Booked for Murder by Val McDermid Page B

sleep around here, gorgeous, it’s not you. The problem, Linds, is Guy. Well, it’s not really Guy as such, it’s Stella. You remember the set-up at Watergaw?”
    Lindsay remembered. Helen and Guy had set up their independent film-making company three years earlier. Before that, Helen had worked in theater administration, then run her own casting agency, working for TV and film companies initially in Britain and later across Europe. Guy had been a TV director and producer first of current affairs and later of high-profile documentaries. Together they’d decided to create Watergaw Films to take advantage of new EU funding geared towards community groups who wanted to develop TV and film projects, both dramatic and documentary. “How could I
forget?” she said. “Straight partnership, down the middle, you and Guy. Best buddies, known each other since school, both gay, both refugees from New Labour, both filled with the burning desire to make meaningful TV.”
    â€œThat’s what I thought too,” Helen said bitterly. She ran a hand through her mop of flaming red hair. “Turns out I was well wrong. On pretty much every count. I could just about live with the way he’s turned into the worst kind of exploitative capitalist, because I could always weigh in and get the balance straight again. But now he’s got that bitch Stella on board . . . I just don’t know how much more of his shit I can take.”
    It had to be serious for Helen to be badmouthing another woman like that, Lindsay realized with a jolt. Normally first to the barricades when sisterhood came under threat, it took a lot for Helen even to admit a woman was in the wrong when there was an available male to be blamed. “Who’s Stella?” Lindsay asked as Kirsten moved behind Helen and started to massage the back of her neck and shoulders.
    â€œOh, that’s wonderful,” Helen purred, rolling her head back. “The bitch goddess from hell joined us about a year ago. We needed someone else on board with directorial experience, and she came highly recommended. Plus she had a bit of capital which we needed right then, so she bought in at twenty percent of the company. What was supposed to happen was that she would do the bread and butter stuff for Guy and work with me on projects where I was producer. What wasn’t supposed to happen was Guy rediscovering his lost heterosexuality and climbing into bed with the scheming little minx,” Helen said. Not even Kirsten’s massage was enough to subdue the anger in her voice.
    â€œOh.”
    â€œYeah, ‘oh.’” Helen reached behind her and gently disengaged Kirsten’s hands. “Thanks for the thought, K, but you’re wasting your energy. That pair have got me so wound up . . .”
    â€œWell, don’t talk about them, then,” she said reasonably.
    â€œAs well as tell a river to stop flowing downhill,” Lindsay muttered.
    â€œExactly. And as if it’s not enough that he’s sleeping with her, he’s taking professional decisions with her. To all intents and purposes,
she’s in control. Whatever she wants, Guy backs her. Whenever there’s a difference of opinion, whether it’s about company strategy or something as minor as how a sequence should be filmed, Guy sides with her every time, and I’m the one left out in the cold. I feel like I’m being frozen out of my own company, and it’s really pissing me off. Things get decided when I’m not even there—like as not between the sheets. But it’s more than just being sidelined that bugs me. They’re changing the culture of the company, and I’m spending all my time and energy running to try and stand still instead of moving us forward. It’s not what I came into this business to do, but I just don’t know how the hell to beat this bitch at her own game.” Helen drained her glass and emptied