White Nights - Ann Cleeves [37]
Martha checked her mobile phone. Still no call from him. What had started out as mild irritation had changed to anger and now to concern. Jeremy was an arrogant prat and a congenital liar, but he made his living from Interact and he cared about its reputation. Martha was at the company as part of a higher apprenticeship in arts management. After taking a good degree in drama from Bristol, the apprenticeship seemed a better option than an MA. There was a modest bursary and the chance for hands-on experience. Jeremy was taking the piss, of course. Her placement at Interact wasn’t supposed to provide him with an unpaid skivvy, yet it wasn’t unusual for him to disappear for a couple of days, leaving her in charge.
‘It’s great practice, love. Think how it’ll look on your CV.’
But he’d been away for four days now and she hadn’t heard anything. She’d tried his mobile, but it seemed to be switched off.
She tried to remember exactly what he’d said this time. They’d been in the pub the week before, the end of a debrief on the drugs-awareness tour of the Midlands. For once he’d been almost generous, had bought a couple of rounds for the actors. There’d been a suppressed excitement about him. She’d come in from Huddersfield on the train, so she’d been drinking too. Somehow she’d found herself sitting at a small table next to him. The rest of the group had been drinking all afternoon and were singing some dreadful song from the show. She’d had a struggle to make out what Jeremy had been saying.
‘Something’s come up, love. A great chance. You can cope on your own for a bit, can’t you? A girl with your talents. I’ll pay you, make it worth your while.’
She’d thought perhaps it was an audition. She’d worked around actors enough to recognize the excitement that came out of the possibility of a part, the part that would change a career. Even actors as old as Jeremy fell under the magic, lost all their reason. She couldn’t understand it herself. She’d never been bitten by the acting bug. Jeremy told everyone that performance was his first love. He’d set up Interact to pay the bills and because the rent on the mill was subsidized for the first year, but made it clear that if the right offer came his way he’d wind up the company like a shot. There were always deals in the offing. A friend who worked for Granada was planning a soap which had a part just right for him. He’d bumped into a script editor who thought he was perfect for the lead in a ninety-minute drama. None of these possibilities ever came to anything.
Martha had never seen Jeremy act, but she had watched him lead rehearsals. She thought he probably was a bit better than the average jobbing actor. He held her attention, and anyone who could bring those dreadful lines to life must have some skill. But theatre was all about luck and if it hadn’t happened for Jeremy by now, she thought it was hardly likely to. If he’d been to an audition, even in London, he should have been home days ago. If he’d set his heart on a part, failed to get it and been drowning his sorrows, he should be back by now. If by some remote chance he’d been given the part, he’d want to tell them all. So where was he?
There were footsteps on the bare wooden stairs. She looked out through the open office door, hoping to see Jeremy leaping up, two steps at a time. For someone who drank so much he was