I had to hand it to him – Nick had steered the conversation in the direction he needed pretty fast.
‘Well, just between us, it was a nightmare,’ said Jess.
‘How so?’ I asked, my curiosity genuinely piqued.
‘We’re not going to find this splashed acrossRe:Soundnext month, are we?’ She was joking, but there was an edge to her voice, which was fair enough.
Simon sprang to my defence. ‘Of course not, Jess. You can trust Zoë.’
She flicked a glance at Nick, whose expression remained impassive. Evidently, she trusted him without anyone having to vouch for him. The perks of having a pretty face.
‘Marcie and the guy she was seeing kept having screaming matches. Honestly, it was a miracle she had a voice each night to sing with.’
‘She sounds like quite a fiery customer,’ said Simon.
‘I think the words you’re looking for are diva bitch,’ said Jess.
I bristled and I swear Nick bristled too. Was it because Jess had just insulted his girlfriend?
‘Don’t say that about Marcie,’ said Simon. ‘Zoë idolises her.’
‘Jess can say what she likes,’ I said, stiffly.
‘Was that Benedict Bailey?’ Nick asked.
Jess frowned. ‘God, how do you remember his name?’
‘He was a pretty famous guitarist in his own right,’ he said. ‘He came on stage with you one night, didn’t he?’
She narrowed her eyes. ‘How would you know that? Are you some kind of stalker-ish fan?’
‘I was at that gig.’
She looked at Nick disbelievingly. ‘It was in San Francisco.’
‘I was living in the States at the time.’
‘Whereabouts?’ asked Simon.
Was Nick telling the truth about working in the States? Was he about to get grilled on it now? ‘On the West Coast – I was doing anMBAat Berkeley.’
Was that in addition to the law degree?I wanted to ask, but it wasn’t really in my interests to question him.
‘Right,’ said Simon, who was obviously satisfied. Then he turned back to Jess. ‘Wasn’t that the tour I was supposed to come out and meet you on?’
‘Yeah, the tour got cancelled afterwards,’ said Jessica. ‘We were just starting to get airplay in the States. It was a bad time.’
I raised my eyebrows expectantly. ‘What happened?’
‘Benedict died,’ said Nick. ‘Motorbike accident.’
‘How do you know so much about it?’ said Jessica sharply.
I was pretty surprised that Nick was offering information that Jess would have provided anyway. He was sucking at all this deception stuff.
‘Benedict was a rare talent. The music he and Marcie wrote together was amazing,’ said Nick. ‘TheStarsalbum.’
It was the first time I’d heard Nick sound like a genuine fan. It was my favourite Marcie album too.
