Read Online The Rain-Soaked Bride by Guy Adams - Free Book Online Page A

attend. As we need her help, however, it might be politic to show our support.’ He looked at his watch. ‘We’ve got an hour or so before it starts. Hopefully she’s here already.’
    He pulled out his phone and made a call.
    ‘Cassandra, darling … Yes … Of course I am, in fact I … Yes … Well, I was wondering … Right … Of course … Yes … So is there any chance? … Right … Yes … Fine …’ He hung up.
    ‘She seems a quiet woman,’ said Toby with a smile.
    ‘Impossible. I’m no wiser as to her whereabouts now than I was when I started. Apparently, she had to go and do some breathing exercises.’
    ‘She does do it then?’
    ‘I’m sorry?’
    ‘Breathe.’
    ‘Very occasionally. That’s when someone else gets the chance to say part of a sentence.’
    ‘So, we have to wait an hour, do we?’
    ‘Afraid so. It should be worth it, though. For all her eccentricities, Cassandra Grace is an undoubted expert on the subject in hand.’
    ‘Which is?’
    ‘Curses.’
    b) Leicester Square Theatre, Leicester Square, London
    In a manner so lazy as to seem positively treasonous to Toby, the two officers pottered around the bookshops on Charing Cross Road while they waited for the show to begin.
    While they were making no forward steps on the operation in hand, Shining did find a pile of cheap Modesty Blaise novels so he, at least, was happy.
    They returned to the theatre and Shining announced himself to the woman behind the box-office window as Christopher Barclay.
    ‘And this is my colleague, Terry Nevill,’ Shining said. ‘I’m afraid he’s not on the guest list but I only heard he was flying over from Los Angeles this morning. He’s here to look into casting for the latest Cruise picture.’
    ‘Cruise?’ the woman asked, her eyes lighting up. ‘Tom Cruise?’
    ‘Tom-Tom,’ said Toby in a passable West Coast accent. ‘What a guy.’
    ‘I’m sure it’ll be fine if you go in,’ the woman said, reaching for her mobile phone and Twitter feed. ‘Do help yourself to drinks and canapés.’
    ‘Cool,’ said Toby. ‘I haven’t had a damn thing since a bagel at LAX.’
    ‘Do try to remember it’s the actors that are auditioning for a role,’ said Shining to Toby as they descended the stairs towards the basement theatre, ‘not you.’
    ‘You’re just jealous of my considerable talents,’ Toby replied.
    The drink and canapés turned out to be lukewarm Cava in plastic cups and egg sandwiches. They helped themselves to both and sat down on the back row of the little theatre space.
    ‘If I could just give you the information sheets about today’s performers,’ said a woman who was wandering about the place in a state of panic. ‘Did you give your contact information to the box office?’
    ‘They know who we are,’ Shining assured her with a smile, taking the proffered sheets. ‘So good of you to invite us.’
    ‘Not at all,’ she replied, her eyes wandering towards the backstage entrance where a loud voice was explaining to anyone in Central London with functioning ears that she had lost her ‘cardboard mandibles’. ‘If you’ll just excuse me for a moment?’ she said and ran off looking tearful.
    ‘What’s this, then?’ Toby asked, flicking through the sheets. It contained the casting photos of the afternoon’s performers and space for the audience to make notes.
    ‘No need to worry about it,’ said Shining. ‘Nobody else will be.’
    ‘No, the important thing about maintaining cover is sticking to the details. If I’m supposed to be a casting agent, I intend to act like one.’
    ‘If we were doing that, we wouldn’t have turned up in the first place,’ said Shining.
    A handful of other people trickled in. They all looked as if they didn’t really belong, eating their egg sandwiches with a guilty air.
    ‘When you organise these things,’ said Shining, ‘you end up with a room full of family and friends, all pretending to be someone terribly important as it’s