The Ink Black Heart, page 55
‘So, yeah, in the book I go all through the early days? The fans’ reactions to the different voice actors, who I knew…’
‘Yes,’ said Robin, ‘of course, you knew everyone! Can we back up to when you first met Josh and Edie?’
‘Well, I was, like, a massive fan from, like, really early on? And I’d never been to Highgate Cemetery? So I went to look at it one day. And then, I must have got lost or something? Because I ended up by North Grove. I didn’t even realise the building was North Grove, where they were living – I just thought the shop looked kind of interesting? And honestly, I couldn’t believe it when I, like, walked right into Josh! He was helping out on the till and his agent, Katya, was in there talking to him?’
Robin, who knew perfectly well that the shop at the front of North Grove wasn’t visible from the exterior of the building, nodded, smiled and made a note.
‘So I just sort of, like, froze?’ said Yasmin, laughing as she combed her hair with her fingers again, ‘And then I said something like “oh my God, I love you” – I meant, I loved the cartoon – I was mortified! But Josh was really sweet and chatty? And then he had to go and do something and I was left with Katya? She was lovely, I love Katya. I asked her how Josh and Edie were finding all the attention and everything? And she took my number, because I said if there was anything I could do to help, like a bit of typing or whatever, I wouldn’t even want paying? And that’s how it happened?’
‘Incredible… Now, this game,’ said Robin, pretending to consult her notes, ‘Drek’s Game – was that already online at this point?’
‘Yes,’ said Yasmin, without any sign of embarrassment. ‘It was an amazing way for fans to, like, connect? Like a big chatroom, and we were all talking about the characters and plotlines and it really kept all the enthusiasm going? It really benefited the series, you know, right from the start?’
‘And Drek’s Game’s going to be featured in your book too?’
‘Yeah, I’ve got permission from the main creator to devote a section to it and he’s given me some background? I think fans will be thrilled to hear a little bit more about the game.’
‘Would this main creator be the famous Anomie?’ asked Robin and Yasmin gave a little giggle.
‘Don’t ask me who it is.’
‘You know, then?’
‘I shouldn’t say.’
‘I’ll take that as a “yes”,’ said Robin, smiling. ‘If you’ve got permission from them to give background on the game in your book, you’re obviously in direct contact?’
‘Um…’ Yasmin giggled again. ‘It’s all, like, very Watergate?’
‘But it’s a “he”?’
‘Oh, yeah, everyone knows that,’ said Yasmin.
‘Anomie was sometimes a bit – er – well, I suppose “abusive” might be the word – online, towards Edie, wasn’t he?’
Yasmin’s smile faltered.
‘Er – well – I mean, he can be kind of blunt, but he’s kind of – I mean – I hate saying this now? But fans felt really disrespected? By Edie?’
‘In what way?’ asked Robin.
‘Well, like, when she dissed the game? Like, we’re all loving it, you know? So are you saying, like, we don’t get the cartoon or whatever? So yeah, people were really upset by that?’
‘Right,’ said Robin, nodding.
‘And after she did that, Anomie became… like, kind of a figurehead? In the fandom? He’s, like, a really clever and… he’s a cultured person? And I think the fans feel like Anomie deserved recognition from Edie for all the hard work he put in for us? And maybe some financial reward for what he’s created? Because – I mean, he’s someone who’s overcome a lot of, like, personal stuff, you know?’
For somebody who’d so recently believed that Ledwell herself had been Anomie, Robin thought, Yasmin now seemed to be surprisingly wedded to her new theory.
‘You clearly do know who Anomie is,’ Robin told Yasmin, and by keeping an expectant, mock-inquisitorial expression on her face, Robin finally persuaded Yasmin into another giggle.
‘OK, well, I just put a few little bits and pieces together and, yeah, if you sort of add it all up it’s kind of obvious? And it’s really inspirational to me that he did it, because of his personal circumstances? And just, maybe, it would’ve made all the difference to Anomie’s life, and his family’s lives, if Edie could have been a bit more supportive of the game? And let Anomie share in her good fortune, you know? Because she hadn’t paid his—’
Yasmin stopped herself with almost comical abruptness. Robin asked herself how the sentence could have ended: Salary? Invoice? Rent?
‘She’d let Anomie down in some way, had she?’ Robin asked.
Yasmin hesitated.
‘I don’t want to say anything else about Anomie, if that’s OK.’
‘Oh, of course,’ said Robin, thinking they could circle back to Edie failing to meet her financial obligations in due course.
‘I suppose things got quite corporate once the cartoon left YouTube?’
‘Yes,’ said Yasmin fervently. ‘That was, like, totally it. Corporate. And all the people who’d been there at the start were kind of… I mean, in my case, it was a bit of a relief when Edie said they didn’t need me any more? Like, I was getting really busy at Lola June? And trekking all the way up to Highgate to do their mail, I couldn’t keep doing it and they weren’t – I mean, what they were paying me barely covered the Tube fare? That wasn’t Josh, he’s kind of detached from money,’ said Yasmin, with a fond smile. ‘It was more – well, I say all this in the book? Because I think you’ve got to be completely honest if you’re going to do something like this—’
‘Oh, definitely,’ said Robin.
‘Edie changed? She got – well, quite grand and uptight? Like, she started thinking everyone wanted to take advantage of her? And I was seeing that up close, how she was getting? And she didn’t want to work with Katya any more? She was getting quite kind of snappy with Katya, even before I left? And Katya’s lovely. I really love Katya, and she had her own personal troubles too, so you’d think – but Edie changed, you know?’
‘Now, going back a bit, just to get the timeline straight,’ said Robin, ‘how long did you work for Josh and Edie?’
‘Just over a year?’ said Yasmin. ‘August 2011 to November 2012.’
‘So you must have met the whole original cast?’
‘Yeah,’ said Yasmin, beaming again. ‘Josh, Tim, Bong, Lucy, Catriona, Wally and Pez – although Pez – Preston Pierce – wasn’t in the cartoon any more by the time I started working for Josh and Edie? He never thought The Ink Black Heart would be successful. He could be quite sarky about—’
Yasmin broke off, looking nervous.
‘Please don’t put that in. I don’t want Pez angry at me.’
‘Of course not, I won’t put it in,’ Robin assured her. ‘In fact – ’
She turned off the tape recorder.
‘ – let’s go off the record.’
Yasmin looked as though she didn’t know whether to be more excited or alarmed.
‘You know it’s rumoured that Preston Pierce is Anomie?’ Robin said, watching Yasmin for her reaction.
‘Pez?’ said Yasmin with an incredulous little laugh. ‘Oh no, it definitely isn’t Pez.’
‘Anomie doesn’t sound Liverpudlian on the phone?’ asked Robin, smiling.
‘No, not at all,’ said Yasmin. Robin wondered whether Yasmin had ever heard Anomie’s voice. Her tone was uncertain.
‘Why d’you say you wouldn’t want Preston angry at you?’ she asked.
‘Oh, he’s just one of those –’ said Yasmin. ‘He’s… he’s like the kind of boy who used to bully me at school?’
Remembering how aggressive Pez had been to the girl with the blue hair at the evening class, Robin thought she knew what Yasmin meant.
‘All right to continue?’ she asked Yasmin, her finger on the record button.
‘Yes, great,’ said Yasmin, sipping her latte.
‘Well, I’m assuming your book’s going to deal with some of the Ink Black Heart controversies?’ Robin said, the tape running once again.
‘Yeah, of course,’ said Yasmin, nodding. ‘It’s important to remain critical, even of the things you love?’
‘Of course,’ said Robin.
‘So… yeah, I do cover fans’, like, disappointment in Edie? About some of the content, some of the jokes?’
‘I’ve been reading a blog called the Pen of Justice, for background,’ said Robin, watching Yasmin closely, but she showed no sign of embarrassment.
‘Yeah, I’ve read that too,’ said Yasmin. ‘It’s quite good, but I don’t agree with, like, everything. There was this one article complaining about the way the black heart’s chasing the white ghost? And I thought that was a bit of stretch, you know? Saying that was racist or whatever… Actually, would you mind not putting that in either?’ said Yasmin, suddenly anxious again. ‘I mean, I’m completely anti-racist. I was disgusted when I found out Edie based Paperwhite on a black woman.’
‘You knew about that?’ said Robin sharply.
As soon as the words had escaped her, she regretted them. The tone wasn’t Venetia Hall’s: it had been accusatory. Yasmin looked taken aback.
‘I think that was, um, pretty well known?’ she said uncertainly.
‘Sorry,’ said Robin, with an apologetic smile. ‘I think the first time that was made public was by Anomie, so I was wondering if he had told you.’
‘Oh,’ said Yasmin. ‘No, I was at North Grove one day? And I was, like, updating the website for them? And Josh asked me if I wanted to have a drink, afterwards? In their room, upstairs, because they’d just finished recording an episode?’
She blushed as she said it. The memory was clearly an important one.
‘Fun,’ said Robin, trying to recover her lighter previous tone.
‘Yeah,’ said Yasmin. ‘It was me, Josh, Edie, Seb – he used to help with the animation? – and Pez and Wally. And they were all smoking, um, like – you know, cannabis?’ said Yasmin with a slightly nervous laugh. ‘I mean, they were kind of open about doing that, so it’s not, like, any big secret. I never did it, I don’t really…’
Robin had a sudden, vivid mental picture of Yasmin perched on a hard-backed chair in a cramped, smoky bedroom, with the creators and cast members sprawled around, stoned, and the part-time assistant thrilled to be there yet uncomfortable, laughing along but listening for all she was worth.
‘And, yeah, I overheard Edie telling Seb that, like, she’d based the character on this girl she used to share a flat with, or whatever? Like, the girl had a lot of guys chasing after her, and Edie said this girl kind of, like, had this technique of treating them mean? Which, like, if you’ve seen the cartoon, Paperwhite’s always kind of nasty to Harty, who’s so in love with her? But there are sometimes these, like, tiny slivers of hope, or whatever, that keep him coming back?’
‘Right,’ said Robin, nodding. ‘That’s fascinating. Fans are going to love these kinds of insights.’
‘Yeah, but I didn’t realise, till Anomie said later, on Twitter, that the flatmate was black? So that felt like – well, like Anomie said, it felt like punching down? Like, why would you portray a friend like that? Like, depict her as a kind of – you know, a prick tease, or whatever?’
‘Although, in fairness,’ said Robin, ‘Edie didn’t make the inspiration public. Anomie did.’
‘I think Anomie just got tired of her, like, hypocrisy? She was representing herself as, like, this really woke person and behind the scenes she wasn’t really like that?’
‘Yes,’ said Robin, ‘I see what you mean. As you’ve mentioned politics – I’d imagine you cover the whole Wally Cardew/Drek business in your book?’
‘Yeah, I’ve got a whole chapter on it,’ said Yasmin, her expression becoming sombre. ‘That was just crazy? Who’d have thought the alt-right would like anything in The Ink Black Heart? We were all, like, furious when they started flooding in and, you know, appropriating the character, because everyone loved Drek, he was so funny, and then Drek became this whole, like, other thing?’
‘You knew Wally, obviously?’
‘Yeah,’ said Yasmin, now looking conflicted. ‘Obviously, that “Cookies” video he did, was – I mean, they kind of had no choice but to sack him? But a lot of fans were really upset he left? Like, if he’d just put out an apology? That caused a lot of fights in the fandom. But Michael David, who took over, was amazing.’
A rosy flush, which was very obvious given her pallor, spread over Yasmin’s face as she spoke Michael David’s name.
‘Yes,’ said Robin. ‘He left as well, though, didn’t he?’
‘Um… yeah, he got a part on Casualty,’ said Yasmin. ‘And he’s in a new play in the West End, opening next month.’
The flush was spreading blotchily down her neck.
‘But he’s always kind of stayed connected to the fandom?’ she continued. ‘He’s still part of the Inkheart community, which is just, like, so nice? I think he really loved the support he got from fans? Because when he was first cast as Drek, there was a lot of abuse, because some people still wanted Wally? And he was just so sweet and appreciative of the people who were saying we should give him a chance and everything?’
‘How lovely,’ said Robin warmly, but she was interested in this assertion. In all her hours spent poring over the Twitter accounts of Anomie and the other Ink Black Heart fans, she’d seen no sign of this engagement between Michael David and fans, nor any indication that he continued to see himself as connected to the cartoon since he’d left.
‘Yeah,’ said Yasmin, still blushing. ‘I’ve, ah, actually got to know him a little bit? Because he reached out to me to say thanks for all the support when he left the cartoon? I’ve got tickets for his play and he’s promised me an autograph afterwards?’
‘Wow,’ said Robin.
‘Actually,’ said Yasmin, looking worried again, ‘please could you not put that in, either? It’s, like, my friendship with Michael’s private?’
‘Of course,’ said Robin. ‘I won’t mention it… Now, this business of The Halvening.’
She’d expected Yasmin to look worried at that, and so she did.
‘You mean – like, that neo-Nazi group, or whatever?’
‘Exactly,’ said Robin. ‘Presumably you address the possibility they were manipulating fans? In the book?’
‘I… well, not really. I… I don’t think any of the fans would have fallen for it, if The Halvening had tried to, like, plant fake stories or whatever?’
But the blotches on Yasmin’s neck now resembled Gus Upcott’s hives. When Robin remained silent and unsmiling, merely watching Yasmin through her glasses, the latter seemed to become more nervous.
‘Yeah, and I told the police that? Like, yeah, some of the fans, after that article appeared in the paper, were like, “Oh, if you ever said a bad thing about Edie Ledwell you must be a Nazi trying to get her to kill herself,” which was, like, so ridiculous?’
‘But you’d noticed an increase in nasty rumours about Edie? You were so concerned you took a file full of them to Josh, right?’
‘I – what I took to Josh was definitely, no way put out there by The Halvening,’ said Yasmin. ‘I know that for a fact, because I – well, the people saying that stuff definitely aren’t Halvening.’
There was a short pause. Yasmin ran her hand nervously through her hair.
‘I mean, what they were saying, it could have been true? But it wasn’t. They’d just made a mistake. And anyway, one of the people saying it was black, so obviously they can’t be Halvening.’
And now a ludicrous idea came to Robin, one she’d have instantly dismissed had the woman opposite her not blushed an even deeper red.
Yasmin couldn’t, surely, believe that Michael David was anonymously playing Drek’s Game? Was she deluded enough to think a successful actor would be devoting hours of his life to proving that Edie Ledwell was Anomie, rather than getting on with what appeared to be a flourishing career on television and stage? And if Yasmin did indeed believe such a fantastic lie, who exactly had expertly groomed her into believing that she was in conversation with Michael David?
‘They’re black? You know that for a fact?’
In the pause that followed, Robin was certain Yasmin was pinned to her chair by burgeoning fear. Perhaps the doubt she’d successfully suppressed for so long had at last crawled, scorpion-like, out of her subconscious. Perhaps, too, she was starting to suspect that Venetia Hall, who asked certain questions so sharply, wasn’t what Yasmin had thought her either. Yasmin’s face had blanched to an unhealthy yellow, but with those blotches still disfiguring her neck. The longer the silence between them continued, the more terrified Yasmin looked.
‘Yes,’ said Yasmin at last, ‘I know it for fact.’
‘Oh, well, if it’s someone you’ve met face to face,’ said Robin, smiling. ‘So you don’t think The Halvening had anything to do with Edie’s death?’
‘N-no,’ stammered Yasmin. ‘I don’t.’
‘Or that Anomie did it?’
Robin threw it out because there was nothing left to lose. Yasmin might be worried by now that Venetia Hall wasn’t really a journalist, but the ash-blonde wig, contact lenses and glasses still meant she wasn’t recognisable as Robin Ellacott.
‘What d’you mean?’
‘Well, you’ve been very eloquent on the subject of how much justifiable grievance Anomie had against Edie Ledwell,’ said Robin, smiling.
‘Anomie couldn’t have done it,’ said Yasmin. ‘He couldn’t have.’
‘Well, I think that’s everything,’ said Robin, turning off the tape recorder. ‘Thanks so much for meeting me, it’s been fascinating. And best of luck with the book!’
Yasmin appeared shell-shocked. She even forgot to upspeak as they exchanged a last few empty pleasantries. Robin watched the woman walk away from the café, head bowed, and wasn’t at all surprised to see her reach for her mobile and start typing. Robin, meanwhile, took out her phone and texted Strike.
Got some interesting stuff. Where are you?
