Free Heartbreaker by Julie Morrigan Page A

will. Thanks.’ She paused. ‘Tell me a little about Paul Scott and Colin Carson.’
    ‘They’re good guys. Paul is unusual for a drummer in that he isn’t mental. He’s daft as a brush, but basically stable. I reckon that’s down to Siobhan. She’s a great woman, a bit like him in that she’s daft but not crazed.’ Johnny laughed. ‘Of course, it goes without saying that he can drink his own volume in Guinness.
    ‘When we were touring in the early days, if Dan had any trouble getting anyone to pay up, he’d shout for Paul. He’s a six-footer and being a drummer, pretty well muscled. He also has this way of looking incredibly menacing. We normally got our cash.
    ‘Colin is a wind-up merchant. Or he was, anyway, he’s not so bad now. When the band was together, he loved to get a rise out of people and he started most of the fights. Heart of gold, though, and a hell of a good musician.
    ‘The two of them were Heartbreaker’s backbone. We’d take up positions on stage, Andy in the centre, Tom to his right and me to the left, and, and Colin and Paul would just kind of lurk at the back and make it all happen. It was all very well us three showing off, but without them we’d have just looked like silly arses.’
    Johnny smiled into the middle distance, lost in his own thoughts. Then he said, ‘I hadn’t realised how much I’d missed them until we got back together to promote the album. We always kept in touch and we got together a few times a year, but I’ve seen so much more of them lately. It’s been great. Working together again has been a blast.’
     
     
     

Chapter 19
    On Thursday, Alex and Christabel got together for their chat. Johnny was busy in his studio, sorting out some stuff he wanted ready for the weekend, which he planned to spend with Colin Carson. Christabel set the table for lunch, putting out just two place settings. ‘Johnny won’t come out until he’s finished,’ she said, in answer to Alex’s enquiring look. ‘Normal hours don’t exist when he’s busy with his music. He often used to work all night and sleep all day when he was in the band, he reckoned it felt more normal.’
    ‘How come you always call him “Johnny”?’ asked Alex, helping herself to salad from the bowl on the table.
    ‘I just copied everyone else. Then, of course, Mum married again when I was eight, and she wanted me to call her new husband “Dad”. I didn’t like it, but Johnny didn’t mind.’ She glanced at Alex. ‘I asked him, just to be sure, and it made life with Mum easier. I’m on my third “Dad” now, but I still have Johnny. He means the world to me.’
    ‘What do you remember about the time you lived with him?’ asked Alex, drizzling dressing on her salad.
    ‘Well, I was just five when Mum took Becky and me away from here, but I remember a bit. Johnny seemed to be always either touring or in the studio. He worked really hard.’ She paused, remembering her childhood. ‘He was a great dad. He always made time to be with me. We’d do stuff I wanted to do, he’d read me stories almost every night when he was home, he was just so patient. He taught me to swim, because he was worried in case I fell into the river and drowned. We’d get up early sometimes and swim before anyone else was about, then he’d make pancakes for breakfast. God, I loved those times with him, when I had him all to myself. He was the same with Becky, too, but she can’t remember.
    ‘There was one time,’ she continued, ‘I think it was my fourth birthday, he built a castle in the garden.’ Alex looked surprised. Christabel laughed. ‘Just a kid-sized one, but it was great. I had a thing about being a princess at the time and he threw me a fairy tale birthday party. Johnny, Uncle Ian, and some guys from the village built a wooden frame and then it was all dressed up like a castle. You should ask Gerry about it, he helped. In fact, I think Killer’s got some photographs, he was in on it, too. It was out