Next, Shane reexamined Nicky's connection to Farrell Champion.
Nicky had driven Farrell's studio limo and had stolen jewelry from the producer; an act that eventually got him fired. Moreover, Farrell had a criminal case pending against the little grifter. If Nicky had lied about his relationship with the famous producer, what the hell was he doing crashing Farrell's engagement party? If Farrell had seen him, and eventually he would have, Farrell would have simply called security, or the police, and Nicky would have been arrested on the spot. The more Shane thought about that, the less sense it all made.
Shane had been meaning to run Nicky Marcella through the police computer, but he'd been so busy, he'd forgotten. He would do that the first chance he got.
Shane also had some nagging questions: Who busted up Nicky's apartment, kicked the shit out of his Oriental paintings, and stomped on his expensive watches? It probably wasn't Valentine, who was still using Nicky. So who? Farrell? The U. S. Marshals? Tiger Woods?
His head was beginning to ache. He didn't know where the answer was hiding in this slew of facts, guesses, and questions. Shane needed help.
He had written down the Cadillac's license plate number so he now called it into the DMV. After he gave them his badge number, they came back immediately with the information. The car was registered to Hertz, in Flagstaff, Arizona. He took Carlos's residency in Arizona out of the maybe column and put it with the facts. The picture became a bit clearer.
Shane dialed Alexa's cell phone.
"Yes," she answered, her voice clipped.
"I need to see you and Chief Filosiani right now." "Shane, I'm… we're-"
"I know… people are dying in South Central."
"All over town. I've had three more machine-gun shootings since yesterday. It's like the Gaza Strip in some of these divisions."
"I think I might have some of the pieces on that." "What pieces? You're working on Dennis Valentine. What does that have to do with this gang war?"
"I told you before, I think he may be the one moving the White Dragon into L. A. Now I think Farrell Champion may be involved, too."
"Come on, Shane…"
"Honey, I need forty minutes with you and the chief. It's gonna be worth your time. Send a detective car out to Valentine's house on Mandeville Canyon. I'm sitting on a Hispanic cowboy driving a white Caddy convertible with Arizona plates. His name is Carlos Martinez, but that's probably a bum handle. The car was rented from Hertz in Flagstaff, Arizona, wherever the hell that is. I'm going to ask R and I to contact Hertz and get me the name of whoever rented this car, and I'll bet you a weekend in Paradise it's not anyone named Carlos Martinez."
"Hertz doesn't even rent Cad convertibles-only Ford Mustangs, Buick LeBarons, Lincoln Town Cars, and SUVs."
"Then it's got stolen plates. Honey, stop arguing and get a detective car out here somebody who can tail this guy without being made. I need to get in there and run through this with you."
"All right. I'm on the sixth floor at DSG. The chief's sleeping in his office. He's in a horrible mood."
"Why should he be the exception?" Shane hung up.
Twenty minutes later a gray Plymouth plain wrap pulled up beside him. Two guys he'd never seen before, wearing windbreakers, were in the front seat.
"You Scully?" an Asian cop in the passenger seat asked. "Yeah."
"Chen and Hibbs. We'll take over."
Twenty-five minutes later he was in Alexa's office at Parker Center.
They walked down the corridor together and woke up Chief Filosiani, who was angry, irritable, and tired. Shane had seen friendlier eyes on rattlesnakes.
Chapter 40
HOSING DOWN TONY
"What the fuck d' you think you're doing?" Tony's angry question hung over Shane like a sword of reckoning.
"I'm just trying to… to tell you about a strange thing that happened at Farrell Champion's bachelor party.
I'm."
"I don't care about Farrell Champion's party, I wanta know what's going on with this damn movie. Somebody in our legal department, an attorney named Charlotte Brooks, says you talked to her today about some movie deal with Universal. Is that right?"
"Charlie? Yes, I did."
"She also says she talked to somebody over at CineRoma Productions who says they're on the hook for over a half a million dollars in preproduction costs, and in less than a week they're gonna owe twenty million on a hundred-million-dollar movie. Cine-Roma is half owned by us! What the fuck are you doing?! I only authorized a hundred and fifty thousand. I been tryin' to reach you all afternoon, but your cell's been off."
"Uh. yeah, well, the reason for that is, I got this cell from ESD, and it's got a bug in it. I keep it off unless I.." Shane froze in mid-sentence because of the exasperated expression on Tony's face.
"For the love of God, tell me we ain't really in that deep?" Tony looked tired in his rumpled suit. Wisps of fringe hair stuck up in back of his head where he'd slept on it. His round face and mostly bald scalp were turning pink with anger. "I can't believe this. How did it happen? I want the truth, Sergeant."
"Well, sir, in Hollywood, there are many truths," Shane began, "and those truths are generally dominated by soft facts, which are subject to constant reevaluation and revision."
"You sound just like one a them now," Tony accused.
"I'm sorry. It's just… to understand this, you have to realize how it works. Everything in Hollywood is upside down."
"Upside down? Are you kidding me? I want you to explain how this little sting I originally approved for a hundred and fifty thousand dollars got so fucking out of control."
"It's a little hard to explain, sir."
"Try" Okay, well, the first thing you have to understand is everybody in Hollywood wants films to be expensive." The chief frowned. "Bullshit."
"It's not bullshit. It's a Hollywood truth."
The chief just glowered.
Shane's throat was dry. "Let's suppose you can make the exact same film for ten million dollars, or for a hundred million dollars… which would you choose?"
"And they're exactly the same? Same stars, same everything?"
Shane nodded. "Finished film is identical."
"Well, of course I'd make the one for ten million. Only a fool would spend ten times more."
"Well, in a normal business context you're right, but in Hollywood, you're wrong. Nobody at a major Hollywood studio wants to make a ten-million-dollar film. The industry average is thirty-mil, but that includes a lot of low-budget stuff made by independents. At minimum, the majors would rather spend something north of fifty. And why do you suppose that is?"
"You tell me."
"Because it doesn't make sense to them to make a film for ten million and then go out and spend fifty mil on thousands of theater prints and national advertising. That's about what it costs in P and A to support a wide domestic release these days-more than three thousand screens. Y'see, in their minds, it's foolhardy to put five times more money behind the bet than you've got riding on the film in the first place.
"The idea started to flourish in Hollywood that you're better off spending fifty million instead of ten to make the same movie, because now the fifty mil in releasing costs makes more sense. Then some genius says: 'What if we spend a hundred million on a film?' The cost of P and A basically doesn't change too much, so now we have a great deal. A hundred-mil blockbuster, and only fifty is backing the bet. Pretty soon everybody was buying into that."
Filosiani glowered at this weird logic.
"Okay, that's the complicated truth," Shane sighed. "Now comes a simple truth: A lot of directors think if you're making a forty-million-dollar film, you're nowhere near as important as the guy who's directing a hundredmillion-dollar film. Some directors try to spend money on anything and everything to get the cost of production up. With directors trying to spend money and push the budget up, a lot of films spiral quickly out of control."
"That is the stupidest thing I've ever heard." T
he chief was smoldering.
"Egos conspire to cost money in show business. Like I said, the logic is upside down. But I've still got ten days." He glanced at the calendar on his watch. Well, more like eight and a half now, before we get hammered with all those pay-or-play clauses. I'm going to New Jersey later this morning. We take off at eight A. M. Dennis Valentine is going to introduce me to his uncle. I think I've got a pretty good chance of hooking Don Carlo DeCesare to this union-fixing, police-bribery case. Then once I've got Little Caesar on tape, I'll either shut this film down or sell it outright to Universal, which should recoup all our money." "And if Universal won't buy it? What then? How much have we spent?"
"Well, sir, uh… these figures are a little bit in flux. The soft costs are hard to compute, and hard costs are-" "Goddammit! Answer the fucking question!" Filosiani's face was flushed; he was almost screaming.
"Around five hundred and fifty thousand. We could subtract Dennis Valentine's two hundred fifty thousand bribe from that, but we've only received a hundred so far. The total's either three hundred or four fifty… not counting the transportation and construction costs. I don't know where we are on that, how much it costs us to freight those redwoods in from Oregon, or how many extras we hired yesterday, or what kind of deal the director made with his brother to set up the Civil War school in Reseda-"
"The what?!"
"We're… uh…" He looked to Alexa for help. She jumped in fast and switched to damage control.
"Sir, I promise, Shane will have us out of this by the weekend. I know we're a little over budget, but he's going to nail Don Carlo DeCesare. You've got to remember what a huge catch it would be to get Little Caesar on a RICO prosecution."
"He's not going to say shit. I know that guy-he won't incriminate himself," Filosiani growled, but the thought had calmed him slightly.
"Uh. sir… I know Shane will deliver," Alexa said weakly. "It's going to be huge. Then, once we have the goods, we'll shut the movie down."
At this point, Shane wasn't confident he could deliver a pizza.
"Let's go, Shane. You can give him the other information in a memo." She pulled him out of Filosiani's office without even letting him tell the chief why he'd come here in the first place.
He followed Alexa down the hall into her office. "We're both gonna get fired. Jesus, five hundred and fifty thousand from my OCB detective budget," she lamented.
"I'll be lucky if I can hold it to that. You want to know the truth? This boat has left the dock. Our only real chance of bailing out is to get Universal to take it over."
"Are you telling me that the Los Angeles Police Department is actually producing a Michael Fallon high-budget action picture?"
"I wouldn't exactly call it an action picture. It's more of a spiritual thriller."
"Shane, don't fuck with me."
"Yes, we're producing the film. How do you want your credit to read?"
"I'm speechless."
"Listen, I think I need to get out of here."
"What was all that malarkey about Farrell Champion and Dennis Valentine both being involved with this drug deal and gang war?"
"Oh, that." He smiled. "I've gotta rethink some of that." He kissed Alexa, then gave her a hug.
"I'm out of here at eight A. M. to New Jersey. I'll keep the StarTAC on. They're monitoring the tapes at ESD."
"Shane, what was it you were going to tell us? You said it was important." She was leaning forward, insistent now.
"I'm not sure what's important and what's not anymore. I think I'm losing my perspective. I need sleep. At least five hours all in one snooze. I'm starting to ramble." He kissed her again, then left the sixth floor.
He took the water glass and box top out of his briefcase, tagged them, along with the matchbox, and dropped them all off at R amp;I, with instructions for an immediate print-run on all three items.
Shane drove back to North Chalon Drive and let himself in. It was 2:30 A. M. Chooch wasn't there probably still at the hospital. His gun was in the mail slot and Franco was waiting for him. The cat followed Shane into the bedroom and watched while he set the alarm. Exhausted, Shane fell backwards on the bed without undressing. Franco jumped up, licked his face, and purred in his ear.
"I'm trying, Frank. I don't know who did it yet. The hole I'm in just keeps getting deeper and wider. I don't even know what the fuck I'm doing anymore."
The cat reached out and put a soft paw on his cheek. Finally, somebody cared how he felt. Shane fell asleep with Franco curled beside him. He didn't open his eyes until the alarm went off at six o'clock the next morning.
Chapter 41
LITTLE CAESAR
The jet was a shiny new green-and-white fourteen-passenger Challenger. Shane sat across from Dennis Valentine, who had elected to shed his Hollywood plumage; no white on white for this visit. He was now in pinstripes. His tailor-made suit draped his scrupulously maintained body like a charcoal-gray paint job. His ruby cuff links danced and twinkled. Silvio Cardetti and Little Mo were decked out in Gotti-esque double-breasted black. They sat a few seats back, near the rear of the cabin, playing cards.
The cuisine was tofu and brown rice. Colonel Sanders and the Frito Bandito had missed the flight.
The plane thundered down the Burbank runway, lifting off toward the purplish mountains to the east. In a gesture that symbolized the entire trip, Dennis threw his Hollywood trade papers aside and picked up the Wall Street Journal.
Conversations with Dennis, when they weren't on business, were usually on fitness. As soon as the wheels were up, he launched into a primo riff on vascular health.
"People don't know how important it is," he said. "You got guys walking around, their ankles all swollen, and you know what causes it?"
"Bad shoes?" Shane asked, trying to field an easy grounder but missing the ball.
"Fuck no. Lack of diosmin. It's a flavonoid. Flavonoids are microscopic water-soluble pigments and there are over four thousand kinds. Diosmin is the most important flavonoid 'cause it makes the veins in your lower limbs elastic. You find it mostly in rosemary leaves, but it's gotta be chemically micronized, so its small enough for the body to process."
"I won't forget that," Shane said. "But scotch tastes better and does the exact same thing. Makes your lower limbs rubbery as hell."
"I know you're just fucking with me, but one day, some vascular surgeon is gonna be stripping your veins and you're gonna wish you'd listened."
Shane couldn't take this all the way to Jersey, so he told Dennis that he'd only had two hours' sleep, lowered the seat on the comfortable jet, and closed his eyes. As he tried for unconsciousness, his mind kept circling the tragic memory of Carol White. Maybe it was the close proximity to the man he suspected of having her killed, or maybe it was because he was headed to Carol's hometown in Teaneck. Whatever the reason, the pictures and remembered sounds of her haunted him.
The beauty contest winner who came to Hollywood to be a star but ended up with a King Kong habit, turning tricks for a bunch of curb-crawlers on Adams Boulevard.
He thought about the slender thread that was binding all of them to their futures. Chooch had risked everything to save Delfina. She was still in psychological shock, choosing a world of soft shapes and blurry sounds over a more brutal set of memories that, if confronted, might destroy her. Delfina had done no wrong, a victim of nothing more sinister than her relationship to American Macado.
Unlike Delfina, Carol had made horrible choices. She had tried to drown the ache of her life's mistakes by shooting up. But she'd also been too vulnerable. Carol White had "loser" written in invisible ink on her forehead, in letters only predators could see. Sadly, her weakness had led her to the garage in Rampart as surely as this jet was taking them back to Teaneck where her tragic journey began.
Shane half-opened his eyes and peeked under his lids at the handsome mobster who worried about how much diosmin he was getting. Shane wondered if the thread holding Dennis to his future was as slender as the ones
holding Carol and the rest of them. He wondered if there was too much lead in a 9mm bullet for a vegetarian.
Then Shane fell asleep. He dreamed about a lot of things, most of them aimless and jumbled. But as they were landing in Newark, one dream stuck with him. He was riding in a parade with Chooch and American. They'd been in a barrio bouncer, a low-rider splashed with a sparkle paint job. The car would rise up on its rear axle, then come down again, bouncing over and over. American Macado was driving, wearing a vest with beautiful silver conchos.
"Ain't this tits?" Amac said, grinning.
Suddenly, the Challenger's wheels touched down and they had landed.
A black limousine with two chase cars was waiting on the tarmac as the jet taxied up and they deplaned. It was cold in New Jersey. Frost clung stubbornly to the ground. Silvio and Little Mo got into the lead car as Shane and Dennis climbed into the Lincoln stretch.
"Only takes about ten minutes from here," Dennis said. "When I was a kid, I owned this county. Had a little Corvette, red with white seats. Bagged more pussy than a cat doctor."
"Didn't have a numero uno?" Shane asked, thinking of Carol.
Dennis looked over at him, his eyes a little distant. "There were a few who thought so, but a guy like me, I've got to taste everything; gotta eat at all the restaurants. Know what I'm sayin'? Pussy is cuisine."
"But is it vegetarian?" Shane deadpanned.
"You love to bust my balls, don't you?"
"Hey, Dennis, you know how it is. A slow-moving target is always gonna draw fire."
Valentine looked over at him, and for a minute, Shane didn't know which way it was going to go. Most made guys and mob smart-heads had an instinct for who was an employee and who was a player. Once they had you down as an ass-kisser, you were never going to hear anything but orders. He needed to get Dennis on even ground, so he would eventually open up and say something meaningful for the little mike hidden in the cell phone on Shane's belt.
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