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RUMOUR
HAS A MEMORY: Synopsis
Elizabeth
Anderson and Hollis Danby are feature journalists for the national
magazine Off The Wall. During a world tour of the supergroup
JAGGED EDGE, Elizabeth and Hollis interview lead singer Kevin
Richardson. Richardson, a British star for twenty-five years,
is the long-time friend/collaborator of fellow Brit star David
Blakely. Unknown to Richardson, Elizabeth and David were lovers
fifteen years before. This is inadvertently revealed during
a party following a JAGGED EDGE concert. Richardson is so intrigued
by this information he decides to telephone Blakely and twit
him about letting his former lover get away.
Blakely, however, denies any knowledge of Elizabeth. Richardson
is undecided whether Blakely or Elizabeth is lying -- he is
inclined to believe it is Blakely -- Richardson knows him well.
Richardson decides it would be a fun idea to bring Blakely and
Elizabeth together and see what happens. Elizabeth and Hollis
become involved in doing a series of articles about avant-garde
art shows and galleries. When Richardson discovers that Blakely,
who is also a painter, has donated several of his paintings
to a gallery in New York which is hosting a benefit, he sends
some information about the show to Hollis, who takes the idea
to her editor.
Hollis and Elizabeth go to New York to cover the showing where
Blakely's paintings are being auctioned. The meeting between
Blakely and Elizabeth is far from cordial, but it sets off a
series of nightmares for Blakely in which he is haunted by the
past he cannot remember. He decides that Elizabeth is somehow
the key to this past, and attempts to get her to help him --
she refuses.
Blakely, a man in his mid-forties, was a heavy drug user in
his twenties and early thirties. There are several years during
this period about which his memory is almost entirely nonexistent,
and he has relied on the people who work for him to supply the
details. They don't know everything about him, however -- during
one of his frequent trips alone he encountered Elizabeth in
San Francisco and spent several months with her while writing
songs for a new album. One night after a jam session with some
other musicians, Blakely saw his roadie disposing of the body
of a young girl. He had been smoking cigarettes laced with Angel
Dust and believed what he saw was an hallucination, with the
help of suggestions from the roadie. Unfortunately, he also
forgot about Elizabeth. Taking a plane home to London, he forgot
her existence except for a nagging unhappiness, a feeling that
something was missing from his life, and an inability to find
a woman to replace her.
There are several press photographs of them together that he
has never seen, taken by photographers in San Francisco. By
the time Blakely was in San Francisco again (five years later)
his memory could not be reclaimed except in dream snatches from
his nightmares. Although he has been drug-free for fifteen years,
the memory impairment seems permanent.
Three months later, Hollis and Elizabeth go to London to continue
the gallery series. Blakely, now at home in St. John's Wood,
arranges to have a showing at a gallery in London, hoping to
contact Elizabeth again.
Michael Callahan, Hollis and Elizabeth's London editor, meets
them in London and accompanies them to galleries and etc. The
first meeting between Blakely and Elizabeth in London is at
the premiere of a film. Elizabeth and Hollis are taken to the
premiere by Michael; Blakely is accompanied by his new lover,
a supermodel named Echo. This is not a good reunion for either
party.
Before Blakely's showing at The Whitechapel Gallery, his former
roadie, Digby Parsons, is found murdered in Chicago, clutching
a piece of a magazine article written by Hollis and Elizabeth
and showing a photo of Blakely's painting of him.
Hollis, Elizabeth and Michael go to Blakely's showing, where
they see Kevin Richardson again.
Michael and Hollis are thrown into one another's company quite
a bit, since he is their London editor. Hollis has been attracted
to Michael since she first met him, but was somewhat intimidated
by him, and has been stand-offish as a result. Michael begins
to realize how many good qualities Hollis has, how much he enjoys
being with her, and that he likes her.
Blakely goes to see Elizabeth, to ask her for help in getting
his memory back. She refuses and they fight, which ends up in
their spending the night together. Hollis and Michael also spend
the night together, and in the morning Elizabeth is so distressed
to discover Blakely in her bed that she pushes him onto the
floor. He goes to see Charles Byrne, his old friend and agent
of many years, and demands to know why Elizabeth was kept from
finding him fifteen years before. Charles is somewhat confused
by David's demand for knowledge which he only vaguely remembers
himself, but he does recall that John Anderson, the assistant
to a California rock promoter, was involved.
Blakely is starting to remember a party at Benny Garland's estate
-- Garland is the rock promoter for whom John Anderson works.
He also remembers the body of a girl in the water, but his memories
are still too vague to be of much use. Charles Byrne has a party
for Beltane Eve, which is a costume ball. All the guests are
to come as characters from Shakespeare. Hollis, Elizabeth and
Michael are invited, as are Blakely and Echo.
Blakely buys Elizabeth a very expensive diamond pendant, and
a ruby collar for Echo, and has them delivered. Echo, thinking
this is a parting gift, keeps her necklace. Elizabeth sends
her's as a donation to a London charity and has the thank you
card sent to Blakely. He is so incensed by this that he goes
and redeems the necklace (thereby paying for it twice) from
the charity.
Blakely and Echo go to the party as Oberon and Titania. Elizabeth
goes as Puck, and Blakely puts the necklace on her during the
party. There are six men dressed as Othello who also attend
the party. Charles Byrne is murdered and his body left in the
pantry, where it is discovered by his secretary, Marge, and
his houseman, Frank. The following morning Echo is arrested
for the murder, and Blakely pays her bail. Marge, however, insists
it was John Anderson who committed the murder. When Blakely
and Elizabeth discover that Echo also saw John Anderson the
previous night at a gay nightclub, Heaven, they go to tell the
police.
The police inspector at Scotland Yard, Kathleen Doherty, is
disinclined to believe them, and thinks they are simply trying
to protect Echo. When she is exonerated through blood and skin
testing, Doherty reluctantly realizes Blakely could be right.
Hollis and Elizabeth are due to return to California at the
end of August, and have only two weeks left in London. Since
they both will have time off from the magazine after this, Blakely
arranges for them to go to the South of France, where he has
rented a villa for them. He wants to go see a doctor in London
who specializes in hypnosis -- Echo believes this doctor can
help him fully regain his memory.
Due to a fight between Elizabeth and David, nobody goes to the
South of France. Hollis and Michael go to a castle in Scotland,
where there is an attempt to kidnap Hollis; the kidnappers believing
she is Blakeley's girlfriend. Someone has hired them to warn
him off the murder investigation. Michael foils the kidnap attempt,
and they return to London. Elizabeth has gone off with Echo,
and no one knows where either of them are. When they return,
Elizabeth and David make up their quarrel, and the following
evening he takes everyone out on the town.
During this evening Kathleen Doherty is reunited with her former
lover, Jeremy Bartlett, owner of Chastity Records. Kathleen
is called away to John Anderson's townhouse on the Isle of Dogs,
and Jeremy accompanies her. They discover a collection of video-tapes,
one of which seems to implicate David in the original murder.
David goes to see the hypnotherapist, and is able to remember
that John Anderson and Digby Parsons were involved in the murder
of a girl fifteen years before. Skippy Nelson, Echo's escort
at Heaven the night of her arrest, is found murdered. David
finds the body when he goes to talk to Skippy about that night.
Next, Charles Byrnes' lawyer (and lover), Lawrence Corbey, is
found murdered after he meets with an old friend (unidentified)
and arranges to have lunch with Hollis. He never shows up for
the lunch, because he is dead. Hollis and Elizabeth have come
up with an idea to start a magazine, which they hope David will
finance. David is delighted, since this means Elizabeth will
not return to California, but Michael is put out because he
doesn't understand what his role in the venture will be. He
sulks, and fights with Hollis, who returns to California before
she is scheduled to do so. She decides to investigate John Anderson
on her own, and arranges to interview him.
Michael forestalls her by luring Anderson to London. David discovers
the identity of the man in the video -- the one Kathleen thought
was him, the one who could have been the murderer. He is Jason
Miles, a Labor member of the House of Commons. They search his
country estate, and find a cache of video tapes similar to those
in John Anderson's townhouse. Miles winds up going to Blakely
for help in trapping the real murderer -- John Anderson. Blakely
comes up with an idea for a costume party, and they lay their
plans to trap Anderson.
Anderson does show up at the party, costumed as the Emperor
Ming (as are Blakely and Jason Miles), intending to kill Miles
and possibly Blakely. Instead, they manage to corner him and
David breaks his jaw. He is restrained before he can throw him
down the stairs, and Anderson is arrested.
Now plans for the magazine go forward. Everyone is given a title
-- Michael as Editor-in-Chief, Elizabeth as Euro Editor and
Hollis as U.S. Editor. Several more people are hired and work
begins on the magazine, now titled Rumour. Blakely leaves for
a world tour and life will hopefully settle into a non-murder
routine.
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To
read a sample chapter of this novel go to: RUMOUR
HAS A MEMORY
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