The House Guest by Mark Edwards(20)

Shooting me a look of contempt, she turned towards the door and banged on it with her curled fist. Instantaneously, an unseen person opened it from within. Sally went to step through.

‘Wait,’ I said. ‘What message did she send you?’

She stared at me and dipped her hand back into her bag. I flinched. But she was only retrieving her e-cigarette again. She took a deep drag, and exhaled sweet-scented vapour into my face.

‘Tell her my lawyers will be in touch,’ she said, before vanishing into the building. I tried to follow her, to ask her more questions, but the doorman shut the door in my face.

‘Ms Klay,’ I shouted. ‘Please. What message did she send you?’

The doorman came back out and said, ‘Fuck off or I’m calling the cops.’ He looked over my shoulder. ‘Oh, hey, Ms Baker. Don’t be alarmed. This gentleman is leaving.’

I turned and found Cara, Ruth’s understudy, staring at me.

‘I’m so happy to see you,’ I said.

‘And I’m happy to see you too?’ she said with a smile, her Aussie accent making it sound like a question.

‘You know this guy?’ said the doorman.

He shut the door and Cara studied me. ‘What are you doing here? Has Ruth changed her mind?’

Changed her mind? I didn’t know where to start. There was a bagel shop across the street. ‘Do you have time to grab a coffee?’

She checked her phone. ‘I’ve got fifteen minutes before Sally needs me.’

We hurried across the road and I ordered the drinks, taking a seat at the counter in the window. Cara perched on the stool beside me.

I spoke rapidly. ‘This is possibly going to sound nuts, but I haven’t seen Ruth since Friday night. She’s not answering her phone. And Sally said something about getting a message from her. I don’t know what’s going on.’

Cara’s eyes were wide. ‘You haven’t seen her since Friday?’

‘No. Did she come to rehearsals on Saturday?’

She shook her head. ‘She was a no-show, which was totally weird because she’s never been a second late before. Sally’s assistant kept trying to ring Ruth and Sally was not happy.’ She paused to build the drama. ‘And then someone called, saying that Ruth wasn’t going to be able to make it.’

‘What? Who?

‘I don’t know. A woman, I think.’

‘Eden?’

Cara looked blankly at me. ‘I have no idea who that is.’

‘It doesn’t matter. What did this woman say?’

‘That Ruth wasn’t feeling well and that she was going to take a couple of days off. And Sally went nuts and told this woman that if Ruth didn’t drag herself out of her sickbed and get to the studio, like, right now, she would be fired. I didn’t hear exactly what Sally said but Brian – that’s Sally’s assistant – heard it and he said Sally was spitting blood.’

I could imagine.

‘And then, according to Brian, the caller said that she was sorry but Ruth definitely wouldn’t be in and Sally said that was it, she was sacked. Brian loves a bit of drama so he was very excited about it.’

It must have been Eden who had called.

‘This woman. Did she say where she was calling from?’

‘Sorry, Adam, but I don’t know any more. You should know more than me. Was she sick? She seemed fine on Friday.’

‘She would have had a hangover. But I can’t believe it would have been bad enough for her to risk getting fired.’

Cara laughed. ‘Jesus. We’ve all been to rehearsals with hangovers. I’ve been on stage with a hangover!’

‘And even if she did have the hangover from hell and couldn’t face going in, that doesn’t explain why she’s not at home. It doesn’t tell me where she and Eden have gone.’

‘Who is this Eden?’

I laughed humourlessly. ‘I don’t know.’

Cara blinked at me. ‘Well, anyway. If I were Ruth I wouldn’t show my face around here again. I didn’t hear the call but I saw Sally afterwards. She was fuming. She marched over to the wall where we had a poster up – one of the posters advertising the play, with a photo of Ruth on it – tore it down and ripped it up. Brian tried to calm her down and I thought she was going to punch him in the face. Then she marched off, sucking on her vape, and we didn’t see her for hours.’

It seemed impossible to believe. Ruth’s entire adult life had been leading up to this moment. No matter how stressed she was, I couldn’t picture her ever being so hungover she would risk angering Sally Klay, or walking out on this play. Sure, she had drunk a lot of tequila on Friday night. But then again, I had slept through the whole of Saturday. Maybe Ruth, wherever the hell she was, had done the same, and Eden had taken it upon herself to call Sally, not realising what an unforgiving dragon she could be. I could picture Ruth waking up to the news that she had been fired.

‘Did Ruth try to call again? Or her agent?’

‘Not that I know of.’

‘Jesus.’ I stared into my coffee cup and muttered, ‘Where the hell are you, Ruth?’

As we were leaving the bagel shop, Cara said, ‘If Ruth gets in touch, let me know, okay? Although I’m going to be insanely busy making sure I know all my new lines.’