My sense was that Kaufmann was bucking up his pal, providing encouragement after a hard day’s shoot.
I could understand the need for that-even based on my brief visit to the set, I could see that the burden of pressure was on the director, who had to keep moving and working and handling this problem and that, while a producer was mostly dealing with paperwork, phone calls and personnel.
I managed to catch up with them before they got to the elevators.
“Mr. Stockwell!” I called, and when both men turned, I said, “Art, I need a moment please.”
Kaufmann threw me a mildly irritated glance, then nodded at the director and, resigned to being excluded, stepped onto a waiting elevator.
We moved through a doorway into the swimming pool courtyard. No one else was out there-Joni had long since gone up to their room, apparently-but the underlighting of the pool was still going and it cast glimmering otherworldly blue-green on us as we took two deck chairs near the pool.
Stockwell said, “You weren’t around the set long. Did you find anything out?”
“That would be overstating it,” I admitted, “but I’m convinced the attempt won’t be made on location.”
Stockwell shivered, though it wasn’t remotely cold out. The watery reflection on his face was kind, taking some years off his gone-to-seed leading-man looks, like a softfocus camera lens. “At least it’s an ‘attempt’ now-my murder. Not a foregone conclusion.”
“I followed our man around this afternoon,” I said. “He wasn’t doing anything overt that might have been connected to the job he’s here to do. More like killing time.”
“Than like killing me, you mean? What’s the hell is he up to?”
“I believe he plans to create an accident for you here at the hotel.”
Stockwell frowned, as frustrated as he was fearful.
“ Where in the hotel?”
“Very likely your room.”
“Shit. What about J.J.?”
I shrugged. “He might not take her out as collateral damage, but he could.”
“Collateral damage. Christ, what a term.”
“File it away. Might make a decent movie title. Look, I need to check your hotel room. I mean, now. Right now.”
He frowned again. “J.J. may be asleep.”
“Wake her up. We spoke at the set, and she thinks I’m some kind of troubleshooter trying to protect you from death threats. So she’ll understand. Art, we have to go up, so I can have a look around.”
He sighed. “Okay.”
“And there’s one other thing.”
“What?”
“I need a key to your room. Go to the desk right now and get me one.”
“All right.” He was past arguing, but he did ask, “What’s the point of that?”
“If I don’t find anything in your room now, our man will probably rig whatever he’s rigging tomorrow, while you’re at the shoot. I assume your wife won’t be in the room, during the day-she’ll be on set, too?”
“Yes. Her big scene’s tomorrow.” He closed his eyes and rubbed them. “Gonna be a big day, very elaborate, and challenging conditions.”
“How so?”
“We’re shooting on the casino floor at the Four Jacks.”
All roads seemed to lead there. Was that significant?
“Well, I’m going to spend tomorrow in your room,” I told him.
This confused him. “All day tomorrow?”
“How long, I have no way of knowing. My hope is that, at that some point or other, our man will enter to do his thing…and I’ll do mine instead.”
Stockwell looked out at the shimmer of underlit water. “I don’t want to know anything about what you do or how you do it.” Now he risked a glance at me, so quick he might have feared becoming a pillar of salt. “Are you okay with that, Jack?”
“I am… if you understand that you may hear about something nasty that happened at the hotel, and if so, you’ll need to react with the correct indifference. You know-‘isn’t that something,’ or ‘what a shame.’ As opposed to, ‘Oh my fucking God — what happened?’… Are we cool?”
He sighed. “We’re cool. I’m not going to come back to a… mess in my room am I?”
“Not my intention. But this isn’t scripted, Art. I’m improvising here. Have to run with what I get.”
“I know. I get that.”
The director went to the front desk while I waited at the elevator. We went up together-no reason not to, since I was the unit publicist. At his room, I let him go in first, to warn his wife of my presence and needs. Less than a minute later, he came out and nodded me in.
Joni was in a white dressing gown, semi-sheer, over some kind of matching nightie, her long hair brushing her shoulders, tousled; under layers of wispy fabric, nipples and pubic triangle were vaguely visible, but I didn’t stare. I’d seen them before. If this interruption threw her, she didn’t show it. Her arms were folded but her attitude wasn’t negative. More neutral, I’d say.
I wasn’t sure what I was looking for. I really wasn’t. But I checked every electrical outlet in the place. Checked the light fixtures and the air conditioner. The most elaborate thing I did was remove the bedding on the big kingsize number-could have been a poisonous spider or scorpion in the sheets or blankets, something fatal and indigenous to the region. Joni actually gave me a hand with this process, and when I started putting the bedding back in place, she said she’d take care of it.
Special attention was given to the bathroom, since that’s where most accidents occur at home, and this hotel room was home for them right now. But I found nothing. The Percodan bottle was in there, and I noted that it was prescription. Not that you had to buy shit like that from a drug dealer in Hollywood, not with a Dr. Feelgood at every strip mall.
I apologized as I looked through the dresser drawers and their suitcases, finding nothing but clothing. No drugs or anything embarrassing, unless you count the Jackie Collins paperback.
At the door, I said, “I apologize for the intrusion.”
“No problem,” Stockwell said. He looked hangdog as hell. He was a fifty-something guy in the midst of an incredibly draining project that would have been plenty to handle without the threat of murder hanging over him.
“We appreciate what you’re trying to do,” Joni said to me with wifely warmth. Not ex-wifely. Current wifely. It was his side she was at, not mine.
“Tonight and tomorrow morning,” I said to them, “don’t answer this door for anybody but me. Not even for anybody on the production-talk through the door and make an excuse-and certainly not housekeeping or room service or anybody from the desk with a message.”
Stockwell nodded. So did Joni, who had her arm through his now. I’d forgotten how beautiful her eyes were. Big. Brown.
“I know you haven’t been taking breakfast at the restaurant here,” I said. According to Jerry’s notes, anyway. “But tomorrow morning’s no time to make an exception. Get up, shower, get dressed, get the fuck out.”
“There’s a light breakfast on set,” Stockwell said absently.
Joni asked, “What about our car?”
“That’s a good point,” I said. “It’s possible your car could be tampered with, yes. Art, you usually drive yourself and your wife to the shoot. Tomorrow, can you go with somebody else instead? Travel with other crew in one of those vans, maybe?”
“No problem,” he said.
“Do you have an extra set of car keys?”
“No.”
“Give me yours. I’ll go down now and check it out. I used to be a mechanic.”
That made Joni wince, just faintly, no doubt because of the memory it stirred.
Her late boyfriend Williams had been a mechanic, too. That was something that had irritated me at the time, in addition to the cuckold thing. And when, after the publicity, I’d been unable to find work as a mechanic, all I could think of was, Well, there’s one position at least that needs filling…
Anyway, Stockwell handed over the keys and I went down to the parking lot.