With the press all over the company looking for new angles on the Bennett Affair, I had to hit my stride quickly, reassuring clients that everything was fine in an endless series of breakfasts, lunches, dinners and even occasional meetings without any food attached. It was good to be following in the lumbering footsteps of a man who had been as disliked by our clients as by most of his colleagues. They welcomed me like a long-lost son and no accounts were lost.
The only news of Bennett over the next few weeks came from what Natasha picked up from Sandra, occasional gossip procured by Polly through the PA grapevine, and speculation in the tabloid press which ranged from suggestions that he had fled the country to an exclusive report that he had been booked to appear in the next series of Celebrity Big Brother. All we knew for sure was that Sandra had kicked her now infamous husband out of the house when he couldn’t explain to her satisfaction why a top Hollywood actress had laid him out in front of the world’s media. This wasn’t the first of Bennett’s affairs that Sandra had got wind of, but now she had decided that enough was enough. No sooner had he slammed the door on his home for the final time than she had instructed a top divorce lawyer to take him for every penny he had. Bennett was rumoured to be staying in a plush West End hotel, still in denial about the loss of his job, wife and family and motoring through his cash faster than a horny teenager in a lap-dancing bar.
With no one to replace me in my old job, I had to work every hour under the sun, plus a few that took place after dark. I didn’t see much of Natasha and the kids, often leaving home before they were awake and returning long after they had gone to bed. Our weekends were punctuated by phone calls from all around the world and requests for urgent pieces of analysis. Natasha remained positive that this was the right thing to do – for me to put the hours in and make a good impression – but it was hard on her and the children and even harder on me. I soon realised that jobs like these were meant for people like Bennett – people who preferred working to living.
My main priority at work was putting together a new finance deal for PPP. Flushed with the success of Nothing Happened, Buddy was keen to move ahead with a slate of new films. I pulled in funds from all over Europe, exploiting government subsidies and intricate tax-offsetting schemes wherever possible to sweeten the deals for the investors. By the time I’d finished, Buddy had the capital he needed to give the green light to the impressive list of projects he’d been holding in development and Askett Brown had earned a healthy commission.