'It isn't going to go wrong. I've been on the phone to Eleanor Beazley of the 'Books To Be Read' programme. She owes me a favour. She's agreed to squeeze Piper into next week's '
'No,' said Frensic. 'Definitely not. I won't have you rushing Piper '
'Listen, baby,' said Sonia, 'we've got to strike while the iron's hot. We get Piper on the box saying he wrote Pause and he ain't going to back out nohow.'
Frensic regarded her with distaste. 'He ain't going to back out nohow? Charming. We're really getting into Mafia-land now. And kindly don't 'baby' me. If there is one expression I abominate it's being called 'baby'. And as for putting the poor demented Piper on the box, have you thought what effect this is going to have on Cadwalladine and his anonymous client?'
'Cadwalladine has agreed to the substitution in principle,' said Sonia. 'What's he got to complain about?'
'There is a difference between 'in principle' and 'in practice',' said Frensic. 'What he actually said was that he would consult his client.'
'And has he let you know?'
'Not yet,' said Frensic, 'and in some ways I rather hope he turns the idea down. At least it would put an end once and for all to the internecine strife between my greed and my scruples.'
But even that relief was denied him. Half an hour later a telegram was delivered.
'CLIENT AGREES TO SUBSTITUTION STOP ANONYMITY OVERRIDING CONSIDERATION CADWALLADINE.'
'So we're in the clear,' said Sonia. 'I'll confirm Piper for Wednesday and see if the Guardian will run a feature on him. You get on to Geoffrey and arrange for Piper to exchange contracts for Search this afternoon.'
'That could lead to misunderstandings,' said Frensic. 'Geoffrey happens to think Piper wrote Pause and since Piper hasn't read Pause, let alone written the thing...'
'So you take him out to lunch and liquor him up and...'
'Have you ever considered,' asked Frensic, 'going into the kidnapping business?'
In the event there was no need to liquor Piper up. He arrived in a state of euphoria and installed himself in Sonia's office where he sat gazing at her meaningfully while she telephoned the literary editors of several daily papers to arrange pre-publication interviews with the author of the world's most expensively purchased novel, Pause O Men for the Virgin. In the next office Frensic coped with the ordinary business of the day. He phoned Geoffrey Corkadale and made an appointment for Piper in the afternoon, he listened abstractedly to the whining of two authors who were having difficulties with their plots, did his best to assure them that it would all come right in the end and tried to ignore the intimations of his own instincts which were telling him that with the signing up of Piper the firm of Frensic & Futtle had bitten off more than they could chew. Finally when Piper went downstairs to the washroom Frensic managed to have a word with Sonia.
'What gives?' he asked, a lapse into transatlantic brevity that indicated his disturbed state of mind.
'The Guardian have agreed to interview him tomorrow and the Telegraph say they'll let me '
'With Piper. Whence the fixed smile and the goggle eyes?'
Sonia smiled. 'Has it ever occurred to you that he might find me attractive?'
'No,' said Frensic. 'No it hasn't.'
Sonia's smile faded. 'Get lost,' she said.
Frensic got lost and considered this new and quite incomprehensible development. It was one of the fixed stars in his firmament of opinions that no one in his right mind could find Sonia Futtle attractive apart from Hutchmeyer and Hutchmeyer had evidently perverse tastes both in books and in women. That Piper should be in love with her, and at such short notice, intruded a new dimension into the situation which in his opinion was sufficiently crowded already. Frensic
