by Susan Lewis
Cavan looked at Michelle for clarification.
‘Julio Chavés,’ she explained. ‘The ex-member of Pastillano’s death squad.’
Cavan turned back to Chambers. ‘Since when?’ he asked.
‘Since Pastillano sent for him this morning,’ Chambers answered, dashing a hand through his dishevelled dark hair. His handsome, beard-roughened face was pale with exhaustion, his clothes were crumpled and his imposing physique was taut with frustration.
Michelle looked at him and knew that ordinarily she would have found this man irresistible. But the more she got to know him, the more, in his character if not in his looks, he reminded her of Michael. And she, so he had told her, was too much like Rachel, the woman he had loved and still longed for every day. So they had agreed a long time ago never to muddy their relationship with futile attempts to take more from the other than platonic love and friendship.
‘Did you manage to get from him the whereabouts of the Inferno?’ she asked.
Chambers shook his head. ‘I spoke to him for all of two minutes on the phone last night,’ he answered. ‘All he said was he’d meet me today at three to tell me what I wanted to know, in exchange for safe passage for him and his wife out of Brazil. When he didn’t show I called his wife and she told me Pastillano sent someone for him this morning.’ He drained his glass, then looked at Michelle. ‘We won’t see him again,’ he said bluntly, ‘nor will his wife.’
‘Is she safe?’ Michelle asked.
He nodded. ‘She knows nothing and even if she did, her husband disappearing the way he has is enough to keep her silent.’ He looked at Cavan for a moment, then, lowering his head he pressed his fingers to his eyes, as though to rub out the blur of tiredness. ‘There was a message,’ he said, looking at them again.
Michelle frowned. ‘Message?’
‘For me,’ he elaborated, ‘from Senhor Pastillano himself. Oh, he didn’t sign it, he didn’t even lay claim to it, but it’s from him all right,’ he went on, when both Cavan and Michelle looked incredulous. ‘He left word with Teresa Chavés, advising me to leave Rio by the end of the week and take you two with me. In other words no one is fooled by your charity work.’
Michelle’s eyes flashed. ‘We’re British and United States citizens,’ she declared. ‘He can’t threaten us.’
Cavan glanced at her.
‘Our nationality provides only a certain protection,’ Chambers informed her. ‘You’ve got to remember, these men are experts at making executions look like accidents or shoot-outs. If they need to kill us they will, don’t make any mistake about that.’
‘You’re surely not thinking of going,’ Michelle demanded hotly.
‘Me, no,’ Chambers answered. ‘But I want you to think hard about what we’re up against here so you can make your own decisions whether you stay or go.’
‘There’s no question, we’re staying,’ Michelle declared.
Cavan looked at her again, but Chambers was already speaking. ‘Then we’re going to have to take certain precautions,’ he said, ‘starting with Cara and the children out at the villa.’
Ted Forgon looked up from the report in front of him and fixed Ellen with sharp, baleful eyes. ‘What’s this?’ he said, gesturing to the half-page of typewritten notes. ‘I send you over to London for two weeks and you come back with this! Is it some kind of joke?’
‘No,’ Ellen replied shortly. She was standing in front of his desk, her hands clenched loosely in front of her. She’d arrived back in LA three days ago while Forgon was out of town, so this was the first time she’d seen him and in truth she was glad to be getting it over with, for the suspense had been almost as bad as the embarrassment she still felt for the way she’d handled things in London. God only knew what Michael McCann thought of her now, all she knew was that she couldn’t stop thinking about him.
‘So you went out to dinner with the guy, repeated the offer and when he said no you left? Is that right?’ Forgon asked. ‘I mean, this is what it says here.’ His incredulity was struggling with his anger and for the moment winning.
‘That’s what happened,’ she answered.
Forgon dropped the report on his desk and, sitting back in his chair, he steepled his fingers and looked at her. ‘I take it you’re going to try again,’ he said.
Ellen shook her head. ‘It’s a waste of time,’ she replied frankly. ‘He’s not going to come, no matter what you offer him.’
Forgon’s face tightened. ‘If I’d taken no for an answer every time I got it I’d be out there picking strawberries on Knotts Berry Farm,’ he said darkly.
Ellen didn’t respond.
His temper suddenly broke. ‘What the hell’s gotten into you?’ he demanded. ‘You see the man once, he tells you no way and you get up and walk like the movie’s over. Did you hear anything I said before you went?’
‘I heard everything,’ Ellen answered, her cheeks flushing as she dropped her eyes for a moment. God only knew if she had the nerve for this, but Matty was right, he stood to gain nothing from publishing those pictures and if there wasn’t anything in it for him there didn’t seem any reason to do it. So all she could do now, providing her courage held out, was try calling his bluff.
‘Then I suggest you get yourself back out there and work a bit harder,’ he growled, ‘’cos you haven’t only lost twenty grand here, Ellen, you’re fast losing my respect too. Jesus Christ! Call yourself an agent! When did you ever pull off a deal by walking out at the first hurdle?’
‘But it isn’t the first hurdle,’ she reminded him. ‘You’ve sent three other agents over there and the answer’s always the same. And now I’m telling you even if you send fifty-three it’s never going to change.’
‘Then you get the fuck back over there and make it change!’ he shouted.
‘He won’t work for you!’ Ellen shouted back. ‘And face it, would you, if you were him? You keep saying how smart he is, so why do you think he’s going to be dumb enough to sell out to you when he knows all you’re after is destroying him?’
‘Jesus Christ! Did you tell him that?’ Forgon blustered.
‘Of course not. I didn’t have to, he can work these things out for himself. So even if I went down on my knees and begged him, he’ll never give you what you want.’
‘Then maybe you should consider doing something else while you’re down there on your knees,’ he suggested, his eyes glittering with malice.
‘Oh for God’s sake!’ she spat. ‘If you think all it would take to change his mind is a blow job then you’re losing it, Ted.’
‘No! It’s you who’s losing it,’ he told her. ‘Because if I put those pictures to press you can kiss goodbye to all the credibility you built up in this town, ’cos Ingall doesn’t screw clever women, everyone knows that.’
‘Wrong, he did,’ Ellen shot back.
Forgon laughed nastily. ‘You’re so smart you got yourself photographed nuddy and didn’t even know it,’ he reminded her. ‘Now, like I said, get yourself back over there to London and work on McCann until he gives us what we want.’
‘Then I’ll need to apply for British residency,’ she said, her face drawn with anger, ‘because a visa waiver won’t be long enough.’
‘Save the wisecracks for your folks when you try explaining how come their precious girl is getting poked by Clay Ingall in front of a camera,’ he snarled.
Ellen paled. ‘You said you didn’t have any copies of the polaroids,’ she said quietly.
Forgon’s eyes narrowed as he smirked. ‘Ellen,’ he said, ‘the gods have been smiling on you these past few years. You been out there swimming about with the sharks, like the little angelfish you are and you never even caught so much as a cold. My, have you been blessed. Now why do you think that is? Oh, you’re smart – or at least you were – you know how to put a deal together and you know when to duck and when to dive. But you’ve never been out there when the waters get so rough you can’t see who’s coming at you any more. And that’s just wh
ere you’re heading when those pictures hit the news-stands and the results won’t be pretty, let me tell you. So now, do as I say and start working on a new strategy to get McCann over here …’
‘For God’s sake, this is an obsession with you!’ she cried. ‘You’re never going to get him! He doesn’t trust you, he doesn’t respect you and he sure as hell doesn’t need you, so why don’t you just let it go?’
Forgon’s eyes bulged as his face turned purple with rage. ‘I’m sorry,’ Ellen jumped in quickly, fearing for his heart. ‘I didn’t mean to lose my temper, but I’m trying to make you understand that people are laughing at you out there, the way you keep going after McCann, then firing your best people when they don’t come up with the goods. It’s not him you’re destroying, Ted, it’s yourself. So please, before it’s too late, let it go and get on with your life.’
Forgon’s face was twitching as his fists clenched on the desk. ‘If people are laughing at me out there,’ he raged, ‘then they’re going to be laughing a whole lot louder at you when they see you …’
‘Then do it!’ she shouted. ‘Print them. I don’t know what you’ll gain from it, but I’m telling you it won’t be McCann. In fact, as far as I can see the only thing you’re going to get is an empty office on the third floor when I go.’
‘Is that a threat?’ he demanded.
‘Of course it’s not a threat!’ she seethed. ‘It’s a fact. I can’t stay here if you’re going all out to humiliate me and ruin my reputation.’
He stared at her hard, watching her with his sharp, flinty eyes as his chest rose and fell with the exertion of his fury. She looked back, refusing to be cowed by a man whose obsession was making him as pathetic as his synthetic hair.
‘You really don’t think I’ll do it, do you?’ he said in the end.
Ignoring the question she said, ‘I think you should know that McCann’s offered me a job.’
Forgon’s eyes opened wide with shock and for a moment, as his face turned purple again and saliva appeared at the corners of his mouth, Ellen was afraid she really had gone too far. ‘So that’s what all this is about,’ he sneered. ‘The bastard’s done it again. I send you over there to screw him into coming and he screws you into staying.’ He laughed bitterly. ‘I had a bet with Manny that you and McCann would get it on …’
‘We didn’t,’ Ellen interrupted.
Forgon’s surprise showed. ‘So how come he offered you a job?’ he said. ‘No, no, don’t tell me. He did it to piss me off. Well he’s succeeded. And if you go, then you better call up your folks now and warn ’em about the publicity coming their way.’
‘I’m not going. I turned it down,’ she answered. ‘But not because I knew you’d threaten me, because I don’t want to leave my country any more than McCann wants to leave his.’
‘Well that’s about the first sensible thing I’ve heard you say here today,’ Forgon told her. ‘Now I don’t want to hear any more of this print-and-be-damned nonsense, ’cos in this game the dice never stop rolling and you’d do well to remember that. You got a great talent list, you’re a name here in LA and when I finally vacate this seat it’ll be to someone like you I’ll be looking to take over. Yes,’ he said, when he saw the shock register on her face, ‘that’s how highly I rate you. You still got a lot to learn, but you’ll get there and when you do you’ll be one of the most powerful women in Hollywood. That’s what I can do for you. It’s what I want to do for you.’ He sat forward and fixed her with a look that made her skin prickle. ‘But I can crush you too,’ he said savagely. ‘I can make it so that pretty butt of yours never hits another chair in this town or any other. Remember that, Ellen. Remember who gave you all the breaks, who got you the high-end talent and who keeps those waters still when the sharks start coming. You don’t know the half of what this town’s like, because you’ve never had to deal with the shit. I’ve made sure of that, just like I make sure you get all the good deals and the praise that goes with them. I’ve been there every step of the way for you, Ellen Shelby, and you didn’t even know it. Well, I’m telling you now, so’s you’ll know better the next time you come in here telling me I’m a laughing-stock in my own town. I want McCann and I want him here in Hollywood. So you take yourself back to the drawing-board and get to work on a strategy that doesn’t include walking out the first no you get. Do you hear me?’
Ellen’s face was strained as the ignominy of his words fell like stones on her professional pride. ‘I hear you,’ she said tersely.
‘Now get the hell out of here,’ he grunted.
Five days later Ellen was preparing Sunday lunch for Matty, who had just returned from Mexico where she’d filmed a small part in an independent. It had come from an audition Ellen had set up before going to London and now, though she said nothing to Matty, Ellen couldn’t help wondering whether it was Matty’s talent that had got her the part, or if Ted Forgon had exercised his ubiquitous powers of persuasion. She despised him for the way he had claimed that she was nothing without him, that all her accomplishments had been nothing more than curtain calls while he staged the real performance somewhere behind the scenes. ‘You know,’ she said, stirring the gravy as Matty refilled their glasses with wine, ‘if he didn’t have those god-damned photographs I’d have told him there and then what he could do with his job and I’d be out there now, getting it together as a producer. Christ, I’ve got enough contacts and the man can’t have a finger in every Hollywood pie. Can he?’
Matty pulled a face. ‘When it comes to the power freaks running this town,’ she said, ‘anything’s possible. A lot of them go back a long way and who ever knows who’s done who a favour on the way up? But I just don’t buy him being behind everything you do. OK, so he might have given you a few breaks, but there’s just no way he’s baby-stepping you through. Why would he, when there’re dozens of people out there perfectly qualified to do your job? And besides, you don’t need him to succeed when what you really want is to produce. If you wanted to be a hot-shot agent, then yeah, maybe you’d do well to stick with the old goat, but if you ask me, I reckon it’s time to get out of there and go for what you really want.’
‘He’s got copies of the polaroids,’ Ellen reminded her.
‘So he tells you,’ Matty retorted. ‘The truth is, the guy’s running scared you’re going to take up McCann’s offer and make him look an even bigger jerk than he already does, hair notwithstanding. That’s why he told you he’s been cutting up the cake so’s you get all the cream, so you’ll start doubting yourself, the way you are now, when he knows damned well you’re the best agent he’s got. And sure, he’ll probably put you in the chair at ATI when his heart finally gives out, but it’s interesting he told you that after you told him about McCann’s offer, don’t you think? So see it for what it is, more incentive not to go to London, just like all that shit about sharks and angelfish and behind the scenes manoeuvring was meant to make you think you’re incapable of pulling down a deal without him.’ She shook her head incredulously. ‘Talk about mind games, the sonofabitch makes Svengali look like Old Man Walton.’
Ellen laughed and reaching for a towel, lifted a crisp, sizzling chicken from the oven. ‘OK, enough about Forgon,’ she said, lowering the gas under the gravy. ‘Tell me about Gene. How’s it working out? Did he move in yet?’
Matty’s lovely dark features melted into an exaggerated display of romance. ‘Forsooth, he doth leave flowers on the pillow in the morn time so I’ll find them when I get back at night,’ she intoned soulfully. ‘He writeth me poems and calleth me every day while I’m away. Can it be that the man is in love?’
Ellen’s eyes were dancing with laughter. ‘Are you serious?’ she said. ‘Does he really write you poems?’
‘You can read them if you like,’ Matty offered.
‘And the flowers?’
‘Red roses, every day and I’m a sucker for it all. I mean, it works for me, this romance thing. I’m done with all that hard to get shit, or, “hey cookie, loo
k at all this emotional baggage I’m bringing to our relationship and guess who’s in the first suitcase: my mother!” Just give me a man who makes me feel like I’m the most special woman in the world and that there was never a life until he met me and honey, I’m there.’
Ellen was laughing. ‘Is he working?’ she asked.
‘Yeah, as a matter of fact he’s just got himself signed up as personal trainer to the cast of some bimbo-and-brawn movie they’re shooting over at Paramount.’
‘Good for him,’ Ellen remarked. ‘Does he get a part in it himself?’
‘He might. Gee, that smells good, Ellen. Where are we eating, in here or out on the veranda?’
‘I’ve put the parasol up, so we should be OK outside,’ Ellen answered. ‘If it gets too hot we’ll just come back in. Did you bring your swim-suit so we can take a dip later?’
‘Sure. Can I carry something through? Oh hell, does your phone never stop, even at weekends?’
‘The machine’s on,’ Ellen informed her. ‘I promised us a day together and I intend to honour the promise.’
Matty’s eyes started to dance, but she said nothing until they were sitting down at the table ready to eat. ‘Does the promise still stand if Michael McCann happens to call?’ she asked nonchalantly.
Ellen’s fork stopped in mid-air, then returned to her plate. ‘There goes my appetite,’ she said, waiting for her heart to settle.
‘Sorry,’ Matty apologized. ‘So,’ she said, taking a mouthful of food and starting to chew, ‘did you call him yet?’
Ellen shook her head. ‘There’s no point,’ she answered. ‘He’s not interested in the offer and I’ll feel such a god-damned idiot asking him again. It’ll be like, does the woman have a hearing problem?’
‘Would you be so reticent if you didn’t fancy him?’ Matty asked bluntly.
Ellen’s eyes moved to hers. ‘Maybe, maybe not,’ she answered. ‘It’s hard to say. All I know is whatever happened that night we had dinner didn’t get left behind when I walked out the door. It went back to the hotel with me and now it’s come all the way home with me. I can’t get him out of my mind and it’s driving me nuts, especially when he couldn’t have made it clearer that he wasn’t interested in me. I mean, OK, he offered me a job, but when I turned it down, did he try to persuade me? Did he hell! Did he try to change my mind about going to Scotland? Did he come after me when I walked out? There was plenty of time for him to see me again before I left, but he didn’t even call. And when I called him …’ She stopped and shuddered. ‘I don’t even want to think about it I feel such a fool. I mean, he knew I was coming on to him, I’m sure of it, but he just told me to take care of myself and that was it. Or it should have been, but I had to go and tell him I’d buy him dinner if he was ever in LA and he didn’t even answer. Oh God, I want to die.’ She closed her eyes and groaned. ‘It doesn’t make any sense. Here I am, surrounded by the world’s most gorgeous hunks and talented movie stars and I don’t feel a thing. Five minutes with Michael McCann and I’m hotter than Sharon Stone on a good day, except I don’t look that good. But you should have seen him, Matty. He’s so gorgeous I swear you’d have thrown yourself at him too.’