The Movie (49 page)

Eleanor tapped her long, elegant fingernails on top of B.osen’s list. ‘We’ve got three major breaches right there, Tom. And it will be a splashy trial. I’ll turn it into a feminist cause cle’bre, and the nation can turn a spotlight on how Hollywood treats women - all women, not just the handful of us who make it to senior executive level. Pemember when Dawn Steel was president of Production at Paramount, and they ousted her while she was in labour with her little girl? Nice, huh? Well, they can forget abou

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trying that with me. Or I’m going to make every Artemis stockholder rue the day they were born.’

Tom Goldman sat back, gazing at her in total shock. He opened his mouth to say something, but no words came

out.

‘What about Jake’s phn for See the Lights?’ he managed eventually. ‘We have to rescue that picture, Eleanor. We’re looking at a hundred-fieen-million-dolhr loss! We can’t survive it!’

‘We couldn’t survive a loss that size, true. But we aren’t going to take a loss. I spoke to Fred Florescu this morning, and he tells me that they’ll be all done in a month, and what they finally have down is awesome. Now, let’s talk about Mr Keller.’ She reached for her briefcase, unlocking it, drew out the sheaves of memos and e-mail messages and passed them across the desk to her boss.

‘What are these?’ Goldman asked, mystified.

‘These are copies of my original memos, laying out all

the location sites and production details we had decided on, after I took reports from my location scouts.’ Tom nodded. ‘And these are copies from Jake Keller’s computer, showing where he altered them. The discrepancies are highlighted in bold type. You’ll see that most of the changes are minor-one beach versus another, that kind of thing - although the changes resulted in lost hours and costly reshoots. Keller was switching locations to nature reserves, protected or, dangerous areas, or beaches where the t/de would come in too fast and cause a shoot to be abandoned.’

‘But’ how could this have happened without you noticing?’

She nodded. ‘You’re right. And that was my fauh; it won’t happen again. I was too trusting, it never occurred to me that a senior executive at this studio would actually stoop to sabotage. But Jake asked me to sign off on some “minor changes”, as he put it. The big one I missed was the

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warning about the weather in the Seychelles. I advised the crew to switch to Hawaii if ftlming hadn’t wrapped by a certain date, to avoid the rainy season. And Jake deleted that from my instructions.’

‘I don’t believe it,’ Tom said, dumbfounded.

‘Nor did I, but there’s your proof. If you access his computer now, before he arrives, you’ll see the same thing yourselŁ. And there is one other matter - casting. Jake’s condemnation of me for picking P,.oxana, and then his desire to enlarge her part.’

‘We did have major trouble with loxana, Eleanor. We still do,’ Goldman said, feeling he should make some kind of a rally on the studio’s behalŁ. The documents he was holding seemed to smoke in his hands. Jesus Christ? How come I never thought to investigate, either? he asked himself, utterly dismayed.

‘Yes. Ahd perhaps these will explain some of that,’ Eleanor told him, passing across one final pile of papers. ‘I pulled them out of Jake Keller’s private e-mail frle. They’re faxes sent to David Tauber at the Mridien Hotel, Anse Polite, Seychelles, discussing R.oxana Felix’s deliberate disruption of the shoot, and when it would be best for her to start working properly - after I had been fired.’

Tom Goldman took them and glanced through them, his face darkening’.

‘Cancel the production meeti.ng, Tom. You can reschedule it a week from now. That’ll give you time to discuss Keller with our lawyers.’

‘Very well,’ he said quietly. ‘What excuse should I give?’ ‘Unfortunately, you don’t have to give them an excuse,’ Eleanor told him. ‘The main reason Florescu rang me this morning is that Zach Mason and Megan Silver are missing.’ She gave him a brief description of her phone call. ‘You can tell them that I had to fly out to Mah6 this morning to supervise a rescue effort. In my absence, you’ll. be taking over my responsibilities. P, fght?’

4oz

‘RAght.’ Goldman paused, leant towards her. ‘Eleanor,

l—’

‘Save it.’ She gave him a quick smile. ‘We can talk when I get back.’

4o2

‘I hope you can appreciate, Mrs Kendrick, that we have only been conducting the investigation for a matter of days,’ Grant Booth said nervously, as he watched Isabelle sort through the foolscap document wallet, occasionally holding up a photograph to the light, her face expressionless. ‘I realize that there is a certain lack ofwimesses to the findings we have come up with so far. We normally obtain at least ten itnesses per incident or fact that we allege took place.’

‘Can you get me more wimesses to “this?’ Isabelle enquired.

Booth nodded hastily, flicking a finger across the navy blue sleeve of his suit, a masterpiece of immaculate tailoring by Tumball & Asset in London, as if removing an imaginary piece of lint. It was so important to impress Mrs Kndrick. Not only was she paying them more than handsomely, she was a ocial power in the city. Her recommendation to the wives and ex-wives of Hollywood moguls could double the firm’s, revenue in a year. He would bend over backwards to please her. Indeed, he would contort himself into any position the lady required.

‘Certainly, madam, certainly. And we have various employees doing just that as we speak. But since the story that was emerging was so, uh, so surprising, we felt you would want to have the basic skeleton of the matter right away. An interim report, if you like.’

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Isabelle closed the lid of the document wallet. ‘Can I keep these?’ she asked.

‘Please, be my guest.’ Booth nodded reassuringly. ‘We hav9 several copies of everything.’

Isabelle nodded, pushed back her chair and stood up to leave.

‘Is - is everything satisfactory so far, Mrs Kenddck?’ he asked her anxiously.

For the first time that morning, Isabelle Kendrick avoured him with a slight smile. ‘I look forward to receiving your ull report, Mr Booth, but I must say your work so far has been excellent.’ She glanced coolly down at the document wallet, placed neatly inside her soft leather Gucci tote bag. ‘Absolutely excellent.’

Grant Booth’s pudgy face beamed with relief as he sprang forward to hold open his office door for her.

Isabelle parked her Bendey in front of the house, trying to contain herselŁ It wouldn’t do to let Sam see her in this state. She was bubbling over with happiness, her mani cored fingers tapping out old Sinatra tunes on the steering wheel A long dine ago, when she’d been interested in things like music, Sinatra and Tony Bennett had been her favourites, Kind of appropriate, really, Isabe]]e thought, restraining an unseemly gn’in. She was about to do it Her Way. But Sam mustn’t know until it was too late; according to these reports, Sam had actually developed feelings for the little slut. A blast of cold anger sliced through her elation, but she suppressed it. Never mind what her husband chose to do with his empty little heart. She had lost that years ago. And it was hardly important. It was Sam who was important - the man himself, and the status that his thick platinum band on her left hand represented. Isabelle had not come all this way to lose it to some twenty four-year-old mannequin now.

But peace, peace, Isabelle soothed herself as she stepped

4o4

out of the car, smoothing her peach Bill Blass suit as she did so. That was all taken care of-Mr Booth and his cohorts had seen to that. Now the only thing that remained was for her to pick a reporter to give this story to. She would choose carefully, for it was the showbusiness scoop of the decade, and whoever she handed that foolscap binder to would owe Isabelle huge forever. She had to select somebody with appropriate clout, somebody worth having in her designer pocket. There was no point in rushing things, Isabelle thought. She had to keep one eye on her future. Unlike Ms Felix, who after today didn’t have a future.

Isabelle practically bounded up the steps of the terrace, nodded curdy at the maid who admitted her, and walked through to her study right away. First things first. Because she wanted so desperately to believe what Booth, Warwick & Yablans were telling her, that didn’t mean it was tree. For her own peace of mind she wanted to check up on a couple of details. She dialled Jordan Goldman’s number and waited, one foot tapping impatiently on her antique Chinese rag.

‘Goldman residence.’

‘Isabelle Kendrick for Mrs Goldman,’ Isabelle said impatiently . She wished dear Jordan wouldn’t insist on having the servants always answer the phone, l:keally, so affected.

‘Isabelle! I’m so glad you called.’ Jordan was gushing. Tve been wanting to speak to you about my slave auction next month. Do you think I should make togas mandatory?’

‘Oh, definitely not, dear,’ Isabelle said, shuddering at the thought of all that wrinkled male flesh exposed. ‘But we can talk about that in a second. I want to ask you a few questions about loxana Felix.’

‘Anything, Isabelle,’ Jordan said obediently.

‘You always said P,.oxana had been a schoolfriend of

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dear, but how long was she actually at the Sacred

‘Only one year. She was enrolled in senior year,’ Jordan

said, surprised at the question. ‘She was eighteen when she

arrived.’

Isabelle gave a sharp intake of breath. So it was all true.

‘Are you OK, Isabelle?’

‘I’m fine. Tell me, did you ever see her mother or her

father at the school? Did they ever come to pick her up, or

attend graduation?’

‘No. As a matter of fact, they didn’t come to graduation,’

Jordan mused thoughtfully, remembering it. ‘We all thought” that was weird, but P,.oxie said they were in Europe on business and couldn’t be there. But they never came to pick her up, either; at the end of term, she always left for the airport in a cab.’

‘Thank you, dear. That’s very useful,’ Isabelle said, one

hand bailing into a fist of triumph at her side. ‘I have to go

now. I’ve got a few calls to make.’

‘But what about my togas?’ Jordan whined.

‘I’ll call you back,’ Isabelle said firmly, hanging up.

She stood there for a few seconds, racing through the

possibilities, and finally settled on the ideal person. Marissa Matthew.s, the most widely read gossip columnist in New York, an old acquaintance, and syndicated all over Los Angeles. Isabelle congratulated herselfi Marissa would kill for a story like this. And she would be the perfect ally for an entree into New York society. After , she had already conquered Los Angeles, and one had to expand one’s horizons.

Smiling, she lifted the phone and punched in the

number.

‘Marissa? Darling, it’s Isabelle Kendrick. ihave a scoop

for you. P,.ather a big one, in fact. Do you have a decent fax up there?… Oh, it can take photographs too, can it? Splendid…’

4o6

Eleanor leaned back in the air-conditioned comfort of the hotel’s sedan, sent to collect her from Seychelles airport, and gazed out of the windows. Physical fatigue was beginning to hit her, but she forced herself to stay awake. This was going to have been a big day for her, but it wasn’t over yet. Not by a long shot. First, she’d managed to save her job, and that had been fun; Tom, looking gorgeous in that sombre black suit, and sitting there with his mouth hanging open in astonishment, was a sight she would never forget. Blown away by the new, tough, improved Eleanor Marshall. But that was the easy part; she just prayed she could be tough enough for Megan and Zach. If there was any Megan and Zach left to rescue. But somehow Eleanor was sure they had survived. She could feel it in her bones. They were alive, and stranded somewhere in that emerald green jungle she’d stared at from the windows of her plane. °

Fred Florescu, looking pale and anxious, was waiting for her in the lobby when she arrived. ‘Thanks for getting here so quickly,’ he said. ‘It’s the second day they’ve been missing. I’ve notified all the authorities, and they’ve got a search under way…’ The young director shook his head. ‘I don’t know what else we can do. There’s been no news.’

‘OK. Here’s what I’ve been thinking,’ Eleanor said. ‘First up, I’m going to hire every private helicopter available on this island to fly over the national park, with

spotlights backwards and forwards all night.’

‘That’ll cost you,’ Florescu said.

‘That’s my problem, Fred. Fin authorized to draw on Artemis funds for this search. Next, I’m hiring locals to go into the jungle and look for them.’

‘The mist forest they’re lost in is eleven miles square,’ Florescu told her, despairingly. ‘You’d need hundreds of people to make any impact.’

‘And I’m prepared to hire hundreds. Thousands, if necessary. We’ll pay them five hundred dollars each to

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look for Zach and Megan, and give the guy that finds them

a five-thousand-dollar reward.’

Florescu looked at her with a new respect. ‘Jesus, Eleanor. Studio execs are supposed to be tight-wadded assholes. Where did you come from?’

She laughed. ‘Hey, we are tight-wadded assholes. This is

just an investment, as far as I’m concerned. A dead Zach Mason means a big loss for Artemis Studios, and Megan Silver will make a lot of money for us, down the line. I’ve got a lot of personal capital in See the Lights, Fred. I want to see this movie released.’

‘And you know what? You’re going to be sitting on one

hell of a goddamned smash when it is,’ Florescu told her.

‘Good. Now, you get the rest of the cast together and

, start shooting.’

‘Do what?’

‘Start shooting,’ Eleanor repeated. ‘Film some scenes without Zach or loxana in them. There have to be a few left, right?’

‘There are, but-‘

“Forget but, Fred. You’re no use to Zach and Megan sitting here moping. None of you know the forest, and I’m not risking any more of my people in there.’ She gave him a soft smile. ‘I intend to get those kids out alive and well. I want them to have a picture to go back to. Now, are we making a movie here or not?’