Fifteen Days to Divorce novel · Chapter 18 of 24

Chapter 18: Live

The theater had never been so quiet with four thousand people in it.

Margo stood in the center of the first row with one hand raised.

"Clause fourteen of the marriage contract," she said. "No recording of a private conversation, under any circumstances."

She turned to face the audience and spoke to them kindly.

"Everything you just heard was taken without my knowledge. In California that is a crime."

"It's also a breach, and it voids the settlement."

Portia did not move her hand from the microphone.

"It's only a crime if the room was private," she said. "You said it on a public pier."

"I said it to a friend," Margo said. "Who stole it."

She lifted her chin toward the back of the theater.

"Kill the sound."

In the booth, a man in a headset pulled a slider to the bottom.

The speakers died.

The screen froze on the end of the pier.

Portia had a second to think, I've lost the room.

Then, from somewhere high at the back, there was a click.

The sound came back, louder than before.

In the booth window, a small grey head popped up in a straw hat.

Frances was holding the other button down with both hands.

"Ha!" said Frances, and her voice came over every speaker in the house.

"The other button," Portia whispered, and was surprised to find that she was laughing.

The pier recording ended, and the pool house one began, with a shaky picture of two women under a lamp.

"A cameraman at every one," said Margo's voice. "The girl did exactly what I wrote for her."

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