Page 44 of Summer at Harbour View House
‘You want me to what?’
Hannah grinned. ‘We’re inviting you over to ours to play a couple of board games. That’s all.’
‘Why?’
‘Hannah, I told you this was a bad idea—’
‘Are you going to secretly film me for some documentary?’
‘Er, we weren’t planning to—’
‘Are you expecting to relieve me of a bunch of my royalties?’
‘We’ll be playing for toy money. None of us have any real money left. You see, both of our flats burned down a couple of weeks ago.’
‘It was technically smoke damage,’ Natasha pointed out.
‘That’s too bad. Do you like peanuts?’
Hannah gave a little hop. ‘Excuse me?’
‘Peanuts,’ Eddie said again, rolling his eyes. ‘And chocolate dip? I have nuts and dip. I’ll be there in five minutes, once I put some shoes on.’
‘So we’re there on tour with Mötley Crüe, Cinderella and Beauty vs Beast—somewhere in the American Midwest; I doubt I could find it on the map now—and Trent—he’s the lead singer of Beauty vs Beast—okay, was, he died in a horse riding accident about fifteen years ago—well, he says to me and Jim—that was our second lead guitarist after Billy ran off to that Alaskan cult—he says, “look, I met these guys with a camper van on the last tour”—that was when they were opening up for Quiet Riot after they blew up in ‘eighty-four—“and they said, we’ve got this mate up in Montana”—we were due to play a show up there the following week—“who’s got this ranch, and they swear—theyswear—that they spotted a Wendigo up on their lands”—’
‘What’s a Wendigo?’ Hannah asked, eyes as wide as saucers, the dice held idle in her palm.
‘It’s this mythical creature out of Canadian folklore. Well, this guy, he says to us, “these guys, they want us to go up there, up where they spotted this thing, and—’ Eddie leaned close over the Monopoly board. Hannah’s free hand gripped Natasha’s knee so hard Natasha had to stick her fingers under Hannah’s just to relieve the pressure.
‘And what?’ Hannah asked.
‘And they asked us to film a music video.’
‘No.’
‘Yes.’
‘And did you?’ Natasha asked.
Eddie leaned back. ‘No. We got bus tickets from some guy but the management called an urgent meeting to discuss t-shirt designs for the next album’s merch, so we never ended up going. I always planned to go back out there, but the next album blew up in South America so we ended up going out there instead. And then of course, I got burned out, broke up the band, and the rest is history.’
‘Do you think they really had one?’ Hannah asked. ‘A Wendigo, I mean.’
Eddie shrugged. ‘Who knows?’
‘Are all these stories true?’ Natasha asked.
Eddie shrugged. ‘As well as I can remember. A few details are bit foggy, you know. We lived pretty hard back in our heyday. I did write a song about it, though. It was meant to go on my solo album, but I was away too long. I brought the songs to the record company when I was ready to come back in ‘eighty-nine, but by then Guns N Roses had happened, and Cowslip’s music was too … twee. They didn’t want to know, so it got shelved.’
Hannah leaned forward. ‘You have an unreleased solo album? Oh my God. My dad would literally climb through a room full of bees’ nests to get his hands on that.’
Eddie grunted. ‘It’s probably not that good. But yeah, if you can promise me that you’ll never, ever, let any part of it get shared online, then I’ll see if I can dig out some of the old recordings. It’s your move, by the way. And you still owe me fifteen hundred for rent on Oxford Street.’
‘You know,’ Natasha said, aware that she was slurring a little, having consumed most of the bottle of wine they had opened once they were convinced Eddie wasn’t going to murder them, ‘You’re not nearly as bad a guy as we thought.’
Eddie frowned. ‘Oh, if two more complete strangers show up on my doorstep tomorrow either trying to get into my house or take pictures of me in my garden, I’ll be just as mean to them. I don’t like people getting in my private space, you see. I spent the ten best years of my life waking up to photographers hiding in my garden, hanging from harnesses outside my hotel windows, having my phone tapped, my family harassed. Since I retired, I’ve fully embraced the get-off-my-land mentality.’ He leaned forward. ‘However, I do apologise if I was a little … rude. And I’ll attempt to keep the music down, or at least wait until I know you’re both out. Hannah, are you going to roll that dice or what?’
Somewhat to the contrary of every big name musician that Natasha could think of, Eddie turned out to be a shrewd businessman, and thoroughly thumped both of them at Monopoly. He didn’t prove to be nearly as good at Cluedo, which Hannah won after picking a weapon at random, much to the annoyance of the others, while they declared a game of Sherlock Holmes: Baker Street to be a draw, because none of them had a clue who was responsible for the murder, and Eddie’s stories were more interesting anyway.
