Search for a Star (6 page)

“Hello?”

The girl's voice sounded very young, and Ellie could hear someone else speaking in the background. Just as Ellie was about to explain what she wanted to know, the sound became muffled, as if someone had half put their hand over the receiver. Then the girl's voice became clear again. “Sorry about that. This is the Publicity Department. Can I help you?”

“I hope so,” said Ellie. “I work for
Heart
magazine, and I wondered if Charlie Daniels is going to do any book signings, or appearances…that sort of thing.”

“Oh.” There was a pause. “Well I doubt it, but it's not my place to say anything about Charlie Daniels.”

Ellie felt puzzled. “Why not?”

“Well I'm just helping out with posters and stuff. I don't usually answer the phone.”

Ellie sighed. “Well can I speak to someone who
is
able to talk about Charlie Daniels then?”

“She's in a meeting.”

“Well…” Ellie really didn't want to give up. “Can you at least get someone to send me a publicity photo?”

“Oh dear…” The girl on the other end of the phone sounded quite agitated. “There was a picture, but then they changed their minds… There aren't any here. And I don't think there will be a tour…though a tour would be so cool. I think it's a shame,” she added. “With the film and everything. They should do it…but you'll need to call back later, to speak to Jackie Turner. She's in charge of that campaign, but I'm sure you won't be able to interview the author. Maybe one day, but not yet. Okay?”

“Okay,” said Ellie slowly.

She put the phone down and frowned. What on earth had all that been about? Surely a Publicity Department should be offering to send out all sorts of stuff. But this girl had been hopeless. And what was up with Charlie Daniels that he wouldn't give interviews, refused to have any photographs taken, and didn't intend, so far as she could tell, to go on an author tour? Why on earth not? The second film would soon be released, and loads of people would want to buy signed copies of his books, and meet him, but he wouldn't do it. How bizarre.

While Ellie was pondering, Sophie appeared with the post, and dropped it on the reception desk for Debbie Wu to distribute around the office. Ellie didn't expect any post, but she gave Sophie a cheerful wave. To Ellie's surprise, the post girl didn't seem her usual cheerful self. She hardly raised any sort of a smile for Ellie, and immediately Ellie began to worry. She hoped her friends weren't still at odds over Sophie's pots. She decided to call in to see Sophie on the way back from walking Ferdinand.

“Come on, Ferdinand,” she told Angel's dog as he hesitated at the open lift. “It's quite safe, you know, and I'm not going to pick you up today. If I do, you'll make this jumper all hairy.”

In the dog section of the park, they were just in time to see the two little terriers disappearing out of the gate with their mistress.

“Never mind,” said Ellie, giving Ferdinand a pat. “And look! Here's Thompson the poodle!”

Thompson's owner was a middle-aged man. He never seemed very keen to let his large black poodle associate with Ferdinand. Maybe he thought Angel's little dog too scruffy to play with his elegant, high-stepping poodle. Ellie wondered if his attitude would change if he realized that Ferdi was actually owned by a woman who was a high flyer and at least as elegant as his poodle! But today she didn't wonder, or let the two dogs play for long. As soon as Ferdinand had run around for a while she called him back and slipped his lead onto his collar.

When they got back to the office building Ellie went down to the basement to see Sophie. She was taping up a small parcel, and Ellie was dismayed to see that her eyes were red, as if she'd been crying.

“What's the matter?” she said.

Sophie finished the parcel and pushed it to one side. “Oh, Flynn and I had a stupid argument last night, and now we're not talking and…” She looked at Ellie and sighed. “Ever since I was contacted by Mark Kettle things have gone wrong. I just wish I'd never heard of him.” She gave Ellie a wobbly smile. “Don't worry. It'll be all right in the end I expect. And there's nothing you can do,” she added as Ellie started to speak. “We'll probably make up this evening, and everything will be back to normal by tomorrow. Every relationship has its ups and downs you know.”

Ellie supposed Sophie must be right, but it made her feel sad to think that two such lovely people had fallen out. It was obvious that Sophie didn't want to talk about it any more, so Ellie gave her a hug and took Ferdinand back upstairs.

Back at her desk, Ellie googled “Charlie Daniels” again. Seeing Sophie so upset had unsettled her, and she was finding it hard to concentrate. She scrolled absently down the first page of websites that the search engine had found. At the bottom it told her that it had found 250,000 pages. She sighed. She needed to refine her search. She'd never plough through all those pages in a million years. Ellie thought for a moment and then added
author
to the search. That was a bit better…105,000 results came up this time. Even so, there were far too many. She could ignore the first fifty. She'd looked at those already. And maybe all the others would prove to be useless. But somewhere there might be a phone number, or an address. Her father's phrase, not to overlook anything sprang into her mind. The internet did hold an awful lot of random information. How could she best access it? Then a thought struck her.

Everyone searches pages on the internet from the first one and works backwards. What if I started at the back? There might be some useful things hidden on an old page that no one looks at any more.

It only took a couple of minutes to speed through to the last page of results, by skipping as many as the search engine would allow.

Damn!

The last page didn't yield any results about Charlie Daniels at all. They were all web pages where the words “Author”, “Daniels”, or “Charlie” had been picked out, but they didn't refer to the Charlie Daniels she wanted to read about. Slowly, Ellie flipped back through the results, looking for one that might actually be about him. A couple of pages back she spied one. It was an obscure blog by someone who she'd never heard of before, and it was four years old, but it had been tagged by the internet search engine as having a reference to her man, and there was always a chance that it might yield something. Ellie opened her notebook, picked up her pen and prepared to concentrate.

The blog was called
Paws for Thought
and it was by someone called Matt Budgeon. Most of the entries were about Matt's dogs, and the dogs owned by his friends.
So how does Charlie Daniels figure in all this stuff?
Ellie asked herself. The only way to find out was to read it. The latest entry was called “Names”.

It's amazing how unimaginative people can be with their dog names,
read Ellie.
If they don't choose human names (a total cop-out I think) they go for ones that are ridiculous. Why name a dog Badger, or Moth? Keep a badger, if you want a badger for goodness' sake!

Ellie found herself giggling. This Matt Budgeon person sounded very grumpy. She wondered if he was still blogging, and if so, if anyone ever read it.

The best names usually go in pairs,
she read.
Pepper and Salt, Rhubarb and Custard, Snippet and Snappit, Cut and Paste. In my opinion, if you want to keep a dog, keep two, and like my old friend, the maybe soon to be famous scribbler Charlie Daniels (wot a name, wink wink!!) give them imaginative names, not cop-out ones. Just make sure they're the same age, or one day, old Rhubarb's companion will pass on, and then you'll be left looking for a new Custard
.

Ellie caught her breath. She'd found something. Charlie Daniels kept dogs, and two of them at that. And this was a blog by one of his friends, who thought he had given them imaginative names! The blog might prove very useful, if it was still going. She could look in a moment. Quickly, she scribbled down what she'd found, feeling rather pleased with herself, although it didn't seem to be leading her anywhere yet. So now…why did one of the names she'd just read ring a faint bell in her head?

Ellie leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes. She was sure she'd heard one of those names recently. Was it on another website about Charlie Daniels? She'd looked at so many. Then Francesca disturbed her.

“Sorry?” Ellie opened her eyes and looked at Francesca standing by her desk.

“I wondered if you were going shopping during your lunch break. Or if you could get something for me when you take Ferdinand out this afternoon. I need you to go to the stationer's. I've got an urgent deadline, I'm just not going to be able to get out.”

“Oh! Umm…” It was so annoying to be interrupted. She was sure she'd never remember now. Then, suddenly, she did. “Ferdinand? Ferdinand! His friend, Snappit. That's it!”

“I'm sorry.”

“No, it's not you, Francesca. Sorry. I was just trying to remember something, but I was thinking the wrong way. It wasn't anything to do with Charlie Daniels. Snappit is Ferdinand's friend.”

Then Ellie stopped, as a sudden, huge, scary, tremendous thought swooped into her head. What if Snappit and Snippit were the blogger's dogs, or maybe even Charlie Daniels's? And what if Snippit had died…and he'd got Beastly instead? After all, the blog was four years old. And Snappit was hardly a common dog's name. And what about the dog tag she'd so admired on Snappit's collar – that little silver book. Might that be significant?

Ellie tried to stay calm, but it wasn't easy. Could Charlie Daniels be much closer than she thought? After all, she now knew he lived in this city, and owned two dogs. There were lots of places to take dogs in London, but few parks in the centre of town were quite as well set up for them and their owners as this one. He, or his dog walker had to take them
somewhere
. She remembered holding the tag in her hand, and the woman virtually snatching Snappit out of her arms. Had she really been late for an appointment, or was it that she didn't want Ellie to read the address or phone number on the tag? And why would someone not want their address known unless it was important? Was that woman Charlie Daniels's dog walker…as Ellie was Ferdinand's…or was she the blogger…or maybe even Charlie Daniels's wife?

The thought was so huge that for a moment Ellie couldn't take it in. Ideas started bouncing round inside her head like a bumblebee on a windowpane, and she fought to control them and calm down. She would take Ferdinand at his usual time, when Beastly and Snappit would be there. She could simply ask the woman if she was connected to Charlie Daniels, but somehow, if she was, Ellie had the feeling that she'd deny it, to protect him…from the possibility of journalists turning up on his doorstep perhaps. It would be better to catch one of the dogs again, so she could look on a tag. There might be a phone number… It was worth a try. Of course Francesca had told her to discuss it before she did anything. But surely she meant before she actually phoned or went to an address. Just walking in the park and chatting to other dog owners about their dogs wasn't actually
doing
anything…was it?

Ellie didn't want to confide in Francesca. She was afraid she'd laugh at her theory…and maybe even forbid her to pick up either of the little dogs again and risk angering their owner. But most owners loved talking about their dogs, and having them admired… There was the woman's rather odd attitude, the silver book tag and the name…maybe it was too much to hope that the dogs actually belonged to the elusive Charlie Daniels, but Angel had seemed to think Ellie was the sort of person others might confide in. If the woman was a friend of his, Ellie might be able to talk her way into meeting him. It might, if she was very lucky, all come right.

It was impossible for Ellie to sit calmly at her desk. Instead, she decided to go for an early lunch, and to the stationer's for Francesca at the same time. Often, she ate lunch with Sophie and sometimes Flynn as well, but she felt too awkward to do that today. Besides, it would probably be better to leave them to work out their differences. Having her hanging around was unlikely to help, so with some relief at having made that decision, Ellie took her bag and left the office.

She went to the stationer's first. Francesca kept a combined notebook and diary personal organizer, which you could add pages to. Ellie thought it was a rather old-fashioned way to keep up to date. She used the diary on her phone, but Francesca liked to write her appointments down, and Ellie had to admit the green, leather-covered organizer did look pretty cool. Francesca wanted a packet of refills for her to-do list, and it took a matter of minutes for Ellie to buy the size she wanted.

Once that was done, Ellie felt at a bit of a loose end. She didn't need any shopping herself, and she found herself being drawn in the direction of the park, even though she didn't have Ferdinand with her. She had a sandwich in her bag, and a bottle of water…she might as well eat it there as anywhere else.