Olivia Flies High (9 page)

Chapter Sixteen

A meeting was underway at the Duke’s Theatre. Alicia, Jon James, Eel and all the children from Alps team were there, with the exception of Freya, of course. She was back at home with her leg in plaster surrounded by cards and flowers sent by the cast, crew and management of
The Sound of Music
.

Josie and Chuck Daniels had just walked in together, looking rather pleased with
themselves
. Over a long lunch Chuck had announced that he was going to tour a new production of
Dr Dolittle
and that he wanted Josie to direct. Josie was thrilled. This was her big break; no more assistant directing for her. She was going to make her mark on the theatre world. She just hoped that animals were easier to direct
and better behaved than children. The meeting began.

“Of course, we’re dreadfully keen to offer Eel a contract,” said Jon. “Freya is going to be out of action for at least three months and we’ve agreed that she can come back into the show when she’s fully recovered. We’re booking right through to the end of next year and beyond. The box office has gone crazy. One of our other Gretls is much better. She’ll need a bit of rehearsal and should be back at the end of the week, and the other one will be back soon. But we need Eel rather desperately over the next few days, and she’s clearly a real box-office draw, so if she would agree to join Alps team for a while longer, we would be very grateful.”

“Are you sure this is what you want, Eel?” asked Alicia. “It will leave you much less time for your dancing.”

“I’ll just get up earlier to practise. I’ll dance
and
play Gretl,” said Eel firmly. Everyone except Katie clapped and Jon looked relieved.

“Well, that’s settled then,” he said with a big smile. “Eel, Alicia – I don’t know how to thank you both. You’ve really saved our bacon.”

“Well, it’s kind of you to provide so many
tickets for Swan children to come and see the performance tonight,” said Alicia. “They’re all really looking forward to it.”

“My sister, Livy, is coming,” said Eel happily. She looked pointedly at Tom and Georgia. “She wants to see her friends perform.”

Tom shifted slightly and looked uncomfortable. Katie felt a tingle of pleasure at his discomfort.

“And there’s something else we need to discuss,” said Chuck Daniels.

Now it was Jon James’s turn to look uncomfortable. “Chuck, let’s just leave it, shall we? Everything’s worked out fine.”

“No, Jon, this needs to be sorted out once and for all. It’s outrageous that somebody in the cast should deliberately try to hurt another performer. What’s more, it could’ve scuppered the whole show. We can’t let that kind of behaviour go.”

Jon James sighed. Alicia suddenly looked very alert and the children started to mutter amongst themselves.

“Yes, Jon,” said Josie. “We’ve got to take action.”

Jon suddenly looked very tired. “Tom,” he
said reluctantly. “It was you who pushed into Freya and made her fall, wasn’t it?”

Tom nodded.

Alicia leapt into the conversation. “Tom admitted it right from the start. It’s no secret. It was an accident. Very unfortunate, but accidents do happen.”

“Ah, but was it an accident?” said Chuck ominously. “We have a very reliable witness who says that he deliberately pushed poor little Freya.”

“And who might this witness be?” asked Alicia, but from the look on her face it was clear she had already guessed.

“Katie,” said Jon wearily.

“Oh, I feel awful even saying it, Mr James, but I did see him do it. It’s the truth, I swear. The last thing I want is to get Tom into trouble, but I know what I saw.” Katie looked around at everyone with wide-eyed innocence before beginning to cry. She was comforted by Chuck. Mia rushed over to hug her, while Joshua rolled his eyes. He stopped when he saw Chuck glaring at him.

“Are there any other witnesses? Did anybody else see anything?” asked Alicia, giving
the other children a penetrating stare. There was silence as everyone looked at their feet or shook their heads.

Tom suddenly spoke quietly. “It was an accident. I couldn’t help it. I barged into Freya because somebody else pushed me.”

Everyone looked surprised.

“I wasn’t going to say anything,” he continued. “I thought it was better just to keep quiet, but now I’m being accused of something I didn’t do, something that I’d
never ever
do, I just can’t keep quiet any longer.” His face was on fire and he looked distraught.

“It’s all right, Tom,” said Alicia gently. “Who was behind you on the stairs?”

There was a pause. “Katie,” Tom said quietly.

Chuck Daniels snorted. “Well, they say attack is the best form of defence. Everyone knows that. You’re just trying to discredit her.”

“I know which one of them I’d believe,” said Josie. Chuck smiled at her.

Jon James looked pained. He didn’t want to do anything to upset Alicia, who he really liked and admired and who had been so helpful over Eel, but he couldn’t afford to upset Chuck,
who was a powerful producer. He opened his mouth to speak, but Chuck cut across him.

“Tom,” he said. “It’s been one thing after another with you since you joined the cast. You haven’t behaved at all professionally, and you’ve bought the Swan into disrepute. I’d certainly think twice about employing Swans again.” Tom gave a little cry; Alicia pursed her lips. “In the circumstances, it would be best for everybody if you did the right thing and withdrew from the production.”

There was a sharp intake of breath from Alicia, Georgia cried, “No!” and the other children gasped in horror. Then Eel said very crisply, “You
could
do that, Tom, but if you do, I certainly won’t be performing tonight or any other night either.” Alicia had to stop herself from smiling.

“Are you blackmailing us?” asked Chuck furiously.

“Yes,” said Eel, beaming happily at him.

“Actually,” said Jon James, “I’m with Eel on this. The case against Tom isn’t proven. It’s his word against Katie’s. It was unfair of you to ask him to leave like that. You may be the producer, Chuck. But this is my production and my call.”

Chuck made a disgusted noise. Jon ignored him and turned to Tom. “Tom, I rated you at the auditions, and I rate you now. Despite everything that’s happened, I know my instincts were good. So here’s what I’m going to do. I’m giving you a final warning. One more slip, however small, and you’re definitely out. It’s up to you to make sure that you keep your role. Don’t let me down. Please.”

“I won’t, Mr James,” whispered Tom.

Once he was back in the boys’ dressing room, Tom started scribbling a note. He finished it and put it in an envelope and wrote Katie’s name on the front.

“I’m just going to take this down to Bert at the stage door. He’ll make sure she gets it,” said Tom grimly.

“Tom, I’m not sure you’re doing the right thing,” said Georgia. “Why don’t you just let it be and ignore her? This’ll only antagonise her.”

“No,” said Tom fiercely. “She’s a liar and she’s trying to ruin my life. I just want to warn her to stay away from me. Katie’s a bully. If I do nothing, she’ll see it as weakness and pounce.”

Chapter Seventeen

It was thirty minutes before curtain up. The Half, as it was called, had just been announced over the tannoy.

Georgia, Eel and Tom were all in the boys’ dressing room. Joshua had gone to wardrobe to chat to Lacey. He was staying strictly neutral in the split between Tom and Katie.

“Look, mate,” he’d said to Tom. “I think that Katie is a stuck-up little moo and she wouldn’t know the truth if it slapped her around the face. But I don’t want to be involved. Next year I’ll be out of school and in the real world. I don’t want to be on Chuck Daniels’s blacklist. He’s a big shot in musical theatre. So I’m staying out of it. I’d advise you to do the same. Keep your head down and get on with the job.”

Just then, Eel’s phone gave a bleep.

“That’s Livy to say that she’s arrived and so have the others from the Swan. They’re at the back of the stalls,” said Eel happily. “Do you like my phone? Gran said that as I was in
The Sound of Music
I needed a phone so she could keep in touch with me. So we’ve both got them now. Although I wish it had fewer buttons. You can do almost anything with this phone. Take pictures and video. Record conversations. I bet you could even launch a space rocket with it if you wanted, or make a feature-length movie.”

Georgia looked up sharply. “So Livy’s got a phone now, has she?”

“Yes,” said Eel, idly playing with her mobile’s buttons. “Granny gave it to her before she went off to Hollywood.”

Georgia and Tom looked meaningfully at each other. Then Georgia, who had been examining Tom’s good-luck cards, noticed that one had fallen down the side of the dressing table. She knelt to pull it out.

“Here’s one of your cards, Tom—” She stopped and a look of horror crossed her face. “Who on earth would send such a horrible thing…?”

Tom tried to snatch it away, but the others had seen it and Georgia had already opened the card.

“Livy! Oh, what a nasty thing to do.” Georgia and Eel looked shocked, and Tom looked embarrassed.

“I didn’t want anyone to know,” he said.

“Eel, I’m sorry, I know she’s your sister and you love her, but she’s got a mean streak a mile wide,” said Georgia. “It’s even nastier than that text she sent Tom.”

Eel had grabbed the card from Georgia’s hand and was examining it intently. “Tom, what text?” she said urgently. “Do you still have it?”

“Weren’t you going to delete it?” asked Georgia.

“I never got around to it,” said Tom.

“Will you find it for me?” asked Eel. Tom picked up his phone, scrolled down his messages and opened the text. Eel glanced at it, shuddered at the contents and then gave a little meow of triumph. “This isn’t from Livy. Neither is the card. I’d bet my life on it.”

“But it says it is,” said Georgia, puzzled.

“That’s what gives it away,” said Eel triumphantly. “Tom, Georgia, look at the name
on both the text and the card.”

Tom stared at them and a look of astonishment mingled with pain suddenly crossed his face. Georgia still looked bewildered but then she suddenly put her hand to her mouth and drew in her breath.

“I always knew there was something that wasn’t right about the text, but I couldn’t put my finger on it,” she said. “The name. Tom never calls Livy Olivia, he always calls her Liv.”

“Tom and Dad are the only people in the world who do. If Livy wrote something to Dad, she’d never sign it Olivia, not in a million years, she’d always sign it Liv. She’d do the same with Tom. I know it. It would be like me calling myself Alicia instead of Eel. I just wouldn’t do it, however furious I was with you. Besides,” she added triumphantly, “this isn’t Livy’s number. Look, it’s different,” she said, showing her contacts to the others.

“So,” said Georgia slowly, “if Livy didn’t send the text and the card, who did?”

“It’s so strange. Livy told me that she had sent you a text, apologising. But clearly this text isn’t the one she sent. This is from someone else
pretending to be Livy. Have you tried ringing the number it came from?” asked Eel.

Tom looked distraught. “I just assumed it was from Liv and she’d borrowed a phone to send it. I didn’t think it mattered whose phone it came from.”

“But it could matter a lot,” said Georgia quietly. “Let’s ring it. Eel, can we use your phone? Whoever it is won’t recognise the number.”

Eel nodded. Tom put the phone on speaker, tapped in the number and pressed call. The phone rang a couple of times and then a voice answered…

The children stared at each other. With a trembling finger, Tom pressed the disconnect button. He was so pale that all his freckles stood out, despite the make-up that he’d put on ready for the show.

“I don’t know how Katie did it, and I don’t care. But I’ve got to talk to Liv. I’ve got to tell how sorry I am. We’ve behaved so badly towards her. She must be so upset. Poor Liv.” There was real despair in his voice.

“Not now, Tom,” said Georgia. “There isn’t time. You’ll have to do it after the performance.”

“This is your five-minute call,” came over
the tannoy. The orchestra was tuning up. Eel’s phone rang. They all looked at it for a second and then Tom snatched it up and pressed answer.

“It’s Katie Wilkes-Cox here. I’ve just had a call from this number but we got cut off. Who is it?”

“Tom McCavity. I know about the text and the card you sent me. I’m on to you, Katie Wilkes-Cox,” said Tom quietly.

The phone went dead.