“She’d had an issue with prescription drugs for some time, apparently. There was an accident on one of the sets years before that had left her with chronic back pain. When the pills stopped properly working she began self-medicating with alcohol and as you’d expect, it was all downhill from there.” Brenda sighed as if recalling the waste of life. “I blame that manager of hers, Bruce somebody or other. He pushed her too hard, like she was his own personal cash cow.” Brenda took a drink of her coffee. “And the press. Once it became obvious that she needed help, that what she was doing affected her work, they seemed to turn on her. She couldn’t leave the house without someone shoving a camera in her face. It was as if they wanted her to snap.”
Flick indicated to the photo on the phone. “Looks like they finally got what they wanted.”
“The overdose was accidental, by all accounts, but I get what you mean. Bloody vultures. Even now there are those intent on putting her death down to something more sinister. I often wonder if the poor woman will ever be able to rest in peace.”
“When did all this happen?”
“Coming up ten years ago. That’s probably why that paper published those pictures of the two of you. A bit of anniversary melodrama.”
Flick fell silent, as she tried to digest what she’d just heard. If she struggled to get her head around it all, how must Nate feel? She felt sad for him. This was his mum, no wonder he was angry.
“It looked like Nate was following in her footsteps for a while.”
“Nate was an actor too?”
Brenda half laughed. “Sadly, no. But like his mum he became a bit of a drinker. Her death sent him off the rails, I suppose. He was always out partying and getting himself into trouble for one thing or another. And for quite a few years. Of course, the paparazzi loved his antics, reporting every sordid detail. They did to him what they did to his mother, I suppose. And the ‘kiss and tells’ that came out about him. In my view, some women should be ashamed of themselves.”
“Really.” Flick couldn’t imagine the Nate she knew falling out of nightclubs after getting up to goodness knew what.
“Then one day he just vanished. He grew up I suppose. Came out to France and got his act together.”
“I still don’t understand why he came around here shouting the odds though. Anyone of those people at the shoot could have taken those pictures. And because of the industry they’re in, they’d have known exactly where to flog them.”
“More coffee?” Her mum grabbed both mugs as she jumped out of her seat.
Determined to get to the bottom of it, Flick thought about everything Nate had said. He’d talked about them scamming him, selling photos, and...Oh Lordy.Closing her eyes, she dropped her arms and head down on the table as realisation dawned. “You blackmailed him, didn’t you?”
“Yes. No.”
The woman clearly couldn’t make her mind up.
“Maybe.”
Flick forced herself to sit up straight. “Which is it?”
Brenda plonked two freshly poured drinks down on the table. “I asked him for some assistance,” she said, sitting back down.
Flick cringed. “What kind of assistance?”
As if recognising the game was up, her mum seemed to crumple in front of her eyes.
“I knew you were torn about being here, that a part of you wanted to stay but didn’t have a clue what to do with this place. I mean, what do you do with a blooming, great big chateau that needs loads of work? And somewhere along the line you said that if you had a proper choice you’d at least try to start a new life here, which is all I ever wanted you to do. There was nothing left for you back in the UK thanks to that husband of yours. Then the idea of an art school came up, and suddenly you had something wonderful to focus on. But like you said, neither of us had the cash for something like that…”
Flick put up her hand to interrupt. “Please tell me you didn’t ask Nate for money,” she said, her insides filling with both dread and humiliation at the mere prospect.
“Of course not.”
Flick supposed that was something. “Then what did you ask for?”
“I simply asked Nate if he could help.”
As far as Flick was concerned, there was nothingsimpleabout any of this. “You asked him for help? That’s it? Nothing else.”
“Yes. One neighbour to another.”
Flick almost laughed. “Then why did he just accuse us of blackmail?”
Her mother came over all sheepish, twisting her wedding ring around her finger like she always did when she was uncomfortable, first one way and then the other.
