Kate Sorry sorry sorry sorry I’m so sorry! Greg’s flight was delayed and the nanny’s away and Izzy’s been sick all weekend. I’ve had about ten minutes of sleep

Sue It’s fine.

Kate had to wait for my mum to drive up from Surrey to take over, she got stuck in traffic

Sue Kate?

Kate and by the time I left it was pouring with rain and the tube was delayed and

god isn’t it hideous out there? This time of year is just

Sue Shall we make a start?

Kate Right! Sorry I’m just

head’s all over the place

Sue Please stop apologising.

Kate Sorry.

Sorry.

Let’s make a start. Your hair looks amazing by the way.

Sue Thank you.

Kate I love that jacket.

Sue So.

Kate Right.

Sue Elaine Dailey.

Kate Yes. Yes! Exciting!

Sue You looked her up?

Kate I did. Yes! I can’t believe I’ve never heard of her!

Sue What did you find out?

Kate I watched her entire sitcom on YouTube.

Sue About the woman herself.

Kate Yes! Sorry. Okay. So. Actually let me just get my notes.

Sue Sure.

Kate rummages in her bag. It goes on for quite a long time. Sue watches.

Kate I uh

oh you know what

I think I left them at home. Do you want to uh

Beat.

no it’s okay. I can remember most of the uh ‘Come on, Kate. Get a grip!’ Hahahaha.

Beat.

Okay okay okay. So! Elaine Dailey uh

well obviously you know she’s missing, right?

Sue You tell me.

Kate She’s been missing for like thirty years. I mean

I’m assuming

but well okay so to begin at the beginning:

Elaine Dailey grew up in the North of England and caught the acting bug as a child. When she was a teenager she was appearing in local panto when she was spotted by a talent scout and invited down south to join the RSC. At the age of nineteen she was cast as Cordelia opposite the well-known actor uh Hal

uh

Hargreaves

and they got together. Hal was in his sixties at the time. And married. Big scandal.

Sue Understatement.

Kate Hal left his wife. Elaine left the RSC under a bit of a cloud and spent many years acting in the uh sitcom I mentioned which at the time was a step down. Until she met the director Clive Arbor, who is one of Greg’s absolute heroes by the way

Sue A legend.

Kate Arbor cast her in his seminal film Crazy Dogs. They had an affair. Elaine left Hal. Not long after, Hal died, some say of a broken heart. Although by then he was approaching eighty, so

either way the press were not kind to Elaine. She had a small role in Donna Volcano another of Clive’s movies but struggled to get cast by anyone other than him until finally she landed a big part in a West End show, uh, can’t remember which one

Sue Doesn’t matter.

Kate she got rave reviews on opening night

but the next day she suddenly just

disappeared. The understudy went on in her place

oh she’s someone really famous now, what’s her name?

Anyway. I found a couple of old newspaper articles basically suggesting Elaine had an attack of stage fright. Some kind of hysteric fugue? There’s also a bit of stuff on the internet speculating she got murdered? But there doesn’t seem to be any evidence of that. There was no police investigation. She just

vanished off the face of the earth. Which I guess in those days was easier?

Beat.

Sue And?

Kate And that’s as much as I

Sue But what do you think happened to her?

Kate I uh. Dunno. I guess stage fright is the obvious explanation but then

why has she never been seen again?

Beat.

Did someone find a body or …?

Sue You think she was murdered?

Kate Was she?

Sue laughs.

No?

Sue No but I’m delighted you think so.

Kate Do we know what happened to her?

Sue She’s alive and well and living in Cornwall. This came via David Pritchett.

Kate The agent?

Sue Apparently he’s known where she was this entire time.

Kate Huh.

Sue She’s his client. Back in the day, she ran off to Cornwall and she’s been lying low there ever since. Until now. She wants to tell her story and naturally she wants us

to turn it into a movie.

Kate She wants us specifically?

Sue David’s recommended she come to us. I said to David obviously we need to hear the details first. See if it’s something we can work with.

Kate Did he give you any sense of what the story might be?

Sue He was sort of making ‘Me Too’ noises.

Kate Oh really? Me Too who?

Sue All he said was: ‘This is a story that must be told by women.’

Kate Please not Clive Arbor.

Sue God no. By all accounts Clive was an absolute sweetheart, may he rest in peace.

Kate Because just to say Greg would be devastated.

Sue I’ve got legals digging around just in case but my money’s on Hargreaves. She was a teenager. He was sixty?

Kate Ugh.

Sue Or an actor in the show perhaps? Elaine won’t breathe a word over the phone or in writing. She’s apparently deeply paranoid. But if it is Clive Arbor then obviously this could be huge.

Kate They’re both dead, right?

Sue I mean it would be fine if it was Hal but

Kate It can’t be Clive Arbor though. Can it? Have you ever heard any

Sue Never! I’ve got legals digging around just in case but

Kate Greg would be devastated.

Sue It’s got to be Hal. Surely. He was sixty, she was in her teens.

Kate Hopefully.

Sue Whatever it is. Something made her leave her entire life and vanish for thirty years.

Kate Poor Elaine Dailey.

Sue However, she is by all accounts not the easiest woman.

Kate Right.

Sue ‘Eccentric’ is the word David used. He also described her as ‘struggling to maintain connection to the real world’. Apparently she swims in the sea. Every day. No matter the weather.

Kate Yikes.

Sue So. We need our cautious hats on. Take nothing at face value. But at the same time, we need to earn her trust. Softly softly et cetera. Which is why I think you’re the perfect woman for the job. What do you think?

Kate The job?

Sue...