‘Oh, how sweet,’ said Daysee Butler, bursting into tears.
‘You’re not joining Venturer then?’ asked Seb.
‘Not for the moment,’ said Georgie. Then, rubbing his hands, ‘And now that I’m deputy MD I’m going to start getting heavy. Off with his head!’ he yelled, pointing at a very discomforted James Vereker. ‘And don’t you go giving any more interviews to the press about me and disloyalty, you little twerp.’
Muttering about being seriously misquoted, James bolted out of the newsroom, whereupon everyone cheered and started opening bottles to celebrate.
Seb was summoned ten minutes later and received more or less the same treatment.
‘Tony’s sending me to the New York office for six months to get me out of the way,’ he said. ‘Then, if I behave myself, I can come back. I suppose it’s better than the sack.’
‘Much, much,’ said Charles Fairburn, draining his bottle of red. Feeling vastly relieved that he wasn’t going to be out on his ear, Charles too obeyed a summons from above.
‘Mea culpa,’ he said in mock seriousness, winking at Miss Madden as he sauntered into Tony’s office.
Five minutes later he was back in the newsroom, trembling like a great white blancmange. Everyone stopped their revelling.
‘Whatever’s the matter?’ said Georgie, who’d been tangoing in and out of the desks with Daysee Butler.
‘I’ve been sacked,’ whispered Charles. ‘On the spot, and he’s not giving me any redundancy money because I was warned three times.’
Over at the BBC, at London Weekend and Yorkshire Television, Billy Lloyd-Foxe, Harold White and Sally Maples, all ashen and trembling and mindful of their overdrafts and their dependants, denied any involvement with Venturer and were all suspended from programme-making pending further investigation, and warned that the most tenuous contact with Venturer would mean the sack.
The story was front page in every paper for several days. Declan and Rupert, as the best-known members of Venturer, were blamed for enticement, which no one minded about very much, and lousy security, which, however, reflected very badly on their management skills. Worst of all, Venturer was now left without a sales director, a programme controller, a children’s editor, a sports editor, and a head of news, until Seb, enraged by the cavalier sacking of Charles Fairburn, told Tony to stuff his New York job and resigned as well. This was all very high-minded of Seb, but now meant that Venturer’s fast diminishing kitty was faced with paying both his and Charles’s salaries. Seb would have no difficulty finding another job, but, at fifty-one and a notorious piss artist, Charles was far more of a problem.
Venturer, meanwhile, had been thrown into complete pandemonium. On the afternoon of Tony’s putsch, Rupert, Freddie and Declan met up at The Priory.
‘There must be a countermole, or how could Tony have found out all these things?’ said Declan. Freddie, however, was scrabbling under Declan’s desk. Then he took Declan’s telephone apart.
‘Bugged,’ he said bleakly. ‘I’ll get my men in at once to sweep the room and check all the phones. It’s possible the ‘ole place is bugged. They’d better do your phones as well, Rupe.’
Declan was appalled. ‘Christ knows how much Tony has found out, then.’
‘If he smashes Venturer, he finks he’ll get Cameron back,’ said Freddie. ‘I said we was dealing with a villain. He’s out to bury us.’
‘But how the hell did his men get in here to bug the telephone?’ said Rupert. ‘The dogs would frighten anyone away, and there’s always someone in the house.’
As Taggie was out doing a dinner party in Cheltenham, Declan sent for Maud. ‘Has anyone called to check the telephones lately?’ he asked.
‘Yes,’ said Maud, ‘someone from British Telecom came last Friday; such a delightful young man. He said his mother’s favourite opera was The Merry Widow. He heard me rehearsing and made me sing the Vilja song over and over again.’
‘What was he doing here?’ asked Declan wearily.
‘His department had been notified that we’d been overcharged, so he was checking all the telephones to see if they were using up too many units,’ said Maud beaming. ‘He said they might be able to give us a rebate. I quite forgot to tell you.’
Declan put his head in his hands.
‘How long was he here?’ he groaned.
‘About three hours,’ said Maud.
Rupert and Freddie exchanged glances of horror. If it hadn’t been so terrible, it would have been funny.
‘That was your bugger,’ said Rupert.
‘D’you mean to say all that time he was bugging our house?’ said Maud indignantly. ‘And I gave him three cups of tea with sugar and a Penguin.’
‘I’m sorry,’ sighed Declan after she’d gone, ‘I’m not making excuses for her, but I don’t think it’s quite as simple as that. Tony knew about all the moles, but I’ve never rung Billy on this telephone. Rupert’s always been the one to get in touch with him. And because I was ultra-conscious of security, I’ve always made a point of directly contacting all the moles from a call box outside Penscombe, so the calls couldn’t be traced back. Anyway, if the telephone was only bugged last Friday, I rang everyone about the dry run before that. I’ve got a horrible feeling someone tipped Tony off.’
‘All right,’ said Freddie, sitting down heavily on a lot of tapes, ‘let’s go through the list of possibilities. Taggie was working at Sarah Stratton’s a fortnight ago and the Baddinghams and the Verekers were both there.’
‘Don’t be bloody silly,’ snapped Rupert, who was pacing up and down the room. ‘Of course it’s not Taggie. She’s entirely responsible for all those letters being sent to the IBA and what the fucking hell’s she got to gain by leaking secrets to Tony?’
Freddie raised his eyebrows. ‘No need to overreact. She could have just let somefink slip to Sarah over the dishes.’
‘And how d’you know the Verekers and the Baddinghams were at the Strattons the other night?’ said Rupert, still furious. ‘I suppose Lizzie told you. Lizzie’s much more likely to have told Tony.’
‘Lizzie’s nothing to do with us,’ said Declan irritably. ‘Do keep to the point, Rupert.’
‘Lizzie’s something to do with Freddie,’ persisted Rupert. ‘You could easily have talked in your sleep.’
Freddie turned dark red. ‘There’s nuffink going on there.’
‘Hum,’ said Rupert.
Declan looked disapproving. ‘Is there?’ he said icily.
Freddie shuffled his feet. ‘I’m very fond of Lizzie. I haven’t told her anyfing.’
Declan then admitted that Maud had told him Caitlin had been out once with Archie Baddingham, but they were just a couple of kids, and he was quite certain Caitlin knew nothing of importance. Anyway she was back at school now.
‘Caitlin knows everything,’ said Rupert. ‘She doesn’t miss a trick, and she might easily have seen Sally Maples or Harold.’
‘They’ve never been to the house,’ said Declan. ‘I suppose one of the moles could have turned countermole.’
‘More than their life’s wurf,’ said Freddie, shaking his head. ‘If they shopped us, they automatically shop themselves. Georgie is the only one it might have been, and he was far too upset when Tony broke the news yesterday. I expect Tony’s got the thumbscrew on him now, getting the rest of Venturer’s secrets out of him.’
‘What about Maud?’ said Rupert. ‘She’s always hanging around with Monica.’
‘When did my wife ever take the slightest interest in the franchise? She doesn’t know a thing,’ said Declan bitterly.
‘Valerie’s got a soft spot for James Vereker,’ suggested Rupert.