Read The Restoration of Otto Laird for Free Online Page B

Angelo.
    â€˜Well, a straight “interview” as such is not really what she had in mind. You know what television is like these days. They’ve lost the taste for talking heads. Producers are always looking for a new angle, something to make their programmes more palatable to the contemporary public.’
    A small shiver ran up Otto’s spine. What was coming?
    â€˜She said that rather than you simply talking about Marlowe House, it might be interesting for you to do something more’ – he braced himself to say the next word – ‘ interactive. ’
    This was too much for Otto.
    â€˜If she wants me to dress up in costumes and play bloody parlour games she can forget it!’
    â€˜No, nothing like that,’ Angelo reassured him. ‘It’s quite an inventive idea, really.’
    â€˜Which is?’
    â€˜While she was looking through various clips on YouTube, Chloe found an old documentary you appeared in during the mid-1960s. Do you remember it?’
    Oh God – not that, thought Otto, but he replied: ‘It’s slipped my mind just now. You’ll have to remind me.’
    â€˜When you spent a month living in Marlowe House?’
    â€˜I seem to remember something… ’
    As if he could ever forget.
    â€˜I must admit, I’d never heard about it myself. At just the time when debate was raging about whether or not people wanted to inhabit these “streets in the sky”, they managed to persuade one of Britain’s leading young architects to live for a while in a recently built tower block he and his partners had designed. And then they filmed the result. It was a great idea, and you were pretty game to take part.’
    I didn’t feel I had a great deal of choice, thought Otto, although he managed to summon a low grunt of assent for an answer.
    â€˜Well, Chloe wondered if you might be interested in doing it all again.’
    The moment of truth had arrived. Otto paused to consider his response.
    â€˜What about my health?’
    â€˜I told her about that. She was very understanding. They wouldn’t expect you to spend a month there now. Not given your age and, well, the crime problem, frankly. Neither Marlowe House nor you are in quite the same shape you were in the mid-1960s. But she wondered if you might be able to do five days. Just walking around, reminiscing … meeting one or two of the residents. It could make for quite a nice piece. And security won’t be an issue. They’ll hire some people to look after you. What do you think?’
    Otto would have been hard pressed to express his exact thoughts at that moment. They were a curious mixture. His innate dislike of appearing on television told against the project, as did his rather unpleasant memories of making the original documentary. It was nothing to do with the residents – they had been fine with him. But he had been unhappy with the final edit of the film, which he felt had been deliberately tailored to make him appear a snob and a hypocrite.
    Counteracting these doubts, however, was his curiosity. He hadn’t even seen Marlowe House for over a quarter of a century, since the last of those summer days at the Oval. More than forty-five years had passed since he had actually stepped inside the place. On balance, therefore, and much to his own surprise, he found himself inclined to say yes.
    â€˜It’s not a bad idea,’ he said, ‘although much will depend on how it is all put together.’
    Angelo gave a small grin of satisfaction as Otto continued, ‘I agree to it in principle, although I’ll want to know a little more beforehand about how we approach this and how it will be presented to the public.’
    â€˜Of course. I’ll ask Chloe some questions and get back to you.’
    â€˜I’m not saying I wish to exercise editorial control, but at the same time I don’t want to be the victim of a stitch-up like