Until Proven Innocent

by Gene Grossman

  *****

  The next morning Victor calls to let me know that he matched some of the prints on April’s manila envelope to the ones on Miller’s business card. No surprise there. Now that Myra’s decided not to do my heavy lifting, I’ll have to take care of Miller myself.

  Jack Bibberman has been doing most of our investigation work for some time now and he’s pretty familiar with the Hall of Records, so I give him the assignment of finding out exactly who owns that apartment building where April lives. I may have to go over Miller’s head to get some satisfaction. I can’t imagine any property owners letting a jerk like that keep his job after they’ve been formally put on notice about how he’s been extorting apartments and money from present and future tenants. Once Miller’s been bounced from that job as manager, April should be in pretty good shape, figuratively speaking.

  My only two loose ends now are Olive’s horny boyfriend Hershel, and trying to get Tony his job back as a movie star. No sense in stalling, so I might as well get over to the soundstage to deal with Joe Caulfield.

  *****

  I have to give him credit. His composure is professional, even when talking about a guy who allegedly almost ruined his film.

  “Peter, I know what you’re going to say, but I don’t think I can do it. He’s just too real, and he can’t let it go. I’m sorry to do this to a close friend of yours.”

  “First of all, he’s not a close friend of mine. Other than a certain dock in the Marina, the only thing we share is a common lack of affection for each other. But as for him being too real, I agree. It would probably be like having me in your movie, with the script calling for me to walk around in front of the counsel tables with a lit cigar in my hand. That just doesn’t happen in real life… at least not since Clarence Darrow retired. I’ve already told him that it’s make-believe, and I feel pretty sure he’ll go along with it. Whattaya say? Isn’t there some way you can give him another chance? You know, the film doesn’t even have to be rolling. You could just make it a rehearsal to see if he’ll go along with the program.”

  Joe looks down at his desk. He’s thinking it over. That’s a good sign, because it’s much better than the quick ‘no’ that I got when this conversation started. He looks up at me, like he’s made a decision.

  “You know, I really do want to get him back with the company, because there’s another position we could definitely use him for. In addition to film production, we’re expanding by starting a bonded and licensed film courier company. There’s a big problem with motion picture piracy of newly released movies, and we intend to launch our new service along with the release of our film. Tony would be a good addition to that division, because we want to have armed people delivering major studio films for showing at sneak previews and premiers.”

  “That’s fine, but if you throw him out for his acting, I’m afraid that there’ll be too much permanent ego damage for him to accept a lesser position.”

  “It wouldn’t be a lesser position… we’re prepared to make him security supervisor of the whole operation. We’ll be offering an entirely new service to the motion picture industry, with a security guard present during all showings of the feature films we deliver. They can’t knock off the film onto a digital copy unless it’s being projected at the theater, and we’ll have one of our guys in the projection booth during all showings.

  “Tony can be put into a position to do all the hiring and training of the security guards. It’ll be his show from day one.”

  “I don’t know, Joe. There’s still a chance that he can get reinstated with the police department, and I know that’s the job he’d prefer over anything else.”

  “Peter, he’s already been on the force for over twenty years. His pension is vested. If he retires now, he gets a full pension and can still take the job with us. It’ll be like a double income, and there’ll be no one shooting at him.”

  “I’ll talk to him. Maybe if he sees the whole picture, he’ll be more inclined to go along with the acting directions. I think that the loss of the acting job hurt him more than anything else, because he probably told everyone he knows about his being in a movie. When the picture comes out and he’s not in it, it’ll be a big letdown for a macho guy.”

  “Okay Peter. You win. First, you let him know about the courier service and get him to agree to go along with the acting direction. Then have him come back to the stage, and we’ll do a run-through of his scenes. Maybe we can talk about that other position some time in the future… after he’s appeared in the movie.”

  Mission accomplished.

  *****

  I’ve heard of motion picture piracy before, but never knew how serious it was until I did some research on the internet and discovered that a recently released report from the International Intellectual Property Alliance found that the U.S. economy lost an estimated 9.2 billion dollars in 2002 as a result of unlawful copy and sales of our movies. In China, approximately 91% of all movies sold and shown are pirated, and Brazil isn’t even a close second, with a piracy rate of only about 50%.

  Methods of the crimes range from theft of a print from a theater, tapping into cable TV, and individual VCR copying, to bringing a camcorder into a theater and capturing the movie right off of the screen. And the almost ten billion will certainly grow exponentially when there is enough broadband access to allow peer-to-peer exchange of movies on the internet. I’ve also heard that some theaters are using special spy devices to detect when someone in the audience is using a video camera to tape a movie while it’s being shown on the theater’s screen.

  Now I’m beginning to understand why Joe Caulfield’s company wants to have armed security guards stay with those first-run prints while they’re being projected in theaters. There are some reports of bootlegged movies being sold on the streets of China and Brazil before they even reach the movie houses in the U.S. I guess that if the studios can save a couple of billion bucks, it’s worth it for them to pay Joe Caulfield’s new service to guard their deliveries of prints to theaters for sneak previews and premieres.

  It would be almost impossible to guard up to 3,000 prints of a film that goes into wide distribution, but it sure would be nice if they could keep copies of the film off of the streets of China and Brazil until the movie at least has a chance to get to those 3,000 theaters.

  Back at the boat, I tell Tony about my meeting with Joe Caulfield, how he can get a second chance at the acting job, and about the new security position available to him.

  “I don’t know, counselor. It would mean putting in my papers and leaving the force.”

  “Here’s my suggestion, Tony. Why not just go to the stage, meet with Joe, get the acting gig back, and tell him you’ll think over his offer about the courier job. That way you can see if your continuing on the police force is an option at all. If it is, then you’ll have a decision to make. If it isn’t, well, let’s cross that bridge when we get to it.”

  He agrees with my logic and promises to behave himself on the second go-around. Strangely enough, he seems to have made some friends during the short period of time he spent with the film company. He told me that one or two of the production crew also frequent the same target range in Agoura that he shoots at. I guess that shooters share the same mind-set. It’s them against all those ‘pinkos’ who want to stomp on their Second Amendment rights to own a private arsenal.

  I remember seeing an old actor named Charlton Heston when he was president of the National Rifle Association. In one rabble-rousing speech before his group, he held a weapon up over his head and declared that if they want his gun, they’ll have to take it out of his cold, dead hand. I wonder exactly who he was referring to as ‘they?’ I certainly never wanted his gun, but I think that when he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, he should have voluntarily given it up. If you’ve got a gun in your house that’s not for target practice, it’s probably to protect against any intrusion by strangers, and to a person with Alzheimer’s, even a close friend or relative might
be mistaken for a stranger, due to loss of a patient’s ability to recognize people. Can you imagine some old guy with Alzheimer’s sitting in his room with a loaded weapon on his lap? That’s a disaster waiting to happen.

  Personally, I have nothing against guns. It’s the bullets that scare me.

  * * * * * *

  Chapter 6

  Olive has been calling. She’s really upset because ‘Hal’ has been bugging her to get together, and now he’s offering her money to model for him. What a perv.

  I return Olive’s phone call and give her some instructions. First, she’s not to call Hal’s cell phone under any circumstances, unless I tell her to. Second, the next time he calls, she’s to agree to model for him, but it’ll have to be a special way, and she’ll call him back with the details.

  Olive wants to know what I’ve got in mind, but I think it’s best that she stay out of the loop on this one, because she might not appreciate my method.

  I’ve had Jack B. checking out this Hershel Belsky, and it just hit me: he’s got the biggest car dealership in Beverly Hills and does a tremendous amount of television advertising. His commercials are usually shown very late at night, when they run all the old ‘B’ movies.

  I stayed up late a couple of nights ago watching him make a fool out of himself, and he keeps mentioning that pretty soon his dealership will have a ‘dream girl’ that will act as his spokesperson for the ‘dream deals’ he makes on his cars. I hope he’s thinking what I think he’s thinking. That confuses me a little, but I’m calling Olive anyway.

  “Hi Mister Sharp, what’s up?”

  “Olive, I want you to call your friend Hal and tell him that you’ve been thinking about what he wants you to do. If my guess is right, I think he wants to hire you as the spokesperson for his car dealership.”

  “You mean you want me to go to work for this creep?”

  “No Olive, I don’t want you to work for him, I just want you to find out if he’ll hire you sight unseen, based on how you describe yourself to him.”

  “Gee, I don’t know….”

  “And when you talk to him, please try to use that same voice your trainer taught you. He’ll be more amenable to hiring you sight unseen if you can get a rise out of him on the job interview phone call. And don’t forget to tell him how beautiful you really are, but remind him that you’re not the same girl that your company used in its photo ads.”

  I hear a beep on my phone, which means there’s another call coming in. I make sure Olive has my instructions, and switch to the other line.

  “Mister Sharp, I’m a production assistant over at the Venice Soundstage. Joe Caulfield wanted me to tell you to come over here as soon as you can.”

  This can’t mean anything good. I hope Tony hasn’t shot anyone over there.

  When I get to the soundstage, they’re all waiting for me in Joe’s office. Joe starts first.

  “Peter, we can’t allow real loaded guns on the set. Our insurance company specifically put that clause in the completion bond. There are a lot of scenes in the movie where people are shooting guns, and they’re all phony, firing caps, to give off a little smoke. We add the actual gunshot sound in post production.”

  “So? That’s what you called me over here for? Some provision in your insurance policy?”

  “Not exactly Peter, it seems that our new star is a little temperamental about surrendering his weapon to the prop guy. He insists on wearing that huge thing in his shoulder holster. I admit that it gives a nice touch to the movie because whenever he leans forward the camera can see it in there. Unfortunately though, we can’t allow it.”

  Tony can’t sit quiet any longer.

  “Did you see what they want me to wear? Some piss-ant .32 caliber revolver with a snub-nosed barrel. And to make things worse, it’s not even real. It’s a replica!”

  Saying this, Tony pulls out the pistol and tosses it over to me. I catch it and take a close look. It feels and weighs like the real thing.

  “Tony, this gun is an exact replica of the real thing. What’s wrong with your carrying it in the movie?”

  “Because counselor, if anyone I knew saw me with that pea-shooter, my reputation would be ruined.”

  I look around the room at the expressions of frustration on Joe Caulfield, the director, the prop man, and some other above-the-line people seated there.

  “Okay, I’ve got a suggestion. Part of your soundstage is supposed to be the cops’ squad room. Why don’t you take a camera off of the set and get a shot of Tony putting his real cannon into a desk drawer somewhere, and then slamming and locking the drawer. Then you can cut back to him in the squad room, as he puts on a different shoulder holster with the small revolver in it, while he tells another cop in the room that the judge doesn’t want him to bring the big gun into the courtroom. And after the close up of the first desk is shot, I’m sure you can provide some safe place for Tony to lock up the real thing until after his courtroom scene is shot.”

  They’re all looking at each other. Several conversations are going on at the same time between the groups in the room. The camera guys are talking about how to frame the close-up of the desk drawer, the props and wardrobe people are talking about the other cop and what he should be wearing, the continuity guy is conferring with the director about how to continue the scene from outside the set to inside the set, and Joe Caulfield is talking to Tony about the exact dialogue he can live with.

  With all those little meetings going on, they don’t even notice my walking out of the room. On the way out, Renaldo, the production assistant who called me, introduces himself. He looks a little old to be a production assistant, because he’s probably in his late thirties. We chat for a few minutes about how production is going, and he tells me that everyone on the set is afraid of Tony. They know he’s a decent guy, but they’re still reluctant to say anything that might upset him. I also learn that Ren is the guy that Tony mentioned as being a film crewmember who he went shooting at the target range with.

  Ren also tells me about all of the constant arguments that Tony and Joe Caulfield are getting into about dialogue, blocking, character attitude, and just about everything concerning Tony’s on-camera scenes. From what I hear, it sounds like there’s a constant ongoing feud between Tony and Joe, so I hope Joe stays alive until Tony’s scenes are finished. Ren seems like a pretty decent guy, so I decide to take a chance and see if he’ll help me out.

  “You know Ren, I really want to be kept up to date on how things are going with my friend Tony. Would it be possible for me to retain you on a part-time consultant basis? I’d like to receive a phone call from you every afternoon, with a status report on whether or not Tony has shot anyone on the set, or if anything else out of the ordinary has taken place with him being involved.”

  Ren seems to be amenable to my consultation job, so I offer him an initial retainer of two fifty-dollar bills and tell him that I’ll be straightening out with him at least once a week. The offer is pocketed, and I now have an inside connection in the movie industry.

  While I’m here I decide to take a little tour of the various rooms connected to the soundstage. The executives are still in Joe’s office working out Tony’s new scenes and the rest of the crew is out at the catering truck, so I shouldn’t be getting in anyone’s way. While I’m between the makeup room and the green room, one of the young starlets sees me walking around and because I probably look like I’m lost, she offers to help me. I can see why there’s so much trouble in celebrity marriages. With all this temptation around, it’s a wonder that any of them stay married. She asks me if I live in the neighborhood, because she does too, and she hasn’t seen me around before.

  When I tell her that I live on a boat in the Marina, she excitedly tells me that I’m just like her dad… he likes boats too. She wonders if I know him. I tell her that we probably have met at the Marina in the senior citizens’ center. A reality check like this is never welcome, but it brings home the fact that I will never be with a bea
utiful young starlet unless I’m a big movie star or a producer – and neither of those careers is on my horizon. But I could easily settle for a thirty-six-year-old female District Attorney I know.

  *****

  I never realized how much is entailed in the production of a movie. The various rooms in this building contain well-lit make-up desks, wardrobe racks, a large area with flat sections of walls that resemble the interiors of different rooms, a prop department with all sorts of things, an editing room with numerous monitors and hi-end video equipment, a camera and grip storage room, and one other that has a ‘no admittance’ sign on the outside of the door.

  Anything sign telling me to keep out of some place invariably becomes a definite invitation for me to go in. That’s always been a certainty with guys like me. I try the doorknob and it’s open, so I stick my head into the room and look around. This was a waste of my time. There’s nothing in the room but a bunch of DVD recorders like the one on my boat, and a machine that I looks like something I’ve never seen before anywhere but on the bridge of Captain Kirk’s Starship Enterprise. I have no idea what it is, but I do see that it some large glass doors on the front, and through them I can see some reels, with what looks like film on them. My guess is that the film goes from one reel, through some other parts of the machine, and then winds around the other reel. All I can see that is recognizable is a small label that identifies this device a ‘Rank Telecine.’ I don’t know what it does other than probably cost a lot of money.

  When I pass by Joe’s office, everyone else is gone, but Joe is still in a conference with Tony. The absence of gunfire is a sign that everything is under control, so I’m leaving the building. I like to quit when I’m ahead.

  *****

  Dean Doheny is a friend of mine who works in the advertising business, and I’ve asked him to see if he can find out anything he can about Hershel’s plans to use a spokesperson. I’d like to know if there’s any possibility that he has Olive in mind for that position, and if the position will ever exist.