Dead on Cue by Sally Spencer

Author:Sally Spencer [Spencer, Sally]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Usenet, C429, Kat, Exratorrents
Publisher: Severn House Publishers Ltd
Published: 2012-01-10T05:00:00+00:00

Nineteen

Work finished earlier at the studio on days when there was no broadcast, and the moment the canteen staff had served Woodend with tea and sticky buns, they pulled down the shutters.

The chief inspector laid his tray on the table where Jane Todd was waiting for him.

‘How much was that?’ the producer’s assistant asked, reaching into her purse.

‘Forget it, lass,’ Woodend said. ‘This is on me.’

Jane Todd smiled. ‘Do you know what they always say in the television business?’

‘No. What do they always say?’

‘That’s there no such thing as a free lunch. And I assume by that they mean there’s no such thing as free tea and sticky buns either.’

‘So you don’t think I’m just showin’ you a part of my naturally generous nature?’

‘Of course I don’t. I work for Bill Houseman, which – as you’ve already realised – means I know a lot of what goes on in this studio. That makes me a good source of information. But rather than coming straight out and asking me direct questions, as most of your colleagues would have done, you’ve decided to do it subtly – over a cup of tea and sticky buns – so I won’t even realise I’m being pumped.’

Woodend shook his head admiringly. ‘You’re far too clever for me, lass,’ he said.

‘That’s just what I’d have expected you to say,’ Jane Todd replied. ‘But both of us know it’s not true – you’re so sharp, Mr Woodend, that you’re in danger of cutting yourself.’

‘Call me Charlie,’ Woodend said. ‘An’ what if you’re right about me wantin’ to pump you? Would you mind?’

‘I might have done if I hadn’t seen the way you treated that constable outside Valerie’s dressing room.’

‘Come again?’ Woodend said.

‘If Jeremy Wilcox had been in your place, he’d have left the poor lad a quivering wreck. And why? Because he could! Because by tearing a strip off him, he’d be demonstrating, yet again, that he’s important. You could have done the same – goodness knows, the constable was expecting you to. But you didn’t. You tried to put him at his ease instead. I liked that.’

‘I’m not sure if that really proves anythin’,’ Woodend said, looking down at the table.

‘But it does. It proves that you’re a nice man who doesn’t care about the trappings of power, and just wants to do his job as well as he can.’

‘Isn’t that true of nearly everybody?’

Jane Todd laughed again. ‘Even you don’t believe that,’ she said.

Woodend sighed. ‘Maybe you’re right,’ he agreed.

‘And because you’re not in the job just for what you can get out of it, I’m inclined to trust you more than I’d trust most people. So you tell me what it is you want to know, and as long as it doesn’t hurt anybody who doesn’t deserve to be hurt, I’ll answer to the best of my ability. Fair enough?’

‘Fair enough,’ Woodend agreed. ‘Accordin’ to what Larry Coates told me back in his dressin’ room, the contracts that the cast signed with NWTV mean that the company’s got them all by the short an’ curlies.

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