But she said, ‘There’s something else.’
‘Yes?’
‘If I do go for it, and I don’t get it – I don’t know how I’ll cope with that.’
‘Why shouldn’t you get it? You’re good enough, aren’t you?’
‘It isn’t always a matter of that. There’s style, too, and personality – getting on with people.’
‘You get on with everyone.’
‘And age.’
‘Ah,’ said Slider.
‘Music’s getting to be more and more a young person’s field. They don’t value experience and knowing the repertoire and all the rest of it. Not above youth and looks, anyway. Suppose I went for the audition, and I didn’t get it. You know how I hate to fail.’
‘You can’t let that stop you trying things.’
‘Yes, that’s the point isn’t it?’ she said, giving him another amused and rueful look. ‘Would I feel more of a failure for failing, or for not trying?’
He made a helpless gesture with his hands. ‘I can’t tell you that. How can I tell you that? You really want Atherton for these abstruse, philosophical discussions. I’m just an ordinary, common-or-garden copper.’
Another silence. She resumed: ‘I’ll tell you one thing, though.’
‘What’s that?’
‘It made you forget Melanie Hunter for a while, didn’t it?’
He looked indignant. ‘Was that what it was all about? This whole job thing was just a ruse?’
‘Wouldn’t you like to know?’ She grinned.
What was it she had said – toothache to take your mind off stomach ache? And yet . . .
While he was still thinking it out, she said, ‘Those snacks weren’t very substantial, I must say. Fancy some fish and chips? It’s not too late, is it?’
‘Never too late for fish and chips,’ he said.
Kill My Darling Page 30
