Page 25 of The House Guest

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 wasnothappy.’ 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 wasfuming. 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.’

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