“Once word gets around there was insurance.”
“What do you mean? How do you know…?”
“A check went out from Garland last week. Seems your lawyer threatened them with a lawsuit…”
“How do you know that?”
“It’s true, ain’t it?”
“How do you—?”
“I’ll tell you how we know,” Angelet says. “One of the people who bets with us happens to work for Garland, and he also happens to owe us a little money. So when we mentioned to him one day that this fucking deadbeat Eddie Glen—”
“Don’t you dare—!”
“Stay put, lady, I warned you!” Holmes says, and pulls her down into the booth again.
“When we mentioned to this man, whose name is Joseph Ontano, if you’d care to check, that your husband owed us two hundred large, but he was already dead and we weren’t about to let some little pissant like Mr. Ontano stiff us for a mere five, he said the name rang a bell, and he looked up the file when he got back to the office, and sure enough a check went out.”
“No, it didn’t.”
“Lady…”
“I haven’t received any check.”
“You will.”
“I hope so. I can use it just now.”
“So can we. When that check arrives, we want two hundred of it.” “Before the other sharks start circling.”
“We’ll call you tomorrow,” Angelet says. “And we’ll keep calling you every day until that insurance check is in your hands. Then we—”
“I don’t know when a check is coming. I don’t even—”
“Whenever it—”
“I don’t even know if one is coming. I haven’t heard they’re paying. Your Mr. Ontano must be mistaken. When did he say this check went out?”
“Lady,” Holmes says, “whenever that fucking check gets to you, we want our piece of it. Or we’ll break your other foot, you know whut I’m saying?”
“You don’t frighten me,” she says.
“How about your kids? Do they frighten you?” Angelet asks.
“Are you in this with the others?” she asks.
Their faces go blank.
“What others?” Holmes asks.
“To each his own,” Angelet says, thinking he understands.
“Let them collect their own fuckin markers,” Holmes says, picking up on it.
They have no idea what she’s talking about. With an enormous sense of relief, she realizes they have nothing whatever to do with the kidnapping, Eddie’s gambling was not responsible for—
“We’ll call you this afternoon,” Angelet says. “After the mail comes.”
“Keep an eye on the mailbox,” Holmes says.
Both men rise in the same moment, as if by prearranged signal. Alice sits alone in the booth, watching them as they go. The waitress in the pink uniform walks over.
“Who’s getting this check?” she asks.
Outside, Alice hears an automobile starting. She looks through the blinds on the diner window. The white Caddy is moving out of the parking lot.
Too late, she thinks of writing down the license plate number.
The car is gone.
She calls her lawyer at home from the cell phone in her car.
“Andy,” she says, “hi. It’s Alice Glendenning, can you hear me?”
“Hello, Alice, how are you?” he asks.
“I’m fine. If we get cut off, I’ll call you back. I’m in the car.”
“What’s up?”
“Have you heard anything more from Garland?”
“No, I haven’t.”
“Because some people seem to think a check to me has already been cut.”
“Really?”
“So they say.”
“What people?”
“Some people who knew Eddie.”
“I haven’t heard anything to that effect. You’d be the first to know, Alice.”
“I know that. But they seemed so positive…”
“I can call Garland again, if you like.”
“Could you, Andy? It’d be nice to know if a check is really on the way.”
“I’ll do that right now. Are you on the way home?”
“Yes, I am.”
“I’ll call you there. Say half an hour or so?”
“Thanks, Andy.”
When she hangs up, she realizes she’s forgotten to give him Joseph Ontano’s name.
She tries to call him back, but she can’t get a signal.
I’m in a dead zone, she thinks.
Again, she thinks.
Ashley was five months old when the call came from Alice’s best friend in film school. Denise Schwartz had set up a low-budget production deal with an independent producer named Backyard Films, who were ready to finance a script Denise herself had written and planned to direct — and would Alice care to come in as her partner?
What?
What!
Her heart stopped.
Denise elaborated. The budget was only $850,000, which meant they would both have to wear many hats. Denise would be director and executive producer. Alice would work the camera and serve as line producer…
“You were so good with the camera, Alice, please say yes.”
“Well, I…”
She could barely speak.
“Where will you be shooting?” she asked.
“Toronto,” Denise said. “For New York.”
“How long is the shooting schedule?”
“I haven’t worked it out yet, but I’m assuming six, seven weeks — seven weeks tops. Neither of us will be drawing salaries, Alice, but we’ll share in the profits, if there are any. And if we bring this one in on budget, and win a few prizes…”
“Oh sure, prizes.”
Her heart was racing.
“Why not?” Denise said. “What I’m saying is it’s a start, there’ll be other ones in the future. Alice. Please.”
“I’ll have to talk to Eddie,” she said. “I’ll get back to you.”
Eddie didn’t think it was such a good idea.
Things weren’t going too well at Lowell, Hastings, Finch and Ulrich; he wasn’t becoming a millionaire quickly enough. In fact, he wasn’t making anywhere near the kind of commissions he thought he should be making by this time.
“So how can we afford your being away for two, three months, whatever it is…?”
“Seven weeks tops,” Alice said.
“Seven weeks, okay, even so. We’d have to get a nanny for Ashley, where are we supposed to get the money for a nanny? Line producer and cinematographer are very nice titles, Alice, but you said yourself there wouldn’t be any salary while you’re…”
“If the film shows a profit…”
“Oh sure, how many of these indie films make any money?”
“It’s what I trained for, Eddie!”
“I know. I’m not saying don’t put your training and your expertise to use, Alice, I’m only saying don’t do it right this minute. Do it sometime in the future. This just isn’t the appropriate time for you to be running off to Canada.”
“But the opportunity is here now, Eddie. Not sometime in the future. And why isn’t this an appropriate…?”
“Because I’m thinking of leaving the firm.”
“What? Why would you want to do that?”
“Because the bonanza boat at Lowell-Hastings has already sailed, Alice. Which doesn’t mean I can’t make it somewhere else in the world of high finance. I was thinking…”
“Somewhere else? Where, Eddie, New York is our…”
“Why can’t we move to a small town on the West Coast? Or maybe somewhere in the Southwest? Or even the South? Maybe Beaufort, South Caro…”