Stardust (13 page)

“It means he didn’t kill himself.”

Her shoulders moved, an actual shiver. “It changes everything, to think this. Why would anyone kill him?”

“I don’t know yet.”

“And you think it’s her? She’s so strong? To push a man like Daniel? Ouf.” She shook her head, dismissive.

“She’s a lead. He got the apartment for her.”

She nodded at the desk. “What do you expect to find?”

“A number, maybe.”

“Clues, like his detectives,” she said. “Ben.”

“You think I’m imagining this.”

“No,” she said, her face softer. “I think you want it to be true. It’s easier for you.” She frowned. “But how could it be true?” she said, not really talking, thinking. “To make someone do that. Kill you. He wasn’t
like that.” She looked back at him. “It’s so hard for you to accept this? What he did?”

“He didn’t.”

“The police think so.”

“The police made a mistake.”

“But not you. Just like him. You get some idea and then you won’t let go.”

“It’s not some idea.”

“Because it’s better this way. He didn’t do it.”

“Isn’t it?”

She said nothing, at a loss, then turned to go. “There’s more,” she said, flicking her hand toward the piles on the desk. “Boxes from his office. In the screening room. The next installment of
Partners
. Maybe it’ll give you an idea.”

“You think I’m crazy.”

“Not crazy. Something. I don’t know what. Like him. So sure.”

“You don’t want to believe it.”

“I want it to be over. It’s something you learn, when you leave. You can’t look back. Not if you want to keep going. He’s gone,” she said.

“And if I’m right? We just walk away?”

She held his gaze for a second, her eyes troubled, then turned again and started for the pool.

He looked at the piles on the desk. Check stubs and an address book. Receipts. The life you could trace. Not the one that rented a room. In cash. He reached for his wallet and took out Tim Kelly’s card. Someone interested in the other one.

Kelly answered on the second ring.

“Heard you had a talk with Joel. The day guy at the Arms.”

“Heard from who?”

“Himself. I told him to let me know if anyone came around wanting to have a chat. And there you were.” The same breezy tilt to his voice, like a hat pushed back on his head.

“And he did this for free,” Ben said, curious.

There was a snort on the other end.

“Since you bring it up, if we’re going to help each other out, I could use a little contribution to the tip box. I can’t put everything on the paper.”

“He didn’t know anything.”

“Joel? Not much. But you have to go through him to get to the others. The maid, say. So it’s worth something. Spread the wealth.”

“How much?”

“I’m not keeping books. Buy me a drink some night and throw a twenty on the bar and I’m a happy guy.”

“Okay,” Ben said, sitting back, interested. “So what did the maid say?”

“Her favorite tenant. Hardly ever there. She doesn’t even have to make the bed.”

“So he doesn’t sleep over. We knew that.”

“Or do much of anything else. Not exactly a hot affair. Neat, though. No stains.”

“Oh,” Ben said. A peephole world he’d never imagined, not in detail. “What about the usual night clerk? Joel said he was just filling in.”

“Check. Night guy knew him. Saw him a few times. Never saw the playmate.”

“So she used the back.”

“Or they arrived different times. Or she said she was going to some other room and didn’t. There’re all kinds of ways to do this.” None of which so far had occurred to Ben.

“But if she didn’t want to be seen—I thought that was the idea.”

“That was the hope. A face they’d know. Which is still the way it looks to me.”

“Why?”

“This careful? Their own place, back doors, nobody sees them together—you go to this kind of trouble for who? Some dentist’s wife?”

“You still have any credit left with Joel?”

“It wouldn’t take much. What?”

“Could you get a list of the tenants?”

“Why? You think she’s living there? Where’s the sense in that?”

“Nowhere. But maybe somebody she knows. Joel says he just sticks a sign in the window when a room comes up, but how many times would Danny be walking on Cherokee? So how did he know about the room?”

For a second there was silence on the other end.

“Okay. It’s an idea. Somebody she knows. A helper, like.”

“Juliet’s nurse.”

“What?”

“Nothing. Let’s see who’s there. I don’t know what else to do. I can’t find anything here.”

“Forget there. You got better places to look. When do you start work?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, while you’re wasting time making Joel nervous I spent a little time downtown. Always pays. Boys keep their ears open and like a drink after work.”

“And?”

“And it’s just like I thought,” he said, almost a grin over the wire. “He’s a jumper, then he trips. And who gets the report changed? Didn’t I say?”

“Studios. But why would Republic want to change it?”

“That’s the beauty part. They didn’t. The favor was for Continental.”

H
E FIRST
had to report to his commanding officer in Culver City, but that took less than an hour. His reassignment had been waiting for days, and the film he’d shipped from the Signal Corps already sent over to Continental, along with Hal Jasper to cut it. Colonel Hill, in fact, seemed eager to hurry him out, too. Now that the war was over, Fort Roach had the feel of a camp waiting for orders to pull out, an uncertain mix of khaki uniforms and open-necked Hawaiian shirts. No one bothered to salute. He was at the Continental gate before noon.

This time there were pickets, a handful with signs walking slowly back and forth, more a polite show of force than a threat. No shouting or heckling. They let him pass through without a word.

“You go to Mr. Jenkins,” the guard said, checking his clipboard. “Admin, room two hundred and one.” He pointed to an office building with Florida jalousie windows that faced Gower. “Park over there in Visitors till they get you a slot.”

As a boy he’d loved the surrealism of the Babelsberg lot, the street fronts and women in Marie Antoinette wigs, and sailing ships beached against a wall at the end of a street. Now what struck him was the blur of activity. Outside, in the dusty orange groves and parking lots, things moved at a desert pace. Here everyone seemed to be running late—grips pushing flats and carpenters and extras filing out of wardrobe, everyone hurrying while the sunny oasis over the wall stretched out for a nap.

The look was utilitarian—no country club flower beds or Moorish towers. Lasner hadn’t even bothered with the Spanish touches the other studios couldn’t resist, the arcades and fake adobe walls. Here buildings were whitewashed or painted a cheap industrial green. The only visible trees were the bottle brush palms up in the hills and a few live oaks behind one of the sound stages, probably the western set.

Inside things were sleeker—modern offices with metal trim and secretaries with bright nails and good clothes. He thought of the offices in Frankfurt, the piles of unsorted papers and drip pails and girls with hungry, pinched faces. This was the other side of the world, untouched, not even a shortage of nail polish. The war had only made it richer. Everyone in the hall smiled at him.

Room 200 was the corner, presumably Lasner’s office, and Jenkins was next door. Ben was shown in and announced without even a preliminary buzz, clearly expected. Or had the guard called up from the gate?

Jenkins was slight, with a boyish unlined face, sharp eyes, and hair so thinned that he was nearly bald. He came out from behind the desk with the easy grace of a cat, as smooth as his camel hair sport jacket.

“I’m Bunny Jenkins. Mr. L asked me to get you settled. He’s on the phone with New York,” he said, implying a daily ordeal.

Ben looked at him more closely. “Brian Jenkins?” he said.

“
Yes
, that Brian Jenkins,” he said wearily. “Which dates you. The kids on the lot haven’t the faintest. Not exactly a comfort.”

“But—”

“Well, we all change,” he said, a put-on archness. “I’ll bet you used to look younger, too.”

Just the voice, still English, would have placed him. Faces wrinkle but voices never change. He was still the boy in
The Orphan,
then the reworking of
Oliver Twist
and the other fancy dress adventures that had followed. Ruffled shirts and wide liquid eyes, everybody’s waif.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean—”

“Never mind. It has been a while. They don’t know Freddie, either. Funny, isn’t it? They brought me over to keep Jackie in line and then they brought Freddie to keep me in line. I mean, really. Freddie. They could have saved a ton and just let the hair do it.” He touched his head.

“Freddie Batholomew?”

“Mm,” he said, glancing up, as if Ben hadn’t been following. “With all his wavy curls. Still, I hear. And much good it did him. They don’t know him, either,” he said, nodding toward the window and the anonymous kids on the lot. “Well, let’s get you started. I’m the tour guide. He wants me to show you Japan, which means the serious tour. I gather you’re here to give us some class.”

“He said that?”

“I’ve seen your budget. You might want to explain the project to me a little. I’ve already had Polly Marks on the horn. I said, ‘Darling, if you don’t know, how would I? He hasn’t even arrived yet.’ But she’ll be back. Walk with me. Oh, and you’re expected for dinner. Saturday. That must have been some chat the two of you had on the train. He never has line producers to the house—not this soon anyway.”

“That’s what I am, a line producer?”

“Well, you have your own budget and nobody seems to be in charge of you.”

“Not you?”

“Me? Oh, I’m a glorified assistant. Technically, vice-president, Operations, which is a nice way of saying I do whatever he needs me to do.
You know, you grow up on a set, there’s not much you don’t learn. About the business, I mean.”

“In other words, you run the place.”

Bunny looked at him. “No. Mr. L runs the place. Every nook. You wouldn’t want to make a mistake about that.”

They were almost in the hall when the phone rang. Bunny stopped, glancing over at his secretary. She covered the receiver, mouthing a name at him.

“Hold on a sec. I have to take this.” He went over to the phone. “Rosemary, I thought you were being fitted.” He listened for a while, concentrating. “But, darling, she’s the best. I asked for her. Have you looked at the sketches? Forget the mirror. We never see ourselves, not properly. I tell you what, I’ll swing by in an hour, all right? But meanwhile all smiles, yes? You don’t want her to— Yes, I know. But she used to work for Travis. She
sewed
for him.” A pause. “Travis Banton. He dressed Marlene, Rosemary. Now go have a ciggie and calm down and I’ll be over later.
All smiles
.”

After another minute of reassurance he hung up, facing Ben again.

“A little
crise de nerfs,
” he said lightly. “Still, that’s the business. I know, you’re going to make a documentary. Show us how ghastly it all was,” he said, affecting a shiver. “But that’s not the business. You know what it is, pictures? Attractive people. That’s all it’s ever been. So you want to look your best.” He put his hand to his head again, smiling slyly. “Keep your hair. Come on, I’ll show you Japan.”

They made it out of the building without another interruption, Bunny giving a running description as they went.

“That’s Payroll and Accounting. You’d get your check there, but I gather you don’t get a check.” A point to be cleared up.

“The Army’s still paying me.” He looked at the closed door. “They’d have a list, wouldn’t they? Every employee.”

“If we’re paying them. Why?”

“In case I was looking for someone.”

“Check the phone directory,” Bunny said simply. “There’ll be one on your desk.” He looked over at Ben, as if he were hearing the question
again, then let it go. “We’ve got you in B building, next door. Mr. L wanted you in Admin, but there’s no room at the inn so you’re out in the stable. Be grateful in the end—nobody looking over your shoulder. I wish I were there sometimes. I’m afraid you’ll have to share a secretary. I wasn’t sure how much help you’d need.”

“That’s fine.”

“Bunny,” someone said, waving hello.

“How’d you get the name?” Ben said.

“You know, no one’s ever asked. All these years. Not rabbits. Pets, I mean. My mother, when I was little. Because I got my lines right away. You know, ‘quick as a.’ Anyway, it stuck. Editing rooms over there. I understand you got Hal back for us. He’s a great favorite of Mr. L’s. An A-list project,” he said, leaving it open, wanting to know how involved Lasner would be.

“How old were you when you started?”

“In the womb. I don’t know, four or five. Before I could read. She’d say the lines, and I’d have to remember them. But then you grow up. Nobody makes it past that. Look at Temple. Who wants to see her necking?”

“How did you end up here?”

“Through Fay. Mrs. L,” he explained.

“Yes, we met. At the train station.”

“Did you?” he said, another opening, then went back to the thread. “A great lady—not exactly thick on the ground out here. And smart. But she started late, so she needed somebody to help. You know, which fork where. How to do this and that. So, me. Anyway, the more I did for her, the more I got to know Mr. L, and he figured there were things I could do for him, too. So it all just happened. Here we are.”

He opened the door to a sound stage and flicked on the light. Ben had thought Japan would mean a
Madame Butterfly
set, tea house and garden, but this was Japan itself—a huge, three-dimensional model made of plaster, set up table height on a series of trestles that covered most of the floor.

“It’s built to scale,” Bunny said. “Every bay, river. Took months. Mr. L’s very proud of it.”

“But what—”

“You set the camera up there, on the crane, and you move it along what would be the flight plan. Pilot watches the film, he knows what he’s going to see when he gets there. The exact topography.” A craftsman’s pride.