Free London Harmony: Doghouse by Erik Schubach

one of my cards.  “Please have her call?”
    She looked at the note and card and then at the counter in her office, and then all around like a cat chasing its tail.  “Now where have my glasses gotten off to now?”
    I placed a hand on her shoulder to stop her from looking around.  I pointed. “You're wearing them.”
    She touched her face and grinned, pushing them farther up her nose and looked at me and said with the tone of someone explaining something to a novice, “Right.  The bloody things are always wandering around.  Just like cats.  Cats wander.  It's hard to keep track of them.”
    Don't smile.  Don't smile.  Don't smile.  Fuck.  I smiled.  Get with it Liza, she's like your arch nemesis here.  She can't be amusing.  Oh, Louie's Horn, I caught myself checking her out.
    She looked over the cryptic note then tilted her head down, allowing her glasses to comically slide down to the end of her nose as she looked off to my left with a sardonic grin.  Then she nodded and pushed her glasses back in place.  “Right then, I'll be sure to get this to Fran, Eliza.”  She enunciated my name carefully, letting me know she was getting me back for using her full name.
    I smiled at her and crinkled my nose.  “Fine.  Thank you pipsqueak.”
    She shook her head as she placed the note down.  “Are all Canadians as cantankerous as you?”
    I was in mid-reply, “I'm not Can...” When I realized she was teasing. Argh!
    She put an arm out in an ushering motion and started herding me toward the door.  I muttered, “I get the hint.  Pushy little gatekeeper.  I bet there's never been a successful panty raid here.”
    She chuckled and said in an American accent, “Not on my watch.”  And she winked at her focal point off to my left.
    I tilted my head in surrender, which she graciously accepted when she made a point of pulling the glass entry door closed behind me and grinning like an imp through it.
    I squinted an eye and shook a finger at her then turned to leave.  I was oddly in a really good mood even though Amy had shut me down in my quest.
    I chuckled to myself and put in my earbuds, cuing up some classic Queen.  Some good defiant music, that could be Amy's theme music.
    Hmm... she said that Fran went to work, that was London Harmony, right?  I looked up the hours for the studio and grinned.  I could stake out the place and wait for her to come out in a couple hours, very James Bond.  Take that mighty imp!
    I grabbed some food after a short bus ride and walked past the building.  I had to make sure I was in the right place.  It was an old, three-story, brick building just off of Aldgate.  There were a bunch of shops with bright colors and garish neon signs that vied for your attention.
    But the end third of it was just a clean brick with a black wooden door on the corner under a tiny overhang.  There was a little circular blue silhouette of a building painted on the door with “London Harmony” written in bold, gold letters across it.  Then in smaller letters, below the studio name, was  “Meetings by appointment only.”
    Huh.  This I hadn't expected.  How could the most influential music label in modern times, be in this quaint little building.  I expected a shining glass and steel building that made a huge statement.  Then I blinked as I realized that this actually made a bigger statement.  They were about the music here, not about the fame or prestige.  I had to smile and reassess the location, it was actually quite genius.
    I pulled the door handle and it was locked.  I had half expected that, the way people talked about the place.  Maybe they could get a message to Francine for me and I wouldn't feel like a stalker.  It would have been handy if they had a phone number or way to contact them on their website, but they didn't.  They took exclusivity to soaring heights.
    I knocked on the door and waited.  I could hear someone talking on the other side, so I knew they could