it?’ I said wistfully. ‘Just a call here, a favour there. Not that I’m complaining, of course,’ I added, guiltily acknowledging he’d already made it pretty easy for us.

‘I should hope not,’ he said, kindly. ‘In any case, what’s Alicia-May Golding doing for you if it’s not a favour?’

‘True. I know one thing, I bet she’ll be thrilled by the change in venue.’

‘Actually, it was her suggestion.’

I fought to suppress a Tom & Jerry style double-take. Since when did Duncan start talking to Alicia? ‘Oh, really? Good,’ I said, as evenly as possible, moving over to the other end of Duncan’s desk. ‘I didn’t know you knew her.’

‘Well, I do now!’ he smiled. ‘She was staying at our hotel in Miami and sought me out. I think she was hoping I might cough up some cash to pay for a bigger venue. Luckily, I didn’t have to.’

‘Good old Alicia.’ I said, at odds with my suspicious thoughts. I imagined Alicia – stunning in anybody’s eyes – had worked her charms on Duncan. ‘I’m sure she can be very persuasive.’

‘Mmmm…’ Duncan turned away and pulled a business card from a tray on his desk and handed it to me. ‘I’ve arranged for you to visit the Royal after your meeting. If that’s okay with you?’

I smiled and glanced at the card. ‘Of course. Thank you.’ Duncan had completely knocked me off my stride with this news. ‘How was Alicia-May? We spoke on the phone a few weeks ago but I haven’t seen her since she left Barnworth. Has she become very starry?’

‘You mean, did she have an entourage of sycophants powdering her nose and rolling red carpet in front of her? No. She seemed pretty down to earth to me. But I have to admit, she’s like a force of nature.’ He shook his head and smiled.

‘Once seen, never forgotten.’

‘You said it! Now, Chloe, you need to get to your team meeting, and I have to go to mine. I’ll ask Rusty to update me and I’ll catch up with you in a few days.’

He walked over to the door and opened it. ‘I think you’re going to love the Royal. At least, I hope you will.’

‘I’m excited already.’ And I was…sort of. It gave me more scope for approaching bigger, London-based acts. ‘And thanks,’ I said. ‘I really do appreciate it.’

‘My pleasure.’

I glanced at the clock on the wall. The team meeting should have started a couple of minutes ago. As my eyes moved back to Duncan, something drew them over to his desk.

‘What’s up,’ he said, following my gaze.

‘Oh, nothing,’ I said, quickly scanning the rest of his room. ‘I just…I was just thinking what incredibly smart furniture this was.’

‘Swedish, of course.’

‘Of course.’ I beamed back at him. ‘Right, I should go.’

Curious, I thought. That photograph of the auburn-haired girl had disappeared.

*

‘Duncan – twice in five weeks,’ Emily said, hugging her brother. ‘If I didn’t know you better, I’d say you wanted something.’

‘Aye, there’s absolutely no excuse. I just need to schedule a trip more frequently.’ Somewhere along the way, his work-life balance had gone seriously out of kilter.

‘Don’t go spoiling us!’

‘Well, I don’t want to miss this little bundle in her early years, do I?’ he said stroking Emily’s swollen abdomen.

‘Come away in. You can catch Harry before he goes to bed.’

‘Do I get to read to him, too?’

‘I don’t think there’ll be any other choice.’

After dinner, when Emily’s husband, Jim, nodded off on the sofa, she turned to her brother. ‘I’m guessing it’s no coincidence you’re here, today.’

He looked down at the whisky in his glass. ‘I can’t believe it’s fifteen years.’

‘I know. In your memory, it’s like it happened yesterday.’ He felt the warmth of her hand over his. ‘Do you have any plans to visit Rose and Derek?’

‘I thought I’d maybe pop in tomorrow.’ He hadn’t seen them for a couple of years, now.

‘I’m sure they’d appreciate that. Rose suffers a lot with arthritis. I don’t see her out and about as often as I used to.’

‘It’s no fun getting older, eh?’

‘No. But unfortunately, we all have to,’ she said leaning her head back and tilting it towards him.

‘Getting older can be a privilege, you know.’

‘I do.’ She smile up at him. ‘Now, tell me about this variety show. We’re so looking forward to seeing it. It’ll be my last trip down to London before her ladyship arrives.’ she stroked her belly.

‘Are you sure that’s wise?’

‘I’ll be fine. In any case, I hear Morgan Ash and Alicia-May Golding are lined up to do it.’

‘Aye.’

‘And Jennifer Dawson, will she be strutting her stuff along with her daughters?’

‘I expect so.’

‘Tell me,’ she shifted slightly in her seat, ‘how are you getting along with Chloe, after your little
dalliance
in Spain?’

‘Oh, here we go.’ Duncan smiled down into his whisky glass.

‘She’s very attractive girl…quite sexy, wouldn’t you say?’

He looked up at his sister, instantly reading her unspoken question. ‘Aye, she’s a good looking girl.’

She leaned in and spoke quietly, as if worried Jim might wake up. ‘I wasn’t born yesterday, Duncan. You’re involvement with this theatre has escalated, and I’m pretty sure it has something to do with Chloe, am I right?’

‘You know me – Dunc Juan.’

‘Exactly! I know you very well and you’re not really the man they say you are. So what’s going on?’

Duncan drained his whisky glass and looked into his sister’s eyes. ‘Okay. If you know me so very well, you tell me.’

The old crofter’s cottage was warm from an open fire, and the atmosphere equally so.

‘Aw, Duncan. We’re so pleased to see you. Derek and I were only talking about you, last night.’

Duncan held Rose’s hand across the space between the two armchairs. ‘It’s way overdue. Life gets so hectic, I don’t know where the time’s gone.’

‘Wheesht!’ Rose replied, shaking his hand to dismiss his apology.

‘Aye, you’ve a huge empire to run, now, lad. It canna be easy,’ Derek perched on the edge of the piano stool, beside Rose. Behind him, lined up along the top of the piano, were several photographs of their daughter at different stages in her life. Central amongst them was one taken the night she and Duncan had become engaged, just three weeks before she died. Lorna was their only child, born to them late in life, so it was no wonder her pictures still took pride of place in their little sitting room.

‘An empire!’ Duncan smiled. ‘No, it’s not easy. But I’m pleased to say, it’s all going well.’

Rose squeezed his hand with her distorted fingers. ‘With you at the helm, I’m no’ surprised. But I’ll tell you something for nothing, it’s aged you!’

Derek roared with laughter. ‘She’s no’ lost her charm, eh Duncan?’

Duncan smiled at them both. Rose continued. ‘It’s true. You’ve aged five years in two, though you’re still a good-looking man.’

‘Thank you, Rose. Nothing wrong with your eyesight, then?’

‘We saw your Emily down in town a few weeks ago; another baby on the way. I said to Derek, I said, “when d’you think oor Duncan’ll settle doon and have a family, eh? Eh?”’ The question was clearly directed at Duncan himself. He was touched she still referred to him as ‘Oor Duncan’.

‘Rose, I wish I had an answer for you. But I’m hoping myself, it may not be too much longer.’

Rose turned to her husband. ‘D’ya hear that, Derek? There’s still a chance for us to bounce a little Thorsen on oor knees.’

‘Aye, that’s grand news.’ There was a piercing whistle from the kitchen as the kettle boiled. ‘D’you still no’ drink tea?’ Derek asked as he stood.

‘You’re right. I’ll have a black coffee, please.’

‘Derek, open those chocolate covered ginger biscuits. They’re in the tin.’ She turned back, ‘I must have known you were coming!’ As Derek left the room, she leaned in to Duncan. ‘You know, you might look older, but I’m pleased to say, you don’t seem so tense.’

Rose’s candour was legendary. Duncan knew this was why he’d been slack in visiting them. Over the years, with finely tuned questions, she’d probed him to try and gain an understanding of where he was in the grieving process. Committed Christians, Derek and Rose had never blamed Duncan for Lorna’s death, and only ever thanked God for the beautiful daughter they’d been blessed with. It was perhaps this very attitude that had helped fuel his torment in the early years. Their good nature and well-intentioned efforts to relieve him of guilt had somehow backfired. Ah, the arrogance of youth! He’d wanted to shoulder the blame, to own it, because it made Lorna more his than anyone else’s. And he’d carried that mantle of guilt for years, although it had become more faded and threadbare as time had passed.

‘Did you used to find me tense, then, Rose?’

‘Aye. You were tight as a drum. All pent-up energy, like a greyhound in his trap. I used to tell you to take time off, relax. Don’t you remember?’

He nodded. ‘I do.’ But she wasn’t the only one who used to say that – and plenty still did.

‘Now, today…well, I sense you’re a little more calm…more approachable. You’ve been very closed off for a long time, and it’s so good to see the change.’

‘I’m sorry about that, Rose. You know I’ve always had the greatest affection for you and Derek.’

‘Wheesht! Of course we knew that. You’ve had some mighty losses to deal with in your life, son. It’s no’ been easy. We’ve always prayed for your happiness, and, praise God, he’s looked after you.’ She brought her other hand down onto his. ‘Now, will you tell me or leave me guessing – who’s this lassie that’s brought about the transformation in you?’

Duncan smiled broadly. ‘So you think it’s a lassie, eh, Rose?

‘Well, isn’t it?’

‘I’d like to think it could be.’

‘Aw, you’re talking in riddles! That means, you’ve met someone who floats your boat, as they say, but you haven’t had the courage to tell her how you feel.’

Now he laughed. ‘Rose, if you weren’t such a God-fearing woman, I’d say you were a witch!’

‘Ha! Not me, laddie. I’ve just cycled the crescent a few times, that’s all.’

Derek appeared in the doorway with a tray of mugs and a plate of biscuits. ‘Cycling? Now there’s something you’ll no’ be doing again, hen.’

‘Aye, you’re not wrong, there. Now then, Duncan, I’ll say just one more thing on the subject and then I’m finished.’ She held up a crooked finger, ready to impart her words of wisdom. ‘You are as entitled to find love and happiness in this world as anyone else. So don’t you imagine, for one minute, you don’t deserve it. We’ve prayed for it for years, so you owe it to us not to muck it up! There. I’ve said my piece.’

Duncan looked back into her rheumy eyes and thought how lucky he was to have these people in his life. ‘Bless you, Rose. Point taken and duly noted.’

‘Ha!’ She clapped her hands. ‘That’s oor Duncan! Now, Derek, pass him the biscuits.’