Maybe there were some shady big boys in the background who were using a mole to plant the notes, and the latest note was really aimed at the mole so that if, as hoped, Joe's tragic death in an accident had made the headlines that morning, the mole wouldn't immediately blame his or her employers. Resenting Zak's success enough to make you conspire in her humiliation didn't necessarily mean the mole would go along with murdering innocent parties.
Was he being too clever or just not clever enough? Either way it had a depressing effect which only a strong injection of caffeine could cure. He headed for the cafe. Still no food in sight but the coffee machine was bubbling. He poured himself a cup, took a seat, drank deep, then leaned back and closed his eyes.
'Hi, Joe. This a private cloud or can anyone sit under it?'
He opened his eyes to see Doug Endor smiling down at him.
'Anyone who's crazy,' said Joe. 'Pour yourself a coffee and pull up a bed of nails.'
For a chirpy Cockney sparrer, the agent didn't seem to have much to say. For several minutes they sat in silence, drinking coffee. The track below was deserted. A few workmen moved among the spectator seating, checking numbers, while others were taking down some scaffolding under the press box.
Then Zak and Abe Schoenfeld came out on the track and everyone stopped what they were doing.
The runner and trainer trotted together down to the first curve where they paused and went into a discussion.
'Bends are the key indoors,' said Endor. 'Outdoors, longer your distance, less they matter. Indoors, whatever you run, you spend as much time leaning sideways as you do standing straight.'
'Hardiman says these are good bends,' said Joe.
'That's like saying a bog what don't suck you under first time you step on it is a good bog,' said Endor. 'You ever see Zak run, Joe?'
'Only on the telly.'
'In the flesh is something else. There she goes now.'
Zak was taking her tracksuit off. She stood at the starting mark. A word with Schoenfeld, a momentary crouch, then she was away. Joe felt a lump in his throat. Poetry in motion seemed a tired old cliche when the papers used it, but what else could they say? She did four circuits then came to a halt and went back into discussion with the coach.
'Shouldn't bother with a race,' said Joe. 'Folk would pay just to watch her run by herself.'
'I like that, Joe,' said Endor. 'Fink we could use that. Probably get you a royalty.'
'I'm sorry?'
'Commercials, Joe. Always on the lookout for a catchy phrase.'
'You mean Bloo-Joo?'
'No, they're small beer, small purple beer, ha ha. They got Zak when she was up and coming. Now she's up, or close to it, they'd need to pay ten times the money for half the time, you with me? It's the new generation of deals I'm talking about.'
'Like Nymphette?'
'What you know about Nymphette?'
'Something about doing clothes as well as scent and stuff.'
Endor laughed and said, 'Scent and stuff. I love that. They're the classy end of the young cosmetic market, Joe, and next year they're branching out into the snazziest range of casual wear you ever saw. And they're hot to have Zak fronting up their sales campaign.'
'So it's all set up?'
'We're just arguing decimal points,' said Endor confidently. 'That ain't just poetry in motion you see down there, Joe, that's a bestseller on the hoof. Zak is going to be seriously rich.'
'And you too, I suppose?' said Joe.
'I take my percentage, yeah,' said Endor. 'Why not? Labourer's worth his hire, right? But I gotta work for it, believe you me. Not like being a lawyer, say, where you can be a millionaire just sitting on your hands and watching the clock tick up a pony every minute.'
'Don't tell me about lawyers,' said Joe fervently.
'You sound like you got trouble,' said Endor. 'Anything I can help with?'
An agent offering free help? Maybe there's hope for world peace after all, thought Joe.
But no harm in telling the man about his problem with Penthouse Assurance. He still had their insulting cheque in his pocket, and though events since he got it had tended to sideline his indignation, he was still determined not to sit under their cavalier treatment. Except he hadn't got the faintest idea what to do next.
They're trying it on,' said Endor after he'd heard the story.
'Listen, Joe, what you want to do is go along there, front it out with them, let them see that you're not going to roll over, know what I mean? The difference between what they've given you and what you're claiming is peanuts to them. Let them see you'll fight 'em all the bleeding way and they'll soon up their offer.'
'You reckon?' said Joe. 'Trouble is, like you just said, lawyers cost a fortune, even ordinary lawyers. Penthouse'll take one look and know that I don't have the kind of money to put at risk in a court case, 'cos if I did, I wouldn't be getting so het up about this deal anyway!'
'You don't have to have the money nowadays, Joe,' said Endor. 'This new legislation means we're going to be like the Yanks. You can cut a deal with a lawyer that means no win, no pay.'
