‘Is he talking about retiring?’ God, I hope he is.
Róisín snorts. ‘I wish. But there’s no way he’d ever go quietly.’
‘Oh,’ I say. ‘Right.’
And as we leave the canteen a possibly crazy suspicion takes root in my mind.
Maybe someone did sabotage our scripts after all.
But maybe it wasn’t one of the writers.
I’m still thinking about Róisín’s revelation and what it might mean when I push open the door of my office.
‘I don’t suppose you brought me a coffee, did you?’ says Art hopefully.
‘No, I did not.’ Maybe I should have been noble and offered to get him an Americano, despite how hurt he inadvertently made me feel yesterday afternoon. Still, I have something else to offer him. ‘I have some news, though. It’s about Honoria Quigley.’
‘Who’s Honoria Quigley?’ says Art.
For the love of God.
‘She played Ma Cusack,’ I say.
‘Who’s Ma Cusack?’
It’s like that argument we had in college all over again. ‘Art, did you even look atNorthside’s Wikipedia page before you started working here?’
‘I didn’t look up every character!’ he protests. ‘That name is familiar, though.’
‘Yeah, I should hope so,’ I say. ‘She’s the most legendary character in Irish television history.’
‘Oh no, that’s not how I know it,’ says Art. ‘You mentioned her at the tone meeting, didn’t you?’
Of course Art is too lofty to be properly aware of a bastion of Irish pop culture. But I’m not going to argue with him about that now.
‘I did mention her.’ I explain what I’ve just learned.
‘Wow,’ says Art. ‘Well, I suppose it’s good to know we’re not the only people Bernard hates.’ He turns back to his laptop.
‘Art,’ I say. ‘Do you think …?’
I clear my throat. Now I’m about to say my thought out loud it sounds too insane.
‘Do I think what?’
Oh, bollocks, I might as well say it. ‘Do you think Bernard could have deleted those notes?’
‘Bernard?’ Art turns his chair around to face me. ‘Don’t be ridiculous. Why would he sabotage our scripts?’
‘He basically sabotagedNorthsidealready when he got rid of Ma Cusack!’ I say. ‘He has form when it comes to throwing his toys out of the pram and ditching anything that makes the show great, just to serve his own ego. And we know he doesn’t want us here.’
‘He’s the executive producer of the show, McDermott,’ says Art. ‘Messing with the two biggest episodes of the year is going pretty far.’
‘Getting rid of the most popular character ever was going pretty far,’ I say.
‘Yeah, but it’s not like he ordered her off set just before she started filming,’ says Art. ‘He didn’t renew her contract. They’d have had plenty of time to write her out. If he’s messing with our scripts at such short notice, it could really fuck up the entire show.’
He’s right. My theory isn’ttotallyimplausible but not exactly likely.