Another Thing To Fall

by Laura Lippman

  Tess believed her. That is, she believed that Lottie thought she knew everything. There was a difference.

  Chapter 19

  No one said outright that it was Johnny Tampa's fault that they had to have second meal that night, but he knew they were blaming him. The crew seemed to have fallen into the habit of believing everything that went wrong was Johnny's fault, which was so unfair. He was in almost every scene of this goddamn thing, and he was always meticulously prepared — had his lines cold and was even making a good run at a Baltimore accent before Flip and Ben decreed that he shouldn't. But he needed to understand the mechanics of this time-travel gig, why his character seemed to move between present and past in ways he couldn't control or predict. Until that was made clear, he was going to have trouble in certain scenes.

  "It doesn't matter," Ben had said tonight, clearly exasperated that Johnny wouldn't let the subject drop. "Mann doesn't know how it works, so why should you know?"

  "Mann also doesn't know that he's going to end up living in the present, with Betsy as his wife, and I do, so it's clearly okay for me to be privy to information that Mann doesn't have," Johnny countered. "This is about the implicit integrity of the show, whether viewers will feel cheated. If the time travel doesn't have a logical explanation, even if it's never spelled out for the viewer, then the character, the world, won't feel real. People will reject it instinctively, sensing you're not playing fair."

  Ben had sighed, and gone to summon Flip, the great soother and smoother. But Johnny wasn't looking for an ego stroke, or even assurance that it was his part that really mattered, that the show was called Mann of Steel, and it wasn't likely to change. Likely — wait, had Flip said likely the last time they spoke? Likely meant it could change. Was the network going to build up Selene's part even more? There had been a lot of changes in the last script; they had gone all the way to buff pages. Johnny couldn't remember a single episode in his career that had gone even as far as cherry.

  Second meal was pizza from a local place called Matthew's, and it was pretty much the best pizza in Baltimore. Johnny circled the table sadly, knowing he should skip it. A year ago, he had hired a life coach who had put him on an intuitive eating program, dictating that Johnny should eat what he wanted when he wanted it. The result was that Johnny had intuitively eaten his way up to almost two hundred and thirty pounds. He watched Selene take a single slice of the crab pizza, which was kind of like a soufflé on a crust, rich and creamy and cheesy…. She took exactly one bite, then left the slice on her plate, which only affirmed his belief that she wasn't human. A succubus, maybe, or were women incubuses? Incubi? Borg?

  Ben and Flip could tell themselves all they wanted that they weren't trying to make a time-travel show, but they would need that sci-fi core audience to get a second season. Johnny Tampa knew this because he was the core audience, a diehard science fiction fan. Over the last five years, when he had been on what he now called his hiatus, he had spent most of his time in his Santa Monica condo, reading fantasy and science fiction. It was the time-travel angle that had interested him most in Mann of Steel, not that beggars could be choosers. Truthfully, his dream gig was that vampire show that HBO was doing, but they hadn't even given him a courtesy audition. "Not ethereal enough," they had said, and everyone knew what that was code for: too fat.

  He decided to retreat to his banger, away from the temptations of second meal. He realized Selene had nibbled just enough pizza so that her breath would be all crab-and-cheese stink in their next scene, when they were supposed to kiss. Very clever, Selene, but had anyone else noticed? Flip and Ben melted in her presence. Lottie didn't seem quite as impressed, but then Lottie didn't like anyone. The fact was, it probably didn't matter if everyone saw through Selene, if everyone realized what a phony and a bitch she was. It was understood that Mann of Steel had a shot only because Ben and Flip had been lucky enough to sign Selene before Baby Jane earned her that Golden Globe nomination.

  Johnny wondered if they still considered themselves lucky, or if they had stopped to consider why Selene had been so convincing as an amoral, scheming teen whore. Johnny, who read the trades and the tabloids as obsessively as he read science fiction, knew all the rumors about Baby Jane. Moreover, he believed them, too. It was said that Selene had an affair with the director, which had been dicey, given that Selene was barely legal at the time. The bigger sticking point, however, Hollywood being Hollywood, was that the director was married to the screenwriter, and she tried to block the release. At least, they were married when the project started. Part of the reason the film had languished for two years was that its distribution rights had to be divvied up in the divorce. The screenwriter couldn't decide, for a while, what she wanted more — to destroy Selene's career or make a bundle off a low-budget movie with a star-making performance. Ultimately, she had chosen the bundle. Didn't everyone?

  Johnny had left The Boom Boom Room at the height of his popularity to pursue the movie offers that were pouring in. Of course, he hadn't known it was the height, far from it. He thought there was still plenty of sky over his head. Separated from the part that had made him a household name, he seemed to lose whatever charisma he had. On television, he was handsome, in an interesting way. On a movie screen — he just disappeared, couldn't hold the frame. "It's kind of like Samson," his agent had said. "When he cut his hair." Which was confusing, because Johnny hadn't cut his hair. He hadn't changed at all, and that seemed to be the problem. It was as if the rules of the universe had been subverted, as if all the physical laws, such as gravity, had reversed when he wasn't looking. Hot was cold. Up was down — and out. That's when he started reading science fiction.

  There was an envelope propped up in front of his mirror, addressed to him in care of the set's street address, which few people knew. Inside was a recent tabloid, with a paper clip attached helpfully, pointing him to an article headlined: WHO SAYS MEN AGE WELL? There were photographs of Mel Gibson, Alec Baldwin, and, shit, him, circled with a big red pen mark, just in case he couldn't find his own fat mug on the page. The photograph was at least six months old, when he was thirty pounds heavier. So unfair. He was — he looked in the mirror, lifted his chin, lifted it higher. There was the old jawline. Sort of.

  Suddenly, it seemed as if the mirror was the only place to look, there was no angle in the trailer where he couldn't see himself. He charged back to where the crew was eating, eager to show Ben the magazine. Selene gave him a triumphant little look, her eyes flicking to the rolled-up tabloid in his fist. He ignored her and, when he couldn't find Ben, turned his attention on the icy blonde who had been lingering around set all day, Selene's babysitter or bodyguard, take your pick. She looked to be in her early thirties, which was his demographic. She would have been in high school about the time he was playing high school senior Trip Winters on Boom Boom.

  "Johnny Tampa," he said.

  "Really?"

  "Really," he said, with an aw-shucks grin, waiting to hear how much she had loved him when she was in high school, how his posters had covered her room.

  "I mean, that's your real name? Or did you change it from something?"

  That question was so tired that he had long ago developed a standard answer. "I was born Johnny St. Petersburg, had to shorten it when I went into show business."

  After a small delay, as if she needed time to process the fact that he had actually said something clever, she laughed. It was a rather metallic, rat-a-tat sound, but it seemed genuine enough. She had a hard, almost scary edge to her. He liked it.

  "Whitney Talbot," she said. "I'm here to—"

  "I know. You follow her everywhere? To the bathroom and stuff?"

  "I let her have her bathroom breaks in privacy."

  "Maybe you shouldn't."

  "What?"

  "I mean, this soundstage, it's a big space. And it might seem secure, but who knows? I mean, you're here to protect her, right?"

  "Right," she said, after a beat.

  "If I were you, I'
d never let her out of my sight. You never know what she's going to be up to." He turned his head to the side, in case his profile jogged her memory. Pride vanquished, he said: "The Boom Boom Room?"

  She looked puzzled. "Is that one of the strip clubs still operating on the Block?"

  "No, it was a television show, about kids put in a school-within-a-school on special detention, kind of like The Breakfast Club — oh never mind. A lot of people watched it, back in the day."

  "I didn't watch a lot of television, growing up. I was kind of outdoorsy." She said it nicely, apologetically, not in the snobby way some people had. He almost believed her, except he didn't believe anyone who claimed not to watch television. Who didn't watch television? It was like… not brushing your teeth, or refusing to shower, odd to the point of being uncivilized. Everybody watched television. There had been a time, around season four of Boom Boom, when he couldn't go anywhere or do anything without being recognized. He hadn't always enjoyed the attention, but he hadn't been stupid enough to wish it away, and he had been genuinely surprised when it stopped. Since then, it was as if he couldn't get quite enough oxygen in his blood, as if he were living at 75 percent. He had plenty of money, he had been smart that way, but his financial stability was scant comfort. He wanted another success in this business, and to get that, he had to pretend to be in love with some twenty-year-old twat. He hated her. He needed her. Well, that's why they called it acting.

  Dinner was wrapping up. He couldn't help noticing there was a lot of leftover pizza. He wondered if he should take it home. No, it wouldn't be any less fattening at breakfast tomorrow, only colder. He wondered if he should try to take the blonde home, but he supposed she had to stick close to Selene. Besides, she hadn't seemed terribly interested. No, he would just go home and get into bed, read a few pages of the latest Robert Harris. He had tried to get Flip and Ben to read Harris, engage them in the rules of alterna-history, but to no avail. They seemed to think that because Napoleon had, in the end, forced the divorce between his brother and Betsy Patterson, they could remove her from history with no real effect. But what about Betsy's son? You couldn't just eliminate people from history. That was a kind of murder.

  The PAs were calling them back to work, but Johnny spotted Lottie huddled with the director and showed her the magazine.

  "Look what was in my trailer."

  Lottie glanced at the photos. "It's not so bad, Johnny. Besides, it can't hurt to be considered in the same class as Mel Gibson and Alec Baldwin."

  "That's not the point. Someone sent it to me, to unnerve me."

  "You've got to start locking your door," Lottie said. "I thought, after the Nair—"

  "It came in the mail. And it proves the Nair wasn't an isolated incident. You know who's behind this. Why don't you do something about it?"

  "Selene's got a bodyguard now," Lottie said. "She can't go anywhere without being seen."

  "Well, maybe the bodyguard is in on it, then. Someone's doing her dirty work. We can't go on like this. She doesn't want to be here. I hate working with her. How are we going to get through this season, much less another one if we're lucky enough to get picked up?"

  "Johnny." She sighed, weary as his mother, although she was several years younger and barely came to his collarbone. "Let's just get this scene and let everyone go home, okay?"

  The stand-ins had cleared the set, and he and Selene took their places. In this scene, Mann had brought Betsy to his home in twenty-first-century Baltimore — although, damn Flip and Ben, he still didn't know how — to persuade her that he really was from the future, that it was possible for him to know her fate. Tomorrow, they would go on location in Green Mount Cemetery, and he would show Betsy her own tombstone. He wasn't crazy about that scene, which seemed unduly influenced by the graveside scene in A Christmas Carol — and the Mr. Magoo version at that. But that was Ben and Flip for you. They hadn't read Dickens, but they knew their Mr. Magoo. Today, however, they were in the Mann family rowhouse, and Betsy was supposed to be overwhelmed by the modern ingenuity of the La-Z-Boy recliner. Was this stuff really as sly and ironic as everyone else seemed to think? Or was it stupid and vapid? You couldn't tell everything from the words on the page. So much depended on the editing, the look. And the performances, although Ben and Flip seemed to have lost sight of that as well.

  "Quiet on the set. Sound speed. Rolling… action."

  Selene, in character, gave him a flirtatious look. Sure enough, garlic fumes were everywhere. He gave her one back, topping it with a wink, and they ran their lines, building up to their big kiss in the La-Z-Boy. Johnny Tampa could kiss, he knew that much about himself. There was no one he couldn't kiss, under any circumstances. He could tongue a dog, a real one, or even French a potato if that was what he had to do. He was a great kisser, on camera. Off camera, it didn't interest him that much. He preferred it impersonal because he had grown tired of girls staring at his face, as if they couldn't believe they were with Johnny Tampa. And then there were those who hadn't known they were with Johnny Tampa, and that had been even worse.

  "Cut," yelled the director, who then walked over to Johnny. He lowered his voice, his style when giving notes. "Lose the wink, okay, Johnny? It's way too lecherous for Mann." As usual, Wes had no notes for Selene.

  The crew was too professional to sigh, but Johnny could feel everyone slumping. After all, they were now three hours over the day. Meanwhile, Selene, who had set him up to flub the scene, could barely suppress her smile as she threw herself back into the La-Z-Boy.

  Chapter 20

  It was Tess's nature to be suspicious of anything that came too easily, and finding Alicia Farmer fell into that category. With Lottie's piece of paper in hand, all Tess had to do was drive to the address listed and wait for someone to show up. Was Lottie trying to manipulate her? "Trust no one" was beginning to seem a very apt motto for this job.

  At least the address itself was surprising, a working-class neighborhood in Northeast Baltimore. Tess had assumed that someone in the television business would have settled into one of the hip, emerging areas favored by the postcollege crowd. Alicia Farmer lived in a small brick bungalow on a large, irregular plot, a diamond shape that looked as if it had been created by accident when the street was widened a few years back. The result was that the house sat slightly apart from the others, lonely and isolated, like the first kid to go in the stew pot in a game of Duck, Duck, Goose.

  No one answered her knock, so Tess took a quick walk around the house, which looked well tended, although a new deck seemed to have been abandoned in midconstruction. She then took up residence on the bench at the bus stop across the street. Sitting in a car for long periods of time caught the attention of nosy neighbors, but one could sit at a bus stop all afternoon and no one would notice.

  It was after eight when a woman not much younger than Tess parked a Chevrolet Caprice at the curb and trudged toward the door, head down, a single plastic sack of groceries dangling from her right hand. Tess let her get inside, then waited another ten minutes before knocking, allowing the woman to decompress a little — put her groceries away, make the transition from work to home. She wouldn't have thought of such a tactic when she started this kind of work, but she knew how she felt at the end of a long day, and she saw no harm in letting this woman decompress before Tess peppered her with questions about a workplace she had left involuntarily.

  "I'm from the state unemployment office," she said exactly twelve minutes later, "and we're doing spot checks of departmental efficiency. Do you know where we might find Alicia Farmer?"

  "I'm Alicia Farmer," the woman said, as if confessing to something unpleasant. "But I never put in for unemployment. I got another gig." She indicated the insignia on her blouse. CHARM CITY VIDEO.

  "So you're still in the film business?"

  "Yeah." Alicia laughed, a little unwillingly. "For now, until Netflix or the idiot management puts us out of business. Now if you don't mind—"

  "I wasn't exactly truthful,
" Tess said, smiling in a way that she hoped would take the sting out of her confession, all the while positioning her body slightly forward, so the door couldn't be closed without real force. Alicia seemed too downtrodden, too defeated, to slam a door on someone's foot. Speaking swiftly now: "I'm an investigator working for Mann of Steel, and I'm looking into some of the security issues on set."

  "Security issues? Like the death of Greer Sadowski? Yeah, I guess that was a real security issue."

  Alicia had reddish brown hair, pulled back in a ponytail, and such dark shadows beneath her light eyes that they might have been bruises. She reminded Tess of someone she knew, although it took her a second to pin it down. She reminded Tess of herself, the woman she was on the verge of becoming after she lost her job at the Star. God, she had been lost for a while. If she hadn't allowed Tyner to talk her into becoming a private investigator, if she hadn't taken the risk of opening her own business, if she hadn't met Crow and, yes, allowed him to woo and pursue her, this could be her, in a red CHARM CITY VIDEO smock, living in a safe, but not particularly desirable, Baltimore neighborhood, sarcasm her only defining trait.

  "The police are looking into Greer's death, not me." Then, on a hunch. "Should I give them your name?"

  "I didn't hate her that much." Tess liked the precision of Alicia's candor. Not wanting the girl dead, but not pretending to care more than she did. "Look, I'm exhausted and all I want is to drink a beer, watch some stupid television. Can we sit down? I'll even give you a beer."