The Ghost Read Online Free PDF Page B

Cheerio,” he said, just before he hung up, and there was that little smile in his voice again. Cheerio .
    I went into the bathroom and opened my shirt. A livid red horizontal mark was branded into my flesh, just above my stomach and below my rib cage. I stood in front of the mirror for a better look. It was three inches long and half an inch wide, and curiously sharp edged. That wasn’t caused by flesh and bone, I thought. I’d say that was a knuckle-duster. That looked professional . I started to feel strange again and went back to the sofa.
    When the phone rang, it was Rick, to tell me the deal was done. “What’s up?” he said, interrupting himself. “You don’t sound right.”
    “I just got mugged.”
    “No!”
    Once more I described what had happened. Rick made appropriately sympathetic noises, but the moment he learned I was well enough to work, the anxiety left his voice. As soon as he could, he brought the conversation round to what really interested him.
    “So you’re still fine to fly to the States on Sunday?”
    “Of course. I’m just a bit shocked, that’s all.”
    “Okay, well, here’s another shock for you. For one month’s work, on a manuscript that’s supposedly already written, Rhinehart Inc. are willing to pay you two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, plus expenses.”
    “What?”
    If I hadn’t already been sitting on the sofa I would have fallen onto it. They say every man has his price. A quarter of a million dollars for four weeks’ work was roughly ten times mine.
    “That’s fifty thousand dollars paid weekly for the next four weeks,” said Rick, “plus a bonus of fifty if you get the job done on time. They’ll take care of airfares and accommodation. And you’ll get a collaborator credit.”
    “On the title page?”
    “Do me a favor! In the acknowledgments. But it’ll still be noticed in the trade press. I’ll see to that. Although for now your involvement is strictly confidential. They were very firm about that.” I could hear him chuckling down the phone and imagined him tilting back in his chair. “Oh, yes, a whole new wide world is opening up for you, my boy!”
    He was right there.

THREE
    If you are painfully shy or find it hard to get others into a relaxed and confident state, then ghosting might not be for you.
    Ghostwriting
    AMERICAN AIRLINES FLIGHT 109 was due to leave Heathrow for Boston at ten-thirty on Sunday morning. Rhinehart biked round a one-way business-class ticket on Saturday afternoon, along with a contract and the privacy agreement. I had to sign both while the messenger waited. I trusted Rick to have got the contract straight and didn’t even bother to read it; the nondisclosure undertaking I scanned quickly in the hall. It’s almost funny in retrospect: “I shall treat all confidential information as being strictly private and confidential, and shall take all steps necessary to prevent it from being disclosed or made public to any third party or relevant person…I shall not use or disclose or permit the disclosure by any person of the confidential information for the benefit of any third party…Neither I nor the relevant persons shall by any means copy or part with possession of the whole or any part of the confidential information without prior permission of the Owner…” I signed without a qualm.
    I’ve always liked to be able to disappear quickly. It used to take me about five minutes to put my London life into cold storage. All my bills were paid by direct debit. There were no deliveries to cancel—no milk, no papers. My cleaner, whom I hardly ever saw in any case, would look in twice a week and retrieve all the mail from downstairs. I had cleared my desk of work. I had no appointments. My neighbors I had never spoken to. Kate had likely gone for good. Most of my friends had long since entered the kingdom of family life, from whose distant shores, in my experience, no traveler e’er returned. My parents were dead. I had no