The Movie (54 page)

‘Don’t be stupid, Paul. Two of our people were missing and in danger.’

‘So you had to go out there, I suppose.’

She was too tired for this. ‘That’s right, I did. Because it wasn’t the kind of job I like to delegate. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m worn out and I need to get some sleep.’

Paul didn’t move. ‘Do you realize you missed days thirteen, fourteen and fifteen of your menstrual cycle, Eleanor?’ he demanded furiously. ‘You owed it to me to be here.’ ,

She bit her lip to stop herself from screaming out the truth. If he had to know, it wasn’t going to be like this, not blurted out in the middle of a quarrel.

‘Well, I owed it to Zach and Megan to try and save their lives,’ she said, as calmly as she could. ‘Let’s talk later, OK? This isn’t a good time. I’m really tired.’

‘I’m tired!’ Paul snapped petulantly. ‘Tired of how lightly you take this marriage! Have you heard about Koxana Felix?’

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‘Yes, I - ‘

He wasn’t listening. ‘Do you realize how much crap I had to take in the office? All the analysts sniggering behind their desks. People going quiet when I walked past them. Don’t you do checks on people before you hire them?’

‘She wasn’t an employee. She was an actress,’ Eleanor said, trying to keep her temper in check. ‘And Artemis is a motion picture studio, not the Federal Government. We don’t tend to call in the FBI.’

‘Artemis was a modon picture studio, I think you mean.’ There was a curious note of satisfaction in her husband’s voice. ‘The stock’s plunged. It almost hit the one-day floor

for losses, Eleanor. You’ve lost millions.’

Eleanor took note of the ‘you’.

‘Well, at least I still have you to put bread on the table,’ she said srcastically.

‘This is no time for jokes!’ Paul Halfin almost screamed. He was puce with indignation. ‘While you were playing around in some goddamn tropical island, your studio was crumbling! And your stock became worthless! I’ll bet you didn’t even manage to lose it in dine! Don’t you understand what this does to our reputation?’

‘You mean, now I’m no longer the respectable studio

president you married?’ Eleanor asked him very quietly. ‘Yes!’ Paul said. It was. a screech. ‘Do you love me, Paul?’

He took a breath, backed down. ‘Of course I love you. But this behaviour can’t contintie.’

Eleanor nodded. ‘You’re tight. I want a divorce.’ ‘You can’t be serious.’ He looked at her with disbelief. ‘You want to divorce me? Don’t you understand that you’ re history in this town? You’ve lost your job and you’ve lost your money! What else do you have?’

‘My pride,’ Eleanor told him simply.

Then, as Paul stared after her in blank astonishment, she

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picked up her case, walked into the guest bedroom and bolted the door behind her.

Tom Goldman had looked better. His skin was sallow from lack of sleep, his eyes had dark circles under them and he hadn’t had time to shave. He’d been under pressure before in his life, but never had it been anything like this. The phone was ringing off the hook: distributors angrily demanding to know if the studio was bankrupt; directors, producers and actors all frantic about their Artemis projects; media hacks clever enough to fool his assistants and get. through; agents hysterically claiming that their client had ‘senior debt’ if the company went under; and distraught stockholders who screamed abuse. His neck was aching from the number of calls he had taken, and they never seemed to stop, six, seven callers holding at a time. Marcia had brought him in a pizza at lunchtirne but he hadn’t been able to stop talking long enough to eat it, and by four p.m. it was still cooling on his desk.

Eleanor stood in the doorway to Goldman’s oce, watching her boss pronounce soothing reassurances into his handset, his neck lolling at an exhausted angle against the headrest of his chair, his eyes dosed as if in pain.

‘I couldn’t buzz him to tell him you were here, Ms Marshall,’ Marcia Hearn said tearfully. ‘I couldn’t get

All his lines have calls holding on them.’

through.

‘That’s free, Marcia. Forget it,’. Eleanor said gently. The secretary looked completely stressed-out and shaken up; she was.twisting her hands compulsively and she looked as though she might be about to burst out crying any second. On her desk, behind them, four different phone lines were ringing insistendy and the fax machine was pouring out letters, old faxes spilling slowly over the edge of the containment tray. and cascading onto the floor, mingling with a white and grey pool of paper. Marcia was a

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fanatically neat woman, and Eleanor realized with a start that she hadn’t even had time to pick up the faxes.

‘OK. Here’s what we’re going to do,’ she told her. ‘You switch all incoming calls to Mr Goldman’s answering machine. As of now, he’.s in a meeting and can’t be disturbed.’

Marcia looked doubtfully towards Tom, sitting at his desk with his eyes dosed. ‘But-‘

‘He’s in a meeting with me,’ Eleanor said firmly. ‘Senior management only. And you take the rest of the day off, Marcia. That’s an order.’

‘Yes, Ms Marshall,’ she said gratefitlly, and scurried back to her desk.

Eleanor dosed Tom’s door quietly, then tiptoed up to his desk, grabbed the receiver out of his hands said, ‘He’ll call you back,’ and hung up.

‘Eleanor!’ Goldman said, not believing his eyes, ‘What are you doing here? I didn’t expect you until tomorrow!’

‘Gee, everybody seems so pleased to see me,’ Eleanor said dryly.

‘I am pleased to see you. You have no idea how much,’

Goldman said, giving her a weak smile.

‘Has it been bad?’

He raised an eyebrow. ‘I’m not even going to bother replying to that.’

‘I told Marcia to take the phones offthe hook,’ Eleanor told him. ‘We need to talk.’

‘Want some cold, greasy pizza?’ Tom asked her, ripping offan unappetizing lice and stuffing it in his mouth.

‘You tempt me, but no. Did you speak to the board?’ Goldman nodded. ‘Yeah. Told them what you said. They hated it, but they played ball. Present management stays in place for the time being, and they’ll do what they can with the banks to shore up the stock. I guess they didn’t have a choice; it was that or lose their whole investment.’

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Eleanor paced round the room, thinking fast. ‘Good. Have you spoken to l.oxana Felix?’

‘Left a message. No reply. No surprises there,’ Goldman

said, thinking how good Eleanor looked. Even in the midst of complete and total disaster, she managed to appear poised, calm and elegant. She was wearing the scarlet Donna Karan suit she’d had on for her confrontation with him a few days ago; bold, confident colour and meticulous tailoring, it accentuated her slim figure and it looked terrific.

She’s got such style. Such grace under pressure, Gold

man thought, and tried not to dwell on the image of his wife last night - weeping uncontrollably, shrieking with fury that he wouldn’t sell his stock, mascara running down her heavily made-up face, throwing a tantrum like a spoilt brat. How could you do this to me! As if he had ruined himself and destroyed his career purposely to spite her. And all she could think about was her stupid slave auction, screaming at him that now nobody would come.

‘What about Sam?’

‘Sam called to say SKI didn’t represent her any more.’ ‘That’s not like Sam, to run out on a chent.’

‘He wouldn’t discuss it with me. He sounded pretty upset, actually,’ Tom said. ‘But maybe that’s because he’s

getting a divorce.’ ‘Sam too?’ ‘What?’

She shook her head. Tll tell you later. First, I want to tell

you what I want to do.’

Goldman leaned back, smiling. ‘Go ahead. You’re the

only person around here with any fight left in you, Eleanor, I swear. I don’t know what happened to you last week, but I sure as hell wish it would happen to me.’

‘I want to speak to P,.oxana Felix and persuade her to come back and finish the movie.’

‘You are certifiably insane,’ Goldman said amiably.

‘Hear me out, Tom. Zach and Megan are in good health and the doctors told me he could be back on the set in a day or so. I had Fred continually shooting while we were looking for them. I’ve seen some of the rough cuts, Tom. See the Lights is an incredible movie and production is almost complete. They’d only need Koxana for a week or so to finish up, and you know Florescu edits fast.’ She held up a hand. ‘No, let .me finish, please. I know what you’re going to say: Roxana won’t do it, and even if she does,

nobody will want to distribute.’

‘light.’

‘Wrong. I’m sure I can persuade loxana to come back to the set. She has nothing to lose, and precisely because she was such a class-A bitch she won’t want the world to see her running away with her tail between her legs. I want to drive over there and speak with her tonight. And as for the distributo’ts - once everybody’s calmed down, people will go crazy to book this Łtlm. We’re getting a billion dollars’ worth of free publicity right now.’

‘Even if you’re right about Roxana, I’m telling you, Eleanor, the chains don’t want to do business with a bankrupt company. And if the stock crashes -‘

She made an impatient movement with her hands. ‘The stock won’t crash. In a day or two people will realize that we have a certain bottom-line value for our library and our

real este.’

‘True.’

‘And the only way they can write us offis ffwe write off See the Lights. But I won’t do that.’ Eleanor walked towards her old friend, her eyes bright with passion, and put her hands on the front of his desk, leaning towards him. ‘Tom, look. We have nothing to lose. Everything has already gone up in smoke - our careers, our bank balances, everything. But I want something to come out of the time I was president of a studio. I want to be able to point to this ftlm and say, I helped to do that. I got into this business frfteen

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years ago to make pictures, Tom. And See the Lights is a truly wonderful picture. I believed in it when I first got the script, and I still do. If it’s a success, we win. If it isn’t - we have nothing left to lose. But I have to finish it. This is my movie.’

Tom Goldman looked at Eleanor. There were tears in her eyes. ‘Go talk to l:koxana,’ he said softly. Tll call my lawyers again. We’ll make your movie before we quit.’

‘Thank you.’ It was all she could say. ‘Thank you, Tom.’ Goldman reached forward, dosing his hand over hers. ‘We started together, and I guess we’re gonna end together. I’m just sorry it had to be this way.’

The too,’ Eleanor whispered, briefly dosing her eyes. Sh had to say it now, she knew that. Tom had a right to know, and she had to tell him. If she waited for the right moment, she’d wait forever. There was no good time. She pulled her hands away. ‘I have to tell you something else, Tom. I’m getting a divorce. And I’m pregnant.’

He gazed at her, puzzled. ‘You are? I don’t understand. What does Paul say about it?’

. ‘I don’t know how to tell you this,’ she said. ‘But I always used a diaphragm with Paul. We didn’t make love without protection until after the wedding. And I’m two and a half.months pregnant.’

‘What are you saying?’ Goldman whispered. Eleanor gazed at him steadily. ‘It’s your baby, Tom,,’ she said.

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P,.oxana Felix opened the door to Eleanor Marshall and stared at her defiantly. It was four a.m., early enough for. Eleanor’s forest-green Lotus to crawl through the police roadblocks without attracting too much attention, and the elder woman had begged her for a meeting, leaving thirty two messages in succession on the answer machine in toxana’s bedroom, until she’d finally picked up. There were no ecfiminations in Eleanor’s voice, but loxana wasn’t fooled: dae bitch had come to rave and shout and threaten. As if she cared. She had hit bottom, and there was no further to fall.

‘P,.oxana. Thank you for seeing me,’ Eleanor said gently . ‘May I come in?’

She stood aside. ‘Be my guest. Come in, say what you want to, and leave. I just want to get this over with.’

‘Didn’t you disconnect any of the phones?’ Eleanor asked, listening to the constant jangling echoing through the house, loxana was dressed in a tailored Ralph Lauren pantsuit in royal-blue Cotton, her long hair was swept into a chignon, and she was fully mad-up, a soR berry gloss on her beautifullips and a sweep of damson blusher accentuating her razor-sharp cheekbones. She had even clipped on a small pair of gold earrings. She was wearing a subtle, sensuous perfume. She looked every inch as stunning as the last time Eleanor had seen her, as if she had just stepped blithely offanother catwalk.

I was fight about her, Eleanor thought. 1Loxana won’t

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show me any weakness, she’d die first. She wants me to tell the world that she couldn’t care less. She has her pride.

Yesterday’s scene with Paul flashed back into her mind. Maybe, in the end, pride was all any woman had to cling

to.

‘What for? I’m taking messages,’ Roxana said. ‘People can say whatever they like. I’m not running from them.’

‘That’s what I hoped you would say.’ Eleanor walked into the kitchen. ‘Can I make us some coffee? I have a proposal for you.’

‘If you must,’ loxana said ungraciously. ‘I hope this isn’t going to take long, Eleanor. If it’s about your stock too bad. There’s nothing I can do. I didn’t plan this. And if you want me to sign some statement saying that you had no knowledge of my past when you cast me, have it messengered over. I have no problem with that. I just want you to leave me alone. And if you came here for more information’ - her lips tightened- ‘you should ask Isabelle Kendrick. She was the one who did this. You can blame your company collapse on her.’

‘None of the above,’ Eleanor said, spooning French Vanilla ground into the percolator. Isabelle Kendrick! Because loxana had been sleeping … with Sam? ‘Did you know Sam Kendrick is getting divorced?’ she asked

casually.

loxana shook her head. ‘I think you’ll find he decided to stay with his wife,’