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Jace ducked his head in the door. “You have a second?”
“Anything to stop trying to figure out these numbers.”
He didn’t sit down. “Yesterday, Ash came to my room before he left to ask Sloane if she was okay with it, and Will was on the phone.”
I wasn’t sure where he was going with it, so I didn’t say anything yet.
“He’d worked with Ian before, and he had a much more positive impression of him than we do. But he said something that made me curious, so today, I’ve been digging.”
“Curious how?”
Jace’s face was grim. “He said they had an early production and couldn’t manage it the way we did. And that Ian was incredibly generous in pushing it back, despite ticket sales, marketing, whatever.”
I frowned. “I mean, that is strange, but we’re not the first company to have a change in schedule.”
“No,” he said mildly. “We’re not. That’s not the weird part. The weird part is thateverycompany Ian has joined in the last decade has had the same. A show that was trying to be pushed forward, and didn’t make it.”
My mind stuttered to a halt. “What?”
“Yeah.”
Closing my eyes, I dropped my face into my hands. “That doesn’t make any sense. Why would he do that?”
“Here.” He put his phone on the desk and hit the unmute button. “Trent, you’re on with Gabriel and I. Gabe, Trent is a physio at Letara Ballet. We worked together before I knew you.”
“Nice to meet you,” I told the man on the phone.
“Thanks.” The voice on the phone said. “Jace said you’re dealing with Ian Chambers.”
“Yes. You have thoughts?”
He laughed. “Fucking hate that guy.”
“I’d love to know why.”
“Cause he pushes dancers too hard and doesn’t care about the damage it might do. But there’s nothing anyone can say because those same dancers worship the ground he walks on.”
Jace looked at me, his expression telling me he’d already been down this thought path. “Not here,” I told Trent. “Why do they like him?”
“Because he went easy on them when they ‘couldn’t handle it.’” It was easy to hear the quotes around the words. “Ian is so understanding and willing to shift things. Seemed like I was the only one who thought he was trying to be the solution for a problem he created.”
“He created it?” The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them.
Trent sighed. “I don’t have proof. But yeah, I think so. There was no reason for the schedule change in the first place. Seemed random, but I don’t have a good feeling about it. Every time I’ve brought it up it’s been brushed off, and I can’t just go digging in the company’s records.”
My thoughts raced. “Thank you, Trent. It’s been very helpful.”
“Let me know if you need more. I’m not the only one who feels this way. There are a lot of support staff at a lot of companies who suspect the same.”
“Thanks,” Jace said. “I’ll talk to you later.”
He ended the call, and I stared at him. Things I hadn’t considered were coalescing. “Tell me you did more digging on it?”
“I did.” Jace was pleased with himself, and if he had figured this all out? He deserved to be. “You know I can be charming when I need to be.”
“You mean all the time?”
He chuckled. “I called around and asked the admin assistants what all the delays were from. I told them I was doing research on the influence of rehearsal schedules on dancers and unexpected changes. Which isn’t a lie.”
