He called her on her cell phone on Friday afternoon on the set. She sounded busy and he apologized for bothering her, and told her he had a number of questions to go over with her, to be sure that everything was in order and that he fully understood her expenses in the ledger.
“Can you talk to Brigitte about it?” she asked, sounding distracted. They had fallen slightly behind that week due to bad weather and a lot of changes in the script. She was worried that they were going to go over budget on location.
“I can,” Victor answered her cautiously. Sometimes he drove her crazy, he was such a nitpicker, but that was what she paid him for. She just didn’t have the time to spend on it with him at the moment, or she really didn’t want to. “But I’d rather ask you. You’re the one who’s responsible for your taxes, if Brigitte or I make a mistake. I’d rather hear it from the horse’s mouth. When will you be back in L.A.?”
“This weekend. But I’ll be back here on Monday morning.”
“Would you like to meet on Sunday?” he offered, and Tallie sighed, thinking about it. She wanted to spend her time off with Hunt, not Victor, but she knew he’d drive her crazy till she agreed to meet with him. She might as well get it over with, and figured she could do it on Sunday morning when Hunt played tennis. It wasn’t how she wanted to spend her Sunday, but she agreed to meet him at ten-thirty at his office to answer his inquiries. He promised he’d make it quick. Brianna liked to go to the Polo Lounge at the Beverly Hills Hotel for Sunday brunch, and she wouldn’t be happy about his working either.
When Tallie went back to L.A. that night, Hunt had good news for her, and he was making a wonderful dinner.
“Well, we passed the audit with flying colors.” Hunt beamed at her. “Mr. Nakamura is happy with everything, and they’re going to draw up the papers next week. I guess that means that neither of us is going broke, nor a crook.” He kissed her and she smiled too, and told him about her meeting with Victor on Sunday. “I had one of those meetings with him this week too. I swear, he wants to know everything I ate at every restaurant and was I talking business while I did.” They both laughed about their persnickety accountant, but Tallie commented that she was sure he was why she had never had an audit by the IRS, because he was so precise and so honest, and Brigitte kept such good track of her books. Problems with the IRS would be a headache, and she had always assiduously avoided them by being honest and cautious. So it was worth putting up with how thorough Victor was, and sometimes how annoying.
“I’ll meet with him when you play tennis,” she told Hunt. “He said it would be quick. The last thing I want to do is spend my Sunday with Victor.” They both laughed at the idea.
Hunt and Tallie spent a relaxing weekend. Tallie caught up on some errands and things she wanted to do. It was nice to have some time in the city before she had to go back to Palm Springs again. She visited her father on Saturday afternoon, and spent several hours with him. He wanted to hear all about how the film was going, and they sat in his garden and chatted while she filled him in. And on Sunday, when Hunt went to play tennis, she went to Victor’s office for the meeting she had promised him. He was waiting for her in a suit and tie. Tallie was wearing torn blue jeans, her high-tops, and a faded sweatshirt whose only virtue was that it was clean.
“Thank you for coming in on Sunday, Victor,” she said politely. “My schedule is crazy right now while we’re on location. It sounds like everything went great with the audit. Our investor notified us on Friday that he’s satisfied. I really appreciate everything you did.”
“That’s my job,” he said, as he adjusted his glasses and sat down. He had a list in front of him on his desk. The questions that applied to the California Use Tax were on the top of his list. He reminded her that it applied to her daughter too, and that anything she bought in New York and brought back to California had to have state tax paid on it. It seemed like a terrible burden to Tallie, but it was the law. And she said that Brigitte kept a careful record of everything they bought out of state and reported it to him. Victor was relieved and said that many of his clients forgot and got in trouble for it later on. He had questions about employees, several independent contractors that he wanted to verify with her. And as he droned down the list, Tallie found herself thinking that he could have done a lot of it with Brigitte. He had recategorized the apartment in Paris as a personal rather than a business expense, and he reminded her that she could only take Max as a dependent as long as she remained a full-time student, which Tallie already knew. He had told her several times. And then he scolded her for the amount of money she spent in cash every month.
“I can’t use it as a tax deduction when I don’t know what you spend it on,” he complained.
“Ice cream, parking meters, Starbucks. I don’t think you’re missing any big deductions, Victor,” she said with a rueful look.
“You must drink a lot of Starbucks then. From what I can tell, you’re spending about twenty-five thousand dollars a month in cash.” He tried not to look disapproving, but he was unhappy about it. That was a lot of deductions to miss.
“Twenty-five thousand? That’s impossible, I don’t think I spend more than two hundred a month in cash, maybe one. I use my credit card for everything I buy, even if it’s just shampoo,” and Brigitte usually bought that for her too. She bought all of Tallie’s personal supplies for her. There was very little that Tallie had to do herself. Brigitte took wonderful care of all her needs, and often thought of them before Tallie did herself. “Victor, that’s crazy. You must be looking at the wrong amount or the wrong column or something. There’s no way I’m spending twenty-five thousand a month in cash.”
“That’s what I show. There are checks made out to cash, and they’re being cashed at the bank. Do you leave the cash lying around the house?”
“Of course not. Half the time I have to borrow money for coffee, especially when Max is here. She helps herself in my bag, but not to twenty-five thousand dollars. That has to be a mistake.” She was certain of it.
“No, it’s not,” he insisted. “That’s why I wanted to have this conversation with you. I’m concerned about the lost deductions, and even more so if you don’t know what you’re spending it on, or don’t know what you spent.” He made it sound as though she were irresponsible and careless and couldn’t keep track of her own money.
“Look at my credit card statements. For anything over five or ten dollars, I use my card.”
“Then how would you explain a twenty-five-thousand-dollar cash expenditure every month? Is Brigitte using that much cash for you?”
“No, Brigitte uses a credit card too. We have a joint card for anything she buys for me.” He knew that, he saw it in her accounts. “I don’t think she uses much cash either.”
“Well, somebody is spending it. You need to find out who, if you’re not.” He was visibly worried about it on her behalf, and Tallie was concerned too. To Victor, it was a black hole in her accounts. “If you round that up, annually, over the last three years, it comes to close to a million dollars. You can’t just lose track of that kind of money.”
“Obviously,” she said, mystified. “I’ll talk to Brigitte. Maybe she’s paying for something in cash that I don’t know about. Since she pays the bills, I don’t know what she’s using the credit card for, or checks, or maybe cash. I’ll ask her,” Tallie said, although she looked less concerned than Victor. She was certain that there was a reasonable explanation for it. And Brigitte kept a very careful record of her accounts. Victor had always been satisfied before. But the recent audit had allowed him to do some fine-tuning, and look at the overall picture more carefully, and he never liked to press his clients about what they were spending unless they were in financial trouble, which Tallie certainly wasn’t, but he didn’t want her to lose track of that much money either. It was a very large amount. He didn’t like his clients using cash for just that reason—no one could ever remember what they spent it on, and Tallie was no different. Victor was sure the mone
y had been spent legitimately, but he wanted to know for what, and by whom. Tallie promised to find out. She knew without a doubt that Brigitte would have the answer to his question.
After that, he ran down a list of bills that he wanted to verify with her, to double-check that they sounded accurate. Clothing for Max, some artwork Tallie had bought in New York, and several gifts for Hunt, among them a gold watch. He was always very generous with her too. And at the end of the list, several travel expenses, airfare, and the local hotels that he had also questioned Hunt about.
“Hunt explained to me the other day about the local hotels.” He was no longer concerned about that, but he had wanted to be sure. Victor could see from her accounts that they frequently stayed at several local hotels, although they had stopped showing up on her credit card statements for the past year. They had been on her credit card bills for about three years before that, and now they were only on Hunt’s. Apparently Hunt was paying for the hotels now since the charges still showed up on his statements right up to the present, and no longer on Tallie’s.
“What local hotels?” Tallie asked in answer to what he’d said.
“The ones where you stay with Hunt.” Victor was prepared to move on. He was meeting Brianna for lunch, and he had covered all the ground he wanted to with Tallie, particularly the cash.
“I don’t stay at local hotels with Hunt,” she said simply. “I only stay at hotels out of town, when I’m traveling or on location, like right now in Palm Springs. I have a room booked there for a couple of months, but that’s a business expense.”
Victor looked surprised. “You have a few charges at the Bel-Air, and quite a lot of them at the Chateau Marmont and the Sunset Marquis. I’ve got three years of charges there on your statements, although none for this year. And Hunt has them on his statement too. He says he rents rooms sometimes for meetings with foreign investors, and that he stayed there with you.”
“He must have misunderstood. We’ve never stayed at any of those hotels, except once we stayed at the Bel-Air when I was having work done at the house. That has to be a mistake.” And then suddenly Tallie wondered if Brigitte had used their joint credit card for some of her racy little flings. She knew that Brigitte had a fairly active romantic life, and Tallie was sure that if she had used the card for that, maybe because she didn’t have her own card with her, she would have reimbursed it in some other way, which Victor might not be aware of. “Maybe it’s Brigitte. I’ll ask her about that too,” although she didn’t love the idea of Brigitte using the credit card for her romantic trysts.
She was sure Brigitte wouldn’t let her pay for it in the long run, but she might have used the card initially, which she really shouldn’t. It didn’t sound like her. She was so diligent and businesslike, and so careful with Tallie’s accounts. There had never been any question about it before. It was the investor’s audit which had brought it to light. Tallie said she would get the explanation from Brigitte about the hotel charges and the cash. Victor dropped the subject of the hotel charges. He didn’t want to press it. Hunt had been absolutely clear that he had stayed at those hotels with Tallie, and she was saying they never had. It sounded like delicate ground to Victor. It wasn’t the first time that something like that had come to light in one of his clients’ accounts, and it could be extremely awkward. He didn’t want to insist, but he definitely wanted to know about the cash, which was of much greater concern to him and a far larger amount than the hotel stays. He reminded Tallie about the cash again before she left.
She wasn’t worried about it as she drove back to the house, but she wanted to check it out to satisfy Victor. Brigitte would know, and she seriously wondered if Brigitte had been charging her little hotel stays to their joint credit card account. If not, Tallie wondered if it was a case of identify theft. That had happened to her before too, where someone got her credit card number and was running around to stores, and charging things to her account. She had had to change her credit card numbers several times because of that. At least there had been no local hotel charges on her bill for the past year, so they must have straightened it out. And she had no idea why Hunt had said he had stayed at those hotels with her, since they never had. She was sure that Victor was confused.
Other than that, it sounded like everything was fine and her accounts were in good order.
Hunt got home from his tennis game five minutes after she walked in. He was hot and sweaty, and she was making a big salad for lunch. Despite her lack of skills in the kitchen, even she could do that. He was in good spirits, he had won. He was very competitive on the tennis court, and at most games. He played hard, and usually took it badly when he lost. From the grin on his face, it looked like it had been a good day.
“How was Victor?” he asked, helping himself to some Gatorade in the fridge.
“Fine. The poor thing asks a million questions and worries about everything. And he’s a little confused about some of it. He says I’m spending too much cash, and I don’t spend any. I always use my credit card. I have to make sure Brig isn’t using cash to pay for things or for bills, because that way we lose deductions. That’s what he was upset about. I’m sure Brig has the explanation. I don’t.” And then she wanted to mention the hotel bills to him, but she didn’t know how to do it without sounding accusing. She thought that maybe she should ask Brigitte first, in case she had been charging hotel bills to her when she stayed there with her boyfriends. If so, Tallie was certain that she had reimbursed her, probably by depositing a check or cash to one of Tallie’s accounts. And Victor wouldn’t have known what it was for. And there again, there was surely an explanation. So she didn’t say anything to Hunt. She was sure that the confusion was at her end. What she needed to do was check it all with Brigitte and get back to Victor with the simple explanation.
They spent a cozy, relaxed afternoon together and sat chatting in the garden after lunch. Tallie was loving being home. She was getting tired of being on location, but she reminded herself that it was a lot less arduous and unpleasant than some of the locations she’d been to in the past, like India during a monsoon, or Africa during a civil war. Palm Springs certainly couldn’t be considered a hardship and at least it was close to home.
And as Tallie and Hunt were relaxing in her garden, Victor was having lunch with Brianna at the Polo Lounge at the Beverly Hills Hotel. She had been annoyed when he kept her waiting for half an hour, but he explained that he had had to finish his meeting with Tallie. And Brianna was irritated that he had to work on a Sunday. She thought he looked like an undertaker in the suit and tie. She had suggested he wear jeans and a button-down shirt, but Victor wouldn’t do that, out of respect for his clients, whether it was Sunday or not.
Victor and Brianna had been passing like ships in the night for several days. She seemed to be out a lot these days, and he had been tied up with the audit.
“I’m sorry I’ve been so busy lately. It should calm down now,” he said apologetically. She looked beautiful in a tight white dress with a low neckline she had bought that week at Roberto Cavalli. Her cleavage looked remarkable in it.
“It’s okay,” she said quietly. She waited until they were having coffee to drop the bomb. She took a breath and leaped in. “I want five million dollars,” she said bluntly.
“What for? So do I,” he said with a smile.
“To stay married to you,” she said coldly. She was suddenly all business, and not nearly as inviting as she looked. “And an amount every year that we can negotiate. But I want the five million up front.”
“What is this? A business deal or a marriage?” he asked, looking upset. “I don’t have that kind of money,” he said, looking her in the eye.
“You used to.”
“I don’t anymore.” And if he did, he still wouldn’t have paid her to stay married to him. That was pure blackmail. “Pay, or I’ll leave” was the message to him loud and clear.
“What about three million?” she asked. She was willing to negotiate with
him. “But if you don’t pay it, I’m leaving. I can’t sit there penniless all the time. I need to know that there’s some money in the bank, just for me. It will make me feel secure.” Her secure, and him broke, Victor thought to himself.
“Brianna, I just don’t have it.” He didn’t know why her lawyer had put the idea of a postnup into her head, but it was destroying their marriage overnight.
“If you don’t give it to me,” she said coolly while he paid the check, “I’m going to leave you. I can’t be married to a man who doesn’t want me to be happy.” Her happiness came at a high price. She had made herself clear. Victor looked pale as they waited for their car outside the hotel, and they drove home in silence. He could see where this was headed. Either he paid the postnup, or he paid alimony and a settlement. He was so upset that he ran a red light and they nearly had an accident. He had never felt so panicked in his life.
Chapter 5
ON THE WAY to Palm Springs with Brigitte the next morning, Tallie mentioned her conversation with Victor about the cash.
“Are you paying some of the bills in cash?” Tallie asked her as she sipped a light vanilla latte from Starbucks on the way. They had stopped for it as they left town.
“Of course not. What’s he talking about?” Brigitte looked annoyed. “I pay all the bills by check, or credit card. He knows that.”
“That’s what I thought. I don’t see how he can think we’re spending that much in cash. I knew we weren’t. Maybe he screwed up the accounts.” Anything was possible. Maybe it was a bookkeeping mistake at his end. Tallie thought that was more likely than she or Brigitte spending twenty-five thousand a month in cash, which would have been astounding and sounded utterly impossible to her.
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