Woman of the Hour (24 page)

Julius hung up.

‘Sit down.’

He was terse and I did not sit down.

‘I’m up to my eyeballs, Julius. What is it?’

‘Tell Ledley we want his food producers to put their ad campaign on our station.’

‘I don’t think we can insist on that.’

‘Of course we can. Ledley would be nothing without his slot on our show. He was a nobody until we gave him airtime.’

‘Hardly a nobody. And I made a big thing to him about no product placement in his slot.’

‘I’m not talking about product placement. I’m talking about advertising. Tell him we’ll offer them a good rate.’

‘I’ll mention it.’

His face darkened. ‘I obviously didn’t make things clear enough at our budget meeting. We’re hanging by a thread. Don’t
mention
it;
tell him
that’s how it’s going to be.’

‘I’ll do my best.’

He thumped the desk with his fist.

‘I’m sick of the way you always treat Ledley with kid gloves. You should bloody well know where your loyalties lie.’

‘That’s rubbish.’

‘Why are you resisting my perfectly reasonable request?’

He had raised his voice and I raised mine.

‘All I’m saying is I can’t guarantee—’

‘Just bloody do it!’

Now he was shouting and I’d had enough of his aggression.

‘Stop bullying me and stop bullying my team!’

‘What do you mean by that?’

‘I know you assaulted Harriet. How could you do that?’

He stood up at my words and now he looked menacing.

‘She told you that?’

‘Keep away from my team.’

‘When am I meant to have done this?’

‘Wednesday before last, I found Harriet sobbing in the Ladies’ late that evening.’

‘And where precisely did I assault her?’

‘In one of the edit suites.’

‘Crap! I’ll tell you what happened. She wants to be on TV, thinks she can be the next Fizzy. So I gave her a screen test and she was fucking awful.’

Now he was talking too fast and I knew he was lying.

‘A screen test?’

‘Yes, she was crap. I showed it to her that night and told her it didn’t work out.’

My mind was leaping. But Harriet would have told me if there was a screen test. He had made this up to explain his being in the edit suite with her.

‘So show me this screen test,’ I said.

‘It was so bad I junked it. She didn’t get what she wanted so she’s making up stories, evil little stories.’

‘There must be a copy somewhere.’

‘I told you I junked it.’

I didn’t believe him. If there had been a screen test he would have shown it to me to prove his story. That would have cleared him.

‘I don’t believe you. There is no screen test.’

‘You are so damned naive. I’d have thought you knew how this business works by now!’

His voice was full of contempt.

‘You’re hateful.’

‘She’s a typical spoiled rich kid. Thinks it’s enough to know the right people. She’s never done a real day’s work in her life.’

‘Stay away from her or I’ll... I’ll report you.’

‘You’re being hysterical, again.’

He shouted this after me as I stormed out of his room. Martine heard that and she gave me a curious and cold look. Her loyalty to Julius is total and anyone who crosses him makes an enemy of her.

I was seething all the way home on the Tube. He is a bully and a liar.

Chalk Farm flat, 7.30 p.m.

As soon as I got home I booted up my laptop. I read through my memo to the MD one last time. Julius had had this coming for years. I pressed send.

I put on the kettle and made myself tea and my hands were trembling as I reached for my favourite mug. There was no going back now. I saw that Mr Crooks’s bowl was empty as Flo came out of her room.

‘You haven’t fed Mr Crooks,’ I said.

‘Sorry.’

She got out the bag of his dry food and filled his bowl. Then she ran fresh water and filled that bowl. I was surprised that she hadn’t snapped back at me as she usually does when I ask her to do something. We stood and watched Mr Crooks eating.

‘Do you remember the day we got him?’ I said.

‘I loved him the moment I saw him, it’s his stripy face that did it.’

Mr Crooks’s face is orange on one side and black on the other and it does give him a rakish air.

‘He’s a character,’ I said.

It was nice feeling united with Flo like this.

‘Is it OK if I do a sleepover at Rosie’s on Friday night?’

‘Has her mum said that’s OK?’

‘Yes, and I can go straight to hers from school so Janis needn’t come.’

This gave me enough time to stand Janis down and save some money.

‘That’s fine, darling.’

‘Thanks, Mum.’

Rosie was on the scene again and that was good news as far as I was concerned. She is a friendly wholesome girl and I hoped that the sullen Paige’s influence was on the wane.

StoryWorld TV station, London Bridge

My sleep was fitful and I woke with a sick feeling in my stomach at the thought that I had lobbed the hand grenade. In an hour or two I would have to sit across the table from Julius after our furious row last night. I wished I hadn’t shown my hand, I wished I hadn’t said I’d report him. That was a bad move on my part. But surely Saul Relph wouldn’t send my email on to him when I’d marked it as strictly confidential? But what if he does; what if he closes ranks with Julius who is his right-hand man? I would know soon enough.

I walked slowly from London Bridge towards StoryWorld, not wanting to reach the building or face what might be awaiting me. I spotted Molly walking in front of me and she looked the most formal I had ever seen her in a black coat rather than her usual parka. I caught up with her.

‘Hi, I need to leave by eleven-thirty today. Is that all right?’ she said.

‘Naomi’s funeral?’

‘Yes. Do I look OK? I borrowed this coat from a friend.’

‘You look most suitable. Now, I don’t want you coming back here afterwards, Moll.’

Molly is so scrupulous it would be like her to come back to the station for the last few hours of the day.

*

When we assembled in the meeting room after the show I sat on the same side as Julius so that I would not have to look at his face. There was a brief discussion of that day’s show but it was clear to us all that Bob wanted to say something. He got his moment and he told us that the reporters who were leaving his team had been told by him personally yesterday.

‘It was tough but it had to be done. Two of the journos are likely to appeal their redundancy. They may make waves. I wanted you all to know what’s going on,’ he said, pulling back his shoulders and looking pleased with himself.

‘Good work, Bob. You need to play hardball with the two who are kicking up,’ Julius said.

‘I intend to.’

Bob is the kind of man who likes to get difficult actions dealt with as fast as possible but it would have been far better if he’d thought to warn us about this yesterday. A TV station is a highly volatile environment and trouble in one quarter reverberates across the whole building. Already a tense atmosphere could be felt from the Hub to the studio and the offices.

I got out of the room without having to speak to Julius. The one look he had given me was cold. We had screamed abuse at each other yesterday and I had to assume that Saul Relph had not sent him my email. I was weak with relief. I should not have sent that email, it was too much of a hand grenade.

Molly had already left for Naomi Jessup’s funeral when I joined the team outside my room. I told Ziggy that I had managed to get her onto a course to train as a digital technician. She flushed with pleasure.

‘Thanks for that.’

‘Go, Ziggy,’ Simon said, standing up and doing a high five across the desks which Harriet then did too. It made me feel good to see them being so supportive to her.

‘Monday night sessions starting in two weeks,’ I said.

Harriet was working on her Central Saint Martins’ fashion idea.

‘How’s it going?’ I asked.

‘I’ve found the right tutor to interview and she’s going to select the student.’

Harriet was dressed in the same demure mode which she has favoured since she came back to work. Her cream Fair Isle cardigan was buttoned to the neck and she had plaited her hair away from her face. I preferred this Harriet, the team-player.

‘Good work,’ I said.

Yes, I thought as I went into my office, I had done the right thing. My team need me to be strong and to protect them no matter how fearful and wobbly I feel inside.

All day long I kept checking my home email as I was sure Saul Relph would send his response there. It was hard to settle to anything but I told myself I had to stay calm. I had every right to report the incident between Julius and me. I looked at my to-do list. At the top I had written
Speak to Ledley about getting the food company to advertise on StoryWorld
. It’s the kind of call I hate to make. Pulling rank and saying that because we had made him a household name he owed us. And then an idea occurred to me. Ledley had said they planned to hold a big launch for their product and we had our atrium. We’ve often used it for publicity events. It’s a large space with a touch of theatre about it with the two staircases sweeping up on either side. I could get their team in to discuss this and introduce them to our sales team and let them do the hard sell. I called Ledley at once.

‘What a great idea. You’re brilliant, Liz.’

‘I’ll need to speak to their PR team and get them in to take a look.’

He gave me the number of the PR agency. I have arranged for the senior publicist to come in on Friday and I’ll get Ledley along for that too.

*

It was after six and I checked my home account for the umpteenth time before shutting down my PC. Nothing had come in from Saul Relph. I cleared my desk and locked my room. Simon and Harriet were still working on their research briefs as I said goodnight. As I came out of the main entrance I saw Bob standing in the paved area that fronts our building. It was not the kind of night to be hanging around. A cold wind from the river was whistling around the open space of the forecourt and whipping up grit. Commuters were streaming by on the way to the Tube, their faces a picture of weary endurance. Bob stepped out right in front of me.

‘We need a word,’ he said.

I realised it was me he had been waiting for.

‘Can it wait till tomorrow?’

‘No, it can’t.’

His whole demeanour made me know what was coming.

‘You can butt out of Fizzy’s pregnancy,’ he said.

Over his shoulder I could see Tim Cooper coming out of the building, striding towards us.

‘You want to say that a bit louder?’ I said.

He clamped his lips together but continued to stare at me with furious eyes. I wanted to get away from him and tried to think what I could talk to Tim about so I could walk to the Tube with him. Tim always leaves work promptly and the talk in the station is that he has a difficult and demanding wife waiting for him at home. But he was upon us in a flash and as he walked past we both said goodnight.

‘What are you thinking of, feeding her all that crap about the joys of motherhood?’

‘You’ve got a nerve!’

‘She’s not the maternal type. Anyone with half a brain cell can see that.’

‘I’ve known Fizzy a lot longer than you and—’

‘You’re telling her to do something that will ruin her career.’

‘I’m not
telling
her to do anything. I said she should give herself time to think about what is a huge decision for any woman.’

‘Like I said, butt out.’ His voice was very aggressive.

‘And you have her best interests at heart, I suppose? This is you trying to cover your arse. Do you have any idea how a woman feels after an abortion?’

I walked away from him as fast as I could. I had not experienced such pure clean anger for a long time.

Chalk Farm flat, 7.15 p.m.

All the way home in the Tube my anger was bouncing back and forth between Bob and Julius. Two bullies who think they can order the world in their image. And Julius is a liar as well as a bully. I was itching to check my home email again. It was twenty-four hours since I’d written to Saul Relph. Surely he should have responded by now?

I arrived home and followed Janis onto the pavement as she was leaving as I did not want Flo to overhear me.

‘Flo’s doing a sleepover at Rosie’s on Friday and she’ll go straight to hers from school,’ I said.

‘So you don’t need me?’

‘Is that all right?’

‘Not a problem.’

‘I wanted to ask you about Paige. Do you think Flo is getting less besotted with her?’

‘I don’t think so. She goes onto WhatsApp or Snapchat or whatever they use now with her as soon as she gets home,’ Janis said.

‘Still?’

‘Every night.’

‘I hoped she was pulling away. Nothing we can do about it I guess.’

‘Don’t worry, as soon as Paige gets herself a boyfriend she’ll drop Flo,’ Janis said.

We said goodbye and I went inside. I took my laptop into my bedroom and turned it on. Saul Relph had just sent his response. My fingers were trembling as I clicked his message open.

Dear Liz,

I read your email with concern and I have been considering the best course of action.

The incident you refer to took place seven years ago, before my tenure as MD, as you know. You have waited a very long time to report this. You say the event took place at the Christmas party and I am assuming that alcohol had been consumed.

You appear to have a professional working relationship with Julius. Are you sure you want to proceed with a formal complaint? Please think about this carefully and let me know if you wish me to take this matter further.

Yours as ever

Saul Relph OBE

I was devastated by his response. It was so cold, so dismissive. Yes, it had happened seven years ago but it was a near-rape experience and he should be alarmed that his director of programmes, his precious lieutenant, was capable of doing that. And what the hell did he mean by that reference to alcohol being consumed? Does he think I led Julius on by drinking? It was not my fault Julius wouldn’t take no for an answer. Now he knows my shaming secret and he doesn’t want to take any action. He has left the decision to me. I had an insight into why so many rape victims stay silent. I used to think it was men who created the moral order. I don’t think that any more. I think most men are content with the status quo, like a quiet life and don’t want to shake things up. I read it again. His ‘are you sure’ and his ‘think about this carefully
’
make it clear that he wants me to drop it.