In Pieces by Nick Hopton

Author:Nick Hopton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2014-02-14T16:00:00+00:00

~

Si was bored at work; he tried to ring Mary. No reply. So he rang Jimmy.

A female voice answered. She declined to give her name, but told him Jimmy was out. ‘Playing football,’ she said, ‘training.’

Who was this girl? He supposed it might be the blonde Jimmy had got off with the other night. But surely she hadn’t moved up to Manchester after a one-night stand. No, Jimmy was obviously playing the field.

Then Bill came back with the coffee and a bright idea for a story. ‘I’ve got a mate who works in an art gallery and she says she saw Will Carling and the Princess of Wales at an opening last week. Apparently they were getting on really well.’ He raised an eyebrow and waited for his editor’s reaction.

Si sipped his coffee slowly before reacting. ‘Bill, that’s old news. It was all over The Sun months ago. Nice try, but we’re meant to come up with scoops. And anyway royal stuff is too hot for the Diary… You know that. Dougy would take it straight to the news boys, or to that toad Andrew Smaltings-Rogerson.’

Si was no fan of The Courier’s balding royal correspondent. Since his arrival at the paper, the hack had made it perfectly clear that he had no intention of fraternising with an upstart nobody such as Si.

‘I know that,’ said Bill patiently.

‘Really? So what’s the story, then?’ Si felt despondent. Bill’s thinking had never struck him as particularly original.

‘Well, my friend told me that Will Carling was interested in buying a picture…’ He paused for effect.

‘Yeah?’

‘A portrait of Diana’s mother… Now what about that?’

‘Still too hot for us. Tell the newsboys. They may be interested but I doubt it. This is probably one of those stories we should just sit on. At least for the time being.’

Bill looked crestfallen.

‘Nice effort, though. Keep it up, eh, Bill?’

Bill cheered up a bit.

‘By the way, did he buy the picture?’

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