Tammy darted out the door and was gone before Ciara could say goodbye.

It certainly wasn’t the welcome she had hoped for but she knew now that her gig at Venom Records might not be the dream she had anticipated.

Tammy had left enough money for lunch and a tip so Ciara left and went back to her motel. She stopped on her way at the library and ended up spending the rest of the day in the microfilm room reading old news paper stories about Venom Records. By six pm she was less than excited about working for them.

Ciara went to the motel she had booked for the night. Staying in a hotel was out of the question on her own dime. A clean bed and a lock on the door was all she cared about. She was taking a gamble coming here and now it sounded like she might have to foot the whole bill for the trip and she was not about to waste a penny. She shut off the light and turned in.

When Tammy had met Jimmy outside he handed her a slip of paper and disappeared.

The paper read: Meet me tonight eight o’clock here 1117 West Rogers St. Do not let anyone follow you or the trip will be worthless.

It was now eight o’clock and Tammy was sitting across the street from 1117 West Rogers St. having coffee at an outdoor cafe. There was hardly anyone else around.

She was thinking about leaving when the front door opened and Jimmy looked around. He spotted Tammy and made one more look in each direction then motioned for her to cross the street. Then he ducked back inside.

Tammy was worried that Jimmy may have thrown a disc or was off his rocker with all this secrecy and cloak and dagger stuff but she walked across the street and walked through the door. Jimmy grabbed her by the arm and dragged her about half way down the corridor into another corridor and then down to the last door on the left. Not aggressively mind you just as if he was in a very big hurry to get there. There were now just three walls and the corridor where they were and Tammy was starting to get a bad feeling. She needn’t have though. Jimmy opened the door and they walked into a full blown professional recording studio in a building that housed document storage facilities in every other office. No neighbors to disturb and no one even knew it was there.

Tammy immediately felt relief then began to wonder why they were there.

“Rona has upped the ante on her spying. She overheard my conversation with you and reported it to Ira Roth. That was why he was at the studio all weekend. He thinks there’s a spy at Venom and he thinks it’s me and he thought I was going to show up there this weekend. Since I am burned as a contact now at least directly I took a personal day and came down here and cleaned this place up. I have three brand new rolls of tape. All the equipment has been cleaned and tuned. If no one knows you came here tonight you now have a secret recording facility at your disposal to protect your best songs from Roth.

Tammy was dumbfounded. This was not what she was expecting but she knew Richie Statler and John Haddon would be thrilled. The boys had never been in a pro studio before working at Black Wolf so that was their first taste of the big time. They would be out of the skulls over a set up like this.

“Why?” She asked not knowing what else to say.

“This is my studio and I haven’t been able to use it for a while because Roth is keeping tabs on me too. So I thought if you guys used it I wouldn’t be paying rent on it for nothing. And it helps me stick it to Roth for sicking his pit bull Rona on me.

By the way I finished the single master you asked me about two weeks ago Friday. So someone, maybe Jenkins is holding it up on purpose. I’d start bugging Roth about it so it keeps him occupied and he thinks you’re being diligent about the contract and maybe that will make him ease up a bit. Although he did just hire some girl to be PR at the label. The girl you were having lunch with at the Grill today as a matter of fact.”

“Oh I know about her,” Tammy said with a smile. “She’s an old friend and she told me about her interview with Roth after he stood her up to be spying on us.”

“Well if she’s OK, do you mind if I ask her out?” Jimmy asked a little too eagerly.

“Down boy!” Tammy laughed. “Just a minute ago you were highly suspicious of her now you want to ask her out?”

“Well you said she was OK!” Jimmy offered sheepishly.

“Yeah, Lover boy! It’s OK with me but maybe you should wait to see if she gets the job. Otherwise she might go back to California.” Tammy winked at him and Jimmy smiled.  

“One more thing. This is very generous of you but we’ll get you some money to cover costs as soon as I figure out how. Thank you so much!” Tammy said.

She shook Jimmy’s hand and he showed her the back entrance and gave her a key that opened either door in case they needed to show up without being seen. They shook hands again and Jimmy disappeared down the alley and Tammy walked down a block and then over one block back to her car. Seconds later the street was empty.

Tammy stopped at nearby pay phone and called Ciara’s motel. The desk clerk patched the call through to her room. After the fourth ring Ciara sleepily picked up the receiver and said, “Yeah what on earth do you want?”

Tammy giggled. “I’m sorry I woke you.”

“Oh no it’s fine!” Ciara said as she suddenly sprang awake. “After you left in such a hurry today I was wondering if we were still friends.”

“Oh yeah no problem there, in fact I have a proposition for you. I know it will take everything we both have and all the determination and guts we can muster but how about we start our PR firm? You forget working for Venom Records and we’ll work together.”

Ciara dropped the phone…