“I come highly recommended. We have mutual acquaintances that go way back.” I was vamping a little; never a good idea, but I could tell the bones needed some flesh. “Anyway, my impression was he was paying for my services…out of his own pocket, not the production’s.”
Kaufmann’s eyebrows went up over the aviators. “Is that right? Frankly, Artie and I haven’t had the chance to discuss your financial terms yet. If he’s taking this on himself…well, it’s generous of him. And he must believe in you.”
“I think he does.”
“Can I buy you a drink?” He took me by the elbow-a familiarity I didn’t love. Maybe he sensed it, because his hand moved to my shoulder as he walked me to the counter, where he showed me to a stool.
“What are you drinking, Jack? We have Coke products.”
“Coke is fine.”
He came back with a can of Tab for himself and one of Coke for me. The metal was sweaty with cold.
“Cold drinks are important on a set like this,” he said, after a swig.
“Yeah?”
“When we’re shooting out there, that air conditioner goes off. Too noisy for the camera. And it will be a goddamn sweatbox in here.”
“I would never have thought of that.”
He took another swig. “What mutual acquaintances?”
“Pardon?”
“What mutual acquaintances? I know most of Artie’s friends and business associates, going back almost ten years.”
“Well, this goes back a little farther than that.”
He tempered his wide smile with a shrewd gaze. “How far? Y’see, Artie and me, we go back to high school — in Atlanta?”
That explained Kaufmann’s Southern tinge. Stockwell had shed any such accent. But I had put my foot in it, improvising.
I did my best. “You guys go to college together, too?”
“Naw. Artie went off to film school at USC. Is that where he met your ‘mutual acquaintances,’ Jack?”
“They never said. Are you pumping me, Jim? Do we have a problem?”
He touched my arm again-no, he gripped it; there was surprising power in it. “We will have a problem, Jack, if you are scamming my partner. That guy sitting over there is the most talented man I ever met-but that’s not all. He picked me up off the ground when my business went tits up, and gave me a new start.”
“Well, I’m glad to know that. Human interest stories make good PR fodder.”
Disgust colored his expression, and the Southern tinge became a full-blown drawl. “You think that’s why I mention it? To give you ‘PR fodder,’ Jack? You best know that I am watching your ass, Bubba. You do something bad to my boy over there, I will fuck you up. Understand? Fuck you up.”
The voice was cold but the eyes in back of the pink lenses glittered with emotion.
He removed his hand from my arm. He was shaking. I wanted to slap him like an unruly child, but instead I just said, “I wonder if maybe we’ve gotten off on the wrong foot.”
That response blindsided him and he actually laughed a little.
“I have nothing in mind but the best for your friend, Mr. Kaufmann. I am here to help. Not to take advantage. Not to run a scam or anything else. Understood?”
He studied me. I kept my face calm, even smiled a little, not in a threatening way. Then he nodded.
“I’m just here to help out,” I said.
Now he seemed a shade embarrassed. “All right, Jack. All I ask is that you do a businesslike job. You show up at midnight, a stranger, two weeks into the production, and next morning you’re unit publicity manager? And the producer knows next to nothing about you? I’d be a fool not to be concerned.”
“I got that. No problem.”
Glancing over at the director and the bearded guy, I said, “Your pal seems pretty focused.”
He sighed, letting out the last of the emotion from our little confrontation. “Yeah, well, he’s going over a fight scene with Hank-stunt coordinator? Artie essentially has to hand the set over to Hank, and no director loves that. But with stunts or special effects or both, you have to give the reins to the expert.”
“Anything I need to know about your stars?”
“No. Miss Goodwin is a lovely woman, a real free spirit. Eric is a man’s man. Pretty standard stuff for a PR guy to run with. Hope it’s not too boring for you.”
“Do I play up the Playboy thing with Miss Goodwin? Or is she trying to put that in her past?”
“She’s trying to put it in her past.” Kaufmann flashed a grin-first genuinely friendly one he’d offered me. “But you need to play it up.”
“Will there be nude scenes?”
“Frequently. She was not hired because she gets mistaken for Meryl Streep.”
“Why was she hired?”
“You said it yourself. She was the Playmate of the Year, and-”
“Jim-okay I call you Jim?”
“I’ve been calling you Jack.”
“Jim, you and I know the number of Playmates of the Year who have gone on to star in films can be counted on one hand and maybe a dick. What makes Miss Goodwin special?”
That sure didn’t get a grin out of him, friendly or otherwise. “What’s your point?”
“Rumor has it Tiffany got cast because of her relationship with a certain mob figure.”
“Did Artie tell you that? Jesus.” He jabbed a finger at me, damn near thumped me. “Let me tell you what your first job as publicist on this picture is, and I don’t care who pays you, Artie or me or Jesus Fucking Christ-you keep any mention of a certain organized crime figure out of any publicity. Any news hack brings it up, you deny it. You say it’s a scurrilous rumor and that we will fucking sue, if anybody dares print that.”
“Thanks.”
“Thanks?”
“Yeah, that’s what I was getting at. I need to know what the negatives are, Jim, before I can highlight the positive.”
He studied me with those half-lidded, behind-rosecolored- lenses blue eyes. Then he grinned. He slapped me on the shoulder. “You just stay on that track, Bubba. You just stay on that track.”
“Do my best, Jim.”
He slid off the stool, saying, “If you’ll excuse me, I have important producer shit that needs attending.”
“Fires to put out?”
“Oh yeah. You hang in there now.”
So were we pals now? No, I didn’t think so, either.
Kaufmann went back to the table that was his current office and I swung toward the counter behind which waitresses usually dwelled. Activity by white-uniformed caterers could be glimpsed through the short-order window. Then, as if summoned by my thoughts, a waitress appeared, not behind the counter, but coming over and sitting next to me.
Joni.
My ex-wife apparently played a diner waitress in the film, because she was wearing a light-green-trimmed white uniform suitable to the species.
Her dark hair was pinned up, probably as part of her characterization, but she had no make-up on, so wasn’t shooting a scene in the immediate future. She was easily thirty-six years of age and yet her face had the smooth, unwrinkled quality of a child. Or sociopath.
This was a feat because she was very well tanned, a habit not friendly to skin over the long haul. Maybe hers came out of a bottle, though the telltale orange tint wasn’t present.
She really hadn’t changed all that much-the big brown eyes dominated her attractive features. There remained a Cher resemblance, even with the hair pinned up. She’d kept her slender figure, as her bikini water ballet last night had told me.
She sipped the can of Tab she’d brought along. Everybody but me around here was watching their figure. Hers was still worth watching.
Without looking at me, she said, “Long time no see.”
I shrugged. “Last night.”
Now her head swiveled toward me and the eyes were, well, not exactly cold…guarded. Unblinking.
“Why are you here?” she asked. I didn’t remember her voice being that low or that sultry. Maybe it changed. Maybe I’d been filtering it through the wishful thinking of nostalgia.
“Your husband hired me to handle publicity.”
“Why are you here?”
“As far as you’re concerned, that’s why.”
She sipped her Tab, looked away. “Why did you come looking for me?”
“I didn’t.”
“You’re saying this is a coincidence.”
“Yes.”
“Do you believe in coincidences, Jack?”
“No.”
She swiveled her gaze back to me. “Then what the fuck?”
“What the fuck indeed. We need to talk.”
“Really? I thought what we needed was for you to walk away.”
I sipped my Coke. “I did not know you were here. Your husband doesn’t know about our past. Your past. He thinks I’m Jack Reynolds.”
“Who are you, now? What are you?”
“As far as you’re concerned, Jack Reynolds.”
She looked away again. “You thought I would come to your room last night.”
“Kind of.”
“That’s why you mentioned your room number in front of me.”
“You never were dumb. Why does he call you J.J.?”
“That’s my name. Or my initials. Joanne Jennifer. Joni was just a nickname. Jesus, Jack, that’s the name on our marriage license.”
“Oh. I forgot.” I really had.
Something earnest came into her voice. “Jack, are you going to cause trouble for me?”
“That’s not why I’m here.”
“Why are you here?”
“I’m doing a job for your husband. We can talk later. More freely. At the hotel, maybe.”
“If you think I’m going to fuck you, you’re wrong.”
“If that’s what you think is going on, you’re wrong. And fucking full of yourself. When did you become an actress, anyway?”
“A long time ago. Didn’t you ever see me on TV?”
“What show were you on?”
“A lot of shows. Streets of San Francisco. The FBI. Cannon. Barnaby Jones. Hawaii Five-O.”
“That explains it. I don’t watch cop shows.”
“I’ve been in twelve movies.”
“For your husband?”
“Mostly.”
“That also explains it-I don’t go to drive-ins. But I’ll check out your stuff at my local video store. I’ll bet you’re great.”
“Is that right?”
“You’ve always been a hell of an actress.”
She slid off the stool. “We are going to talk, Jack. Later.”
“Fine,” I said.
She turned and started off.
I said, “Hey.”
She stopped. Looked back.
I said, “If your husband asks, we were talking, just now, about me doing an interview with you. I’m the unit publicist on this picture. Got it?”
She sighed, nodded crisply, and went back to a booth where she’d been going over her script, alone.
I had just finished my Coke when Stockwell came up. He put a hand on my shoulder but did not take a stool next to me.
“Look,” he said, “we’re getting ready to shoot this stunt. I can’t talk. But I’ve paved the way for you around here. You can circulate freely. I see you were chatting with J.J.”
“Yeah. I’m going to interview her.”
“How did you two get along?”
“Fine.”
“Yeah, she’s a great gal. You’ll love her.”