"Actually," he said, "I'm not surprised at all. I knew you were there."
"Oh really," she said. "And how could that be?"
"A little birdie," he said, laughing—then stopping abruptly. "Listen, Georgiana, I'm calling because I've been hearing rumors about your private life, and I thought I better call and discuss them with you myself."
"What could you possibly mean?" she said in her coldest voice.
"Do you know a Madeline Pratt?" he asked.
She had been right. It was Madeline. He had found Madeline.
"She worked on one of my films," Georgiana said. "Why?"
"Word has it she's preparing to 'out' you in the press. That's what they call it, isn't it, Georgiana? When you expose homosexuals?"
"Yes, I believe so, Creighton."
"They say this woman can prove that you're gay."
"Who is 'they'?"
"The tabloids are looking for a deal," he continued, ignoring her question. "If I throw them something else, they'll kill the story. The question is, why should I bother?"
"I think this is called blackmail, Creighton."
"I think the situation is called hopeless, Georgiana."
She was silent.
"This Madeline isn't a very appealing character to be associated with, Georgiana. She looks like a drug addict."
"I'll put a good word in with her for you, Creighton, if you want," Georgiana said.
It was his turn to be quiet.
"Out with it, Creighton, what do you want from me?"
"I want you to stop this assault on me and ICA," he said.
"I can't and I won't," she told him.
"Then it's your funeral, dyke," he said, hanging up.
Patty glanced up from the invitations she was addressing for an ICA cocktail reception, and was startled by the sight of the personnel director getting off the elevator with a woman and a police officer.
"Miss Jamison," the personnel director said, coming in through the glass doors. "This woman will be replacing you at the desk. Would you come with us, please?"
"Where to?" Patty said, her heart thundering in her chest.
"Just bring your things and come with us, please," she said.
No one would meet her eye and so, trying to control her trembling hands, she picked up her things and followed them out through the glass doors to the elevators. The personnel director pressed the button for the elevator, and the police officer turned to Patty. "Mrs. Kleczak," he said, "I'm afraid you're under arrest for criminal trespass."
Patty could only stare at him.
"You have the right to remain silent," he began, reading Patty her rights.
"As per your instructions, Mr. Hillings," the manager of the Sherry-Netherland Hotel said, "Mr. Lafayette and two gentlemen and a lady are waiting upstairs in your suite."
"We need an additional room," Henry said, "a single, please, for my wife's nurse."
"'My wife's nurse,' honestly!" Dorothy huffed. Over Henry's shoulder she added to the manager, "Sir, you would be doing me the greatest service if you would ignore his wildly exaggerated phraseology and simply give Bernadette a room."
On the way up in the elevator, Dorothy looked at her watch. "Four-thirty," she said. "Shall we call the apartment and tell them we're here?"
"Let's wait until after we hear what they have to say upstairs, Doe."
"I suppose you're right," she said.
"Who?" Bernadette asked them.
"Some people we're seeing," Dorothy told her.
"What people? Now, Mrs. Hillings," she said, looking serious, "I don't think it's advisable that you entertain after this highly stressful day."
Dorothy smiled. "I won't be, dear, Henry will. I'll be having a lie-down in the next room."
After a moment, Bernadette said, sounding dubious about this enterprise, "What kind of people?"
But neither Henry nor Dorothy answered. When they reached their floor, they merely directed the bellman to see Bernadette to her room while they went on to their suite. Henry inserted the magnetic key and pulled it out; the green light went on and he opened the door. Dorothy walked in ahead of him.
"Doe," the tall and darkly tanned man said, standing up and walking toward her.
"Well if it isn't the man from Bora Bora," she said, receiving his embrace.
"Hill," he said to Henry over her shoulder.
"Ben, how are you?" Henry said, smiling.
The royal family of agents then joined the others in the suite and the meeting began.
50
"We found it, we found it!" Elizabeth cried, putting one of the file boxes down in the Hillingses' study with a thump. It was filthy and so was she, but she couldn't have cared less.
"The Hillingses are coming back to the city today," Georgiana said, stepping from behind the desk.
"Fabulous! Monty, did you hear that?" Elizabeth asked, as he came in the door, carrying two file boxes.
"Yeah, that's great," he said, heaving the boxes onto a large cherry wood table and wiping his brow. He, too, was a mess.
"They're going to stay at a hotel, though," Georgiana added, sounding a bit distracted, "so Dorothy can have quiet. I must say, I feel bad about being in their room."
"David's downstairs receiving the script for Race in Space right now on the limo fax machine!" Elizabeth told her, excited. And then she stopped, noticing Georgiana's expression. "What's the matter?"
"Well," Georgiana began, "we have a couple of problems."
David came bouncing through the front door of the apartment yelling, "I've got it!"
"In the study!" Elizabeth called.
"Look, here it is!" David said, dashing in with the fax copy of the script.
"Give it to me," Monty said, reaching for the stack.
"Easy, boy, easy," David said, pulling back.
"Sorry," Monty muttered, withdrawing his hand.
"Here," David said, handing the first half of the script to him.
"Your office has left about a hundred messages for you, David," Georgiana told him.
"I'll call them in a minute," he said, thumbing through the second half of the script.
"Georgiana," Elizabeth said, "you said we had problems before—what problems?"
"Well, for a start," Georgiana said, "Patty's been arrested."
"What?" they all said.
"Somehow ICA found out who she was and they brought a cop in to arrest her for criminal trespass."
"How the hell did they know she was there?" Monty said, looking directly at David.
"No one knows," Georgiana reported. "But it's clear that someone tipped them off."
"Where is she now?" Elizabeth asked.
"Someone from Josh's office is bailing her out over at the Midtown North station house," Georgiana said. "And I'm afraid her husband's on his way in, and well, he's a bit crazed, to say the least. In the meantime, no one seems to know where Josh has disappeared to."
Monty was still looking at David. "How do you think ICA found out who Patty was?"
"How should I know?" he said, sitting down on the floor and starting to pull files out of one of the boxes.
"You," Monty said, pointing to Elizabeth, "with me—come—we need to talk." He walked out of the study and down the hall to the kitchen. He was just opening a new box of cookies when Elizabeth appeared. He slammed the cookie box on the counter. "It's all a coincidence, right? Is that what you're going to tell me?"
Before she could answer, Georgiana appeared in the doorway. "Excuse me, but there's something else you should know."
Monty and Elizabeth looked at her.
"Somehow Creighton knew I was here. And I don't mind telling you, having him call me here was rather unnerving. And I would appreciate knowing how he found out."
Monty glanced at Elizabeth. "My oh my, Professor, how these coincidences seem to multiply whenever you-know-who is around."
"That's ridiculous, Monty!" Elizabeth snapped.
"Creighton's tryin
g to blackmail me," Georgiana added. "If I don't stop this—what did he call it? this assault on him and ICA immediately—there's going to be a not very nice story about my private life released to the press."
"What kind of story?" Monty said.
"I'd rather not discuss it," Georgiana said simply. She looked at Elizabeth.
"What did you say to him?" Elizabeth asked her.
"I told him no.”
"And he said...?" "It was my funeral."
They were silent. Monty reached for the box of cookies and ate one.
Elizabeth was leaning back against the counter shaking her head and looking down at the floor. After a moment, she looked up. "I think what we have to do is get you on the phone with him, Georgiana. You tell him you are trying your best, and that at the very least, you're willing to get on a plane tonight and come back to L.A. to try and help him present his side of the situation to the press."
Both Georgiana and Monty stared at her.
"I'm absolutely serious," Elizabeth said. "You have to stall him."
"What the heck does he have on you?" Monty asked Georgiana, amazed.
"No way, Elizabeth," Georgiana said, shaking her head. "My God, do you think I want to live under the thumb of a guttersnipe like that? No way, I'm seeing this through."
"But Georgiana—" Elizabeth started.
"How dare he try to make me ashamed of who I am!" Georgiana cried, angry. "How dare he imply that something is wrong with me! No way, Elizabeth, I've had it with people like him. And if he wants to come after me, let him come after me. If worse comes to worse, I'll go back to Scotland and be a spokesperson for argyle socks and sweaters or something, I don't care—so long as I see this bloody blackguard hang from the highest tree!"
"Oh, David, finally!" his secretary cried when he called in. "All hell's breaking loose around here and I don't know what to say to the people who are calling."
"Why? What's going on?"
"The bank says the Calsos are pulling their financing from the film. So the bank says if they don't have a complete explanation within twenty-four hours, they're pulling their financing, too."
"What?" David said, feeling his stomach sink. The Calsos were the Italian group who had bankrolled his last two movies—and with significant financial success. "Explanation for what? I mean, what did the Calsos tell them?"
"That both stars are backing out of the picture," she said.
"That what?"
"And everybody in town seems to know about it," she continued, near tears. "And everybody's wigging out, calling here and screaming at me, saying that you've been run out of town!"
Stunned, David listened as his secretary continued her description of how his movie was unraveling. When she finished, he called Metropolis Pictures. Yes, he was told, at noon his film had officially gone into turnaround.
"You think Georgiana made it up?" Monty said in a harsh whisper to Elizabeth in the kitchen. "That Berns not only knew she was in New York, but that she was here, in this apartment, today? And who else could or would have tipped off ICA about Patty? You know it was him, Elizabeth! Who else could it have been? And he's probably taking us on the wildest goose chase imaginable with this cockamamie movie. He's probably rigged the whole thing with Berns to pull us off track."
"Oh, Monty, shut up!" Elizabeth whispered back. "You have no right to say these things!"
"Who then? How? Tell me that! Every time the guy is told something, the next day somebody around here gets it in the neck. My TV show, your BBC contract, Patty, Georgiana..."
"It could be anyone," Elizabeth said.
"Like who?" he demanded.
"Jordan or Louise," she said.
"No way, nobody's even talked to them for days," he said.
"It could be your chauffeur, for God's sake; you've got the biggest mouth in America. Or someone in Josh's office."
"Or someone in David's—" Monty started.
"It is not David, I'd bet my life on it!"
"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Bets," David said from the doorway.
"See? Now he's eavesdropping!" Monty said, as if they suddenly had all the evidence they needed to send David to prison.
"Monty, it's not me. I swear it," David said, coming into the kitchen.
"Who then?" Monty wanted to know.
"I don't know," David said, "but it's not me."
"Maybe it's somebody close to you on the Left Coast," Monty said. "Maybe it's that Miss Susie Q."
"Who?" Elizabeth said. She looked at David.
"Why don't you explain it to her?" Monty said. "Who Susie is and why she lives in your house and sleeps in your bed."
David glared at him. "What are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about the stacked blond chick who lives in your house, Aussenhoff, the one with no visible means of employment. Maybe she's living off you, but maybe she's making a living on the side, ya know? Spying for Berns?" He looked at Elizabeth. "I checked this guy out, Elizabeth, and I think he should at least have the courtesy to get rid of his live-in mistress before he starts romancing you again."
David lunged at him, but this time Monty was ready. He yanked David by the jacket and smashed him in the jaw with his fist, sending him reeling backward through the swinging door and crashing onto the dining room floor.
Elizabeth screamed and Patty appeared from somewhere, yelling, and then David was back on his feet, lunging at Monty, when Ted Kleczak and Josh suddenly pulled the two of them apart.
Panting, furious, both of them looked ready to kill the other.
"I must say, gentlemen," Dorothy Hillings said, coming into the living room and unpinning her hat, "but this is a rather fine how-do-you-do."
51
A great deal of confusion followed the Hillingses' dramatic arrival at their home: "Why were Monty and David fighting? Why did Elizabeth run to her room and slam the door? Why did Georgiana look white as a ghost and excuse herself to lie down? Why had Patty been arrested? And why was everybody so upset when it looked as though they were close to solving the mystery of Creighton Berns's behavior at ICA?
Monty finally got his act together—obviously no one else was going to—and took Josh and the Hillingses into the study to show them the movie script and the files.
"Bets, don't believe him," David begged, standing in the doorway of her room.
"About Creighton, I don't," Elizabeth said, standing by the window.
He looked at her for a long moment and then went and slid his arms around her waist. "About Susie," he said, looking into her eyes.
She waited.
"She's been living at my house temporarily."
"As?"
"A friend."
Elizabeth broke away from him. "I don't need Monty to tell me when you're lying. God!" she cried whirling around. "You'd think after all this time you'd at least try something new! What the hell do you think you've been doing? Why have you been saying all these things to me?"
"Because I mean them," he said. "I do love you." He dropped his head. "She was with me before this all started."
"And what were you going to do?" Elizabeth said. "Try out a relationship with me here while you had a West Coast backup living in your home? Or was I the backup, David? If things didn't work out with her, there'd always be me?"
He didn't say anything.
"Oh, God," Elizabeth sighed, throwing herself down on the edge of the bed. "Tell me she's at least thirty."
He shook his head.
"Tell me she's at least not another aspiring actress," she sighed.
He shoved his hands into his trouser pockets and began to pace.
"Tell me she has some savings," she sighed.
He said nothing.
"Oh, David," she groaned, "you could at least try to find someone who's a grown-up—or at least someone who really cares about you."
"She does care about me," he said. "And, because of that, I've been reluctant to hurt her until I knew it could work between us."
She looked at him. "I do not understand you, David Aussenhoff. I used to think I did, but I'm beginning to think you're emotionally retarded."
"I think I have been," he said simply.
"Well," she sighed, shaking her head, "at least you haven't dragged a long-suffering wife and children through this. I suppose that's something."
"You sound relieved," David said, frowning.
She looked at him.
"I know you pretty well, too, you know," he said. "And I think you're relieved to have an excuse to stop us from trying again. I could tell there was something strange going on last night."
She started to protest and then she looked down at her hands. "You're right."
"You're different now, Bets, very different."
She looked at him. Tears were in her eyes now. "You bet I am. Grief does something to you. I'm over you, David. I'm not mourning anymore."
When they emerged from the guest room, they found the Hillingses preparing to return to their hotel. Georgiana was arguing that she should be staying in the hotel, not them!
"Quite frankly, Georgiana dear," Dorothy told her, "if I had to stay here much longer. I'm quite sure my blood pressure would go off the charts. This place is a madhouse."
"Seriously," Henry said, "it's much better for us to be at the hotel this weekend. And you kids should be here together."
"Kids," Georgiana repeated to herself, smiling.
"We'll be holding a meeting here on Sunday at noon," Henry said. "By then I think we'll have all the answers we need."
Elizabeth squinted, slightly suspicious. "What exactly is going on over at your hotel?"
"Nothing special," Dorothy said, eyes twinkling and clearly lying.
"Where's Patty?" Elizabeth said, suddenly looking around. "The Kleczaks didn't go home, did they?"
"They're having a bit of a discussion in the guest room," Dorothy said. "And may I suggest we leave them to it."
The Hillingses departed with David, Monty went off to the study, and Georgiana and Elizabeth retired to their rooms.
"That's not it, Patty," Ted said, sitting on the edge of the chair, leaning forward, looking as though he were about to mark out new football plays on the floor between them.
Any Given Moment (The Alexandra Chronicles Book 3) Page 29
