B006ITK0AW EBOK Read Online Free PDF Page A

dress.
    Morgana must have been in her sixties – at least – but she had the youthful-looking skin of a woman who moisturises every day. She wore a purple trouser suit with a long purple velvet coat over it, trimmed in mauve marabou stork feathers, and she had applied flattering make-up: pale pink lipstick, black mascara, a touch of mauve eye shadow and a dusting of pink blusher. Her short, stylish hair was the colour of rich beef gravy.
    Before Emily had to worry what to do with her, Dr. Muriel arrived. She and Morgana greeted each other like old friends, which is to say, they held hands, looked into each other’s eyes and laughed.
    Victoria came up to them. She was now wearing a blue pinafore dress and sparkly red tap shoes. She had put her hair in two long plaits, and she was still working at the strands of the left one as she walked.
    ‘Something terrible has happened,’ she said. ‘I think we should call the whole thing off.’
    ‘You always say that,’ said Morgana. ‘Things come together in the end, don’t they?’
    ‘No, it’s worse than under-rehearsed dancers and disgruntled parents. I think we might be in danger. There’s this video I made when I was a student…’
    ‘Oh, Victoria!’ said Morgana.
    ‘Not that kind of video.’
    ‘Who knows about it?’ asked Dr. Muriel.
    ‘I haven’t told anyone,’ Victoria said. ‘Not a living soul.’
    Emily checked her pulse. Yes, still alive.
    Victoria said, ‘It was a video I made with David Devereux when we were at drama school. He’s been sending me poison pen letters.’
    ‘Has he, indeed?’ said Dr. Muriel.
    ‘Bad things happen to people who watch that video.’
    ‘How interesting,’ said Dr. Muriel. ‘Have you ever heard of a self-fulfilling prophesy?’
    Morgana said, ‘Tell us what happened, Victoria, in the order it happened.’
    ‘I made the video with David. Twenty years ago a man died of a heart attack from laughing so much while he was watching it. David and I broke up even though we loved each other. The video turned up at the house a few weeks ago. David tried to enrol his daughter in the school a few weeks later. And then I started getting the letters.’
    ‘You think David’s still in love with you? He’s invented a daughter and come back to claim you, and sending those letters is his way of doing it?’ Morgana asked.
    ‘We don’t know for sure that David Devereux sent those letters,’ said Emily.
    A man whose face had been covered in silver face paint came up to Victoria. His limbs were encased in silver-sprayed cardboard, and he was wearing a small silver triangular hat. His costume was a boiler suit and a pair of Wellington boots. These had also been sprayed with silver paint. He said to Victoria, ‘Midori just phoned. She’s ill. She can’t make it.’
    ‘You see?’ wailed Victoria. ‘More bad luck!’
    ‘I don’t think it’s anything to do with the video,’ said the Tin Man. ‘She’s at home. She can’t have seen it. Tummy trouble, she said.’ And then, to Emily, ‘Hello. I’m Graham.’
    ‘Graham knows about the video?’ asked Emily.
    ‘Yes,’ said Victoria. ‘I had to tell him I’d brought it into the school. I think if you don’t tell employees about this sort of thing – potential hazards in the workplace – you can get in trouble. Health and Safety.’
    ‘I doubt the video is dangerous, Victoria,’ said Dr. Muriel. ‘Would it help dispel the myth if we were to watch it?’
    ‘The video has disappeared,’ said Victoria. ‘It’s out in the wild, so to speak, and now anyone could just pick it up and watch it, unawares.’
    ‘Anyone with a VHS video player,’ said Emily.
    ‘Precious has disappeared,’ Victoria continued. ‘Dizzy has disappeared. Mr. Barrymore is still here. I wish he would disappear – I’d make him disappear myself if I could, though not until after he has fixed my electrics. As for Dizzy, he’s what you might call a “bodger”, but he does get things done in